Civ III PowerBar Trainer for v1.29f

[CrsadrJoe]

I've finally updated the PowerBar trainer to be compatible with Civ III version 1.16f (the not-so-recently released patch). Sorry, I should have checked for the existence of a patch before releasing the PowerBar.

The files are too large to post here, so both versions of the PowerBar are available at:
www.crusaderjoe.com

Please contact me with any problems at crsadrjoe@earthlink.net

The features are the same, here they are:
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1. Identifies all civs currently playing.

2. Gives player complete control over all civ treasuries - set them at will.

3. Identifies all cities.

4. Gives players the ability to complete (at no expense) or ruin the production in any city (player's or opponent's).

5. Allows player to build a particular unit or improvement in each city with the click of a button. Simply select that improvement in one of your cities, then click the "build -> All" button and voila, each of your cities completes the project (at no expense). This quickly adds marketplaces, banks, etc. to each of your cities, rather than visiting every city individually. And it builds huge militaries FAST.

6. Allows the player to ruin the production in each city of a selected Civ, or just a particular city.

7. Allows players to assign opponents to an "Enemy List", whereby the production in each of their cities is ruined each turn. Great for limiting their expansion early in the game.

8. The PowerBar resides in the upper right corner of the screen, and can be retracted upward and out of the way using the "Hide" button. It returns when the player clicks on the lower part of the bar that remains barely visible while retracted.

[CrsadrJoe]

Hi everyone. I received an email indicating that the production some of the Wonders was not being fully completed with the "Build" functions. I've corrected the problem and posted revised versions of the PowerBar at www.crusaderjoe.com

I've also uploaded smaller "patch" files for those who have already downloaded the entire program. Simply download, unzip, and copy the executable to the install directory and you'll be patched.

Thanks for the kind emails I've received, and thanks to squirle99 for reporting the "Wonder" bug.

Please feel free to report additional bugs to crsadrjoe@earthlink.net

Thanks ,
Joe

[cappie]

Your program looked ok, until it crashed my game.

you have to get these things right:

1) make the program all in 1 file (size doesn't matter)
2) fix the Wonder bug (its probably fixed already)
3) Get a more modern freeware installer application (I'm sure they're out there somewhere)
4) NO DLL'S IN MY WINDOWS DIRECTORY
5) NO DLL'S IN MY WINDOWS DIRECTORY
6) NO DLL'S IN.. erhm.. nevermind...

you get the point.. thanx for the effort though

[CrsadrJoe]

Sorry to hear that. Can you describe the events that led to the crash? I'd like to try and figure out what happened. Thanks for the Freeware tips too. BTW, which version of windows are you running?

Thanks,
Joe

[gpap]

Actually, I think the Powerbar is great CrsadrJoe. Very easy to use, and i like the hide feature..and no crashes here...win98

Only problem I have found, is that it has problems finding all the cities. Still a small nation, four cities, however, even after about 20 turns, it only picked up my first two. Closed everything, restarted, this time, found two other cities (but not even my captial this time).

oh well, wait to see a new download!

[mastodon]

For the most part, a very good job, Joe.

I noticed a marked difference between performing functions mid-turn and performing functions at the end of a turn [when one chooses to always wait at the end of the turn]. It seemed that quick build only worked at the period of suspension at the end of the turn. Quick build also seemed not very reliable if there were to be special events [palace upgrades, technology advance, etc.] in the following turn.

I also noticed some problems with 'quick build'ing in 'ALL' cities. The PB built the city improvement [in this case the Colosseum - which is misspelled in the PB, btw ] in my capital city [Moscow], but merely qued the Colosseum in all my other cities.

I also noticed the aforementioned unreliable city finding function.

Again, a very good job. Keep it up.

[CrsadrJoe]

Thanks guys for the very constructive comments. I did a good amount of play-testing myself (I use PB every game for something or other), but you just don't get a good thorough evaluation until others have a chance to put it through its paces (and i never catch those spelling mistakes ). Right now I'm focussing on stability. I'm trapping every possible exception all throughout the code - leaving nothing for Windows to handle. i think this will greatly reduce (read: hopefully eliminate) any potential crashes.

Regarding the missing cities, that was a problem in my initial testing also. There is a trade off between the speed of the search function and its thoroughness. I thought I had it pretty well optimized, but evidently not. Soooo, I've loosened it up a bit and tried it with a variety of game situations, each successfully. One instruction I neglected to include is that PB shouldn't be launched until a city has been created. I'll either eliminate that requirement, or test for and handle it.

I'm uploading a test version here, and would greatly appreciate any feedback - especially as it relates to "find city" and "Build all" functions (both of which are improved here).

As to PB's effectiveness during mid-turn periods, that is a very good point! During the pause at the end of the player's turn is when PB-changes should be made (which of course means the option to 'pause at the end of each turn' must be enabled). This is partly because PB should write to the CivIII process memory when CivIII is working as little as possible with it. The game doesn't really modify a lot of stuff during this "pause", thus it tends to be safe writing time. i will either need to disclaim this in the instructions, or find a way to synchronize the activity between PB and CivIII (yikes, a scary thought).


Thanks again for the feedback!
(attached file is the zipped executable. Just drop it into your PB install folder and rename it to match your shortcuts - or rename your shortcuts )

[redman_822]

Joe,

The only "problem" I had with your utility is that it only lists my first 10 cities...is there any way to "fix" the code so all cities are shown and not just the first ten?

