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@Buncle: what do you have? on what format?
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Mostly .htm files. A few of them, .mtm. I had about 3/4 of the stuff saved, and then things got real busy, and I had to prioritize.
What's left is mostly stuff like the wallpapers. I have all of the Leader profiles -and it's been a few weeks; I'd have to look to tell you exactly. I guess finishing and saying "everything" would be more useful than a list.
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anything we can do about the missing 1/4?
what's the size of the save and how do we want to make it available?
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I can resume saving stuff until I'm done.
No big individual files, I think, but it's a lot of stuff, collectively. The best thing would be to host it all as it was on the Firaxis site, of course. Do we have the capacity for that sort of thing?
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I'm not seeing any individual files bigger than 530kb in a cursory inspection, but I haven't checked all the subfolders the .htms use. Everything I have so far comes to 6.7Mb, collectively.
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I can resume saving stuff until I'm done.
that would be great
No big individual files, I think, but it's a lot of stuff, collectively. The best thing would be to host it all as it was on the Firaxis site, of course. Do we have the capacity for that sort of thing?
few more pages should not be a problem
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Well we have a plan, then. I'll finish saving pages today, and if you'll tell me where/how to post the files, I'll get right on that, too. I think they'll need the teeniest bit of editing, as they seem to have a Wayback Machine thingy added at the top. I can probably take care of that pretty easily - the page editor I have is antique, but it's not rocket science.
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I've saved all the 4.0 patches -for English, French, German, Spanish, and Itallian.
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you mean those here (http://alphacentauri2.info/downloads/?cat=3)?
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Do we have all of them? We can just alter where the links point, then.
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Do we have all of them? We can just alter where the links point, then.
all windows official patches are in our downloads section
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Okydoke.
I've save the colorblind patch, the two official scenarios in all four lauguages offered, and the demo, anyway.
I'm running into trouble with the wallpapers, so far...
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Same problem with the Xfire walpapers - it seems to be because all the links go through a EULA page first, and the Wayback Machine didn't save the next level with the actual files. I'm stumped about that.
Since you assure me we already have all the official patches hosted, I didn't the X 2.0 patch(es), but I have everything saved now that I can figure out how to get at, except for piecing together screenies of all those Technology subpages that popped up in their own little window that wouldn't let me get at the menu to save anything. That's going to be a LOT of .jpgs before I'm done.
I hope someone more haxxor than I will help out with both those things. All else is saved.
However, the Links page is hopelessly antiquated, having only one surviving site linked; it's going to have to be completely rewritten, but I don't think that will present a challenge, or be a big job - we just need to decide what we want to link...
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Same problem with the Xfire walpapers - it seems to be because all the links go through a EULA page first, and the Wayback Machine didn't save the next level with the actual files. I'm stumped about that.
we may find them some other place
Since you assure me we already have all the official patches hosted, I didn't the X 2.0 patch(es), but I have everything saved now that I can figure out how to get at, except for piecing together screenies of all those Technology subpages that popped up in their own little window that wouldn't let me get at the menu to save anything. That's going to be a LOT of .jpgs before I'm done.
it looks like we're missing exactly the X 2.0 patch(es), but i can fix that.
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Just a progress report - I have a million pages to clean up, and it's taking a while, but this is my primary focus until it's done. The pages I've finished look great.
I think this is a service to the AC community that we're going to be able to be insufferably proud of...
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Keep it up man! :) Good work. :)
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I think so.
Hard work, for sure. These pages were designed with far too many tables and nested cells, if you know much about .htm editing. Makes it nearly impossible to put something back if you accidentally move it. A lot has to be updated, too, like the Links page, which only has one still-living site on it. Going to have to redo that one entirely. It's a big job, or I'd have been done days ago.
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Oh yeah I know all about HTML (I have my own website after all!) and tables can be a major pain. :| I don't use them for that reason.
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Do you know anything about how to do mouseover picture changes on link buttons? I don't, so my punching-up isn't faithful in that.
I've finished pages up through Aki's leader profile page, and now I have a dentist's appointment. Back in a few...
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Man oh man, did Domai ever put up a fight...
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I had a terrible dental ordeal today, and still got Buster a valentine card made and sent out, and got seven leader profile pages whipped into shape, finally finishing with those. I'm up against a tech problem with the Technology page, since I don't understand how the sub-pages work, so I'm going to skip the the Native Life page tomorrow.
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<img src="images/button-home.png" alt="Home" onmouseover="this.src='images/button-home2.png'" onmouseout="this.src='images/button-home.png'" />
That's how I do my website's rollovers.
Good on you for surviving the dentist man. :O Sounds painful. :|
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Whoa. Actual hotmetal coding; I wish I knew much about that, but so far, I've squeezed by with what they (dishonestly) call "WYSIWYG" editors - an antique copy of Front Page, and a newly-downloaded copy of KompoZer...
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You've done a pretty good job for FrontPage. :D I am afraid that I don't quite know how to manipulate those programs to put in the javascript properities that I have on that img... sorry. :O At least you know what sort of direction you are looking for.
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I might can figure out how to paste that in - gotta get everything working before I worry about getting fancy.
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Okay, I'm down to the two wallpaper sub-subpages shy of getting all the full pages ready for primetime -fixed all the internal links and graphics to work right-and I face three sets of problems, once I get those two done tonight.
The Links page has one still-living site on it, and will have to be rewritten with a whole new list. I'll need help with that list. This is the least of the problems.
The Wayback Machine won't let me at those desktop wallpapers. I don't know how to get them or what to substitute. I need help with that.
The Technologies page has dead links in the first column, Basic Concepts and Advanced Concepts, and the other ten catagories pop up in a mini window that I don't really understand how it works. I can get at those and save them one page at a time if I have to, but I hope there's some better way that I'll still be able to edit into something workable, as close to the originals as possible. I haven't the foggiest about getting ahold of the Basic Concepts and Advanced Concepts minipages.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040208150438/www.firaxis.com/smac/ (http://web.archive.org/web/20040208150438/www.firaxis.com/smac/) Anyone got any ideas? Help!
(I have all those blue mouseover shots saved, and when the rest is up and working, I'll want help with putting the mouseover stuff back, too.)
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Okay, done. http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid%20Meier's%20Alpha%20Centauri.htm (http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid%20Meier's%20Alpha%20Centauri.htm)
The wallpapers are posted in two sizes in WPC's Downloads section; somebody get them for me, 'cause I ain't going there.
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I would assume that the Basic and Advanced Concepts areas mirror the same categories ingame, so would be a copy/paste job.
And wow... having those a long time ago would have been helpful. :| Things one learns!
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That's not a terrible idea at all - I might could fake it that way...
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I found a source for all the wallpapers at 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024, so I am on that now, and content about that part. Should be taken care of today...
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sisko, I'm about to upload the two wallpaper .zips to our Downloads section for linking. I should fix up collages of wallpapers thumbnails to display with them, shouldn't I?
