Cross-Platform Editor for Conquests now available! 1.51

[Quintillus]

Version 0.80 is now available! Download from here. Changes are as follows:

• A grid has been added to the map. It is off by default, as in Civ. To turn it on, go to Settings, the Map tab, and check the grid box (it's one of the few that isn't checked by default).
• You can now add maps to BIQs that do not have maps to start with. To do so, click the unchecked "Custom Map" check box in the upper-right corner after loading the map-less BIQ. If you already have a map, this box will be checked, but you won't be able to uncheck it.
• It's now much harder to trip up the editor by putting plaintext where numbers are expected. Now, if you try to put the number of hitpoints for an experience level as "bob", the editor will call your bluff and revert it to the previous value.
• You can now disable the display of city names (introduced in 0.79).
• Fixed the bug that crashed the map editor if you cancelled adding a city.

If you add a map to a BIQ without one, you'll get to choose the base terrain (desert, plains, grassland, tundra, coast, sea, and ocean - no forest, volcano, etc. quite yet), and the height and width (both of which must be even, due to Civ3's isometric map - if you try to enter an odd number, it'll get replaced automatically). The minimum map size is 16x16, which is the minimum size in Firaxis's editor and already ridiculously small - if you really want a smaller map, PM me and I'll test smaller ones. What you get after choosing these is a blank, spotless map. You'll probably want to add some stuff to it, but you don't have to.

And yes, you can choose dimensions of more than 362 tiles in one direction (but not both, that's a hard limit in Civ3). The editor will automatically prevent you from creating a map that would crash Civ3 by having too many tiles. You can also load these larger-than-usual maps into Firaxis's editor and edit them there. In preliminary testing, redistributing starting locations and goody huts in Firaxis's editor works on extra-wide maps; redistributing resources probably requires more than one terrain.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Thanks for continuing to work on this. Especially the mapping aspects. Is allowing a larger section of the map to be in view on the to-do list?

 

[Quintillus]

It is, and I had done some work on it between 0.79 and 0.80. However, it was proving problematic to get it to work as I wanted it to, so I ultimately decided to release 0.80 with the improvements that it did have. For the near-term, I plan to work on a feature that I expect will be more straightforward as a re-motivating feature, and then have another go at zooming.

 

[timerover51]

What do I need to open this in terms of Java?

 

[Blue Monkey]

No hurry on the zoom. Work on whatever charges you up.

 

[Quintillus]

What do I need to open this in terms of Java?

It requires Java 1.5 or later, and after that is installed, it should open simply by double-clicking the launcher.jar file. The reason I italicize the "should" is that, while it generally is that easy on a Windows or OSX machine, sometimes Linux makes it unstraightforward. It's also possible for that to get configured incorrectly on Windows or OSX... I have a post somewhere in this thread explaining how to fix it on Windows, and I'm sure I could find something about how to fix it on OSX on the Internet if need be (the process is probably equivalent, just in different places). I should probably add a link to that in the first post.

edit: Added links below; also copied the following to the first post.

Java Download Links

For OSX links, there is only one download off of the link. For Windows and Linux links, select the download for your version (64-bit or 32-bit) and preferred installation (online or offline) off of the links below (and also hit the "I accept the agreement" button). Thereafter, it's pretty much like installing any other piece of software, and you should be set up to run the editor after the install finishes.

Some versions of Windows and some versions of OSX (IIRC all before 10.8) come bundled with Java. However, if your computer is older than 2006 or so, it's possible that even if Java came pre-installed, the installed version might be too old to run the editor.

• OSX 10.7 "Lion"
• OSX 10.6 "Snow Leopard"
• OSX 10.5 "Leopard"
• OSX 10.4 "Tiger"
• Windows XP/Vista/7, and Linux
• Windows 2000
• Windows 98/ME

 

[timerover51]

What I get when I check for Java on my Windows laptop is something called Java(TM) SE binary. When I try to use that to launch your editor, a black popup screen appears for an instant, and then nothing happens. I am running Windows 7 with Service Pack 1, on a 32-bit machine.

 

[Quintillus]

What I get when I check for Java on my Windows laptop is something called Java(TM) SE binary. When I try to use that to launch your editor, a black popup screen appears for an instant, and then nothing happens. I am running Windows 7 with Service Pack 1, on a 32-bit machine.

Java(TM) SE binary is Java, so that's what you need. Is Windows asking what you want to open the editor with, and then you choose Java(TM) SE binary? If so, it sounds like your Windows un-taught itself how to start Java programs automatically - that step shouldn't really be necessary.

I went back through the thread, and found the posts relating to this issue, which I've included below. I'll also be adding a .bat file, similar to what tom2050 mentions, to the first post as an optional download (after I finish my dinner). I do suspect that uninstalling and reinstalling Java might be simpler than the below-described fix, although it might not be faster, and I'm not 100% sure reinstalling would fix the issue.