Redman

[ranger1331]

Joe,


Great job!!

I had no problems using PB with "Windows ME" on the "Chieftain level" at this time I am up to Modern times on the tech chart.

I have 24 cities and all cities are displayed.

The hide feature is a great thing.

Every thing listed in the pull down menu’s seem to me to be working as described, as I play more and at higher levels, I will give you feedback if I encounter any problems.

Thanks for a great utility,

Ken

[ToolMan]

Just an FYI, I also cannot get the city list to load completely. I'm using Windows 2000 Professional.

I still get what I want, though, because I just set my money really high and rush production in each city. The full city list could build one hell of an army, though.

[DTG]

ok i found out how to start the program after starting civ 3 but i have a problem well when i load my game yes it is there but all the boxes are empty how do i select my cities in it so i can start using it? i know im not doing something right.


Thanks for your time!

[tdominey20]

This programs looks like it would be pretty good, but can you make it compatible for windows XP?

[CrsadrJoe]

hi guys,

I was away for Christmas and haven't been online lately. I'll try to answer most of the posted questions here.

Please note that I uploaded a patch and new version of Power Bar to www.crusaderjoe.com . This is the same version I uploaded to this board a few days ago for testing, and the feedback has been pretty solid. I'd suggest that if anyone has had problems with cities not showing up, crashes, lock-ups etc, that they give this patch a try if still interested.


NOTE: It is highly recommended that players wait until at least one city has been built before launching PB (this does not apply to loading saved games wherein cities have already been built).


1) Cities Not Showing - This should be fixed in the current patch

2) Crashes and Lock ups - It is HIGHLY recommended and possibly necessary to only perform PB functions at the end of your turn, prior to the computer's turn. This requires that we enable the 'pause after each turn' option in the 'Preferences' menu. This is simply because PB should only write to a memory space in the Civ process when Civ is as idle as possible. That tends to be the case during this pause.

3) Windows XP Compatibility - I do not have a version of XP to compile and test on. I'm afraid this will have to wait.

4) Sharing Source Code - I have a policy against sharing source code, sorry. There are many references on the internet and at the Microsoft Knowledge Base about inter-process communication though. Some are specifically written with gaming in mind.


Thanks again to all of you who have written and posted your positive and constructive findings and criticisms. I will continue trying to enhance and bullet-proof PB, and will announce new versions as they develop.

Thanks,
Joe

[CrsadrJoe]

hi guys,

just finished using Gramphos' excellent copy tool and Cokal's hacked editor and guess what --- PB will not work with versions of the game that have been modified. i know why though, and tomorrow I will look into expanding its compatibility with customized versions of the game.

Joe

[Shaitan]

Originally posted by CrsadrJoe
hi guys,

just finished using Gramphos' excellent copy tool and Cokal's hacked editor and guess what --- PB will not work with versions of the game that have been modified.

I've noticed some wierd stuff here too. I've been trying to use PB to help me test my Brittish Isles mod.

First thing I noticed is the civ names in PB are the original names. For example, the Romans have been replaced with The Danelaw in my mod but shows up as Romans in PB.

Money adjustment always works

I have the find city problem also (this is without the new version - I'll try that tonight). It seems to find cities better if they have names from the original game (will usually find Edinburgh but never Mont St Michel).

Great job on this program. It's a huge helper for testing this (rather massive) mod!

[senseilee]

Thanks for the tool! Works great, but here's a suggestion. I know you have the feature to build a certain improvement/unit in all your cities at once (by clicking ALL). But what I'd prefer is to have my cities finish building whatever they're currently building, not the same thing as the city selected.

Right now, I have to click each city individually and click Build.

sensei

[Majik]

CrusaderJoe,

Nice Program. I am probably the guy you like to hear from least. You can't fix any bugs if I don't find any. I run XP and Civ PowerBar and have had no problems with either. I sometimes would get a crash from the PB program, but I just load it up again with no problems. I'm about to download your newest update so if something changes Ill be sure to let you know.

[blacklic]

Excuse me but it not piracy to give out a download of a CD!

It would be piracy for me to have given out the cd-key but not the software! thanks


Now if anyone would like winodws XP let me know

you'll have to supply your own KEY!

[Devman133]

Well, i downloaded the newest version here and i used PB for a german game i had already started with near 30 cities, it worked just fine untill i started a new game as the germans, and everything got changed for the new game. it recognized all the civs (there are 15 civs instead of 5), but the problem is, it still has my old city list with 30 cities instead of my one city of berlin.

Devman133
"An eYe above the rest"

[CrsadrJoe]

Hmmmm, the old city data is probobly still in memory. It may be necessary to save the game, exit, and restart Civ III and PB both when that happens.


New version on the way
I am testing a newer version of PowerBar right now which includes the following features:

1) It is compatible with 'customized' units and buildings. Meaning, it will recognize the new units and buildings created with the CopyTool and editor, and treat them normally.

2) A new button was created to complete the existing production in each city. This is in addition to the button that completed the production of a particular unit/bldg in each city - as suggested by senseilee.

3) I've optimized the code a bit, so it's smaller and more fault tollerant. That is stuff i should have done before I posted it - sorry I jumped the gun a bit :crazyeyes

4) minor changes to the interface were made to allow for more buttons. It looks cleaner now, although maybe not as intuitive.

5) The city lists are now sorted alphabetically, another senseilee request

I will post a note here when this version is ready for public testing.

Again, thanks to all who have written me with your suggestions, bugs, and comments.
Joe