CivAssist II 30-Oct-2016

[madwheel]

Hah! I think I figured it out for myself. I was exploring the options/About for CA2 as shown in the attachment, there is the option "Game Files Path" When I selected this and browsed to my install directory and selected the folder, the next time I went to choose a file, it showed a little load bar and all my saves were listed there a little differently then before when I was clicking on "File" and choosing a save in the same directory. Now it loads just fine though. Too bad I didn't do a little simple exploring like this before I made those long posts, haha. Hopefully this helps someone though. =)

I actually wrote the above paragraph last night, but failed to actually post it. But since then I've learned more. I'm pretty sure that this isn't really CA2 working completely as it should while the game is running, although it does load saved files correctly. It is as if it is running in offline mode I believe. So I don't think a number of features will work. I also found the readme, or the equivalent: http://gotm.civfanatics.net/civassist/help/introduction.htm Kind of sad since it was on the first post in this thread, and I saw it when at work and thought "I'll look at this when I get home", but somehow forgot that when I wrote my first posts, haha. However, it does seem kind of outdated, and if there is a more updated one, that'd be nice.

Do I understand correctly in thinking that if CA2 is running properly, then games that you are currently playing and making changes to, will nearly immediately reflect in CA2 without first having to save the game and load it again in CA2? Or does it only go as far as automatically loading autosaves as soon as they are created or opened or something? This type of tediousness was the most significant impedance I have right now. But it is definitely better than nothing.

I will try something along the lines of what you suggest tonight, tjs282. Though I know I tried running civ3 directly by right clicking on the "Civ3Conquests.exe" and choosing run as admin, and I'm pretty sure CA2 was running then. I'll double check. Also, by "Splash Screen" do you mean the menu screen right after starting up Civ3 (the first screen you see)? It does say say "Civ III Complete" there.

And I'm not sure about this 'Lookout mode' you speak of. Does choosing the path for the "Game Files Path" mess with this possibly, or could you have that set and also have CA2 run correctly with the game?

BTW, this is a real nice forum. It even saved my post and it was here when I signed in on my work computer today. Maybe that is most forums these days. I'm not a big one for forums =).

Anyway, I'll post here how CA2 helps and probably have some more questions about it later! =)

 

[tjs282]

Do I understand correctly in thinking that if CA2 is running properly, then games that you are currently playing and making changes to, will nearly immediately reflect in CA2 without first having to save the game and load it again in CA2?

No, not exactly.

Or does it only go as far as automatically loading autosaves as soon as they are created or opened or something?

Yes... While the game is running, CAII reads the (most recent) (auto-)save file. So it doesn't update in real-time, so to speak, only after you manually save the game, or after the interturn (after the AI-Civs have made all their moves). But if you have 'Show alerts' activated, it will pop up a little window notifying you of the most important changes (as defined by you).

Also, by "Splash Screen" do you mean the menu screen right after starting up Civ3 (the first screen you see)? It does say say "Civ III Complete" there.

Yes, that's what I meant.

But I see from your new screenshot that you have set a filepath for CAII to look at. You should not do this if the game is installed and functioning, because doing so may cause CAII to fail to work properly. Try clearing that box, and see what happens.

 

[madwheel]

Sooo... did you actually try starting CAII, and then double-clicking directly on the Civ3Conquests.exe in your .../Civilization3/Conquests/ folder? By going direct to the source, so to speak, CAII should then be able to detect that the game is running (it'll say 'Lookout mode' in the lower left corner), and update itself when a new autosave is created at end-of-turn. If this works, then the simplest thing would be to just ignore the GOG-created shortcut altogether, and to create a shortcut directly to the Civ3Conquests.exe yourself. That's what I did for my installations of Civ3Complete from GamersGate (under WinXP on the older machine, and under Win8.1 on the newer one), and neither of the corresponding installations of CAII has any problem registering that Civ3 (Vanilla, PtW or Conquests) is running.

I have tried this for sure now. In the bottom left it says "Manual mode", and I feel like that is all it has said since I downloaded it and first ran it. I went as far as opening running Civ3Conquests.exe, loading a game and advancing at least one turn to see if that might help. I removed the Game Files Path setting as well. But I guess I may try deleting CA2 and re-downloading it to see if even just setting that path once forever changes the mode it runs or something, unless I hear something else.

