Enhanced foreign advisor

SupremeOverlord · Dec 15, 2005

NOTE: For latest version, please see this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=169548

I've rewritten the resources and technologies overview of the foreign advisor using some ideas from the mods made by Requies and Bhruic and adding some of my own.

The layout of the screen can be altered by changing some options in the file 'CvForeignAdvisor.py'. View the readme for details.

If someone can post the translations for French, German and Italian I will add them to the mod.

FEATURES:
General:
1. Displaying the names of the leaders of the other civs can be switched on or off.
2. The border around the rows can be switched on and off.
Resources:
1. At the top of the screen the available amount is shown for all the resources that a player has extra's of.
2. The amount can be configured to show the total available amount or the extra available amount (total - 1).
3. The resources that a player can trade with another civ are shown on the same row as the resources that that civ will or won't trade with the player.
4. The resources that a player can trade are divided into two groups. One for the resources for which the player has extra's available and another for those resources for which the player has no extra's.
5. It is possible to group the columns showing resources together as export or import.
6. The amount of gold that a civ can pay per turn is displayed.
7. It is possible to show two extra columns to display the resources that are traded in active deals.
8. When the active deals are displayed the total gold amount that is traded is also shown, a positive amount means that the civ is paying the player, a negative amount means that the player is paying the other civ.
Technologies:
1. For each other civ three columns are used to display the techs that civ wants, the techs that civ will trade and the techs that civ won't trade.
2. An extra column is used to display the amount of gold that the civ can pay
3. You can use small (32x32) and large (64x64) icons for the technologies.

INSTALLATION:
Extract the contents of the zip file to 'My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\MODS' to install as a mod. If you want to use it in all your games you should copy all files and folders in 'My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\MODS\Enhanced Interface\Assets' to 'My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\CustomAssets'.
You might need to empty your cache a few times before this mod takes effect. (Hold down the shift key while the game is starting up)

TODO:
Translate the interface to Frensh, German and Italian.

View attachment Enhanced Interface_FOR_20051228.zip

Cammagno · Dec 15, 2005

I've installed your MOD and I appreciate it very much.
Maybe you may consider a similar modification of the Techs tab.

One question: I've tried it with a different screen resolution and it doesn't work fine. How can the CvForeignAdvisor.py file been modified to work also with an higher resolution, e.g. 1280x1024?

MattJek · Dec 15, 2005

Hey, I really like your mod but I have a lil problem with it. There is no scroll bar and the civs just seem to fall of the screen. Plus the exit button doesnt work when this particular screen is on. I hope you can fix this cause I think its a neat mod

SupremeOverlord · Dec 15, 2005

I didn't test this mod on higher resolutions but it is fixed now (I uploaded a new zip file). With this fix the foreign advisor screen is always full screen, also on higher resolutions.

Maybe you may consider a similar modification of the Techs tab.

I'm already working on it.

Cammagno · Dec 15, 2005

SupremeOverlord said:
I didn't test this mod on higher resolutions but it is fixed now (I uploaded a new zip file). With this fix the foreign advisor screen is always full screen, also on higher resolutions.

Now it works nice, thanks

SupremeOverlord said:
I'm already working on it.

Very good! This is a very useful mod indeed.

Elhoim · Dec 15, 2005

You should consider working with Requies, his foreing adv. mod is great, and your resource tab is superb, much better than his. It would be great to join the two mods...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146687

Impaler[WrG] · Dec 15, 2005

I see you came up with a way to display little numbers in the corners of the Resorce Icons, this is great and is one of the pre-conditions for an idea I had.

Resorces could apear in a Equation form each vertical colum holding a different resorce. Their would be 4 rows

+ Productin
+ Imports
- Exports
= Surplus

If a value would be zero just place a blank their, for example lets say I produce 2 Fish and Export 1 for a surplus of 1. I see all that information in a nice little vertical colum. Ofcorse this is probably best used for the Players resorces like you have at the top of the screen, the AI should show will trade/wont trade/wants information.

