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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. "

2 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

  2. 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

    --

    -AS
    *Pikachu*