EDIT: Java-starting file available on first page, or direct link here (138 bytes, 22 bytes uncompressed). Place it in the same folder as the editor, double-click in, and it ought to bring the editor right up. The file consists of the one line "java -jar launcher.jar".

Spoiler Auto Start Difficulties :

Just as a note:

On my computer, I cannot simply double-click a jar file to run it... I need to go to DOS cmd prompt and do it from there (pain in the butt).

But if you have problems similar to this; you can try making a .bat file:
1) Make a regular txt file (I named mine ConquestsEditor.txt) in the same directory as the jar file
2) open it and enter this text:
java -jar ConquestsEditor0.67.jar
* The name ConquestsEditor0.67.jar must be the name of whatever jar file you wish to open; if a new version comes out, or it's another jar file, make sure the correct filename is in the bat.
3) save
4) rename it to ConquestsEditor.bat
5) the .bat file will open the jar. I wish I would have done this sooner. Save me alot of carousing through the lands of the DOS emulator.

You can have the bat file wherever you want, just include the appropriate path in the .bat

Now, I can really jump into to using your editor... and you are right about the performance increase. I can continue hunting for illegal but working BIQ unknowns!

I just did an investigation on technologies, and it turns out there is indeed a problem. And... it is related to one of the 'unknowns' (the only one for techs). I had left it at the value of zero, but apparently that causes problems. So I took a BIQ where I'd added a tech (in my editor), loaded it in Steph's editor, changed it to a 1 (what that unknown is for every other tech), saved, and it worked. I'll change the default value for that unknown to 1 for the next version, and make it editable at some point (just in case 2 is a potentially valid value as well).

I'll also double-check the other sections to make sure similar issues aren't happening - thus it might be a day or two until I have an update.



I don't know why Java does that on some computers. It seems to be mostly - but not entirely - an issue on Linux. So I Googled the problem, and found what appears to be a possible solution, which I've modified to be applicable here:

• Find out where your Java is installed. For me, it is "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_22. Now go into the \bin folder, and make sure javaw.exe exists there. This javaw.exe will thus be located at "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_22\bin\javaw.exe", or something similar.
• Open Explorer, right-click an .jar file and choose Open With, then Choose Program, and select that javaw.exe you found in the previous step. Click OK after checking "Always use the selected program". It won't open this time, that's okay.
  
• Still in Explorer, open Tools -> Folder options, File types tab, click on .jar in the list, then Advanced. Click on Open, then Edit, and add additional parameters

  -jar "%1" %*

  to "Application used to perform action. Thus it will now look like "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_22\bin\javaw.exe" -jar "%1" %*
• OK out of the dialogs, and the program should start when double-clicked

Screenshot for the third bullet point above:

Mine was already working, but I was able to change which Java version was used using this method. Let me know if it works, and if it does I'll add it to the FAQ (and also possibly figure out if it's different on Vista/7).

I think this probably is the underlaying issue you're having - it's probably bringing up a command prompt very quickly due to Java being configured oddly. Other thoughts that came up, but seem less likely, are some weird User Account Control oddity (though it seems unlikely), and maybe something else that would be in the log.txt file that the editor creates (if it didn't create one, that meant it didn't even get a chance to start and makes it more likely that it's a Java configuration issue).

-------------

On an unrelated topic, a question for any moderators. Is there any way to get an extra post inserted after the first post? It seems I'm running up against the 30,000 character limit in the first post, and items such as the Change Log seem like good candidates to get moved. I guess this is why lots of people reserve a bunch of posts at the beginning of a thread. I don't really expect there to be a way to get this to work, at least smoothly, but figured on the off chance there is it doesn't hurt to ask...

 

[timerover51]

EDIT: Java-starting file available on first page, or direct link here (138 bytes, 22 bytes uncompressed). Place it in the same folder as the editor, double-click in, and it ought to bring the editor right up. The file consists of the one line "java -jar launcher.jar".

That little bit of code did the trick, and it appears to work fine. I can finally see all of the overlays again, which I cannot see for the Conquests Editor from Firaxis.

Thank you again very much for all of your efforts in producing an editor for Macs, Windows, and Linux systems.

By the way, is there a map grid for the map?

 

[AlanH]

On an unrelated topic, a question for any moderators. Is there any way to get an extra post inserted after the first post? It seems I'm running up against the 30,000 character limit in the first post, and items such as the Change Log seem like good candidates to get moved. I guess this is why lots of people reserve a bunch of posts at the beginning of a thread. I don't really expect there to be a way to get this to work, at least smoothly, but figured on the off chance there is it doesn't hurt to ask...

