Tommy Vercetti
The Don
Working on my scenario, trying to fix a problem with pediaicons not showing correctly
Meet the Modders
- Thread starter RedAlert
- Start date
Yes, Vuldacon… but the US hardly has a monopoly on running itself into the ground.
You can ask for help in this here CFC.
Tommy Vercetti
The Don
Yes, Vuldacon… but the US hardly has a monopoly on running itself into the ground.
You can ask for help in this here CFC.
I did in the q and a thread
Probably a Palette Problem. Do All PediaIcons show a problem or just some of them?
Upload them and I will take a look at them.
WildWeazel
Going Dutch
oof, we almost slipped off the first page
How's everyone doing? Still surviving? I've been working from home since last March, and am trying to figure out an arrangement to move out of town and work remotely full time.
How's everyone doing? Still surviving? I've been working from home since last March, and am trying to figure out an arrangement to move out of town and work remotely full time.
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2007
- Messages
- 9,311
I'm still alive. 2020 was a challenging year, primarily from a mental-health standpoint due to insufficient interaction with other humans. I've also been working from home since Friday the 13th of March, and am chomping at the bit to return to an office. Thankfully (maybe that's not quite the right word?) I have a friend who caught the virus early, so we've been able to hang out without risk of aiding transmission. Thankfully (really the right word), everyone I know who has caught the virus has survived.
I plan to take a leave of absence in late 2021 or 2022 in order to recover, have plenty of time to catch up with friends, and travel. Although before that, I think a couple months of working with other people in the office full-time would be good for me. Work itself wasn't a significant stressor in 2020 (despite being significantly less productive than previous years; apparently that was not noticeable remotely), but time off was much less rejuvenating without events to attend with friends or somewhere new to explore.
On the plus side, I did join a bowling league in (pre-pandemic) 2020, which was a fun way to spend weeknight evenings. I'll likely re-join one once vaccine distribution gets sorted.
It looks like I haven't given an update on exciting life events in a few years either. I'll dig up a couple pictures of places I visited in a later post, but why not wrap up this 2020-focused post by noting that the only new location I traveled to in 2020 was the great tourist city of Toledo... Ohio, not Spain. Which means it isn't really a tourist city, but it made for a good weekend trip to visit a friend who was also suffering from isolation and was extremely low-risk for transmission. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Toledo, Ohio actually has a very good art museum, and after driving past Toledo dozens of times, am glad to have finally spent some time there. Maybe this year I'll go back and see a Toledo Mud Hens baseball game. They still have one of my favorite sports franchise names of all time.
I plan to take a leave of absence in late 2021 or 2022 in order to recover, have plenty of time to catch up with friends, and travel. Although before that, I think a couple months of working with other people in the office full-time would be good for me. Work itself wasn't a significant stressor in 2020 (despite being significantly less productive than previous years; apparently that was not noticeable remotely), but time off was much less rejuvenating without events to attend with friends or somewhere new to explore.
On the plus side, I did join a bowling league in (pre-pandemic) 2020, which was a fun way to spend weeknight evenings. I'll likely re-join one once vaccine distribution gets sorted.
It looks like I haven't given an update on exciting life events in a few years either. I'll dig up a couple pictures of places I visited in a later post, but why not wrap up this 2020-focused post by noting that the only new location I traveled to in 2020 was the great tourist city of Toledo... Ohio, not Spain. Which means it isn't really a tourist city, but it made for a good weekend trip to visit a friend who was also suffering from isolation and was extremely low-risk for transmission. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Toledo, Ohio actually has a very good art museum, and after driving past Toledo dozens of times, am glad to have finally spent some time there. Maybe this year I'll go back and see a Toledo Mud Hens baseball game. They still have one of my favorite sports franchise names of all time.
Puppeteer
Emperor
I haven't been in this thread before I think. I've considered myself more of an occasional transient coder than a modder.
