24-03-2003 04:38									#1
	Civ2 Beakers Counter Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

I attached a program that counts beakers accumulated (and shows next Oedo years). Unfortunately the program don't read values from the computer RAM: before you use it you have to save a game into any .sav file.

The Reload is automated now: the program detects if the file was changed. But this option can slow down old computers so you can turn this option off.

In the game I use the
Ctrl-S S Enter
combination to save the game quickly to "s.sav" file. But the Civ2 program asks if you want to rewrite a file: it annoys. Therefore there is the "delete .sav file" option in the program.

Every copy of the program (you can have different Civ2Beakers.exe files in different Civ2 folders) remembers a status of the last run: a window position, the last .sav file and civilization used.

I also added more computations.

corrections from the last version
The pre-release of this program was firstly introduced in Calculating beakers needed for the next advance . It was made for my own use only and the program was not finished and had some errors. (I use 2 monitors and by default the old version loaded to my monitor that is on the left side. But my left monitor has the negative horizontal coordinates.
You had to move the program to the visible part of the desktop (using alt-space etc. for example).
Now the program remembers a position of the last run. )

Special thanks
Special thanks to SCG who complained to problems with earlier version and to SG[1] whose HutFinder gave me an ispiration to work.

Attachment: civ2beakers_v_0.2.zip
This has been downloaded 29 time(s).

Last edited by SlowThinker on 21-09-2003 at 04:29

	24-03-2003 05:07									#2
	Remove this text

looks nice seems to work too

comments for future versions.
- it doesn't recognize AD years properly
- if you can get it to read the human player flag, you could give a toggle for viewing AI accumlated research, as some might consider that a minor cheat

	24-03-2003 05:27									#3
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quote: Originally posted by SCG - if you can get it to read the human player flag, you could give a toggle for viewing AI accumlated research, as some might consider that a minor cheat

What's that?

	24-03-2003 05:41									#4
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when i load it, it defaults to the barbarian research instead of the human research, and I'm able to view each civ's accumulated research in succession, not just the human player. (i'm assuming you know what a toggle is as you have 3 programmed already )

	24-03-2003 06:07									#5
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SlowT,

I loaded a save and picked my 'color'. The proggy correctly reads the number of beakers accumulated. I noodled around a bit and guessed the "multiplier" to be 26...and the "total needed" filled in. (This can be determined the "hard way" by resetting science to zero,etc.) This is what I mean by a user friendly helper.

This is really sweet, ST!! Thanks for sharing this with us.

If I am interpreting SCG's comments correctly, the year is displayed but not whether it is ad/bc. That's minor. Giving the details of AI progress is not minor, though. Using this information has to be a cheat. Hopefully, people won't be tempted to peak; it would be better, I think, if this element were not in future versions, if that is possible.

Again I say, great piece of work!!

Monk

	24-03-2003 06:29									#6
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quote: Originally posted by Bloody Monk Giving the details of AI progress is not minor, though. Using this information has to be a cheat. Hopefully, people won't be tempted to peak; it would be better, I think, if this element were not in future versions, if that is possible.

hense my suggestion of IDing the human player (there has to be a flag in the save somewhere for which color is the human player

quote: If I am interpreting SCG's comments correctly, the year is displayed but not whether it is ad/bc. That's minor.

not quite, see picture

	24-03-2003 06:46									#7
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SCG,

Your box/OS generates strange differences.

It looks fine from here. The year is correct, just no designation bc/ad.

Monk

	24-03-2003 07:06									#8
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Monk, Civ2 Planner is more user friendly...

quote: Originally posted by Monk If I am interpreting SCG's comments correctly, the year is displayed but not whether it is ad/bc.

There is a sign '-' for BC years.

quote: Originally posted by SCG when i load it, it defaults to the barbarian research instead of the human research, and I'm able to view each civ's accumulated research in succession, not just the human player.

quote: Originally posted by Monk AI progress is not minor, though. Using this information has to be a cheat.

I see I have to hide the initial show of barb beakers.
Also I thought I could force people to set the color before choosing the .sav file...But then I decided that it is not so hard to pick the right color... (Maybe later...)
You know, there is 1000 better ways how to cheat .
But I agree that a player wouldn't have to choose the color if I would choose it automately by the human player flag. A good idea, SCG.

	24-03-2003 07:25									#9
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in this case, i think its just a difference might be that the program is assuming an integer is a word, where my Pentium 4 is probably using a longword. 65535 would read as -1 using a 2-byte integer, and reversing the sign would show +1, as I assume it does on your computer. I'm not so sure that would explain the minor commodity list differences seen in a different thread though.

