04-08-2005 05:40									#1
	Events/Batch File Problem Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Can someone anylyze this current copy of 'Empire of the Rising Sun' for events bugs. I've got up the first two and half of the third of six before the bugs became insurmountable. I'm sending the whole scen because it should be thoroughly examined holistically. This copy is to find events bugs, not a full playtest copy. If someone could help me, I'd be most obliged. Just activate the batch file and choose option 1 to start.

Attachment: eotrs.zip
This has been downloaded 9 time(s).

	04-08-2005 07:58									#2
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Okay, I'll be a bit more specific. My too biggest issues are that later events files (so far 2 and 3) are getting a message when chosen on the batch file 'Events header not found' then failing to work, and that, when I can get them to work, certain US triggered attacks are being ignored by the AI and the attacking units just depart.

	04-08-2005 23:31									#3
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Sounds like a batch file problem (well, part of it)...

From what I can see, you'd better change the label names in your batch files. Using (single) quotes and spaces in the label names is not a good idea.

I think it's going wrong there... I suggest you simply drop that single quote and replace the space with an underscore or something.

(and I don't think the "@echo off" lines are necessary, except for the very first one)

	05-08-2005 03:51									#4
	Put an end to popups!

Thanks, Mercator, that seemed to have fixed the batch file problem. And now I've also fixed the problem that was giving me an error message in that I updated some civ and unit names without doing so on the events files. Fixed now! But events3 is now doing nothing; not even crashing the game because its too big or giving an error message. The scen's just ignoring it. Anyone know what could be going on?

	05-08-2005 06:28									#5
	Increase Your PM Length

To be of any help, I'll need your patience as I ask several basic questions to catch up with you. Let's start at the 'forest' level. This is a ToT scenario, right? Are you sure you need six events files? My EA events file is >90k. The sum of your first three is 72k, and I'll bet there's a lot of overlap. Granted, text file length is not a great measure of required stack space, but what is your remaining heap space when you read REPORT.TXT? It wouldn't surprise me if you can condense all 6 into 2 events files. Anticipating where the player will be 6 events files into the game will force you to enter a lot of redundant CityTaken triggers.

Now on to the 'trees'. Glad you got rid of the single quotes and spaces — those were killers.

Do you know that Events2 is working?

Is your litmus for Events3 the Kwajalein text on turn 26?

How does Report.txt read if you insert @DEBUG after @BEGINEVENTS in Events.txt? In Events2.txt? In Events3.txt?

	05-08-2005 08:26									#6
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First, I may well be able to condense my events files into three, if not two, separate files, as I want an initial universal one between Dec '41 and Dec '43, and then one for Jan '44 to Dec '47 if the Japanese are winning by that point, and the same if they're losing, at least. Three would make for less shuffling, and thus less chance of error, than six, admittedly. Second, last I checked (while reading your post), Events2 wasn't working either, though previously it had been. Third, yes, the text on Turn 26 is the litmus for Events3, and the one on Turn 14 the same for Events2, and last test, both failed. And, finally, I've attached my Report.txt as of last test of all three events, this time with the @DEBUG command, as it's way too much to post. Is this all any help?

Attachment: report.zip
This has been downloaded 2 time(s).

	06-08-2005 06:29									#7
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This helps a lot!

Looks like this Report.txt has been used 58 times with Events.txt and 43 times with either events.txt, Events1.txt, Events2.txt, or Events3.txt. [$0.02 ] The newest debug report is always appended to the existing file, so it can get pretty long. I find that regularly editing out older report info or simply deleting the file makes it easier to scroll through the most recent data. [/$0.02 ]

A few things that I can see.

1. "First, I may well be able to condense my events files into three, if not two, separate files...." Judging from the line

   code:
   remaining heap space:  65937 bytes
   

   (i.e. only ~33% is used), yep, I'd say this is true. The conditional events fork is an excellent idea. You might need a third option for Agricola.
   
   
2. There are many illegal CreateUnit triggers toward the end of Events2.txt. The file has "owner=American", but it should be "owner=Americans".
   
   
3. Many of the debugged files are named Eventsx.txt (where x=1-3). This shouldn't be. I came across a similar bug with EA myself. I'm guessing that the Civ2 events parsing routine simply opens the first text file that begins with the string "events". By first, I suspect that it is looking at the order in the OS's file table for the current directory. IIRC, that order changes according to file operations, edits, etc. Regardless of how (i.e. Boco is wildly guessing), it does appear that the intended file, Events.txt, is not always the file opened for embedding into a SAV file. Frequently it's one of your Eventsx.txt files.

I'm pretty sure that if you rename the files to 1Events.txt, 2Events.txt, etc., that ToT will embed the correct events (assuming that the bat file is also edited accordingly).

	06-08-2005 11:36									#8
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Thanks, Boco, this really helps! I'll try working with what you've said here, and if it doesn't work, even after that, I'll let you know; if it does, heck, I'll just release the beta (these events are the last thing needing doing).

	08-08-2005 08:57									#9
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Okay, I followed Boco's advice, and most things in the events seem to be working...except one glitch in my second events file (Jan '44 to Dec '47 if Japan is losing), but I can't find it, and the report.txt wasn't much help. Can someone please take a look at this events.txt file and see if you can find the error? Thanks!

Attachment: events.zip
This has been downloaded 3 time(s).

	08-08-2005 09:43									#10
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

I'd like to take a look at the Report.txt, just in case you missed something. It's usually very clear. Otherwise, wading through a long Events.txt is very daunting.

	08-08-2005 10:04									#11
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Here you go. I hope this helps.

	08-08-2005 10:04									#12
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Sorry, here it is.

Attachment: report.zip
This has been downloaded 2 time(s).

	08-08-2005 15:28									#13
	Suffering from ads?

Now that's irony. Operation Downfall did you in!

Sadly, this is a very familar error.

code:
WARNING - SCENEVNT HEAP GET FAILURE

	09-08-2005 02:27									#14
	Inflate your Upload Space

I see I'll have to go back to my original events scheme. Wish I had been actively betting against you! Thanks a lot, Boco! I'll see what I can do now.

	09-08-2005 03:45									#15
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

It still keeps saying 'Events header not found' when I select option 3 and won't delevent the SR.sav file. Here, I've attached the batch file and the events and report files in question if you want to have a look at them.

Attachment: texterror.zip
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	09-08-2005 04:10									#16
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Don't worry, I've got it working now. Thanks for your help!

	09-08-2005 08:55									#17
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quote: Originally posted by Patine I see I'll have to go back to my original events scheme. Wish I had been actively betting against you!

Yeah, I goofed on that one! Still, it doesn't require 6 events files, does it?

Just remember, the most important lines of the Report.txt are the last ones. If the events embedding worked, it'll list the remaining stack space. If not, it'll explain why. It's very helpful.

	09-08-2005 13:50									#18
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

I've actually worked it out now where the full 6 events files are indeed needed to make it do what I want it to. You'll see why when I release the beta shortly.