Anyone have MapFinder experience?

[Aabraxan]

. . . . I see it some times go through several iterations and generate up to 6 maps and then sit there.

I have let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes, so I doubt it coming back. I especially doubt it as it has popped up the report tool. That I would expect means it thinks it is done, but I don't know as MF says it is waiting for civ to start. . . . .

Yeah, if the report is popping up, I suspect it thinks it's done. I have finally gotten the hang of getting mine to run (although I don't seem to have quite grasped the concept of how to put a rule set together).

FWIW, here's what I do:
1) Start MapFinder.
2) A small box pops up, telling me that C3C is not running. Hit OK.
3) Start C3C.
4) New game.
5) Set up the game that I want (map settings, civs, etc)
6) generate the first start
7) Kill the "Dawn of time" box
8) Pull up MapFinder (alt+tab to it)
9) Set up my rules (This is where I run into trouble, which lets it run, but I might not get any maps. Mine ran through ~3500 maps last night without a single hit.)
10) Start MF

At that point, I usually get an immediate quickstart and it starts running. After 50 starts, it completely restarts C3C and I get the stall that I mentioned above.

. . . . I will try without the quick save. I have waited to even start MF, until the dawn msgs is cleared and the settler is all alone waiting for a command. . . . .

Unlike somebody earlier in the thread, I don't do a quick start before starting MF. I did that the other day and, when MF started a new game, it "dropped down" one button on the main menu and started generating maps from the Conquests . . .

. . . . I do think it is a directory issue, but I have no idea why. I have seen it write a mapfinder tmp file out on some attempts, but it is not putting it in the auto directory. I will check that one again.

I have created a file in my Conquests/Saves directory called Maps, and have directed it to put all acceptable saves there. I can't imagine why putting them in the autosave directory wouldn't work, but I do put mine elsewhere without too much trouble.

On the "And/Or" issue, I think all of your "Ands" must be true and at least one of your "ors." When I hit "Setup" and go to "Rules," I get a popup box that (IIRC) says that.

From what you've posted above (& my limited knowledge of MF), it seems like you might be better with a simpler ruleset. (I think my rules sets are why I sometimes don't get any map.) So if Dom>1050 is the key element that you're looking for, you might try something like:

And Dom >1050
Or River =1
Or Food Bonus =1
Or Luxury =1

If I understand it correctly (no guarantees here), this should save any map with a Dom >1050, and either a river tile or a food bonus. I suggest using more than 1 OR and here's why: With my "3500 maps, 0 acceptable" from last night, I think putting only 1 or in effectively makes it an "and." If one of your "Ors" must be true and you've only got 1, it looks for a map until it finds a map in which that Or is true, on top of your "Ands."

 

[Bartleby]

...
And Dom >1050
Or River =1
Or Food Bonus =1
Or Luxury =1
...

That's the way I set my rules up, too.
I'm no student of logic, so rather than set up complicated sets I often just have more than one ruleset in the rules folder, for example you could have one that looks for >1050 + cow + river, one that looks for >1050 + 2 cows, etc.

 

[Aabraxan]

That's the way I set my rules up, too.
I'm no student of logic, so rather than set up complicated sets I often just have more than one ruleset in the rules folder, for example you could have one that looks for >1050 + cow + river, one that looks for >1050 + 2 cows, etc.

One thing that I've done, & I have yet to figure out if it's a good idea, is to put something like:

And river =1
And food bonus =1
And BG =1
Or river >1
Or food bonus >1
Or BG >1

I'm not very clear on how the connectors work, but I was worried that if I only put in "=1," that MF would exclude maps that had more than 1. I'd just hate to have it pass up a 3-cow, 2-BG, 2-lux start!

 

[Bartleby]

I use > 0 for that...

 

[vmxa]

I got it running, but not saving any maps so far. All the AND must be true to get a positive.

So it should be if any AND fails then all AND's fail. If the OR is true, then MF should save that map. IOW if all AND's are true save, if the OR is true save. That is what I would expect, but that is not what happens.

I run into a map over 1050 right away, but it is rejected. So for sure I do not know what the logic should be.

Still trying to get the process down for the rules. I missed out on two maps over 1100.

 

[Aabraxan]

Bartleby, I guess that would make sense, too.

vmxa, you might try running it with only 1 rule: Dom > 1050. Leave out any other variables and see if it will grab a map. Then add more rules to suit what you're looking for.