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I should fix up collages of wallpapers thumbnails to display with them, shouldn't I?
that's a good idea
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I've posted the wallpaper .zips and updated the subpages.
(http://alphacentauri2.info/MGalleryItem.php?id=41)
http://alphacentauri2.info/downloads/?sa=view;down=33 (http://alphacentauri2.info/downloads/?sa=view;down=33)
(http://alphacentauri2.info/MGalleryItem.php?id=42)
http://alphacentauri2.info/downloads/?sa=view;down=34 (http://alphacentauri2.info/downloads/?sa=view;down=34)
Do we have those 2.0 patches for me to link on the main Downloads page as I update it?
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Do we have those 2.0 patches for me to link on the main Downloads page as I update it?
here: http://alphacentauri2.info/downloads/?cat=4 (http://alphacentauri2.info/downloads/?cat=4)
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Not that I'm going to get away with this without having several needed changes pointed out, but I'm now down to working out the Technology sub-pages and redoing the Links page shy of being finished!!!
Check this out http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.htm (http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.htm) and do me the favor of testing links and commenting on everything in general. I want to get this sucker really right - it's been too much work (done little else for over a week, now) to leave it done other than right.
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Keep up the good work. ;D
Let me know if you need a hand with anything. I know that I spent like, 5 or 6 hours on my own website yesterday. :S
(offtopic: I prefer ;D to :D as the : D smiley...)
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Neither smilie is quite what I hope we end up with, but time will tell. I have some slight expertise in the area, you know, but not infinite time to do all things at once. We ARE going to be having a look at them, I assure you.
If you were to go have a look at what I'm up against with those little tech sub-pages and express opinions about what/how to do, I would be grateful...
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-Also, bump. ;D
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Oh I will. :) I've flagged it attention sometime today. :D
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I only just now checked if the graphic novel exerpt linked at the bottom of the Story page works. It does not.
I'm in over my head about how to fix that...
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Okay, so the rollovers, the technologies, and graphic novel?
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Rollovers as in the buttons higlighting when mouseovered? Put that last - I need to do something about the tech mini-pages first.
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Do you want the technology links to go into a new window?
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I don't feel strongly about it - I've taken the odd liberty with altering things in the pages, but being as faithful to the original as is feasible would be best...
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The simplest option is to get rid of the popup window, if you prefer, and have copies of the tabular layout with the content pasted in...
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My first problem is that it's a million little pages to save, and I have to make up names for each, 'cause everything in a category wants to save with the same name.
I guess I'll just have to get to it, and work out the details as I go. I know how to get it to open in a new window/tab, and will probably go with that - the rest, I just have to work out. It's not like anyone taught me much about this stuff in the first place.
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Alright. :) What was the particulars of the other issue?
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Click on the link to the graphic novel at the bottom of the Stories page - it's not 'sposed to open as a page of code...
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It seems like the .SWF, the flash movie, has been saved incorrectly... I am not sure how to fix that at all sorry. :(
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$#@!
I'll either figure it out, or take out the link, then. Google is my friend sometimes.
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You'd probably want an original copy of the SWF, if anybody has it. :) If not, it's probably easier to drop it. I did try to save the text that it was as a SWF, but it didn't work...
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I think I ought to put back the Wayback Machine link, since it works -at least as an interim measure- this was one of the things I had set to open in a new window, anyway.
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Ah that might work. ;D
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This morning, I'm saving Tech mini-pages. The technology subcategory alone has 86 pages and an index page. It's going to take a while to get everything whipped into shape...
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Wow. I just saved another tech category - roughly 50 more pages, and it's becoming clear that I have to save the entire lot, including the reconstructions of basic and advanced concepts, before I can even begin to embark on editing. There are so many hyperlinks to stuff in other categories that it would be a waste of time otherwise.
The work proceeds, but the worker gets tired...
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Okay, I finally gotten everything available saved 314 mini-pages so far, more when I've made the pages for the Basic & Advanced Concepts categories. I have to replace quite a number of missing pics, too - the 4 units are going to be a pain.
This is going to take a while...
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Check out the "OfficialAC" button at the top of the page to see the fruits of my labors, to date. :danc:
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Can anyone tell me what the filename is for the Monopole Magnets tech illo? I've replaced all the ones the Wayback Machine didn't have, but that doesn't tell me which one is which, and some of them look pretty simular.
I should info-dump the whole list and hold a contest, shouldn't I? Who thinks they could help and wouldn't mind some bonus ECs?
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I've made a preliminary draft of the terraforming pages: http://alphacentauri2.info/official/terrnum=1.htm (http://alphacentauri2.info/official/terrnum=1.htm) The hyperlinks are mostly to concept pages I haven't created yet, but this does scroll back and forth the way it's supposed to, and works for what it is so far. Enjoy.
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that's a lot of work on very short notice (you made that for Uno). good job! ;b;
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It's possible that I could do some helping on this. :) Just tell me what you would like me to do BU. :D
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I still have a lot of tedium in front of me with the tech mini-pages, but any help I could get towards (re)constructing the basic and advanced concepts pages would be great...
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Does that mean copy/pasting in the concepts from text files into HTML form?
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I guess; I haven't looked into it at all yet - the pages doubtless had little illos, too, which aren't a lot of work individually, but when I have to make 50 of them...
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Is illo short hand for something?
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Ilustration - most of the mini-pages I could get at had at least one small picture.
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Tech logos and so on?
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I'm trying to remember if the datlinks concept entires have pictures; if so, that.
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They don't ingame. :O
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Hmmm. Some of it would have obvious sorta pics, I guess, and the rest could do without. The basic format ought to follow the rest of the mini-pages.
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Ah, I am so glad that the Official Alpha Centauri website has been saved! I for one am very grateful for the work you have put in BUncle, and for this site for hosting it in a conspicuous manner.
I was afraid all of the precious Faction Leader bio information and Base wallpapers may have been lost forever, leaving a soulless body to wander the world in despair!
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Well, we couldn't let that happen, could we? Personally, I always thought the factions pages, especially, were golden.
I really do need to get back on finishing this project; I'ver been a little burned out and distracted lately, so getting some postive reinforcement means a lot. Thanks.
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Buncle,
Nice job on rescuing the Firaxis SMAC pages! I've been trying to contact Firaxis about restoring the original pages, but no luck so far.
Ainwood, one of the CFC admins, suggested that I contact Dennis Shirk at Firaxis about this matter. Following is a draft of a message that I composed. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions about the message?
Hi Dennis,
Ainwood at CivFanatics suggested that I contact you about the following matter. I hope that you can refer me to someone
in Firaxis who can help.
For many years Firaxis maintained pages at www.firaxis.com/smac (http://www.firaxis.com/smac) that contained information about the game Sid Meier's
Alpha Centauri (SMAC). Attempting to access that page now returns a 403 Forbidden error (You don't have permission to
access /smac/ on this server). Members of the SMAC community believe that the information on that page (and the child
pages) is worthy of being preserved. The error message suggests that the pages are still present, but the permissions
have been removed. If so, could the permissions be restored? I sent two email messages to [email protected] regarding
this matter, but didn't receive a reply.
