[TOT] The Test Of Time Patch Project

[CurtSibling]

TNO has completely re-invented the game more than anyone else. This is an cool time for we scenario makers. I'm grateful at what has been done with ToTPP so far.
I'm hoping one day, we can either get our hands on the fabled CIV2 source code, but until then, we have the patch to thwart many hard limits in the game.

BTW - Being able to toggle global warming on or off in something like @Cosmic2 would be nice for any future update.

For now, ToTPP's 0.16's features, and Lua allow scenarios that were impossible previously. It's impressive.

@PlutonianEmpire
The new difficulty settings must be set up in Game.txt as well as Rules.txt -

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi all,

For those who may be interested, I updated TNO's Test of Time Project Reference Guide to version TOTPP v.016. The PDF can be downloaded from the "Scenario Creation Excel Sheet" thread post #2 located here.

It includes all the latest features added to the TOTPP launcher.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

BTW - Being able to toggle global warming on or off in something like @Cosmic2 would be nice for any future update.

On a per map basis would be especially useful!

@PlutonianEmpire
The new difficulty settings must be set up in Game.txt as well as Rules.txt -

Ah! Forgot about that! TY!

 

[Knighttime]

I have a question about the images - is this the same thing you were working on a few years back where an actual image would display on the screen, much like a .DLL? I remember that you were showing Grishnach this while it was a bit unstable at the time before you took sabbatical. Are we able to display images as a "box" now, or is this new image feature something different? Thanks.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "much like a .DLL" or "display images as a "box"", but the combination of civ.ui.loadImage() and dialog:addImage() works for me to add images to any dialog box and display them on the screen. The images appear on the left side of the popup box with the text on the right, just like it does when the game natively provides dialogs with images. Pretty sure you could have a dialog with only an image and no text if you wanted. Also transparent colors work great, with the standard rules that magenta is transparent and the top left pixel of the image defines that color as an additional transparent color.

Not an end of the world bug, but I have noticed that selection of the CPU patch locks the game upon loading the main ToT menu on my Windows7. I've tried all sort of compatibility settings. Not sure why it is happening, or if anyone else has his crash?

Works fine on my Win7. I do have to start the game twice though (some other games too) due to rundll32 blocking. I've read somewhere that this is due to Windows Game Explorer performing some update check or something, but the servers are down.

The "Decrease CPU use" patch on Windows 7 works fine for me as well -- no crashes or lockups.

However, I also have to start the game twice after rebooting -- the first time it's as if nothing happens at all (it doesn't load any game menus) but Task Manager does show a Civ2.exe process. The second time the game game starts normally. Never understood why that might be happening, so thanks @AyCe for the info.

BTW - Being able to toggle global warming on or off in something like @Cosmic2 would be nice for any future update.

On a per map basis would be especially useful!

There may be some additional (undocumented) fields available to Lua within the civ.game object which are related to this, but I've never really experimented with them. It's possible that they're undocumented because TNO feels they aren't ready for release yet. But in case it's helpful, you could test out:
civ.game.pollution
civ.game.pollutionNearCities
civ.game.globalWarming
civ.game.globalWarmingCycle

 

[Civinator]

TheNamelessOne, thank you very much for the new version of TOTPP! TOTPP now performs much better on my Win10, 64 bit pc (more stable and much faster).

 

[CurtSibling]

The "Decrease CPU use" patch on Windows 7 works fine for me as well -- no crashes or lockups.

That's nice to hear for you chaps - It doesn't help my situation any, however.
My PC ends up sounding like a AH64 on an attack run.

However, I also have to start the game twice after rebooting -- the first time it's as if nothing happens at all (it doesn't load any game menus) but Task Manager does show a Civ2.exe process. The second time the game game starts normally. Never understood why that might be happening, so thanks @AyCe for the info.

I get this too after rebooting. Not a problem at all, some background thing in Windows that gives way on the 2nd attempt to run.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I get the same issue, it never runs the first time after a pc reboot. Only after the second time I try runnning it. And my DEP thing in windows 7 is already supposed to be allowing Civ2.exe to run, so idk what's going on.

 

[AyCe]

Do you have the 2-starts-required problems even when you disconnect from the internet before launching? If it's gone without internet connection, maybe the Windows Game Explorer update-check is indeed the problem. As I said, I have the problem for a couple of other older games as well.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

It happens even without internet connection for me.

 

[AyCe]

I just tested it on my Win10 and now the game freezes in the main menu, or if I don't click away the intro, it freezes in the intro, with the video & sound still playing but it can't be skipped anymore. The previous version did not do this.

