MapFinder

HoF Map Finder/Generator Utility 2016-10-05

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I just noticed that I forgot to display the domination limit on the report. This version will correct that:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/MapFinder2F.zip

@Muldoon: I will have to do more research on that. For some reason, C3C can't be launched by another application. If any of you know how to do that, please teach me how. Yes, I can launch pretty much all other Window programs within my program, but C3C just refuse to run for some reason. Therefore, I ended up using the "Window" key to launch it (the only way I can get it to work). If your keyboard doesn't have the "Window" key, it may not work.

//Editing the link: MapFinder2F.zip is the latest version.
 
I have the window key on my keyboard, it launches the start menu.
I have no clue about programming and no idea how you designed this program but can you use an assignable keyboard shortcut with the conquests exe shortcut. Not sure if I,m making sense but if you right - click on the Conquests shortcut and select properties,next to 'shortcut key' you can assign ctrl + alt + another key (C for example) to start the game.
Can this be used somehow in your program?
 
Muldoon,

Ok, I think I know how to solve this problem now. Basically, when C3C cracked, sometimes, it cracked very hard and unable to restart again. Therefore, rather than waiting for it to crack, it's better for us to program an automatic restart every 50 iterations or so. In order to do that, I have added "restart option" as show in this picture:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/MapFinder3.jpg

If you have time, please download this latest version and it it another shot:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/MapFinder2F.zip

To test it, you can set the restart option to 2 (2 is the minimum) to see how it works. Once everything working ok, you should set it to 50 or something like that. Also, do try to relax your loading time a little bit. If it takes C3C 5 seconds to load a save game, you should set it at 7 seconds instead....that way, you can relax your CPU a little bit and a relaxing CPU is a really good thing.:)
 
Moonsinger... only too happy to test it for you. Consider me your'e official guinea pig.;)
 
Yes that works. Tried it with two iterations and it quits and restarts with no problems. Will give it a hard core test and leave it running all night. How many iterations do you think it will run before hitting the memory leak? I will try and count it to check because I assume that if you set too many and it crashes that it will not restart.

Thanks once again Moonsinger, its almost as much fun as playing the game, LOL :lol:
 
I ran mine for about 6 hours last night looking for a huge Pangea map at Sid. MapFinder settings are as follows:

Delay for loading = 7000
Delay for saving = 4000
Minimum domination limit 3800
Minimum Food = 1; checked for food bonus >= 1
Minimum Shield = 0 (OFF)
Minimum Gold = 0 (OFF)
Minimum # of River = 1
Restart C3C every 50 iterations.

It worked wonderfully! And it was still running when I got up this morning. Btw, my system is a P4@3.4 GHz (as you see, my time delay for loading is way too relaxing, but it's BETTER to let the CPU to spend half of the time relaxing that way...it's a sure kill. If we push the time too close, we may not find any map because Civ3/PTW/3C3 would not have enough time to finish writting to the AUTOSAVE directory! No AUTOSAVE file, no map checking; therefore, no result! ). Anyway, here is the report of my results for last night run - over 4000 maps was checked.
 

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Originally posted by Muldoon
How many iterations do you think it will run before hitting the memory leak?
Click to expand...

I set mine at 50 and it worked out great. Just don't set it too close to its crack time because when it cracked (when you start seeing NIL pointers everywhere on C3C screen), it would also take along certain system resources down with it too. Therefore, we are better to restart 3C3 at least 15 mins before that happen or it would be too late to recover and it won't start up again.

Thanks once again Moonsinger, its almost as much fun as playing the game, LOL :lol:
Click to expand...

You are welcome!:) I think I'm ready to play now - enough programming for one night.:)
 
While I'm at work MapFinder 1.0 is happily running at home. For some reason the first version of this utility with all its warts works on my machine but the upgrades don't. Now that version 2.0 is out the first iteration (I think) also worked but all the upgrades don't. Now all I have to do is download the various versions of 2.0 and figure out which one it is that works for me then try to figure out why the latest version doesn't.

Moonsinger, I'm not asking for a response until I figure this out , I'm just informing you that I'm still in test. MapFinder works wonders while I'm not at my computer and that is what I really need.
 
Moonsinger,
No problem, I have downloaded MapFinder 2 beta, MapFinder 2 delta, MapFinder E, MapFinder F, and MapFinderF1. Did I miss any?

Now back to generating maps with MapFinder 1.0 while I go back to work. I got 8 maps I want to try from this mornings session.
 
Originally posted by Svar
No problem, I have downloaded MapFinder 2 beta, MapFinder 2 delta, MapFinder E, MapFinder F, and MapFinderF1. Did I miss any?
Click to expand...

MapFinder2F.zip is the last version. You need only this one; the rest were early venture. I think I will make MapFinder2F.zip to be the official version to use from now on.


