[TOT] The Test Of Time Patch Project

[TheNamelessOne]

The @TERRAIN definitions are in fact incorrect in that scenario, they're missing a field. This is unfortunately hidden by a bug in the "Extra terrain types" patch in older versions. It will crash in 0.15.1 as well if you disable that patch.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi @JPetroski ,

As per TNO's instructions, I indeed just noticed that the descriptions of each terrain type in the @TERRAIN section were missing the transform elements in the original MGE scenario when I made the conversion to TOT. I've made the correction to all 26 of the scenario's rules files:

Thicket,    4,4,  0,1,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  Pln,  no,    ; Drt
Crater,     1,2,  0,1,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  Grs,  no,    ; Pln
Grass,      1,1,  0,1,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  Hil,  no,    ; Grs
Deciduous,  3,3,  0,1,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  Grs,  no,    ; For
Barbwire,  10,1,  0,0,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  Pln,  no,    ; Hil
Elevated,   8,5,  0,1,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  Hil,  no,    ; Mou
Pines,      3,3,  0,1,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  Drt,  no,    ; Tun
Rough,      3,3,  0,1,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  Tun,  no,    ; Gla
Wetland,    8,1,  0,0,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  Pln,  no,    ; Swa
Urban,      1,4,  0,2,0,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  2, 0,  0,  Pln,  no,    ; Jun
River,      1,2,  0,0,2,   no,  0, 0, 0,   no,  0, 0,  0,  no,   no,    ; Oce

I've also updated the @COSMIC2 section of the same files to include the code for movement multipliers. This wasn't required with ToTPP v0.131 when I converted the scenario back in 2017 but became necessary when playing with later versions of ToTPP if you didn't want all your roads to have unlimited movement.

I noticed one odd particularity with regards the last unit in the rules when using v0.17. When you activate the "Jadgpanther V SS" it's converts to an animated sprite even though the scenario's "Animated Sprites" feature is turned off and it's "override .SPR file for this unit:" is set to "10000000" in the @UNITS_ADVANCED section. When I try the same files running ToTPP v0.15 the sprite works fine. I'm not certain what's happening here, but otherwise the scenario appears to be working as expected.

For anyone interested, the updated version of the scenario can be grabbed here.

 

[techumseh]

Hi TNO. My experiment indicates that the 'continuous' modifier still fails under normal circumstances. Considering that Prof Garfield and others have duplicated this, it seems to be an issue that should be fixed, if that is possible. Do you think you will be able to find a solution for it? Thanks.

 

[TheNamelessOne]

It's not a bug. In the BurmaContinuousMod events file you also have:

@IF
Checkflag
[...]
@THEN
Flag
Who=Sioux
state=on
flag=20
@ENDIF

Since this doesn't have continuous for flag 20, and occurs later in the events file, the result is that the continuous modifier is removed from flag 20. I confirmed this by testing with flag 31, and indeed then the flag stays on (the text box shows every turn). "Continuous" is global per flag, doesn't matter if the tribes are different.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

"Continuous" is global per flag, doesn't matter if the tribes are different.

Would you happen to have documentation for this? The file I used as a reference when making my Legacy Event Engine is the 'macro.txt' file from the publisher, and I can't find wording suggesting this is how it works. If you have an alternate source, it might point something else out that I may have implemented incorrectly.

 

[TheNamelessOne]

No, this follows from analyzing the binary. The "continuous mask" is only 4 bytes, and the code that resets the non-continuous flags loops over all tribes. In fact, what Catfish's docs call "flags 0-15 for Everybody" and "flags 16-31 for Everybody" is the "continuous mask", the set of flags for which continuous is enabled. "Flags for everybody" is simply implemented by looping over all tribes' flags and setting all of them.

 

[AyCe]

So if a flag is continuous or not is global, but the flag states are per-tribe?
So when flag 10 is continuous, all tribes can have their own flag 10s active or not, but they will always stay active or not, and never reset at the end of the turn, when one of them is defined by "continuous"?

 

[TheNamelessOne]

So if a flag is continuous or not is global, but the flag states are per-tribe?
So when flag 10 is continuous, all tribes can have their own flag 10s active or not, but they will always stay active or not, and never reset at the end of the turn, when one of them is defined by "continuous"?

Pretty much. Every time you use the Flag event to set a flag to state "on", the global continuous mask is updated for that flag number.

I am curious if it would be possible to add extra technologies as you have with units to get it to 127 (I believe you mentioned that was the maximum). I've been able to use lua to recycle unit slots and civilizations to break past the natural barrirers there, but I hesitate to use the same concepts to reuse technology as one can easily cause themselves problems and crashes when messing with the technology.

Even better, release 0.18 will support 253 techs and 189 unit types.

As to lua, I believe Prof. Garfield and others may have made some requests for new "set" fields with some items, such as unit.type.name. If possible, being able to "set" whatever attributes are currently in the rules file in terms of units and terrain would more or less allow us to make batch files a thing of the past (assuming all the art can be swapped out as we know the terrain can be in game).

I can make all name fields settable at least (it's already possible for commodity.name, but nowhere else), swapping all the art is a different matter that I would need to look into.

 

[JPetroski]

You were able to break past the 127 limit!?

SOMEBODY???? HEY SOMEBODY!!! WE NEED A STATUE OVER HERE!!!!

 

[Dadais]

Even better, release 0.18 will support 253 techs and 189 unit types.

Wow ...