If the SMAC pages on Firaxis.com can't be restored, would there be an objection if the SMAC community retrieved the pages
from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine (http://archive.org/web/web.php (http://archive.org/web/web.php)) and posted them on a SMAC fan site?
Regards,
(RL name redacted)
Moderator, Alpha Centauri Forum, CivFanatics
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your message sounds good to me.
please send our thanks to ainwood for "opening the door" of the Firaxis producer (http://www.firaxis.com/company/bios.php?bioid=77)
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And thanks for the help.
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When we last saw our hero working on this, he had a good 95% of the official site fixed up and ready for prime time. The remainder, excepting the Links page, is a doozy, though. However, all intrepid-like he has squared his shoulders and determined to make an end of it, ASAP.
I still have a lot of tedium in front of me with the tech mini-pages, but any help I could get toward (re)constructing the basic and advanced concepts pages would be great...
Making the mini pages come up mini is still beyond my skills, but I made the Terrain and Terraforming pages in an afternoon. If anyone would care to browse the Wayback Machine achive of that section (http://web.archive.org/web/20031204031744/http://www.firaxis.com/smac/tech.cfm) to get a feel for the style of the mini-pages, I could still desperately use help reconstructing the Basic and Advanced Concepts pages, which seem entirely gone. Basically, it ought to be the text from the Datalinks entries under those categories.
If anyone can tell me how to do the rollover thing where the sidebar links blue when you mouseover them, I would like to put that back in, too - I'm trying to be fairly faithful to the original.
We can do it, and the AC community will benfit.
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I've just reviewed the thread, and I see I never fixed the problem with the .swf flash movie of the graphic novel. The link currently goes through the Wayback Machine, and works, but take a few minutes to load. The whole point of this project is to not depend on the Wayback Machine, with its missing pictures and slowness.
The code Kil posted pages back might fix the rollover highlighting, once everything else is done, and I have time to track down where to insert it - then repeat the process 8 times a page for something over 8 pages.
I'm poking around and re-orienting; it was a pain just finding where I had the tech mini-pages saved, and I'm still trying to sort it out. It's a mountain of stuff, or I'd have gotten it done in February. Now I have to rediscover what I was doing then, too...
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And part of the fun is that the mini-pages are full of hyperlinks to each other; once I've put them all together, I have to go back through each and fix the links.
I took a break from, this after over three weeks of doing little else for 16 hours a day, for a reason...
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God, am I tired.
It took me a veryvery long time to get oriented enough with where stuff was saved and what I wanted and where to start, so I could commence to page editing, but go here: http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid%20Meier%27s%20Alpha%20Centauri%20Technology.htm (http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid%20Meier%27s%20Alpha%20Centauri%20Technology.htm) and click on "Societal Models". Another little section is rescued. Let me know about any problems you spot.
The mini frames thing is some javascript dealy.
I have stayed up entirely too late, just to see this bit through to the end, but I made a promise, and this is a token of good faith.
Going to bed.
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Those social engineering pages all seem pretty good to me! :) What was the Javascript problem you mentioned? I've picked up a lot of web skills since February...
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..Let me know about any problems you spot.
all good except the prerequisite tech links. i guess you should have started with the 'Technology' section since almost all entries will have links back to them.
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Shrugs. You're looking at it all wrong; the important part is that I fixed all the links, that I figured out a way to get it on the first pass efficiently. All I have to do now is fill in the destinations. I'll work on technologies next.
Kil, the link for Weapons, for instance, is javascript:launchPedia('pedia.cfm?index=y');
.
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Oops. That's the Technolgies link I quoted.
Does anyone remember how I managed to save those mini-pages? There's minis I either can't find or missed saving - and I don't remember how I saved them, and never talked about it in a public post.
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Kil, this is the index page the link is supposed to link to, though the filename is not "index", which is what I was looking for. Maybe the java is in the code I'm stripping out...
It turns out right-clicking>View source gets you the .html code, which you can save. I'm sure that isn't how I did it before, though.
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And here's the unaltered Tech page, in case there's something useful there.
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Ugh. The SE pages were a grind to edit, but pretty straightforward; the links had the right filenames and just needed the Wayback junk stripped out so they point to the edited pages we host. These technology links point at numbered stuff "technum=87", to which I would just add the ".htm" last night and be done, but the file for the actual page I quote here saved as "Transcendent%20Thought.htm" in this section. Fine - it's a little extra work, and slower, but the name is right there on the link text, and I'll cope - but the scroll buttons at the top of the page also point at the numbered stuff, which means I have to go back and forth with the index page checking links to find out what the heck it's pointing at, and all that's going to take five or ten times as long - over 80+ pages.
-Also, they're arranged alphabetically in the index, but not numbered in that order. Make that 20 times as long.
$#@! ;grrr
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Okay, it's taking forever, but I'm using those links to assemble a table of what tech is what number, which will ultimately save me a lot of back-and forth time in editing links to techs -which also pointed to numbers in the SE pages- and should prove handy to modders when I post it.
I really could have used it back when I was making tech symbol avatars, too.
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Here's the table, sorted both ways:
Index of Technology
Adaptive Doctrine technum=79
Adaptive Economics technum=80
Adv. Ecological Engineering technum=62
Advanced Military Algorithms technum=18
Advanced Spaceflight technum=66
Advanced Subatomic Theory technum=13
Applied Gravitonics technum=24
Applied Physics technum=4
Applied Relativity technum=10
Bioadaptive Resonance technum=81
Bio-Engineering technum=50
Biogenetics technum=1
Biomachinery technum=51
Centauri Ecology technum=7
Centauri Empathy technum=58
Centauri Genetics technum=73
Centauri Meditation technum=47
Centauri Psi technum=63
Controlled Singularity technum=27
Cyberethics technum=53
Digital Sentience technum=33
Doctrine: Air Power technum=39
Doctrine: Flexibility technum=36
Doctrine: Initiative technum=35
Doctrine: Loyalty technum=43
Doctrine: Mobility technum=6
Ecological Engineering technum=60
Environmental Economics technum=59
Ethical Calculus technum=44
Eudaimonia technum=54
Field Modulation technum=78
Frictionless Surfaces technum=15
Fusion Power technum=11
Gene Splicing technum=49
Graviton Theory technum=22
High Energy Chemistry technum=14
Homo Superior technum=67
Industrial Automation technum=46
Industrial Base technum=2
Industrial Economics technum=45
Industrial Nanorobotics technum=72
Information Networks technum=3
Intellectual Integrity technum=37
Matter Compression technum=20
Matter Editation technum=70
Matter Transmission technum=57
Mind/Machine Interface technum=41
Monopole Magnets technum=19
Nanometallurgy technum=16
Nanominiaturization technum=42
Neural Grafting technum=52
Nonlinear Mathematics technum=9
N-Space Compression technum=84
Optical Computers technum=71
Orbital Spaceflight technum=76
Organic Superlubricant technum=68
Photon/Wave Mechanics technum=40
Planetary Economics technum=61
Planetary Networks technum=32
Polymorphic Software technum=23
Pre-Sentient Algorithms technum=30
Probability Mechanics technum=29
Progenitor Psych technum=77
Quantum Machinery technum=69
Quantum Power technum=25
Retroviral Engineering technum=75
Secrets of Alpha Centauri technum=64
Secrets of Creation technum=65
Secrets of the Human Brain technum=48
Secrets of the Manifolds technum=83
Self-Aware Machines technum=34
Sentient Econometrics technum=74
Sentient Resonance technum=82
Silksteel Alloys technum=12
Singularity Mechanics technum=26
Social Psych technum=5
String Resonance technum=85
Super Tensile Solids technum=31
Superconductor technum=8
Superstring Theory technum=17
Synthetic Fossil Fuels technum=38
Temporal Mechanics technum=28
The Will to Power technum=55
Threshold of Transcendence technum=56
Transcendent Thought technum=88
Unified Field Theory technum=20
........................................................................
