hut101: OK, you've got a point, the proggy was being a little too draconian about text lengths.
Now it politely let's you know there's a problem, but it's up to you to drop into Edit mode and fix it.
Any of the beta testers can download this latest version by clicking on the link in the e-mail I sent out a little while ago, I just swapped out the zip file with this new one. You know you've got the right one when it says v.0.9.4.
       
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I am glad to help in fine tuning this very powerful tool. It makes the game better, more enjoyable, and thats what MODding is all about.
Indeed the remedies HawaiiFive-O has outlined above worked just fine. I was able to correct the MOD, play test it, and re-submit it today. Awesome. And of course will be grabbing this new build. I will also be sending you the finished MOD that is very text heavy but stays within the dialog boxes, in game.
 
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Another day of programming, more progress being made.
UP Issues are 95% done. Just have to do some testing, and figure out how long the text fields can be and then I'll be done. Here's a screenie:
 Link
In addition, made some changes to Events.
+ Reworked edit screen slightly:
Link
spelled out more explicitly what you are dealing in for the Effect (%/BC/Millions/etc.)
Thanks to Bill Ko for giving me this idea.
+ Added new Zoom To function. After downloading all the various events out there and writing a few of my own, it became painfully obvious that flipping through each event looking for the one you want to edit just wasn't going to cut it.
+ Added Move This Event To A New File. Perhaps this is what hut101 was looking for? Basically, let's you take an event and stick it in a new file, and you get to designate the filename. Hope that covers all the possible permutations of moving events around.
+ Several bug fixes and minor stuff I can't remember.
This new version should be out in a few days. Then, after it circulates amongst the beta testers for a bit, I'll release this version to the general public.
And then I'll get started on the next set of files to edit.
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Yeah, you should add on to your existing program and make it so it supports more file types. It could be the end all editing program. 
   
