HoF Map Finder/Generator Utility 2016-10-05

[Tuvok694]

Meanwhile I was able to get some SAV-files but not in the correct directory although I already switched to the US keyboard layout.
Screenshots of the starting positions were placed in E:\cm (just like they should be) but the according sav-files were placed in E:\Civ3\Conquests\Saves with filenames like "EÜ^cm^0000463-701100000005-000000000-02095.sav"; I suppose the problem is still connected to the keyboard layout although I already switched from German to English (US).
Because of this problem I was not able to get the file "index.htm".

 

[Moonsinger]

Thanks for this useful tool! Unfortunately I wasn't yet able to get it to function properly. I use version 3.6 with C3C 1.22. New Maps and starting positions are automatically generated but none of them can be found in the "save directory for acceptable maps" after the process is finished although some of the starting positions had the desired terrain/ressources. A file called "index.htm" is generated and displayed but there are no other files in that directory. The Autosave directory location is correct.
Can anybody help me?

What are the time delay values for loading and saving? Make sure you give your system enough time to restart a new game or to save the map.

By the way: What does "domination limit" mean and what should be the values for "minimum" and "maximum" there?

Of course, if the domination limit setting is all wrong, you won't get any map. Since you are not sure about the type of domination limit you want to play, I recommend the minimum of 1 and the maximum of 9999.

And one more thing: I'm from Germany, so sorry for my possibly not so "perfect" English...

Nothing to be sorry about.

 

[Moonsinger]

Meanwhile I was able to get some SAV-files but not in the correct directory although I already switched to the US keyboard layout.Screenshots of the starting positions were placed in E:\cm (just like they should be) but the according sav-files were placed in E:\Civ3\Conquests\Saves with filenames like "EÜ^cm^0000463-701100000005-000000000-02095.sav"; I suppose the problem is still connected to the keyboard layout although I already switched from German to English (US).
Because of this problem I was not able to get the file "index.htm".

The US keyboard layout should have worked. If you read this thread, you may have already noticed that we have a few people from Germany using this utility here. Once they switched to US keyboard layout, it worked for them. Anyway, would you have time to help me to get to the bottom of this keyboard problem? If you do, just say "yes" and I will not rest until it's working perfectly on your system.

If you say "yes", I will compile another version to auto dectect the ":" and the "\" characters for none US keyboard. I can easily program that part, but I need someone with a non-US keyboard to test it out to make sure that it actually work. Thanks!

 

[Tuvok694]

Hello!
I think I know where the problem lies: I can switch to US-keyboard, but every time a new program is launched, the system switches back to German.
In the meantime I was able to get some maps in the right directory. There is a keyboard shortcut for switching the keyboard layout (for example left ALT+SHIFT).

 

[Moonsinger]

Hello!
I think I know where the problem lies: I can switch to US-keyboard, but every time a new program is launched, the system switches back to German.
In the meantime I was able to get some maps in the right directory. There is a keyboard shortcut for switching the keyboard layout (for example left ALT+SHIFT).

Thanks for your research! So far, it seems that the only problem among these different type of keyboards are the ":" (colon) and the "\" (backward slash) key. Therefore, I think I'm going to add two translation boxes for those two keys. Plus I'm going to add a floating status display window as follows:

1. Total # of iteration so far.
2. Total # of restarting C3C so far (only for C3C version, of course)
3. Total # of time elapsed so far.
4. The minimum domination limit encountered so far.
5. The maximum domination limit encountered so far.
6. Total # of acceptable map found so far.

I should have this new version out in a few days.

 

[Tuvok694]

Hello Moonsinger!

I have two more questions:
- Is it possible to skip the restarting of the C3C program? (my keyboard switches back to German as I mentioned before)
- The map finder stops after a certain time although it has found less than the desired 10 or more maps; I refer to "Stop after finding ... acceptable maps!" in the options window.

Anyway, BIG THANKS for this helpful utility!

 

[Moonsinger]

Hello Moonsinger!
I have two more questions:
- Is it possible to skip the restarting of the C3C program? (my keyboard switches back to German as I mentioned before)

There is a bug in C3C (some kind of memory leak) that causes C3C to crack after about 70 times of starting New Game or Quick Starting new game. Vanilla Civ3 and PTW do not have this problem. If you are playing vanilla Civ3 or PTW, you can start new game for weeks and months without any problem. With C3C, you would be extremely lucky that it won't crack after a few hours of starting and restarting New Game. Btw, you can check this out by manually quitting the game and Restarting the game for about 70 times...and C3C will crack and burn. Therefore, I have no choice but to program MapFinder to safely quit C3C and restart it.

The map finder stops after a certain time although it has found less than the desired 10 or more maps; I refer to "Stop after finding ... acceptable maps!" in the options window.

That's because it has a tough time to restarting C3C. I think the wrong keyboard layout may have leave some unwanted keystrokes in the message buffer to cause it out of sync. Once we get the keyboard problem out of the way, I think it it will work without any problem. I know it will because I have never encountered any of these problems on my system. I have run MapFinder for continously over the weekend when I was out of town without any problem. It was still running when I got home 4 days later and found over 100 maps (and that was with C3C v1.15b). I recently tested it with C3C v1.122f too and it ran for day without any problem.