I've inserted an empty post after your first post.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Beat me to it.

Requests like that or any other thread "housekeeping" are legitimate uses of the report function. PMs also work - but sometimes one of us is away for a day or so. Reports tend to get quicker action than either pms or something buried in a post.

 

[AlanH]

Yes, I just happened to see it, but it's pure luck whether a mod sees a request like that embedded in a post.

 

[Quintillus]

That little bit of code did the trick, and it appears to work fine. I can finally see all of the overlays again, which I cannot see for the Conquests Editor from Firaxis.

Thank you again very much for all of your efforts in producing an editor for Macs, Windows, and Linux systems.

By the way, is there a map grid for the map?

Glad it's working. It does seem odd that the Firaxis editor isn't showing overlays. It's more than just what's hidden by the clean map (View->Clean Map in Firaxis's editor)?

There is a grid for the map, as of the latest version 0.80. It's off by default, but can be turned on this way:

I've inserted an empty post after your first post.

Thanks! That was quick! It didn't occur to me to use the report functionality... I guess I haven't encountered very many trolls lately. I'll probably be moving things into it whenever I next add something substantial to the first post.

 

[AvalancheMaster]

I seem to have a problem (I am quite sure I've missed something from the info, though I've read it over and over):

When I try to open ANY *.BIQ file, it says:

The specified file could not be opened.
It is an unsupported version 0.0 BIQ file, which likely resulted in the error.

Well, I'm quite sure I've saved it with version 1.22.

Also, when I open a *.SAV file, all the custom rules are empty - no units, no terrain, no civilizations, nothing, nada. I don't know what the problem might be. :/

 

[Quintillus]

That does sound odd - I downloaded the latest version just to make sure it didn't get corrupted in the upload, and it worked. So, there must be something off kilter.

There are only a few things that come to mind if no file opens:
- Are you starting the editor with launcher.jar? This should only be required if you have a custom map, though, and should't cause that error, so it seems unlikely.
- Just to be sure, it doesn't even open the scenarios that came with Conquests?
- Maybe you have an early version of Java 1.5 (maybe even 1.6) that had a bug that got corrected with a later Java update? I haven't tested with the earliest releases of Java 1.5, so it's possible.

I'm thinking it's probably something to do with a different system configuration that I hadn't anticipated, for it to fail with all BIQs. What operating system are you running (Windows 2000/7/etc., OSX 10.4/10.7/etc., Linux, 32-bit or 64-bit), and, if you know, version of Java (both actual version such as 1.5.19, and who released it, such as Apple or Sun Microsystems, would be helpful). The editor might also have put some useful information in the log.txt file that it creates in the same folder that you save it to - such as more error information (if it's giving that error, it should be putting warnings and errors in the log, and whether it does or not could help identify where things are going wrong). In particular I'm wondering if the editor is detecting compressed BIQs or not. It's possible that the decompression is blowing up consistently for some reason.

The .SAV files aren't as reliable as the .BIQs (usually) are for opening, and I actually have an update ready for version 0.81 to improve their input - although if there is an error, it should give a popup notifying you of that. The BIQ failure is a lot more unexpected and strange...

The only other thing I can think of without additional information is verifying that Civ3 itself loads up the BIQs as expected... but again it seems highly unlikely that they would all not be good BIQs. Some of the info two paragraphs above might be enough for me to identify what might be failing, or at least know what to try to see if I can get it to happen.

The most helpful part of the log will look something like this:

0    [main] INFO  Main  - Starting program - version 0.80
141  [AWT-EventQueue-0] INFO  Main  - [B]Running Windows XP 5.2 on x86[/B]
141  [AWT-EventQueue-0] INFO  Main  - Starting initialize method now
187  [AWT-EventQueue-0] INFO  Main  - Took this many ms to get window visible
6359 [AWT-EventQueue-0] INFO  Main  - Input file: [I]D:\Civilization III\Conquests\Scenarios\RFRE 275BC Easy.biq[/I]
6375 [AWT-EventQueue-0] INFO  com.civfanatics.civ3.biqFile.IO  - Number of available processors: 4; using 4 processors
6375 [AWT-EventQueue-0] INFO  com.civfanatics.civ3.biqFile.IO  - Detected compressed file
6406 [AWT-EventQueue-0] INFO  com.civfanatics.civ3.biqFile.IO  - Number of available processors: 4; using 4 processors
6406 [AWT-EventQueue-0] [B]INFO  com.civfanatics.civ3.biqFile.IO  - major ver: 0, minorVer: 0[/B]
6408 [AWT-EventQueue-0] [B]WARN  com.civfanatics.civ3.biqFile.IO  - BIQ not version 12.08 or 12.06.  May fail to open.[/B]

The bold areas above, and any place shortly below where there's the word error, are most useful. In the italic line, if you opened a file from somewhere that contains your name, you might want to delete your name before uploading.

