[TOT] The Test Of Time Patch Project

[Catfish]

Sorry, I skimmed your post and gave a lazy answer. The shield colour and also that of the units (if you're using unit masks) only refresh when you reload the game from the main menu. If you've been reloading the game using Ctrl+L, try quitting to the main menu and then loading the game from there. Does that fix it?

Edit: What's your folder structure? Where is your cities.bmp file located? In a scenario or mod folder? If you still can't solve it, attach a zipped version of the cities.bmp file.

 

[Håvard Holand]

If you've been reloading the game using Ctrl+L, try quitting to the main menu and then loading the game from there. Does that fix it?

No, but the shield color is the way I want it, no problems there. It's just the city size box that has wrong color.

Edit: What's your folder structure? Where is your cities.bmp file located? In a scenario or mod folder? If you still can't solve it, attach a zipped version of the cities.bmp file.

I play and edit only with the /Original folder, cities.cmp also. (I backup the files first.) But I'm satisfied with the workaround I found (described when I edited my last post.) You don't need to troubleshoot for my sake, I just avoid to put certain colors in the two pixels in cities.bmp. The game didn't like my dark blue.

But thanks for your help Catfish, greatly appreciated!

 

[Catfish]

That's weird. I tried to reproduce the results without success, testing possible reserved colours like blue (#0000ff), cyan (#00ffff), magenta (#ff00ff), the purplish background (#805080) and yellow (#ffff00).

Do you happen to be using a BMP with an indexed palette, like, for example, one from an MGE scenario?

 

[Håvard Holand]

Do you happen to be using a BMP with an indexed palette, like, for example, one from an MGE scenario?

No, the color mode in that file is RGB. I edited the file from the Original folder. I'm no expert with colors and palettes, but now I tried the color 0024c1, dark blue, for both pixels in cities.bmp. Now, the city number box is brown for some reason. The shield is fine. I thought that the game could use any color from a BMP, maybe that is not always the case.

 

[Catfish]

OK, I've tested a little more. I can reproduce your results. It seems that certain colours in the medium-dark blue range produce incorrect colours in the city size box.

blue (#0000ff) -> grey (#737373) - I don't know why I didn't get anything the first time around; I'll call human error.
blue (#0000c0) -> grey (#737373)
dark blue (#000080) -> dark grey (#313131)
your blue (#0024c1) -> brown (#734210)

Magenta (#ff00ff), the default transparent colour, appears in some boxes, but disappears and reappears as tiles are redrawn.

Don't know why those blues produce those results, but obviously they're to be avoided. Maybe TNO can resolve it.

 

[JPetroski]

To install the updated ToTPP do I need to start from a fresh install of civ or simply extract everything in the most recent download to Test of Time and run the launcher?

 

[Håvard Holand]

Thank you for confirming the bug, Catfish. Another small thing I'm experiencing is, when double clicking terrain tiles, the info window from Civilopedia appears. Sometimes, when I'm closing that window, Windows 7 switches to another program I have in the background, like Photoshop (always in the background nowadays when editing those BMP's.) TOT is not minimized, it's just put in the background. Not a major issue, only a little annoying.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

To install the updated ToTPP do I need to start from a fresh install of civ or simply extract everything in the most recent download to Test of Time and run the launcher?

Extract and launch.

 

[JPetroski]

Thank you!

 

[TheNamelessOne]

OK, I've tested a little more. I can reproduce your results. It seems that certain colours in the medium-dark blue range produce incorrect colours in the city size box.

blue (#0000ff) -> grey (#737373) - I don't know why I didn't get anything the first time around; I'll call human error.
blue (#0000c0) -> grey (#737373)
dark blue (#000080) -> dark grey (#313131)
your blue (#0024c1) -> brown (#734210)

Magenta (#ff00ff), the default transparent colour, appears in some boxes, but disappears and reappears as tiles are redrawn.

Don't know why those blues produce those results, but obviously they're to be avoided. Maybe TNO can resolve it.

I can. All color values less than 256 in the (15-bit) color format of ToT are interpreted as indices in the palette, I assume this was done so ToT remains compatible with the graphics files of older Civ2 versions. This means that every color value less than RGB #004000 is not the same in-game as its true RGB counterpart. The easiest way to avoid this is to add a bit of red, #0800ff works fine for example.

 

[techumseh]

I'm watching the Lua discussions with interest, if not comprehension. I'll await the first scenario that includes the feature to get a better sense of it. I'm not a computer guy and it took me a long time to master (?) the ToT Macro language, so I'll wait to see how it works and will give it a try if if it looks effective and manageable.

Meanwhile, I'll repeat 2 earlier requests. First, strategic bombing. It always irritates me that nuclear attacks on cities destroy all units but leave all improvements intact. Similarly, air attacks on cities only affect ground units. This is a tactical, not a strategic attack. A city capture results in an elimination of a random loss of 1/3 of improvements. So might a successful conventional strategic attack. (edit: Alternatively, attacks against specific improvements might be allowed.) A nuclear attack would eliminate 2/3 or possibly all improvements.

Second, anti-tank values would be very helpful. The current knight/pikeman relation is far too limited in its applicability. Would it be possible to create a flag for units (anti-tank) that had double defense against other units that had a corresponding (tank) flag?

These are my priorities, based on my scenario design experience. If you can help, it would be much appreciated.