Update: I deleted CA2 and downloaded again. Still says manual mode and still doesn't work.
And I don't know if it will help, but I also attached more complete screen shots of the highest game directory "Civ III Complete" and its sub folder "conquests" and details for the two executables. Seems interesting that it is named 'Civ3Conquests' but both its description and product name are Civ3Complete. And again, it really seems like running either executable does the exact same thing.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

@WeirdoJoker
Yes, it matter what folder the files are installed

Both your programs CIVIII & CAII must NOT be installed in "program files (x86)" or in your profil (C:\users\yourname). Those folders (and subfolders) have special protections from Windows (especialy W10) that creat various problems.

I'm running W10. I've created a folder directly on C: root, called "games". Inside I've created a folder CIV III and another CivAssist. Both programs are installed in their respective folders.
Running both of them as administrator (by right clicking on the shortcuts to launch, not by checking the option in properties, it doesn't work) and everything works fine.

Hope it will help...

Do I have to install to the new folder? I tried moving all the files and neither Civ3 nor CivAssist2 would work (run as administrator or not). I have the install file for CivAssist and can reinstall, but I do not remember how I installed the No CD version of Civ3 (except that I learned it here on the board somewhere).

 

[David Carpenter]

Hi,
I am new to these forums and to CivAssist II. I installed CivAssist II on Windows 10 with latest updates. I am using it with the Steam download of Civ 3 -Complete.

Config
Civ 3 Complete version -1.22 - installed in E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete\
CivAssist II version - 2.0.6147 - Installed in E:\Games\CivAssist\
Windows 10 64 bit - version 1607 build 14393.1066


CivAssist II starts up ( using Run as administrator), but, does not detect either a running game or a newly started game. Openning an existing file is also a problem.

So i have 2 problems

1. Detection of the installation path.
2. Detection of the running program
Both the same problems as reported by Madwheel, but, I see no solutions posted as yet, so I would like to add a couple of questions.

1. Detection of the installation path.
Using the CA II File - Pick tool I find my autosaves, when I select one of the autosaves (I tried several) it comes up with something like path1 cannot be null value. This is the same as reported by Madwheel. Setting the "Game File Path" directory location for the installation ( E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete ) allows me to succesfuly (without Pick tool) open my saved and autosaved files.

I presume CA II is looking for a particular value in the W10 registry to check for installation directory, if so, what is it ?
If not, how does it check?

2. Detection of the running program

See attached "CA II with civ 3 backgroumd"showimg my current situation after a couple of Civ3 End turns.

I know there has been much discusion about process names, but, understand that for Civ 3 Complete it should be "civ3conquests".
In my W10 Task Manager Details tab it is shown as "Civ3conquests.exe" , but in Process tab it is shown as "Civ3Complete (32 bit)" . Right click on the Prosses tab entry for Civ3Complete (32 bit) and it alows you to look at the details tab. See attached Task Manager images.

Does "Civ3conquests.exe" mean the same "civ3conquests". ?
If not, is this todo with how Windows 10 reports process names, all process names in the Details have have .exe extensions?

Final thoughts
CA II looks like a fantastic program, just wish I could get it working.
I have read much of the last few pages of this thread, but, there is alot of detail, so, I may have missed something.
I am bed bound so difficult to type easily using a small rubber keyboard and slightly fuzzy brain.

Any help, thoughts or comments gratefully recieved.
Regards tenter

 

[madwheel]

Unfortunaely, I still have no solution to the problem. I pretty well gave up searching though without doing much more than I had done the last time I had posted...

I can tell you thought that I still find CA2 worth using, even though I have to manually load the save each time I want to consult CA2. After I have manually set the Game Files Path, and have loaded the first save, CA2 does a good job of staying right there where the latest saves are made. So it is usually just a matter of Alt-tabbing, clicking "File" on CA2 then choosing the save without scrolling at all (Unless there have been a lot of saves since I last chose one). So not too bad I think. This is for manual saves at least, as I use them more than the autosaves, but I think it would work just as well if you used autosaves more. Or you could probably put manual saves in the autosave folder to have both together.

