[TOT] The Test Of Time Patch Project

[400AD]

I would like to repeat my somewhat incomprehensibly worded question. The extra settler flags seem to be ignored by the AI. Is that intended or did I make a mistake in Rules.txt?

 

[CurtSibling]

Tested the Fundamentalism fix. The government now shows on the list after a revolt.

Thanks, TNO!

 

[CurtSibling]

I've noticed the "NumberOfStaticUnitSprites" does not seem to work, although the SpriteGen program might be limiting the amount of units that can be applied a sprite layer to the vanilla limit of 90 units.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I would like to repeat my somewhat incomprehensibly worded question. The extra settler flags seem to be ignored by the AI. Is that intended or did I make a mistake in Rules.txt?

I offer a brief explanation of how to add the settler flags in this post. It isn't hard to test if the extra settler flags are working for you, just create the altered units with cheat mode, and try to do settler things with them.

What do you think is being ignored?

Adds four extra flags to @UNITS_ADVANCED (column G), allowing configuration of behaviour originally hard-coded for settler-type units:
- Reduce population when built (bit 10, the rightmost bit is the first)
- Requires food support (bit 11)
- Can found cities (bit 12)
- Can improve tiles (bit 13) (can only be turned off for settler-type units, not on for regular units)
Due to the all these flags being hard-coded true for settler-type units in vanilla, you turn the behaviour OFF for them by setting the flag to 1, while for regular units you turn it ON by setting the flag to 1. Hence a 1 for any of these flags should be interpreted as "use the non-default behaviour".

As far as actions go, there are 3 possible things the AI could be ignoring:
1. Settler units forbidden to found cities are doing so anyway.
2. Non-Settler units allowed to found cities never do so.
3. Settler units forbidden from improving tiles still do so.

Since the TOTPP doesn't change the AI, number 2, while probably not "intended," wouldn't be unexpected. If you're reporting 1 or 3, this would probably be considered a bug, since the behaviour isn't described in the patch.

 

[Knighttime]

As far as actions go, there are 3 possible things the AI could be ignoring:
1. Settler units forbidden to found cities are doing so anyway.
...
3. Settler units forbidden from improving tiles still do so.

... If you're reporting 1 or 3, this would probably be considered a bug, since the behaviour isn't described in the patch.

Based on testing I did while building Medieval Millennium, I think the AI has always been allowed to "cheat" in these ways, at least under certain circumstances. I don't know if I'd consider the behavior a bug in the Extra Settler Flags if it happens regardless of whether/how those flags are used. In other words, it seems to me that regular, non-Settler AI units sometimes behave as if they have the flags that would give them the power to found cities and improve tiles (not always, but at least in some circumstances). So taking this away from Settler units may not block this behavior, if it's separately being permitted for any unit.

For #1, I believe I encountered a few cases cases where an AI city will appear at the site of an exploring unit (non-Settler type), and I'm pretty sure there was no hut there either. If I'm a little hesitant about that one, I'm pretty confident about #3: the AI will sometimes clear and irrigate land near its cities without a Settler-type unit being present on the improved tile. I'm not even sure if this requires the presence of any unit on that tile at all.

Hopefully @TheNamelessOne is able to shed a little more light on this behavior.

 

[Civinator]

I've noticed the "NumberOfStaticUnitSprites" does not seem to work, although the SpriteGen program might be limiting the amount of units that can be applied a sprite layer to the vanilla limit of 90 units.

The static sprite file of CivSprite, where I inserted my few better animated Civ2 ToT units long time ago, holds files for 404 units.

Edit: The CivSprite static file holds no bigger capacity, than the SpriteGen static file. Attachment deleted

 

[CurtSibling]

@Civinator
It's the Mercator SpriteGen program, that enables a tribe colour layer to be applied on any unit with white areas painted on them.

I use this old app on every scenario. But I was hoping the NumberOfStaticUnitSprites patch would allow the sprite layer to be
applied to all 189 units, but it seems now the app is the limiting factor. I wonder if Mercator could ever be asked to create a
new version that allows more units to be given the sprite layer, instead of ToT's 90...Oh, well...

 

[Civinator]

@Civinator
It's the Mercator SpriteGen program, that enables a tribe colour layer to be applied on any unit with white areas painted on them.

I use this old app on every scenario. But I was hoping the NumberOfStaticUnitSprites patch would allow the sprite layer to be
applied to all 189 units, but it seems now the app is the limiting factor. I wonder if Mercator could ever be asked to create a
new version that allows more units to be given the sprite layer, instead of ToT's 90...Oh, well...

... and I hoped that you can use that CivSprite static file as a substitute for the SpriteGen static file.

 

[CurtSibling]

... and I hoped that you can use that CivSprite static file as a substitute for the SpriteGen static file.

Not sure how you are intending for me to do that?
The problem is the SpriteGen program only supports 90 units, which means the 99 other units cannot be given the SPR layer.

If you have an explanation on how your files can help me apply tribe colours in CIV2, I am all ears.

 

[Civinator]

Curt you are right. When having a closer look into the CivSprite static file, this file has no bigger capacity than the SpriteGen static file. As far as I remember, SpriteGen was developed from CivSprite.

 

[Blake00]

I use this old app on every scenario. But I was hoping the NumberOfStaticUnitSprites patch would allow the sprite layer to be
applied to all 189 units, but it seems now the app is the limiting factor. I wonder if Mercator could ever be asked to create a
new version that allows more units to be given the sprite layer, instead of ToT's 90...Oh, well...

