58 replies to this topic

[feld]

PR/Ghost,

New "Standard" GFFA runs and saves correctly on the first day.

Excellent! Thanks!
r/
feld

Edited by feld, 23 January 2009 - 02:56 AM.

[Kitkun]

Hmm... so you can only have a certain number of campaigns enabled?

Yay! Outer Rim has just the slightest hint of jerkiness when scrolling, no lag at all! Lag-B-Gone!

The AI is expanding a lot more rapidly.

Edited by Kitkun, 23 January 2009 - 04:24 AM.

[Tropical Bob]

Hmm... so you can only have a certain number of campaigns enabled?

Yay! Outer Rim has just the slightest hint of jerkiness when scrolling, no lag at all! Lag-B-Gone!

The AI is expanding a lot more rapidly.

You shouldn't have a limited number. You just have to make sure to include the files in CampaignFiles.xml, and change the <Sort_Order> tags for each campaign file. I think...I'm not completely sure because I haven't run PR yet after doing all that. But they seem like the correct steps to me...

[Ghostrider]

Hmm... so you can only have a certain number of campaigns enabled?

Yay! Outer Rim has just the slightest hint of jerkiness when scrolling, no lag at all! Lag-B-Gone!

The AI is expanding a lot more rapidly.

You shouldn't have a limited number. You just have to make sure to include the files in CampaignFiles.xml, and change the <Sort_Order> tags for each campaign file. I think...I'm not completely sure because I haven't run PR yet after doing all that. But they seem like the correct steps to me...

Yes that's pretty much right.

[Tropical Bob]

Though when I did run PR and took a gander at my GC list (After I included all the different versions of each campaign), only the main ones were listed.

Is there anything I missed? Like story sets or whatever?

[Darth Stalin]

Thus it seems that the only thing we need to wait for is the release of "old" mods converted to fit the 1.1 version of PR - right?
Or has these mods been included into newest PR 1.1?
I mean the "Graphics mod" (with nice large planets, much easier to handle fleets and armies), the Zarkis' AI mod and something more - currently I play 1.0 GFFA with all these mods installed and it works pretty OK, yet I wanted to play "full", really "expanded" 1.1, however withou those mods it may not as much challenge as I hoped for...

BTW: are in 1.1 the planet land maps "individualised"? (I mean that everyy planet has its own ground map, instead of "clones" of same map for 3-4 or more planets)?

[Ghostrider]

Though when I did run PR and took a gander at my GC list (After I included all the different versions of each campaign), only the main ones were listed.

Is there anything I missed? Like story sets or whatever?

Make sure you copied the revised 'CampaignFiles.xml' as well.

It needs to contain 1 line per campaign file
so for the slim pack it should contain:


<File>Campaigns_Core_Worlds.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Inner_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Outer_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Thrawn_Campaign.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Operation_Shadow_Hand.xml</File>

and for the standard pack add the line:

<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away.xml</File>

Thus it seems that the only thing we need to wait for is the release of "old" mods converted to fit the 1.1 version of PR - right?
Or has these mods been included into newest PR 1.1?
I mean the "Graphics mod" (with nice large planets, much easier to handle fleets and armies), the Zarkis' AI mod and something more - currently I play 1.0 GFFA with all these mods installed and it works pretty OK, yet I wanted to play "full", really "expanded" 1.1, however withou those mods it may not as much challenge as I hoped for...

PR has already incorporated some of the Graphics mod updates into the files. There are new particles and so on here.
As to the AI - Zarkis is now redundant due to the new space stations. As you know there are some issues here, but they are being worked on - call it a campaign of AI improvement in progress at the moment.

BTW: are in 1.1 the planet land maps "individualised"? (I mean that everyy planet has its own ground map, instead of "clones" of same map for 3-4 or more planets)?

With the loss of JDK's hardware last year, the maps took a big hit and we lost a LOT of work. That's due to be redone again this year. So not yet.

But you will have full galactic maps for each campaign as soon as PR has uploaded them.
Ghost

Edited by Ghostrider, 23 January 2009 - 10:02 AM.

[Tropical Bob]

Make sure you copied the revised 'CampaignFiles.xml' as well.

