Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: berto

In his scenario battle plan for VN_631124_Hiep_Hoa.scn, Jason had specified this:

quote:

Airstrikes are available after turn 4.

Ah, interesting. In the standard game, there is no delaying mechanism for airstrikes. In the standard game, all airstrikes are available from the very beginning.

How to satisfy the specification? Here is one way:

---

function init_luavs ()

...

init_luav("NUMBER_US_AIRSTRIKES", air_support(SIDE_A))

...

end

---

That is, save to the NUMBER_US_AIRSTRIKES luav Side A's airstrikes # as the game begins (when init_luavs() is first called).

Then, in on_next_turn(), do this:

---

function on_next_turn (turn) -- DO NOT REMOVE

if turn == 1 then
set_air_support(SIDE_A, 0)
elseif turn == 5 then
set_air_support(SIDE_A, luav(NUMBER_US_AIRSTRIKES))
end

---

That is, at Turn 1 (and after the NUMBER_US_AIRSTRIKES initialization), set the US side (Side A) AirSupport level to zero. Then at Turn 5, set AirSupport to the initial NUMBER_US_AIRSTRIKES as earlier saved in the luav.

Does it work? Yes! With this debug diagnostic set:

---

function on_air_attack (hc, pid, name, side, nation, points, strength) -- DO NOT REMOVE

log(LUALOG, LOG_INFO, "air attack on turn " .. current_turn())

end

---

After a test game, I see:

---

rober@Rob10rto /cygdrive/r/Temp/Logs
$ egrep "air attack" lua.log
2019-01-30 08:14:18 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] air attack on turn 6
2019-01-30 08:14:27 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] air attack on turn 6
2019-01-30 08:27:20 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] air attack on turn 8
2019-01-30 08:31:12 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] air attack on turn 10

---

No airstrikes Turns 1-4, only after Turn 5.

I also verified in the HexInfo Box that the Side A Air Power switched to 0 at Turn 1, remaining at that level until Turn 5, when indeed it switched back to 4.

This is a really cool example of how, with a clever CSEE implementation, we can add new features, and feature variations, to the otherwise standard game engine. In the legacy game engine (and without going to the trouble of implementing a Visibility #-#[#] #-#[#] ... like system), AirSupport is set from the beginning. With the CSEE, we can set and reset it as we please!

quote:

ORIGINAL: berto

With the addition of

the new Variable, Asymmetric, Turn-Based Victory [Objective] Points System

and the widespread proliferation of

Event Points, assigned for all manner of in-game events

it is getting harder and harder to assess scenario balance. Without thousands of hours of hands-on human testing (which we don't have, needless to say), how can we be sure that the Victory Points thresholds -- for Major Defeat, Minor Defeat, Minor Victory, Major Victory -- are reasonable?

Here too, the CSEE to the rescue!

With the implementation of this




after an auto-test game of VN_631124_Hiep_Hoa.scn, in lua.log we have this:

---

rober@Rob10rto /cygdrive/r/Temp/Logs
$ cat lua.log
2019-01-30 10:11:25 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 1, loss points A 0, loss points B 0, event points A 0, event points B 0, objective points 0, total points 0
2019-01-30 10:12:41 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 2, loss points A 0, loss points B 6, event points A 0, event points B 0, objective points 0, total points 6
2019-01-30 10:14:08 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 3, loss points A 0, loss points B 15, event points A 0, event points B 0, objective points 0, total points 15
2019-01-30 10:15:47 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 4, loss points A 0, loss points B 24, event points A 0, event points B 0, objective points -7, total points 17
2019-01-30 10:17:19 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 5, loss points A 0, loss points B 33, event points A 0, event points B 0, objective points -14, total points 19
2019-01-30 10:19:01 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 6, loss points A 0, loss points B 42, event points A 0, event points B 0, objective points -21, total points 21
2019-01-30 10:19:01 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] air attack on turn 6
2019-01-30 10:19:06 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] air attack on turn 6
2019-01-30 10:20:42 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 7, loss points A 0, loss points B 71, event points A 10, event points B 0, objective points -28, total points 53
2019-01-30 10:20:43 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] air attack on turn 7
2019-01-30 10:22:16 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 8, loss points A 0, loss points B 80, event points A 15, event points B 0, objective points -35, total points 60
2019-01-30 10:23:58 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 9, loss points A 1, loss points B 80, event points A 15, event points B 0, objective points -42, total points 52
2019-01-30 10:23:59 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] air attack on turn 9
2019-01-30 10:36:14 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 10, loss points A 1, loss points B 108, event points A 20, event points B 0, objective points -49, total points 78
2019-01-30 10:37:41 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 11, loss points A 7, loss points B 120, event points A 25, event points B 0, objective points -56, total points 82
2019-01-30 10:39:03 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 12, loss points A 7, loss points B 123, event points A 30, event points B 0, objective points -63, total points 83
2019-01-30 10:43:00 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at turn 13, loss points A 8, loss points B 134, event points A 30, event points B 0, objective points -70, total points 86
2019-01-30 10:45:23 vnengine.exe: [INFO ID 10] at game shutdown , loss points A 8, loss points B 143, event points A 35, event points B 0, objective points -77, total points 93, major defeat 50, minor defeat 100, minor victory 200, major victory 300

---

Now here's the deal:

With the csttrun script, I can easily automate test trial games of every scenario.

