The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

I had some time over today and decided to make a history editor for SE4 Gold.
It can be found here:
http://ruatha.homelinux.org/history.zip

Feedback apprecieted.
I don't think the history function works insimul games?? Perhaps you can use this editor to manually insert history?

I haven't tested it more than twice... so expect bugs.

If anyone has space for it please make it availible elsewhere as I'll close my server tomorrow.

[ August 06, 2004, 08:52: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Now also available at:

http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/...toryeditor.zip

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Thanks!!

I'm thinking of spinning further on this.
Perhaps making a textsave function that can be sorted by turnnumber and sender/receiver of in-game Messages, and then making a note automaticly in the in-game history that a message is stored.
That way you copy the message you have received or is about to send and paste it into a special app, the message is then saved and you can see that in-game.
But you'll have to open the external application to see the actual message.

Or perhaps I could divide the message into several lines and include it in the in-game history...
Is there a limit for the history text file size??

[ April 27, 2004, 19:14: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Just curious as to why we would need this utility?

Why would we want to edit the history file?

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

I've used the history file in the past by editing the text file to remember when treaties are signed, if there are any special conditions in the treaty.
I,e "don't enter his territory", "Free passage"
etc.
It's a handy way of keeping short in-game notes, related to the different races.

And I've added historical events that I'd like to remember.
I'E "He invaded my planet, REVENGE!", "I Finally discovered stellar manip","Big battle, took out his 200 dread fleet!"

Etc.
YOUR imagination sets the limits... if you don't have any imagination you won't have any use for this application http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

An made up example:
http://ruatha.homelinux.org/exempel.jpg
(Only visible when my computer is on!)

[ April 27, 2004, 19:24: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

I just checked it out, this is such a cool tool to have. You should see that Aaron adds one into SE V.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

I'll make a ver 1.1 with support for multi lines message, so one can copy the in-game Messages.

EDIT:
If anyone knows what the two columns with "0" in are for, I'd be glad to know.
I've found no use for them, so in this application they are disabled.

[ April 27, 2004, 19:51: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Now the ver 1.1 is availible at :
http://ruatha.homelinux.org/history_11.zip

I hope SJ uploads this instead.
Now you can copy your in-game Messages, insert them and view them in the game in the future!

http://ruatha.homelinux.org/exempel2.jpg
(Only visible when my computer is on)

[ April 27, 2004, 19:49: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Hmm, just remembered that I haven't made inclusions for history files longer than one screen, Don't use any of these Versions.
Ver 1.2 will soon be up!!!

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

You might want to tweak the message writing so that the multiline Messages are more distinct...

Something like a double pipe || for each new line in the same message, or a set of dashes / asterisks to denote message separators.

Uploaded.
To avoid lots of reposting similar links, just visit:
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/MM/SE4/Tools/
And select it from the list.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Here is ver 1.2
http://ruatha.homelinux.org/history12.zip

I've used one of the "0" colums that I don't know what they are for, and set that to 1 for multi Messages.
Also included message start and message end lines and a "Lesser than" sign at the beginning of all Messages.

Now I'm off to bed.
G'ght

[ April 27, 2004, 21:21: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Noone but AT and SJ who have tried it??

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

It's been less than a day (in the US). Give it time. I'm personally waiting for a few days to let any bugs get worked out.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Wise I guess http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif
But I'd like to know if there are any bugs... So I need someone to test it...

I've tested it with savegames from ver 1.84 and ver 1.91.
There is a difference between the two Versions savegames, the app now detects the difference and adjusts to it.
How it works with earlier Versions I don't know.

Still the same Version as in the post below:
http://ruatha.homelinux.org/history12.zip
or at SJ's page:
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/MM/SE4/Tools/

[ April 28, 2004, 05:07: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Sounds usefull.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

This will be an excellent tool for multiplayer if you can get it to work.

Also can this be perverted into a save game editor?

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

It can't be used as save game editor, since it doesn't touch the .gam file, but edits *_plr_xx_event.txt.

Ruatha, small feature request: dropdown list with most recenly used games, and maybe an option to automatically enter empire if it's marked as "Exist".

Thanks Ruatha for this great tool (though I prefer to keep track of diplomacy with organiser).

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes, the savegames are encrypted and I won't be messing with that.
A dropdownlist can be done, the auto select feature I'm not sure what you mean?
All empires in the game exists, some are marked Alive, but in the beginning of the game all empires are alive...??
Ohh, you mean if it already exists a event.txt file, yes, I can do that!
Guess I'll have to make an "options" screen.

I could do a favorite selection list aswell, to quickly enter a particular game and empire.
And perhaps a filter, showing only Messages a special turn or to/from a special player.
And in the multi line message an option to mark if it's from or to a player, and then that info in the ** Message starts ** line.

All ideas are welcome.
But today I'm back at work, I just did this yesterday as I was home and a bit boored.

