Old Latest Version Thread

[ruff_hi]

@Ruff - When do you think you'll be at a release state with the new MA?

I have two items outstanding ... 1) threat index and 2) strategic units on the main screen. Both will take a bit of work as there are multiple steps involved. However, I am pretty sure where I need to lift the code from. I also need to make sure that the scrolling arrows work (they don't at the moment but I haven't looked at it - pretty sure I haven't put the code in.

I also want to free up the main sort criteria (currently unit combat type) so that the user can select what it is.

Finally, I want to get a copy of the glance screen on the MA - I'm hoping that I can just ask the current glance screen to do its stuff.

So - all in all, about another 2 months of work I should guess. Ok, a serious guess - 2 or so weeks.

 

[·Imhotep·]

Hi guys,

I have a question concerning TortoiseSVN - if I export the latest revision to my CustomAssets folder, does the export command make all changes the revision went through (i.e. delete files etc.) ? Or has that to be done manually ?

Imhotep

 

[The Doc]

You mean: delete the superfluous files that are in your CustomAssets folder? I guess, no. But they are no longer in use, so they shouldn't do any harm.

 

[ruff_hi]

@imhotep - can you do the export to a copy of your customassets and let us know what happened?

 

[EmperorFool]

I haven't verified this, but my expectation is that no, it will not delete files that were deleted from SVN. I think export simply means "copy all files in this tree, minus the .svn directories". In other words, it doesn't look at the history of the SVN to make the copy, it merely looks at the files on your hard drive at that moment.

But they are no longer in use, so they shouldn't do any harm.

Unfortunately, this isn't quite true. In the case of new XML files, it is true, since the Python code won't reference any of the deleted keys. For replaced XML files and Python files, however, Civ4's engine loads all files automatically. So any overwritten XML keys will remain overwritten, and any new Python may interfere with the other Python code.

If you want to live dangerously, you could always do the TortoiseSVN checkout directly into your CustomAssets folder and then do the update there as well; no export is necessary. I used to do it this way until I started using Eclipse. In my case, however, BUG was the only mod in the folder, so there was no chance of a clash.

If you try the export out and find differently, please let us know.

 

[·Imhotep·]

Thanks for the replys. As soon as we have deleted files again in the SVN I'll report...

 

[EmperorFool]

I think CvPath.py and RuffModControl.py were the last files I deleted, and I moved RuffEcho.py at the same time. Before that I killed one or two XML files. It should be pretty rare, though.

 

[Anthrax]

ahhh thanx for the reminders...... i'm always forgetting to delete the files.

 

[alerum68]

I think I'll make a patch for the next release so we can resolve these issues of deleted files. It will do this for us automatically.

 

[kazapp]

Hi, is it possible to not use a specific mod in the BUG download?

Say I have tested the Sevopedia previously and don't feel it's essential. Can I use the rest of BUG anyway?

(Without having to install those other mods individually, that is. Or, heavens forbid, have to extract the sevopedia-specific information from common xml files)

Thx

 

[The Doc]

Ever looked into the options screen of BUG? There you can switch off all parts of BUG that you don't want, like, in your case, the sevopedia (look for it at the advisors tab).

 

[EmperorFool]

The BUG Mod is completely configurable. Every mod we've added has an option to disable it. If you find one that doesn't, please let us know!

Note that in two cases, Sevopedia and Customizable Domestic Advisor, you must restart the game for the change in option to take effect. This is merely a result of the way that Civ4 is coded.

@Doc - It sounds like kazapp hasn't downloaded it yet, probably waiting to get his/her question answered first.

 

[kazapp]

Thanks, exactly the answer I hoped for!

 

[Balderstrom]

Alright, I still haven't found anything useful to create an archive (.zip, .rar, .7z, etc) that will let me install into another directory. To prevent issues with installation questions, (And I'm sure we will get them) I am going to change the reference to the .zip file as source code only, and will offer no more install help then a few basic lines on the download page. The Mod is just starting to sprawl all over the place, and the installer I have gives us alot more options on how and where to install it.

Well with WinRAR you would create a SFX (solid) archive;
[Advanced] Tab & [SFX Options] Button:
[General] Tab
1) Path to Extract: %PROGRAMFILES%\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods\ (or whatever the path should default to)
[Text & Icon] Tab
2) Title of SFX Window: Civ4 BTS Unaltered Gameplay
3) Text to Display: Please change the directory to the Mods folder, where Civ is installed, if you chose a different install dir.

You could also just have winRAR execute a .cmd batch script, within the script could use something like one of NIR Sofer's tools to query info from the registry to find the proper install directory of civ. then the script just copies/moves the files there.
WinRAR could just initially extract to a temp dir.