FYI: Historically so far, I had posted MapFinder2beta.zip, MapFinder2delta.zip, MapFinder2E.zip, and MapFinder2F.zip.
 
Moonsinger, I've been trying to run the latest (F) version today with Conquests and I'm not having any luck so far.

I'm getting the message "Unable to locate your last Autosave Game! Moonsinger:("

I've triple checked that I'm pointing to the correct folder ("C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\Conquests\Saves\Auto") and in Windows Explorer I see that inside that folder there is a file named "Conquests Autosave 4000 BC.SAV". I've tried a number of things (probably all silly) without any luck.

Do you have any guess as to what might be wrong? What file is MapFinder looking for when it displays that message?

BTW, I'm using Conquests 1.15beta and running Windows 2000.
 
Originally posted by SirPleb
Moonsinger, I've been trying to run the latest (F) version today with Conquests and I'm not having any luck so far.

I'm getting the message "Unable to locate your last Autosave Game! Moonsinger:("

I've triple checked that I'm pointing to the correct folder ("C:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III\Conquests\Saves\Auto") and in Windows Explorer I see that inside that folder there is a file named "Conquests Autosave 4000 BC.SAV". I've tried a number of things (probably all silly) without any luck.
Click to expand...

If you increase the Loading time a little bit, I think it will work. What is your current setting for Loading and Saving time delay at the moment? Basically, every time we start a new map, Civ3/PTW/C3C will automatically clean up (wipe everything out) in its autosave folder first, then write a new one at the beginning of the 4000BC turn. This error occur when the autosave file wasn't there at the moment the MapFinder look for it. By adding more time delay for "loading" , we would give Civ3/PTW/C3C enough time to create the autosave file before our program starts looking for it.
 
I have loading time at 12 seconds and save at 2 seconds. (PIII-1Ghz machine. I may need to increase those settings, that's just what I'm trying for starters :) )

But I don't think those times relate to the problem - the error message comes up almost instantly after I try to get MapFinder going, and the autosave folder does contain a save file at that moment.

Maybe I'm trying to get rolling the wrong way? I tried a few ways but none seemed to make a difference. My current approach is to start Conquests, then start MapFinder, then start a new game in Conquests, hit enter to get past the first message for the new game so that the map is acive, i.e. my settler is selected and ready to move, and the autosave has been written, then I click the "M" for MapFinder and click its Ok button. After that MapFinder reminds me how important it is to specify the autosave directory correctly, I ok that and then the error message pops up almost immediately...
 
Originally posted by SirPleb
Maybe I'm trying to get rolling the wrong way? I tried a few ways but none seemed to make a difference. My current approach is to start Conquests, then start MapFinder, then start a new game in Conquests, hit enter to get past the first message for the new game so that the map is acive, i.e. my settler is selected and ready to move, and the autosave has been written, then I click the "M" for MapFinder and click its Ok button. After that MapFinder reminds me how important it is to specify the autosave directory correctly, I ok that and then the error message pops up almost immediately...
Click to expand...

It seems clear to me now that you have done everything absolutely right! When I got home tonight, I will review my code to see what could possibly go wrong at the beginning.:)
 
New Version: (March 2nd, 2004)

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/MapFinder2v5..zip

1. Add option to NOT use the QuickStart option for Civ3 or PTW (so that we can pre-select the AI civs). More Info about this feature can be found at this link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1546200#post1546200

2. In some system like WinNT and Win2K, unresolve file lock may happen (Bill Gate's problem, not mine). In this case, the AUTOSAVE file may not be available to us (unless Civ3 app become a background application, our application can't see newly created file by Civ3 because there is a cache delay in the OS (see SirPleb post above, once he switched out of Civ3 to Window Explorer, he will see the file there, but our program can't see it while Civ3 was still an active foreground app:(). In this situation, MapFinder will tell Civ3 to just simply SAVE the game for us. Just cause us a few extra seconds per each iteration (no big deal!).

@SirPleb: I believe that this version should work fine on your system. Please let me know how it goes. Thanks!:)

____

Future Version: MapFinder will automatically determine the speed of your system and will automatically adjust its timing accordingly to eliminate some wait time.
 
Thank you Moonsinger! It works wonderfully for me now :)

BTW the link in your last post doesn't work because somehow the filename gained an extra period in the uploads folder.
Anyone who wants the latest version can click here to download it.

I'll be running Mapfinder every night for a while now :)
 
Thank you SirPleb!:) How did you figure out that extra "period"?
 
Originally posted by SirPleb
I went to the uploads6 folder, changed the list to sort by date, looked for something with approximately the right name near the end of the list, and there it was! :)
Click to expand...

That seemed like a lot of work since that folder must has been huge! Thanks again!:) I didn't know that we can browse the upload folder. I learn something new everyday.:)
 
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