Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

simcutie · 22-05-2012 08:10 AM

UPDATED: 2012-Jun-10 Sun 15:00Z UTC ( US Pacific time Jun-10 AM 08:00)
----------------------------------------------------------

6th Beta version 2012 June 10

NEW UPDATES (Beta 6. Beta 5 included also):
Few new features and Bug Fix.

1. Overlay All Resouces
2. Bio Farm Food/Cash Crops Ovelay
3. Adjust Loud Sounds mod
4. Grade school skill training become more varied and weighted.

5. Don't lock classic buildings in Modern Times game
6. "Cheats and Events" window.
7. Avtar commands may be queued.
8. Bug Fix:
- All schools info panel faction converts number.
- MT Expansion task offer in original game.
- Bug fix on Children Can Graduate Grade School Mod
and Avatar Queued Command Mod.
-------------------------------------------------------------
This is Mod for Tropico 4 and its expansion, Modern Times.
MOD distribution and discussion:
http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=14909

THIS IS BETA TEST VERSION. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.
I DON'T RECOMMEND TO USE IT FOR REAL GAME PLAY.

You can enable/disable/select/config individual mods
by editing "_SimConfig.lua" file directly with any text editor.

Included Mods:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sim UI Mod
Sim Almanac Mod
Sim Toolbar Mod
Sim Cheats and Events Mod
Don't Lock Classic Buildings Mod

Housing Double Mod
Bank Urban Development Mod
Academy Of Science Research Mod

Building Upkeep Inflation Mod
Happy Worker Mod

Pool No Dress Code Mod
Prison Safety Effect Mod
Children Can Graduate Grade School Mod

Add Soundtrack Folder scan
Dated Save Name Mod

Avatar Queued Command and Action
Overlay All Resouces
Bio Farm Food/Cash Crops Ovelay

Limit Expensive Imports Mod
Edict Criticize Europe Mod

Camera Mod

Bug Fix:
-- Tour Office flag can not be moved and placed.
-- Secret Agent has always "Miner" icon
-- Numbers in Mine upgrade hint are displayed incorrctly.
-- All school info panel does not update faction converts correctly.
-- MT Expansion task offer in original game. (ex: build Telecom HQ)
-- Fix various errors in description/translations texts.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
How to install

1. Unzip file and you will get 3 files:
README.txt, _SimConfig.lua, SimMods.hpk
2. Put "SimMods.hpk" to "{Tropico 4 Install folder}\Packs" folder.

3. Put "_SimConfig.lua" config file to:
For Original Tropico 4: To "{Tropico 4 Install folder}\Game" folder.
For Modern Times Expansion: To "{Tropico 4 Install folder}\ex\Game" folder.

4. Edit config file "_SimConfig.lua" file to select mod to activate.
Put "-- " in front of lines to comment out feature/mods you don't want.
5. To uninstall mod, just remove these files from the folder.

Code:

Sim UI Mod

    Changes various behavior of keys and icon buttons on screen 

    related to hotkey, on screen icons and Almanac. 

    - Simpler navigation with <<, >> tab button.

        (web-browser-like history navigation has removed)

    - You can use '<', '>' key and '[', ']' key 

        to navigate among Almanac left page tabs and right pages.

    - Almanac now remembers last used right pages correctly.

    - Right click on upper menu bar or empty area on Almanac page will close it.

    - Icon buttons above Minimap will toggle. (Overlay, Edicts icon)

    - Pressing icons below minimaps now works right. 

        It will open related Almanac left and right page. (non-toggle)

    - Pressing Date (year/month) icon will show "Old Pop Up Notifiction"

    - Date (year/month) icon/date will show approx. week number of month 

        in mouse-over hint (4 Weeks = 1 Month)

    - "Show Last Overlay" (default "V" key, user configurable).

    - "Follow Citizen" hot key and "Default Camera" (go Palace) hot key 

        now exposed. (default: "I" and "X" key, user configurable)

    - "Show Old Popup" (default: "N" key, user configurable)

        It shows old pop-up notifications.

    - Large Popup Notification box and player tasks pop-up can be closed with 

        Right-click or hitting <Enter> key 

        except some popups that needs explicit player choice.

    - Pressing "1" key will select El Presidente Avatar (non-toggle)

    - Almanac hotkey, Demolish tool, road construction tool, 

        last built building hotkey, and Avatar hot key now toggles.

    - Game speed increase hokey key cycles.