Biogenetics technum=1
Industrial Base technum=2
Information Networks technum=3
Applied Physics technum=4
Social Psych technum=5
Doctrine: Mobility technum=6
Centauri Ecology technum=7
Superconductor technum=8
Nonlinear Mathematics technum=9
Applied Relativity technum=10
Fusion Power technum=11
Silksteel Alloys technum=12
Advanced Subatomic Theory technum=13
High Energy Chemistry technum=14
Frictionless Surfaces technum=15
Nanometallurgy technum=16
Superstring Theory technum=17
Advanced Military Algorithms technum=18
Monopole Magnets technum=19
Matter Compression technum=20
Unified Field Theory technum=20
Graviton Theory technum=22
Polymorphic Software technum=23
Applied Gravitonics technum=24
Quantum Power technum=25
Singularity Mechanics technum=26
Controlled Singularity technum=27
Temporal Mechanics technum=28
Probability Mechanics technum=29
Pre-Sentient Algorithms technum=30
Super Tensile Solids technum=31
Planetary Networks technum=32
Digital Sentience technum=33
Self-Aware Machines technum=34
Doctrine: Initiative technum=35
Doctrine: Flexibility technum=36
Intellectual Integrity technum=37
Synthetic Fossil Fuels technum=38
Doctrine: Air Power technum=39
Photon/Wave Mechanics technum=40
Mind/Machine Interface technum=41
Nanominiaturization technum=42
Doctrine: Loyalty technum=43
Ethical Calculus technum=44
Industrial Economics technum=45
Industrial Automation technum=46
Centauri Meditation technum=47
Secrets of the Human Brain technum=48
Gene Splicing technum=49
Bio-Engineering technum=50
Biomachinery technum=51
Neural Grafting technum=52
Cyberethics technum=53
Eudaimonia technum=54
The Will to Power technum=55
Threshold of Transcendence technum=56
Matter Transmission technum=57
Centauri Empathy technum=58
Environmental Economics technum=59
Ecological Engineering technum=60
Planetary Economics technum=61
Adv. Ecological Engineering technum=62
Centauri Psi technum=63
Secrets of Alpha Centauri technum=64
Secrets of Creation technum=65
Advanced Spaceflight technum=66
Homo Superior technum=67
Organic Superlubricant technum=68
Quantum Machinery technum=69
Matter Editation technum=70
Optical Computers technum=71
Industrial Nanorobotics technum=72
Centauri Genetics technum=73
Sentient Econometrics technum=74
Retroviral Engineering technum=75
Orbital Spaceflight technum=76
Progenitor Psych technum=77
Field Modulation technum=78
Adaptive Doctrine technum=79
Adaptive Economics technum=80
Bioadaptive Resonance technum=81
Sentient Resonance technum=82
Secrets of the Manifolds technum=83
N-Space Compression technum=84
String Resonance technum=85
Transcendent Thought technum=88
...........................
Lovely that forums never recognise tabs. Note that techs 21, 86 and 87 are not in the index. I've attached the relevant icons - 87 is clearly a blank dummy tech, but what are the other two? Should I create pages and add them to the section?
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Tech 86 has something to do with the string disruptor weapon - why would they leave it out? 85 is String Resonance, mind.
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I don't see anything about stasis on the list, but that surely would be a high number, and 86 is clearly a Prog tech, judging from the design style of the logo.
...
It took forever, but I did a little organizing in the folder where this stuff is saved after I made the table, and have finally completed the index and the first tech - the time savings payoff will start showing now; the frustration level is much lower, too.
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Petek- I gues you never heard back from anyone at Firaxis?
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Fusion Power isn't just the future; Fusion Power is what I'm working on right now.
Had a nap after supper -a crap one, as is usual for my sleep-starved naps of late- and am since grinding away at it. And I mean grind. This mess takes inhuman patience and stamina to keep to. The repetition is horrific; I hope I never have to type "tech tree.htm" ever again after this.
Folks, I hope I can get help on the various things I've asked for. The missing techs question alone question has been holding me up all day on something I wanted to do. Time I spend tracking the information down is time I'm not grinding through webpages everyone wants back, but no one else wants to do the work of fixing.
Another question for the peanut gallery; here's the (google) keyword list on all the tech mini-pages, pulled directly from the code for the one I'm working on now:
"Alpha Centauri, SMAC, Alien Crossfire, SMACX, Planetary Pack, Sid Meier, Sid Meier's, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire, Sid Meier's Civil War Collection, Sid Mier, Sid Meyer, Sid Maier, Firaxis, Firaxis Games, EA, Electronic Arts, Strategy Gaming, Turn-Based, Civ, Civilization, Space, Xenofungus, Mindworms, Chiron, Unity, Planet, Miriam, Lal, Morgan, Deidre, Santiago, Zakharov"
The Xfire leaders need adding: what else?
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Interesting.
Unified Field Theory is Tech21 - I typoed. But that means Tech 20 is missing...
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-Also, to confuse things further, the icon for the first tech is Tech000, though the later techs seem to match, so it's possible that 20 is where they synch up...
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No, Matter Compression is the 20th - how did I miss that?
Still, Tech 86?
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I've gotten 16 pages done today, and each is much more loaded with links and logos than the simple SE pages of last night. For the last half hour, my eyes had begun to feel really puffy in that tired-and-no-longer-quite-functioning sorta way. Bed for me.
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I read somewhere some techs were left blank intentionally.
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Yes, there are several, but with a nice logo, and before the last real tech on the list?
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Well, less than I hour since I came online, and I've gotten a page done. The work goes slowly, but it goes - and the pages look great.
Green, you're not getting enough sleep, either...
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I'm up to Advanced Military Algorithms. I was tempted to find a photo of Al Gore dancing, and add a helmet.
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maybe you can use this:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16844908/Images/Projects/smacaar019.jpg)
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Yeah - I can totally use me some right-wing propaganda.
I'm gonna need that Links list.