Yeah I think this was the issue Nicheal had me post in here for him a couple of times recently.

 

[CurtSibling]

The old program has to be upgraded to be in line with recent ToTPP developments.

 

[TheNamelessOne]

I would like to repeat my somewhat incomprehensibly worded question. The extra settler flags seem to be ignored by the AI. Is that intended or did I make a mistake in Rules.txt?

Yes, they're ignored completely by the AI, this is intended. The AI wouldn't know how to handle units with the new flags anyway.

Not sure how you are intending for me to do that?
The problem is the SpriteGen program only supports 90 units, which means the 99 other units cannot be given the SPR layer.

If you have an explanation on how your files can help me apply tribe colours in CIV2, I am all ears.

You can use CivSprite 2 beta for that. Use the json format to export the sprite file, the txt format did not preserve the tribe masks for me. Then add images / json entries for the new units, and create a new static.spr.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

There is an issue with the customResources flag.

customResources (get/set)
map.customResources -> boolean

Returns `true` if custom resources are enabled for this map, `false` otherwise.

If I set it to true and save the game, when I load the game, all the units and cities are gone, and the flag is set to false. (But, the original resources are still there) This is true even if I also use map:copyDefaultResources().

There is some combination of setting the custom resource seed to true, adding a resource to a tile, and saving as a scenario that gave a crash to desktop (my test, using WINE), or some sort of infinite loop when trying to load a scenario. When I tried to re-create it while documenting each step, I instead got the scenario to load, but just with nothing in it, so the game crashed after all tribes were destroyed.

Yes, they're ignored completely by the AI, this is intended. The AI wouldn't know how to handle units with the new flags anyway.

You might want to put that in the patch notes for the next release.

 

[techumseh]

Transferred my files to my desktop with Win10. Happy to report everything now works as intended. Thanks.

 

[CurtSibling]

Yes, they're ignored completely by the AI, this is intended. The AI wouldn't know how to handle units with the new flags anyway.



You can use CivSprite 2 beta for that. Use the json format to export the sprite file, the txt format did not preserve the tribe masks for me. Then add images / json entries for the new units, and create a new static.spr.

Thanks, TNO, but the link in Merc's old thread is shady, and my browser gave me a warning...I fear it's been corrupted.

I'll have to stick with the old program until some new version appears one day.
I like the simplicity of being able to drop a *.Bmp and creating a Spr with a mask file.

 

[400AD]

Yes, they're ignored completely by the AI, this is intended. The AI wouldn't know how to handle units with the new flags anyway.

Ah, good to know. Thanks for the effort you've already put into the patch.

 

[400AD]

In other words, it seems to me that regular, non-Settler AI units sometimes behave as if they have the flags that would give them the power to found cities and improve tiles (not always, but at least in some circumstances). .

I think that was an accidental observation. What is true is that the AI slowly improves tiles without any units, the spread seems to be similar to global warming. In very rare cases, the AI will also create cities from scratch or disband a city and then get a settler unit, even if it is forbidden to build that type of unit.

 

[Blake00]

Thanks, TNO, but the link in Merc's old thread is shady, and my browser gave me a warning...I fear it's been corrupted.

I'll have to stick with the old program until some new version appears one day.
I like the simplicity of being able to drop a *.Bmp and creating a Spr with a mask file.

I just had a very similar conversation with @Civinator as his browser was blocking Mercator's sprite beta 2 link from opening in a new tab and now yours is giving warnings. The same thing happens with the old legacy CFC downloads section too as modern browsers are pushing people towards SSL certificated sites and phasing out allowing people easy access to old http websites and download links and now giving "ooooh scary old stuff, maybe its bad" warnings or just not even opening the link at all lol. I had to force it open in a new chrome window just to get it. I've virus scanned it and it's fine as the file hasn't changed over the years, the internet world just changed around it lol. Traffic has been down on my website Blake's Sanctum over the last year or 2 due to it still being free hosted on a http location so presumably people were getting similar scary warnings when trying to visit and download files etc. So a week ago I finally bit the bullet and bought my hosts premium membership so I could get their SSL certification and put my site on https which will hopefully solve that problem.

.

 

[Blake00]

Nicheal noticed an issue (explained in his thread) with his ToTPP zero template and has fixed it. I've updated the file in my earlier post.

Anyway.. got another ToTPP wishlist question that's sort of connected to my post earlier in this thread about a tickbox for allowing Wonder videos again, as I've been playing with other MGE videos in ToT and while there's a workaround for getting the wonders working in ToT I don't think there is for the other things.

Would it be difficult to bring back the High Council video advisors into ToT for original mode games? eg is all their functionality still there but just hidden from the menu similar to the Throne Room which you brought back with ToTPP?

Sadly they didn't seem to have a shortcut key to access them so I was unable to test hitting that in ToT after copying the video files over.

.

For the hell of it I also tried copying over the Kings video folder to see if the Diplomacy screen video heralds showed up but sure enough they've been disabled in ToT too sadly.

My and Metro's Heroes of Might & Magic 2 MGE mod utilizes custom versions of these 3 things above and a few fans have asked me to convert it to ToT so I've been thinking about it, but am hesitant if our video content doesn't work in ToT and is lost.