    - Quick Save hotkey     ==> F9 (was F5)

    - Quick Load hotkey     ==> F11 (was F9)

    - Pause hotkey          ==> space bar (was Pause key)

    - "open console key"    ==> F12 (was Enter, for devs only)

    - "Enter" key will close most open/pending dialogs and tools.

    - Control-R, Control-T,.... , Control-P hot key (not configurable) will 

        directly open each almanac pages: Overview, People, ..., Lists.

    - Alternate set of control hotkeys (not user-confiurable) :

        SpeedDown:          Ctrl-C

        SpeedUp:            Ctrl-X

        SpeedPause:         Ctrl-Z

        TasksPopUp:         Ctrl-V

        ViewOnScreenNote:   Ctrl-G

        DefaultCamera       Ctrl-D      -- original: "Home"

        FollowCitizenCamera:Ctrl-F      -- original: "Space"

        Almanac:            Ctrl-B

        Avatar:             Ctrl-A

        Timeline:           Ctrl-H

    - Sense of building rotation is reversed. 

        '<' for clockwise, '>' for counterclockwise.

    - Skip Annual Almanac report if game is running in max speed.

Sim Almanac Mod

    Page layout of many Almanac pages are changed. 

    Too numerous to list here. Just browse each Almanac pages yourself.

Sim Toolbar Mod : My custom Toolbar

--  It adds custom toolbar with 10 button icons above minimap panel.

--  Action on pressing button is customizable in config file. 

--  Press "F8" key (confiurable) to toggle toolbar on/off.

--  Toolbar toggling menu is added to in-game main menu. (Thanks, Swixel)

--  "RESTART" menu is moved to 3rd place.

Sim Cheats and Events Mod

--  This is mod to activate cheat code or Timeline event of Modern Times

--  expansion i.e. unlocking MT modern builings like Bio Farm.

--  Press "control-M" hotkey (not user confiurable) and select cheat or

--  building unlock event from the list by clicking it and press "OK" button.

--

--  WARNING: If you activete cheat or unlock event, your current game 

--  is marked as "cheated" and you may not get some "Archivements" 

--  in the game, just like normal cheat code activated via keyboard.

Don't Lock Classic Buildings Mod

--  This mod keeps old, classic buildings avilable even after new Modern Times

--  building become unlocked. For example, you can build old Farm from menu

--  after new Bio Farm is unlocked. This mod works only in "Sandbox" game

--  with "Modern Times" expansion and "Timeline" setting ON.

--  You can enable/disable this in game options dialog / Online tab,

--  "Don't Lock Classic Buildings" option.

--

--  WARNING: This mod is also considered as "cheat" even in sandbox game. 

--  So you may not get "Archvements" in the MT sandbox mode.

--  This mod does NOT work in non-sandbox game or game without Modern Times 

--  expansion or Timeline setting off: i.e. classic/MT campaign missions or 

--  MT sandbox game with Timeline off or Challenge games. 

--  So they are not affected and not marked as "cheated".

--

--  WARNING 2: Game with both classic/MT builings may not be tested by devs.

--  So it is totally uncharted territory. I am not sure of any conflict or bug.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Housing Double Mod

--  Semi-balanced housing mod (Apartments, etc) 

--  Double capacity with double price.

--  Double the capacity and price, build time, pollution, crime, 

--      electricity, etc of common housings.

--  Tenement, Apartment, Condominium, and Modern Apartment,

--      Modern Condominium and Ziggurat of MT exp. only.

Bank Urban Development Mod

--  For Bank in urban development mode, switching bank working mode

--  to other mode and back will reset the current discount rate immediately

--  and takes full time to recover. So I modded such behavior.

--  With this mod, the benefit of construction cost discount will decay 

--  slowly over several months gradually in other working mode. 

--  The more skilled bank workers are, the slower decay rate be. 

--  Original basic bank and National Bank of TM exp. supported.

Academy Of Science Research Mod

--  Original Academy Of Science endows blueprint cost discount only in 

--  "Research Grants" mode. But the discount amount in the mode does not 

--  depends on time spent in Research Grants mode. It depends on 

--  service quality, i.e time and workers regardless of working mode.

--  This MOD will change like this:

--

--  The blueprint cost discount is applied regardless of working mode. 

--  But the discount amount will rise faster in "Research Grants" mode.

--  Except base discount 20%, the influence of service quality will be 

--  limited to additional 10% discount (max 30%) without spending time in

--  "Research Grants" mode. With "Research Grants", the discount will rise 

--  considerably faster and maximum will be extended up to 60%.

--  The base discount at construction is lowered to 20% from original 30%.