If yer interested in the latter, that I can whip up pretty easily. The former is fairly easy for you to do - just not idiot proof ;-)


I don't care for 7z myself, it makes somewhat smaller files at the expense of all the extra things that winRAR has fine tuned over the years. And zip doesn't come close to the compression of either 7z or rar.


BTW Kudos on getting BAT out the door, I had been waiting on that one Took a break from CIV for a while there, will have to give this stuff another run and take a look at that file that makes the advisor screen adjust to screen width...mine worked just wasn't quite perfect.

 

[alerum68]

Hey balderstrom!

Glad to see your back. I thought using an SFX would create a .exe archive instead of a standard one. If it will make a standard archive, PLEASE tell me how.

 

[Balderstrom]

It does make an exe...but for any of the tech-literate you can right click on a rar exe and just extract it however you like, or just double-click it to let it run.

The latter is an option as well if yer adverse to the .exe, just have an INSTALL.CMD script - which is easy enough to do. Would need to bundle reg.exe (48Kb) among the files (not everyone has that installed). Reg.exe can query the registry for the installed directory of CIV.

Would need to query 2 separate locations, since I believe the game can be installed for USER or ALL
but just as a quickie test, we have

reg query "HKLM\Software\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4" /v INSTALLDIR > civ4.test

Which produces a file "civ4.test" that contains:

! REG.EXE VERSION 2.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4
    INSTALLDIR	REG_SZ	D:\Games_2008\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4

we can loop thru that file easily with INSTALL.cmd

FOR /F "tokens=1-3" %%F IN (civ4.test) DO (
   IF "%%F" == "INSTALLDIR" (
      SET COPYTO=%%H
   )
)

Which sets the variable COPYTO to the 3rd argument, Where the game is installed. And proceed from there. ...


And for the tech-literate they can just copy the files to the proper place themself.

 

[alerum68]

Seems like a lot of work, without much gain. I think we'll just have the .rar copy everything to the BTS folder, including the "BUG Mod" directory. The new code EF put in allows it. BTW - We still haven't decided on the prefered location for that new directory anyway. Should it go under My Games or under the BTS documents folder?

 

[EmperorFool]

The code currently looks in "My Games\BUG Mod" first. It does not look in "Beyond the Sword\BUG Mod" to clarify, as that's what I thought you meant by

Copy everything to the BTS folder, including the "BUG Mod" directory.

Rather, it looks in "Beyond the Sword" for the INI and other config files directly -- no intervening "BUG Mod" directory. I could easily change that, however.

C:\Documents and Settings\
  <user>\
    My Documents\
      My Games\
        BUG Mod\
          (config 1)
        Beyond the Sword\
          (config 3)
          CustomAssets\
            (source)
          Mods\
            BUG Mod\
              (config 2)
              Assets\
                (source)
C:\Games\
  Civ4\
    Beyond the Sword\
      (config 5)
      Mods\
        BUG Mod\
          (config 4)
          Assets\
            (source)

Config 1-5 are the order in which the code looks for the files. Am I correct that you are proposing 3 and 5 to be pushed down into a new "BUG Mod" directory just like the one in "My Games"?

The Source directories are simply the three places the mod can be installed and work. I don't know if all three options are available with the current installer.

 

[Balderstrom]

Is that where it actually looks?
In windows 2000 at least the "default" structure is
Documents & Settings\<USER>\My Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword
perhaps you misposted, you left out "My Documents"
And hopefully yer using %USERPROFILE% ...
My data is kept in
C:\Users\<user>\My Documents\My Games

I wonder, is it possible to query the ini file location, you mentioined Python has access to where the exe is run from. Does it also know where civ's CivilizationIV.ini that has been loaded is? If you know that you know exactly where to look.

If not, optimumX.com has a freeware app "shortcut.exe" (56Kb) similiar to the windowsXP resource kit tool,

shortcut /a:q /f:_Civ4CustomAssets.lnk

outputs:

[_Civ4CustomAssets.lnk]
TargetPath=C:\Users\Crash\My Documents\My Games\Warlords\CustomAssets
TargetPathExpanded=C:\Users\Crash\My Documents\My Games\Warlords\CustomAss
ets
Arguments=
ArgumentsExpanded=
WorkingDirectory=
WorkingDirectoryExpanded=
RunStyle=1
IconLocation=,0
IconLocationExpanded=,0
HotKey=0 (None)
Description=Shortcut to _Civ4CustomAssets

The command completed successfully.

I do believe everytime the game is run, it updates those shortcuts in the programs directory - especially useful if you launched the game via a shortcut that specified a different .ini

 

[EmperorFool]

Oops, yes I missed "My Documents" in that tree (fixed), and the code uses the registry to locate the current user's My Documents folder. It uses the executable path to determine the "Beyond the Sword" folder name.

AFAIK, Civ4 doesn't add any helper functions to get the location of the current .ini file. That would be sweet.