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GalCiv Writer

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GalCiv Writer

from Stardock Forums
A beta version of my Event Writer program is now available for any hardy souls who'd like to give it a try.

You can find a screenshot here:
http://www.ctuit.com/bill/galciveventwriter.jpg

You can find the instructions file here:
http://www.ctuit.com/bill/EventsInstructions.txt

This program has *not* been put through vigorous stress testing, so I do not recommend you install it without knowing what you are getting into. It will make several backups of the .event files in case something goes awry, but if you are not comfortable finding/renaming files on your hard drive, I highly recommend you stay away for the time being. In addition, as mentioned, this program is in a fairly untested state, so if this makes you nervous, stay away as well. I can confirm that GalCiv will load my modified event files, and fire off the events, so all seems well, but I only tested it on 4 machines that might not be representative of the general population (Win98, Win98SE, Win2000, WinXP, that's the extend of my testing facilities at work ;p ) Proceed at your own risk.

If you are interested in beta'ing this program, please contact me at:
[email protected]
and I will e-mail you a self extracting zip program with the install package. It is 1.7 megs, so if you are on dialup you'll have to be patient.

Future updates will be available via http download.

I moved the Events onto a separate form at the last minute, in anticipation of *maybe* adding more editing screens for techs, UP issues, SB modules and the like (no promises!), so in order to get to the events you have to select Edit>>Events.

The install package will add a program group, the default installation location is C:\GalCivWriter.

Please post here with any questions, comments, and feature requests.

Thanks!
27,928 views 272 replies | Pinned
Reply #26 from Stardock Forums Top
Wow, that program is simple and easy to use, I just made an event about a philosopher.. Little touch of socrates, but wow, it was super quick.

~SDC~
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #28 from Stardock Forums Top
The forums lag sometimes. I've clicked "submit" twice a couple of times. Now I just ignore the lag.

And yeah, the writer is great.

~SDC~
Reply #29 from Stardock Forums Top
When will the latest version be released? :)

Doug
Reply #30 from Stardock Forums Top
Sometime this weekend, I'd imagine. I've added a few new features to the Events screen:
+ Sort Alphabetically
+ Sort By File (default)
+ You can now save an event into any of the current .event files in the \Data directory (but not into CoreEvents or BonusEvents as those are the base GalCiv events)
+ There's a function within the program to back up the entire \Data directory

All of these new features were suggested by RustyBlade. Anyone who is currently beta'ing the program is welcome to make suggestions.

I'll release the next version once I've got UP Issues nailed down. They are about 50% done at this point.

After that, I dunno. Anyone have any suggestions on what to tackle next?
Reply #31 from Stardock Forums Top
I am one of the beta testers. I was wondering if you could add some kind of option so I can turn of the backup system the program uses. I hate when it makes two copies of every event file. Since now I have three identical event files files for every event. I usally do my own backup the way I do it. Also, I would like some way to rename event files using the GalCiv Writer.
Reply #33 from Stardock Forums Top
hut101: "I was wondering if you could add some kind of option so I can turn of the backup system the program uses"

OK, there's now a checkbox on the Options screen that will allow you to turn off the Auto-Backup feature.

hut101: "Also, I would like some way to rename event files using the GalCiv Writer."
Malleus: "I would like to echo the request to rename the event files."

OK, you can now rename event files within the Writer. You may not rename from/to CoreEvents and BonusEvents, but everything else is fair game. This, plus the other feature I added yesterday wherein you can save an event into any available event file (once again exclude Core and Bonus) ought to give everyone the flexibility they need to manage their event files.

This new version will go out once UP Issues are put to bed, some time this weekend.

Thanks for your patience.
Reply #34 from Stardock Forums Top
I was going to make a suggestion, but someone beat me to it (the naming thing).

~SDC~
Reply #35 from Stardock Forums Top
HawaiiFive-O,

Very important that you check your e-mail ASAP.

04/19/2003 7:51 AM

RustyBlade
:) ;) :D LOL :p ;p :d :notsure:
Reply #37 from Stardock Forums Top
You can say that again.

~SDC~
Reply #39 from Stardock Forums Top
You have a keen grasp of the situation, Malleus. :)

~SDC~
Reply #40 from Stardock Forums Top
RustyBlade: I've got your e-mails and will go through the scenarios you laid out to confirm the problems.

