Help with a FfH2 Worldspell

[Sir Falstaff]

My apologies if this is in the wrong place, but the issue is python-related so I figured I'd be most likely to get help here.

I'm modding FfH2, trying to add a few civilizations to the mix geared toward the playing styles of myself and some friends. One of the Civs is basically a civilization of revolutionaries out to break down the old order. I thought it would be appropriate to give them a worldspell that causes all the other Civs' cities to break out into revolt.

Problem is, I don't really know what I'm doing.

I figured at first I could take the River of Blood spell, which reduces all non-vampire cities' population by 2, and just switch out the commands. Problem is, when I did that, it doesn't actually do anything.

Here's the code. Can someone here show me where I went wrong? And hopefully how to fix it?

def spellFortheRevolution(caster):
	iOwner = caster.getOwner()
	for iPlayer in range(gc.getMAX_PLAYERS()):
		pPlayer = gc.getPlayer(iPlayer)
		if pPlayer.isAlive():
			if iPlayer != iOwner:
				for pyCity in PyPlayer(iPlayer).getCityList() :
					pCity = pyCity.GetCy()
						pCity.setOccupationTimer(4)
						CyInterface().addMessage(pCity.getOwner(),True,25,CyTranslator().getText("TXT_KEY_MESSAGE_FOR_THE_REVOLUTION", ()),'',1,'Art/Interface/Buttons/Spells/For the Revolution.dds',ColorTypes(7),pCity.getX(),pCity.getY(),True,True)

...like I said, I don't really know what I'm doing here.

 

[The_J]

Please enable the python exceptions first:
In My Documents\My Games\BtS\Civilization4.ini change

; Set to 1 for no python exception popups
HidePythonExceptions = 1

to 0 and tell us if it throws an exception after clicking on the spell button.


Else the question: Do you know any kind of programming, or really nothing?

 

[Sir Falstaff]

Actually, it throws up an exception even before I hit the spell button. Says pCity.setOccupationTimer(4) is causing a syntax error.

And no, what little programming experience I have is so far back in the mists of time, it's really not worth mentioning.

 

[The_J]

Well, only basic programming skills would be needed for understanding the problem. E.g. if you know what an if clause is, what a for loop does, and how {} and ; are used other programming languages would be enough to explain you, where the problem here is.
So if you can answer that with yes, then i could elaborate the problem.
But first to the important thing, how to fix it:
Do you see the indentation in the code? Then i have to tell you: It matters. Indent the last 2 lines in the same way like the line before, so one tabulator less, and it should hopefully work.

 

[Sir Falstaff]

Ah, yeah, I remember that much about programming languages; IIRC, curly brackets tend to be used as BEGIN and END, and a semicolon in C is used to tell the compiler that it's reached the end of a command. I also know how if-then clauses work.

I reduced the indentation like you said, and that got rid of the syntax error, but it still doesn't do anything - no cities go into revolt when it's used.

 

[Pickly]

Does the message for the spell pop up fine, or does that not show either? (This might help find where the problem is.)

Ah, yeah, I remember that much about programming languages; IIRC, curly brackets tend to be used as BEGIN and END, and a semicolon in C is used to tell the compiler that it's reached the end of a command. I also know how if-then clauses work.

This stuff changes from language to language, actually. Can sometimes be a pain to figure put.

 

[Sir Falstaff]

Yeah, message pops up fine. It signifies nothing, sadly.

 

[The_J]

Do the small messages, which indicate what cities are affected, appear?

 

[Sir Falstaff]

No, the only message that appears is "A player has cast For the Revolution." No list of cities, unlike the spell on which this one is based.

 

[Pickly]

If the message works, but no cities are effected, it would mean that a good place to start looking for the code problem would be in the code that actually sets off the revolts, or possibly in the city selection code. (Or I may be misunderstanding the problem, but those two possibilities are where I'd probably start looking.)


If you google the civilization 4 python API, what does it show for the "setOccupationTimer" function? (Which category it is in, what it says, what values it takes/gives out, etc.) I' guessing it was copy-pasted from somewhere else, which usually works fine, but sometimes create issues with different variable names and types, missing single lines of code, etc.