--  Construction cost and construction work are lowered by 20% of original.

Building Upkeep Inflation Mod

--  Raises builing upkeep cost each year by some inflation rate. 

--  Inflation rate may be compound or simple(linear) rate.

--  New upkeep cost only applies to buildings constructed after activating 

--  this MOD, not existing ones.

--

--  For comound rate, upkeep at year 2000: (1 + r) ^49

--      1% = 163%, 1.5% = 207%, 2.0% = 264%, 2.5% = 335%,

--      3.0% = 426%, 4.0% = 683%, 5.0% = 1092%

--  For simple rate, 2% = 198%, 3% = 247% 4%= 296%, 5% = 345%, 7% = 453%.

Happy Worker Mod

--  Happy people will work harder or less in their workplace depending 

--  on their individual happiness. At 50% personal happiness, 

--  workser will perform same as normal performance.

--  Happiness factor is limited up to 50%

--  Student's study performance of schools are not affected with this mod.

--  ChildrenCanGraduate_GradeSchoolMod() will affect children's

--  study performance of Grade School 

--

--  ex) Happiness factor 40% means 100% happy (extremely happy) workers

--  will work 140% of normal perfrmance in their workplace.

--  0% happy (extremely unhappy) worker, 60% performance.

Pool No Dress Code Mod

--  It is absurd that eco and wealty tourists can not visit Pool

--  in "No Dress code" mode. Mode description says that casual clothes

--  accepted, which means anyone can visit pool in the mode.

--  Eco and wealty tourists will visit Pool in "No Dress code" mode

Prison Safety Effect Mod

--  PrisonSafetyEffectMod()

--  Prison and Dungeon (upgraded Colonial Fort) will have safety area effect.

--  Safety effct area: Prison (31%), Dungeon (41%) of Police Station

Children Can Graduate Grade School Mod

--  Normally, children can't graduagte from Grade School until they grow up.

--  With this mod, Grade School will work similar way as High School:

--  i.e. once children learn enough, they will graduate from Grade School 

--  without growing up. But children can not join to High School still.

--  This mod requires BUGFIX_Schools_FactionConverts bug fix.

--

--  One more teacher is hired (3 teachers)

--  Students per teacher is reducd to 4 from 6: A teacher can teach 4 children.

--  Upkeep cost increased same as High School.

--  Grade school eduaction takes about double period of High School.

--  If Happy Worker MOD is activated, chidren's study performance is 

--  affected by children's happiness, not teacher's.

--  Now job skill training of "Field Trips" mode become more useful.

--  Graduates will get more varied and weighted job skill assignment.

--  Majority will get FactoryWorker or Farmer skill and some Builder.

--  And Teamster, Miner, Attendant, Lumberjack, Maid, Barmaid, Cook 

--  depending on thier gender.

Weather Staion Non-Sunny Mod (under development)

-- Weather Staion gives good benefits in "Always Sunny" work mode. 

-- But not much, or even bad effects in "Truthful Reports" 

-- or "Always Rainny" mode. So I will improve weather station effects 

-- in these modes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Add Soundtrack Folder Scan

-- Add additional Soundtrack folder and Main menu music. 

-- On start up, it scans *.ogg files recursively in the given folder

-- including folder in <Tropico 4>/Packs/*.hpk files.

Adjust Loud Sounds mod

--  Some of in-game sound and ambient noise are too loud and quickly 

--  become annoying. ex) Wind noise, Firework, Disaster sound like Tornado.

--  This mod reduces volume of some sounds selectively.

Dated Save Name Mod

--  Set default save file name to prefix name + game date (game year-month)

-- default prefix name is map name. 

--  ex) "New Savegame 1" ==> "DoroDoro-1974-03"

Avatar Queued Command and Action

-- While pressing shift key, select avatar and give avatar command,

-- (i.e. press shift key and right mouse button click) will queue the command.

-- The queued commands will be executed while Avatar is idle.

-- Up to 10 avatar commands are queued and up to 3 months before.

-- Normal right click command will cancel all the queued commands.

--

-- This mod also prohibits Avatar from visiting some buildings that have 

-- no service quality to improve. Avatar's visiting them is useless.

--  Useless visit: "Dock", "Prison", "NuclearPowerPlant", "ShoppingMall"

Overlay All Resouces

-- "Natural Resouces Overlay/All Metals" overlay normally shows 

-- Iron, Gold and Bauxite mine/deposites. With this mod, the "All Metals" 

-- overlay display will include "Salt" Mines and "Oil" Wells, too.

