JCivED - a toolbox for Civilization

Even though I am busy elsewhere, I wanted to mention that the next feature that JCivED does NOT have yet, and that's really missing (in my opinion) is "map-only" edition... For the moment, it's possible to generate EARTH maps by editing a Savegame, then exporting its map to EARTH format. Conversely, it's possible to edit a custom made MAP.PIC by starting a game with it, then saving the game, then editing the savegame in JCivED...

Bottom line is: all of this seems a burden when all one wants is to do map-editing. So my next focus will be on getting proper map-only edition support in JCivED, including compatibility with whatever I can find regarding cusomt map generation (I know Gowron's made a small program to convert text-based map into MAP.PIC, so I believe I will implement support for this text format as well...)

That said, my primary goal is still to figure out the "land value algorithm" :p
 
Darkpanda, great to hear the possibility of a map editor. How would you handle starting positions?

-Michael.
 
msjmb said:
Darkpanda, great to hear the possibility of a map editor. How would you handle starting positions?

-Michael.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid there's nothin new on this front...

For handling Civs' starting positions, the good old ways are:
- Hack your CIV.EXE (kudos to Gowron): EARTH starting positions
- Use Dack's trick to make Civ generate the random positions for you: Starting Positions (note that you can also do this trick with JCivED, set year to -4000 and turn to 0, although you should do it manually... Don't forget to remove enemy cities and units...)

IMHO, Dack's option is preferable in that you don't need to alter your CIV.EXE
 
Personally if I were creating maps then I would also want to set the starting positions; together they allow the creation of interesting scenarios (e.g. the Europe map and start position changer on this forum).

Given that the whole Civ 1 (DOS) folder is only about 3Mb there is no real cost to making duplicates so I keep a pristine "civ" folder without changes (fully backed up given that I don't have working floppies any more!) and use copies of the folder for modifying the earth map, CIV.EXE and the like. For these reasons I would go for option 1 from your list.

Therefore I have written a VBscript that modifies the starting positions in CIV.EXE from an input file and writes out a CIVMOD.EXE with the patched positions. Would this be worth making available on this forum?

- Michael
 
Hello everyone,

I am glad to announce the release of JCivED 0.0.11a!

This one makes a great leap forward, finally providing the feature that was crucially missing for creating playable scenarii, that is land value generation... This makes is possible for AI players for properly using custom-designed terrain to build cities.

There's a bunch of other new things and modified things too, that you can discover in more details at the top of this thread

Cheers!
 
Quite impressing work, darkpanda.

I wish it would be possible to add cities and units with GUI tool in map tab.
 
hannurabi said:
Quite impressing work, darkpanda.

I wish it would be possible to add cities and units with GUI tool in map tab.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Of course it would be a very nice feature, and I've been thinking about it for a some time: the current JCivED approach is kind of a "hacker mode", in that it aims to give you total freedom in changing any data down to the byte and bits, at your own risks... Functions like "add city/unit" imply a higher layer of logic that must take into account the actual game rules to create correct data: this is another approach, which I would call "safe mode", that will come afterwards, and requires much more work in terms of GUI/graphical design.

For JCivED itself, my top priority is to decipher 100% of the SVE content - which doesn't seem so far away now :)
 
Very good Sir!
Looking forward to the new version of JCivED, this is impressive work
 
It looks promising! Can't wait to test it out
 
darkpanda said:
I am glad to announce the release of JCivED 0.0.11a!Cheers!
Click to expand...

Excellent stuff, darkpanda!

Unfortunately, however, I haven't managed to load a saved game into it (although I can view .PIC images, and I can use the EARTH/MAP.PIC function to save a generated map and then play on it). Is this because I have version 474.03?
 
Nesretnik said:
Excellent stuff, darkpanda!

Unfortunately, however, I haven't managed to load a saved game into it (although I can view .PIC images, and I can use the EARTH/MAP.PIC function to save a generated map and then play on it). Is this because I have version 474.03?
Click to expand...

Thank you, Nesretnik.

Would you mind providing me with more details about the problem ?
For example:
- your save game files (MAP + SVE)
- any error message that may appear in the Java console
- any other detail you deem relevant

It is indeed possible that version 474.03 is not supported, but I believe it would be very strange, as version 474.01 and 474.05 have the exact same SVE file format.