Another idea could willtrade/wont trade information be displayed using colored halos around resorces or shading rather then colums, it would help save a lot of space.

rendermad · Dec 15, 2005

Great Mod! I really liked it, however I've ran into a problem: when I enter the resource screen the buttons for the other tabs ("Technology", "Relations") dissapear, so I can never go back to them.

Also, I have a suggestion. It's not necessary to include a copy of ingame .xml files (like Civ_ArtDefines) you only need to include your changes between the same tabs and with the same header. This makes it easier to include with other mods that modify the same files. Here's an example with the stuff that's included in CivArt_Defines:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- edited with XMLSPY v2004 rel. 2 U (http://www.xmlspy.com) by Ed Piper (Firaxis Games) -->
<!-- Sid Meier's Civilization 4 -->
<!-- Copyright Firaxis Games 2005 -->
<!-- -->
<!-- Interface art path information -->
<Civ4ArtDefines xmlns="x-schema:CIV4ArtDefinesSchema.xml">
	<InterfaceArtInfos>
		<InterfaceArtInfo>
			<Type>SCROLL_UP_ARROW</Type>
			<Path>Art/Interface/Buttons/up_arrow.dds</Path>
		</InterfaceArtInfo>
		<InterfaceArtInfo>
			<Type>SCROLL_DOWN_ARROW</Type>
			<Path>Art/Interface/Buttons/down_arrow.dds</Path>
		</InterfaceArtInfo>
		<InterfaceArtInfo>
			<Type>WHITE_CIRCLE_20</Type>
			<Path>Art/Interface/Buttons/white_circle_20.dds</Path>
		</InterfaceArtInfo>
		<InterfaceArtInfo>
			<Type>WHITE_CIRCLE_40</Type>
			<Path>Art/Interface/Buttons/white_circle_40.dds</Path>
		</InterfaceArtInfo>
		<InterfaceArtInfo>
			<Type>WHITE_CIRCLE_50</Type>
			<Path>Art/Interface/Buttons/white_circle_50.dds</Path>
		</InterfaceArtInfo>
	</InterfaceArtInfos>
</Civ4ArtDefines>

The same applies to Civ_GameText.

MattJek · Dec 15, 2005

Is there anyway to make this mod not be full-screen but rather have a scroll down function?

SupremeOverlord · Dec 15, 2005

MattJek said:
Is there anyway to make this mod not be full-screen but rather have a scroll down function?

I tried that first using a table control. But I can't change the height of the rows because the function setTableRowHeight doesn't seem to have any effect. The solution I impemented positions all the controls using the x and y coordinates so scrolling is out of the question.

rendermad said:
when I enter the resource screen the buttons for the other tabs ("Technology", "Relations") dissapear

Have you tried with different save games? If so does it happen in all of them? If it doesn't it is probably a bug in my code and I would appreciate if you posted the save game.

rendermad said:
It's not necessary to include a copy of ingame .xml files (like Civ_ArtDefines) you only need to include your changes between the same tabs and with the same header.

Thanks for the info.

Charcoal · Dec 16, 2005

I have the same problem as rendermad.

I'm going to try a new game, and if that one doesn't work, I'll send in the save game...

Edit: here you go.

nothing comes up in the new window, with this one.
Surplus stuff willl, but at that point in the game I don't have any

Requies · Dec 16, 2005

elhoim said:
You should consider working with Requies, his foreing adv. mod is great, and your resource tab is superb, much better than his. It would be great to join the two mods...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146687

Excellent job with the resources :goodjob:

.

And sadly enough I have to agree with elhoim :lol:

.

I'd be happy to try to merge in your changes if you don't mind (though we'll have to get the bugs out of it).

Req

Requies · Dec 16, 2005

SupremeOverlord said:
I tried that first using a table control. But I can't change the height of the rows because the function setTableRowHeight doesn't seem to have any effect. The solution I impemented positions all the controls using the x and y coordinates so scrolling is out of the question.