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What program have you been using to do these replacements? It seems like you're doing a lot of manual work that could be cut out with something like Notepad++ Replace All In All Open Files function or whatever.
As far as I recall, the spare tech was second from the bottom, yes. I can't recall otherwise what other ones are missing as it's been so long since I've played with the original tree.
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I'm doing everything in KompoZer so far this time around.
It's just that stuff saved with not only inconsistent filenames, but inconsistent links - some pages saved with those subfolders that saving webpages spawns like cockroaches, and some didn't - so opening a page in Notepad to Find&Replace the image link for the previous & next buttons would sometimes need to look for a link to the Superstring Theory subfolder, (which no longer even exists) and some would need to look for the godawful-long Wayback link; plus, I wouldn't be able to see what I was doing as I did it.
Also, a substantial percent of the repetition is not on every page, like frequently linked techs - I think the Notepad idea just isn't practical, alas. These pages are a mess, a mess I tell you.
But you're right that I'm spending a lot of time doing crap I shouldn't have to manually - I'm sick of KompoZer making me check Don't use alternate text every. single. time. I edit an image link, which is 5-10 times a page.
Still, the work goes slowly, but it's going.
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BUncle has recruited me into this in exchange for bounty of some kind, I'll probably have to think of something. XD Poor guy grinding away on this. :|
I'm leaning towards going as hard into PHP/ASP as possible, due to the nature of the very regular data. It's obvious that's how the pages were originally designed, but of course we don't have the PHP/ASP code.
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...And while I've heard of PHP/ASP, I haven't had the foggiest what they are, so I need Kil's input.
The announcement he ninja'd me on while I was doing a million things at once:
Kilkakon has graciously agreed to take a more direct hand in the project, taking responsibilty for the Advanced and Basic Concepts pages reconstruction, and working on techincal stuff that's way over my self-taught head. He is now officially the co-webmaster of the Firaxis AC site we host.
He is also the sweetest person I've ever met online. Let's hear it for Kil! :clap: :salute: :clap:
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Let's hear it for Kil!
Hip hip hooray!
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Kil - I know you can't get seriously into this until Monday, but I'm going to do a mass upload of everything -edited or not- I have in my tech subfolder for your convenience. Then I'll proceed as before, uploading edited pages when I'm ready to.
That would also have the benefit of making all the links I've fixed to pages I haven't fixed up yet at least work, and load a lot faster than on the Wayback Machine.
...When this thing is finished, we ought to find somewhere in there to acknowlege and thank the Wayback Machine and its associated humans, without whom the rescue project would have been impossible...
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As an added benefit, anyone who wants to check my progress so far on the Tech Tree section I'm currently looking through can - just click the OfficialAC button at the top of the page, and go to the Technology page. You won't have any trouble seeing the difference from the unedited mini pages. It was 557 files, and took a few minutes to upload.
Of course, I'm going to work through more pages today, and not upload them one-at-a-time as I finish each, so no refunds.
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I had a RL -not so much a random event, but a chore I'd been putting off caught up with me- and I've been doing some newb care that involved putting together two how-to articles, and haven't made any headway since I last posted here. Fear not - finishing this thing is my first prioity, but some things are more time-sensitive than a project that's been in the works for getting up on a year now, and I'll be back to this.
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It's no problem. When I get onto this and do some database design/planning I'll let you know. :)
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Back on it this morning - realized I hadn't uploaded the Technolgies page with the correction to the tech tree link, so people could look at what I had so far. This has been rectified, and I'm editing my third tech subpage of the morning.
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I'm 11 more pages along so far --- a big downside of doing a section this long is that I don't get that mini-goal satisfaction of completing a category frequently. It matters at something this tedious - I'm really easy to sidetrack for the last few days.
I am compiling a list as I go of what icon goes with what tech/SP/whatever - something I've needed for a long time...
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I haven't gotten a lot done on this today yet because of a big sidetrack preparing graphics tutorials, content which is also important and put off for too long. I got a lot of organizing -this comes up a lot when you have a lot of files to juggle, especially when many are quite old- out of the way, and ought to be able to settle into some serious grinding for the rest of my day, depending partly on how much the "Activity on the Forum" random event triggers. But please don't let that stop you from posting - it helps keep me sane.
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Yeah when I get my head on this, a lot will change, so yeah... hehe. :D Don't panic.
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Kil, am I wasting time and effort, given what-all you're about to do?
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To be safe, give me a day or two and then I'll be able to answer that question a bit more confidently. While no work goes to waste, it'll be good to be more efficient with our time.
Are there areas other than these little pages you can work on?
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On the official site? No, other than the Links page, it's done, and I've been waiting on sisko for a list of the links for [looks up, counting mentally] eight months.
Believe me, my build queue is full of other projects, but I made a promise that this would come first. I haven't had AOE2 on at all for a week.
BTW, would it be too impractical to leave the Downloads and Links pages in a state I could edit at will when you SQL the site? There's a chance it could come up for those two, though it shouldn't ever for the rest.
I take it being a little ill over the weekend has put you a little behind scedule on starting?
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I only had the intention to SQLise the tech page areas. The rest should be fine.
Yeah I'd say give it a rest for a day and see what I come up with--I'll try to at least design something today, but I'll need to get serious pretty quickly.
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Good enough for me. I'm gonna finish the page I have open and upload everything edited since I last uploaded edits, then I'll lay off for a day.
...I have hit one or two missing weapons pages, so there may be a small issue there, as I was finding out as I fixed technology links and taking care of it piecemeal...
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Okay, I got it up through Doctrine: Flexibility, Intellectual Integrity being apparently beyond me. I have uploaded the latest, and closed KompoZer and FileZilla.
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We'll be fine. Just not tonight, my sickness decided to hit me again so I'll have to do it tomorrow, sorry.
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Shall I get back to work, or continue to wait?
I'm easy.
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Nah waiting's cool. :) Focus on your other 100 things to do!
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:salute:
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Okay having a look at the technology, I can at least look at it and think about the database design part of it.
Technology
Name
Description
Category
Icon
Prerequisite1 \__ seems messy... might need a prerequisites table...
Prerequisite2 /
Of course technology was like the worst thing to start with as everything in the game comes from technologies hahaha... it's a chicken and egg scenario, and with design, it's best to start with chickens...
I'll do some more tomorrow. Just catching up on the backlog of work!
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Thanks. :salute: Tell me if/when I'm to resume work editing...
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Okay, I've been chatting with Kil, and here's an update.
He has RL to keep on top of, and was overcommitted when he signed on to this. Now, this is only a delay, not real bad news. In the long run, he's no good to us if he neglects his new web development business and is always juggling chaos in his life, so it's really for the best if he invests the time now to get his ducks in a row.
When it comes to websites, I've seen several of his professional builds, and at that, he's a pro working with PhotoShop to my kid scrawling in MSPaint. He's very worth waiting on, and thinks he'll be on it next week. ;b;
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ok. sold to Kilkakon! :D
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Yay! ;nuke;
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meaning?
