The SE4 companion - Why the long wait?.

[Ragnarok]

Ruatha,

Great job on this utility! I am loving it so far. One thing I cannot seem to get working is getting it to open a mod. Is this feature enabled? I noticed in the favorite settings it has a used mod text area but you cannot put anything there. There is no "change" button like the others. It trys to open the turn just fine but it will not use the mod directory to do so.

Kudos for the "A new turn as arrived!" I like the sound of the voice.

[Ruatha]

Thanks Aiken.
Will put in those checkboxes and see about those bugs.
The clones is propably just a missed CLEAR.
Adding the deadlines is harder but it will come, along with the deadline alert feature.
the IMAP mail seems more questionable though, I still haven't found out how to do it.


Ragnarok> You shouldn't be able to set a mod manually, it should take the mod from the path tha you have choosen the game in.
Say that you chooses a game in "SE4\Mods\Mymod\savegame\fungam.gam" it should set the mod to MyMod and use that mod folder when running SE4.
Doesn't it do that?
(Only favorite games can use mods)
If not, what does the Manual command line in the bottom of the favorite page look like?
That you can always set yourself, so that it can run the game with all the commands that are needed.
But it should grab the right mod.
I'd appreciate if you could post the commandline from the favorite page and the modname.

When I try it here at work with a dummy file structure it sets the command line to:
"C:\TEMP\companion072\Mods\Special\savegame\ngc3_pl r_2_events.txtngc3.gam" "PASSWORD" "2" "Special"
and the mod to Special
as it should. Except from the wrong path bit, a bug !

I guess you haven't put the mod savegames under the mod subdirectories.. I didn't think of that.
Will make an option to change that manually!.

[ June 08, 2004, 22:16: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

Bugs:
-Wrong path in favorite settings. (When setting favorite after choosing manual event edit file)(fixed)
-Cloned Favorites in Favorites box. (fixed)
-Internal browser busy to often.
-Readme file button doesn't work.
-Combobox first line empty after change.(fixed)
-It can say that the SE4 font is installed but still use the wrong font (anyone else seen this? a blank event edit grid) (bad fix)? set option "Force font install at each start" to fix.
-Doesn't work on NT 4.0, (Can't find flaswindow start in user32.dll) (Make another titlebar alert routine?) (fixed)?


Suggestions:
-Manual setting of mods. (90% propability)
-IMAP mail support (Help!) (20% propability)
-Deadlines in PBW combo box list. (75% propability)
-Alert if login to PBW fails (i e wrong password) (95% propability)
- Improve music playlist page with ID3 tag and volume settings (45% propability)
-PBW Scan for temporary player substitute. (60% propability)
-Make dynamic menuitems in Sidenotes for easy entering of empire names (50% propability)
-RTC wrapper. (Third mode for access to PBW, make a dummy SE4.exe that passes parameters to the Companion from the RTC) (5% propability)
- Option to hide first page "Recent" and "Favorites" lists and autoLoad checkbox. (85% propability)
-Bloat the interface some more (110% propability)
-Make it a tee wee bit more complicated (234% propability)

To Do
-Deadline alert
-Setup wizard.
-help files.
-Delete downloaded turn mails.
-Enable backups in Favorites.
-Enable text boxes for "downloaded at" and "sent in" in Favorites.
-Enable PBW button in Favorites.
-Delete nag mails.
-Show PBW individual game news
-Make edit boxes in favorite page direct editable instead of change buttons. (fixed)

[ June 09, 2004, 09:38: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ed Kolis]

Wow, great work!

I just can't figure out how to get it to launch SE4... I hit the launch button and either nothing happens or I get an Access Violation in SE4.exe Is the program perhaps not waiting long enough for the game to finish loading, so it aborts the process? Be nice to my poor hard drive!

[Aiken]

Ruatha, I'm not familiar with coding, but if you're looking for delphi components to provide imap support, look here:
http://www.indyproject.org/Indy.html

[Ruatha]

Aiken> I'll look into it, thanks, propability just raised a bit for IMAP!

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
Wow, great work!

I just can't figure out how to get it to launch SE4... I hit the launch button and either nothing happens or I get an Access Violation in SE4.exe Is the program perhaps not waiting long enough for the game to finish loading, so it aborts the process? Be nice to my poor hard drive!

There are a few steps needed.
First you have obviously already set the SE4 path, otherwise you shouldn't be able to try to start it.
Secondly, if you are using a password you must set the password in the favorite settings.
Third, check the manual command line at the bottom of the favorite settings screen, what does it say.
That is the parameters the application sends to se4, and if anything is wrong it should be seen there.
The application doesn't close the se4 program unless you have checke dthat it should do so when you exit the event page, otherwise it should leave it alone.

Could you post the commandline from the favorite page here (Exchange any PBW Game password if need be):
it should be something like this:
"C:\TEMP\zeta1.gam" "PASSWORD" "0" ""
Savegamepath password player mod

[ June 09, 2004, 07:03: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

Could anyone with win NT download and try this routine?

http://ruatha.homelinux.org/flashtest2.zip

if that doesn't work try this:

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

It flashes the taskbar when the button is pressed, the other routin I'm currently using crashes the app in win NT.

Then, please post here if it works, and which one of them works.

[ June 09, 2004, 09:24: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

minor Version to enable Win NT Users to actauly run the program (hopefully):

http://ruatha.homelinux.org/companion073.zip

Bugs fixed (and some not):
-Wrong path in favorite settings. (When setting favorite after choosing manual event edit file) (fixed)
-Cloned Favorites in Favorites box. (fixed)
-Internal browser busy to often.
-Readme file button doesn't work. (fixed)
-Combobox first line empty after change.(fixed)
- on win NT it can say that the SE4 font is installed but still use the wrong font (anyone else seen this? a blank event edit grid) (fixed)? set option "Force font install at each start" to fix.
-Doesn't work on NT 4.0, (Can't find flaswindow start in user32.dll) (Make another titlebar alert routine?) (fixed?)

[ June 09, 2004, 10:20: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

I've found the mod problem, now hopefully fixed.
That's the only change i remember in 0.74:
(mods now work, still no manual mod setting, that will be in 0.8, now it's only automatic detection)


http://ruatha.homelinux.org/companion074.zip

[ June 09, 2004, 13:10: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ragnarok]

Hmmm, even with 0.74 I cannot get it to work. Same thing happens.
Here is the command line from the favorite screen

"C:\Program Files\Shrapnel Games\Malfador Machinations\Space Empires IV Gold\DevnullModGold\Savegame\MOMI.gam" "mypassword" "5" ""

BTW I do select the game from the mods savegame folder. But it still does not insert into the field which mod is being used.