I retired in October 2019 at age 49.5, partially so I could say I "retired in my 40s". I'm a bit lean on assets and a bit heavy on spending, so I'm likely to need to get income at some point, so maybe I'm semi-retired, but after leaving I decided I'm allowed to call myself retired because I'm in control of when, where, and how I work, if at all. On the other hand, if the market keeps going on like this a few more years I'll be good, anyway.
I sold my house 3 months ago and am now living a nomadic life in short-term rentals in the US Rockies. While still managing to stay socially distanced about as well as I did in my house, although I recognize that going full-time traveler may not be the best look mid-pandemic. But really I'm still just sitting alone indoors all the time; I'm just doing it in a different place every month or three, with keycode contactless checkins.
My Civ III efforts are a bit all over the place as I'm motivated by applying the techs I've used or want to use and figuring out data and how things work with the game. And my techs of interest have generally not been the best match for programming accessories to Civ III, but it is fun for me. I did just start playing with C# in earnest, and that language makes a lot more sense for any Civ III accessories, and other programmers at least have an interest in it if not a familiarity. And there are actually UI frameworks available for it where most of my other tech interests are limited to console and web interfaces.
Quintillus, my sister was working remotely and moved out of state from her employer with her manager's understanding, but then HR and/or accounting freaked out because they don't have a tax presence in her new state which levies an income tax. Oops. So she had to choose between not moving, quitting, or becoming a contractor. She did the latter but is now having to jump through hoops for family health insurance. Just something to be aware of.
Me, I've gone nomadic, and it turns out that things can get tricky if you don't have a permanent physical address, but there are options that RVers and "Van Lifer"s talk about a lot.
I retired in October 2019 at age 49.5, partially so I could say I "retired in my 40s". I'm a bit lean on assets and a bit heavy on spending, so I'm likely to need to get income at some point, so maybe I'm semi-retired, but after leaving I decided I'm allowed to call myself retired because I'm in control of when, where, and how I work, if at all. On the other hand, if the market keeps going on like this a few more years I'll be good, anyway.
I sold my house 3 months ago and am now living a nomadic life in short-term rentals in the US Rockies. While still managing to stay socially distanced about as well as I did in my house, although I recognize that going full-time traveler may not be the best look mid-pandemic. But really I'm still just sitting alone indoors all the time; I'm just doing it in a different place every month or three, with keycode contactless checkins.
My Civ III efforts are a bit all over the place as I'm motivated by applying the techs I've used or want to use and figuring out data and how things work with the game. And my techs of interest have generally not been the best match for programming accessories to Civ III, but it is fun for me. I did just start playing with C# in earnest, and that language makes a lot more sense for any Civ III accessories, and other programmers at least have an interest in it if not a familiarity. And there are actually UI frameworks available for it where most of my other tech interests are limited to console and web interfaces.
Quintillus, my sister was working remotely and moved out of state from her employer with her manager's understanding, but then HR and/or accounting freaked out because they don't have a tax presence in her new state which levies an income tax. Oops. So she had to choose between not moving, quitting, or becoming a contractor. She did the latter but is now having to jump through hoops for family health insurance. Just something to be aware of.
Me, I've gone nomadic, and it turns out that things can get tricky if you don't have a permanent physical address, but there are options that RVers and "Van Lifer"s talk about a lot.
I have a request :
I've heard tell of one or more of the modders here who edit stuff within the RAM of CivIII itself as and when it's running. I've always made my amendments by tweaking the Saved Game files (An advantage of which being that if I b*lls-up then the file load fails and I know to discard those changes.) but it occurred to me that the idea of tweaking within the RAM of the program itself is actually quite an exciting idea.
Thus, I wonder if anyone could point me to where the software is to allow this, and perhaps a few starter tips on how to do things safely and not cr*p all over my system.
An added bonus would be that others may well, like me, find the idea exciting and learn something interesting.
In other news :
@Puppeteer.
I watched your Install CivIII video but it didn't include how to patch so as to ensure you don't need a computer with attached CD/DVD/BluRay drive in order to validate the installation. I've done that on my PC now but having a video that explains that would be a bonus. Do you have a link to one?
