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Scripting Language for CIV

Posted by blizzard on from the tornado-at-the-click-of-a-button dept.

doomy writes "SLIC the scripting lanugage for Civilization : Call to Power has been released. All all game scripters rejoice and learn this language before the game is out. "

6 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. *YAWN* by Skyshadow · · Score: 2
    Yeah, call me when the Linux port comes out.

    IMHO, I think Activision took a big risk by letting Loki release the Linux version two weeks after the Windows one came out. I mean, I would have bought it off the shelf at Best Buy the day it came out -- sheer force of the reputation of the previous two games. Now, I'll have to see if it sucks or not by talking to my non-Linux-using "friends".

    Of course, I'll probably still buy it. I've been playing Civ2 for so long I'm starting to get retinal burn-in of the city screen...

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    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
  2. Just what the world needs, YASL... by roystgnr · · Score: 2

    I agree. Although I think it is strange that you have not mentioned any lisp dialect here. Guile had been perfect.

    I'll agree in theory - although I personally am not a comp sci major and haven't been forced to wrap my brain around functional programming. The idea of say, summing a list via recursion instead of a loop just doesn't feel natural.

    I also don't know enough about Guile specifically - how easy is it to interface with code written in other languages?

    And BTW, you don't really mean that you prefer writing AI in C?

    Just an example, just a theoretical example... but one point I was trying to make is that if you can link to C code, it's possible to write wrappers as a "gateway" to just about any language out there for people who really hate your particular scripting choice.

  3. SLIC sucks by Razorblade · · Score: 2

    As a programmer who is currently writing a *very* powerful scripting language that straddles the line between a scripting language and a programming language, SLIC is pathetic. No user-defined functions, no local variables, no objects, no parameter passing, no class inheritance, etc. SLIC makes Perl look great.

    SLIC sucks - Activision must have really underpaid programmers working on this game who don't know how to write scripting languages!

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  4. Propagation of patches... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

    I'm curious how well the patches will be propagated to Linux. The best we can hope for is that Activision will have LokiSoft do all the patches. But is there any possibility that some patches won't be propagated?

    For instance, if Activision has to shell out $$$ to LokiSoft every time an update needs to be done, they probably won't be very enthusiastic about it. Does anyone know what their contract calls for in terms of patches/updates?

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  5. Just what the world needs, YASL... by roystgnr · · Score: 3

    Yet Another Scripting Language, that is.

    And not a good one either - what were they thinking? While SLIC does not directly support user defined functions, there is a workaround. I'm sorry; I'll get by without object oriented programming fine, but at least give us functions to work with. I can't even imagine writing a script longer than a couple hundred lines in this. Not to mention the undeclared variables (what do you mean there's a typo in my script? There was no parsing error!), and the lack of locally scoped variables, structures, pointers/references, or many other features of every useful language created in the last 30 years.

    They would have had less programmer work, probably earned greater performance, and definitely made the game infinitely more extensible, if they'd added a Perl, Python, or even Tcl interpreter instead of creating this travesty. (Hell, Java, Javascript, etc. would work too if the licensing was OK.)

    They also would have tapped in to the vast mountain of existing code out there. Imagine a python script that, at the end of every turn, updates a web page with a summary of the game. Imagine a perl script with the Gimp module, allowing you to make animated GIFs of the battles when you press a button. Imagine writing (and compiling) your own AI in C, then hooking it up to libtcl, perl XS, or whatever...

    Not that this is all bad - I mean even crippled user extensible scripts are definitely preferable to no user extensibility at all... but they hit on an idea that could have been as revolutionary to strategy games as QuakeC was to 3D shooters, and it hurts to see they missed the target.

  6. WooHoo! by Anonymous+Shepherd · · Score: 3

    Good news and all, but I'm worried about the negative issues I've seen about CtP on www.gamecenter.com. While the review in general was overall saying good things about CtP, there are some points it brings up:

    No autosave
    (Which can actually can be addressed with an Aborted() messagebox with a contained SaveGame(...) function... check out the SLIC)

    Difficulty in identifying units on the map
    (There may be something doable with the SLIC as well, by using a permanent or popup box which labels every unit you select or click on...)

    Lack of explore/patrol
    (Hmmm... looks like SLIC may be able to do something with this as well, though my be just a bit clunky)

    I also wonder if the SLIC allows for the creation of Wonders and new effects...

    I guess actually trying the game with some SLIC script would be the only way to find out.

    I wonder what CmdrTaco(he does have the Linux port beta, doesn't he?) or other beta testers think of the review and these 'problems'.
    AS

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    *Pikachu*