	24-03-2003 07:42									#10
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SCG,

I guess I have a different view of minor. You get a different list of commodities. To me, that is major and problematic. This Civ Beakers problem seems like something else, though. Could there be a Control Panel setting that needs attention?? Seems like something is missing or corrupted. Good luck.

Monk

	24-03-2003 07:56									#11
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just as a side note on using double-size numbers, here's a picture of my computer with the windows calculator and 2^106 (2 times itself 106 times). On my Pentium I, it goes to scientific notation at 2^44, or around 10^13. We'd have to check with ST to see if he's using an int, short int, etc for storing the year, but i suspect that is the only problem there.

As for the commodity lists, I might try reinstalling at some point to see if that makes a difference. I have over 20 GB of stuff (a lot probably Civ saved games ), and haven't done a lot of backing up for a while, so that probably won't be done this week.

Attachment: calculator.jpg
This has been downloaded 232 time(s).

	24-03-2003 08:41									#12
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SCG,

Well, Sir, that's a neat little dance but I can't see it as ST's problem. It is you, after all, that keeps getting snarky results. I am surprised you haven't done a remove/reinstall yet. Hardly seems fair to offer a review of someone else's work when you know you are looking thru shattered glasses.

I am no expert, but I bet there is a way to move all those saves, etc to another directory, temporarily, while you reinstall the game. I know you will be relived when it all gets straightened out. Good luck.

Monk

	24-03-2003 09:02									#13
	Put an end to popups!

its no problem to move the saves; I've already reinstalled the game (and the commodity lists became a little more consistant, but are still different - i attribute that to when i tried to move my ver 1.07 in the same directory at one point). I was refering to reinstalling the Operating System and all the other programs. there is some other stuff i need to weed through before doing that. I will eventually.

And I'm not saying the problem is the size in bytes of the integer being used, i'm saying that it is a possibility. If it is, other people may well have similar problems date problems. Since other players don't have problems with the year when my saves are loaded, I consider it the most likely with the given information - ST should be able prove/disprove that easily enough.

	24-03-2003 14:23									#14
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

I am very sorry I didn't tell you immediately I noticed the same problem with AD years.
The problem will be corrected in the next version (coming somewhere this week).

In the Delphi6 notation i used
Integer –2147483648..2147483647 signed 32-bit
and should use
Smallint –32768..32767 signed 16-bit
I was stupid, I thought Integer works as signed 16-bit.

But I don't understand why Monk was OK with AD years. In fact I had the ADs working correctly with my early version too, but not now...Could you post a save, Monk?

	24-03-2003 17:59									#15
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quote: Originally posted by SlowThinker But I don't understand why Monk was OK with AD years. In fact I had the ADs working correctly with my early version too, but not now...Could you post a save, Monk?

use his early landing game 1 save - it reads the year correctly. Incedentally, i took a game created on my pentium I and it read the date correctly (running on the pentium 4) Also, i took a game created on my Pentium 4 and read it from my Pentium I computer, and it read the date correctly.

I would guess Bloody Monk's computer has an older processor, and using the smaller int and short int definitions.

	24-03-2003 21:33									#16
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The Monk uses a box powered by 1.3Ghz chip purchased during Christmas, 01. So it is 15 months old; not new, but also, not yet a boat anchor. I also run WinXP, which I suspect does a better job of handling/supporting "old" programs.

ST, the three saves I initially used to test drive your "counter" were all from ad years, so I didn't see the <-> sign used in bc time. Good job!!

Monk

	24-03-2003 22:00									#17
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Looks good ST

SG[1]

	24-03-2003 23:29									#18
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quote: Originally posted by Bloody Monk The Monk uses a box powered by 1.3Ghz chip purchased during Christmas, 01. So it is 15 months old; not new, but also, not yet a boat anchor. I also run WinXP, which I suspect does a better job of handling/supporting "old" programs. ST, the three saves I initially used to test drive your "counter" were all from ad years, so I didn't see the <-> sign used in bc time. Good job!! Monk

Ah, XP does do a much better job emulating older programs than my ME does (i also have a 1.3 GHz machine)... When i get off work, I may try a couple more tests. I also have located a spare HDD, where i may try an OS reinstall on just to be sure.

	25-03-2003 00:06									#19
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One thing I am wondering, SCG. Are your other progams, etc, working without problems?? If so, it is less likely that ME is the problem, right??

