19-05-2004 19:39									#1
	PROJECT: Playest II Increase Your PM Length

Update - 2004.05.19

Here's a new version. Most of the changes here will have little obvious effect.

However, this includes fromafar's alterations to the new SLIC globals that are causing so much trouble at the moment, and if I understand it correctly, this should make v1.1 savegames loadable, and also make the scenarios playable again (Please correct me if I'm wrong). This is a bit more experimental than most of our changes, but it looks like the only way to get it playtested is this way.

[file removed]

[Note that this version is obsolete. The next version is available here.]

Changes:

Fixed: Memory leak in GL
Added: New ColorSet option to userprofile.txt to aid with switching colors##.txt files
Fixed: Treatment of zero freight costs which gave strange trade route paths
Fixed: Memory leaks with government modifications to DB entries
Changed: Select current research on change research screen
Fixed: Check which prevented sueing of franchises
Fixed: When starting a scenario, use difficulty settings selected by user
Changed: French translation of "Network Game"
Changed: Implementation of new SLIC global variables

Previous thread:

PROJECT: Playtest

Last edited by J Bytheway on 18-05-2005 at 05:11

	19-05-2004 19:41									#2
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General playtest info / questions:

How do I make a mod work with these playtest versions?

Although not all have been tested thoroughly, most mods should work with this playtest version without any changes. If you suffer any difficulties please post about them.

Do I need to install the official Activision patch before this playtest version?

It makes no difference whether you do or not.

How should I report a bug?

Include as much relevant information as you can. If possible explain how to replicate the problem. If appropriate, attaching a screenshot or a savegame is helpful. If the bug involves a crash to desktop, then it is helpful to include the crash log. You can enable crash logging by editing your userprofile.txt (in [Your CTP2 directory]\ctp2_program\ctp\) to set EnableLogs=Yes. The log can then be found at [Your CTP2 directory]\ctp2_program\ctp\logs\crash.txt.

When will a new playtest verson be released?

When I feel like it . This will usually be either when some serious bug is fixed, or enough minor fixes have piled up that need to be tested. If you want to test some recent change, you can post here to request a new playtest build and I will try to oblige you.

Last edited by J Bytheway on 02-10-2004 at 02:48

	19-05-2004 22:15									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Thank you very much J Bytheway.

I have not been able to load the saved games from the former playtest version, CtP2 is CTD at the end of the loading process after the interface is loaded and before the map can be displayed.

Last edited by Tamerlin on 19-05-2004 at 22:30

	20-05-2004 00:24									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

DP

	20-05-2004 00:26									#5
	Increase Your PM Length

This version should have the save game format back to what it was originally, so it will be incompatible with the last couple of playtest versions (ever since they became incompatible with v1.1 saves, which I think was 2004-04-30).

	20-05-2004 01:33									#6
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Actually April 3 was the last compatable version. 04.04.18 and 04.04.30 will be incompatable with this one.

	20-05-2004 04:44									#7
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

I just downloaded the new playtest and will try it out.

Edit: Scenarios seem to work though player 1 is red instead of blue. I'm not sure if I had to select the color before starting the scenario but I would think that the default color should be blue. Trade routes take a large number of caravans to make very small amounts of gold...and of course the AI builds them I think that was mentioned elsewhere. Other than that nothing major to note.

I like the new start screen

Last edited by EPW on 20-05-2004 at 05:23

	20-05-2004 11:17									#8
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

I mentioned the first 4 players should stay the same colours as the original game but we still have red for player 1, yes its easy to change but it was an unnecessary change in the first place IMO.

	20-05-2004 13:59									#9
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Will try it when I can.

	21-05-2004 00:31									#10
	2004.05.19 Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

A point of doubt:

I am about to start a new game with this new build, and would like to know if there is a difference according to the patch I install: ei does it have to be 1.11 or 1.1?

Does it really matter which?

About previous builds:
At the end of the current game I have been playing, I have noticed that there is a problem with the sound. It has happened twice that the sound of a flying jet or troop transport ship stays on during the whole time that the computer is calculating the AI's movements. This can be quite annoying as it stays on for quite a while. Has anybody had this?

Cheeers to all

	21-05-2004 04:03									#11
	Tired of ads?

quote: Originally posted by Frog_Gamer A point of doubt: I am about to start a new game with this new build, and would like to know if there is a difference according to the patch I install: ei does it have to be 1.11 or 1.1? Does it really matter which?