I can repeat the autotests, round after round. (On up to a half dozen systems I have available for testing purposes here.)

From test run to test run, I can save the above highlighted lua.log entry by dumping it to a common victory.dat file.

I can develop another script to analyze the autotest victory results, to highlight the outliers, also to highlight scenarios consistently tilting towards one side or the other.

For greater variety of test results, it would even be possible to switch off the normal SAI (Scripted AI) and just test the scenario with the legacy AI.

By these means, we can get a better handle on which scenario victory conditions might need tweaking, or not.

New uses for the CSEE (Campaign Series [Lua] Event Engine) just keep suggesting themselves!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Andrea G

It's impressive the amount og historical research you guys are piling up for this game

quote:

ORIGINAL: 76mm

FWIW, those counters are way too busy for my tastes...I much prefer a solid-color background and simple unit graphic/silhouette or NATO symbols.

quote:

ORIGINAL: berto


Also with optional on-counter unit stats, of course. So many ways to customize the look and feel of this game!

quote:

ORIGINAL: budd

I'm really digging pretty much the whole presentation, especially the map, kudos to the map maker. Don't suppose the game or any scenario is far enough along for a bit of an AAR

quote:

ORIGINAL: budd

I'm really digging pretty much the whole presentation, especially the map, kudos to the map maker. Don't suppose the game or any scenario is far enough along for a bit of an AAR

quote:

ORIGINAL: Big Ivan

Just a though for consideration by the dev team.

In a post above we were discussing variable entry of air strikes by turn which will be a nice feature going forward.

With the new code could it be possible to have variable supply for artillery and troops which could change
based on the event engine or randomly change throughout the scenario by turn or say a block of turns.

As an example: Say on Turn 1 your artillery ammo is 80 but on turn 4 something happens with the event engine or randomly and
your artillery ammo drops to 55. Just wonder if something like this could be coded in the game. Could make the situation
really interesting if a variable like that was introduced during play.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

quote:

ORIGINAL: Big Ivan

Just a though for consideration by the dev team.

In a post above we were discussing variable entry of air strikes by turn which will be a nice feature going forward.

With the new code could it be possible to have variable supply for artillery and troops which could change
based on the event engine or randomly change throughout the scenario by turn or say a block of turns.

As an example: Say on Turn 1 your artillery ammo is 80 but on turn 4 something happens with the event engine or randomly and
your artillery ammo drops to 55. Just wonder if something like this could be coded in the game. Could make the situation
really interesting if a variable like that was introduced during play.

Yes, that is something that can be done with CS Event Engine. In fact, if you already look at CS Middle East 2.0, and the Crisis in Sirte scenario #1, the British supply goes down 2% each turn as I recall, depicting the difficulties of keeping an airborne landing supplied.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Big Ivan

quote:

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

quote:

ORIGINAL: Big Ivan

Just a though for consideration by the dev team.

In a post above we were discussing variable entry of air strikes by turn which will be a nice feature going forward.

With the new code could it be possible to have variable supply for artillery and troops which could change
based on the event engine or randomly change throughout the scenario by turn or say a block of turns.

As an example: Say on Turn 1 your artillery ammo is 80 but on turn 4 something happens with the event engine or randomly and
your artillery ammo drops to 55. Just wonder if something like this could be coded in the game. Could make the situation
really interesting if a variable like that was introduced during play.

Yes, that is something that can be done with CS Event Engine. In fact, if you already look at CS Middle East 2.0, and the Crisis in Sirte scenario #1, the British supply goes down 2% each turn as I recall, depicting the difficulties of keeping an airborne landing supplied.

Excellent Crossroads! I never noticed that but I will take a look at that scenario.

BTW being a fringe computer guy without to many computer smarts, How do you open the lua files? I read the manual/directions
on the event engine but maybe I missed it. My rig keeps coming back with Windows can't open this file and I'm leery
of trying notepad or something like that for fear of damaging the file.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Big Ivan

My rig keeps coming back with Windows can't open this file and I'm leery
of trying notepad or something like that for fear of damaging the file.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Big Ivan

Thanks Crossroads for the detailed workings on Lua and Notepad++!