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Oh I'll get on it next week, don't worry, was just saying something in response to being sold. XD
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actually, the job was being sold, not you! :D
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A general reminder to all our native English speakers: the Euros outnumber us, and we want to always be aware that communication failures are likely, and be accommodating to requests for clarification. Not correcting anyone, just saying. Same goes for all the ESLs.
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KILKAKOOOOONN!!!
? ! ;)
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I could probably add everything from the official pages to the wiki? What is wanted what the wiki's missing?
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By all means do what you will with the material. It's complete save the Links page, which is hopelessly out of date and must be rewritten with live links, but a small job if someone will compile me a list - and the tech mini pages, which were only half (ineptly) done when Kil offered to take over, and the Basic and Advanced Concepts mini pages do not seem to exist anywhere and will have to be reconstructed.
Naturally, I need sisko to troubleshoot my server access before I can do anything. Kil? Would you be so kind as to see if you can get on?
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Kil and I are talking about getting back to work on this soon.
When events have caused you to put something off for so long, it's tough to get restarted, for some reason - but trying to work up the will...
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Well.
I've recently learned my way around button rollovers, after a fashion, and am in progress installing the code to light up the buttons on the homepage, as it was in the original.
http://alphacentauri2.info/official/ (http://alphacentauri2.info/official/)
-I think I can work out the tech mini popup pages now. We'll see...
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Well, the basic upgrade is done.
-At least I think so; there's 14 sub-pages under Factions, alone, that had the standard link sidebar on the left and the Unity at the top. -Two Downloads sub-pages. All the Downloads links to items in our forum Downloads section needed updating; I assume something was changed about the addressing since 2012. All the 'hosted by' linkbacks to this forum went to the front page, not the root, which was less than ideal, and made for some time-consuming copy/paste on every single page.
Having worked out the trick of copy/pasting .html code from the first page I fixed over the equivalent code on the other pages added about a week to my life getting it done. Sloppy bottom-spacing has been improved on a great many pages.
Now it's down to finishing the tech mini-pages. I don't see a way around having to grind through about 100 -literally- small .html page files to correct the links and pics to work - but I'm taking a run at figuring out how to adapt the original code to get the little pop-up windows, not the full pages in a new tab you get now for the pages I've fixed up and saved...
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If the changes are simple you can use a tool to do them:
e.g. find and replace across many files (I use sed or awk for this, there are probably windows interfaces).
I think you have shell access to the server. If you say what you want done I can do it for you or tell you how to do it. These tools are quite nice and kind of satisfying to use -- like puzzles so long as the task isn't too complicated.
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Well, A.) I think I've completed the pages with that kind of work. B.) The last offer I got like that on this project broke my momentum and shut down progress for seven years.
Have cracked the Technology mini-sub-page pop-up problem today -seven years after this project commenced- and the sets under Armor, Societal Models, and Terrain and Terraforming are done and working. Very motivating. Will be all week grinding through an obscene number of tiny .html pages, probably.
http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid%20Meier's%20Alpha%20Centauri%20Technology.htm (http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid%20Meier's%20Alpha%20Centauri%20Technology.htm)
The other thing left to do is the Links page - it's all dead 90s links except the 'poly MACX section, if you call that alive. We exist. CFC is still there. Dreifles page is still kickin' last I knew. All else I can think of is in our Resource Center...
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Ah. The Concepts pages DO still exist - I found a way in through one of the crosslinks I despaired of ever being able to fix. Must be a problem with the Tech page link. Saving a LOT of little pages...
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My .html tech paygrade has gone up a bit in the last seven years; I understand what I'm altering a lot better than I did in 2012, and that not only makes putting back some features of the original possible, I believe the work's going more smoothly/faster, too. Now that I have the Concepts pages -if updating them to work is still in progress- I've caught all the crosslinks in the previously fixed mini pages, and am now getting them in those same Concept pages as I work through them. I think I have all the Tech pages, but not all of them updated when I stopped seven years ago - I have to go through ALL of them before I'm done, because I don't remember, and to get THOSE crosslinks, etc.
Following their numbered file addressing conventions in naming files as I save saves me work editing; I don't have to FIND the file, just shave the address down and add a ".html" on the end. Saves a lot of time compared to links to tech pages, which I named as the tech; hundreds of .html and .htm files, and .gifs and .pngs and .jpgs, to search through each time I need Social Psych.
-The average mini page file is 2K and change when I've finished; the average before is 14K and change. That Wayback Machine code is a real fast pig on these little pages... Just shaving the addresses in links and pics down to local takes off a few hundred bytes...
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I'll probably get the concepts pages wrapped up today; only 20 to go.
Funny; all these years I assumed it was one of those 'missing from Wayback' deals, when it now appears that those sections were always misaddressed in the original and stayed unfixed for 11 years straight. I was only interested in the faction pages when the site was up, so I wouldn't know about the tech mini pages from that.
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Nine to go.
-It'd probably be real helpful soon if someone went and "playtested" the Technologies page and let me know which links don't work. Societal Models and Terrain and Terraforming should be ready for that now, and more sections soon.
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Concepts should be ready now. -Note that I think all the pages are on the server for all sections, but many have not been fixed and updated; I still want to know if nothing loads, but not that I haven't processed all of the techs pages -yet- none of the facilities, and nothing in the third column but Armor.
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The tech tree was where I was working when I knocked off seven years ago - and it turns out that it's pretty irritating, what with the bad way I set up those filenames. Folks, BTW, always leave off spaces in your filenames; if I never see a "&20" between words again, it's not nearly soon enough.
I'm gonna skip to working through Base Facilities; the numbered pages go a lot quicker - and less prone to error, provided the originals were addressed right.
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I've worked up a rhythm with this set, where processing a page goes pretty smoothly. It calls on the pedantic side of my nature, that I naturally like things arranged just so, and code doesn't play well with any other way. I certainly encounter less surprises as I go, doing everything in the same order, and miss less on the page.
I'm most assuredly saving a lot of time doing much of the fixing directly in the code, and not depending almost entirely on the limitations of the tools in KompaoZer, like I did in 2012...
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Fun. Something's broken my rhythm. There is a non-trivial number of facility images missing from the Wayback, and I spent a couple hours yesterday going through the facs folder in my AC folder, saving .pcxs from there converted to two-color .gifs to fill in the gaps as best I am able. -I think I got it, but I have to be aware and check that everything's got the right picture for the base facility...
-Alas, today I realize that the website did not always use the same naming scheme as the Crossfire installation when Subsea Trunkline came up with the symbol for the Orbital Defense System.
-BTW, I think I've discovered a display bug in the game - many of those yellow facility symbols in the base build screen are other colors in the fac-folder files; probably a palette issue...
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Base Facilities is allegedly done and ready for bug-checking.
Weapons is next...
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Weapons is done.
Next, I go back through the Armor series, looking for crosslinks I wasn't doing yet Saturday...
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Armor, done - 2/3rds only needed a single tech linked.
Chassis Types, next; there's only nine of that.