It matters not one whit. Whether you have no patch installed, or either, the playtest zip will replace all the files that the patch replaces.

	21-05-2004 07:18									#12
	Re: 2004.05.19 Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Frog_Gamer A point of doubt: I am about to start a new game with this new build, and would like to know if there is a difference according to the patch I install: ei does it have to be 1.11 or 1.1? Does it really matter which?

The first playtest versions had to be installed over a patched CtP2. As far as I remember the latest playtest builds can be installed over a fresh install of CtP2.

quote: About previous builds: At the end of the current game I have been playing, I have noticed that there is a problem with the sound. It has happened twice that the sound of a flying jet or troop transport ship stays on during the whole time that the computer is calculating the AI's movements. This can be quite annoying as it stays on for quite a while. Has anybody had this? Cheeers to all

Not yet!

	21-05-2004 14:18									#13
	Re: 2004.05.19 Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Frog_Gamer About previous builds: At the end of the current game I have been playing, I have noticed that there is a problem with the sound. It has happened twice that the sound of a flying jet or troop transport ship stays on during the whole time that the computer is calculating the AI's movements. This can be quite annoying as it stays on for quite a while. Has anybody had this?

The state of the sound is slightly strange - I won't go into details, but we can't really be sure that we fixed it properly. In fact, one person asserted that what we had done was certainly wrong. I guess this might easily lead to system-specific problems, and I don't know if there's anyone around who will be able to deal with them, especially if they cannot be replicated on other machines.

	21-05-2004 15:42									#14
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

I may have missed this on a different thread but why are the play test in .rar format

Why not .zip as I had to download a program to so a .rar

	21-05-2004 16:26									#15
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by The Big Mc I may have missed this on a different thread but why are the play test in .rar format

Because zips exceed 5MB, so I cn't upload them.

	21-05-2004 17:03									#16
	Support Apolyton

Something I would like to see is a play test .rar/.zip with just the updated stuff after the last play test.

	21-05-2004 17:08									#17
	Re: Re: 2004.05.19 Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by J Bytheway The state of the sound is slightly strange - I won't go into details, but we can't really be sure that we fixed it properly. In fact, one person asserted that what we had done was certainly wrong. I guess this might easily lead to system-specific problems, and I don't know if there's anyone around who will be able to deal with them, especially if they cannot be replicated on other machines.

My first idea was that this has to do with the bug fix they did for the patch, but actual it is not the sound bug that appears when a unit dies, but I don't think it is something we did, basicly we just filled the accoring sound functions with something useful. And I think that I had this bug also in the v.1.1 of the game, well I am not sure about this, but I think that this sort of problem is more likely to appear if you have enemy moves on.

-Martin

	21-05-2004 17:30									#18
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quote: Originally posted by The Big Mc Something I would like to see is a play test .rar/.zip with just the updated stuff after the last play test.

The vast majority of the content changes every time, so that's not really worthwhile.

	21-05-2004 19:08									#19
	Re: 2004.05.19 Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

quote: Originally posted by Frog_Gamer About previous builds: At the end of the current game I have been playing, I have noticed that there is a problem with the sound. It has happened twice that the sound of a flying jet or troop transport ship stays on during the whole time that the computer is calculating the AI's movements. This can be quite annoying as it stays on for quite a while. Has anybody had this? Cheeers to all

I have experienced this before, but not recently. I am fairly sure it is a bug in the original game. And IIRC it only happens late game.

	22-05-2004 19:17									#20
	SLIC functions Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

With the latest playtest build I am still unable to use GrantAdvance() as I have been with patch 1.1, it doesn't work within the framework of my modifications with the current Apolyton Edition playtest as described here and here . Additional observation: With ctp2.exe running in compatibility mode for Win98 under XP GrantAdvance() just doesn't work (advance not granted, but no CTD) without applying any compatibility mode under XP the game crashes generating the crash.txt already reported.

Apart from that (and after having disabled all GrantAdvance occurencies in my humble mod) I had a game running pretty smoothly. That means I am now able to play my "Modern Times" mod on a (not quite ultra-) gigantic map with 13 players at least up to the middle ages - a great step forward compared to Activision's original. My impression is, that the repair of numerous memory leaks (and possibly other optimizations) will make it possible to play an extensivly modified game on more/less gigantic maps with an increased number of players in a reasonable way, which encourages me a lot to get back working on my own modding project.

