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FeurerKrieg -> Testing results (11/14/2009 8:56:24 AM)
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UPDATE:
Okay, so I've been messing with this all week as time allowed. I played through probably 40-50 different combinations of flags and BTD values to really try to understand how this thing works. Figured out some interesting things, which maybe the devs already know, but I don't think anyone has told me. I'll put this up here just to help with the body of knowledge on how the game works with scoring.
The 'points' recorded in the BTD files are not how the flags are scored in game. The game actually used the numerical values in the BTD to determine what points the flags are worth BUT THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. So while at first glance it appears that flags are worth 50, 100 and 200 points - that is not the case.
A flag that has a value of 50 assigned to it in the BTD will be worth 1 point. A flag that has 100 will be worth 2 points and a flag that is assigned 200 will be worth 3 points. So based on the BTD numbers, three 100pt flags are equal to two 200pt flags. Again, at first glance that seems wrong because 300 <> 400, but the BTD values do not correspond on a 1 to 1 basis. You actually are ending up with 3*2 does equal 2*3. Hope this makes sense.
But my testing didn't stop there. As mentioned before, you can indeed stack flags. This is good if you want to push up value of map without adding new flag locations.
Probably the biggest find, at least for my purposes, is that there is actually a fourth flag scoring value. That value is zero. If you set your BTD value for a flag to any value other than 50, 100 or 200, the flag will still function fine in game, but it will have a scoring value of zero. This is great for maps that need to be a low value, but still have flags to fight over and capture.
Unfortunately, exit flags have to be set at 50 or they don't work right. They will only be worth 1 pt, but sure would be nice if they could be worth zero as it would allow for more variability in map values. But at least non-exit maps can be made to equal zero and still be kept on map. For my mod this will allow me to leave all stock flags in place and still reduce the value of many maps.
Another neat thing I noticed is the way the BTD values affect the AI. One would expect that stacked flags would attract greater AI attention. However, things are better and easier than that. The value set in the BTD file seems to directly influence the value the AI assigns to that flag. For example - if you set a flag to be worth 3000 pts in the BTD, then play that map, you will find the AI stacks nearly all their units right on top of that flag.
While I'm not doing any AI modding, the nice thing about this is, you could set a flag to be worth 1 point more or less than 50, 100 or 200 (ie 199, 201, 101 etc), thus keeping the AI drivers intact, but making the flag worth zero points to help lower map values if that is your goal. Also - if the AI should be treating certain areas as more important than others, setting values of 250, 300, 350 etc will modify AI behavior noticably. I tried this on the Gold beach map. I was able to get the German AI to deploy into the 4 big bunker by cranking up the value of those VLs in the BTD. Combine this with stacking, and you could stack a 'zero pt, high AI value flag under a stock flag and retain stock scoring, while adjusting AI behavior on that specific map. Neat stuff.
To summarize:
1) BTD values are only triggers: 50 = 1pt, 100 =2pts, 200 = 3pts. Any other value = 0pts
2) Stacking flags works
3) Setting flag value to 99 or 199 in order to make a flag 'score' 0 pts, does not adversely affect AI desire for that flag
4) Making a flag score 0 pts as above does not impact the way the game uses flags to determine deployment, area held, etc.
5) AI desire for flag is determined by value assigned to flag in BTD file.
6) Exit flags must be set to 50 in BTD (thus scoring 1 pt) or they do not work.
So as far as the mod goes, the recent VL limits I encountered set me back a bit while I sorted this stuff out. However, with the ability to set 0 pts for a flag, I can still make it work. I need to rescale my scores on a 0-48 basis, since the theoretical max pts for a map is 16 VLs @ 3 pts each, although that would be a map with no exits. But once I have done that we will be ready to begin recoding maps.
Along the way we have decided to make some slight adjustments to some of the entry points on maps to allow for more deployment area or slightly better deployment areas. I think panzerlehr62 is going to do more work on that than me, but any changes we make will be documented in a read me.
Hope this is useful for others - cheers!
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