It works quite well in both single player and multi player games (both seq and sim) right now, from the limited testing I've done.

//
So, the ver 1.3 will have an "advanced" check box, that will decide if it will show extra features such as Favorites lists etc, or the bare backbone cleanest possible screen, so that the first impression won't be that it's cluttered with features.
It will remember if the checkbox was filled in the Last time you used it.

//

Still the v1.2 as the current Version:
http://ruatha.homelinux.org/history12.zip
or at SJ's page:
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/MM/SE4/Tools/

[ April 28, 2004, 10:38: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Love this tool! Great idea. Is there any way for there to be any sort of automatic entries? Or will it have to remain manual entry only?

Great job.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">In single play there are auto entries for contacts and treaties with other races, but not in multiplayer games, IIRC.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Well all we need now is a save game editor. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

J/K

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Finished the recent list, saves up to 20 games in a drop-down combo box, with a "enter if only one exist" check box.
So one click and you're in.
Will make a favorite list and some more changes aswell.
And await any bug report before making a ver 1.3.

Been to many releases too fast already!!

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

No bugs in the meantime.
Where was a small graphical glitch in v.1 with the button, but it disapperared.

One more feature request (I swear it will be the Last one http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ) - possibility to delete multiple events at once, ie Shift+left click multiple text lines and then press Delete events to remove them all. Will be usefull to remove long multiline Messages.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I like requests.
I've had some problems with the recent list, but now it works, have only tried it with less tahn 20 games in the list, must fill it to see that it works.
A multi line delete function will be included in ver 1.3.

G'Night

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

I can't believe I missed this thread until today. What a great program! Thanks, Ruatha!

Feedback:

- I notice that the history entries are not viewable in-game until the next turn. Is there a limit on how many entries can be made before processing a turn? Is there a limit to the total length of a history for a given race?

- I notice that if you choose "multi line entry" in v1.2, you still are forced to enter a main message before saving, but only the muli line entry shows up in the history, not the main message. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

- I noticed that the history is not actually sorted by in-game date, it is listed sequentially by when it was entered. Probably not much you can do about the sort order except to enter things on the turn that they happen so they appear sequential.

- I'm trying to think of the best way to use this in a multiplayer game. I'm thinking that, since we now have mid-turn save capability, that it would go something like this:
----- load turn and as a first action, read all incoming political Messages and other log entries that you want to enter into the history file.
----- minimize se4, load the history editor and enter all the updates to the history file.
----- save the turn, and reload so that you now have the entries in-game.
----- do all other actions for your turn except outgoing Messages or diplomatic actions (treaties, gifts, etc.) Save these for Last because of se4 quirk about sometimes not sending these if they are done early in a turn.
----- save game after orders made (optional).
----- Last, do your outgoing politics, then save game again.
----- make additional history entries based on our out-going political Messages/actions.
----- reload game and check history for correctness, then "end turn" to process the turn.

edit: ubb quirks on spacing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Comments?

Slick.

[ April 28, 2004, 22:26: Message edited by: Slick ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Good appraoch slick

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Suggestion, a back button. This way you don't have to keep loading the same save game over and over again. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Thanks slick.

- I notice that the history entries are not viewable in-game until the next turn. Is there a limit on how many entries can be made before processing a turn? Is there a limit to the total length of a history for a given race?

-Don't know, I've not imposed any limits, but I don't know if the game has a length limit.


- I notice that if you choose "multi line entry" in v1.2, you still are forced to enter a main message before saving, but only the muli line entry shows up in the history, not the main message.

-I don't understand quite what you mean, could be a bug that's already fixed in the current dev Version.
When I make a multi-line message and exits the entry-box it's in the message list to the left in the application, and when I choose save changes it's saved, just as if I'd made a normal single line message.
And it doesn't seem to delete any followed single line entry now either.
So it could already be fixed.....
Nothing is saved until you choose the save button.

EDIT:Loaded up ver 1.2 and yes, you where right, and yes, it's already fixed in next ver.

(How could I fix a bug I didn't know about?
After compiling and building v 1.2 I added a few other changes, didn't like them and closed the project and reloaded it, just to see that I hadn't saved after making the multi-line message function.
So I remade it, obviously better this time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )


- I noticed that the history is not actually sorted by in-game date, it is listed sequentially by when it was entered. Probably not much you can do about the sort order except to enter things on the turn that they happen so they appear sequential.

-Will make a sort by date button, thanks!
---------


AT, what do you mean?
Do you mean an ability to go back to the player selection screen without reloading the game?
I can do that.
In the current dev Version there is a recent list with an auto entry check box, one click and you can be in the edit mode for any of the Last 20 games.