Encouraged as I am , I had to give the new builtin government variable a try - which ended up in an immediate CTD. Here is the crash.txt:

PHP:


0x0055ddd3  [? GetDataSymbol@SlicStructInstance@@QAEPAVSlicSymbol
Data@@XZ + 0x3]

  0x0055cbf1  [?Eval@SlicStack@@SAJW4SS_TYPE@@TSlicStackValue@@@Z + 0x21]

  0x00544b05  [? IsEqual@SlicFrame@@QAEJW4SS_TYPE@@TSlicStackValue@
@01@Z + 0x195]

  0x005451e2  [?DoInstruction@SlicFrame@@QAEHW4SOP@@@Z + 0x462]

  0x005460e3  [?Run@SlicFrame@@QAEHXZ + 0x43]

  0x005349c4  [?Execute@SlicEngine@@QAEXPAVSlicObject@@@Z + 0x94]

  0x0055c4f0  [?Call@SlicSegment@@QAE?AW4SFN_ERROR@@PAVSlicArgList@@AAPAVSlicObject@@@Z + 0x90]

  0x00545656  [?DoInstruction@SlicFrame@@QAEHW4SOP@@@Z + 0x8d6]

  0x005460e3  [?Run@SlicFrame@@QAEHXZ + 0x43]

  0x005349c4  [?Execute@SlicEngine@@QAEXPAVSlicObject@@@Z + 0x94]

  0x0055c5f0  [?GEVHookCallback@SlicSegment@@UAE? AW4GAME_EVENT_HOOK_DISPOSITION@@W4GAME_EVENT@@PAVG
ameEventArgList@@@Z + 0x80]

  0x00562709  [?Activate@GameEventHook@@QAE?AW4GAME_EVENT_ERR@@PAVGameEventArgList@@AAJ@Z + 0x29]

  0x00563152  [?ActivateHook@GameEventManager@@QAE? AW4GAME_EVENT_ERR@@W4GAME_EVENT@@PAVGameEventArgLi
st@@AAJ@Z + 0x22]

  0x005613ce  [?Process@GameEvent@@QAE?AW4GAME_EVENT_ERR@@AAH@Z + 0x3e]

  0x00562eb7  [?Process@GameEventManager@@QAE?AW4GAME_EVENT_ERR@@XZ + 0x87]

  0x00562df7  [?ArglistAddEvent@GameEventManager@@QAE? AW4GAME_EVENT_ERR@@W4GAME_EVENT_INSERT@@W4GAME_EVE
NT@@PAVGameEventArgList@@@Z + 0x1c7]

  0x00562c0c  [?AddEvent@GameEventManager@@QAA? AW4GAME_EVENT_ERR@@W4GAME_EVENT_INSERT@@W4GAME_EVE
NT@@ZZ + 0xcc]

  0x0040b724  [?InitializeGame@CivApp@@QAEJAAVCivArchive@@@Z + 0x4c4]

  0x0040d59d  [?Execute@StartGameAction@@UAAXPAVaui_Control@@KK@Z + 0xd]

  0x0040c4e0  [?ProcessUI@CivApp@@QAEJKAAK@Z + 0x1a0]

  0x0040c8e2  [?Process@CivApp@@QAEJXZ + 0x112]

  0x00407608  [?CivWinMain@@YGHPAUHINSTANCE__@@0PADH@Z + 0x3a8]

  0x004070c5  [WinMain@16 + 0x65]

  0x00795b8c  [WinMainCRTStartup + 0x134]

  0x77e7eb69  [__onexitbegin + 0x77386a91]

PHP:


void_f GetMaxCities() {

    int_t tmpPlayer;

    tmpPlayer = g.player;



    if(IsPlayerAlive(tmpPlayer)) {

        if(player[0].government == 0) {    // Anarchy

            MOD_MAXCITIES[tmpPlayer] = GovernmentDB(GOVERNMENT_ANARCHY).TooManyCitiesThreshold;

        }

.

.

.

Actually this was an attempt to test both player[].government and database access (GovernmentDB(GOVERNMENT_XXX).TooManyCitiesThreshold didn't work in patch 1.1) - but it seems pretty obvious to me, that in this case the evaluation of player[0].government == 0 causes the crash (? IsEqual@SlicFrame@@QAEJW4SS_TYPE@@TSlicStackValue@
@01@Z).
Is player[].government supposed to contain the db-index or the string of the government?