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It is good that there were only nine, because they were irritating to fix. The wayback code on these hogged around 18K.
Reckon I'll work through Units, next - there's 21 pages of those.
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I do hate it when I have to make replacements for missing images - not just the work/time, but some of the charm of these old pages is when something looked different in the earlier concept, and I worry that we're missing out on that.
These unit pages consistently link to several different categories, and it's tough to keep track of what was saved .htm and what was .html, which wastes a lot of time checking. -I was surprised by how much still needed saving when I took this back up, though those are all .html, now that I have...
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The Units category is processed and uploaded, ready for your consideration.
Unit Abilities is up next - 28 of that one, but there'll be at least one less pic to re-address per page...
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I mostly resist the temptation to make corrections, like a few places it still has Zakharov as Sartov, but - it's a pet peeve of mine when the text that appears in the tab -"<title>" in the .html- is poorly thought-out, like when the name of the site proceeds the name of the page. Worse, the Units set were all titled "Chassis"; I not only added the name of the individual page, I corrected all those, ex. "Former - Unit".
I have a journalism background, where they train you to be careful about punching up a quote to make the story better, and I've done considerable work for Dr. Mylochka in the past scanning in academic papers for graduate courses, where careful attribution and meticulously accurate quoting are also essential - I get that stuff. I still believe that it's only a mild outrage against faithful reproduction to make this improvement.
Mind, if all the hotmetal pages were either .html or .htm, not both, and I hadn't taken it on myself to improve the page titles on these, that would cut my time in half processing each, as I'd keep the same thing -the file extension- in my paste buffer all the time...
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-There's supposed to be four reactor pages, judging from various crosslinks - but the addressing scheme was nothing but a number "1" through "4" that I can't figure out how it was ever supposed to work. Still, I'm going to create reactor pages, there being only four, and those not supposed to have much but a little pic and the same text and a different power number, judging from the Datalinks entries I'm basing them on...
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I did make those four reactor pages, and processed the special abilities category, including the blank pages for Heavy Transport and Slow Unit. All are up, now.
I think I'll go through the Secret Projects next. That and the techs are going to be tough, but I've got way more done than is left to do. I got this.
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One other liberty from the original, BTW - Abilities ran up to 51 pages, 29 and up being blank <prev/next> bars; I cut it off where the content stopped, at Algorithmic Enhancement.
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I was actually browsing the official site mirror a few days ago 🙂
Can relate to the satisfaction of fixing small things!
And I appreciate your effort ;b;
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:D
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I find myself thinking about reading Cheaper By the Dozen as a kid as I work through a set of pages - the sheer volume and repetition of my workflow really rewards efficiency, and Frank and Lilian Gilbreth, the parents, were pioneers in Motion Studies. She's still cited in business texts, and she did all her publishing over 100 years ago. I've discovered that the aggravation of dealing with Secret Project pages I renamed with the project name -which means the numbered addresses in the originals that scroll to next in line are useless- is ameliorated considerably by dealing with the scrollbar and page title stuff 10 or so at a time, THEN going back and correcting all the crosslinks and pic addresses one at a time. I don't have to change what's in the paste buffer nearly as often, and with this many little pages, it adds up.
I'm deeply embarrassed to have given the Wayback Machine so many years to lose everything, when I didn't realize how much I hadn't saved yet, the first time around. I keep the Wayback copy up all the time for a week now in a tab that I refer to constantly. While I work several Secret Project pages ahead, on the scrollbar stuff -no hope of keeping track of the numbers- I could refer to the game and the order it lists in, but not having to tab out and work in narrow windows is better.
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This is a test post...
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Secret Projects is up, and hopefully, finished.
Next up -and last- is the soul-crushing morass that is the Tech Tree...
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I've worked up from the bottom of the alphabetical Tech Tree index, from Unified Field Theory - Secrets of the Manifolds. That's 17 of 80-some. [shrugs] Making the link right on the index is easy; the name's right there, and also on the page file. -Then, I save the Tech Tree and open the page just linked, editing of which is a lot more complicated. The worst part is keeping track of which page/techs are previous/next on the scrollbar. What's done so far is up online.
I can probably get this tomorrow; maybe. No random events trigger, and I'll sure try to stay on-task...
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Chugging away, I've gotten 13 more pages fixed, up to Planetary Economics, and everything from today uploaded. Just opened Photon/Wave Mechanics...
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Y'know, the way to get a hole dug is to turn over the shovelful of dirt in your hands, and repeat - NOT to waste energy thinking about the size of the hole and what a pain the job is. There's a mistake I made last time around on this project. The way to make it through the tech tree is to edit the page I'm on and be glad I'm that much closer when it's done and saved, not contemplate how many are left.
Orbital Spaceflight is the shovelful currently in my hands...
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Up to Nanominiaturization, now.
Two things are saving me a lot of time as I go; I've been scrolling through the nearly 1000 files in the folder constantly for over a week now, and I've gotten a lot faster finding such-and-such, having a better sense of where that part of the alphabet lies, horizontally. And I finally figured out that, no matter when and how the page was saved, all the images have the same filepath - a search and replace-all in the source code gets 'em all at a stroke, except for occasional ones with pic code just missing, which I have to look up; but no more scrolling through the code looking for long addresses to highlight most of and delete, which ate a lot of time.
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Funny - the Tech Tree file gets smaller each time I update it; it's just a long column of hyperlinked names, and the local addresses I'm pointing everything at are a lot shorter.
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Ohh - random event triggered. A side project just appeared, and I'm going to spend a few hours on that when I finish and save Matter Transmission.
Taking breaks is good, anyway. This is like doing a giant puzzle, as Draz said, but breaks is good when it's this big. Probably back to this about sunset here, anyway.
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When I resumed this morning, I decided to edit pages in the scrollbar/tech number order instead - Tech Tree index updating is easy, but just as easy to do later; this way, I don't have to look up the previous mini-page entry at all, and can consult the numbered list I posted a few pages back and years ago for what's next. -I still have to consult the Wayback about every other page, to get mysteriously blank .gif filenames, but this is more efficient for the most awkward part...
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I realized that there were some duplicate pages under different naming schemes -mostly weapons and base facilities, some units- and have deleted considerable fat out of the server, crossing my fingers that this will not mess something up...
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FINally, all these years later, I have mastered Intellectual Integrity. ;nod
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Made it through tech number 67 today. I'm 19 from being done, and many of those are M or further down the alphabet, and I did them yesterday. I got this.
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...I had, indeed, already processed everything left. I caught something needing correction on about a third of them. This is why I need a second set of eyes to go through everything, especially the crosslinks.
I should have the Tech Tree index caught up shortly, and then I'm done until some oversights come to my attention.
-Well, most of the links on the Links page are to Wayback archives that actually work, but I ought to add a section of live links...
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It's up and done.