Edit2: Will post a new Version before the weekend, as I'll be gone for a LAN meeeting with some friends this weekend I won't be working on this app.
=============================

Todo:
-Favorites, button and combobox.
-Multi line delete, selection.
-To/From multi-line message mark, radio buttons.
-Back to player selection button, button.
-View history by date or player, dialog.
-Re-sort history by dates, button.
-Mark ini file with Version, ini file.
-Show initial info-splash screen when new Version or first run, ini file.
-Reg button, just to let me know if anyone is using it, won't effect application, button.

Done:
-Mark Multi-line Messages with header,end and left side markers.
-Fixed multi-line saving bug, re-programming.
-Recent games list, combo box.
-Auto select if only one event file exits in game, check box.

[ April 29, 2004, 05:52: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Wauw, needed that tool 3 years ago.

Intimidator

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

New Version 1.3.
All new buttons are in there, but most are still disabled as the code isn't finished.

http://ruatha.homelinux.org/history13.zip


Done:
-Mark Multi-line Messages with header,end and left side markers.
-Fixed multi-line saving bug, re-programming.
-Recent games list, combo box.
-Auto select if only one event file exits in game, check box.
-Mark ini file with Version, ini file.
-Show initial info-splash screen when first run, ini file.
-Reg button, just to let me know if anyone is using it, won't effect application, button.
-About, Dialog.
-Status bar, counts number of executions of application, bar and ini file.

Done in development Version:
-To/From multi-line message mark and clipboard paste, radio buttons. (Enable) (*)
-Back to player selection button, button.(*)
-Select Last turn+1 in turn(date) box, button. (Enable)(*) /Note to self, +1 and inc maxdate when spedadv inc /
-After addition, autoscroll down to added item.(*)

Still Todo:
-Favorites, button and combobox. (Enable)
-Multi line delete, selection. (Program)
-View history by date or player, dialog. (Enable)
-Re-sort history by dates, button. (Enable)


(*) = Finished/Enabled in current dev Version.

Going away for the weekend.

More suggestions and bug reports wanted before monday.

Se Ya
Ruatha

[ May 01, 2004, 05:56: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Excellent program Ruatha, thank you very much. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

BTW, the new registration button.
It doesn't cost anything and not registering means nothing.
Wheater you register or not, the application is still the same.
If you wish your name in the status bar but don't want to register, hit the reg button and cancel the meail instead of sending it.

The only reason to register is to encourage me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

(It's a " I like your work" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Button)

This is with all buttons and boxes, the current dev Version.
It may look like some things are on-top of eachothers but they won't be displayed at the same time:

http://ruatha.homelinux.org/exempel3.jpg

[ April 30, 2004, 10:59: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

SJ, could you upload this asap to the tools section.
I'm sure my wife will turn off the computer when I'm away this weekend.
Telling her not to seldom works http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Nice gizmo Ruatha! Thanks for the hard work!

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Hurrah, I 've got my first (and so far only) registred user.
This means I'll have to continue the development to support the clients!

Thankyou XenoTheMorph.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

I've downloaded and installed v1.3 but I can't find a register button. Otherwise, I'd have registered my copy too!!

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

It's the "reg" button.

Although, Ruatha, what am I supposed to put in the first "input" box? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Slick.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmm, guess it need more work.
Answer: it's suppose to say name: there.
That's the only info entered, ie name or nickname.

I'll change it to Register in the next Version, the next Version will be much more slick http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ May 03, 2004, 05:08: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, I know that. But I don't have a Reg button. Not on the main screen, about screen, or history input screen.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, I know that. But I don't have a Reg button. Not on the main screen, about screen, or history input screen. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Have the latest Version? 1.3?

edit: whoops, you said that.

Slick.

[ May 03, 2004, 15:11: Message edited by: Slick ]

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

V 1.4 here we come - good work there
Wonder if MM will make SE3 opensource once SE5 is out. Maybe a few in the opensource community will take it to enhance the game - he wont be making any revenues from it anyway.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmm, it checks the ini-file for the name Unregistred, if that's there it should show the button.
Did you upgrade an older (a few days older http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ) Version or make a completely new install?
In the event entering screen, does it give any name in the statusbar at the bottom? i e Registred to: Unregistred?
I'd be glad to know as it would help me be a better programmer!

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

bearclaw, delete hist.ini file to see the reg button. Then restart, and you're are registered.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Regged user no 2: Aiken.

Yes, you are right about the hist.ini file.
It wasn't supposed to work that way and I've fixed it in the next Version, but right now you need to delete the ini file, or wait for the next Version that will correct it and then you'll see the reg file.
Will be out in the end of this week.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

I wonder, why Registered user N 1 is not Ruatha http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Got it, thanks

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

how do you register it?

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

I have Version 1.3 and it looks nothing like what you have posted. It does not seem to have a register button at all.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

Find hist.ini file in the folder where history.exe is placed, and delete this file. Now launch history.exe and you should see Reg button. After regging program will create a email to Ruatha. Send it to let him know that you're regged.

Re: The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You can wait until the end of the week, ver 1.4 will show the reg button for you aswell.