CNExtend

The improvement screen changed enough this evening to break the improvement tips again.  I actually like the look better now, and the fix only took a few minutes.  These things seem to come in waves so I can’t promise this will be the last update for a while.

I’ve decided to include the non-functional layout editor if you want to see where it’s at.  You can right click on your nation view and choose layout editor, and it will pop up a window with rows which you can drag on to your view.  You can also remove currently visible rows, although new ones dragged on aren’t removable yet.  It’ll eventually have more controls, be easier to use and actually have the ability to save, so for now any feedback is appreciated.

Edit: Also, it definitely lags on slower computers, which I think is being caused by the alpha-blending being used.  So if it’s too slow to be usable on your computer right now, future versions will be able to turn off any unneccessary effects.

Well, this one was a few days later than I predicted but I ended up adding and tweaking a lot more than I originally anticipated. Any bug reports are always appreciated.

New in this version:

• Updated so that it parses the new navy improvements correctly
• Tips for deleting wonders.
• Tip multipliers for deleting improvements.
• Minor fix to Stock Market calculation related to happiness and straight cash no longer having a fixed ratio between them.
• Added 4 of the newer financial wonders; only Nuclear Power Plant and National Environment Office are still left to do.

Hopefully this will be the final fix needed for a while. Features like events are still being worked on, although always slower than anticipated. The layout editor is actually getting close to useful, although it’s still a long way from polished. Once complete, the layout editor should serve as a platform for various improvements generally seen in other scripts, which can be installed and added in an a la carte fashion.

I’ve tried to refrain from the kitchen sink approach due to both the maintenance overhead and the lack of a really powerful way for the user to pick and choose what they like, instead of having it all thrown at them.

The dialog issue occurring for mac users has been resolved, and the navy-related interface changes have been added.

Edit:  This update has been taken down due to fixes needed related to the new navy improvements.  I’ve also disabled the download link.

There was a minor change in the improvements screen (Missile Defense -> Missile Defenses) which caused the parser to give up and say “I’ve never heard of this improvement before”. Like with the extended display issue before, if the parser finds anything it doesn’t expect or out of order it gives up instead of trying to make guesses.

There may be a few more of these interface fixes in the future, they tend to come in waves.

Someone pointed out that one of the new css files being loaded was interfering with our beloved xkcd which is just totally unacceptable. I’ve updated them so that it can’t happen again with other websites.

Fixes:

• Extended profile validation updated
• Version notes open in a new tab.  I tried to make this match preferences but.. well, I didn’t really try too hard.  Maybe next time.

This may be the first of a couple updates if the admin tweaks the interface some more.  This was as fix for the extended display, since admin removed an item from the extended display (Total Financial Actions).

When parsing your nation screen, CNExtend also verifies that the rows it expects are there.  If an expected row is missing or a row appears which is unexpected, CNExtend refuses to “validate” the input, and you’ll get an error.  While this prevents CNx from silently parsing bad data, it also means that it requires an update whenever the interface changes.

In other news, the layout editor is coming along, but there’s still plenty to do.  I’ll probably release a beta for folks to try and download before adding it to the main build.  Also, interest in events has shot up dramatically since the admin made changes.  I may delay the layout editor to get events in quickly.  In the meantime, please help make sure this is updated so I can parse the events accurately, since I can only do so much testing when they occur randomly.

In this version:

• Firefox 3 was occasionally throwing errors based on new browser behavior; the errors weren’t meaningful but they were annoying.  That has been fixed.
• The Version notes now don’t pop up automatically when you install a new version.  It was kind of obnoxious, so now CNx will alert you to a message when you first start your browser, where you can optionally view what’s new.
• ‘Profiles’ are now ‘Layouts’.

In this version:

• Fixes were made to all improvement and wonder calculations affected by the environment changes. That includes pretty much everything except purely income boosting modifiers.
• The code for an alpha demo of the profile layout editor is included, but it’s disabled for now.
• Updated the code so that the layouts work properly with the latest version of Firefox 3.
• Tested on Linux and Windows, I’d definitely appreciate feedback from Mac users if you notice any bugs.

Someone pointed out that the word ‘profile’ doesn’t really describe what the profiles do, so I’m going to be changing the terminology to “layout” in the next release.

Alright, I had a pretty atrocious bug related to infrastructure cost and upkeep, which only affected you if you had 8000 or more infra.  Normally I wait a few weeks and deliver a bunch of bug fixes at once, but this one was quick and obvious.