Bio Farm Food/Cash Crops Ovelay

--  While construction placement, Bio Farm shows overlay and infobox 

--  of old classic farm. This mod addes "Food Crops" and "Cash Crops" modes

--  to Bio Farm construction overlay.

Limit Expensive Imports Mod

--  Put limit on sudden import of large amount of expensive goods

--  when the Dock Max Import/ship slider is set to "No limit".

--  Applys to Uranium for nuclear plant and Luxury Goods for shopping mall.

--  It limits stock amount of nuclear plant and shopping mall, too.

Edict Criticize Europe Mod

--  New Foreign Edict: "Criticize Europe"

--

--  Lowers relations with Europe by -20 and raises US, USSR relations 

--  by +5 each for 3 years. Works similarly with "Praise US/USSR" Edict.

--  Cost: $500 (one time)

Bug Fix:

-- Bug Fix: IslandTourOffice flag can not be moved and placed.

-- Undo incorrectly set building_construction.work_mode

-- Bug Fix: Secret Agent has always "Miner" icon

-- clear cached icon of SecretAgent class

-- Bug Fix: Increase numbers in Mine upgrade hint are displayed incorrctly.

-- Update Translation text

-- BUG FIX: All school info panel does not update faction converts correctly.

--  fix info panel update and faction converts value update.

-- Bug Fix: MT Expansion player task offer in original game.

-- i.e. Giving task offer to build Telecom HQ in original Tropico 4 game.

--  Check task name for expansion only task and avoid it.

-- WARNING: This is rarely occuring bug so it is not tested well.

-- Bug Fix:

--  Fix various errors in description/translations texts.

--  Factions Edict Task Description

--  Reward: +15 <faction> Respect "until" the edict is active

--  ==> Reward: +15 <faction> Respect "while" the edict is active

--  Organic Ranch description:  remove "depending on the work mode"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Camera mod and Swixel's No Limit Mod are included for your convenience.

-- ====================================================================

parameterized Mod arguments. Bracketed [ name ] means optional arg.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

--  Static assigment example.

SimToolbar.InitButtons = {

    {   button = 1, image = "button image file path",

        hint = "hint text string",

        action = key_action_function }, }

--  Dynamic assigment example

--  Called on OnMsg.EnteringGameplay() time. 

function SimToolbar.OnInitButtons(self)

    self:SetButton( iButton_num, [button_image], 

            [hint_text], [action_function] )

end

--  See "_SimConfig.lua" for example

SimToolbarMod( [bShow_on_startup] )

BuildingUpkeepInflationMod( str_inflation_rate [, b_compound_interest] )

HappyWorkerMod( happiness_factor_in_percent )

DatedSaveNameMod( [savefile_prefix_string] )

local your_music_folder = "D:/Music/GameMusic/"

CreateRealTimeThread( 

    function() 

        AddSoundtrackFolder( your_music_folder, 

            { your_music_folder .. "main_menu_track_01.ogg", ... } )

    end )

-- ====================================================================

SimLib Summary:

This section is for game modder only. 

... Omitted ...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Camera mod and Swixel's No Limit Mod are included for your convenience.

Last Edited: 2012-06-11 오전 00:00

------------------------------------------
P.S. Help wanted: someone with art/Photoshop skill to make few icons for my custom toolbar?
I don't have any artistic talent to create nice-looking icon image.
------------------------------------------
SimCutie MOD BETA 6 ZIP file Download

ambrennan · 23-05-2012 03:47 PM

Contrary to what the documentation suggests, House Double Mod doesn't apply to Modern Apartments nor Modern Condominium. I can't be bothered to investigate if there's no human-readable source though.

Tropi'je · 23-05-2012 05:41 PM

My only suggestion is to post your readme file in "code" here on the forums..

Nice to see someone modding though.. Wink

Swixel · 23-05-2012 10:25 PM

(23-05-2012 03:47 PM)ambrennan Wrote: Contrary to what the documentation suggests, House Double Mod doesn't apply to Modern Apartments nor Modern Condominium. I can't be bothered to investigate if there's no human-readable source though.

It's bugged.

-----

Few points (not criticisms, but I can see potential bugs here):

1) Use the loaders. The reason I posted them and use them (in so many places, so many times) is because they give you an idea of which game is running. Trip a flag inside the ReloadLua (only MT reloads) workaround (i.e. the "full" mode) to determine if you're running the expansion -- that way you check and it's not mod dependent. I see the preprocess used, but the other is commented out ...

