Spectator mode?

[Makudomi]

Hi there.

I often find myself playing as isolated civilisations and over the many years I've played Dawn of Civilization have come to enjoy simply observing how the AI is performing on a given patch. I would love if there was a way that I could go further with this and completely be removed from the game, able to see nations rise and fall as the turns pass by without actually being a player myself.

I'm not posting this thread as a "feature request" but rather because I'm curious if more savvy users have already come to a solution of their own for this, perhaps using the upgraded World Builder or by editing files. Perhaps there is some tool used in playtesting of the mod? I'm not familiar at all with these things and for that reason I'm turning to the forums.

I hope you don't mind me posting this thread. I have become very busy in various aspects of my life and increasingly find myself without time for video games, but a "passive" game of DoC would make for a lovely background activity as I see how the mod is doing.

 

[Leoreth]

The best thing you can do right now is a combination of autoplay and cheat mode:
- enable cheat mode by changing the line in Beyond the Sword/_Civ4Config to read "CheatCode = chipotle"
- start a game with long autoplay (Canada for the longest reach)
- immediately cancel the Dawn of Man progress bar with escape
- press Ctrl+Z to reveal the entire map (you can also examine cities etc. in this mode)

You can now watch the game unfold as it happens. The only disadvantage of this method is that you cannot look past the Canadian spawn.

 

[Makudomi]

Fascinating! Thank you so much for the information, Leoreth; this is all new to me. I'm very excited to try this out.

With that logic, would I perhaps be able to edit the game so that Polynesia (which by and large does nothing of note as an AI due to being designed for player-only usage) spawns on the final turn, then play as them?

 

[1SDANi]

Fascinating! Thank you so much for the information, Leoreth; this is all new to me. I'm very excited to try this out.

With that logic, would I perhaps be able to edit the game so that Polynesia (which by and large does nothing of note as an AI due to being designed for player-only usage) spawns on the final turn, then play as them?

That'd probably be pretty easy to do. I forget where the spawn turn is defined, but find that and you're golden.

 

[Makudomi]

That'd probably be pretty easy to do. I forget where the spawn turn is defined, but find that and you're golden.

That would be lovely! I guess it's just a matter of finding the enclosing file, then.

I highly appreciate everyone's help! My group of friends IRL loves this mod, and having games running in the background would be quite a nice activity for everyone to enjoy. Cheers!

 

[merijn_v1]

The spawn dates are in Consts.py, @tBirth. But the code assumes a chronological order. There might be some unexpected behavior is you change that.

As an alternative, you could set the Canadian spawn at 2000 or something. You still cannot see Canada in your game, but it extends the length of the autoplay.

EDIT: I vaguely remember there is a function in the WB that turns your civ to an AI controlled civ for a couple of turns. I have to check that.

 

[Leoreth]

Yeah, so I also considered putting a way into the game that will just start to run autoplay until a specified turn (or until you break it), because that would help a lot in debugging certain things. Doing so would also help implementing other things I want to do later on. Let's see.

 

[merijn_v1]

My memory didn't fail me. The WB has indeed an autoplay function. It is in the GameData screen. But it seems you need to have at least 1 city to work. And if you enable it, all your cities will be removed.

 

[Leoreth]

Right. I think there should be a better way, although using that as Polynesia would also be a decent solution if you want to observe the rest of the world.

Thinking about this some more, it would actually be cool if you could jump back into autoplay as a later civ whenever you want, or when you collapse. I think it would fit the rise and fall concept of the mod a lot better if you could play through history as multiple civilisations even if your original civ falls.

 

[merijn_v1]

Right. I think there should be a better way, although using that as Polynesia would also be a decent solution if you want to observe the rest of the world.

Thinking about this some more, it would actually be cool if you could jump back into autoplay as a later civ whenever you want, or when you collapse. I think it would fit the rise and fall concept of the mod a lot better if you could play through history as multiple civilisations even if your original civ falls.

I already foresee a new challenge thread: Play as many as possible civs before 2000 AD. You can only switch when you collapse.

 

[Enyavar]

You can only switch when you collapse.

Pretty easy, you can intentionally collapse by choosing bad civics, settling all cities out of core and declare war on the neighbors.

The only catch would be the grace period of 20 turns.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

I already foresee a new challenge thread: Play as many as possible civs before 2000 AD. You can only switch when you collapse.

Fall and more Fall of Civilization

 

[JHLee]

The only disadvantage of this method is that you cannot look past the Canadian spawn.

Maybe implementing a dummy civ that spawns in 2020 could be a solution?

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Maybe implementing a dummy civ that spawns in 2020 could be a solution?

I propose Catalonia!