Meet the Modders

[ronning]

Adrain, what you have posted here in such a short time about Barbarian cities is, as far as I can understand it, great ! Quintillus and WildWeazel are programmers, that can understand this much better and I really hope your findings can help them. I think a good place for posting these findings would be in the thread about Barbarian cities, as Quintillus and WildWeazel have posted here, too.

You are completely right about the unusual graphics of Barbarian cities. The first two cities hold an era 4 city graphic and the next cities hold advisor graphics of the Mayan leader Smoke-Jaguar in angry mood. This was shown by two independant screenshots (one done by me).

Spoiler :

These 'unusual' city graphics wouldn´t be a big problem for maps and scenarios, as these graphics could be set to transparency and resources showing different city graphics could be placed in the tiles of the cities in fixed maps.

Okay Civinator, I need to soak this graphics on the map angle in, but my mind is already turning. A fresh idea.

 

[Adrain]

Let me know if I can help.

Happy to share anything I have or know.

 

[ronning]

Another summers over in SoCal. That’s 49 summers. Arriving at 50 this February is a little scary, I’ll admit it.

 

[Adrain]

Looks like you're not dead yet. That's always a plus ;-)

I get to sixty six months later. Good to be born in a year with a zero at the end; calculating age is so much simpler; every year makes that more & more important :-D

BTW You look pretty good for <Fifty - even if only marginally less.

PS. If I didn't mention it earlier - fifty is actually very similar to forty-nine. Albeit with less connection to San Francisco. The numerical system is only how we think of it, so no biggie really.

All the best -Ade.

 

[Vuldacon]

Well, "is the Glass half empty or half full"? It is not a matter of Pessimism or Optimism... we have to ask ourselves do we have the ability to fill the glass again when it is empty. So the answer to that question is what states the position of those who answer it.
For example, with age you are considered Venerable in Japan for your knowledge and wisdom gained through many years alive. The older you are, the more you are respected and honored.
The stigma of age is a learned belief that in reality has no bearing other than the learned belief itself.

Personally, I Love Birthdays as they are meant to celebrate the Life of individuals including ourselves.

ronning...50th Birthday coming...Great! PARTY TIME ... Celebrate the Wonder of your Life and when the glass is empty, fill it again

by the way, although it is not my Birthday, I am 799 months old this month. I still like everything I ever did and the only difference is it takes a little longer to fill my glass again... but I do fill it.

 

[Civinator]

 

[Adrain]

Nice comments Vuldacon - and I love that your age in months is nice and easy to convert into years at this point ;-)

 

[chickenx4]

So today I’m sick I just woke up like a bit ill

 

[Adrain]

I have a question that I've been struggling with, off & on, for years :
How are dates stored in Civ III Conquests?

I suspect it's the same across all variants but Conquests is what I'm mainly interested in. Dates are strange entities as they don't even correlate to game turns. Are the dates actually stored as game turns which then get converted internally based on which turns last for multiple years? Are they stored as simple signed numbers (From -4,000 up to whatever - 2,000 or similar using the basic span)?

I've struggled and failed to find anything I can interpret as a date in the data I've looked at. Actually, neither a date nor a game turn.

I've also considered durations. City populations consist of workers who will convert to your civilisation once they've been under your rule longer than under the rule of any other civilisation they've ever been under. I imagine some sort of array of duration values associated with that particular CTZN entry after the CITY entries for their city. Nothing I've found looks like it may be a duration though. Again, is a duration measured in years or game turns? Is it stored as it's used or converted?

If anyone has any light to throw on this I'd be grateful. I'm so curious about this as it's eluded me (again, off & on.) for a number of years.

 

[Takhisis]

Off the top of my head (from a Civless computer and about to run off for a bite) there's a tab in the editor settings where you can set how many years the first x turns means, and so on.

Also, IIRC Steph made a special editor from scratch to have longer games.