2) You should probably remove the 'ExtractGameData' from future revisions. It's not really that useful to end users -- keep it in some dev tools/lua scripts. Wink

3) Saving/loading: I don't see it happening here (I could be missing it)? If you have Tyrannus (I took it down when it broke), then you should be able to see how I stored the car edict code. I'm fairly sure I posted everything you need in another thread anyway. You basically just need to use a save/load call. Create a table with blueprint values / whatever, then update it as time goes on, so when save/autosave happens, it's stored. Otherwise incomplete blueprints or points will be lost.

4) I was to clean up my hotkey overloading code. I got busy and haven't really looked at my C++ stack since (note: the Lua C-API works fine if you really need to hide code, compiling Lua does nothing other than a minor speed increase for *some* functions). Your current keycode/input method is ... interesting. You're better off making your own subsection in the menu for clarity, that way you can (literally/trivially) load/unload sections based on variables, or configuration menus. It also means you can tweak things on the fly, rather than blindly inserting (read: enable/disable for submods).

5) The toolbar is interesting, but you'd be better off tapping into the existing menu (i.e. stealing a button, replacing it with your own), then launching off that. I only realised I could do that 'easily' post-Tyrannus.

And above all, avoid threads in game mode. You haven't used them yet, but every time I use them, disasters break. There's something amazingly fragile going on in a few places, but you shouldn't need them for *most* things.

EDIT Loader:

Code:

local FiredOnce = false

local ExpansionMode = false

-- MT Compatibility "Boot" loader

OnMsg.UASetMode = function(actions,mode)

    if not FiredOnce then

        if(mode == "Boot") then

            FiredOnce = true

            CreateRealTimeThread(function()

                -- Expansion

                OnMsg.ReloadLua = function()

                    ExpansionMode = true

                end

                -- Setup post-load

                OnMsg.XPlayerSignin = function()

                    -- Modern Times loader :3

                    if FiredOnce and ExpansionMode then

                        -- Mod load

                    end

                end

            end)

        end

    end

end

simcutie · 25-05-2012 03:14 PM

(23-05-2012 10:25 PM)Swixel Wrote: ...............................
Few points (not criticisms, but I can see potential bugs here):
....................................

Very much thank you for your invaluable advice. I updated my Mod and made second version of beta. The ZIP file of original post is updated.

The Modern Apartment bug fixed. Now it checks avaialbility of Modern Times expansion directly.
Extra code for saving/loading is not need for my simple Mod. I checked that the dev points and research points are preserved across separate save/load sessions.
I think that few extra keys (just 4 keys) are not worth separete section for them. When other modder adds more, I will reconsider. Dynamic on-the-fly enabling, disabling hotkey set is useless for my static mod. Disabling AlmanacUIMod will remove all the extra hotkeys.
Toggling Toolbar menu is added to in-game Main Menu. Good idea!
Added REAME to original post and ZIP file is updated with newer version.

Thanks again Swixel, ambrennan and Tropi'je.

ambrennan · 25-05-2012 06:18 PM

The link to the new file doesn't seem to be working (redirects to filedropper.com main page)

Swixel · 25-05-2012 08:18 PM

(25-05-2012 03:14 PM)simcutie Wrote:

Extra code for saving/loading is not need for my simple Mod. I checked that the dev points and research points are preserved across separate save/load sessions.

Did you jump between didferent saves/restart the game? I haven't had a chance to check it, but with the car edict work I did it'd sit as a global state and cause mayhem, which is why I went went the "preserving" stuff used in the game.

(25-05-2012 03:14 PM)simcutie Wrote:

I think that few extra keys (just 4 keys) are not worth separete section for them. When other modder adds more, I will reconsider. Dynamic on-the-fly enabling, disabling hotkey set is useless for my static mod. Disabling AlmanacUIMod will remove all the extra hotkeys.

[...]
Thanks again Swixel, ambrennan and Tropi'je.

No problem Wink

And my real concern is more for when multiple mods are put into play, or someone disables something in a mod and the key should disappear too -- hot-swapping mods. Nothing to worry about now, possibly not a concern at all, but I'd rather worry a bit.

Simanos · 26-05-2012 11:09 AM

Does the camera mod fix the vertical rotation not being free (but warcrafty(3)-like)?

ambrennan · 28-05-2012 05:57 PM

Does the mod change immigration in any way? With immigration policy set to "Open Doors", I tend to get 100+ immigrants per ship (without using Chinese development aid, obviously) with the mod enabled which I'm pretty sure I didn't get without the mod. If I had to venture a guess I'd say that it's the happy mod that's causing it; if that's the case then you might be better off not applying it to immigration office staff.

