GalCiv Writer

from Stardock Forums
A beta version of my Event Writer program is now available for any hardy souls who'd like to give it a try.

You can find a screenshot here:
http://www.ctuit.com/bill/galciveventwriter.jpg

You can find the instructions file here:
http://www.ctuit.com/bill/EventsInstructions.txt

This program has *not* been put through vigorous stress testing, so I do not recommend you install it without knowing what you are getting into. It will make several backups of the .event files in case something goes awry, but if you are not comfortable finding/renaming files on your hard drive, I highly recommend you stay away for the time being. In addition, as mentioned, this program is in a fairly untested state, so if this makes you nervous, stay away as well. I can confirm that GalCiv will load my modified event files, and fire off the events, so all seems well, but I only tested it on 4 machines that might not be representative of the general population (Win98, Win98SE, Win2000, WinXP, that's the extend of my testing facilities at work ;p ) Proceed at your own risk.

If you are interested in beta'ing this program, please contact me at:
[email protected]
and I will e-mail you a self extracting zip program with the install package. It is 1.7 megs, so if you are on dialup you'll have to be patient.

Future updates will be available via http download.

I moved the Events onto a separate form at the last minute, in anticipation of *maybe* adding more editing screens for techs, UP issues, SB modules and the like (no promises!), so in order to get to the events you have to select Edit>>Events.

The install package will add a program group, the default installation location is C:\GalCivWriter.

Please post here with any questions, comments, and feature requests.

Thanks!
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
...This isn't a request, comment or question. It's called 'encouragement' cause I think your onto a good idea.

Keep working on this project of yours, It looks like it's got brilliant potential. Reading the FAQ's on how-to MOD different things for GalCiv I was thinking, It's not too hard, however with utils like this, writing small and numerous MOD's will be quick and efficient work.

I hope it's possible to add things like UP Issues and Techs in the future, this will be an invaluable timesaving tool...

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
RustyBlade: Both of my attempts to email you the install package were returned undeliverable. Do you have another email I should try?
TouchTasks - Access tasks with ease on Windows touchscreens.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
4D: Thanks for the kind words. The biggest roadblock to continued development is understanding what all the flags in the files mean and do. I've posted a request for information on the next file I'm going take a swing at, UPIssues.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Bloody excellent, right on! THANKS for this effort. Looks good.

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I am not sure if my emails are getting out anymore. :( I just wanted to confirm that you were going to send me a beta of your event builder.

M
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Malleus: I sent you a copy at 10:16 AM this morning Pacific time. Have you received it yet? I can resend it if necessary.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Yep I recieved it and it unzipped just fine. Will be testing it today if I get a chance.

~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Hey, that looks really nice.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
HawaiiFive-0:

How did you manage - or did you even manage - to accomodate the original event files? They are highly... well... irregular. Some of them have tabs in one event where spaces are in others, they don't have the same number of spaces, etc. I could see reading the file (it would be clumsy), but writing the data back out to the file would be next to impossible. It would work fine with files that were exclusively edited by the editing app, since it would be in a format consistent with itself, but... ugh! Maybe you just do a conversion? (I'm asking because I'm trying to exercise my formidable, but exceedingly green, programming talents to work on an app similar to yours, mostly just for my amusement and self-education.)

Thanks!

Bill

~SDC~
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
No worries, what language are you writing it in?

I used VB6 so I could blast it out quickly. Essentially what I did was this:

1) Instantiate a TextStream object.
2) Point it at the file.
3) Start reading in lines. The key is that the original files don't allow line return characters within the text. So each line comes across clean using .ReadLine.
4) Look at the start of the line to determine what this line is (Title, Description, etc.)
5) Convert tabs to " ".
6) Split() off the " ".
7) Trim() the array.
8) Look for values that "". There should be just two, the Key (Title) and Value ("Whilst exploring yonder star...").

If you aren't using VB6, most of what I wrote is gibberish to you and not applicable, sorry!

Now, had I not used TextStream, you could still accomplish this by reading each byte into memory until you come to a line break, this data chunk should contain the Key/Value pair. Work your magic on it, then move onto the next line.

I can say that you don't have to write the file down exactly as it was. Since the GalCiv EXE can handle both tabs and spaces, just use whichever way works for you (IOW impose order upon the chaos that are the original event files). When my proggy spits them back out, it just uses spaces. As far as to how many spaces, once again GalCiv doesn't care- it just wants a space, so just pick an arbitrary number and roll with it.

Hope this helps.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, I'm glad SOMEone else in the universe is using VB6, and yes, it makes sense! Basically (excuse the pun), I am going to convert the misbehavin' files into something uniform, and to my liking. As an added attraction, if I did my homework, it might even work. ;)

Great!

Bill

~SDC~
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes!, someone else who uses VB6. :) If you mod Ghost Recon, check out Kit Constructor or Character Chooser. Two mod programs I'm really proud of making. :) Looks like a sweet program.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
I put out a revision tonight. It adds a new "Copy As New" function that will make a copy of the currently viewed event, so you have a starting point to make edits to. This revision also cleans up the documentation and straightens out the Status bar.

If anyone would like to take the beta for a test drive, please e-mail me at:
[email protected]

Standard disclaimers apply. There are 6 current beta testers (not counting myself)- I haven't heard of anyone's hard drive getting wiped so no news is good news ;).

To keep the momentum going, here's a sneak peek at the next screen. It will allow you to add/edit/delete UP Issues.
http://www.ctuit.com/bill/UPIssues.jpg

Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
Looks good.

Your program hasn't harmed my hard drive, but I have since found some worms living in my case that communicate through seismic vibrations. I killed them all, and my processor is now 39% faster.

Cool.

~SDC~
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
The screenies make me drool sticky creative juices...cant wait till you get it nailed down for the gen public :)
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, so far it's easy to use. The documentation is clear. I created an event with it which has yet to pop up in a game, but I've only played for about an hour or so since writing it. :)

I have played around with it a bit more - and I left it running while I played GalCiv. It didn't crash or eat my hard drive. :)

~SDC~
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
I looked at the images and the layout is very nice. It's tough to design a user interface that is both functional and appealing. I like to think that I design my apps to be aesthetically appealing, but yours is very, very nice. I can only hope that my interface looks as pleasing when I'm done butchering it.

I have one question that I've beat my head against the wall and haven't been able to answer, though. How did you display the pcx file? VB doesn't know that picture format.

I'm sorry for all the questions, but I'm pretty green at this. I have an excellent grasp of how VB works, but I haven't yet accumulated the knowledge necessary to make this jump.

Thanks a bunch!

Bill

PS - I'm afraid to try your editor; I don't want to get too discouraged right at the beginning of my project. ;)


~SDC~
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
ummm... yours ARE very, very nice. I swear that I'm better at English than THAT...

Bill

~SDC~
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
I have e-mailed a request for the program and hope you send it to me. Oh, and if you need it, I have a website where I can host your full program with you take it public if you need to extra bandwidth.
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
Looking forward to next update from the http

:D

Doug


Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
Wow, that program is simple and easy to use, I just made an event about a philosopher.. Little touch of socrates, but wow, it was super quick.

~SDC~