Oh yeah.... Now I remember why I didn't try doing it this way :lol:

. Hmmm, I wonder if there's a workaround.

Req

Requies · Dec 16, 2005

Charcoal said:
I have the same problem as rendermad.

I'm going to try a new game, and if that one doesn't work, I'll send in the save game...

Edit: here you go.

nothing comes up in the new window, with this one.
Surplus stuff willl, but at that point in the game I don't have any

Let me try and troubleshoot. How many civs have you met? If greater than however many you can display on the screen, you're going to have an error where it won't complete the rest of the function (which includes drawing the tabs on the bottom).

This is why I didn't divide things up into headers. Hmmmm, but I think I have an idea of how to make it so that it might work decently. Let me think about this.

Req

SupremeOverlord · Dec 16, 2005

To Charcoal:
I can't use your savegame. When I try to load it, the games starts loading the mod but when its finished it just asks to load the mod again. So it results in an infinite loop.

To Requies:
You can do what you want with my code as long as you give me credit.

Requies said:
How many civs have you met? If greater than however many you can display on the screen, you're going to have an error

I've added scroll buttons to solve this problem and I've tested it so I think the error is caused by something else.

I've made a new version that also alters the technologies view. But I still haven't found that bug (or bugs)

. I will be uploading this new version shortly. Please try it out and let me know if everything works.

Dr Elmer Jiggle · Dec 16, 2005

I really like this mod. It seems to restore most or all of the missing Civ3 trade advisor functionality. I find it a bit confusing to view, however. There's so much data there that I can't quickly assimilate what I need.

The information I'm most interested in is "What do they have that I want, and what do I have that they want?" That is: Import/Will Trade, Export/Surplus, and Export/Used. I'd rather see those 3 columns together (and in that order), followed by the others separately. That would put all the "what trade opportunities exist" information in one place. Active trades and Import/Won't Trade are useful, but for separate reasons.

The obvious disadvantage is that my approach would jumble up the We/They columns. It may or may not actually be better. Just something to consider.

SupremeOverlord · Dec 16, 2005

Dr Elmer Jiggle said:
The information I'm most interested in is "What do they have that I want, and what do I have that they want?"

You can disable the active trade columns if you want. That would make it less cluttered.

Dr Elmer Jiggle said:
That is: Import/Will Trade, Export/Surplus, and Export/Used. I'd rather see those 3 columns together (and in that order), followed by the others separately.

I could put the active trades seperatelly at the end. That would give Export/Surplus - Used, Import/Will trade - Wont trade and Active/Export - Import. This way the we/they groups aren't broken and all the trade opportunities are grouped together. But the information won't be in the order you want.

Dr Elmer Jiggle · Dec 16, 2005

SupremeOverlord said:
I could put the active trades seperatelly at the end. That would give Export/Surplus - Used, Import/Will trade - Wont trade and Active/Export - Import. This way the we/they groups aren't broken and all the trade opportunities are grouped together. But the information won't be in the order you want.

That would probably be great. I really only suggested that specific order since it would keep the surplus and will trade close together and would put the most likely to be traded resources on the far left, but what you've suggested seems like a perfect compromise between separating active trades but also keeping each leader's resources grouped together.

Elhoim · Dec 18, 2005

Requies: Could you add your glance and gold features to this mod? I miss those features (specially glance), and I would do it myself but I don´t know much of xml and python, besides you know your code better...

SupremeOverlord: Excellent work! Your screens are useful and clean. One suggestion: Could you put how much gold each civ has in the technologies tab? Because it is a mayor factor in choosing who to trade a technology with (besides attitude). It would also be great to include in the resource tab how much gold per turn a civ is willling to trade (I know there is no string for it or something like that, but it would be REALLY useful...).

mamimo · Dec 18, 2005

WOW, far better then vanilla, thumbs up!

Enhanced foreign advisor

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