Tropi'je · 28-05-2012 06:26 PM

wow, that looks like a very nice mod.. I really like the appartment aspects, as i always thought that housing was to cheep anyway. the double polution is a nice touch.

I was thinking about a mod for grade schools. Basically my thought was to add another row of children, But add 4 more slots to the workers., so it would hold 1/3 more people, but employ 2/3's more. my thinking was, more jobs, a bit higher upkeep, but would let you cut the number of schools down to say 5-8 for a whole island, vrs the 10-15 you need now.

Ill have to give it a shot when i'm not so sucked into a new game. Damn steam and their try for free sales.. but it was hard to pass up civ v, with all DLC for 15 bucks..

But kudos on trying to make improvements, and more depth.. This game really does have tons of room to make improvements, even though it is a wonderfull game in it self.

i do have a question though, Is it possible to bring in the buildings that get removed in the time line? I was thinking about some sorta work around. LIke let the game remove it via timeline, But then just add in your own version afterwards. Though honestly in my next challenge, Or when i complete my first i should say.. I think ill be starting earlier, so MT seems farther away vrs barely getting going and all of sudden you start loosing key buildings. (markets are a big one for me)

Simanos · 28-05-2012 06:32 PM

Do you even need Grade Schools?
I have 1 almost always filled up and I get like 2 graduates per decade from it or something...
1 of em, on graduating fully satisfied (no unemployment either), turned criminal too LOL

simcutie · 28-05-2012 08:09 PM

Updated once again, now third beta. Now vanilla version of Tropico 4 supported but it may need more extensive test. Those who play original Tropico 4 without MT exp. may help me to test it.

NEW UPDATES:

Original Tropico 4 without Modern Times Expansion supported
Added soundtrack folder scanned on start up.
Added "Show old Pop-Up notification"
Right click and <Enter> key will close most popup and tools.
Two Bug Fix: Tour Office flag and Secret Agent icon problem.

akuthia · 29-05-2012 12:24 AM

I think the grade schools just adjust the adult outcome person, ie makes them smarter, or makes them be in a faction...

Ferwyn · 29-05-2012 11:34 AM

Hi SimCutie,

Great mod, I've been playing the game with it since your first beta. Since the latest version (beta 3) however my farmers are unable to place any fields for farms and plantations.

It happens in the campaign and also in any sandbox game (MT).

I have enabled all your mods except no limits, increased upkeep, EU edict and expensive exports limit.

Any ideas? Is it a bug, or am I the only one experiencing this?

Simanos · 29-05-2012 11:40 AM

Yes, but it's so slow to produce any results, because it can fit only 12 people and they have to study for like 10 years.
The children get a teacher xp bar that always stays at 0, until they become adults.
In contrast adult students get a student bar that rises from 0 to 100% depending on how long they stay in school (or when professors are there to teach, I don't know) and then graduate in a timely manner. Sometimes it feels like less than a year, for high-school, which is absurd compared to a decade for grade-school.

IMO they should make the grade school age 6-11 instead of 4-13 that it is now and make grade schools take 12 children per teacher instead of 6. Maybe add a 3rd teacher slot too.

simcutie · 29-05-2012 01:55 PM

(29-05-2012 11:34 AM)Ferwyn Wrote: Hi SimCutie,

Great mod, I've been playing the game with it since your first beta. Since the latest version (beta 3) however my farmers are unable to place any fields for farms and plantations.

It happens in the campaign and also in any sandbox game (MT).

I have enabled all your mods except no limits, increased upkeep, EU edict and expensive exports limit.

Any ideas? Is it a bug, or am I the only one experiencing this?

Problem identified and verified. Thank you for bug report. One (wrong) bug fix caused another bug Sad

. My stupid mistake: I forgot to return value from the function, My bad...
Disable "BUGFIX_TourOffice_PlaceFlag()" for the time being. I'll fix it soon in next release.

Ferwyn · 29-05-2012 02:22 PM

(29-05-2012 01:55 PM)simcutie Wrote: Problem identified and verified. Thank you for bug report. One (wrong) bug fix caused another bug .
Disable "BUGFIX_TourOffice_PlaceFlag()" for the time being. I'll fix it soon in next release.

Thank you for your reply.

I'll disable it. Looking forward to the next release of this great mod.