I am not sure about Terraform(): It is definitely not true that it doesn't work at all as stated here , but I am still suspicious that it doesn't work all the time as expected (possibly it is a problem of terraforming terraformed tiles similar to the fixed problem of improving terraformed tiles - but I will continue testing).

	22-05-2004 19:33									#21
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Found a bug

When you get globe sat the new enemy cities that you can now see are not passed on to diplomacy. So I can’t threaten to destroy any of these new cities.

	24-05-2004 00:51									#22
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

Just to finish this weekend with some good news from SLIC-testing. I now get correct access to the DB-constant below, which never worked (at least for me ) in the vanilla game:

code:

GovernmentDB(GOVERNMENT_ENTRY).TooManyCitiesThreshold

This is a big step forward
I still have the impression that the game runs much smoother now (and I had no crashes - apart from my GrantAdvance() problem - under XP without selecting any compatibility mode until now, which was regularily the case with the vanilla game - but this certainly needs further observation, as there have already been arbitrarily differing experiences with ctp2/XP before).

	24-05-2004 15:24									#23
	Full PM-box? Change here!

@kaan and the team: Thanks so much guys. CTP2 in the hands of the community is probably the best thing since the invention of sliced bread

One question:

My girlfriend and I are both CTP addicts since the release of the original game but our main gripe with CTP2 is that we were _never_ be able to complete a single LAN game. Resyncs and client crashes would occur with ever increasing frequency depending on how far we are in the game (or depending on the number of units?).

I am developer myself, yet I have been unable to find and hardware/os/ctp-patch combo that works stable.

Does anyboy know if network stability will be improved by the patch?

	25-05-2004 21:45									#24
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

This is not currently a priority, the current goal is to rise the CtP2 SourceCode to the level of the 1.1 patch. When the coders will have achieve this result the second step will be to correct the remaining bugs among which the network stability. I have no idea about the time the programmers will need but don't expect a result before several months if not a year... at the very best.

	27-05-2004 10:46									#25
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

I downloaded and played 2004(1).04.03.CTP2Playtest for 5 hours, and only found one flaw, which was a typo. Your work is fantastic! I installed a plain vanilla with the XP patch to make it work on Windows XP. I found it best to start a game before anything else, so I playtested to make sure it is running right, then I installed 2004(1).04.03.CTP2Playtest . The music worked great. I could access all the buttons across the top. The mouse worked flawlessly. The wonder movies played fine. I could go on and on... It works great. The only thing that I missed was the option to destroy the enemy city, absorb the population, or keep the enemy city (but that is in the best mods, and this is a vanilla game).

The typo is in the Great Library entry for Galileo's Telescope. It indicates that Galileo's Telescope "Gives: Increases Scienceratr of scientists in hose city by 5"

I will download the latest playtest and try it out. THIS IS GREAT! WAY TO GO! YOU HAVE DONE AND ARE DOING A SUPERB JOB. I wish that I could help more, but playtesting is about all that I can offer, and even that is on a limited basis. Gordon

	27-05-2004 18:37									#26
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

GordonF, simply playtesting is a great job and if you can do that it would be great

	27-05-2004 21:49									#27
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by Tamerlin This is not currently a priority, the current goal is to rise the CtP2 SourceCode to the level of the 1.1 patch. When the coders will have achieve this result the second step will be to correct the remaining bugs among which the network stability. I have no idea about the time the programmers will need but don't expect a result before several months if not a year... at the very best.

Hmm so the Source Code by released by activision represents an older revision? That's a bit strange that they would do that.

	27-05-2004 23:33									#28
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by eRAZOR Hmm so the Source Code by released by activision represents an older revision? That's a bit strange that they would do that.

Yeah, it's a long story, but we're not going to get anything better, so we'll just have to live with it.

	28-05-2004 02:53									#29
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote: Originally posted by GordonF The typo is in the Great Library entry for Galileo's Telescope. It indicates that Galileo's Telescope "Gives: Increases Scienceratr of scientists in hose city by 5"

I am fixing some typos in the GL so I will fix this too.

	28-05-2004 03:06									#30
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by J Bytheway Yeah, it's a long story, but we're not going to get anything better, so we'll just have to live with it.

Long story?