 

[Civinator]

I just tested it on my Win10 and now the game freezes in the main menu, or if I don't click away the intro, it freezes in the intro, with the video & sound still playing but it can't be skipped anymore. The previous version did not do this.

It is interesting, that TOTPP v0.15 and TOTPP v0.16 trigger such different results on Win10 pcs. On my Win 10 pc, 64 bit, I had problems with the older versions of TOTPP (including v0.15) and the new version 0.16 is working like charm. It is the first time with TOTPP, that I can enjoy even longer play times with TOTPP: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-test-of-time-patch-project.517282/page-56#post-16069426

I don´t use the intro and have my own dll of my scifi mod when starting a TOTPP game.

 

[AyCe]

It also shows the game process as "Inactive" in the task manager.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

@TheNamelessOne

I've been experimenting with the terrain features, and I've noticed that

baseTerrain.mineTo = nil
baseTerrain.irrigateTo = nil

both produce errors complaining that the value has to be a civ.baseterrain.

> civ.getCurrentTile().baseTerrain.mineTo = nil
input:1: bad argument #3 to '__newindex' (civ.baseterrain expected, got nil)
stack traceback:
    [C]: in metamethod '__newindex'
    input:1: in main chunk

 

[Knighttime]

@Prof. Garfield I agree, it seems like it ought to be possible to assign nil to those fields. However, I discovered a pretty painless workaround in the meantime.

When irrigating a base terrain changes the terrain type, the value of canIrrigate is actually false. (A value of true means that irrigating will add the irrigation tile improvement.) If you change the value of canIrrigate to true, this automatically sets irrigateTo to nil. Then change canIrrigate right back to false, and irrigateTo remains nil -- so now irrigation isn't permitted at all.

I didn't test this with mining but I'm pretty sure the same trick would apply there.

 

[CurtSibling]

It also shows the game process as "Inactive" in the task manager.

That is because the CPU patch crashes the game on some systems. My own included.
Best leave it off and see if your ToTPP will run then.

Because this bug only affects certain people on Win7 or Win10, it has been dismissed as a bug.
But you seem to the second person that has reported it recently.

 

[AyCe]

But it worked before 0.16 with that fix. Now it doesn't work anymore.

 

[CurtSibling]

But it worked before 0.16 with that fix. Now it doesn't work anymore.

Is your ToTPP currently loading?

 

[Civinator]

and AyCe, I have seen something other, that could be different between your and my Civ 2 TOTPP playing with Win 10: I installed my Civ 2 ToT directly in the C: directory, following a hint from Knighttime to play his Medieval scenario.

 

[Knighttime]

That is because the CPU patch crashes the game on some systems. My own included.
Best leave it off and see if your ToTPP will run then.

Because this bug only affects certain people on Win7 or Win10, it has been dismissed as a bug.
But you seem to the second person that has reported it recently.

Well, I haven't seen anyone dismissing this or claiming it isn't a bug, at least I certainly didn't mean to. In your original report of the issue, you mentioned that this was happening to you on Windows 7. So AyCe and I replied to say that it's working correctly for us on Windows 7 -- not to minimize your issue, but to clarify that it isn't a problem for all users of that OS. Civinator replied to say that it's working great for him on Windows 10, in fact better than the previous version -- but then AyCe wrote to report that actually it's not working for him if he tests on Windows 10.

All of this is (hopefully) good information for TNO if he's available to investigate further, but there isn't much that anyone else can do in the meantime except share our own experiences.

I agree that turning off this patch is a good suggestion for anyone having trouble running TOTPP. This is likely a major reason why TNO has written TOTPP so that it consists of over 70 individual patches instead of just having everything run automatically: in case any user discovers an issue on their system, they have the option of turning off a single patch instead of having to uninstall TOTPP entirely.

Regarding Civinator's note about the installation directory for Civ2, I would always recommend that users do not install the game into its default directory, or anywhere else under C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86). (This point is also made in Catfish's ToT Installation Guide.) C:\Games\Civ2ToT seems like a good path to me. But I have no idea whether or not the installation path has any impact on the issue with the "Decrease CPU use" patch.

 

[CurtSibling]

It occurred to me, I am playing on an external drive. Which might be the issue. (EDIT: Tested ToTPP with CPU patch, from my drive C: - And the game loaded!)
Interesting...! And obvious, I guess. Not sure how to proceed, as I never store important primary data on my home drive, and always play via backup externals.

Perhaps TNO could look at a way to make the patch work for people not playing on a Windows home drive? Not a big priority, but perhaps a path to explore.