Tropi'je · 29-05-2012 06:20 PM

(28-05-2012 06:32 PM)Simanos Wrote: Do you even need Grade Schools?
I have 1 almost always filled up and I get like 2 graduates per decade from it or something...
1 of em, on graduating fully satisfied (no unemployment either), turned criminal too LOL

grade schools work awesome.. the key is to make sure you have enough. If you only have one, they just don't help or work well. YOu really many.. figure 200-300 kids, that is 8-12 schools.

When you have proper schooling, your ealry ones will graduate 40-50+ and your later ones 20 something. You got to remember, they are for kids so i think they go from 5-13? So if you end up will all early kids in the school, 10 years + for a single graduate is normal. But when you get them early, and make a ton, all the kids goto school.

I just think a slight mod to them would not over power them, and make building islands and communities a bit more realistic.

simcutie · 30-05-2012 12:08 AM

I also think that grad school needs some improvement. Simply it takes too long to graduate so there are too few graduates a year, compared with high school. For its long education period and large size, it has too small capacity to accommodate demand for educating children The ideal ratio of high school and grad school should be likes of 1:2 or 1:3 at most. So capacity of grad school should be doubled, quadrupled or even more.

Swixel · 30-05-2012 01:00 AM

(30-05-2012 12:08 AM)simcutie Wrote: I also think that grad school needs some improvement. Simply it takes too long to graduate so there are too few graduates a year, compared with high school.

The problem is the aging code, which if Irecall, is under (ex\)Game\Classes\Units\Unit.lua. Otherwise they stay there until they're adults ... it's basically puberty = graduation.

simcutie · 30-05-2012 07:27 AM

(30-05-2012 01:00 AM)Swixel Wrote:
(30-05-2012 12:08 AM)simcutie Wrote: I also think that grad school needs some improvement. Simply it takes too long to graduate so there are too few graduates a year, compared with high school.

The problem is the aging code, which if Irecall, is under (ex\)Game\Classes\Units\Unit.lua. Otherwise they stay there until they're adults ... it's basically puberty = graduation.

Strange... I have not seen such code that prevents children from graduate from grade school by his/her age in Grade school, or school code. And not in Units.Lua or Needs.lua, Child.lua, Educations.lua. Just they prevents Children from entering high school, but they does not prevent from graduating from grad school. I though that it is because that the GradeSchool.service_time is larger than high school (50000 vs 30000) So I was thinking of reducing it to same as high school.

Simanos · 30-05-2012 10:34 AM

If you check a child in game (in a grade-school) you will see it doesn't get a growing "student" xp bar. It gets a buggy teacher xp bar that is always 0%.
Swixel is right. Any way to change that?

Swixel · 30-05-2012 10:59 AM

(30-05-2012 07:27 AM)simcutie Wrote:
(30-05-2012 01:00 AM)Swixel Wrote: The problem is the aging code, which if Irecall, is under (ex\)Game\Classes\Units\Unit.lua. Otherwise they stay there until they're adults ... it's basically puberty = graduation.
Strange... I have not seen such code that prevents children from graduate from grade school by his/her age in Grade school, or school code. And not in Units.Lua or Needs.lua, Child.lua, Educations.lua. Just they prevents Children from entering high school, but they does not prevent from graduating from grad school. I though that it is because that the GradeSchool.service_time is larger than high school (50000 vs 30000) So I was thinking of reducing it to same as high school.

Units/Needs/Child/Education don't decompile, if you're using the decompiler, but there is some significant code. I just mean that if they age up, they get thrown out anyway ... But I could just be delusional/overtired ... try tweaking a child's age mid game to see what happens I guess. I re-implemented a whole host of stuff ages ago ... my T4 install is anything but vanilla at the moment.

EDIT: Fixed seriously broken grammar here. Evidence suggests I was overtired Tongue

Tropi'je · 30-05-2012 08:39 PM

I would seriously stay away from shorting the time it takes them to graduate. It is basically avatar based (or coded for that time period in some way) I think there is way to many places for that to screw something up.

I also think that the amount of time spent in the schools does effect. Now i can't say for sure. But when i have plenty of schools so they start going at 6 or so, with enough space, they really seem to jump levels, vrs when i they get there late.

basically my point is when you have plenty of schools so they are in there a long time, they all end up really smart. But if you shorten that it could effect things in bad ways. (late game it seems like everyone is very intelligent when i have like 10-15 schools going..

that is why i think just adding some students would be the easiest. Part of the issue with schools are teachers leaving for other jobs and the kids pop out (not sure if it resets them or not, but it seems to)

with more teachers, if one leaves fewer students would get kicked out of school which should help. and adding another row it wouldn't over power them, but it would bring down the need to build so many.

