Cross-Platform Editor for Conquests now available! 1.48

[Kirejara]

Sorry, my mistake.

I just noticed that there are two "Go to" orders. The "Go to anywhere I clicked on the map" and the "Go to designated city".

The missing one is the "Go to designated city", which should be in the upper row of the orders next to "Rename".

 

[Quintillus]

Version 1.10

Version 1.10 is here! This update is the first to include reordering of BIQ items, specifically technologies and (in most cases) units. There are also a few other updates, and a handful of bug fixes.

Improvements and New Features

• Allows reordering of technologies
• Allows reordering of units (except with custom player data enabled)
• You can filter technologies or units by their name
• Displays technology icons (based on PediaIcons.txt file)
• The list of techs will now take advantage of all available vertical screen space
• Several small improvements to BIQ Compare mode (see below)
• Lets you know when a file that is being opened does not exist, rather than trying to open it

Bug Fixes

• Save will no longer fail when you delete a unit which is a player's start unit (in Custom Player Rules)
• BIQ Compare mode will no longer fail when exporting units (PRTO) due to confusion over strategy maps
• Fix several cases where the wrong item (or no item) was removed from a dropdown when deleting a tech
  • Prerequisite for units, governments, workers jobs, techs, and citizens
• If BIQ Compare fails to export for some reason, you will now be notified of that rather than having it fail silently.

The list of small improvements to BIQ Compare mode is:

• Stealth attack targets are printed, and use their names rather than indices
• Prerequisite tech names are printed (previously only indices)
• Techs and units print out their index in the list

The biggest change, of course, is the reordering for technologies and units. This works via drag-and-drop, with the new lists on the left side of the unit and tech tabs. In the below screenshot, I am moving Masonry to be after Pottery in the list. The item you are reordering is highlighted in dark blue (as are selected items in general), whereas the item it will be moved after is highlighted in lighter blue, with a black line underneath - indicating in this case, that Masonry will be between Pottery and The Wheel if I released the mouse at this time.



You can also use the new filter bar (above "Bronze Working" in the above screenshot) to filter the units or technologies - easily finding, for example, all units with "Warrior" in the name. You can still reorder while a filter is enabled, although in that case you can only move a unit after another unit that also matches the current filter.

The only limitation for now is that reordering units is not enabled when custom player data is enabled. This is not due to a technical limitation so much as a time one - this update has already taken much longer than usual, and now that it's mostly ready I wanted to make what is ready available. Attempts to reorder units with custom player data will result in a popup, but will not affect the BIQ. You can still reorder technologies with custom player data.

It's also worth noting that technically speaking, this is a much larger update than most. Whereas version 1.09 had 9 separate code changes for its 4 listed features, 1.10 has 94 separate code changes for its 11 listed features. A high majority of this is for the reordering, including changes to how to handle BIQs that were necessary for that. After having made these changes, I can better understand why Firaxis's editor doesn't have reordering!

The second-largest change is displaying tech icons. This is based on the PediaIcons.txt file (not the tech icon index, which Civ3 does not use), and is simply a matter of convenience and visual verification of the file and Civilopedia Entry - there is no way to edit the icon or PediaIcons.txt file within the editor at this time.

BIQ Compare received some love, primarily because I was using it to help develop and test the reordering feature and improving it made that easier. There are definitely still areas where it could be improved more; if you make use of it or have wish list items for it let me know!

 

[Vuldacon]

Quintillus... WOW! That is a Great Deal of Good Work you accomplished

 

[Blue Monkey]

The only limitation for now is that reordering units is not enabled when custom player data is enabled. This is not due to a technical limitation so much as a time one - this update has already taken much longer than usual, and now that it's mostly ready I wanted to make what is ready available. Attempts to reorder units with custom player data will result in a popup, but will not affect the BIQ. You can still reorder technologies with custom player data.

Just to clarify: is it the case that custom player data can be temporarily toggled off, enabling reordering units, then toggled back on after doing so? Or is this feature just not available to a customized biq at all - (yet)?