Have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling CivII in safe mode?? Hope you get it worked out.

Monk

	25-03-2003 01:54									#20
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quote: Originally posted by Bloody Monk One thing I am wondering, SCG. Are your other progams, etc, working without problems?? If so, it is less likely that ME is the problem, right?? Have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling CivII in safe mode?? Hope you get it worked out. Monk

actually, Civ II 2.42 is the only one i'm aware of showing any anomolies, other than those dos programs which often don't run in ME. in fact Civ II MGE has been very accurate - i spent 1 month as the demo game trade advisor and there were no problems whatsoever with commodity lists, and i got rather detailed at times with freight

	27-03-2003 21:58									#21
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I don't like the idea this could be applied to multiplayer saves. Knowing your opponents' current research progess can make a big difference if you're racing for wonder techs

Could you simply let this tool check if there are multiple human players --- preventing the use of it in mp games (i.e. when more than one human is in play)?

	28-03-2003 02:15									#22
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yes, exactly how does this work...do i have to insert numbers or does it detect automatically...

more specifically, in MP games, what happens if i have no ciites and i get techs from huts...

are you saying i need to save each turn? once each time i discover tech..

sorry i tried to read this quickly but seem to have lost the general train of thought

if this program does what i think it can do, it would be a big help in micromanaging beakers etc..

as for mp games and knowing you opponents tech prowess...

	28-03-2003 02:19									#23
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I supposed that .mp and .sav files have a different format? And so that Beakers Counter cannot be used with a MP game.

	29-03-2003 01:35									#24
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quote: Originally posted by SlowThinker I supposed that .mp and .sav files have a different format? And so that Beakers Counter cannot be used with a MP game.

I wanted to say
.net and .sav files have a different format

	29-03-2003 01:54									#25
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That is not true for sure. Of course a .net save of a multiplayer game could have more options enabled which are pretty useless in sp (sim game f.i.), but the general format doesn't differ between multiplayer and single player saves. It just differs between the versions vanilla civ 2.42, cic, FW, MGE or ToT - and still not in the first blocks about civ info.

	29-03-2003 03:11									#26
	Full PM-box? Change here!

You are right. I simply renamed a file from .net to .sav and everything works: cheat mode, Beakers Counter...

So I will add 2 warnings: 'more than one human player' and 'AI color chosen' so that a player don't get an unwanted information by mistake. I will also allow .net files so that you can use the program in MP games and needn't to rename files.

	30-03-2003 07:06									#27
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What is a better english? 'Beakers Counter' or 'Beaker Counter'? I know SG[1] named his program 'Hut Finder'...

	30-03-2003 09:24									#28
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i'd probably lean to beaker counter, but probably could go with either...

If i were to split hairs, I'd say a beakers counter is the display that shows how many have been accumulated, while a beaker counter would be a person or program that does the counting.

	30-03-2003 21:13									#29
	Version 0.3 (probative) Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

I tried to add a function that allows you to see a map with all specials when you are running Civ2.

Instructions to use:
First you have to find out the seed number (shortly 'seed'). (See Location of Huts for details about relations between hut and special positions and a seed. There is 64 different seeds, so 1=65=129 etc., in other words you need to know only seed mod 64.
(mod is modulo: x mod y = RemainderOf(x/y))

If you know a hut coordinate then I suggest you to run Hut Finder ). It gives you only seed mod 32 (I will call it HFseed); HFseed may be used with Beakers Counter and positions of huts and specials will be revealed correctly. but types of specials (fish/whale) may be wrong sometimes: then add 32 to HFseed.
(For specials type you can also use math I wrote in Location of Huts )

After you found out the seed number enter a name of a file that you want to use as a 'Seed File', the seed number and click the Accept button.
Then go to Civ2 and load the 'Seed File'.
Be sure you chose your civ color/number correctly!
Notes: Unrevealed terrain has continent number set to 0. If the Game File is Reloaded automately then the Seed File is rewritten automately also.

I am sorry I didn't repair some small bugs, I will do it later, but probably not the next week. I hope it is usable now. But be careful, some unknown bug or an unknown behaviour of the .sav format might reveal an unwanted information for you.

Edit: This version had a serious bug! Throw it.

Last edited by SlowThinker on 21-09-2003 at 04:29

	13-04-2003 21:56									#30
	Inflate your Upload Space

7 downloads... how does the 'Seed file' work? Any problems, any bugs?

I have no problems here.