Vincentz Infinite Projects [VIP MOD]

[vincentz]

yup, thought about commenting them out in the uploaded version, but keeping them around in my own version to see if I can get a "clean" path.
Problem is to find a clean path, I could really use the upgrade trees for better overview

 

[Drakarska]

Hey Vince. I strongly recommend you run a couple of AI auto-plays on MARA (MON diff +) with RB active. I've just reached 2 AD, and out of 32 starting civs, 25 are now toast. I had 8 other civs start out on the continent with me, and 7 are now barb fodder. The only surviving civ left on my continent is the Mongols ( I haven't really had the heart to ghost the poor slob yet), and according to my spy, he only has 2 archers in his city, and no terrain improvements at all.
I'm going to try again on Epic speed, just to see what the differences are (same challenge conditions) and hopefully try to understand why the AI is having such a difficult time. Especially since the first 3 civs to get spanked were the Romans, Zulu's, and Celts.

 

[platyping]

By the way, you have to add in the missing language tags for platypedia to work for other languages.
Can't be bothered looking at the number of text tags required

 

[plasmacannon]

@ Plasma
1) The animals are hiding to regular troops. You need a scout or sniper to spot them.
(in 0.93 there is a promotion : Hunter, that will allow any unit to see them)

2) The 3 tile is a feature of VIP, but it can be turned off in the VIPLoader. I think it gives better cities (city placement) for the AI, and since I almost always place cities without overlap myself, I thought it would be nice when capturing AIs cities, that they not overlap too much (they will still do a little bit)
Regarding settling on resources : the AI will do, even with 2 tile distance. Cant do much to prevent it.

3) Do you mean something like this

Spoiler :

New less intruding scoreboard with attitude icons and both Leader and Civ icons.
Colors at techtree showing which era they belong to.
Top left: Trackers -> Wonder tracker, World Wonder tracker, Resource tracker, Warlord/General tracker, Great person Tracker and not showing yet : Airport/Airforce tracker.

New Civilopedia. Lets call it Platypedia from now on

The sortings options in Platypedia are amazing

City screen ++

#1, Ok. That makes sense.
#2, No problem.
#3, This is what I was referring to in the image below.

The Red Arrow is the # of turns left until your next Great person appears.
The Purple Arrow is your Zoom bar.
The Yellow Arrow shows the # of cities you and your opponents have.
The Orange Fist next to Egypt's #, means they are plotting war (hopefully not vs. me).
Since I have seen some of the same features in the BUG Mod and other mods, (Caveman 2 Cosmos and BAT mod have the zoom bar). I figure some of these features are portable to other mods. One just needs to speak to Lemon Merchant or other modders regarding the specifics.

EDIT: Here is the link I saw recently regarding zoom. http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=209752&highlight=key+zoom

Great work so far.
I'll upgrade to the .93 when it's available.

 

[Drakarska]

I'd talk to LM 1st, as she's really nice about helping out with the warm and fuzzies

 

[vincentz]

@ Drak
mmm. if they are taken out that easily by barbs, then I guess a proficient rush attacker can take them out too. Gonna look how I can improve the AIs early game a bit

@ Platy
Thanks for reminder. wouldnt have thought about it tbh, but since all the text entries have been correctly filled out (with english though) I'll have to do on those as well.

@ Plasma
When I first started the mod (on a rainy season, in a small bungalow, on a jungle hill, on a tiny island, in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand, using an old laptop, with an old cellphone as a modem) I had to consider which modmods I wanted to include/base vip on. I chose none. There are already tons of mods with BUG/Better AI/RevDCM etc, and while those modcomps are all amazing, there wouldn't be any point in making just another of those. Plus they all take up system memory. I used to modmod on Rise of Mankind, and loved the mod, but my main gripe was the slow turns and MAFs in early late game. So I worked very hard at making a BIG but light mod. Big in additions but light on the running.
My recent game (which was the first I actually won) confirmed my expectations, as I (on the rather low end system I'm currently playing) had turn times around 1 minute max even in late modern era with stealth bombers, missile cruisers, modern armors etc on a huge 18 civ map. (iirc it would go past 5 minutes in ROM)
The memory used (in taskmanager) never exceeded 1.3 GB even on the best graphical settings and 1680x998 (998 is a pretty good custom height, when using windowed mode on win7 as a maximize window will fit perfectly without graphical glitches)
I recently started adding Platypings stuff because : 1) they added pretty much precisely what I was looking for and not much more 2) they too (afaik) are pretty memory efficient 3) not many mods use them (yet) 4) they are simply awesome. Adding that Platy is a very active modder and frequently updates is just a bonus
That said : the GP bar is there. the number of cities, planning for war and all the other bling bling at scoreboard : I honestly don't like it. I had a plan to minimize the scoreboard to show the most important stuff. Platy followed up on it, and made THE most amazing scoreboard (imho). The vanilla scoreboard was just all over the place. The BUG scoreboard (while customizable) just adds to the vanilla. If you want WHEOOHRN and #of cities, then go talk with the AIs (#of cities can often be misleading coz if you cant talk with AI, the info shown is not correct, but iirc is taken from espionage.
The zoom bar. I remember playing around with it a bit, and then desperately, in a nearby Obsessive-Compulsive disorderly fashion trying to find 42 (?) again. It always jumped one over
If you can create a BringTheZoomBarToVIP on Kickstarter.com and bring in $100.000, then I'll consider it