It needs to contain 1 line per campaign file
so for the slim pack it should contain:


<File>Campaigns_Core_Worlds.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Inner_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Outer_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Thrawn_Campaign.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Operation_Shadow_Hand.xml</File>

and for the standard pack add the line:

<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away.xml</File>

Yeah I have this:

<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away_Full.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away_Lite.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away_Slim.xml</File>	
<File>Campaigns_Core_Worlds.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Core_Worlds_Slim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Inner_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Inner_Rim_Slim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Outer_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Outer_Rim_Slim.xml</File>	
<File>Campaigns_Thrawn_Campaign.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Operation_Shadow_Hand.xml</File>

I renamed the slimmed campaigns, and made sure to include them all, and I changed both sort order tags for each file as well.

I wanted them all so I could have a bit more variation of gameplay depending on what I'm in the mood for.

Do you think I need to or should create Story_Sandbox_....xml and Story_Plot_Sandbox_....xml files for each Slim campaign as well?

[Kitkun]

Each campaign includes a Text ID tag. (Two per campaign actually, one for each faction.)
If you don't change those, it will be named exactly the same. Otherwise, they show up fine when you remove the other files.

Going to try the Sort Order soon. Changing the sort order didn't work for me.

Edited by Kitkun, 23 January 2009 - 12:48 PM.

[Ghostrider]

Make sure you copied the revised 'CampaignFiles.xml' as well.

It needs to contain 1 line per campaign file
so for the slim pack it should contain:


<File>Campaigns_Core_Worlds.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Inner_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Outer_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Thrawn_Campaign.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Operation_Shadow_Hand.xml</File>

and for the standard pack add the line:

<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away.xml</File>

Yeah I have this:

<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away_Full.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away_Lite.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Galaxy_Far_Far_Away_Slim.xml</File>	
<File>Campaigns_Core_Worlds.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Core_Worlds_Slim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Inner_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Inner_Rim_Slim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Outer_Rim.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Outer_Rim_Slim.xml</File>	
<File>Campaigns_Thrawn_Campaign.xml</File>
<File>Campaigns_Operation_Shadow_Hand.xml</File>

I renamed the slimmed campaigns, and made sure to include them all, and I changed both sort order tags for each file as well.

I wanted them all so I could have a bit more variation of gameplay depending on what I'm in the mood for.

Do you think I need to or should create Story_Sandbox_....xml and Story_Plot_Sandbox_....xml files for each Slim campaign as well?

I would kill the GFFA & GFFA_Lite files as they are now redundant and will just make the game load slower.
Also - The Full version is NOT supported and is much laggier than the slim.

As to the sandbox question, please wait for PR's response - I don't know about that one.

However, If you want to have both the slim and the standard files as campaigns, you need to make a change to the slim ones.
OPen the relevant slim campaign file and change the text ID to *._SLIM

eg for Core Worlds_Slim, you need to have the line

<Text_ID> TEXT_CAMPAIGN_CORE_WORLDS_SLIM </Text_ID>

Don't forget to change both the rebel and imperial campaigns!

Edited by Ghostrider, 23 January 2009 - 01:06 PM.

[coinich]

PR/Ghost,

New "Standard" GFFA runs and saves correctly on the first day.

Excellent! Thanks!
r/
feld

Just for kicks, is this with the old cache or new cache changes?

[Ghostrider]

Just for kicks, is this with the old cache or new cache changes?

Cache changes???? Missed that. Please explain

[coinich]

http://forums.revora...opic=68074&st=0

Some people reported that changing the size of their cache seemed to fix the save game problem. Feld reported that it did not, so I now wonder if it was the new campaign that caused this, or a combination of factors.

[feld]

PR/Ghost,

New "Standard" GFFA runs and saves correctly on the first day.

Excellent! Thanks!
r/
feld

Just for kicks, is this with the old cache or new cache changes?

No cache changes. Same memory configuration that I ran v1.0 under.

[Tropical Bob]

I would kill the GFFA & GFFA_Lite files as they are now redundant and will just make the game load slower.
Also - The Full version is NOT supported and is much laggier than the slim.

As to the sandbox question, please wait for PR's response - I don't know about that one.