 

[Bartleby]

vmxa, I think that the way MapFinder works is that if any AND fails, the map is rejected. If it hasn't been rejected yet, and you have one or more ORs, then if any one is true the map is accepted. Off the top of my head I can't remember if it'll let you use only ORs.

 

[vmxa]

I don't have a problem is the AND fail, I just don't understand the OR not working. So I will play around a bit and see if I have to come to that point.

 

[vmxa]

vmxa, I think that the way MapFinder works is that if any AND fails, the map is rejected. If it hasn't been rejected yet, and you have one or more ORs, then if any one is true the map is accepted. Off the top of my head I can't remember if it'll let you use only ORs.

That is how I thought the logic should work, but I am missing something. Here is the rules:

 

[vmxa]

Guess I was on a quick reply:
Nope it does not want to load it.

It is a series of 8 AND statement and 1 OR.

 

[i like pies]

can you guys maybe help me with some of my civ3 stuff

vmxa has helped me before and bartleby was recomended to me

what is this mapfinder thing anyway???

 

[Bartleby]

Guess I was on a quick reply:
Nope it does not want to load it.

It is a series of 8 AND statement and 1 OR.

I just want to say again that I've never studied logic, but my understanding from MapFinder is your ruleset is essentially nine ANDs. If any one of the ANDs is not true, it won't get to the OR

 

[Aabraxan]

Guess I was on a quick reply:
Nope it does not want to load it.

It is a series of 8 AND statement and 1 OR.

I'm not sure whether MF looks to see if your ANDs are met in the first 9 tiles, or the first 21 tiles, but I *think* it's one of the 2. Are you sure all 8 ANDs are being met in that area? That seems like a lot of ANDs for a 9-tile area.

what is this mapfinder thing anyway???

See vmxa's response here.

 

[Bartleby]

what is this mapfinder thing anyway???

As vmxa already said, it's a utility program that restarts Civ3 until it finds start locations the meet specific criteria. It saves them for you and you can then play them out later.

 

[Bartleby]

I'm not sure whether MF looks to see if your ANDs are met in the first 9 tiles, or the first 21 tiles, but I *think* it's one of the 2. Are you sure all 8 ANDs are being met in that area? That seems like a lot of ANDs for a 9-tile area.

There's a crazy amount of crossposting here, but Mapfinder looks at all the tiles visible from the start location.

 

[Aabraxan]

Thanks for clearing that up, Bartleby. I hadn't been able to decipher that part on my own.

 

[vmxa]

I suspect I have not met the 9 AND questions, but I have met the OR. The way it should work is that all AND have to be true, but only the OR has to be true. IOW it can fail any AND and still pass the OR.

There must be some conflict that I have failed to notice in the logic. I made a smaller test and got the OR to accept and the the AND's to accept/ When I stopped MF, no maps were ever saved.

The thing that bugs me is that the MapFinderTmp.sav is written into the normal C3C save directory. I thought it should be into the auto folder or where you said form that entry.

The accepted files are to go into a folder called MF, but none where written any place. I am not sure what is wrong with the pointer for that as I used the browse function provided.

BTW I switch back to using Quick start. I just needed to start MF with it checked and start C3C using the quick start option.

So I think I have it all solved now, except why it does not save files as it should.

 

[vmxa]

Oh, the 9 AND's were mostly AND tile type = 0. So it was intended to fail if jungle/marsh/tundra that sort of thing. I was not looking for 9 types of items, mostly just do save if any of these bad things are in the 9 tiles.

So back to the drawing boards to see why no files were saved.

 

[vmxa]

I got it to save the accepted files. I pointed to a folder that did not have such a long name. It still is not using the Auto folder, but I thought maybe it was due to me not using autosave.

I turned that on, but it did not matter. So I will point it to another folder as well. Now I just need to tweak the logic. It saves the file a jpg of the start and some set file.

I also found the field labeled counter in the ini to reset the iteration number.
So I think I have it now, thanks all.

 

[darski]

i tried to run this last night and changed the path to put the maps in the folder I had set up for this C: /My Documents/CIVics / mapsaver and I got an error message about the .ini file. I could not read the whole error message as it was too long.

I just don't see this thing as wanting to work at all. The program did select a place to put the maps - I think it was the autosave file but I don't want them there. :sigh:

I have just moved my MAPsaver file to my desktop - hope this will help.