I should add that I found the first video to be easy watching. Quality vid, all information clear and all text readable. Nice!
I've heard tell of one or more of the modders here who edit stuff within the RAM of CivIII itself as and when it's running. I've always made my amendments by tweaking the Saved Game files (An advantage of which being that if I b*lls-up then the file load fails and I know to discard those changes.) but it occurred to me that the idea of tweaking within the RAM of the program itself is actually quite an exciting idea.
Thus, I wonder if anyone could point me to where the software is to allow this, and perhaps a few starter tips on how to do things safely and not cr*p all over my system.
An added bonus would be that others may well, like me, find the idea exciting and learn something interesting.
In other news :
@Puppeteer.
I watched your Install CivIII video but it didn't include how to patch so as to ensure you don't need a computer with attached CD/DVD/BluRay drive in order to validate the installation. I've done that on my PC now but having a video that explains that would be a bonus. Do you have a link to one?
I should add that I found the first video to be easy watching. Quality vid, all information clear and all text readable. Nice!
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2007
- Messages
- 9,311
I have done some very preliminary explorations of that area, and hopefully that program is still somewhere on my hard drive, although I can't remember where I had it and my last search for it a couple weeks ago was unsuccessful. It used the Windows Debugging Functions API, notably the WriteProcessMemory function. That allows you to write data to memory locations of a running process, provided you've used the other appropriate debugging APIs to gain access to it. I've used it while logged in to an admin account (which may be important; not sure) on XP and 8.1.
The nice thing about modern versions of Windows is that they also have memory protection, so as long as you make sure you open the write process - Civ 3 - the only thing you can mess up is Civ 3. Though it's very possible to mess up and crash it.
Edit: Found it, and uploaded it here. The code quality is lower than I remembered and it doesn't do much yet, but it can provide a starting point.
This is probably the topic for its own thread, however, as this thread is really more for casual discussion of things not really related to C&C. Kind of like the water cooler in the office, getting to know the local denizens a bit beyond their immediate creative output.
On that topic, the second half of January has been an improvement over the first half for me. Not having food poisoning like I did the first few days of the year definitely helps, but I also feel less stressed when the question in the morning is what direction GameStop's stock will go that day, not whether democracy remains intact. The light at the end of the tunnel with regards to vaccination is also brightening the mood; my state recently passed 30% of its 80+ population having received their first dose, which bodes well for the health care system, and though it's hard not to be impatient with the pace of the rollout, it's showing progress a month in.
The nice thing about modern versions of Windows is that they also have memory protection, so as long as you make sure you open the write process - Civ 3 - the only thing you can mess up is Civ 3. Though it's very possible to mess up and crash it.
Edit: Found it, and uploaded it here. The code quality is lower than I remembered and it doesn't do much yet, but it can provide a starting point.
This is probably the topic for its own thread, however, as this thread is really more for casual discussion of things not really related to C&C. Kind of like the water cooler in the office, getting to know the local denizens a bit beyond their immediate creative output.
On that topic, the second half of January has been an improvement over the first half for me. Not having food poisoning like I did the first few days of the year definitely helps, but I also feel less stressed when the question in the morning is what direction GameStop's stock will go that day, not whether democracy remains intact. The light at the end of the tunnel with regards to vaccination is also brightening the mood; my state recently passed 30% of its 80+ population having received their first dose, which bodes well for the health care system, and though it's hard not to be impatient with the pace of the rollout, it's showing progress a month in.
Last edited:
Puppeteer
Emperor
Thanks! I did make a sort of updated video a few months ago, and at 5:22 I show and talk about an apparently legit & legal no-cd patch from a German magazine site. I don't demonstrate its install, but you download a zip file (try to avoid the spammy fake download buttons) and there are no-cd executables for vanilla and Conquests, but not PTW, although others say it used to be there or is there now. The rest of the video basically says "the CDs don't work anymore because copy protection, so get it cheap on Steam or GoG."
Quite right. My apologies.
