PowerBar Training Utility

[Nexushyper]

Welcome to the latest version of PowerBar with the newest programer for this awesome trainer. I am Nexushyper, the third programer of PowerBar. This program started with CrusaderJoe on Civ III. It was then passed on to SpiderZord who upgraded it for PTW. It has now ended up in my hands and I have upgraded it for C3C.


THE LATEST VERSION WILL BE UPDATED HERE OR A LINK TO IT!!!

*****UPDATED VERSION NOW READY*****
LATEST VERSION: PowerBar 4.1.5
EPILEPSY LATEST VERSION:PowerBar 4.1.5E
SUPPORTS CIV III VERSIONS: Nilla Civ III 1.29, PTW 1.27f, C3C 1.22


INFORMATION:
There will now be two versions of PowerBar. I added a flashing red warning to the splash screen and due to this made a non-flashing version for those with Epilepsy in mind!!

I do not garuntee this will work 100% with C3C. The change year feature will not work for C3C nor PTW, other issues may exist. I offer this as a Beta only with no promises besides the fact it's a memory training. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

This Version(4.1.5 and 4.1.5E Beta) contains:
-Fixed the bug with "Multiplayer mode detected" when in single player

PREVIOUS VERSIONS:
Version 4.1.0 and 4.1.0E Beta
-Added help system to Splash screen and PowerBar Main Screen
-Re-numbered versions since I took over to make more sense
-Removed Beta from version name

PREVIOUS VERSIONS:
Version 4.0.4 and 4.0.4E Beta
-Production now fully works, fixed bug with that.
-Auto production and Auto fill food now work fully
-Auto Timer works correctly(will update food/cities/units/production once per turn. If you change the autos, say deselect auto fill food, it run more again.)
-Change year does not work for PTW and C3C

Version 4.0.3 and 4.0.3E Beta
-Fixed erros with INFO if LOAD was not pressed first

Version 4.0.2 Beta
-Minor fixes in code
-Better centering of objects on Splash screen
-RED Flashing warning on splash screen
*****Due to addition of red flashing warning added version for those with Epilepsy**
Version 4.0.2E Beta
-Red warning on splash screen but DOES NOT flash!!!

Version 4.0.1 Beta
-Build Roads around city now works
-Build Roads in all of territory now works
-Upgrade all roads to rails now works
-Possible fix to Auto Timer, not 100% sure
-Fixed Error 91 with City Info(This feature is not finished and will display nothing)

Version 4.0.0 Beta
-Updated for C3C
-Changed the "J" button to "W" to include Marshes (W=Wetlands) for C3C
-Includes new volcano and marsh tiles
-"R" "H" and "U" buttons do not work (See note above on roads/rails)
-Updated splash screen for Civ III 1.29, PTW 1.27f and C3C 1.22 selection


NOTE ABOUT C3C: I doubt this will work with the actual Conquests Scenarios!! I did a rough test one night and the tiles, for one, were no where near the same as regular C3C games. I think each one has MANY special features which could take FOREVER to figure out, so I'll leave it that. This works for C3C 1.22 but not the Conquests Scenarios!


MOST COMMON PROBLEM:
Run-Time error '339': Component 'MSCOMCTL.OCX' or
one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid

FIX ACTION:
Visual basic uses this activeX file (microsoft common controls).
Follow these steps:
1) Make sure MSCOMCTL.OCX is in the windows\system folder (or system32 - which ever you have).

2) Click on the START button and select RUN

3) type regsvr32 c:\windows\system\MSCOMCTL.OCX -or- regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\MSCOMCTL.OCX and click OK.

4) You should get a message that the file has been registered.

5) Run PB and see what happens.

OR

go to http://www.geocities.com/nitin_speed/resources.htm
and download MSCOMCTL.OCX and place in your system folder.


I will post updates to version here! Please add comments/suggestions/problems (with screenshots if you can) Thanks!

 

[kulade]

awsum man!

 

[teknalee]

Nexushyper,
The link doesn't work.... I don't no if it is just me but i tried on two computers.

P.S. Did anyone else get it to work?

 

[Nexushyper]

The link is working fien for me now. Could be a hiccup with the new version and the fact I used the new version attach button.

I just tried it and had a friend try it and it seems to be working

 

[teknalee]

Yea it is working for me now too. Must have just been a glitch

 

[teknalee]

I have been testing it for the last 40 minutes and I havent really seen any problems. The only thing that I have noticed is a increased load time to upgrade Pb But other than that every thing is going along very well. I use "Super units" or something like that and one the game in 40 minutes running around with an spearman. lol

 

[Nexushyper]

Sweet! Glad it is working ok. still no fix to the road/rail problem but I will continue to look at it. The problem is that the C3C Tile is 16 bytes longer in memory than previous Civ III versions! (now 232 instead of 216) Plus the tile info has been moved around some what and I have to figure out what PB is looking for, then try to find it in C3C after testing first in PTW and then comparing and printing out memory offsets and looking fo rchanges over time and....


