HoF Map Finder/Generator Utility 2016-10-05

[Moonsinger]

This version 3.3 would fix all of the previously reported bugs. I also added new options for finding food and luxury and support for CivContent/PTW scenario.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MapFinder04-27-2004.zip

Enjoy!

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Matt_G
Any chance of making this great tool work with scenario's?
I like to play randomly generated maps at sizes ranging from 300 X 240 up to and including 362 X 362.
The domination limits on these maps are huge. (For instance, the domination limit of a 300 X 240 map at 40% land is 10,100 tiles give or take 100.) I noticed your tool only allows settings up to 6000 for max. domination limit.
Also it won't let me use load scenario in PTW or load Civ-Content in C3C.

I would be eternally grateful if you could make this usable for us 'off-the-wall' players who aren't interested in the HOF.

MapFinder version 3.3 does work with CivContent and PTW Scenario. I also just raised the maximum domination limit to a really big number (like 25000 or something). Have fun!

 

[Matt_G]

Thank you Moonsinger!! [dance]

I'm downloading it now and will let it run overnight. I'll let you know how it works tomorrow.

You're the best.

 

[Tzar Sasha]

I finally got my copy to work.
Here was the problem:
My civ3map folder was a sub folder of my game saves folder. In the save game dialog box only so many characters could be typed. I was getting game saves but the report would not generate because not all of the file name was typed. I moved my civ3map folder to a top level directory and the utility ran fine.

For some reason the following directory is too long to be typed into the save game box.
d:\Infogrames Interactive\CivilizationIII\Conquests\Saves\Civ3map

So please make sure future downloaders know to put the output directory (civ3map) as a top level directory on their hard drive.

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Tzar Sasha
I finally got my copy to work.
Here was the problem:
My civ3map folder was a sub folder of my game saves folder. In the save game dialog box only so many characters could be typed. I was getting game saves but the report would not generate because not all of the file name was typed. I moved my civ3map folder to a top level directory and the utility ran fine.

For some reason the following directory is too long to be typed into the save game box.
d:\Infogrames Interactive\CivilizationIII\Conquests\Saves\Civ3map

So please make sure future downloaders know to put the output directory (civ3map) as a top level directory on their hard drive.

Thanks! Since my map directory was f:\mapfinder, it would explain why I have never run into this problem. I will add a link to your warning to my second post (on this thread). Will correct this tiny problem down the road!

 

[Matt_G]

I let it run overnight and for the most part it works great.
Just a couple of minor bugs I noticed.

1) Reports are not generated correctly. For instance this morning I had about 20 saves and screenshots in my D:\civ3map folder (top level)but the html report page only listed 6 of them. I ran it again as a test for 100 iterations with fairly lax settings so I would get numerous saves and had the same problem. I can't see a pattern here. <shrug>


2) I had it set to restart C3C after 50 iterations, and while it restarted fine it quit using quick start. It reverted to doing it the old fashioned way, but it do it correctly.

Minor stuff, like I said. This utility is awesome Moonsinger!
Thank you again. I will be using this tool quite a bit.

Matt

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Matt_G
I let it run overnight and for the most part it works great.
Just a couple of minor bugs I noticed.

1) Reports are not generated correctly. For instance this morning I had about 20 saves and screenshots in my D:\civ3map folder (top level)but the html report page only listed 6 of them. I ran it again as a test for 100 iterations with fairly lax settings so I would get numerous saves and had the same problem. I can't see a pattern here. <shrug>

Would you post a snapshot of your map directory? Just go to the "Command Prompt" or "DOS Shell" then change to your d:\civ3map folder then execute this command:

DIR *.* > filelist.txt

That would generate a complete list of all the files in that directory. Just simply post your filelist.txt here. That would me help to figure out why the report wasn't generated correctly. Thanks!

2) I had it set to restart C3C after 50 iterations, and while it restarted fine it quit using quick start. It reverted to doing it the old fashioned way, but it do it correctly.

If you want it to use the Quick start option after it restarts, you may want to try this:

1. Load your CivContent to setup your map selection, etc.
2. Use QuickStart to generate your map
3. Now launch MapFinder @4000BC as usual. Remember to check the QuickStart option on the MapFinder selection dialog.

Basically, since Civ3/PTW/C3C remembers the last option on the Topmenu that you recently pick, by Quickstart a game, Civ3 may remember its last starting option. Again, I'm not sure, but may be you could try the above steps to see what happen next.

 

[IgrOK[SU]]

I have two questions now:
1) Can I stop MapFinder program? How?
2) My Conquest dont want to restart. "Run program" window appears but followed with nothing.

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by IgrOK
I have two questions now:
1) Can I stop MapFinder program? How?

There are three ways to stop MapFinder:
1. Exit Civ3/PTW/C3C. Basically, MapFinder will stop whenever Civ3/PTW/C3C isn't running. Isn't that cool or what?

2. Whenever Civ3/PTW/C3C no longer the foreground application, MapFinder would also stop - another cool automatically stop feature. In this case, you can stop it anytime by hitting the Window key on your keyboard (that Window key can be located at the bottom left corner on the keyboard right next to the Ctrl key).

3. Whenver you Alt+Tab to another application, MapFinder would also stop. This is the third automatic stop feature.

That's it! Just pick one of those three.

