Hi guys,
PowerBar 1.2 available for download at
www.crusaderjoe.com
Well, it's taken awhile but the latest version has just been released. In addition to correcting a few errors (like the 009 error and the misbehaving D and C buttons), there are a few new features:
1) Rush or kill research for any tribe
2) Choose from multiple Enemy Suppression options:
-Destroy all unit production
-Destroy only settler units
-Destroy building production
-Ruin research progress
-Empty the treasury
Players can now select any combination of these actions and have them implemented each turn (note: production actions are taken against each city of each tribe in the enemy list).
3) There is now a counter that displays the number of cities created since the last load. It reports in real time as the cities are created by the player or computer. The counter turns a color when advancing from zero to one to draw attention. This is intended to help players determine when might want to reload.
4) The interface is a bit cleaner and more intuitive.
Many thanks to Gramphos who located the city counter variable in the game data record. Thanks to him, this option is available!
I'm also experimenting with various ways of using this (and other variables) to streamline the city load routine. Right now, performance has only imporved for games where the cities all load near the base address (a seldom occurrance). this is because the search terminates after finding X number of cities (because that's all there are to find

).
Known issues:
There is only one issue I'm aware of at this point. That is, it's been reported that when launching PB before Civ3 on games that reset the screen resolution, PB disappears. I haven't been able to reproduce this (but then I play the game at my desktop rez of 1600x1200), so i don't know how prevalent it wil be. Nonetheless, launching PB after Civ III resets your resolution is an effective work-around.
Next:
I'm determined to streamline the city search, so I'll be working on that. I am also looking for a way of determining when a tribe has been eliminated so they can be removed from the PB. As soon as I figure out either of those, I'll upload a new version.
Thanks again to all those who helped with their suggestions, bugs, tips and testing. Without your help this release would have taken much much longer, and PB would be what it is. Keep it coming...
Joe