TL.DR. In order to keep VIP "light", I had to opting off stuff like RevDCM, BUG, betterAI etc.

 

[platyping]

Generally, even if you off all the functions in BUG, it is still performance taxing, because take scoreboard for example.

They will still ask the first if question:
Is the option on?

Thus, when BUG scoreboard has 10~20 optional stuff, even if you off everything, it will still ask 10~20 times, is this option on or not?

Add all the extra fanciful things, like GP bar, GG bar, tick marks etc, you know why I reject some requests.

 

[j_mie6]

yup, I'm having to work with BUG while I work on psi corps Babylon 5 mod, it is just stupid! if it can't access it's config files for writing it tries indefinitely constantly posting messages on the interface and generating thousands of python exceptions. it posts debug messages about everything (including when you change sevopedia page (yes thanks, I really needed to know that while searching for my own debug statements.)) the bug debug log gets up to MBs in size! it slows everything down. it's good you don't use it vincentz

 

[platyping]

Aha you also suffer the same thing.
I tried helping Xyth that time with his mod.
Every single python in game change => 10000 python exception errors until you have to CTRL ALT DELETE.
Then the next minute I simply remove all the bug files before I start doing python testings.

Different for Ultrapack.
You can simply do all sorts of in game python changes like adjusting position of research bar, changing text colors etc, without a single python exception popup, unless you make mistakes of course.

P.S.
It is not that BUG is a bad mod.
It is just that it tries to please everyone by making too many U.I. changes and yet make them all optional so that users can customise almost everything to suit their needs.
The result is that this just adds to unnecessary performance taxing.

 

[j_mie6]

in the end I prevented bug from changing my files problem dirtily fixed then today in frustration I went and disabled every bug debug statement I need to see mine thanks!

glad to know I'm not the only one that can't work with bug

 

[Drakarska]

While I like all the warm fuzzies that BUG/BULL/BAT/Etc provide to a player, I definitely like the overall TT speed improvement in this mod, not to mention it's actually fun getting surprised by the AI when you think you have 'em in your pocket. My only (albeit minor) gripe is the transparency visuals which hurt my eyes after a while. But it looks like Vince is going to use Platy's art deco, which will resolve this issue for me (my most sincere thx).
Besides, if we're going wish lists, mine would be Adv Diplo and Spy's returning to origin

 

[vincentz]

It makes me so sad when no one is using my VIPLoader

 

[platyping]

Might be more noticeable if it simply appears in the in game option screen

 

[Jwitti]

I use it! I mess with the colors and terrain graphics periodically..

-Note: the VIP version of Perfect world isn't giving me much rocky/scenic/lush/reef/etc

 

[Drakarska]

It makes me so sad when no one is using my VIPLoader

Umn, I do use it. It's the transparency overlay when on the background that affects my vision. I'm not trying to trash your mod visuals here bro ( I quite like them actually), I was just pointing out that I had some minor issues with my vision. My apologies if I have given any offense.

 

[vincentz]

@Platy
shhhh I have used alot of work on the VIPLoader. If people found out it could be done inside the game, then they would never use VIPLoader.... which... they... dont... do... anyway ...

Is it even technically possible to change/edit the theme files ingame?

@Jwitti
yup. the perfect world (and 2f and perfect mongoose 3.2) are categorized as VIP3 mapscripts which means they dont have both wetland terrain and terrainfeatures besides the vanilla ones.
I have 45 mapscripts whereas 27 of them are VIP1 (which have both wetlands and features), so I have to admit, that its not very high on my todolist to add it to perfect world(s)

edit :

@ Drak
No problem just kidding. But wouldn't a Solid color fix the problem with transparent overlays?