About unit types, if remembering well Prof Garfield explanations, guess you played with negative values left by the limited amount of city improvements ?
Anyway, sounds marvelous of a Chrismas present !

You were able to break past the 127 limit!?

SOMEBODY???? HEY SOMEBODY!!! WE NEED A STATUE OVER HERE!!!!

Wouldn't be some city or country looking for a new name otherwise ?

 

[JPetroski]

@TheNamelessOne if I can be a bother - I assume you probably have a working units.bmp with the extra slots that you used to test this. Would you mind uploading that when you have a moment, please? It would be great to get started plotting/planning. Thanks!

 

[Dadais]

@TheNamelessOne if I can be a bother - I assume you probably have a working units.bmp with the extra slots that you used to test this. Would you mind uploading that when you have a moment, please? It would be great to get started plotting/planning. Thanks!

Something like that maybe ?

Spoiler 189UnitsSlotsSpeculation :

If helpful to anybody by the way,

Spoiler 127UnitsSlots :

 

[JPetroski]

I mean if that will work in the game, sure - I'm very primitive when it comes to understanding how one must modify these art files to get them to accept new units - I was able to just steal other peoples works who followed the ToTPP while I was on sabbatical thank you!

 

[techumseh]

It's not a bug. In the BurmaContinuousMod events file you also have:

@IF
Checkflag
[...]
@THEN
Flag
Who=Sioux
state=on
flag=20
@ENDIF

Since this doesn't have continuous for flag 20, and occurs later in the events file, the result is that the continuous modifier is removed from flag 20. I confirmed this by testing with flag 31, and indeed then the flag stays on (the text box shows every turn). "Continuous" is global per flag, doesn't matter if the tribes are different.

Thank you for the explanation. I had no idea that adding the 'continuous' modifier applied to a flag for one civ, also applied it to all the rest, and vice versa. I have to say that it is a very disappointing deficiency in the Macro events system. But at least your explanation allows me to continue to utilize the modifier in some cases. Thank you.

 

[Dadais]

I mean if that will work in the game, sure - I'm very primitive when it comes to understanding how one must modify these art files to get them to accept new units - I was able to just steal other peoples works who followed the ToTPP while I was on sabbatical

I'm feeling stupid and ashamed misunderstanding your post, It was definitly time to sleep.

They're .png files so the site display them, and should be changed to .bmp files to work anyway.
Plus, you're right, that's only a rushed guesswork born from both cheerfulness and tiredness. TNO may validate or reject it, I just can't wait for his release and their explanations.

 

[JPetroski]

Well in any event you've made it easy for me to start merrily copying and pasting so I appreciate that. I just was asking because if we have the "this will definitely work" version then designers can get started now. Thanks for your help regardless!

 

[CurtSibling]

Even better, release 0.18 will support 253 techs and 189 unit types.

If this is true, then I declare you the Einstein of CIV2, sir!
(not to say you weren't already the Isaac Newton)

 

[JPetroski]

@TheNamelessOne another question if you don't mind but have you experienced issues with frequent CTD when cycling through a large stack of units using the slider? I suppose it could be on my end but I thought I'd bring it up as I have a bit of a monster of a scenario over here and I'm finding myself saving before I click on unit lists lol.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi John,

It's not just you. I reported this bug to TNO back on post #949. I had even referenced it in my Napoleon ReadMe as one of two known issues.

 

[Rui_TNV]

Thanks mate, considering my troubles and the thread with people saying "it works for me" and others saying "doesn't for me" etc etc it must have a bit of a mind of it's own, so giving us full control over the hidden setting with a tickbox would be wonderful! That's cool that they already put in a wonder video safety check for 'original mode', so strange that they didn't ship with the wonder movies then.

Oh wow, you found the mystery setting location just like that! Thanks I'll give that a try!

No I absolutely did not know that! Jeez a whole secret menu for test playing wonders, that is brilliant! I always thought is was a shame that you couldn't view wonder views again from the wonders area. Would have been a good feature to ship the game with but I guess no one thought of it back in the day.
View attachment 616727
I see turning on cheat mode, holding shift and clicking on Wonders from the World menu also brings up a similar secret wonder playing menu in MGE too. Oh man @Metro Polis and I could have really used this back when we were making our HoMM mod wonders as poor Metro had to make test savegames for every wonder to test his videos. This secret menu would have made things so much easier haha. Oh well, I might mention this trick in both my up and coming MGE and ToT HD tour videos (btw I'll be heavily covering your amazing ToTPP work in the ToT video of course) as I think a lot of people would enjoy using this.
View attachment 616728

Thank you thank you thank you! That would be awesome! Yeah @Knighttime was just asking me 'what if the other setting you asked for makes it play the old wonder videos instead of your custom mod ones' (I'm paraphrasing), however if it checks the mod video folder before the main video folder as you say it should hopefully protect us from that.

Ahh yes I did notice when I activated the Empire Earth mods it took me straight to a modded version of the new game menu instead of a modded version of the main menu so getting it to play a custom intro after activating the mod is presumably impossible or too much hassle. No matter, I'm sure there's hardly any mods out there with custom intros anyway!

God I wish MGE could have a cool mod loading feature like yours too as it would be perfect for the HoMM mod by @Metro Polis & I which is filled with custom videos and dlls etc, I'm gonna go beg Foxahead for it in his similar Civ2 UIA tool for MGE lol.

.

@TNO I found the secret menu but I can't seem to be able to see the videos... I just press the wonder and nothing happens...

And does the game usually experience problems when going passed the 1024 cities or is it just sometimes that that can happen?