 

[Tuvok694]

I encountered another problem: I usually play with "Snoopy's Terrain", so I disabled the "Quick Start Game" and the map finder worked fine. But after C3C is restarted, it jumps to a (random?) different scenario in the "Civ Content" list. I cannot find the cause for this.

 

[Moonsinger]

I encountered another problem: I usually play with "Snoopy's Terrain", so I disabled the "Quick Start Game" and the map finder worked fine. But after C3C is restarted, it jumps to a (random?) different scenario in the "Civ Content" list. I cannot find the cause for this.

What is the speed of your system? And what is your MapFinder setting for the time delay of loading and saving?

 

[Tuvok694]

What is the speed of your system? And what is your MapFinder setting for the time delay of loading and saving?

Pentium IV, 2.6 GHz, 1GB RAM

Delays for...
loading game 6000
saving game 5000
restarting C3C 8000

After I deleted some old scenarios from PTW, mapfinder still jumps to a different scenario (after restarting C3C) but jumps immediately back (!) to "snoopy's terrain"; so the program is functioning correctly at the moment.

 

[Moonsinger]

Pentium IV, 2.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
Delays for...
loading game 6000
saving game 5000
restarting C3C 8000

After I deleted some old scenarios from PTW, mapfinder still jumps to a different scenario (after restarting C3C) but jumps immediately back (!) to "snoopy's terrain"; so the program is functioning correctly at the moment.

Since you are all only one who have encountered this problem so far, let's make sure that there is no missunderstanding on the operation procedure:

1. Boot up your favorite OS (Win2K, WinXP, WinMe).

2. Select US Keyboard layout

3. Launch Civ3/PTW/C3C and MapFinder. It doesn't matter which one go first, just make sure that both Civ3/PTW/C3C and MapFinder are up running before going to the next step.

4. Start New Game (going through all those map selection screens to pick map size, etc).

5. At 4000BC (at the screen where can build our first city), activate MapFinder. Until we get this problem resolve, please increase both your loading/saving delay time to 10000 (to be on the safe side).

Note: Please make do not skip step #4. If step #4 is not done, Civ3/PTW/C3C may not update its configuration files (Civilization3.ini, ptw.ini, or Conquests.ini - note: I don't have Civ3 at the moment and not sure about the correct name of those INI files). Also make sure that those configuration files aren't in READ ONLY mode. Basically, Civ3/PTW/C3C will remember its map selection and its top menu selection everytime you start a new game. MapFinder will then read Civ3/PTW/C3C INI file to get its starting point from the Top Menu item. Since you are saying that MapFinder was going to the scenario screen, I think you probably forgot to do step #4.

Also, what version of Civ3/PTW/C3C are you playing? Since you said that you are deleting some old scenarios from PTW, my guess is that you are playing with PTW. However, previously you also said that you have problem with Restarting C3C?

 

[EMan]

.....It will save 1 or 2 Maps and then no more....even if the criteria match!

Anybody encountered this problem?

 

[superslug]

.....It will save 1 or 2 Maps and then no more....even if the criteria match!

Anybody encountered this problem?

Maybe you set your domination limit too high?

 

[EMan]

Domination Limit:

I set the Minimum to 100; Maximum to 6000

For a Tiny Map!

 

[superslug]

Then I'd say you've got a problem.

Just out of curiousity, what are your timers set to? I've got all mine set to 30 seconds and set the reboot iterations to 9999 (so it never does it). It runs slower than heck, but when I'm pulling ten hour shifts I don't really care what my computer's doing...

I only mention this because upping the timers knocked off a lot of problems I was having. Just my two cents...

 

[LulThyme]

Ok I wont say I read the whole thread but I glanced here and there.
I have current version of MF.
It will load and save and find maps perfectly so kudos.
Only I cant make it restart C3C.
Im not sure what the problem is, and C3C WILL hang up after about 100 iterations so it is a problem...

 

[TimHobbit]

This looks like a totally awesome utility, but for some reason I can’t seem to make it work. If I leave everything default it selects and save almost all the game starts, but if I change any values from “-1” I get no saved games? I have tried doing nothing except changing min river to 1 and nothing else and got zip, nada, nothing. I am assuming I am doing something wrong, but since it works on default values, I guess I don’t understand how the values work. Any suggestions would be appreciated, since one of my biggest time wasters is trying to get a good start location on random maps.
I have tried this on all 3 flavors of Civ3 with the same result, but prefer to play C3C.

TimHobbit

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Hi Dianthius and Moonsinger,

I downloaded your utility and it's really quite handy. The extract of the files went smooth, and I loaded civ up, filled out the world settings and player settings (I don't go any further by clicking the "O", right?). However, when I loaded up MapFinder, set my settings of domination limit, food bonuses, etc, and clicked "OK", it did the quick start over and over, but when (it was still going on mind you), I went to check the Index.htm file out for the statistics, there were none. Do I have to wait for it to finish finding maps (I set it to 250), or did I do something wrong? Thanks!

 

[Dianthus]

Can anyone else answer the last 3 queries? I haven't actually used MapFinder, I just wrote the .sav file reading part!

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Update: I let it run this time, but only to get 10 maps. When I came back to my computer, Civ3 Conquests closed (that's a good thing I guess), and MapFinder's Index.htm file was open - but alas, there was no info again. Odd.