 

[Bluemofia]

This is great!

One of the biggest aesthetics problems I am running into, is that the unit and improvement list in the city screen is ordered by their order in the editor, which can result in clutter if you are trying to build units, especially when the mod is in progress, or 2.0 versions.

The only way around this other than careful planning or ignoring it, is to rebuild it from the ground up, becoming a huge problem, and this will vastly simplify that.

Thank you!

 

[Sandris]

Thank you very much!

 

[Civinator]

Thank you very much!

I second this!

p.s.: Sandris, it´s great that you are here again!

 

[Quintillus]

Thank you all.

Just to clarify: is it the case that custom player data can be temporarily toggled off, enabling reordering units, then toggled back on after doing so? Or is this feature just not available to a customized biq at all - (yet)?

It isn't available at all with customized player data, yet. Although I realize a significant number of the likely-to-be-reordered BIQs will have custom player data, on the balance it seemed a better idea to let the reordering be put to use for the remainder than to delay the release for it, particularly given that while occasionally I work on the editor multiple times per week, other times there are multiple weeks between when I work on it. That is still a high priority to add, and will likely be in 1.11 (perhaps the only thing in 1.11) - but whether that comes on Sunday or in a month, I don't know yet.

There would be one workaround, which would be to disable custom player data in the Firaxis editor - I haven't added a toggle for that here yet, given its expected rare usage - save, reorder, and then re-enable custom player data in the Firaxis editor. But that would require re-entering any custom player data that exists, so unless there is very little custom player data I can't really recommend it.

This is great!

One of the biggest aesthetics problems I am running into, is that the unit and improvement list in the city screen is ordered by their order in the editor, which can result in clutter if you are trying to build units, especially when the mod is in progress, or 2.0 versions.

The only way around this other than careful planning or ignoring it, is to rebuild it from the ground up, becoming a huge problem, and this will vastly simplify that.

Thank you!

That is one of the primary target uses for it. Buildings will be coming too, eventually - but after adding custom player data support for reordering units, I'll likely be adding other improvements for a bit before adding reordering to another area, to switch up what I'm working on a bit and give my brain something new to think about.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I second this!

p.s.: Sandris, it´s great that you are here again!

& I second that!

It isn't available at all with customized player data, yet. Although I realize a significant number of the likely-to-be-reordered BIQs will have custom player data, on the balance it seemed a better idea to let the reordering be put to use for the remainder than to delay the release for it ...

I agree with your decision completely, just wanted to check that I understood what you meant.

 

[Oni Ryuu]

Excellent work.

This is going to save me so much time.

 

[Kirejara]

I really like the new search routine for units.

But I am unable to rename units. Each time I try, the editor simply quits without an error message.

I have tried several BIQs including the original conquest scenarios.

 

[Sandris]

p.s.: Sandris, it´s great that you are here again!

Thanks!
I`ll try to make more contribution to the game, if the Gods will favor me

 

[Kyriakos]

Thanks!
I`ll try to make more contribution to the game, if the Gods will favor me

Welcome back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kirejara]

Ok, now I am confused.

I have so far deleted and reinstalled the complete editor folder, to make sure, that I have a clean installation.

With the new search ability activated, the editor crashed each time, I try to use a right mouse action (Add, Delete or Rename) on any unit.

If I deactivate the new editing style (curiously by activating the checkbox for "Use swing list") I am able to work with the units.

Thanks for your help!

And just an idea for the future: how about "Copy" as fourth order for the right mouse action on units? That would be really helpful if you enter a batch of similar units.

 

[Quintillus]

I really like the new search routine for units.

But I am unable to rename units. Each time I try, the editor simply quits without an error message.

I have tried several BIQs including the original conquest scenarios.

Ok, now I am confused.

I have so far deleted and reinstalled the complete editor folder, to make sure, that I have a clean installation.

With the new search ability activated, the editor crashed each time, I try to use a right mouse action (Add, Delete or Rename) on any unit.