Enjoy!

 

[teknalee]

I get your dirft and im not really complaining you just asked for feed back and i just noticed that. Really good job and thanks alot.

 

[ardwick]

Thanks for the update. So far it is working pretty well. I've got two things I've noticed.

1) When a city is producing an improvement or wonder, it doesn't show up in the Production box. Don't know if this was a problem in prior versions or not and didn't feel like wandering through all the messages on prior version. It works if it is building a unit however.

2) The other thing is probably not a problem, but how do I get the AUTO-FILL FOOD function to work?

Thanks again for the great work. The tool is great!

 

[Nexushyper]

@Ardwick: I'll look into to those. Again I'm the third programmer and thus to answer these questions I actually have to go look through the code and see what PB is doing. I do know there are some auto timers you can set that will auto updated PB every X seconds (You specify the x seconds). It could be that the timers don't run unless you tell them to. Now, before I tell you how to get the timers going let me look into to it first then I'll post a better answer. In the meantime, if you click "LOAD" again it will refresh everything. As for Auto-fill food: It maybe my fault. There could be something I over looked as I said, this is beta version without full testing on my part in order to get something out that somewhat works. I will look into both issues when I get a chance I will fix the problem. Today through Firday are very busy for me!

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[jeannie]

1) When a city is producing an improvement or wonder, it doesn't show up in the Production box. Don't know if this was a problem in prior versions or not and didn't feel like wandering through all the messages on prior version. It works if it is building a unit however.

I'm running Conquests 1.22. As Ardwick reported, the wonder/improvement being built doesn't display in the "production" box, BUT ONLY WHEN I'VE JUST USED THE "LOAD" BUTTON. On the next turn, if I don't LOAD again, the 'production' box properly displays what's being built.

Even if the 'production' box is blank in Powerbar, the 'donate' function to build the same thing in all the cities DOES work.

So I consider this a very very minor glitch - I'd much rather you continue to work on getting the road/railroad functions to work.

I think I've tried most of the functions except for:
1) teleport - I never understood how that worked in the old Powerbar, anyway.
2) INFO functions, including setting up 'groups' and filtering.

I'll let you know if I come across any other problems or glitches, and thank you very much for this new version!

(BTW, I posted a message in the old thread that I'd found a way to force the ERROR 9 Subscript out of range problem. I can't remember it off the top of my head but you can search the thread for postings from me. I think it had to do with having a city whose edges overlap the top or bottom border of the map, and it dies when trying to auto-build a road in that city. Spiderzord had stopped working on Powerbar by then.)

EDIT 5/13: I take back what I said about the 'Donate' button working if the production box is blank - it doesn't.
Also, I've noticed that the "auto on" function doesn't appear to work based on the timer; it only seems to flash 'red' once per turn - has anyone else noticed that, or is it just me?

 

[Nexushyper]

That's again for teh feedback I'm making a list of things to work on once the road/rail function is working right. Which by the way, still has me stumped but I have not done more testing since last night ... and wont be able to till Friday. The adding 16 bytes to each tile is really throwing me off!!

The production thing does seem minor and I think it's just a refresh issue. But the wonders could be something else. I have found alot of things slightly changed since PTW based on what SpiderZord sent me so I've been doing a bunch of guess work to get what does work working.

You mentioned groups... I haven't tested that nor used it much so we'll see what happens. I'll look at when I get a chance and it's on my list!!

Teleport: Ok, to use this can be tricky but once you learn it it's ok. If you select a unit using the UNIT button and such to isolate one unit, you can then click teleport. Say the unit is in Boston and you want it outside Moscow. In the teleport screen use the city dropdown menu to select Moscow. Click the arrow next to it and that will display Moscows tile coordinates. Use the arrows to move the unit to just outside Moscow. WARNING. There is no safety built in so land units CAN end up on water and vis versa and never place your unit on an AI unit, these things will/can crash the game/computer. Someday I might look into to fixing this but not now.

INFO: These 6 or so tabs at the top of the info screen can give you info on other civs. What units they have and where they are located, what tech each civ knows, world tile types statistics. Note the CITY tab does not work as SpiderZord never finished it and I will work on it to at a later time. It will display cities and thier size, production, etc..... first to get the roads and current functions working RIGHT!

Thanks for the feedback and continue the testing. Have fun!


P.S. I'm adding some info about C3C to the first post.... please read it again!

 

[teknalee]

I found some of those problems too last night. But again this doesnt really take anything away from the game or the PB good job

 

[ActionMan_JG]

Woohoo a working version of PB for C3C nice. Thanks Alot man

 

[Dodgy]

Great to see this tool again. Good job Nexushyper. Something I noticed though, the clean pollution function didnt seem to work for me. No hurry with it, just thought you want to know...

 

[jeannie]

Great to see this tool again. Good job Nexushyper. Something I noticed though, the clean pollution function didnt seem to work for me. No hurry with it, just thought you want to know...