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#55
by Citizen 4D - 4/22/2003 11:24:09 PM
How about making this a sticky thread? This app looks like it's around to stay... Very Usable.
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Latest version released to the beta testers. UP Issue functionality finished.
I'm actually going to PLAY GalCiv for the next few nights (as opposed to trying out dozens of scenarios trying to crash the poor thing), but will probably tackle the next set of files over the weekend.
Seems that .sbmodule, .imp, and .ship are all kind of dependent on the .tech files. Probably start with .tech, as parsing that file will be key for the rest.
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Hawaii... any chance of *ever* releasing a public build? I was trying to wait for you & the beta testers to hammer out any problems, but every time you get close to a release you go in and add more features! 
(not that I don't love extra features hehe)
I fnot I guess I'll break down and ask to beta just so I can't try it out 
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#60
by Citizen 4D - 4/23/2003 8:15:18 AM
'(or maybe I'm just not finding all the little buttons that'll make it eat my hard drive, dunno)'
I think they're coming in the next feature update...
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Heh, new feature coming soon to the Writer!
"Format C:? Yes/No"
Glad to hear it's been well-behaved. The un-fun part of programming is figuring out the corner cases:
"OK, what if the user, on a lark, deletes all of their UP Issue files. What effect does THAT have on my program?"
And so on and so forth. There's always something you didn't think of, so you can't get to worked up about it.
Thrull: Barring any reported problems with this build, it will be the public one. Then, for future development, the betas will get the new code first, and then eventually the public will get it. I'm going to let this build percolate over the weekend, so I'd anticipate next week Monday posting a link where you can download the Writer.
Phaedyme: Thanks! You are too kind.
hut101: I should have mentioned this in my e-mail. There are two buggy UP Issue files in stock GalCiv. First, "AbilityBonus01.upissue" contains a duplicate "UPHeadquarters01" issue (also found in "UPHeadquarters01.upissue"). Second, "StarbaseTax02.upissue" contains a duplicate "StarbaseTax01" issue (also found in "StarbaseTax01.upissue").
This is a problem with the base data files. UP Issues can not share the same name. If you have 2 issues that share a name, the GalCiv engine uses the first it finds (my hypothesis, backed up by testing, but StarDock would have to confirm) and ignores the second. My proggy does the same.
So, to answer your question, it does nothing to them. However, if you get tired of seeing those messages each time you go to edit UP Issues (like I did), you ought to go fix them.
And to answer your second question, they have different *filenames*, but the same UP Issue names.
For the first, I renamed the extension from .upissue to .BADupissue. UP Issue type 8, Ability Bonus, is not utilized currently by any .UPIssue files that work. It's clear that the file AbilityBonus01.upissue was *intended* for this purpose, but somehow got a copy of the UP Headquarters issue pasted in. I wrote a couple of UP Issues using the Ability Bonus type once I figured this out.
For the second, from looking at the texts of the two Starbase Tax UP Issues, they are clearly two different issues. I just renamed the issue "StarbaseTax01" in the file "StarbaseTax02.upissue" to "StarbaseTax02" as this was clearly the intent of the person who wrote the UP Issue.
If you need any further clarification, please pop me off an e-mail and I'll see what I can do to help.
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Once I got my class objects and the collection class for the Events happy, twas simple to extend the interface to UP Issues.
And for a lot of my helper classes I cheated and reused old tried-and-true objects I'd previously written.
I am at heart a lazy person, and hate to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to.
Re: the base events with MW > 5, my draconian tendencies flaired up. Quite simply, IF MW 5 THEN MW = 5. If Morality Weights as described by StarDock are supposed to be 1 to 5, I see little need to support numbers outside of this range. That's my biggest problem as a coder though.
"I want you to do it MY WAY"
Always have to fight that tendency, for an example see earlier conversation with hut101 where my proggy was being too draconian.
Good for you for allowing the flexibility, though.
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Whoa, forgot this board doesn't like the greater than and less than characters. I meant to say:
"If MW less than 1 THEN MW = 1, If MW greater than 5 THEN MW = 5."
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You are welcome
OK, added a Zoom To: Event File (and UP Issue File) function. It's only available when you are sorting by file name, otherwise it would be a little nonsensical.
I also amended the instructions file to include a warning about the duplicate UP Issues, and what to do about them.
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#69
by Citizen Mantra001 - 4/24/2003 1:28:57 PM
Only issue I have found is, the pictures as per your screen shots do not show up they just seem to show an icon with the name underneath.
Machine
WinXp, 1Gb
Installed game on D:\ and editor on C:\ if that helps
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Yes, the picture will only show if you have an OLE-Automatable picture viewing piece of software on your machine.
I'm sorry it doesn't work for you, but am not so sorry that I'm willing to spend $200 on a PCX viewing OCX control for my proggy.
Displaying the picture is just a little bit of "fluff", it not working does not compromise the base functionality of the software.
I don't mean to be flippant, I've explored all the leads I could find to display the darn picture for free, but came up empty. No free PCX controls. No free PCX to JPG/BMP converters. No out-of-the-box VB6 controls to display PCX files. No API calls to convert PCX to JPG/BMP. I'm open to any suggestions anyone might have, but I've drawn a blank.
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#71
by Citizen Mantra001 - 4/24/2003 1:42:28 PM
hey you ask for beta testers
I saw nothing in the text to explain the issue (I may have missed it), sorry I raised it, consider it forgotten, unless I come up with a solution
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No worries, hope I didn't offend you.
I'll make the proggy more explicitly state what is going on.
It is explained in the EventInstructions.txt file, under the PICTURE heading.
I just checked Microsoft's site to see if the OLE-automatable viewer that I know of (MS Photo Editor) is a free download, and it's not. Darn it!
I might just breakdown and buy a darn PCX viewer control. I can probably fit it into my department's budget.
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Well, I broke down and purchased a PCX viewer today. Worked great in testing and only cost 45 bucks so I pulled the trigger.
I'll find *some* use for it at work to justify my department's expense
I have to wait for it to arrive, and then deploy this new build to the beta testers, so this will probably push the public release back a little bit, but not too much. It would be irresponsible to release it without adequate testing.
Thanks for your patience.
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