OT: nevermind, figured it out
 

Hi all,

I have encountered what I think is a very bizarre map phenomenom.

Here's the situation. I made a map. As part of this, I modd'ed the systems.txt file. Part of this mod was to add a single sentence to each planet's description. So, for example, a 'vanilla' planet that was described as "This planet is known for it's high winds." I modified to read: "This planet is known for it's high winds. It's geological features are strangely xxxx." (xxx is just some adjective I added).

Here's the weird part: I have taken over for a few turns in the game on PBW and so I saw the map in use in an actual game. When I ran my adopted empire turn on my home machine in the directory with mods I get one description (the 'correct' one that I added "This planet is known for it's high winds. It's geological features are strangely xxxx.")

But when I ran the game on my laptop, I get the description WITHOUT the text I added. (ie, I ONLY get: "This planet is known for it's high winds.") The sentence I added to each planet's description has, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.

In both cases I am running Stock 1.91. In both cases I am running from the .GAM file as a player in the game.

Furthermore, I can replicate this weirdness on my home machine by re-installing a stock vanilla version 1.91 of SE4. In that case, I get the 'runcated' description, just like on my laptop. My laptop has all the mods that I have on my home machine, however.

To summarize the three locations I have run the turn and their results:

Location 1: I ran the turn file on my primary directory on home machine with mods, and I get full planet descriptions. This is the directory off of which I did all my map work.

Location 2: I run it on my home machine, but from vanilla 1.91 game directory: I get truncated planet descriptions. I did not do any map creation in this directory, it is my 'test' or 'control' directory.

Location 3: I ran it on my laptop, which has mods, and I get the truncated planet description.

In locations 1 and 3 I am using the modlauncher, in location 2 I am using se4.exe to launch the game.

I was under the very strong opinion that once a map is made and the GAM file loaded up with it, then that map is fixed for that GAM. But it really doesn't look like this is happening. I am not sure what IS happening, but I can tell you: the planet descriptions ARE different, and consistently so.


In sum, I get DIFFERENT planet descriptions depending on which machine I play the turns on. On my home machine (which has mods, etc...installed) I get one version, and on my laptop and home vanilla install I get another description. Very strange.

My practical concern, of course, is that I hope that the things I added, which have actual game effects (and are not just descriptive), are not dependent on which machine people are running the game on....

Can anybody shed any light on this? More than happy to share the MAP file with anybody not in the Zeta 2 game.

Thanks, in advance.

Color me puzzled.

Alarik

Re: Very strange map phenom
 

Do your desktop se4's and your laptop se4's systems.txt share the same modification? (As in is your laptop se4's systems.txt modified the same way your desktop se4's systems.txt is?)

Re: Very strange map phenom
 

Does your laptop have the modded .txt files in the same location? (Sorry, wasn't sure)

Re: Very strange map phenom
 

No, good question: the systems.txt mod I made is ONLY on my desktop. Which would seem, at first, to explain it, but that implies that the systems.txt file is being accessed everytime the GAM is loaded up, rather than just at MAP making time, no? I can test that by going back to the original systems.txt on my desktop, I'll do that...but still, that sounds wrong to me. What, then , is to prevent a player from modding their own systems.txt file - and who's to say that they can't thereby mod their planet values, etc...?

But, I'm getting ahead of myself probably...

Re: Very strange map phenom
 

I'm sorry: corection: it's not the systems.txt file I mucked with, it's the SectType.txt file. that is the one I changed....everything I said above aobut systems.txt I meant sectype.txt...

Re: Very strange map phenom
 

Yep, that test "worked" - by copying over the secttype.txt file to make it 'vanilla' all the planet descriptions went back to the truncated one's on my machine.

Now, that got me thinking: as far as I can tell, using the Map editor, I could never figure out a way to edit the planet descriptions. I could only do that by mucking with secttype.txt. So...I think that the descriptions are read at GAM start, but everything else, hopefully, is not. That seems weird to me.

Ok, just did another test: if you delete secttype.txt from your directorty, and try and run the game, you can't. At all. Error: "cannot load ...secttype.txt" and then you can only quit.

oh well. I guess that's figured out. Still would like to have proof that the map I made is the map the players are getting to play in...

sigh.

alarik

Re: Very strange map phenom
 

The sectortypes file IS loaded everytime you open a .gam file. Text changes to the descriptions made here are reflected immedietly. I'm not sure what would happen though if you changed atmosphere types.

The systemtypes file is only loaded when the map is created. Changes to that file during a game are not seen.