I use the 'auto-clean-pollution' function (right-clicking on the P button so it turns yellow). When I get pollution, it doesn't disapppear the first time the 'auto' timer kicks in, but it does a little bit later - maybe the second or third time the auto-timer kicks in. I ususally have the auto-timer set at 5 seconds, and have only had pollution three times since I downloaded Powerbar, so I'm not really sure how long it takes for auto-clean-pollution to kick in, but it DOES kick in. Again, I agree, Dodgy, that it's not a major problem. I'm SO glad to have a working Powerbar!.

Having Powerbar running seems to bog down my computer's graphics, but so did the old Powerbar. The slow-down happens a lot sooner with the new version, tho - probably because of the extra bits that are in Conquests now.
(By 'slowing down', I mean that Conquest seems to 'hang' before the screen refreshes. I'm not a 'techie' type, so I don't know if I can make adjustments to my computer to help with this. It happens when I have a lot of automated workers, which I won't need to do once the road functions work in the new Powerbar.)

 

[Nexushyper]

Still aven't had time to look at roads or anyother problems.. I am graduating from my Professional Military Education class of Airman Leadership School (so I can be a supervisor and in August put on SSgt) tonight and the class is going out on the town afterwards! I will have time Friday though to get to these things.

In the meantime I think it might help if you guys that say there are 'slow down's or CIv III refresh issues to please post your computer info: Processor speed, RAM, Windows version. You can find this, for those that don't, by going to your desktop and rick-clicking "My Computer" and selecting properties. This will bring up a box that has all this info.

My computer is a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz processor with 1 GB RAM Windows XP all patches. I think thgis might be why I don't see this issues. However, let me say this. The 'slow down' or C3C refresh issue is most likely due to one or a combination of several things. First, a slower machine (less RAM and slower CPU speed) will take it longer to refresh. Also, I did notice C3C uses more memory SLIGHTLY more than PTW that is, and as stated above, the tiles use 16 bytes more memory a piece so multiply that by what 4000... you can see the increase there. With that comes the fact that PowerBar reads each tile for several things and thus you will see a slow down. Also, PowerBar is a memory trainer. C3C itself has built in refresh features. (I assume this else when you build a city who does teh map update.. ok kind of bad example) Anyways, when you use PowerBar to change something in your game you alter the memory and thus sometimes you just have to wait till C3C catches up or refreshs. You will see more of teh slow down with that on slower CPUs with less RAM. A few things I can try to update in PowerBar to make it a bit faster... maybe more efficient functions, re-arrange the code to flow smoother... I'll have to look into that. I'm guess, don't know for sure, but I'd say teh slow down is more due to Civ III C3C refresh issues than PowerBar but I will look into it and try my best to test and reduce PowerBar slow down.

I know I talk a lot but I want you all to know I do care and am listening and will work on all these issues. I do know PowerBar does take awhile to Load in C3C than previous version because of teh tiles and other memory changes in C3C. The actual code only increased by 12 KiloBytes in size(Not much). Then again, it could be something I added for C3C that is slowing it and again, I will look into it.
Give me this weekend and by Monday I should have some better answers. Until then keep the feedback coming... and THANKS!

 

[Civrules]

Thank you for your hard work!

 

[jeannie]

Some additional notes about the auto-timer:

The auto-timer seems to kick in for the human player once if:
- the date changes (either because I've ended a turn or I've used ccj39's Mega-trainer to move the year forwards or backwards)
- I've hit the 'LOAD' button AND there are new cities to load (because of espionage or capturing the enemy city with one of my own units) (The LOAD button doesn't cause the auto-timer to kick in again if there aren't any new cities to load.)

But, the auto-timer for the human player doesn't kick in again UNTIL one of the two situations above happens.

IF I use Powerbar to go to another tribe, the autotimer immediately kicks in and runs 'correctly' - that is, it flashes 'red' repeatedly based on the time I've set for the 'auto timer'. I don't know if it only updates that tribe or all tribes, including the 'human' tribe.

Again, this is just info from my testing, and thanks again for all your work! It's so nice to have Powerbar back again, even if it's not perfect!

 

[jeannie]

Info about My Computer (re: slowdown)
I'm running Windows XP Home (all patches), Pentium 4 CUP 2.8 Ghz, 512 MB Ram, and the video card is an ATI Radeon 9200 64MB. This is a Sony Vaio PCV-RS420; I bought it in November.

Before I bought the new computer, Powerbar would cause my video display to slow down if I had selected SU (super user) on the UNITS page and had many automated workers - My screen would go blackand I might have to wait HOURS for my Civ 'turn' to finish...I waited overnight sometimes! The problem went away with the new computer. I don't remember if I was using PTW or Conquests.

Now, with this computer, when I'm playing Conquests and have Powerbar running, I usually have 35-40 processes running, usually Conquests shows it's using about 50% of the CPU, Powerbar may go up to 2% of the CPU, and the rest of the CPU is idle.

But the video slowdown is back IF i select "SU" and have automated workers.