A New Dawn: Resurected!

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have asked Afforess for access to the SVN so that I can try to finish AND 2.0. He said that I could take over management of AND. It's a huge responsibility and I'll try not to mess it up. I'm in the process of getting approval from the forum moderators to be able to edit the OP of the main threads for the mod.

I'll be going through the bug report thread and trying to compile a list of current issues that need attention. Any help on the current issues would be appreciated. I may also need help with SDK, XML, and/or Python issues. There's a lot to do.

I updated the SVN this morning to rev 571 with flitz's Coinage fix. The only file I edited was CvPlayer.cpp. This was mostly just to make sure I have proper access to the SVN. More code changes will come soon.

My other plan is to write a new installer for AND in NSIS. InstallJammer is apparently no longer available.

I'd really like to see AND in a finalized state. It's one of the greatest mods ever hosted there on CFC and I feel honored to be allowed to work on it. Almost like taking a crayon to the Mona Lisa...

Eventually I'd like to incorporate some of the newer AI improvements that are being developed by Karadoc in K-Mod and AIAndy and Koshling in C2C.

Hopefully together we can pull AND back from it's near-death experience and finish the vision of Afforess.

Thanks!

Excellent news! I would like to help, but I'm not at all familiar with civ modding. Would you need any assistance from a C/C++ programmer? If not perhaps I can help in other ways.

Does this mean that KROME will not be continued?

Great news!

Lately I've done A LOT of testing to balance the xml in gameinfo folder because the game wasn't balanced for normal speed; now in my version it looks like it's balanced for every map size at normal speed and noble difficulty level. I'm currently doing further testing to balance the game on other speeds and then on other difficulty levels as well. If you need a hand about it, let me know if I can help. I can't help you with pyhton or dlls but I think I can help with xml files. I suppose that I'll need to start it over again if changes will be too radical...

Isabelxxx said:

Does this mean that KROME will not be continued?

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KROME is on hold for the time being... At least for me. You seem to be doing great with it though! It was a great learning experience for me. I did some stuff right and some stuff wrong, but I think I'd rather try my hand at finishing AND now.

45°38'N-13°47'E;11720635 said:

Great news!

Lately I've done A LOT of testing to balance the xml in gameinfo folder because the game wasn't balanced for normal speed; now in my version it looks like it's balanced for every map size at normal speed and noble difficulty level. I'm currently doing further testing to balance the game on other speeds and then on other difficulty levels as well. If you need a hand about it, let me know if I can help. I can't help you with pyhton or dlls but I think I can help with xml files. I suppose that I'll need to start it over again if changes will be too radical...

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Major changes will probably still be awhile off. Mostly I'd like to make the engine smarter and able to use all of the features of AND fully. I'd like to try to create some smarter routing code and fort-placement code. I've got some ideas about how to do this and I'll be trying them out in the next couple if weeks. Hence all your gamespeed balancining is safe for now.

I very much would appreciate your help for any gamespeed balancing you've done so far. Just send me a PM or post the details and a zip of the files and I'll take a look at it.

@jt,
How is Afforess doing?

Great news that he has given you access to AND SVN! Will be looking for AND SVN updates on a regular basis again.

And if Blueblood has c/c++ skills you may want his help. Maybe build a Team with 45*, Cykur, Flitz, and Blueblood? Worked for C2C, the team concept.

Thanks,
JosEPh

JosEPh_II said:

@jt,
How is Afforess doing?

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Fine, just super busy. I'm optimistic about jtanner's ability to continue to run things in my absence.

I don't regularly check this site, but if you need to get ahold of me, use afforess[at]gmail[at]com, which I check regularly.

JosEPh_II said:

@jt,
How is Afforess doing?

Great news that he has given you access to AND SVN! Will be looking for AND SVN updates on a regular basis again.

And if Blueblood has c/c++ skills you may want his help. Maybe build a Team with 45*, Cykur, Flitz, and Blueblood? Worked for C2C, the team concept.

Thanks,
JosEPh

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You know what? That's a great idea! Especially because I can only do so much myself. The thing is though that I don't want to head the same direction as C2C. What I'd like to do is build a smarter AND. I want to teach the AI to specialize cities, defend choke-points, utilize civics strategically, etc. I've recently been reading some strategy tutorials here on CFC and it got me to wondering whether the AI does any of them.