2) My Conquest dont want to restart. "Run program" window appears but followed with nothing.

There are three possible problems:

1. After the "Run program" window appears, there will be a long delay after that. The reason for this delay is because I want to make sure that I give your system enough time for C3C to release any system resources before starting it up again. During this delay period, if you happen to launch another application or whatever, MapFinder won't launch C3C because it thought that you want your system back. IIRC, this delay time = (your delay for loading + saving) * 2. In most case, you will be sleeping while MapFinder running anyway; therefore, you won't be aware of this delay.

2. If you have been playing game for awhile, C3C could be dying before you launch MapFinder; therefore, when C3C goes down, it goes down hard and won't restart again until you reboot your system. Again, this only happen in C3C - I believe there is a memory leak in C3C, but I don't expect Firaxis to fix it anytime soon. Defending on system resources (like how much memory system system have), C3C may die a lot sooner than 40 or 50 iterations; in this case, try lower the C3C restart counter to 35 or something.

3. MapFinder assume that your Conquests.EXE is two directories up from your AUTO save directory. Please make sure you point it to the correct AUTO save directory of C3C or it won't be able to locate your Conquests.EXE file.

 

[IgrOK[SU]]

Conquests.EXE

Hmm... My .exe file is "Civ3Conquests.EXE"

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by IgrOK
Hmm... My .exe file is "Civ3Conquests.EXE"

Is that a standard name that come out of the box? In that case, I do mean "Civ3Conquests.EXE" in my previous post.

 

[IgrOK[SU]]

Is that a standard name that come out of the box?

Box? ........ Theoretical question: if it is a pirate version, some probelms can appear?

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by IgrOK
Theoretical question: if it is a pirate version, some probelms can appear?

I don't know and I don't support pirate version.

 

[Matt_G]

Here's the filelist.txt you wanted. I will put the index.htm in the next post.

 

[Matt_G]

Here's the report it generated with the above files in the directory.

 

[Matt_G]

I found the pattern with the reports I think.
If the domination limit is a 5 digit number (> 10000) the report is not generated.

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Matt_G
I found the pattern with the reports I think.
If the domination limit is a 5 digit number (> 10000) the report is not generated.

Bingo! You are absolutely right about that! I asked you for the filelist because I was hoping to spot a pattern, but you beat me to it. Since I have never seen anyone who play a map that big, I encode the domination limit on the filename as "%4.4d" (if you are a C programmer, you know what the "%4.4d" mean). In this case, the fix will be very easy, I just have to change the format pattern to "%5.5d" instead. Will kick you a patch after I rebuild my home system - my motherboard just burned last night. I had tried everything to clear the CMOS, but it just won't power up at all! I just got a new motherboard on my way to work today. I'm writing this from my office. I have to rebuild the company main database server today and I probably have to sleep in my office tonight. Therefore, I may not be able to kick you a patch before Monday.

Btw, what is the speed of your CPU? My system wasn't that slow - just around 3.4 GHz. On a huge map with domination limit around 4400, it usually take me about an hour per turn around 10AD. With a map like your, how long do you have to wait for the computer to make a move?

 

[Matt_G]

Sorry to hear about that motherboard. That sucks.
Take your time on the patch. You can put it way down on your list as far as I'm concerned.

My system specs are as follows:

Motherboard-> Gigabyte GA-8KNXP (canterwood)
Processor-> P4 3.0C D1 revision (Malay) Mildly overclocked to 3.15GHz (210 FSB)
I can go a lot higher than this but I want to keep PAT enabled. I have had this chip running at 3.6GHz (240 FSB) 3D and Prime95 stable. I had to run VCore at 1.6 volts though. Not really a problem, but I don't need it.
Memory-> 1GB of Corsair 3200LL RAM (LL= Low Latency) It's running 1:1 so 420MHz at 2-3-2-6 timings.
Video-> ATI 9800XT.
Interturns can go an hour+ on big maps.
That's alright though. I have several computers here (including a couple more P4 3.0's) so I have Civ loaded on another box and usually have another game going. While Game 1 chugs through the interturn I switch computers and play Game 2.

 

[Anders JJ]

Hey Moonsinger,

I'm not browsing this forum very often but I must say I was impressed when I read about your Mapfinder tool. Everything seems to be working according to plan, except the "\"(backslash) in path names.

First, when an appropiate map is found and the program wants to save it, the "<" appears in the path-names instead of "\". This off course causes the save to fail.
The same thing seems to be happening when Mapfinder restarts c3c in the "run"-function in WindowsXP. The restart fails because of an invalid path.

I'm normally using danish keyboard, but I tried both UK and german too, and nothing seems to be working. Anybody?

Thanks,

Anders

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Anders JJ
I'm normally using danish keyboard, but I tried both UK and german too, and nothing seems to be working. Anybody?

I think it would definitely work with the US keyboard because there are a few other people in this thread having the same problem.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1666169#post1666169

Please make sure that MapFinder and Civ3/PTW/C3C aren't running when you switching your keyboard layout to the US. Next version, if I have time, I will have it auto dectect your keyboard layout and translate the key appropriately. At the moment, you may want to try US keyboard layout. Thanks for reporting this problem; you are the third person who have reported this problem; the two others solved it by switching to the US keyboard when they run MapFinder.