2.5 rc playtest experience

Can't beat the AI? Is it too tame? Discuss the best strategies!
Jim-11
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 1:28 pm

Re: 2.5 rc playtest experience

Post by Jim-11 »

Excellent tutorial on .SERV files. Thanks! After copying the "More Game Options" save file to the .freeciv folder, all of the options I want are saved except two. I want frequency of disasters to be zero, but a new game always starts with 10. I also want no barbarians, but a new game starts with barbarians as a default. In earlier versions, I could select no disasters and no barbarians in "More Game Options" and save so that all new games would start with those choices, but 2.5.1 always starts with the default disasters and barbarians. Can anyone tell me how to change those default settings? If i need to write a .SERV file to specify no disasters and no barbarians, what words would I put into that file? Thanks for the help!
cazfi
Elite
Posts: 3077
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2013 6:54 pm

Re: 2.5 rc playtest experience

Post by cazfi »

Jim-11 wrote:Excellent tutorial on .SERV files. Thanks! After copying the "More Game Options" save file to the .freeciv folder, all of the options I want are saved except two. I want frequency of disasters to be zero, but a new game always starts with 10. I also want no barbarians, but a new game starts with barbarians as a default. In earlier versions, I could select no disasters and no barbarians in "More Game Options" and save so that all new games would start with those choices, but 2.5.1 always starts with the default disasters and barbarians. Can anyone tell me how to change those default settings? If i need to write a .SERV file to specify no disasters and no barbarians, what words would I put into that file? Thanks for the help!
First some help about the commands (with '/help commands' you would get list of them) and settings

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> /help set
Command: set  -  Set server option.
Synopsis: set <option-name> <value>
Level: ctrl
Description:
  Set an option on the server. The syntax and legal values depend on the
  option; see the help for each option. Some options are "bitwise", in
  that they consist of a choice from a set of values; separate these
  with |, for instance, '/set topology wrapx|iso'. For these options,
  use syntax like '/set topology ""' to set no values.

> /explain disasters 
Option: disasters  -  Frequency of disasters
Description:
  Affects how often random disasters happen to cities, if any are
  defined by the ruleset. The relative frequency of disaster types is
  set by the ruleset. Zero prevents any random disasters from occurring.
Status: changeable
Value: 10, Minimum: 0, Default: 10, Maximum: 1000

> /explain barbarians 
Option: barbarians  -  Barbarian appearance frequency
Description:
  This setting controls how frequently the barbarians appear in the
  game. See also the 'onsetbarbs' setting.
Status: changeable
Possible values:
- DISABLED: "No barbarians"
- HUTS_ONLY: "Only in huts"
- NORMAL: "Normal rate of appearance"
- FREQUENT: "Frequent barbarian uprising"
- HORDES: "Raging hordes"
Value: "Normal rate of appearance" (NORMAL), Default: "Normal rate of appearance" (NORMAL)
so you want to

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set barbarians DISABLED
set disasters 0
Note that if your .serv sets rulesetdir, you should /set your settings only after that so they won't get reseted on ruleset load ('/write current_settings.serv' should do it like that)
Jim-11
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 1:28 pm

Re: 2.5 rc playtest experience

Post by Jim-11 »

Thanks for the help, but I need more hand holding. :( I created a text file with only the two lines below:
set barbarians DISABLED
set disasters 0

I saved that file as C:/Program Files(x86)/Games/Freeciv/Data/write current_settings.serv
The Data folder is where all the other .serv files are.
I clicked start a new game, and then clicked the More Game Options button. Disasters and barbarians are still set to default values.

I tried moving the new .serv file to C:/Users/Jim/appdata/.freeciv/write current_settings.serv, where my More Game Options data is.
I clicked start a new game, and then clicked the More Game Options button. Disasters and barbarians are still set to default values.
My only good news here is that I did no harm. :(
cazfi
Elite
Posts: 3077
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2013 6:54 pm

Re: 2.5 rc playtest experience

Post by cazfi »

The word "write" I was using is a freeciv server command to write the .serv file from the currently active settings. You can enter them either to the server console (if you run the server separately), or via the client chatline starting line with a "/".

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> help write
Command: write  -  Write current settings as server commands to file.
Synopsis: write <file-name>
Level: hack
But then you also need to load settings from that file. One possibility is /read command

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> help read
Command: read  -  Process server commands from file.
Synopsis: read <file-name>
Level: ctrl
Another possibility is to save your .serv to a datafile where the client will find it ( "<xxx>/.freeciv/2.5/my_settings.serv" where <xxx> is something I can't tell value for in Windows setup ) and then client should list it as one of the available rulesets when you "Start a New Game".
Jim-11
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 1:28 pm

Re: 2.5 rc playtest experience

Post by Jim-11 »

Thanks for the help, but the mechanics of this are beyond my levels of skill or interest. I added my comments to my bug report in hopes that a future version will make More Game Options functional again. Until then, I will manually change the two problem options at the start of a new game, while I sing my favorite song while I play bridge: Try to remember . . . :D Cheers!
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