Essentially, it appears the description and option texts can't be longer than a certain length. Once I ascertain how long it can be, it will be trivial to set a MaxLength property that will keep people out of trouble using my proggy.

Thank you very much for the save games, this will do wonders to shorten the troubleshooting time!

I'll post an update later.
Reply #41 from Stardock Forums Top
WOW that looks cool!

~SDC~
Reply #43 from Stardock Forums Top
Frogboy: I am extremely flattered I elicited a "WOW" from the lead designer of my favorite game. I'm just trying to do the GalCiv legacy justice with my editor. :)

RustyBlade: What a trooper. I couldn't have fixed the bugs you found without you. Thanks again!

All: I just released my latest version to the beta testers. I was holding off until I got UP Issues to bed, but considering this version takes care of numerous crash issues, I thought it best to kick it out before moving on to UP Issues.

Other than the new features mentioned earlier in this thread, this version resolves the crash issues RustyBlad reported.

If you are planning to write events, with or without the Writer, you'll want to keep in mind that:
1) The EventName can not lead off with a number. 1man will crash GalCiv. OneMan is OK. man1 is OK, as well.
2) Only alpha/numeric/underscore characters are allowed in the EventName. So One!Man is bad, One Man is bad, One-Man is bad, but One_Man is OK, OneMan is OK, OneMan01 is OK.
3) There may not be any double quote characters within any text strings. So "On a distant planet, the man called "Strider" met the rising sun with a grimace." is bad, but "On a distant planet, the man called 'Strider' met the rising sun with a grimace." is OK. Keep the quotes on the ends of the text string and you'll be OK.

That's all for now. Iffy if I'll get UP Issues done this weekend, but I think it's for the best.
Reply #44 from Stardock Forums Top
Is there any posible way of later adding a feature where I can change the file name of an event even though it is in another event file with other events. When you change the name of that event to a new event file name it will just bump that event out into it's own event file. I hope you can understand what I just said.
Reply #45 from Stardock Forums Top
Another Idea: Also a way to see the entire event like you would in the game itself. Not like it is now where you see the description seperate and the choices seperate.
Reply #46 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh, are you going to later add the ability to make research mods and improvement mods.
Reply #47 from Stardock Forums Top
made my first .event mod with this :)

http://www.fjun.com/undernet/games/galciv/mods/mymods/

or just goto the library on this site lol, they published it really fast :/
Reply #48 from Stardock Forums Top
hut101: "Is there any posible way of later adding a feature where I can change the file name of an event even though it is in another event file with other events. When you change the name of that event to a new event file name it will just bump that event out into it's own event file. I hope you can understand what I just said."
Can't you do just this by viewing the event, going to Edit This Event, and then selecting the event file you want to write this event to? There's a drop box for Event File that should populate with all the available event files you could write to.

hut101: "Another Idea: Also a way to see the entire event like you would in the game itself. Not like it is now where you see the description seperate and the choices seperate."
Sorry, no. Rebuilding the event screen as displayed in-game is outside of the intended scope of this project.

hut101: "Oh, are you going to later add the ability to make research mods and improvement mods."
Possibly. Most likely.

James Feschuk: Cool! Let me know if you see any room for improvement.

Reply #49 from Stardock Forums Top
I have noticed that after you added the feature that prevents you from making the text to long in events is working a little to good. I am surfing through all the events in the Writer and without clicking on the "Edit This Event" it says "The original Evil Option length for this event was too long and would have displayed poorly in-game......". It erases some of the text with out asking me, and I have to go in a correct these events. I so far I have had to correct three of the bonus events and I have not even go to the core events. I was wondering if there is a way to make it ask you if you want the program to erase the text before you have had a chance to look at it, and correct it.
Reply #50 from Stardock Forums Top
hut101: OK, you've got a point, the proggy was being a little too draconian about text lengths.

Now it politely let's you know there's a problem, but it's up to you to drop into Edit mode and fix it.

Any of the beta testers can download this latest version by clicking on the link in the e-mail I sent out a little while ago, I just swapped out the zip file with this new one. You know you've got the right one when it says v.0.9.4.