Civ III PowerBar Trainer for v1.29f

[MartinW]

Well now this thing (Powerbar) is fun.

For those of us who like to watch massive armies swoop down on those pesky whoevers, this is the trainer.

The only problem I have is that sometimes I get most of the cities and sometime I only get one. I never get them all. But I see in this forum that you're working on that.

If you really want to have nearly complete control of things, combine the Powerbar with Erik Tan's Savegame Editor.

"Fear me. I rule."

 

[Dark Ryder]

Originally posted by MartinW
For those of us who like to watch massive armies swoop down on those pesky whoevers, this is the trainer.

Funny, I would have said it's for those of us that don't like seeing massive armies swooping down

I swear, Ghandi and I just can't share a planet. Every time I get near him, a plague of elephants rains down upon my poor, peaceful peoples

 

[MartinW]

"Funny, I would have said it's for those of us that don't like seeing massive armies swooping down."

I didn't mean that I would bombard somebody's coastline with an unusually large fleet of AEGIS Cruisers a little too early in the game.

Okay, so maybe I would.

 

[slane]

I have tried severl times to install your utility and I always have the same problem.

pspapi.dll is already in use.
I am using win 2000 pro and only have my virus scan running.

 

[CrsadrJoe]

hi Slane,

This error is generated because the install program is trying to copy a file to your machine that 1) you already have, and 2) is in use with another program.

The solutions are:

1) Terminate the program using the file, then install (it could be your AV software. psapi.dll is used for process monitoring and information gathering).

2) Simply download the "patch" file from the website instead of the entire installation program. You may need two additional files, msvbvm60.dll and an .OCX file, which you'll be notified of when you launch PB. Simply download those from the Microsoft website into the PB folder (or the Windows\System folder), and you'll be set. It's very possible you already have those however, they're widely distributed.

 

[CrsadrJoe]

A much improved version of Powerbar is available at

www.crusaderjoe.com.

It includes the features I previously mentioned as "in testing", and is much more stable. Those who have previously downloaded the entire program will only need the patch file.

Slane, this version does not use psapi.dll

 

[wilhelmsteel]

I've used this on some recent games and it works great. It is a grumpy program sometimes and loads slow. It's helped me through a couple of roughmoments (learning experiences) I just recommended it to the Yahoo Civ II Club.

Thanks

 

[Realm]

yeah, the power bar is great but, it does take awhile to load, and another thing that takes away from it is that after you make a new city you have to load it again which takes time and becomes irritating. other than that its a great program, good job :crazyeyes

 

[Dark Ryder]

Wow, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself, but the new PowerBar just picked up a new city the same turn I built it! Huge improvement over the earlier versions, and I quite liked those.

One thing, though - why can't I set treasuries to zero? All three versions of PowerBar I've used have had this same limitation. Is there a reason it can't be done?

 

[Realm]

well, i hadn't been able to play long enough with it to see something like that, but i do like that its gonna work with modified parts of the game. i haven't gotten any of the mod packs that make like units and stuff but now i can

 

[Shaitan]

Great job Joe!

Ran it this morning with the Brit Isles mod. It picked up all of the correct civ and city names perfectly. Load time is appreciably longer but it's worth it to get everything in there.

One thing I noticed was when I completed a construction with the PB then changed it in the city I got a message that 67,500 odd shields would be wasted. I'm assuming you moved away from applying the exact number of shields and are just applying a sh*tload of shields now?

 

[CrsadrJoe]

hi guys,

Glad to hear it seems to be working alright.

A word about the load times - each attempt I've made to optimize the city searches has resulted (inevitably) in some cities being missed at some point. Not always though. In fact, some of the optimized searches worked pretty well. What do you guys think of adding a "Quick Search" option in addition to the "load" function? Quick-Search could be used until it fails to locate a city, at which point we'd have to re-Load the bar. I agree though, the load times are sometimes unbarably long, and I haven't given up on finding a successful means of optimizing the search.

Treasuries not bing set to zero however is a serious problem! I had forgotten about that, and I just fixed it. Early on there was a reason for that, but i don't recall what it was at this point. The feature will be included in the next release. If you'd like it right away, send me an email and I'll zip it on over to you(crsadrjoe@earthlink.net).

