HawaiiFive-O HawaiiFive-O

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!
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Reply #126 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah, I second all the above suggestions. Don't know which I would want first really! As far as Mod Swapping though, It wouldn't take much to build out your Data Management Window into a MOD Swapping Util.

~SDC~
Reply #127 from Stardock Forums Top
We will be to rename the program soon. Gal-Writer Multi-tool this thing almost does all the work for you. I wish I would quit sitting and staring at my work I am trying to creat using it but hey, it is writers block, or whatever you call it yeah thats it. :p LOL

~SDC~
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #128 from Stardock Forums Top
For the Mod Swapper, I'd think it would need to work off a MSL (Mod Swapper List), wouldn't it?

There'd need to be way for the program to know what files are expected for each mod, what mod is currently in play, archive the files so you can flip back and forth between mods, and so on.

Some functions in order to manage the MSL as well (Add/Edit/Delete).

In addition, it would be nice to detect if the user swaps/deletes a file by accident, so you can prompt to repair the mod automatically. Also, what about official Stardock updates to the data files? Some sort of "add new files to current baseline files" function.

And, of course, a way to shell out to GalCiv.

The Data File Management screen gives you the base manual functionality to achieve a lot of this but the user really has to keep track of what they are doing. If you wanted to make it slick and automatic there's a lot more to be done.

~SDC~
Reply #129 from Stardock Forums Top
OMG! My empire for a mod swapper!!!

Now that DarkHelemet has given up on his current efforts we don't have much hope on the horizon for mod-swapping. (:(

Please Hawaii we need you man! LOL
Reply #130 from Stardock Forums Top
Anyone know what the SB model BOOKEND is. I look at it using the GalCiv Writer and it won't let me edit it with the Writer. It uses Model ID 140. It gives me 24 to startbase defense. It is in my coremodels file. Does anyone else have this SB Model or am I the only one?
Reply #131 from Stardock Forums Top
//------------------------------------------------------------------------
SBMOD 140 BOOKEND
//------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name "You snooping in my file, boy?"
Model "Starbase01"
Tech_Requirement "ImpossibleTech"
Module_Requirement "OverlordKiller"
Description "La la la."
ModuleSize 2
LocalAbility "StarbaseDefense"
LocalAbilityValue 24
Type 4
ENDSBMOD
Reply #132 from Stardock Forums Top
BOOKEND is a marker used by GalCiv to denote the end range of possible SB modules.

When I tried to remove it, crash-o-la.

There's no need to edit it, indeed I am unsure of what would happen if you changed some of the values. I locked down the edit screen where SBModuleName = BOOKEND, end of story.

This means we are limited to 140 possible SB Modules (0-139), but that's still a whole heck of a lot of room to play with.

~SDC~
Reply #133 from Stardock Forums Top
One other thing, you'll never get to build BOOKEND because it relies on ImpossibleTech which, as one might guess, is impossible to research.

~SDC~
Reply #134 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks for the information. Just thought I was crazy seeing that.

//------------------------------------------------------------------------
TECH 999 ImpossibleTech
//------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name "Impossible Tech"
Model ""
Tech_Requirement "ImpossibleTech"
Research_Cost 55000
Overview "If you're seeing this it means you're looking at this tech file. Naughty naughty."
Description "This tech is impossible to research. So we use it as the requirement for one time units."
Tech_Category 4
ENDTECH
Reply #135 from Stardock Forums Top
Posted version 1.1.0 for public consumption on the GCW home page:
http://www.ctuit.com/bill/galciv.htm

This version adds Techs and SB Modules to the public version.

I also sent out a new beta version, 1.1.1, to the beta team. It includes an editing screen for Political Parties. Here's a screenie:
http://www.ctuit.com/bill/parties.jpg

Only 3 files to go!

~SDC~
Reply #136 from Stardock Forums Top
Little problem with the political party moder. When you create a new party it says the next avalable ID is 50. So I let it keep that. When I go to commit changes it says you can't have anything 50 or above. Well I find out 8 in the next avalable ID for me and the highest ID is 49. Can you do something with it so it gives you the next ID avalable.
Reply #137 from Stardock Forums Top
Here's the situation.

I wasn't aware of the 49 limit originally. One of the earlier beta versions put the default starting Party ID at 50. I have since fixed this, but you need to reset the Default Starting Party ID in your version of the Writer.

If you get into Main Screen >> Tools >> Options, you will find the setting. Change it from 50 to whatever you like (below 50). In later versions I've got it set at 20.

I wouldn't recommend starting off at 8. If Stardock adds parties their ID #s will conflict with yours. That's why I set the default to 20, to give some padding. But you are, of course, free to do whatever you like.