Excuse my confusion. I was looking for an execuatable file in case I didn't make that clear. I don't have a setup for compiling code. My work is all in VBA within the context of Microsoft Office (Access / Excel / Word / Etc) which has its own development context exclusively for the VBA language. Would I find an executable if I dug further from your link? I looked quite carefully but found none.
NB. Please don't reply in here. I've created a new thread for the issue (Hopefully in the correct place).
Thanks. Good stuff.
chickenx4
Prince
Been playin Eve online, I’ve known it past my birthday but I’m now 18, plan to return to civ 3 soon also got civ Vi for Christmas on the Xbox one
Something I wrote (flash fiction)
The Man of the Stairway
I know of a man who is always on the move, in stairways, going up or down. They are all kinds of stairways, public and private, outdoors and indoors, they range from steep to easy to climb and while some consist only of a few short steps, others allow long hikes to the loftiest parts of town. Furthermore, he has already moved in those stairways multiple times, and by now can rarely find a new one – even when he does, his interest isn’t always piqued; in fact he seems to prefer a few he already used extensively, and this has been going on since he was very young.
It is true that others would find all this quite pointless, and also strange, had they known about it. As things stand very few people are aware of his preoccupation with stairways, since obviously you can’t just assume anything by watching some passer-by: aren’t you yourself, at the moment, similarly predisposed to watch your steps and cautiously taking into account every feature of the passageway? That said, if his obsession somehow became public knowledge, it’d make carrying on going up and down the public or private stairways more difficult, so he’d never admit anything about it.
Besides, he sees nothing wrong in his attitude. It may seem dull but there were even times he actually felt a spark of joy; once, upon nearing the top of a particularly rugged stairway and being unexpectedly greeted by the full moon above the desolate lofty outskirt – up to then he had to focus on the dirty and treacherous stairs – he couldn’t help but smile! Yet mostly he’s about as tired as you’d expect someone to be after climbing so many steps, and his expression, more often than not, is a heavy frown.
Still, you wouldn’t get him to see an error in his ways, even if you alluded to the pointlessness of continuously moving in stairways – this is because he’s not at all of the opinion that a breakthrough of sorts is impossible for him. He imagines that somewhere, past the final rung of a possibly remarkably steep – or perhaps, if deception is involved, conspicuously not steep – stairway, he’d immediately arrive at the place he longed to be all his life, where he could feel free, and there would not be able to resist any offer by the merry people of the location, the very next moment he’d be taken to some house, find himself behind a closed door, settle on a perfectly flat floor, lie on a bed and speak, laugh, smile, get together and be in peace.
Perhaps everyone is looking for such a room. Perhaps this is the type of room which exists – in some variation or other – for everyone. This still might not allow for it to be found specifically at the end of a stairway.
But it’s not certain – and because it’s not certain, he carries on.
The Man of the Stairway
I know of a man who is always on the move, in stairways, going up or down. They are all kinds of stairways, public and private, outdoors and indoors, they range from steep to easy to climb and while some consist only of a few short steps, others allow long hikes to the loftiest parts of town. Furthermore, he has already moved in those stairways multiple times, and by now can rarely find a new one – even when he does, his interest isn’t always piqued; in fact he seems to prefer a few he already used extensively, and this has been going on since he was very young.
It is true that others would find all this quite pointless, and also strange, had they known about it. As things stand very few people are aware of his preoccupation with stairways, since obviously you can’t just assume anything by watching some passer-by: aren’t you yourself, at the moment, similarly predisposed to watch your steps and cautiously taking into account every feature of the passageway? That said, if his obsession somehow became public knowledge, it’d make carrying on going up and down the public or private stairways more difficult, so he’d never admit anything about it.
Besides, he sees nothing wrong in his attitude. It may seem dull but there were even times he actually felt a spark of joy; once, upon nearing the top of a particularly rugged stairway and being unexpectedly greeted by the full moon above the desolate lofty outskirt – up to then he had to focus on the dirty and treacherous stairs – he couldn’t help but smile! Yet mostly he’s about as tired as you’d expect someone to be after climbing so many steps, and his expression, more often than not, is a heavy frown.