I think that is part of the issue, balance.. grade schools really are powerful if you use them right. So making it so 50+ kids are in each just seems like too much. And really unbalancing something that just needs a little tweak.

at least that is my two cents Smile

Swixel · 30-05-2012 09:18 PM

(30-05-2012 08:39 PM)Tropije Wrote: I also think that the amount of time spent in the schools does effect. Now i can't say for sure. But when i have plenty of schools so they start going at 6 or so, with enough space, they really seem to jump levels, vrs when i they get there late.

CK and I discussed that somewhere here. Basically it's more "can't get home to transform", and unlike other avatars Children are limited to where they get their superman on.

I'm just more worried about the imbalance caused by scaling in this.

Simanos · 31-05-2012 02:01 PM

Isn't there also a bug if you make the slots in a building too high, people may get stuck in a doorway?

CoconutKid · 31-05-2012 02:03 PM

If I may be allowed to opine: In trying to derive someone else's computer code for a game from your picture of the real world, you build for yourself a lot of blind alleys.

The grade school has absolutely no connection with the "education" system of the high school \ college buildings in Tropico. It had just as well be called "Day Care Center." It is there to keep the people aged three to thirteen (they wear the 'Child' avatar) off the streets while messing with the basic characteristics with which they were generated.

If you wish to disconnect the game clock from how people age, then you can get children to graduate from grade school sooner. Say, reset things so from birth to age three takes two months, and then from age three to age thirteen takes eighteen months. That will get rid of those useless children really quickly.

Simanos · 31-05-2012 02:25 PM

Is it possible to do that?

PS: Yes, I think the "GradeSchool.service_time" (which is larger than high school (50000 vs 30000) is just the lower cap for graduation. Child has to be at Grade-school at age 13 when it becomes adult to have a chance to "graduate" (become smarter or join a faction) and maybe it also has to have accumulated 50000 points GradeSchool.service_time by that point or else it doesn't graduate. Or maybe it doesn't. Cause when I click on children and see 0% teacher instead of x% student like normal I have to ask:
Did they remove all xp gathering code from children? Where are the DEVs to answer these questions please?

simcutie · 31-05-2012 03:35 PM

Yes, Swixel is right. The Child.lua code prevents it from graduating from grade school. So I added graduation code ( from Student class) to Child class. So now children will learn "Study" skill from grade school and, when they learned enough, they will graduate from grade school before they grow up. Grade school will work much like High School. Here is new version with such Mod.

On balance of Grade school:
Grade school has very little benefit. At best mode, just 40% of graduates get +1 (+20%) intelligence point after such long education. Not much direct productivity benefits in game and so much under-powered compared with High school/College, IMHO. Even with this mod, it need yet another boost to be useful.

--------------------------------
4th Beta version 2012 May 31
Early new beta due to stupid bug in Beta 3

NEW UPDATES (Beta 3 and beta 4 combined):
1. Original Tropico 4 without Modern Times Expansion supported.
2. Added soundtrack folder scanned on start up.
3. Added "Show old Pop-Up notification"
4. Right click and <Enter> key will close most open/pending popup and tools.
5. Children can graduate from grade school before they grow up.
6. Annual Almanac report is skipped when running in max speed.
7. Date icon hint shows "week of the month".
8. Mod is distributed as single ".hpk" file and config file.
So installtion procedure has changed accordingly.
9. Four Bug Fix:
- Tour Office flag (bug fixed again!)
- Secret Agent icon
- Mine Upgrade hint number problem
- Factions Edict Task Description

Swixel · 31-05-2012 08:25 PM

(31-05-2012 03:35 PM)simcutie Wrote: Grade school has very little benefit. At best mode, just 40% of graduates get +1 (+20%) intelligence point after such long education. Not much direct productivity benefits in game and so much under-powered compared with High school/College, IMHO. Even with this mod, it need yet another boost to be useful.

But unless you're flagging them as having graduated from grade school, then they can go back twice if they're 'lucky' ... The solution is to modify the high school to allow service usage by 'children' who have your flag if Literacy is in effect. If those children graduate, then you can instantly force them to be adults using the Grow Up code. Otherwise it's sort of broken, unfortunately... but flagging and enabling high school access isn't broken because adulthood is dynamic, and you're not just inflating the workforce -- you're just 'filtering' children.

The vanilla/unmodified version is fine, the only issue is the school itself isn't a factor in aging up.

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