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State Machine

State Machine

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Feb 8, 2001
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New Tool Available

I've created a tool to aid gameplay. Specifically the tool will rename and archive autosave files as they are created. The intro from the readme is at the end of the post.

I've decided to publicize it on the scenario forum, first, to get some more use of the tool on different computer configurations (i.e. to make sure it works on different computer configurations) prior to announcing it to the world. Also, my original target audience was scenario developers and game engine researchers who run hands off games, so why not give you all first crack?

The tool is available from Gen. Suvorov's excellent site, EU Arsenal - http://www.systemvoid.com/eu/ .


EU Autosave File Archiver 1.0.0
-------------------------------

This utility monitors the EU Save Games folder, and archives save files as they occur to an archive folder. Archived save files are named with game date as a prefix, along with an optional prefix of your devising. Multiple save files for the same game date have a numeric suffix appended to the game date.

This tool adds convenience to players who make regular saves on their own (e.g. annually). With this tool, you can rely on the autosave mechanism in EU to perform the save, while getting a unique save file name for each save. This tool is also very useful for players who perform "hands off" games for research. An entire history of save games can be captured without human intervention.
 
Ah, a post. Thank you Huszics. Whimper - the mortification of creating a thread and getting no reponses.

If anyone is using it, then put some feedback on this thread. I'd like to know if it really works on different people's computers.
 
State, I tested your tool on three computer on numerous occasions and experiencedonly one crash so far. So I say it works pretty nicely, you should give some time before people start using it. Right now not many know about it, and those who do don't yet understand what it could be used for. Thanks for designing this tool.
 
Well, you know, I'm anxious to bask in the glory of the entire EU community by providing that very tool that most enhances their gaming experience - automated renaming of save files. :)

Any info on the crash? I used to have access to some very nifty tools for architectural and environmental testing (like simulate low memory, disk, blue screens, etc.), but not anymore. Ditto multiple PC configurations. So no serious system testing has been done.
 
Sorry to be so late with feedback :eek:

No crashes with the new release till now. I used the alfa and beta release too, and this new version is a net improvement from 0.7.1. Indeed i experienced some EU crashes but i don't think they are related to your tool, it was a common occurence for HO games on my pc even before i used it. :)

This tool is very useful for scenario builders and EU fanatics but i think it's a nice tool even for a more "common" EU player. I experienced some corruped save game that coupled with the instability of the game are very frustrating. Not to say that it's nice to see how a game evolve during the 300 years. May be you should advertise the tool even in the general discussion forum to enlarge the audience.

Thanks for the tool and the time you spent on it.
 
Great! Thanks.

I'll probably post to the General Discussion forum after the weekend. And thanks Gen. Suvorov for hosting it.

Of course, as an aside, the tool shouldn't be needed. Auto-save games should have unique, meaningful names anyway. Anyway... [rant averted]
 
If I may whish for a feature, what about an autosave that save alternativly to 2 or possibly 3 files, just to aviod losing you game by a corrupted save (without having 100+ 2MB savefiles =).
Probably what most people would need it for.

And just a reminder, tell me when you want to make it "official" so I can link to it. Btw are you or someone else making a webpage for it ? If not I'll whip something up for you (just tell me whet you want it to say).
 
Good Idea

Obviously, EU Autosave works best with lots of disk space. Probably just a day to add this feature.

If Gen. Suvorov is content to host the tool, that's fine - no need for you to whip up a page for me. But if you want...

I might actually work on that straight away - anything to defer starting my grand unified EU Tools project (sort of IGC config on steroids) - too much work anyway. EU Tools, BTW, is not really an IGC config utility, it just ends up supporting similar features.

Since I brought it up. EU Tools was conceived as a way of supporting scenario developers and projects like IGC and IGC+ by creating repositories (or databases) of different configurations. Then to have the ability to "generate" the appropriate runtime environment for whatever options one wants.

One problem is that some EU files that are changed for a given scenario option, affect all other scenarios (e.g. economic settings and monarch varients). If I want to play with different economic settings, I have to make backups, keep track of them, etc. If I want to fiddle with whether their is an English Civil War, and have different monarchs based on whether English Civil War is "enabled", I have to make backups, keep track of them, worry about monarch ID and country tag contention, etc. Now there are tools out there to do some of this stuff (notably EU Leader editor and IGC Config), but they are either manually intensive, or in the case of IGC Config only support a specific release (of IGC).

A byproduct of a repository is that any GUI tool can be put together pretty easily. All the data is already there, just need to figure out a good presentation.

In chats with Errant One and Sean9898 the idea has evolved into possibly having the tool be a "database tool" that other EU developers could use for writing their own tools (like a city viewer/editor, province good viewer/editor, etc.).

Anyway, a fairly detailed design is complete, and I figure roughly a week of full time work to have the basic tool up. Then, of course there's refinement, etc. And then there are continuous new discoveries of tagged values in save files, for example, that need to be handled.

Now, will I start on Monday as planned??? I do have a few hours of real work (I am a consultant). And then there is your suggestion.
 
Originally posted by State Machine
If Gen. Suvorov is content to host the tool, that's fine - no need for you to whip up a page for me. But if you want...

The file can stay at Suv's NP, but I'm kind of missing a page that explains the tool to people (without downloading it and reading the readme).
It does wonders for the use of a tool if it's presented in a good way to people so they know what it is =).
The page can be physically at my site (like EUspy) or at any other place you'd like better (like Moctezuma´s scenario generator) if you want full access to the page itself.
In any case, the downloadable file should be where you have direct & instant access to it yourself, so you can always upload the latest version without having to wait for someone else to have the time to do it =).
Click to expand...
Anyway, that new tool of yours sound pretty interesting =)
What language are you going to use (java was it) ?
 
Huszics

The beginning of this tread has the description in my readme. Will that suffice? If not, I could give it some more work. In any event, please create a link to Suv's site ( http://www.systemvoid.com/eu/EUAutoSave1.0.0.zip is the file, while http://www.systemvoid.com/eu/tools.html is his toolbox page).

BTW. I did a couple of hours of work on your suggestion. If my day works out well, today, I should be able to complete it, otherwise tomorrow.

EU Tools

Java is the intended language. I needed an excuse for some semi-serious programming in Java, and EU came along. I think the Java performance will not be a problem (i.e. I'll take steps to make sure it isn't). With save files and inc files in the order of 2MB of text, not to mention all the other text files, serious optimization is required - I've already done the basic research on that.

VB is a possibility, too. I just depise the language (EU Autosave refreshed my hate). On the other hand with VB and C++ I could create com objects (easily). I haven't looked at C#.

For anyone interested, I have a zip file with MS Word documents describing the intent (briefly) and design documents.
 
State, a suggestion for the autosave tool.

The .eug file contain the name of the .cfg (full path IIRC). EUAutosave renames both files but you cannot reload the .eug without manually edit it to change the .cfg name because it contain the "old" reference to "autosave.eug". It would be nice to have this reference updated to the new file name. :)
 
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