Shaitan you are absolutely correct - good eye! I abandoned the precise shield count because I kept running into variations in the amounts required based on difficulty levels. Then i was informed that the option is customizable in the editor, and figured too many is better than not enough - so 'completing' a city project literally throws 65535 or so shields at it, no matter what it is. I guess we could consider the excess to be pork-barrel spending...

Please continue to send any requests or suggestions, and of course bug reports.

 

[Dark Ryder]

Don't worry about the 0-patch, I'll just pick it up on the next update.

As for the number of shields, though: I don't know what size integer Civ3 uses for production, but if it's only a 16-bit number (which seems likely) then using 65535 could be dangerous - if somebody hits the Build or Build all button before Civ3 gets around to calculating a city's production for the turn, it could result in an overflow, which could be varying degrees of bad.

A safer - but still quite sufficent - value would be 60,000 or so.

 

[CrsadrJoe]

That is a very good point. They do use a 32-bit value though, so there is a bit of room to spare.

Still, I could bring the shield count down so as to not "waste" so many. Does anyone know what effect (if any) continually wasting shields has on the other aspects of the game, like the score, public opinion, etc?

 

[Realm]

the mod works great, good job. that quick search button idea would be cool.

 

[MartinW]

The problem with the Powerbar is that it's downright addicting. I tried to give it up for a while, but had to come back to using it. When I did, I found you had updated it and it's even better.

This last game I must have had 40 cities and it found them all. (After a couple tries, but who's complaining?)

Some trainers are interesting but can take away from the fun of the game. This one actually makes the game more fun.

Well, that's enough ranting for now.

I would like to suggest something that might be too much trouble but I think would be great. What if you put a button that would complete all production projects instead of just the one? We could fill the production cue of all or some of our cities and then go through them with the push of a button.

Is this a good idea or am I just getting spoiled?

(I used the game editor to create an all-powerful panzer that goes through and wipes everybody out who gets in its way. Why is this so much fun to me?)

 

[Shaitan]

Found a few bugs, Joe.

Intermittent - When you use the "Donate" button to complete the current build in all cities, sometimes the city that is in the list box does not get built.

Intermittent - After using "Donate" button, return focus to game screen to refresh map view. Some cities still show time left to build. Go to city screen and shield box will be full. Return to map and it now shows 1 turn to build.

Intermittent - When you have a wonder being built and use the "Donate" button the wonder will not always be built. Sometimes it simply goes down to a few (17 to 25 was the range I saw) turns left. Using the "Build" button on that city will work correctly.

 

[guest]

The MYTH trainer that was made for the pre-1.16f patch allowed you to hurry science production also. I know this is not where you are currently focusing your attention, but I really miss this option. It would be nice to see this in a future version. I must congradulate you on the excellent trainer you have put together! You are really helping us addicted players get the most we can out of the game.

Keep on!
Laura
laurasmiles69@hotmail.com

 

[CrsadrJoe]

hi guys,

Regarding the bugs shaitan found:

1) I will investigate this. That should not happen.

2) This relates to when the game refreshes this part of the display. Usually clicking ahywhere which causes the screen to shift position is sufficient (and sometimes that isn't even necessary). Sometimes you actually have to open and close a city screen to force it to refresh.

3) I will look into this. It's possible we're still applyng only 255 shields in this function - instead of the 65535 applied in the 'Build' routine. That will have to be chnged.

Thanks for the heads up! Keep 'em coming...


Regarding Laura's request:

This has been a popular request, and I've begun looking into it. I expect to add the ability to complete or ruin the research for any tribe - and perhaps add that to the 'Enemy Suppress' feature. I hope to have something done by Sunday (might be tough though, my girlfriend just informed me that we're painting the living room this weekend

 

[Menahs]

I loved your trainer so far! Great stuff!

I've downloaded the new version, and any time I try and run it, it comes up with a Run-Time Error'9' : Subscript out of range message.

Now, im assuming im the only one experiencing this problem, but I thought I post anyways to see if any knows how I can fix this or if they are having the same problem.

If not, I guess obviously it's something wrong with my computer, and I wont be able to get any help

If you have any idea what's up with that, please leave a message here. If not, well I guess Im on my own

Thanks a lot for your time.

And thanks a lot for a great program CrusdrJoe!