[$150] #191 | More City Growth Variables

[Eric.B]

Price: $150

Description: Currently, several city ratings are tied together with a single growth rating. This bounty would make each rating have an independent growth rating.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: None

Eric's Opinion: This bounty should have been done to begin with. It is a discounted bounty considering the amount of work it will involve.


Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!

[Eric.B]

This bounty is complete!

[JC_Denton]

Question: What are the variable names for the new city growth variables?

I'm just getting back to Gear City for the first time since 2nd Gear wrapped up, but so far I haven't found them. I also noticed that my map is showing up in the map list for 2.0.0.8, but not for 2nd Gear, which I'm guessing is because it's missing the new growth variables. (Although if there's something else I need to do to 2nd-Gear-ize my XML files, that would also be good to know. I could see the switch to numeric IDs also being relevant)

[Eric.B]

Question: What are the variable names for the new city growth variables?

Currently, I have not implemented these in the mod tools. In the XML, it's:
<INFGrowth infitG="x"/>
<SKILLGrowth skiG="x"/>

I'm just getting back to Gear City for the first time since 2nd Gear wrapped up, but so far I haven't found them. I also noticed that my map is showing up in the map list for 2.0.0.8, but not for 2nd Gear, which I'm guessing is because it's missing the new growth variables. (Although if there's something else I need to do to 2nd-Gear-ize my XML files, that would also be good to know. I could see the switch to numeric IDs also being relevant)

You've likely exported your map using the mod tools. The mod tools currently only support GearCity Classic. So you have to update by hand to make a 2nd Gear Map. I will update the mod tools and possibly make an automatic converter when we finish 2nd Gear and work on 3rd Gear begins. (It's pointless to have folks update mods/maps now when it'll break again with every milestone.)

If you want to see the changes you need to make, look at the map files in Base City Map. Diff the "FBS1_foo" files from the plane "foo" files. 2nd Gear Looks for FBS1_ prefix on the file names. There would be a lot of work with the new nations.xml file and changing every country name from strings to integers in the various XML files.

[JC_Denton]

Question: What are the variable names for the new city growth variables?

Currently, I have not implemented these in the mod tools. In the XML, it's:
<INFGrowth infitG="x"/>
<SKILLGrowth skiG="x"/>

I'm just getting back to Gear City for the first time since 2nd Gear wrapped up, but so far I haven't found them.  I also noticed that my map is showing up in the map list for 2.0.0.8, but not for 2nd Gear, which I'm guessing is because it's missing the new growth variables.  (Although if there's something else I need to do to 2nd-Gear-ize my XML files, that would also be good to know.  I could see the switch to numeric IDs also being relevant)

You've likely exported your map using the mod tools. The mod tools currently only support GearCity Classic. So you have to update by hand to make a 2nd Gear Map. I will update the mod tools and possibly make an automatic converter when we finish 2nd Gear and work on 3rd Gear begins. (It's pointless to have folks update mods/maps now when it'll break again with every milestone.)

If you want to see the changes you need to make, look at the map files in Base City Map. Diff the "FBS1_foo" files from the plane "foo" files. 2nd Gear Looks for FBS1_ prefix on the file names. There would be a lot of work with the new nations.xml file and changing every country name from strings to integers in the various XML files.

Awesome, not sure how I missed the FBS1-prefixed files but I see them now and it doesn't look like too much work to change them since I already have a couple scripts to help automate changes (famous last words).

Is the idea for 2nd/3rd gear to have a certain amount of bounty milestones in 2nd, and once that is reached, move to 3rd?  I think you wrote that 2nd is roughly 10% done, so 10-ish bounty milestones?  I agree it would be a fair amount of work to upgrade the mod tools every milestone, particularly if each milestone has changed that impact them.  But it could be several years before 2nd Gear is considered finished.

Thus despite the risk of the maps breaking again next milestone, I would like to make maps that target 2nd Gear (as it is today), so I can play them with these growth variables and probably some nation variables, as well as the other 2nd Gear improvements (most notably emissions regulations).  I'm mostly working with the XML files anyway, at least for the areas I've acquainted myself with.  But I wouldn't say it's pointless - rather that even already, 2nd Gear is a better target environment, and maps/mods that target 2nd Gear will be an additional incentive for people to join the FBS.

[Eric.B]

Is the idea for 2nd/3rd gear to have a certain amount of bounty milestones in 2nd, and once that is reached, move to 3rd? I think you wrote that 2nd is roughly 10% done, so 10-ish bounty milestones? I agree it would be a fair amount of work to upgrade the mod tools every milestone, particularly if each milestone has changed that impact them. But it could be several years before 2nd Gear is considered finished.

Yup.

Thus despite the risk of the maps breaking again next milestone, I would like to make maps that target 2nd Gear (as it is today), so I can play them with these growth variables and probably some nation variables, as well as the other 2nd Gear improvements (most notably emissions regulations). I'm mostly working with the XML files anyway, at least for the areas I've acquainted myself with. But I wouldn't say it's pointless - rather that even already, 2nd Gear is a better target environment, and maps/mods that target 2nd Gear will be an additional incentive for people to join the FBS.

As long as you don't mind having to do work on it every 3-6 months to keep it up-to-date, by all means. I just didn't want to throw another 1-3 weeks on the mod tools every milestone, often touching the same exact functions I did in previous milestones. I think it's better for me to save it until we finish with 2nd Gear, and then I can make an automatic/helper mod update program too.


Anyway, diffing the original files with the FBS1_ files should give you a good idea of the stuff you need to update.

[JC_Denton]

Yeah, that would be like 50% extra work for each milestone to keep the mod tools up to date, that doesn't make sense. I suppose the only thing that might affect my motivation is whether the "first part" of 2nd Gear will still be accessible after the "second part" is available.

Well the other than that might distract me from making a mod is this new game of GearCity I just started.

And yeah, now that I know about them diffing isn't bad. I realized that I'd missed them because I'd updated to 2nd Gear on the computer I was playing on, but the computer I was modding on still had a 1st Gear install. Definitely need to consolidate that onto the newer computer sooner or later, preferably before the old one rusts out.