New version of MapCopy

[Dusty]

Hi everyone. I just finished a new beta version of MapCopy that supports Test of Time. For those of you who don't know MapCopy is a utility for copying "stuff" between Civ 2 saved games or maps. Where "stuff" can be terrain, improvements, fertility, etc. I originally intended it to be called by batch files to facilitate changing terrain in the middle of a scenario, but it appears that people are also using it to help in scenario creation as well.

But, there's a catch. I don't actually own a copy of ToT (yet). As a result, this is a very beta version of MapCopy. So I'll need beta testers to help me test this until I can get my hands on a copy of ToT and find the time make up a rigorous set of test cases.

If you're interested, a ZIP file of the executable is available from my home page. You can also look at the README file.

Enjoy! And please let me know about any bugs you may find.

Edited: Link now points to final 1.2 version

[Harry Tuttle]

Very cool Dusty.

[Mercator]

I'll be doing some testing on Thursday, hopefully.

I haven't tried it yet, but the readme looks promising... Say hi to your invisible friends for me.
I'm not sure if being able to add maps to ToT games is a good idea, though. I'm not entirely sure what other things this might affect. Techumseh and Wobbegong (= Catfish at Apolyton) might know more about this... I'll test it too.

[Catfish]

Excellent. I don't know when I'll be able to test it, though.

Originally Posted by Mercator

I'm not sure if being able to add maps to ToT games is a good idea, though. I'm not entirely sure what other things this might affect. Techumseh and Wobbegong (= Catfish at Apolyton) might know more about this... I'll test it too.

I can't say I've done a hell of a lot of map importing. The most obvious problem of which I'm aware is the disappearing cities bug, which can be fixed by toggling the goody huts on and off in the Cheat menu. I don't know what causes it.

[Mercator]

I didn't know about that bug... I had a look just now, though. It's obvious where it is going wrong, the ownership values are changed (the goody huts are also controlled by ownership, that's why toggling the goody huts fixes it). That's rather interesting, actually. I didn't know an "unowned" city (ownership value F) is hidden. That might be a "better" way of doing this than removing the "city present" flag.

But why those values change at all when adding a map is a mystery to me.


Oh, and there's already a confirmed bug. Adding a map with MapCopy doesn't work properly (it overwrites data rather than inserting it). So you won't have to test that anymore. Not until the next beta release anyway.

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Mercator

I didn't know about that bug... I had a look just now, though. It's obvious where it is going wrong, the ownership values are changed (the goody huts are also controlled by ownership, that's why toggling the goody huts fixes it).

That's pretty simple, ain't it? I'd never looked at it. The fix wasn't mine.

Originally Posted by Mercator

That's rather interesting, actually. I didn't know an "unowned" city (ownership value F) is hidden. That might be a "better" way of doing this than removing the "city present" flag.

A better way of doing what? Hiding a city whilst leaving its name visible? Icon visibility is restored by the following turn – ownership is recalculated.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Mercator

I didn't know about that bug... I had a look just now, though. It's obvious where it is going wrong, the ownership values are changed (the goody huts are also controlled by ownership, that's why toggling the goody huts fixes it). That's rather interesting, actually. I didn't know an "unowned" city (ownership value F) is hidden. That might be a "better" way of doing this than removing the "city present" flag.

But why those values change at all when adding a map is a mystery to me.

So exactly how are people getting this disappearing cities bug? The only way I can get it to happen is by doing something like:

mapcopy citybug.mp citybug.sav +i
or
mapcopy citybug.mp citybug.sav +o

In both cases I was copying something from an .MP into a .SAV that isn't normally contained in .MPs, so zero (or 0xF) is copied over the values in the .SAV. Is this what people are doing, or am I missing something? What version of Civ II are you using?

[Mercator]

No... What we were talking about isn't a MapCopy bug. It's a Civ2 Test of Time bug.
ToT itself allows you to add maps too. When you do that, you get the disappearing cities bug.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Mercator

No... What we were talking about isn't a MapCopy bug. It's a Civ2 Test of Time bug.

: Uhhh, yeah, I knew that...

In other news, I just posted a new copy of MapCopy that should fix the problems with adding new maps to ToT files. (The link above now points to it). I now have a copy of ToT 1.1 and it seems to work for me. In the final version I plan on adding better fertility calculations and prettier output.

[Mercator]

Splendid!

[Dusty]

Hi everyone! I just posted a new version of MapCopy to my web site. The link above now points to it.

The changes include the new fertility calculation I described in the "Custom Maps the AI can function on" thread, and prettier output. It also adjusts fertiltiy in the 45 square radius around a city. I also fixed a bug where fertility was calculated based partially on the new terrain being copied into a file, and the old terrain being copied over.

Also, I included two fertility related utilities I created based on mapcopy, in case anyone else becomes obsessed with fertility like I did. "getfert" returns the fertility for a given square. "fertdiff" compares the fertility between two maps or saved games.

I'm calling this a "Release Candidate". Which means unless some one finds a bug or has an easy to implement request, I'm going to make this the final version on June 30th.

Enjoy!

[Catfish]

I'll give this a mention on my website.

[Eivind IV]

Absolutely fantastic tool, Dustry! I've spared a lot of hours using this. Great job!

[Mercator]

I'm afraid I haven't had any time to test it, and I probably won't have the time either. But I trust that it is good... If not, I'll probably let you know in another 5 years.

Is it OK if I put up the final version on my utility website too?

[kobayashi]

so can this very useful utility change continent assignments in existing saves?

[Dusty]

Hi there! I'm a bit later than June 30th, but I put the final 1.2 version of mapcopy on my web site. The link at the top of this thread now points to it.

Originally Posted by kobayashi

so can this very useful utility change continent assignments in existing saves?

It will adjust them based on what map they are on in a ToT multimap game if that's what you mean. However, it cannot calculate new values based on how squares connect like the "validate" function of the Civ 2 map editor does.

Originally Posted by Mercator

Is it OK if I put up the final version on my utility website too?

Absolutely, that's what open source is all about. Feel free to post it, modify it, make billions of dollars with it, etc.

[Mercator]

Originally Posted by Dusty

Absolutely, that's what open source is all about. Feel free to post it, modify it, make billions of dollars with it, etc.

So... Anyone want to buy MapCopy from me for the giveaway price of $1,000,000,000? I'll burn it on CD for you and I'll even put a ribbon on it. What more do you want? Oh, postage is free too.