 

[AvalancheMaster]

Yes, not even the C3C BIQs. I'm running on Win7, with the latest version of JAVA. On a second thought, I think it might have something to do with the permissions. I am unable to find a log file as well.

EDIT: Indeed it had to do with the permissions. I copied a BIQ to my D:/ drive, and had no problems opening it.

I guess I'll have to grant permissions to Java for my C:/ drive, then.

 

[Quintillus]

Hmmm... I hadn't thought that permissions might be a problem. Do you have UAC (User Account Control) turned on? I wouldn't put it past UAC to cause something like that, but had forgotten about it since I went back from Vista to XP years ago. I might have to do some tests on my lonely Vista install, although I don't know if I'll be able to do much more than give a warning and suggest moving the BIQs to a less-protected location. I never did find out how to get Vista to play nice with my Civ3 install (had disappearing saves and such) before giving up on Vista.

But I'm glad there a solution in moving the BIQs. I don't know enough about Vista/7 to know if it's possible to increase Java permissions to solve this problem or not.

Edit: I haven't been able to get any failures to open files so far (with Vista 32-bit and UAC on), but I definitely have run into some save hazards from UAC. The good news is that some, such as not being able to save to the C:\ or C:\Program Files folders, give an error, so I can warn about them with an update (though probably not fix them by overriding UAC). However, I also saw the "disappearing files" bug in Vista that happened with Conquests itself, too. It's something to do with "virtual stores" in Vista and 7 - Windows tells the program (the editor in this case) that it saved the file to C:\Program Files\Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\scenario.biq, but actually saves it to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\scenario.biq. In addition to being confusing to the user (the new file doesn't show up in Windows Explorer, and the old modified time remains - although it does show up if you're opening it from the editor), this is a problem because Civ3 itself doesn't handle this situation well (or at least, it didn't for me when I used Vista).

I think the easiest solution for all this (other than turning off UAC, which I recommend as a general annoyance-lowerer) is to install Civ3 somewhere such as C:\Civilization III, rather than C:\Program Files\Civilization III. With that, Vista/7 shouldn't put any annoying protections on the Civ3 files, and it should work the same as on Windows 98 through XP.

I've been doing these tests while logged in as an administrator, so perhaps the additional problems when opening files are due to being logged in as a non-administrator with UAC on. I should probably test that, too. At any rate, I've added a troubleshooting point to the first post about this potential hazard, and will likely be adding a message about it upon the editor's first start for Vista/7 users who have Civ installed in the default location (and perhaps also to the version 0.0 error message).

 

[tupaclives]

Quintillus,

Sorry for not providing any feedback on the last few versions and thank your for continuing to update and improve the editor! It really is a fantastic project. One thing I'm curious about is if there are any plans (or how feasible it would be) to put in a way that you can change the name of something (ie. a unit, or a civ) after it has already been added. Given that you can't delete things either it makes it rather difficult to go back if you realise you've made a spelling mistake or the like. Also, every time I try adding a new Civ (even if there aren't 31 civs in the mod already) the game won't open that BIQ at all.

 

[Quintillus]

Quintillus,

Sorry for not providing any feedback on the last few versions and thank your for continuing to update and improve the editor! It really is a fantastic project. One thing I'm curious about is if there are any plans (or how feasible it would be) to put in a way that you can change the name of something (ie. a unit, or a civ) after it has already been added. Given that you can't delete things either it makes it rather difficult to go back if you realise you've made a spelling mistake or the like. Also, every time I try adding a new Civ (even if there aren't 31 civs in the mod already) the game won't open that BIQ at all.

Hey, thanks for providing feedback now! You raise a good point about renaming. I'd been planning to add it, but it kind of escaped my attention. It would be pretty feasible, so I'd say it'll probably be present in version 0.81 or 0.82.

When adding a civ, are you also setting the Civilopedia entry (to a valid one), plus the forward and reverse filenames for all four eras, and a culture group? I tested it just now with all those plus noun/adjective, and it worked. The Civilopedia entry is definitely necessary, as removing that caused a "File not found: #" error when loading the BIQ.

If it's still not working and all of those are valid files, maybe I can take a look at the BIQ (unless it's all of them?)? If it is, I probably should add some sort of verifier that those required pieces of information are at least all present (ideally all valid, too, but especially with the Civilopedia case that's a lot more complex than just making sure they're filled in).

 

[tupaclives]

You are correct, the adding civ issue was a civilopedia issue. I can't believe I didn't think of it considering I've been remembering it for all the units

Good to hear about the renaming. I can't bear to go back and redo the scenario I've been working on now I've discovered spelling mistakes