Now is probably a good time to tell what I found that I like most about CA2, considering I still find it worthwhile.

1. I really like how it will keep track of exactly how much you have put toward researching a tech, and it has always had the correct total that needs to be put toward that tech. The one downside is that it doesn't calculate exactly how much you are actually making in beakers/turn, because it doesn't calculate corruption exactly. But fortunately, the game does always tell you exactly how many beakers you will make the next turn (barring a worker finishing a road on a worked tile the next turn, or something like that). So between the two, I have almost always been able to decrease the waste of beakers down to 0-4 gold/beakers.

2. I like the city planning feature as well, and how you can put a distance ring on the map to help see how far cities will be from your capital. I will say that I think it was a pretty poor design to put the button "Remove all planned towns" right next to "Remove planned town" and "Add Planned town", especially with no warning/confirmation X). You also need to be careful of manipulating planned towns if you go between saves that have different amounts of exploration for where you have planned towns previously.

3. I like the corruption estimates as well. Particularly for estimating whether or not to build the courthouse. However, I do wonder why it makes estimates for corruption for the turn you are on in cities you already have. It seems like CA2 reads all sorts of data directly from the save/game, why can't it just read the exact amount of corruption you are currently experiencing in each city? I don't know. I think that would solve the science/turn being off issue, as well as help in a few other areas. I also wish there was a column dedicated to showing how many shields/coins were going to waste/corruption for each city, and then even more so that there were totals given for all the columns. Like on the economy and production tabs. Even the city and territory screens could probably benefit from some city totals/averages. Then you could see much more easily an estimate of how much switching a government type might help your whole empire as far as waste/corruption is concerned. And maybe how much building the forbidden palace would help? I'm not sure about this last idea.

4. The trade options tab is of course really handy, particularly if there are a lot of civs. You can find all the info in one spot, rather than checking them all in game individually, as it says.

5. The alerts can also be handy. Though I imagine someone who didn't micromanage near as much as me would find them far more useful. (I usually check ever city every turn, regardless of circumstances =)

Those are just the aspects I use the most, but there are several other handy parts as well. And on the topic of wishing for improvement... I wish the color guides/legends that you can find in the documentation on CA2 were just put in the CA2 interface itself. Maybe the whole guide could be easily accessible from CA2 itself? It is worth reading, if you want to use CA2 consistently, but I quit trying to go back and forth between CA2 and the guide. I find it hard to remember all those colors for all the different tabs. Plus several of the colors seem to have low contrast to me, and so are harder to distinguish. I usually just ignore them because of this. Anyway, I understand that all my wishes and ideas for improvement are way after the fact and will probably never change. I was just surprised many of them weren't there and kind of wanted a little gripe =).

Maybe someone will read this and find some benefit on why to use CA2 still and how to benefit from it, though.

 

[David Carpenter]

Madwheel, thanks for your swift and detailed thoughts on CA II.

I have CA II setup as you suggest, Manual mode with the game path setup in options. it would be great to run this in a 2 display setup to avoid the Alt+Tab, as I am using a 5" rubberised keyboard and the key combo is awkward. So, I am using it to intermittently check the autosaves

Primarily, I just wanted somthing to stop the smoke pouring out of the cities, when I mis count happy and unhappy people, I don't remember this being so difficlt to do in Civ and Civ II, but, i was younger and not lying in flat on my back in bed 24/7. I may be looking back through rose tinted specs, but, I am sure there is less information easily available in Civ 3, than, earlier versions. So when I saw the information in CA II I was rubbing my hands with glee. My big worry is that I will get AP ( analysis paralysis) and forget I am playing a game, with one game turn taking a day .

I only started using CAII a couple of days ago, starting by seting alerts and seeing what is useful to me, I am not a micro manager (yet), but, that probably explains why I get wipped out at Monach level (also the political game needs better understanding). I have yet to get to grips with checking flasks/gold and I was not aware of city planning, trade tabs look good, but, in the current game are not helping at the moment. Corruption is something that needs more investigation, especially as there are trade offs.

