FfH2 BtS Conversion Beta

[Grey Fox]

A tip is to change autosaves to every turn, and make the game keep 10-20 autosaves.

(A pretty easy change in the Ini file)

 

[Kael]

I updated the download in the first post to fix a few CtD's (including the one Kalimakhus reported).

 

[much2much]

I updated the download in the first post to fix a few CtD's (including the one Kalimakhus reported).

I know its difficult to segment these downloads as patches but can you please put a revision number in the 1st post?

 

[much2much]

Heres a crash.

Acheron roaming around can ruin a game before its crashed. Can you turn his spawning off at the moment?

 

[Kalimakhus]

My CTD for today.(I am using the last updated version)
Only out of curiosity was it the Hero last time?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/115758/Tamer_AD-4701-FFH24.rar

 

[wicshade]

this is my first ctd using version posted on 23rd

 

[Kael]

My CTD for today.(I am using the last updated version)
Only out of curiosity was it the Hero last time?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/115758/Tamer_AD-4701-FFH24.rar

Yeah. Specifically I set the default for the unitclass to NONE and then I assign the unit type for the civ that can use it (so enabling for the civs that can build the hero instead of disabling for all the civs that cant). That works fine in vanilla but causes CtD's in BtS. There is probably an AI check somewhere that checks the default unit type.

So I switched to the disabling method to clear it up.

 

[Sureshot]

Save game that crashes next turn

 

[TheGreenLink]

This game crashes next turn, at least it does on my computer...

 

[Tiranasta]

Yeah. It will all be rewritten after we convert to the BtS code. Right now all major SDK work is waiting for that (I don't want to have to do it twice).

Is this still true? (From the Speed Mod thread)

 

[Kael]

I am deep in SDK work right now. Its more than just conversion though, Im redoing everything the way it should be. When we initally made this stuff we did it fast just to get it in.

That and a lot has changed since we first created these systems. Right now Im rewriting the spell system from the bottom up. Lots of spell system features are being moved into XML, my hope is that most spells wont need python to function (but it will be there if they do).

I will give you and example of how that helps. In my latest build the unit the spell summons is defined in XML (instead of being created from python). Because its an XML value I can query it from the AI logic and the AI can consider the summons strength, movement range, etc when it tries to pick the spell it wants.

And of course the AI for spells is being newly created as well (work we have needed to do for a long time, but I didnt want to dig in to deep since I knew Blake was rebuilding so much of this anyway).

 

[Nikis-Knight]

And of course the AI for spells is being newly created as well (work we have needed to do for a long time, but I didnt want to dig in to deep since I knew Blake was rebuilding so much of this anyway

Would it help to have discussions about this now, or will it be easy enough for you to go back in later?

 

[Kael]

Would it help to have discussions about this now, or will it be easy enough for you to go back in later?

What kind of discussions?

If you mean AI strategy, my challenges right now are programming not strategy. Once its in and working we can tune to try to optomize. But right now its just the basics, an AI that evaluates spell options, picks the best one and casts it.

If we can get to a point where the AI reliably casts, where it switches from "buff" spells to "combat" spells when there are nearby enemies, and where it picks the biggest summon it can that can reach the enemy in a single round that will be a good first step.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Yeah, in all honesty I'm sure I wouldn't be saying anything you don't know already. Just trying to help liven up what sounds like tedious work.

 

[Grey Fox]

Might be a good idea to keep a tag on those spells like bPeace, if false, never use this during peacetime.

 

[Kael]

Yeap, thats what Im going through. Adding XML flags to try make spells easy to create and modify, easies for the AI to understand, and making python calls less frequent (for performance).

These are the new tags I've added so far:

UnitPrereq
bAllowAI
bBuffCasterOnly
bBuffLivingOnly
bDisplayWhenDisabled
bHasCasted
bIgnoreHasCasted
bPermanentSummon
bSacrificeCaster
iDamage
iDamageLimit
iSummonNum
BuffPromotionType
ConvertUnitType
CreateBuildingType
CurePromotionType
DamageType
SummonUnitType

 

[Grey Fox]

Sounds good, and keep up the good work

I know you are much better than me at this, but I hope everything is going smoothly. Programming sure can be fun when everything goes well, but it's the worst thing in the world when you get frustrating errors.

 

[Kael]

Sounds good, and keep up the good work

I know you are much better than me at this, but I hope everything is going smoothly. Programming sure can be fun when everything goes well, but it's the worst thing in the world when you get frustrating errors.

Yeah, Im through the worst. The XML only version conversion was the hardest part (because its nearly impossible to isolate errors since I cant just check individual files in and out since they are all inter connected). So many crashes with little indication as to where the problem was.

Once that was done getting a working spell system was the next hurdle. The spell system is integrated in so many modules and so much changed between vanilla and BtS that I must have spent 20-30 hours working on it before I got a version that would actually allow me to cast even the most basic spell.

Now that those pieces are done everything else is adding and improving very specific pieces. So if I have a problem I know exactly where it broke. Its a lot of work, there are hundreds of new functions in FfH2, but now its fairly fun work and I make steady progress every day (instead of an entire weekend spent working with no progress).

 

[Kalimakhus]

I understand that the last reported crashes have been fixed, is that so? When do you expect to update the link?

I am so eager to try it every step up to the official 0.24 release.

 

[wicshade]

this crash seems to be simular to my last one, just move the orc work to the plains tile and the crash should happen at the end of turn, also i am curious to know if there are any specific things you want us to look for in testing.