 

[j_mie6]

you know I once made a python program that was a logging system, and it stored the log addresses inside it self (it literally edited it's own file ) that was unrelated to the problem but interesting non the less.

and no, even if you could edit those files (which I doubt as the game is using it) you would have to restart the game for changes to take effect


also that program:

Spoiler :

from datetime import *
from traceback import *

class log:
    def __init__(self, debug, exception, minor, number, time = datetime.now().strftime("%d/%m/%y - %H:%M")):
        self.debug = debug
        self.exception = exception
        self.minor = minor
        self.number = number
        self.time = time
        self.debug = writeString(self.debug, "DEBUG")
        self.minor = writeString(self.minor, "MINOR")
        if not self.exception == '': self.exception = writeString([self.exception], "EXCEPTION")
        else: self.exception = "No exceptions\n"
        if self.debug == '': self.debug = "No debug logs\n"
        if self.minor == '': self.minor = "No minor errors\n"
        
    def getDebug(self):
        return self.debug

    def getException(self):
        return self.exception

    def getMinor(self):
        return self.minor

    def getNumber(self):
        return self.number

    def getTime(self):
        return self.time

    def readLog(self):
        print "##Debug##\n%s\n##Exceptions##\n%s\n##Minor Errors##\n%s\n" % (self.debug, self.exception, self.minor)

    def writeLog(self, fileName = "Program"):
        f = open("SavedLogs.txt", "a")
        f.write('##Log Data for %s##\n\nLog created: %s\n\n#Debug#\n%s\n#Exceptions#\n%s\n#Minor Errors#\n%s\n\n\n' % (fileName, self.time, self.debug, self.exception, self.minor))
        f.close

def writeString(lData, eType):
    string = ""
    if eType == "DEBUG":
         for data in lData:
             string = string + "DebugEvent: %s\n" % data
    elif eType == "EXCEPTION":
         for data in lData:
             string = string + "FatalError: %s\n" % data
    elif eType == "MINOR":
         for data in lData:
             string = string + "MinorError: %s\n" % data
    return string
    

def initLog(pythonProgram, debugData = [],minorError = [], exceptionData = '', numberData = 0):
    Log = open(pythonProgram + ".py", "a")
    Log.write('log = logData_%s\n' % pythonProgram)
    Log.close

    Log = open("logging.py", "a")
    Log.write('logData_%s = log(%s, "%s", %s, %s)\n' % (pythonProgram, debugData, exceptionData, minorError, numberData))
    Log.close

lDebug = []
exception = ''
lMinor = []

 

[Drakarska]

@Platy
shhhh I have used alot of work on the VIPLoader. If people found out it could be done inside the game, then they would never use VIPLoader.... which... they... dont... do... anyway ...

Is it even technically possible to change/edit the theme files ingame?

@Jwitti
yup. the perfect world (and 2f and perfect mongoose 3.2) are categorized as VIP3 mapscripts which means they dont have both wetland terrain and terrainfeatures besides the vanilla ones.
I have 45 mapscripts whereas 27 of them are VIP1 (which have both wetlands and features), so I have to admit, that its not very high on my todolist to add it to perfect world(s)

edit :

@ Drak
No problem just kidding. But wouldn't a Solid color fix the problem with transparent overlays?

Yes. But whenever I choose a solid color for the transparency, it always goes back to white when I load a game. I figured it was just a minor bug or something at my end. Hence my interest when you showed off Platy's scheme.

 

[plasmacannon]

No problem. I understand the unique game part and it's always good to have a game that run fast.
I thought I saw someone post the zoom bar info in the forum in the past few months, so I wasn't sure how much other goodies were portable. If I find it again, I'll post it here. Speed would of course have to be considered.

Question. What's the best way to tech up in cities surrounded by jungles?
Is there a slash and burn option that I missed? I don't see a method to build tradeposts earlier on to help pay for the maintenance costs of a few of my cities on a tropical map.
When you start near that equatorial belt of jungles, finding good city spots can be challenging.
I get the idea of having jungles around much longer. There are still some around today.
Could waiting until we have Physics, Chemistry and Scientific Method to chop down or set fire to any jungle tiles be a bit too long?

Not trying to be picky here, just brainstorming here for a moment.
Perhaps a light jungle vs heavy jungle?
or increase the number of forests mixed in with the jungle, so some of the tiles would be workable after chopped? Not sure how easy that is to do.

I had to restart that game with a temperate map, which has worked out much better for now.
I'm going to use temperate from now on. I'm sure the point is to make the Tropical maps much more difficult to use, but for that particular game, I was just getting out-teched on Prince before I had catapults and saw that I couldn't remove the jungle tiles until I basically had Riflemen. Which is basically 'never' for the earlier game.

 

[Drakarska]

@ Plasma; Trop maps can be a royal PITA. You can't cut them until steam power is tech'd. What I usually do is place camps until calendar, then replace the camps with plantations. That's the upside until the appropriate tech is reached. Downside, you still have all the health issues from lots of jungles, so that means a lot of health tech's/buildings until then.
The really good news is, is that most AI civs will be slow as well, which means an even game... Well, except for Monty, Cupac, and Pacal. For some reason they do insanely well on jungle starts... Of course, I could just be paranoid