 

[JPetroski]

Is there any way to use both the macro text and lua? It would be great to use it in limited areas that it needs to be used, without having to relearn everything.

It's readily apparent just how useful lua would be for certain things (it's the most elegant solution to east-west multi-map travel and would be an awesome way to require significant anti-partisan/garrison efforts, for example)... But it's not very easy to grasp, to say the least, and the intended audience is a group of people still modding a 20-year-old game, in part at least because of just how easy it is to mod.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I concur, it would make a decent starting point for novices completely new to Lua coding.

 

[SteamCiv]

Whatever way is most efficient to proceed, ... (Lua/ or macro text something else)
....AND if mod comes forth using the new features, many of us are closet "script kiddies," unable to code using an original thought, but once someone has a block of working events in whatever language, we can copy and paste up a storm!

What I would like to see is a way to access and change the static letterhead graphics for diplomacy, etc

and if I understand this correctly, it looks like EtherealEidolon got the Heralds to work in TOT.
Combination of Test of Time and Vanilla
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/combination-of-test-of-time-and-vanilla.456142/

EtherealEidolon==>>Goodness gracious, I got the Heralds working!
I just copied my MGE Civ2.dat over to ToT. I wonder if that turned on some of the other features as well (Unless they're stored in the saves...)!
If the features are enabled, MGE is pretty much obsolete ...<<<

however other issues arose and

EtherealEidolon==>> managed to get the wonder videos working[in TOT] , they play at the correct time and with music, by replacing the CIV2.dat file in TOT with the .dat file from the original Civ2. I haven't encountered any problems apart from there being a black box where the kings should stand in the diplomacy menu, which I wouldn't mind a suggest for how to fix.

This post is back in 2012-2016 and a lot has happened since then, in any case the patch has the Throne Room functionality(YES),
is there a procedure to get
--heralds working or at least access the letterheads to edit the diplomacy screens?
(patch seems to take care of videos, thank you)
======================================================

EDit
I may have discovered the answer to my own request, that of changing leader letterheads in diplomacy etc
Extracts gifs from civ dll files ie mk.dll where the leaders are
Gif Xtractor (did not try it on MGE or TOT yet though a ResourceHacker is there which is supposed to work on those):
http://civ2.mercator.fastmail.fm/mapedit/downloads.html#file0015
http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/
http://civ2.mercator.fastmail.fm/reference.html

 

[Grishnach]

About lua and scenarios - would any of the scenario builders who wander this thread be interested in a little cooperation? I'm extremely interested in the lua part, and got some (imo) very cool stuff working already, but I don't have a scenario which is any way near completion to provide a good fully-fledged example of lua ...

I'm thinking along the lines - step 1: transcode the possibily existing macro.txt into lua code, step 2: enhancement of the mechanics using lua.
Thanks to the cool new key-pressed feature I already got a fireball creating mage to work, so I think there some cool enhancements might be possible ..
Any way, if you'd like give me a PM or reply here and we'll see what comes of it

 

[JPetroski]

About lua and scenarios - would any of the scenario builders who wander this thread be interested in a little cooperation? I'm extremely interested in the lua part, and got some (imo) very cool stuff working already, but I don't have a scenario which is any way near completion to provide a good fully-fledged example of lua ...

I'm thinking along the lines - step 1: transcode the possibily existing macro.txt into lua code, step 2: enhancement of the mechanics using lua.
Thanks to the cool new key-pressed feature I already got a fireball creating mage to work, so I think there some cool enhancements might be possible ..
Any way, if you'd like give me a PM or reply here and we'll see what comes of it

I have a nearly finished scenario about Caesar's Gallic Wars that you could assist with if you'd like... Right now I have flags to trigger the 3 Gallic Revolts but I'd much prefer to have a situation where there is a revolt risk of sorts that can be minimized (or worsened) depending on where your troops are stationed (and when).

I'm also interested if your fireball trick could turn into a ballista with bolt trick...

I'm also working on a collaborative project with a friend that could use this though that is just in the planning stages.

Any interest?

 

[JPetroski]

You can check out a little bit more about the scenario in the scenario league forum, btw.

 

[Grishnach]

I have a nearly finished scenario about Caesar's Gallic Wars that you could assist with if you'd like... Right now I have flags to trigger the 3 Gallic Revolts but I'd much prefer to have a situation where there is a revolt risk of sorts that can be minimized (or worsened) depending on where your troops are stationed (and when).

Cool - thats a setting I'd be very interested in. I'll take a look right away

About revolts- that's actually something I played with already- I created a primitive "province" class where it is checked how many tiles are owned by the (hard coded unfortunately) original owner and triggers some events (like rioters or partisans or something). I think we can get everything to work, but let's see.

I'm also interested if your fireball trick could turn into a ballista with bolt trick...

Sure. The difficult part is finding a key to trigger the event which does not have any other meaning for the game :-D
But seriously, should be no problem.

 

[JPetroski]

@TheNamelessOne, just as an FYI... It looks like lua scripting will see the light of day in a scenario @Grishnach has been very helpful and talented at implementing some lua-specific features and we hope to post a viddo soon to show people what he and you have done... The fruits of your labor are on the way!!!

That key press command has darn near limitless functions and I can't wait to see what other options you have added.

Thanks again!

 

[TheNamelessOne]

Awesome, looking forward to it! I'll definitely play it!