However, If you want to have both the slim and the standard files as campaigns, you need to make a change to the slim ones.
OPen the relevant slim campaign file and change the text ID to *._SLIM

eg for Core Worlds_Slim, you need to have the line

<Text_ID> TEXT_CAMPAIGN_CORE_WORLDS_SLIM </Text_ID>

Don't forget to change both the rebel and imperial campaigns!

I'm okay with the load time at the beginning being a bit longer, because it's worth the wait! I put the Full version in so if we ever figure out some way to fix the lag problem, it's there.

I'll also need to add the relevant text entry. I assumed that because they're two campaigns referencing the same text, the name would just appear multiple times per campaign (i.e. GFFAx4, CW/IR/ORx2). Perhaps the game lumps them together if they have the same name...

That's why I love Notepad++. I can just do a "Replace All" and I don't have to scroll for five years or wait for the find function to work, then paste...Though N++ has been acting up on me lately, which is unfortunate (As I can't comment out the unnecessary campaigns for now until I figure out the fix).

[Darth Stalin]

Heh, just DL-ed and installed new versions of GFFA campaigns... and wonder why there are only 118 planets in GFFA "standard"?
I;'m into my 1.0 (with minor mods added) Imperial campaign, with all those PR Enhanced tweaks, like limited number of mining facilities per planet... and I have full set of 158 planets to conquer!
Though most of them seems to be just "cloned", especially when it comes to pirate space forces...

Thus my question - did the "playable-making" process of "cutting down" GFFA campaign require removal of 40 planets!!??
Couldn't that be achieved in any other way? I know that 118 planets is still an impressive number of places to conquer, especially when compared to "vanilla" game... yet after tasting that with modded 1.0 campaign I'm feeling like a little it "cheated"...
Thus I still don't know what to do - finish my 1.0 conquest of 158 planets (which also has great advantage of having the galaxy map more "zoomed" - planets are larger and even the large number of them does not interfere too much) or start playing new "cut-down" GFFA 1.1 with only 118 planets... and with many features that are not easily recognisable...

BTW: is the "space colony" of 1.1 the same as old/vanilla "space station"? (i.e. facility allowing to produce more and larger ships with each "colony" level"?) And what are new 1.1 "space stations" for?

[Tropical Bob]

Heh, just DL-ed and installed new versions of GFFA campaigns... and wonder why there are only 118 planets in GFFA "standard"?
I;'m into my 1.0 (with minor mods added) Imperial campaign, with all those PR Enhanced tweaks, like limited number of mining facilities per planet... and I have full set of 158 planets to conquer!
Though most of them seems to be just "cloned", especially when it comes to pirate space forces...

Thus my question - did the "playable-making" process of "cutting down" GFFA campaign require removal of 40 planets!!??
Couldn't that be achieved in any other way? I know that 118 planets is still an impressive number of places to conquer, especially when compared to "vanilla" game... yet after tasting that with modded 1.0 campaign I'm feeling like a little it "cheated"...
Thus I still don't know what to do - finish my 1.0 conquest of 158 planets (which also has great advantage of having the galaxy map more "zoomed" - planets are larger and even the large number of them does not interfere too much) or start playing new "cut-down" GFFA 1.1 with only 118 planets... and with many features that are not easily recognisable...

BTW: is the "space colony" of 1.1 the same as old/vanilla "space station"? (i.e. facility allowing to produce more and larger ships with each "colony" level"?) And what are new 1.1 "space stations" for?

GFFA was remade completely for v1.1. This entailed lots and lots of work into making pirate forces pretty much unique per planet, and an actual force to be reckoned with, rather than something swept aside with the household Swiffer. Unfortunately, it had the side-effect of making the game nigh unplayable, since there were so many units per planet, and lots of planets. So, in order to make the map playable once again, units had to be cut, and same with planets.

The Space Colony system is way different from the vanilla Starbases. The Space Colony is, by itself, rather unremarkable and mostly useless. However, it serves as a base for everything Space at each planet, and each new level unlocks a new Star Base type for construction. The Star Bases are what are actually required to construct ships. Each Star Base level represents construction of different ship type/s (i.e. Star Base level 1 builds Fighters/Bombers; level 5 builds Dreadnaughts). Each planet has a certain number of Space Station slots that can have Star Bases or defensive structures constructed at, ranging anywhere up to 8 total, with multiple builds of the same Space Station type allowed. The formula for decreasing production rate for multiple Star Bases is 1/X (i.e. 2 Star Bases = 1/2 production time, 4 = 1/4 production time, etc.). *Huff puff*

I think that's it.

