Making a Clone of Civ II

[axx]

Choose EtoFormsUI.WinForms as startup project, choose "Debug" in Solutions Configuration and press F5, it should work easiest of all in VS. Also make sure appsettings.json points to the correct Civ2 path.
Otherwise please write here what VS tells you or better yet make an issue in github.

 

[LuKo]

Okay, I managed to make something stupid. Although I was able to start the game (first I changed the path in appsettings.json in Civ2-clone-master and not Civ2-clone-master\EtoFormsUI\EtoFormsUI.WinForms\bin\Debug\net5.0-windows) I tried to load a current game but received following error (sorry for Polish):

When I try to start any other type of game, the game is stuck (nothing loads, the ribbon at the top is active and choosing an option there crashes the game).

 

[axx]

For now you can just load a game, work is being done on starting a new game atm.
The game is trying to get an active unit object but it cannot find one, probably because no units are active in game. It's a bug. In the meantime try loading a different SAV.

 

[Rui_TNV]

Is this game android friendly?

 

[axx]

Is this game android friendly?

Not atm.

 

[LuKo]

It seems that most of the game is not working for me but I was able to load one of my saves and I hope to do some testing in the future. The project looks very promising!

 

[CurtSibling]

Just wondering - How many civs are available for play? Are there more than 7 in game?

 

[axx]

@LuKo There's a ton of features missing. I'm currently dealing with basic stuff (moving units around, drawing map). Before moving on some more work needs to be done on popup boxes (dialogs), iirc there are >700 custom dialogs in the game!
@CurtSibling 7 currently. But the number of civs per se isn't a limitation. Like I mentioned in one of previous posts in the game loop I'm doing a foreach through all the civs, no matter how many there are. What would have to be done though is to decouple civs from certain rules, colors and such where everything is currently tied to number 7 (8 with barbs) in the game's .txt and .gif files. But I don't see that as a huge problem.

 

[Rui_TNV]

Not atm.

Any prediction when or if it will ever be available on android?

 

[axx]

It's running on etoforms gui framework. The android platform is in development (scroll to the bottom of page).

 

[CurtSibling]

7 currently. But the number of civs per se isn't a limitation. Like I mentioned in one of previous posts in the game loop I'm doing a foreach through all the civs, no matter how many there are. What would have to be done though is to decouple civs from certain rules, colors and such where everything is currently tied to number 7 (8 with barbs) in the game's .txt and .gif files. But I don't see that as a huge problem.

Very good to hear. Any new Civ2 clone should definitely aim at over-coming the traditional limitations of the old game.

That one breakthrough will get many people on board if the game plays as elegantly as Civ2.

 

[Blake00]

Yeah exceeding the 7 civ limit is my no 1 dream. That's cool you've got a guy helping with ToT support too as it's the big multi-world ToT scenarios where you feel that 7 Civ limit the most. The official scifi and fantasy scenarios would be so cool with more Civs going at it across the worlds.

 

[Rui_TNV]

Yeah exceeding the 7 civ limit is my no 1 dream. That's cool you've got a guy helping with ToT support too as it's the big multi-world ToT scenarios where you feel that 7 Civ limit the most. The official scifi and fantasy scenarios would be so cool with more Civs going at it across the worlds.

Wow I dream of a huge map with all the civs possible and 4 maps with each of the alien civs in each one and the human civs in the other...

 

[LuKo]

I wonder what would be the performance because I know that cIV was lagging pretty hard with all civs...

BTW: how is the AI handled? The original logic is available?

 

[axx]

Right now only the unit AI is implemented by randomly moving enemy units. It would be great to have original logic, or at least parts of it. Otherwise we'll have to improvise. Some projects like OpenApoc are left unfinished because the AI is unknown or not properly implemented.

 

[CurtSibling]

Civ2 could handle smooth with 14 civs or more, no problem. Later civ games lag due to lots of 3D animation and probably lazy programming by bored devs.

Win10's dodgy running of older programs is another matter altogether. I suppose that is the reason some people stick with old potato PCs.

 

[axx]

Quick update, reubene on github has implemented that missing 8th civ which has a flag in cities.gif but is somehow missing from the game. Also choosing New game in the main menu is now working!

 

[CurtSibling]

Yes! That is a very exciting pair of screenies...Great achievement, Axx!

 

[axx]

Lots of updates by reubene, he is bringing the project to a whole new level. I've been busy with all other life things but perhaps for the better as he just has to refractor my mess afterwards. I'm more of a nuisance at this level and would rather be an outside contributor (plain and simple I lack skillz) so if there are any programmers experienced with github who are willing to take charge (reubene included if he's reading this) ...

 

[Blake00]

Wow.. I missed those screenshots. Very cool!