I'll keep reading through your linked post and the other threads I found just now. I did notice that you started early on with the decoding and re-rendering the map data. I was trying to do go after some interesting logic/features first, but I think starting with the map like you did would actually work better. You also helped me realize just how much has been done because the Colonization graphics have already been cracked. I am glad I don't have to figure that out!
Honestly I think there is no best way to go - for CIV, MAP data was really what I was after, and busting graphics on this path was really added joy and fun
But if you're after game logic, I think disassembly will be really helpful.
At some point I had started a tutorial to use IDA for reverse engineering, never went past "Part 2", but you can take a look if this is any help (althgouh I just realized all the pictures have been lost when civfanatics forums were migrated... might work on fixing this at some point...):
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/tutorial-civ-ida-reverse-engineering.521637/
While I'm envisioning awesome software here... would it be crazy for me to try to submit a patch for one of the bugs on SourceForge tickets list? I've used git (with and without github) for over a decade, but never worked with SVN or SourceForge. It looks like most of the code is java, which I have a little of experience using. I'm willing to tackle the learning curve, but is the Apr 17, 2015 commit (Release candidate 0.0.18a) the latest version? Or would I be working in the wrong place?
Well, sadly yes, it would be the wrong place: after the last public release of JCivEd, I did continue to develop some stuff, also not related to JCivEd directly, but that impacted the JCivEd source code (and dependent "ddcommons" library), but that I never publicly released.
Short story, all that stuff was on a private SVN hosted at Cloudforge, which went out of work 1 or 2 years ago. Right before it closed, I hastily exported everything to private githubs, and didn't touch this code until recently.
So what I am busy doing on this front is exactly this: start from latest code on SourceForge, compare to latest private commits on github (there are 4 or 5), and try to come up with a version 0.0.19a that would be an up-to-date fresh start for future endeavours, including "pull requests" or patch proposals as you propose.
Biggest challenge is to not break stuff and lose functionality on the way (regression !!!)
I love this tool and I'd really like to try to help. Of course, I'm not sure about timeline. I also experience RL intrusions! I had a grand vision for decoding the SAV file during my holiday break, but I underestimated how much I had to learn and felt like I barely got started before I had to go back to normal work. In fact, although I've worked in software for almost fifteen years, I've never really done a project like this outside of normal work. It has a different pace and it takes a special kind of effort to fit it in around all the normal stuff in life.
I don't know Colonization data yet, but for Civ, most data in SVE was pretty straightforward, and what wasn't was slowly deciphered by group efforts through the forums, as you can see here:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/sve-file-format.493581/
It definitly took more time than one holiday break XD
Oh baby!!! *drools*
CivWin support for JCivEd would be awesome.
Didn't do anything CivWin-wise so far, but I'm pretty sure there isn't much difference between the savegames of DOS and Win versions, since the data they contain is the same (same game logic). So, as a first target, I am thinking a back-and-forth converter of savegames between CivDOS and CivWin, not necessarily a complete CivWin-flavored JCivEd version.
A Civ1 clone would be epic too. Have you seen the existing CivONE project? It seemed dead but its being worked on by new people. Maybe their work can give you a head start
Yes, I was there when SWY started CivOne, but didn't have time to participate much in his efforts, expecially since I am not well versed in C# / .NET, and also was toying around similar stuff in my Java cave...
I did look at the progress from time to time, but not much more... I also wanted to FIRST crack CIV.EXE completely open, since I wanted to totally clone the game logic, bugs included
Awesome!!! You guys should chat with
@AyCe as he's a bit of a Col editing guru and has created a few tools (check his sig). I'm sure he'd have some excellent insights into anything you wanna do..
When I get to COLONIZE I guess we'll get in contact, thanks for the tip !
Cheers