I'm not looking to add a great deal of content. I'm looking to make AND smarter, faster, stronger... (cue the 6-million dollar man music)

I'll post a team recruiting thread. We're going to need experts in C++, Python, XML. Also beta testers. I'd like to try to keep the team small. No more than 6. It can get chaotic past that if you're not careful.

Oh! And HI AFFORESS!

Who needs AND when you have Caveman2Cosmos?

SargontheGreat2 said:

Who needs AND when you have Caveman2Cosmos?

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Me, for example.
Or everyone else who wants a MP game where rules aren't changing every week because of updates. Only to name a few...

jtanner28 said:

Major changes will probably still be awhile off. Mostly I'd like to make the engine smarter and able to use all of the features of AND fully. I'd like to try to create some smarter routing code and fort-placement code. I've got some ideas about how to do this and I'll be trying them out in the next couple if weeks. Hence all your gamespeed balancining is safe for now.

I very much would appreciate your help for any gamespeed balancing you've done so far. Just send me a PM or post the details and a zip of the files and I'll take a look at it.

Click to expand...

Ok, I'll upload tomorrow the changes I've made; basically I've altered (or am in the process of altering)
- civicinfos.xml --> I've made the AI more willing to use some civics it never used and I've made some changes on corporation costs/taxation because there's a bug in some civic which makes corps too cheap or too expensive (depending on the civ); also I've removed the +1 Free specialist given by some civics because it isn't working: +1Free Specialist is only added when founding a new city when you run the proper civic, which isn't the way it was meant to be; I've altered instead the buildinginfo.xml to add 1 Free slave with Slave Market (instead of using the civic)
- erainfos.xml, gamespeedinfos.xml, handicapinfos.xml, worldinfo.xml to balance the game so that the AI is able to research every tech. Right now playing on normal speed (but also on some other speeds too) the AI is researching techs too slowly
I'm modifying these files so that at least some civs are able to research every tech before the last turn of the game, no matter the level or gamespeed or map size: if you don't give AI a chance to research every tech, the game is always too easy to win; right now I've done it for every map size at noble level and with normal gamespeed; I'll upload my changes in a zip and then I'll continue my test on other difficult levels and gamespeeds (I've almost done 100 test using AI autoplay until now).

jtanner28 said:

I'm not looking to add a great deal of content. I'm looking to make AND smarter, faster, stronger... (cue the 6-million dollar man music)

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The big issue in this mod compared to the other large ones (i.e, mods like RI) are the critical bugs that pop up from time to time (but have certainly improved). Obviously I am a small guy on this forum but my personal opinion is that any 'extra content' should only be added once we've solved the issues plaguing the current content. For example, connecting to a pitboss game can cause decompression error crashes even though pitboss accepts a load - these kinds of bugs can cause a lot more problems than smaller balance issues. From your reply it appears we're in agreement there.

JosEPh_II said:

And if Blueblood has c/c++ skills you may want his help. Maybe build a Team with 45*, Cykur, Flitz, and Blueblood? Worked for C2C, the team concept.

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I'll be glad to lend my hand in whatever I can do - the last thing I want to do is complain and leech. It should just be warned that I have zero modding experience or understanding of how things are interconnected with the base game itself.

SargontheGreat2 said:

Who needs AND when you have Caveman2Cosmos?

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Lol... There's one in every crowd.

I'm sure that C2C is a perfectly fine mod. It is after all based on a classic. It's not really my cup of tea however. To me, AND captured just the right essence of what I was looking for in a mod. It just feels right. My goal is to see it finished. I don't intend to continue adding features ad infinitum. My goal is to clean it up, tune it up and polish it to a gleam. No remaining bugs. No crashes. A fully matured feature set. I will be adding a few things here and there. Mostly little stuff. Whatever I feel fits with the theme of the mod.

It's a labor of love. I want to see AND reach its full strategic potential without losing what makes it AND.

Blueblood, would you like to join the team? No modding experience is no problem. We all start somewhere. You said you have C++ experience, right? Have you gotten ahold if the source files and compiled the dll yet?

And 45d38N, how about a spot on the team? We need a real beta tester. Someone who has had lots of experience in the fine art of teasing out subtle balancing issues. It sounds to me like you actually have a system already established.

I'm going to see if flitz wants to join us too. He hunted down the coinage bug and that was the official SVN 571 push that is getting this ball rolling.