If I deactivate the new editing style (curiously by activating the checkbox for "Use swing list") I am able to work with the units.

Thanks for your help!

And just an idea for the future: how about "Copy" as fourth order for the right mouse action on units? That would be really helpful if you enter a batch of similar units.

Hmm, that's odd, quitting without an error message. Can you check if the log.txt file has any lines that including java.lang, or com.civfanatics - these are error message logs - and if so, post the block of the log that includes them (including a line or two above where they start)? That may point me in the right direction in debugging it. However, if it quits with no error message at all, it may be a trickier case where it's crashing Java entirely somehow, and thus those lines might not show up in the log.

The "Use swing list" is a slightly-too-programmy way of saying use the old lists. So, it's doing what it's supposed to do.

My guess is it may be related to either a different operating system (I've only tried the final 1.10 version on Windows 8.1, although I did some of the development on Windows XP), or perhaps a slightly-too-old update of Java. In theory a slightly-too-old update should force-enabled the "Use swing list" option, but there might be an edge case where it doesn't. Somewhere in the log, there should be a line saying:

Java runtime version: 1.8.0_141

The version will probably be a little bit different for you. But that could also be useful in debugging the issue, especially if the last number (141 in my case) is less than 100. As this is put in the log right after startup, it should be there despite the crash.

Copy is a good idea! I've added it to the list of features to add. I definitely see how that could be useful, both in general and for units in particular.

 

[Kirejara]

I have (hopefully) attached the error log.

First I had switched the editor to the new swing list, then I deleted the error log file, to have a clean slate. I had then started the editor new and tried to rename one of the first units.

My Civ3-PC is still running on XP with Java upgraded to 1.8.0_151.

Thanks for your patience and help!

 

[Quintillus]

Thanks, that is helpful! One thing I notice is the log.txt file is that the program is running out of memory fairly frequently, and not on the "Import Map from BMP" function that is the usual reason for running out. Could you check how much memory the program reports is available? That is under the Options menu, then Change Special Actions (which requires a BIQ to be open first, I probably should remove that requirement), and then it's the first button, View Memory Usage Info. The second number, "maximum the program can use" is the one I'm most curious about. In theory that number should be a million or more, but the out-of-memory errors are making me suspect it is significantly lower.

The other .txt file is from Java crashing. Which unfortunately is beyond my direct ability to debug, but it does offer a couple hints. The first is that it indicates only 94 MB of system memory was free when Java crashed, which again ties into the first question above. I don't know if that would explain the crash, but a lot of odd things can happen when there is insufficient memory. The other is indeed the Java version - I am on update 131 instead of 151. It's possible that something changed in the recent updates that is causing issues on XP, and I can test that after downloading the new version.

 

[Quintillus]

@Kirejara I have been able to reproduce the issue with update 151, in at least some cases. In particular, it seems that whenever an error message appears (such as the one about not being able to reorder units when custom rules are enabled), a crash follows. I suspect it's something about the new Alert I've been using that is causing it. Not sure exactly what, or how to fix it yet, and have somewhere to be, but I'm glad to have figured out how to get the issue to happen locally.

 

[Blue Monkey]

... running out of memory fairly frequently, and not on the "Import Map from BMP" function that is the usual reason for running out.

I have a couple of large maps I've been working on - at the graphics stage, prior to converting them to biqs. If this is a problem you still need testing on let me know. Even if the maps are not ready for posting/uploading to the db I can still run them through the mill. Even multiple times with variations in size if needed.

 

[Kirejara]

The PC is old and slow. Systemsteuerung (sorry, no idea how it is labeled in the english version of Windows) says that it has 2,0 GB of RAM.

The Editor allways runs out of memory, when I swapped the unit/building list from old (fixed) to new (swing) listing. After restarting the editor, it runs without memory warnings (except that I do not check the logfile each time ).

This is what your editor says with my huge BIQ-file open:



PS: I have added in the mean time two new units (one air, one land) with the new version: Both are lacking the "Go to City X" button in game (as the Porsche Tiger pictured on the previous page of this thread).