As I do not possess CIV version 474.03, I couldn't try the compatibility with it.
 
darkpanda said:
Would you mind providing me with more details about the problem ?

As I do not possess CIV version 474.03, I couldn't try the compatibility with it.
Click to expand...

I get the same result whichever save I try to load into JCivED. In case it's possible that the savegame format is different in v3 from v1 & v5, here's a randomly-chosen saved game from my archives:

View attachment Cans1000.MAP
View attachment Cans1000.SVE

What happens is basically nothing. I select the .MAP or .SVE file (I assume it makes no difference which), the selection ('Open') window duly closes. Then there's a period of hard-drive activity (lasting several seconds on my creaky old laptop), and that's it. The JCivED window remains blank.

But wait... I've just installed JCivED on my other laptop (under Windows 7, whereas the problem installation is under XP), and there it works. It can load savegames (created by the same CIV.EXE) that the first installation can't. Under the 'Data' tab, there seem to be a lot of empty (or zero) boxes that should contain data, but maybe that's functionality that you haven't had time to implement fully?

If you'd like a copy of the v3 CIV.EXE file, is there any reason (e.g. copyright/piracy) I shouldn't just send you a copy of mine?
 
Nesretnik said:
If you'd like a copy of the v3 CIV.EXE file, is there any reason (e.g. copyright/piracy) I shouldn't just send you a copy of mine?
Click to expand...

Microprose delivered updated EXE files through their BBS and, later, FTP. Hasbro kept the site alive until Infogrames took over. I think you're safe.
 
Nesretnik said:
In case it's possible that the savegame format is different in v3 from v1 & v5, here's a randomly-chosen saved game from my archives:

View attachment 357829
View attachment 357830

What happens is basically nothing. I select the .MAP or .SVE file (I assume it makes no difference which), the selection ('Open') window duly closes. Then there's a period of hard-drive activity (lasting several seconds on my creaky old laptop), and that's it. The JCivED window remains blank.
Click to expand...

I can open them with JCivED my Win7 without a problem... Can you confirm that Java 7 is installed on your WinXP ? Although I guess it is, otherwise JCivED wouldn't start at all...

Nesretnik said:
Under the 'Data' tab, there seem to be a lot of empty (or zero) boxes that should contain data, but maybe that's functionality that you haven't had time to implement fully?
Click to expand...

Would you be more precise ?
Depending on the section you're in, some fields are empty until you select a Civ, City or Unit in the list next to it... But basically everything delivered in JCivED should be functional, so I'd be glad to know about any bug you can find :)

Nesretnik said:
If you'd like a copy of the v3 CIV.EXE file, is there any reason (e.g. copyright/piracy) I shouldn't just send you a copy of mine?
Click to expand...

I understand that the civfanatics forums policy is to avoid this kind of discussion :)
 
darkpanda said:
But basically everything delivered in JCivED should be functional, so I'd be glad to know about any bug you can find :)
Click to expand...

Correcting myself: there indeed a bug when trying to see City data for EN versions of savegames... I had actually fixed it in my current dev version and forgot to counter-test it in v0.0.11a... My mistake !

I will patch it asap.

Cheers
 
Darkpanda, can I request you something to research in exe? I would be interest to edit the procedure that determines how many bulbs is required for the next advance.
 
hannurabi said:
Darkpanda, can I request you something to research in exe? I would be interest to edit the procedure that determines how many bulbs is required for the next advance.
Click to expand...

Sure you can request it, but I may take quite some time to address it, as I am basically advancing thought the Civ code in its execution order...
Currently, I am still looking at the initialization part of a Civ game.
I'll keep you posted.
 
Well, darkpanda, whatever you've changed for the new version, it works for me :) Whatever trouble I was having before (on the Win 7 machine) with empty boxes under the 'Data' tab, I'm not having it now. Many thanks!

darkpanda said:
Can you confirm that Java 7 is installed on your WinXP ?
Click to expand...
I'm afraid I can: version 7, update 25. And even with the new improved JCivED, I can't load any saved games. The behaviour is as before: after the 'Open' dialog box closes, nothing else happens in the JCivED window. (In the 'cmd.exe' window, the last line reads "at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)".)
 
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