Still, you wouldn’t get him to see an error in his ways, even if you alluded to the pointlessness of continuously moving in stairways – this is because he’s not at all of the opinion that a breakthrough of sorts is impossible for him. He imagines that somewhere, past the final rung of a possibly remarkably steep – or perhaps, if deception is involved, conspicuously not steep – stairway, he’d immediately arrive at the place he longed to be all his life, where he could feel free, and there would not be able to resist any offer by the merry people of the location, the very next moment he’d be taken to some house, find himself behind a closed door, settle on a perfectly flat floor, lie on a bed and speak, laugh, smile, get together and be in peace.
Perhaps everyone is looking for such a room. Perhaps this is the type of room which exists – in some variation or other – for everyone. This still might not allow for it to be found specifically at the end of a stairway.
But it’s not certain – and because it’s not certain, he carries on.
Ares de Borg
Norman Knight
Just noticed I've been on this forum for 16,5 years now. Wow. A few of you might have noticed that I've been more active during the last weeks, and not much around before (Ozzy even started a search for me, thanks old friend!). Thing is, real life has been very busy due to several reasons. Most important one is that my wife got very sick after the birth of our son, and I had to help her a lot around the house. The house we inherited from my father in law was, and still partly is, in need of massive restauration. We've come a long way with it, and it's been a lot of work. Due to the pandemic, my work life was completely turned over as well. As a journalist, working on a 7-day-schedule was almost obligatory, and there wasn't much time for anything else except some sound work for my good friend Delta Strife. Now things have become much better, I got Steph's editor working again, and started a new epic game with a friend of mine. This has greatly renewed my strive to improve my personal, never-to-be-finished mod. Good to see some of you guys are still around.
WildWeazel
Going Dutch
A realization the other day:
Blue Monkey
Archon Without Portfolio
I just realized i haven't posted in this thread in quite a while. I only get an actual face to face conversation about once every 2 to 3 months when my brother comes from the other side of the mountains. Shorthand way to say where my head's at is that a lot of times I feel like Tom Hanks except I don't have a volleyball.
I do have the occasional long phone conversation. Which pretty much consists of my weekly therapist appointment that's been by phone for obvious reasons. Phone with a couple of local friends, less often. Ozy & I have been keeping in touch by phone as well.
The saving grace as far as social interactions goes is my anthropology fieldwork. Daily sessions in the virtual world of World of Warcraft (along with discord discussions with the community of players I'm part of). Highlight of most weeks is the teahouse one of my character has been running for a little over 3 years. Several years ago my family had discussed opening a restaurant, but couldn't find the right venue. Probably just as well given the current world situation. So creating a virtual haven that includes some unique recipes is the closest I'll get to that. A good solid 4 hours of socializing keeps me sane, even if we're wearing avatars instead of masks.
My character is lower right - apron, frying pan & vegetable knife.
I do have the occasional long phone conversation. Which pretty much consists of my weekly therapist appointment that's been by phone for obvious reasons. Phone with a couple of local friends, less often. Ozy & I have been keeping in touch by phone as well.
The saving grace as far as social interactions goes is my anthropology fieldwork. Daily sessions in the virtual world of World of Warcraft (along with discord discussions with the community of players I'm part of). Highlight of most weeks is the teahouse one of my character has been running for a little over 3 years. Several years ago my family had discussed opening a restaurant, but couldn't find the right venue. Probably just as well given the current world situation. So creating a virtual haven that includes some unique recipes is the closest I'll get to that. A good solid 4 hours of socializing keeps me sane, even if we're wearing avatars instead of masks.
My character is lower right - apron, frying pan & vegetable knife.
- Joined
- May 5, 2005
- Messages
- 10,118
Blue Monkey
Archon Without Portfolio
I had to look that up. DefinitelyI have a volleyball.
for the benefit of those who haven't seen the film "Cast Away": Tom Hanks is stranded on an island. His only company is a volleyball he talks to. He names it Wilson after the brand name.
timerover51
Deity
I'll Bite. Does the volleyball talk back to him?
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