If anyone else would like to give it a go, just PM me. If you guys don't want to join, I'll create that recruitment thread. Otherwise, I'd like to keep the team small and tight-knit. Maybe 6 or 7 tops.

jtanner28 said:

Blueblood, would you like to join the team? No modding experience is no problem. We all start somewhere. You said you have C++ experience, right? Have you gotten ahold if the source files and compiled the dll yet?

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Sure - I'll give this a try and at least find out if I'm up to par with what you need. I have several years of c/cpp experience with standard GNU variant, but no professional work or portfolio. I'm self-taught and most of what I write is for private use (although I have a proxy program I wrote available on sourceforge - it's certainly nothing to brag about anymore though as it probably has quite a few flaws). Most of my experience is with network programming through the direct windows API, but I am willing to learn when necessary.

I went ahead and downloaded the SVN yesterday morning, but haven't compiled anything yet. I'll take a look at it now.

Do you know how to set up everything for Code::Blocks? It's also my preferred IDE. I've been using VC2008 Express untill this point, but I just got everything to compile correctly in C::B.

The reason I like C::B over VC2008 Express is better code folding and brace matching. I also like the fact that I can actually use it as my default editor for XML, Python, Makefile, and NSIS with full code folding and syntax highlighting support. Also, there's a decent diff plugin, auto-versioning, and lots if other goodies. What I usually do is import all the other project files and have everything in one IDE.

If you have any questions about setting up C::B for the AND SDK, just let me know.

jtanner28 said:

Do you know how to set up everything for Code::Blocks? It's also my preferred IDE. I've been using VC2008 Express untill this point, but I just got everything to compile correctly in C::B.

The reason I like C::B over VC2008 Express is better code folding and brace matching. I also like the fact that I can actually use it as my default editor for XML, Python, Makefile, and NSIS with full code folding and syntax highlighting support. Also, there's a decent diff plugin, auto-versioning, and lots if other goodies. What I usually do is import all the other project files and have everything in one IDE.

If you have any questions about setting up C::B for the AND SDK, just let me know.

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Code::Blocks is the IDE I started using after I finally figured out that devcpp was long dead. I've never liked Visual Studio for some reason. Perhaps how microsoft-centric it felt.

I tried compiling with the Visual Studio 2005/2008 compiler option but apparently I don't have a component installed to do this as it gives me a toolchain error. Trying it with the default GCC compiler gives me a maximum number of errors with missing links ("error: boost/python/manage_new_object.hpp: No such file or directory") and other items such as "error: pasting "CvArtInfoAsset" and "&" does not give a valid preprocessing token". I'll gladly take your advice on how you managed to get this to work.

The default GCC compiler is a no go here. You have to use Visual C++ Toolkit 2003. There's a couple of other files that are critical too. Tell you what, here's a link that will get you rolling for the most part: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=405444

It does not show how to set up Code::Blocks, but I can get you there once you go through the steps in that link. If you'd rather just get it flying immediately, download VC2008 Express. Why don't you get it to fly with VC2008 first and then we can set up C::B. By the way, I highly recommend the 8150 nightly build of C::B.

A few other tools that I use: WinMerge, Notepad++, NSIS (once I set up the new installer), PakBuild, and Paint.NET.

jtanner28 said:

The default GCC compiler is a no go here. You have to use Visual C++ Toolkit 2003. There's a couple of other files that are critical too. Tell you what, here's a link that will get you rolling for the most part: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=405444

It does not show how to set up Code::Blocks, but I can get you there once you go through the steps in that link. If you'd rather just get it flying immediately, download VC2008 Express. Why don't you get it to fly with VC2008 first and then we can set up C::B. By the way, I highly recommend the 8150 nightly build of C::B.

A few other tools that I use: WinMerge, Notepad++, NSIS (once I set up the new installer), PakBuild, and Paint.NET.

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Sounds good - I'll take a look at these and see if I can get it rolling.

Well, good luck, maybe you will finish it. I am not sure I wanna to be even bugtester this time. It was not funny or useful/helpful enough last time.

Replaying Earth2150 right now, and also playing Aion and new Civ5 addon time to time this summer. But I will check what you do for AND later, for sure.

P.S. But I would want to see new installer. The last one was bad, it didn't show russian letters correctly. I suppose there were problems with other languages too. So if you will do it, use only english or put the possibility to change installer's language, or somebody should test it (I can).

I have it compiled with vs2008. Hopefully I did everything correctly - ended up just creating a new directory and copying over all the source files from the original SVN folder. I would PM you all of this but I don't see such an option.