Options Menu

[The Great Apple]

Yes, we can't replace options that are already there. Some people might want to use them.

I think the best method might be to have a popup launched when the game starts with all the options that must be kept consistant throughout the game contained in it. The options would also be available in the CCP optoins screen off the main menu. Once you have started the game the CCP options screen will then have these options greyed out.

Also:

What is the difference between CvPlayerOptionInfo, and your implementation? It seems to me that both can be changed during runtime. The only difference I can see is where in the options menu they are, and the fact that you can't have a mulitiple choice box in playerInfo.

???

 

[The Great Apple]

Ok - a more formal proposal for how the options screen should work:


1) Game-specific options: These options are maintained throughout the game. We have two alternatives:

a) They are configurable in a popup at the start of the game, before the dawn of man screen.

b) They can be changed in the CCP options screen off the main menu (after launch), but not during the game, where they appear greyed out.​

2) Other optoins: These can be changed during the game. They are all located in the CCP options screen, potentially under different catagories when we get enough to justify it. Personally I see no point in putting some of our optoins in the normal options screen.


Both sets of options are stored in the save-game file, as well as new default values becoming what the user last used. This is neccessary in the first case, and will aid debugging in the second case (when a user comes with a problem, we can see what options they have from the save).

Could people please comment on which they feel out of a) and b) are better for the first set.

You can also comment on anything else as well.

 

[SimCutie]

The custom configuration option system I have implemented in this release is different from Game Option or Player Option.
First, it is not player-specific option, but Profile-specific option. All player in hot-seat game should share same custom option from profie of player who started the game. Because it is based on Profile ini file and does not take different human player into account.
This does not matter in single player game but it does matter in multi-player hot seat game (which uses multiple profile in same game on same machine). It does not matter in networked multi-player game because diffrent machine can use diffrent profile ini file.
Another kind is not player specific but game specific options. This can be simulated in our configuration system by using config option without Custom Option screen. By using config option without option screen checkbox, we can prevent player from changing it during course of a game. It is same as old INI file based configuratioin parser option. My configuration option parser uses user profile as base of INI file.
But player can not select/change these option in start of game. Player should manually edit the INI file before the game start to change it.
So.. my current implemenation is more advanced than old INI file solution in that different player with diffrent Profile can have his/her own options INI file value depending on the selected game profile. But it is not advanced enough bevcause Players of diffent profile in hot-seat game (i.e. multile profile in same game) should share same option value.
In future we should have three kind of config option.

1. player specific option like current Firaxis player game option tab (first tab) in main option screen.
   This can be changed during game and may be diffrent by player in hot seat game.
   My current config option parser system with custom option screen is configurable by option screen but all hot-seat player should share same option. But usable in single player game and networked multiplayer game. I will fix my implementaion so that it can be usable even in hot-seat game in future release.
2. game specific option which can be chosen in start of game but not changeable in course of a game.
   I think that it is best to left it to Firaxis implementation (with bug fix in future release) and we use it afterward.
   Because the config data values should be saved as part of game save data.
3. Profile wide option that player can not change in any screen. It i s changeable by Python mod or manually editing Ini file. It is my current implementation of custom profile parser without using custom option screen. In old ini file solution, all player of different Profile should share same option and uses multiple Ini file by each custom mod that uses config option parser. It is outright mediocre implemenation.

 

[The Great Apple]

Ok, I get it.

I didn't even consider hotseat! Thanks for clearing this up.

 

[Dale]

Just a comment, but early on in the piece I found the issue you mentioned of game options not showing in the game setup screen. It got fixed, and they were able to show.

Do these not show now under 1.61? If that's the case then something is broke again. I can take a look into it if you like.

Dale

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

Yes this would be most usefull, perhaps someone forgot to include the fix in 1.61 or it got "unfixed" accidently. Changes to NUM_GAME_OPTIONS enum dont have any affect on the screen. I could reduce the enum by cutting out options in the code and I just get nameless checkboxes at the bottom of the list. I could increese the number of Options and none would display despite updates to the GameInfos.xml file. If I changed the order of options on the XML I could get them to display but ofcorse they nolonger acuratly matchup with the enums.

If this is something Firaxis already though they had fixed then perhaps they have the code for it and they could release it to community for us to use, it would help quite a bit. Please give them a wisper on our behaf.

 

[Dale]

No probs, will do. That's the old issue come back.

*pulls out old versions of the DLL*

 

[The Great Apple]

There is a slight issue in that the box for game options isn't very big, so we will only be able to add a limited amount of options there. While it's a better place to add them, it does limit the amount we can add.

 

[Olleus]

I am very very confused.

Surely, what we want to do is when you start a custom game there are extra checkboxes (like aggressive AI, no city flipping, ect..) which allow the user to modify the game rules at the begining of the game but NOT in the middle. IS there no way to do this?

 

[The Great Apple]

I am very very confused.

Surely, what we want to do is when you start a custom game there are extra checkboxes (like aggressive AI, no city flipping, ect..) which allow the user to modify the game rules at the begining of the game but NOT in the middle. IS there no way to do this?

We couldn't get that to work, but Dale may have a fix.

 

[Dale]

Please note:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=173058

 

[Olleus]

Thats annoying. 2 options really isn't enough.

Mybe we could use an .ini which is initialised when a game is created and then saved onto the save file. That way, even if edit the .ini halfway through, it won't mess up your game.
Not as nice as the options menu though.

 

[Dale]

Until the Warlords SDK is released, I would suggest an ini file. Maybe someone can put together a frontend for it as well which will launch the mod. This way user runs the config frontend which launchs the mod after OKaying the config.

Dale

 

[The Great Apple]

Would it be possible for the main options screen to only display one additional option if the options are in two different places? I'm having trouble with two components which I want to be separable, but also use the same option.