Sorry for the inconvenience, its part and parcel of being a beta tester. I don't have everything figured out before I send it out to you guys (and gals).

~SDC~
Reply #138 from Stardock Forums Top
HF-O,

I am very impressed with the effort you put into GCW, and the quality of it. Having said that I do of course have some suggestions... ;)

Have you considered having a progressbar on the backup of the data directories function?

Professionally I'm a VB developer and we have been using a very good exe-packer at work for all our VB-applications, making the exe-file smaller and in some cases actually faster. Although this may not be an issue with GCW I feel the need to inform a fellow developer of UPX, as it is called. It's free and you can get it from http://upx.sourceforge.net
It will compress exe and even ocx files to a very small size, and GCW works flawless after compression.

Over and out.

~SDC~
Reply #139 from Stardock Forums Top
so we can add 2 more political parties and the game
won't crash as it used to?

Doug
Reply #140 from Stardock Forums Top
@Duglis: I haven't experienced any crash issues. BoogieBac mentioned that in a recent patch they got all that stuff sorted out, adding the RGB settings so you can set the color, and scroll bars so you can choose properly. And so far I haven't seen any problems, so I think they've been cleared up.

@Steeljaw: Comments are always welcome. :) Hit me with anything you've got.
re: the progress bar. I agree, something has to be done there, it can take too darn long to finish the copy. Not keen on adding a progress bar as current users would have to download an install package with that control in it, but I will think of something- probably a status form that will make it obvious that work is occurring. Thanks for the idea.
re: UPX. Way cool, never heard of it. I will definitely check this out. I'm concerned how the GCW size is ballooning, and this might be just do the trick.

~SDC~
Reply #142 from Stardock Forums Top
UPX will actually not generate smaller downloads in general, since the zip compression can't compress UPX compressed files much further. But as a developer it's always nice to present a small .exe, right? ;)

Is there any chance of getting on your team of beta-testers?

~SDC~
Reply #144 from Stardock Forums Top
Hawaii, did you check the ModSwapper for CtP2 at Apolyton? I sent a message over there last week but can't get on apolyton for one more week because of firewalls.
ModSwapping is the most important feature imo because it cannot be done easily with a text editor, and you don't use it once but everytime you fire the game.
I wish Stardock provided something more modder-friendly for making full-blown mods/scenarios, otherwise we need to be able to group mod files together using some "scenario declaration".
Reply #145 from Stardock Forums Top

"otherwise we need to be able to group mod files together using some "scenario declaration"."
End of quote


*nods*, yes, that's on my feature list for the mod swapper.

If I do the mod swapper, I'm going to download the CTP2 ModSwapper and use it to help me flesh out the feature list before I start programming.

~SDC~
Reply #146 from Stardock Forums Top
Anomalies:
http://www.ctuit.com/bill/anomalies.jpg

and Invasion Tactics:
http://www.ctuit.com/bill/invtactics.jpg

done.

Just Improvements remain, phew!

~SDC~
Reply #147 from Stardock Forums Top
HF-0...

Have u got any plans to tackle the english.str file?

I realise that this is a VAST file which incorporates crazy amounts of data in a big bundle, But it would be extremely handy to have an interface to MOD certain parts of the file without having to navigate through it to find the pertinent data... I can understand if u didn't want to make a full 'form' based interface for EVERY type of editable data in the .str file, but what about a neat little drop down list that lists the different editable aspects in the .str file and when clicked will navigate to that point and allow you to edit it in a regular notepad style way?

I'm just thinking there are certain parts of the english.str file that are almost ESSENTIAL to make a fully-fledged MOD for GalCiv... My first thought is the startup text that you get when you start a game, this is located about 7/10ths of the way through the file... and consequently a search for it takes forever... The ability to edit some of the more common elements in the .str file within The Writer would be BRILLIANT.

Just a Thought though. :)



~SDC~
Reply #148 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh... And Congrats on getting Anomalies and Invasion Tactics Completed. I haven't tried them yet, But If they work as well as your other efforts I have no worries. ;)

~SDC~
Reply #149 from Stardock Forums Top
I've looked at it, it's on my list of "things to take a poke at once the base files are done".

Keeping track of all the data is the challenge, as you pointed out.

The really good news (I think, have to test more thoroughly), is that no line breaks are allowed, so parsing the file would be easy.

~SDC~
Reply #150 from Stardock Forums Top
Here you go, 4D. Ask and you shall receive:

http://www.ctuit.com/bill/english_str.jpg

It is still pretty rough, but you can see where I'm going with this.

~SDC~