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Draz, at the bottom of the Story page, there's a Wayback link to an excerpt from a graphic novel - it's a shockwave flash thing, way over my tech paygrade. It still works in IE and Edge; what do you recommend doing about it? Would it be best to patch together something non-interactive with screenshots that'll work for everyone?
http://web.archive.org/web/20030808030543/http://www.firaxis.com/smac/images/graphicnovel.swf
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Hmm. I added forums to the Links page - us and 'poly and CFC SMACX subs. Left out the GOG sub, and that's all In can think of, reddit being out of the question. Added Driefels "Alpha Centauri Stuff" page, and our SMACX Online Resource Center - that's it for live sites that occurred to me...
Suggestions?
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...I'm finding an oversight of some sort one tech page in ten, roughly...
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Can you note the oversights somewhere, if they might be relevant to the in-game text files?
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Oversights of mine - wrong addressing of links, mostly, and stuff I didn't catch the first time through, like apostrophes replaced with ’ and a few missing pics.
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Let's see. About 20 minutes ago, caught up on my morning routine, I resumed scrolling through tech mini-pages, one at a time and checking all the crosslinks -the only way I'll catch everything- and noticed the apostrophe problem on Graviton Theory .htm. Armor11.html, Armor12.html, Armor13.html, and Armor14.html all had bad addresses crosslinked to earlier armors, and one of them shared with Armor9.html a bad previous link on the scrollbar. Little chance of a bad next link, as I used them to load the next page in KompoZer as I edited through each category, but I have to scroll all the way back through each set when I reach the end. All those pages have been corrected -at least the problems I noticed- and uploaded.
I started working through checking categories systematically last night, back to front, so I should have caught everything in Terrain and Terraforming, Societal Models, Unit Abilities, Units, Chassis Types, and Armor. -At least the bad crosslinks and previous scrolls, maybe any missing pics.
Please alert me if anyone finds anything I missed. Weapons is next.
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weapnum=22.html, weapnum=24.html, weapnum=25.html and weapnum=26.html all had address number agreement problems -linked hovercraft chassis instead of missile, one off- and one also had the tech prerequisite miss-linked the old way. Also noticed and fixed a page layout problem with prereq Unified Field Theory .htm. All corrected and uploaded...
Secret Projects is going to take a while.
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Ugh. Actually, the secret projects were looking pretty 4-square, with a bad prereq link to fix in The Weather Paradigm, all the way up to Clinical Immortality, with a Supreme Leader link leading to Blood Truce instead - which revealed a real bed of snakes in Concepts. There ain't no Supreme Leader page-ette, despite a lot of pages crosslinking to on. In fact, in conceptnum=30.html, Victory and Defeat, there are seven links to victory conditions, ALL. SEVEN. WRONG.
Something's missing...
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I found something on Wayback -fun, just getting into the category, with the mainpage link broke- it has to do with the -broken- way pages are addressed and advanced and basic concepts sort. Adding to the fun is, none of these victory conditions pages seems to have the previous button working, and I got in at not-the-beginning; and they switch what order advanced and concept is in in the address, and it's just a mess.
It looks like there should be 14, but I can only find from 4-up. Time to boot up the game -again- and have a look at the datalinks category, what's in it and how it's sorted. Probably have to create three -or four, as they often start at zero- pages...
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Well, I needed to take a break, so I haven't gotten a lot of work done - and now I have to break off and cook supper. I have got all the Victory Conditions page links pointing right, and have edited four of the 11 pages I found; seems right to straighten them up before I re-create the missing ones.
I'll get back on it after supper, and now that I've decided what to do, the rest should happen in fairly short order...
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Draz, at the bottom of the Story page, there's a Wayback link to an excerpt from a graphic novel - it's a shockwave flash thing, way over my tech paygrade. It still works in IE and Edge; what do you recommend doing about it? Would it be best to patch together something non-interactive with screenshots that'll work for everyone?
http://web.archive.org/web/20030808030543/http://www.firaxis.com/smac/images/graphicnovel.swf
?
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Alas, poor Effects category; back to being orphaned, like Reactors. I filled out Advanced Concepts, making the first four pages, and have got it indexed properly on the Technologies page.
-Now error-checking those; it's a short set, though I found an error on the first page I started hitting all the links...
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Draz, at the bottom of the Story page, there's a Wayback link to an excerpt from a graphic novel - it's a shockwave flash thing, way over my tech paygrade. It still works in IE and Edge; what do you recommend doing about it? Would it be best to patch together something non-interactive with screenshots that'll work for everyone?
http://web.archive.org/web/20030808030543/http://www.firaxis.com/smac/images/graphicnovel.swf
?
I think so.
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Added to my build queue, then. -Probably best to create a subpage with the usual buttons and top-Unity, and a scroll-down column of pages in the content area of the page; they'll be a pain to assemble with all the dialogue, one panel at a time, but nothing compared to what-all I've already done. It's not that many pages...
Nothing else to fix in the secret projects, though I did notice and fix another gibberish apostrophe in Controlled Singularity.htm while checking crosslinks.
Looking through Base Facilities for oversights next...
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...After all these years, I still [ctrl]Q over and over until the voice begs me not to go for the sake of the drones when I'm exiting the game...
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Facilities is cleaned up - four link problems -and four technology page problems while I spotted them checking links- fixed and uploaded.
The technology section, next. 86 pages with a lot of crosslinks each, plus a long tech tree index. Fun, but a short nap compared to time already spent.
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I just noticed -and corrected- that the Cyborg Factory had the description from the previous secret project page, The Pholus Mutagen. It was in the original -I checked- but it underscores that I have distinct mental blind spots, having looked at that page so many times before. -For instance, there are a lot of tech images wrong, because of a strange numbering scheme that's often one off, and I never paid any attention to those images in the game, and only noticed I'm missing a lot because some are the wrong color for the tech category they're in. I also never use many of the facilities, ex. the Bioenhancement Center, and am easy to fool there, too.
This needs a second set of eyes. I can go through hundreds of little pages myself, if I have to, and check every. single. crosslink. -and have been doing so since sunset Sunday, but there are details my eyes habitually skip over, and … I hate to leave it less than perfect, after putting SO much time and tedious work in...
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Well, I've found everything I can in the tech tree, and uploaded the fixes. All that's left is Basic Concepts - I carefully went through all the crosslinks in Advanced as soon as I made and posted them in the middle of debugging secret projects.
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Only four problems in 51 pages.
All's left to do that I can think of is screen-shoting that graphic novel sample...
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Reckon this'll do:
https://alphacentauri2.info/official/PowerOfTheMindworms-SMACX.html
(https://alphacentauri2.info/official/PotM0.png)
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426 page files, I count, about 400 of them tech mini-pages - and leaving those last aside, I am MUCH happier about the site re-creation. I was always unhappy about not knowing how to make the buttons -and leaderheads- light up like the original, unhappy about all the wayback links to dead sites, unhappy to settle for a wayback link to that graphic novel flash thing. Not unhappy=miserable, but not contented.
Now I am happy. Everything works like it should, all issues I can find are fixed. :danc:
http://alphacentauri2.info/official/ ;nod
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