 

[Civinator]

I cannot tell you about the code, but when looking into the standard C3C editor, I think it could be stored as 'base units of time'.In a drop down menue of the scenario properties, the modder can choose, what base unit of time he wants (years, months or weeks) and can adjust in the editor how many 'base units of time' a turn should have.

 

[Takhisis]

^Yes, that's the editor screen I meant.

 

[Adrain]

Hi guys.

Thanks for the very prompt responses.

What I'm really after though, is how dates and durations are stored within the game, or even the save file. It must hold that info somehow. As explained in my earlier post the Citizens within a city must (surely) have an array of durations for each civilisation they've been under. I'm interested in understanding how that works and where such data is stored. If I understand how it's stored I can find out where it is more easily.

My interest is less about changing the time parameters, which, as you say, I can do to a certain extent through the editor, and more about understanding how it uses and saves such information. I have a Save Game editor that I'm continuing to work on but I can't manage to get to anything that's date- or duration-based.

Does that make the question (and my interest) clearer?

PS. @Civinator.
Your response deals with the various options and determining how many years (units) each turn takes but not how durations are stored internally. For a fifty year gap after the start of the default game does it store 50? Does it store 1? For 4000 BC does it store -4,000 or 0? I must admit I've looked at the data and not been able to see anything that fits in any of the possible format's I've guessed they may store it in. If I had access to where the data you display is stored, and I expect I could probably find that if I looked hard enough, I could easily create a function procedure to convert turns from a specified date into years elapsed - or even vice versa. I just can't find where any dates or durations are held and none of the stuff I've seen documented anywhere talks about dates/durations at all.

 

[Civinator]

What I'm really after though, is how dates and durations are stored within the game, or even the save file.

I feared, that it will go in this direction, but here I cannot help you.

 

[Adrain]

I cannot tell you about the code, but when looking into the standard C3C editor, I think it could be stored as 'base units of time'.

Perhaps I should have read this more carefully. You're suggesting, based on the standard unit of years as displayed in your picture, that the durations would be stored in "Base Units of Time", or years. That would make sense, but my searches based on that hypothesis have yielded no results as yet. That could simply be that I've missed what's in front of me but I have looked long and hard.

Again, thank you both for your very prompt responses.

If you, or anyone really, become aware of anything more on this subject please assume I will still be interested. Even if (God forbid) I ever lose interest in playing Civ III C myself, this is a conundrum I'll never die happy without getting to the bottom of. I sometimes suspect I get more fun out of the modding side than from the game itself. That can't be right surely ;-)

 

[Adrain]

I feared, that it will go in this direction, but here I cannot help you.

Possibly true, yet the attempt is always appreciated

 

[Takhisis]

Even if (God forbid) I ever lose interest in playing Civ III C myself, this is a conundrum I'll never die happy without getting to the bottom of. I sometimes suspect I get more fun out of the modding side than from the game itself. That can't be right surely ;-)

C'mon, it's like giving a child a toy in a box. The toy might break or be given away or lost, but the box is always the best part.

 

[Adrain]

but the box is always the best part.

Can't argue with that one!

On a side note - I just noticed your post count (Currently at 43,645). I'm NeoPa on Bytes.com (I hope it's alright to link as the other site is not similar to this so no intention of leeching.) and I thought my count there was decent. You've been really busy. Nice

 

[Takhisis]

Yyyyes. Thanks? It's slightly shame-worthy that most of those posts have been made outside the Civ3 area. The Colosseum, with its forum games, pop culture discussions and political circular firing squads, tends to increase one's postcount. Oh, and discussing football, of course.

 

[Adrain]

Very interesting. Not that I would discount such posts too readily myself. I understand very well how any sort of activity can keep people interested and involved.

Otherwise the football reference is interesting. I'm a big Spurs fan myself - but that's football as I know it (Tottenham Hotspur based in London). As you're officially based in "Up yours!" it's not so easy to guess which discipline you're referring to :-D It could even be Aussie Rules for all we know.

Now I read your comment more closely, I think I may become a supporter of your circular firing squads for politicians idea ;-)