Need to find and look at the documentaion for CA II.

Lets hope that the Ca II source code is still around and that someone can explain how the Installation path is detected. Then, either make the changes to allow the latest downloadable versions to identify the Civ 3 installation path, or, failing that an explaination of how it detects the installation, so, that a workaround installation path could be fudged. As for your wish list I think you are right, but, Leaders of Great Nations are alowed to have little gripe

Anyway once again thanks for your fedback.

 

[canolescano]

Having a bit of a problem here mates...

I downloaded the zip from the page here....
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/civassist-ii.21/

Opened it, but it has no installer, only an executable (i keep reading people installed it)... So I don't know if I have something wrong...

But the problem is, everytime I try to open my saves it throws an error, I tried to move the "Game Files Folder" as someone previous, and got another error...
I have .NET 4.0
Running Civ3 Complete from Steam....

Can anybody help me?

Error text and image as follows:

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: path1
at System.IO.Path.Combine(String path1, String path2)
at ‭‬‎‎‭‬‮‎‎‪‮‎‫‎‫‮‭‬‬‮.‭‭‎‬‭‍‫‬‏‌‎‬‮‏‪‭‬‮(ProcessGameVersion , String& )
at ‭‬‎‎‭‬‮‎‎‪‮‎‫‎‫‮‭‬‬‮.‮‌‍‏‏‏‪‭‪‫‏‎‮‭‪‏‌‪‭‮(ProcessGameVersion )
at OYPMY@i PVJZP7q\*`("7BOpG".‏‭‮‬‍‮‍‌‭‏‮‪‌‎‏‮‮‮‮‏‏‎‫‮(ProcessGameVersion )
at ji)eMN@EUmM5%/98P1zssH\]\\!.‎‌‎‮‮‬‮‌‪‍‬‌‍‫‎‏‭‏‮‌‭‎‮(Object , EventArgs )
at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.OnSelectedIndexChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.WmReflectCommand(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.1098.0 built by: NETFXREL4STAGE
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v4.0.30319/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
CivAssist
Assembly Version: 2.0.6147.37169
Win32 Version: 2.0.6147.37169
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/jalescanor/Downloads/Games/CivAssist/CivAssist.exe
----------------------------------------
FzHBqxboPyRQdSIOONdGChqXNggiA
Assembly Version: 0.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.6147.37169
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/jalescanor/Downloads/Games/CivAssist/CivAssist.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.1098.0 built by: NETFXREL4STAGE
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.1098.0 built by: NETFXREL4STAGE
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.1098.0 built by: NETFXREL4STAGE
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.1098.0 built by: NETFXREL4STAGE
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Core
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.1098.0 built by: NETFXREL4STAGE
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Core/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Core.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.1098.0 built by: NETFXREL4STAGE
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

 

[darski]

if I remember correctly you need to install dot.net fix 1.1

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26

 

[canolescano]

Already installed it and same error...

 

[David Carpenter]

Hi,
this is my understanding after spending many happy days trying to make it work on Windows 10Pro x64, build 1607. I am not sure what OS you are using.

1. The file is no longer a zip file but an exe, that immediately runs CA2. CA2 always needs to be run as ADMINISTRATOR
2. The latest version CA2 runs using the .NET 4.0, rather than 1.1, so don't think dot.net fix 1.1 will work ( could be wrong for your OS)
3. The automated link between Civ3 and CA2 does not work, this the error that you see on your screen regarding the path.
4. The workaround is to manually save the file in Civ3, then, open it in CA2. To set this up click ignore on the screen that you posted, in CA2 Options - set the "Game File Path" to the Civ3 save files, in my case the directory is "E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete", the only change from the default Civ3 install is the drive letter, yours wil probably be a different drive. Exit CA2 and restart again as administrator. On the Main CA2 screen select Files, you wil then see a list of all the files in your saved directory. Full detail in Madwheel's posts above.