[Kitkun]

Edit: What Tropical Bob said, but not as detailed.

Edited by Kitkun, 23 January 2009 - 08:42 PM.

[feld]

BTW: is the "space colony" of 1.1 the same as old/vanilla "space station"? (i.e. facility allowing to produce more and larger ships with each "colony" level"?) And what are new 1.1 "space stations" for?

I knew this needed a FAQ. I just haven't written it yet. See this thread here for information on how the new space station system works. I'd actually appreciate any more questions that you have. Could you put them in that thread so I can incorporate them into a FAQ?
Thanks and hope that helps!
feld

[Phoenix Rising]

Just a few corrections, clarifications, and/or responses:

Thus it seems that the only thing we need to wait for is the release of "old" mods converted to fit the 1.1 version of PR - right?
Or has these mods been included into newest PR 1.1?
I mean the "Graphics mod" (with nice large planets, much easier to handle fleets and armies), the Zarkis' AI mod and something more - currently I play 1.0 GFFA with all these mods installed and it works pretty OK, yet I wanted to play "full", really "expanded" 1.1, however withou those mods it may not as much challenge as I hoped for...

PR has already incorporated some of the Graphics mod updates into the files. There are new particles and so on here.
As to the AI - Zarkis is now redundant due to the new space stations. As you know there are some issues here, but they are being worked on - call it a campaign of AI improvement in progress at the moment.

I've included a few changes in the spirit of the addons, but none of them directly. I certainly must tip my hat to DalMP for prototyping the projectile linking to prove that it actually is faster (and more appealing), but what's in v1.1 is my own design.

As for Zarkis, that's basically obsolete, as Ghost said. His version worked, but it was basically accomplished through jury rigging, from what I understand (varianting structures for the AI and putting build caps on them, etcetera). Zarkis did not believe that the perceptions were actually modable, whereas I do, so my divergent AI (in continuing with perception tweaks) is essentially incompatible with his changes.

I renamed the slimmed campaigns, and made sure to include them all, and I changed both sort order tags for each file as well.

I wanted them all so I could have a bit more variation of gameplay depending on what I'm in the mood for.

Do you think I need to or should create Story_Sandbox_....xml and Story_Plot_Sandbox_....xml files for each Slim campaign as well?

Sort order shouldn't matter, it only affects the order of the list, not anything to do with it showing up or not. I don't think that tag was even around for EaW, in fact. You can actually delete them all entirely and it'll auto-sort it somehow.

The sandbox stories are only really used for two things: the intro dialog and spawning heroes the old way. Just reuse the existing ones.

I would kill the GFFA & GFFA_Lite files as they are now redundant and will just make the game load slower.

They may be redundant, but they won't make the game any slower. With few exceptions (such as text strings, available factions, starting credits, and so on), the actual contents of the campaign are loaded only after you hit start.

However, If you want to have both the slim and the standard files as campaigns, you need to make a change to the slim ones.
OPen the relevant slim campaign file and change the text ID to *._SLIM

eg for Core Worlds_Slim, you need to have the line

<Text_ID> TEXT_CAMPAIGN_CORE_WORLDS_SLIM </Text_ID>

Actually, you should only have to change the campaign name (at the very top) and the campaign set. You can name them whatever you want, as long as the faction variants share the same set.

You don't have to change the text, but you'll get a bunch of "clones" in your campaign list if you don't. To fix that, you'll have to add such a string to the DAT file and make the changes that Ghost mentioned.

Thus my question - did the "playable-making" process of "cutting down" GFFA campaign require removal of 40 planets!!??

In short, yes - and we probably will be cutting even more in the future. I'd like to keep it around 100 regardless of how many more planets we add, but these campaign packs were put together entirely by Ghostrider. Traditionally, I deal with planets and trade routes, since those require XML changes, but because I had no hand in this project, those were not affected. Anyways, short of a coding miracle, it's a choice between units/planets and lag.