 

[canolescano]

Sadly, I have tried that too...
I have Win7 x64 Ulti, I set up to folder to my Civ3 Complete folder, even to the Conquests folder, and to the Saves folder since I didn't know what to do... Nothing worked... I never get to see the list of save gamefiles... And even if I try to manually open a file, it doesnt...

Why wont CAII love me ?

 

[David Carpenter]

hi canolescano,
made a couple of changes shown in Red to my previous post. after restart CA2 should report manual mode.
.

 

[canolescano]

OK! Finally got it to work! Thanks for your help ya'll!
Happy Gaming!

 

[wazzbot]

Was having .net framework issues; reinstalled conquests into regular program files rather than x86. Tried copying civassist into the same program files/steam..../conquests folder but to no avail, getting the same problem since I reinstalled conquests - civassist doesn't seem to recognize the game as being played live (the symbol at the bottom stays blue, don't know what it would change to). When I try to load a save, it says that it's encountered an exception but gives no details, only an option to e-mail the details - my e-mail program is set correctly such that windows recognizes mailto: links, but civassist doesn't seem to like thunderbird.

Do I need to reinstall civ3 elsewhere / elsehow? I couldn't work out a way to do that.

 

[tile7]

Curiosity killed the cat...
I have win 10 x64, and CA 2.05 and so on, running, no issues, with auto loading last saved game.
And then I tried this exe only version, and now no matter what I do, I have the same error as above (reinstalled 2.05 couple of times).
If I press continue, I dont see show alerts or civ select drop menu.
Using Civ 3 Conquest, steam.
Trying to manually load the game, says no access to the game file...

Btw, what I had running (2.05) was working flawless, EXCEPT if you try to load a game file by yourself (file, then choose file).
Then it still works, but you have to keep loading files by yourself.

Now it doesnt work at all.

Question: where does CA keeps settings? I uninstalled it, cleared the registry, restarted, but when I tested Exe version, I specified a game files path. And now it still remembers the path, even when I install 2.05 (in working version I did not use game path at all).

So it must be keeping it somewhere, and I suspect that is why 2.05 wont work anymore. But where?

 

[tile7]

Cat killed the curiosity...
Got it working again.
So, in exe version, manually deleted game path, installed CA 2.05 (not as Admin), in program files (where steam civ complete is also installed) and now its working again.
With auto loading last save.
Version is 2.05083.

 

[tile7]

Dont know if anyone is interested anymore, but would like Ainwood to check this if possible.
Got a new PC. Win x64.
Installed Steam CIV 3 complete and civ assist (both version 2.058... and exe version only 2.06...).
Couldn't make it work no matter what I tried (and I tried just about anything mentioned in the thread).
And now its working but I am not sure why. It works perfectly. Auto loading and everything else.

So what I did....

I got both access is blocked and send an email with save game, then null path errors and so on...

Then I just kept opening exe and install version, filling out gane path and deleting...

And then I started and logged in into Steam.
Installed .net 1.1 (although just by running exe, and got error .net 1.1. not installed completely - did nothing to fix it).

Deleted games path again... and then it just started working...
Logged out of steam, closed it and t's still working.
(with steam turned on, in windowed mode, game is just scrolling northwest, with steam closed it works normally).

And now its just working. Because I stared steam in the meantime, kept entering and deleting games path, installed (not successfully .net 1.1)... no idea.
But it just started working again.

I'm afraid to restart laptop now.....

 

[bbrady413]

PLEASE HELP!

Beyond frustrated. I have Civ 3 Complete on my system (Windows 7). I have a version from Steam, and a version from GOG.

Anyways, whenever I try to use CivAssist, it doesn't open up the most recently saved game like it used to. Then, I tried just manually opening up a game, and it says "Access Is Blocked." I've taken a screenshot below.

What I've tried to fix this:
Update the Microsoft .NET framework stuff (I think I did something with 1.1 and 4?)
Basically delete everything in the registry with the name CivAssist and reinstall CivAssist (I'm fairly computer illiterate).
Run as admin.
Don't run as admin.

Nothing seems to work. Oh, and sometimes I'll get a null path error.

I used to be able to run CivAssist on my system no problem. I'm not sure what's going on, but not having it is frustrating. Help please.

 

[bbrady413]