SD1 Scenario Designer Enhancements (Full Version)

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mcaryf -> SD1 Scenario Designer Enhancements (10/21/2013 8:09:58 AM)

I plan to start a series of threads that contain suggestions for features to be included in SC3 that are specifically for scenario designers i.e. changes to the editor. I will code each thread as SD1, SD2 etc so that those not interested in designing their own scenarios will know not to read them although they might be interested in supporting some that might add interesting elements to the game (some are just to make a designer's life easier!).

The first suggestion is that I would like to have access to a turn counter, to be able to store its value relative to events in the game and to do simple logic or arithmetic on it. Clearly there are turn counting mechanisms in the underlying code as some AI scripts have force build ups that last specific turns and some DEs levy charges or give credits for specified numbers of turns. An example of how it might be implemented is as follows. Six locations might be made available, say, TURNA to TURNF when a particular event is satified I might code TURNA = TURN. This would load the current turn number into TURNA. I might then have a subsequent event with a condition statement TURN = TURNA + 6 or TURN > TURN + 6 or obviously variants on these relationships or values.

An example of when I might use this facility could relate to a choice for a player whether to demolish an oil well. Thus I could specify that if a player has an engineer unit on an owned oil well and an enemy unit is nearby then the player would be offered a DE to demolish the oil well. This would put the oil well completely out of action for a specified number of turns which might be more or less depending on whether the enemy deployed their own engineer on the captured well. It would give me an opportunity to set up the situation that really occurred when the Soviets poured concrete on some of the facilities at Maikop.

In another situation I might use the turn counter to recognise the capture of supplies that occurred at Tobruk for example by switching off the Malta Effect for a certain number of turns after Tobruk fell.

When coding AI actions I might use a turn counter to coordinate attacks.

When implementing the effects of the Tonnage War a turn counter could be used to recognise the extra disruptive effect on supply of several major successes by U Boats on convoy routes in relatively quick succession

If anybody has other good ideas about how a turn counter could be used, please post them on this thread to help make the case that one should be made available.

Regards

Mike



mcaryf -> RE: SD1 Scenario Designer Enhancements (10/21/2013 8:40:14 AM)

I am just replying to this to move it to the top of my series of post.

Mike



pzgndr -> RE: SD1 Scenario Designer Enhancements (10/23/2013 3:53:54 PM)

I could see an event script that might get triggered and be effective for a number of turns, but not sure if an explicit turn counter feature is really necessary? By clever use of conditions to turn events on or off, with or without probabilities, it's already pretty easy to manipulate interesting elements in the game.



mcaryf -> RE: SD1 Scenario Designer Enhancements (10/23/2013 7:52:11 PM)

Hi pzgndr

I know it is already possible to set up events to cause an effect to last for some broad time interval but the methods I use are rather cumbersome. For example if I want an oil well to be demolished and out of action for, say, 6 months I use the following method. I have a series of tile on the bottom map edge with ownership set to the Axis. When the player says YES to an event offering a demolition option then that event will trigger another event to change ownership of one of the tiles to Allied. This change of ownership triggers a supply event that stops the oil field generating any MPPs for either side until the tile ownership switches back again. I then set up a series of events that take place on specific dates which adjust the tile back to Axis. These dates might be 6 or 12 months apart. If I use 12 monthly separated dates then the oil well will be out of action for between 1 and 12 months i.e. on average 6 months. If, however, I have a reasonable idea when the demolition will occur then I can use a 6 monthly cycle starting just before the likely demolition date.

Thus I can achieve what I want but it is quite cumbersome. I guess you might have an easier method but clearly the easiest way to do it would be if we had a turn counter with which we could specify the period more accurately.

I think it is not unreasonable for us to ask the SC development team to consider some enhancements to the routines available to scenario designers. No doubt they will be charging an “as new” price for SC3 and part of the value for money would be better tools for those who are adding value to the standard scenarios.

Another area where I would like to have greater access would be Tech Advances. It would be a neat feature if we could create some events that provided Tech Advances. For example major countries that are closely allied such as US and UK or Germany and Italy might in some circumstances be allowed to provide a technology advance to their partner. Another variant might be that the capture of a major city such as London or Stalingrad or Seoul might result in the opponent stealing a Tech Advance. Tech Advances certainly happened as a result of Tech captures – thus the deployment of US Bazookas in Tunisia lead to the German development of Panzerfaust.

Thus I am looking for opportunities to allow Scenario Designers to be better able to enrich the standard offering.

Regards

Mike



pzgndr -> RE: SD1 Scenario Designer Enhancements (10/25/2013 5:40:15 PM)

quote:

the methods I use are rather cumbersome


Yeah I know, I've scripted some unit garrisons to use as checks for other scripts and it gets really confusing. I think some more could be done with the decision event script to provide additional flexibility to turn decisions on/off based on specified conditions. Maybe adding a turn counter here would help.



Hubert Cater -> RE: SD1 Scenario Designer Enhancements (11/4/2013 8:54:08 PM)

Hi Mike, this is an interesting idea... any specific list of event scripts that this would apply to or is it hoped for all event types?

Hubert



mcaryf -> RE: SD1 Scenario Designer Enhancements (11/5/2013 6:39:53 AM)

Hi Hubert

I am assuming you are referring to the Turn Counter proposal rather than the research advance.

I guess I could make a case for a Turn Counter for most event types but some cases would be stronger than others and in some, such as DEs you might be setting the counter and in other such as SUPPLY you would be checking whether the Turn Counter condition applied.

For checking a Turn Counter to determine whether an effect should continue my priority events would be Supply, Strength, Resource, Morale, Loop and Decision. My "nice to have" events would be Convoy, Unit, Partisan, Surrender, War Entry and Belligerence. I suppose there is also a case for Victory in that there could be a situation where Victory had to be evaluated within a certain number of Turns after some other event such as the conquest of the UK or the fall of Tokyo.

For AI scripts the priority might be for situations where you want the AI to coordinate offensive actions such as a Soviet offensive in the East to coincide with the D Day landing or a landing in North Africa to link with an offensive in Egypt. However, I have not fully thought through how the Turn triggers for these would be created as I do not understand AI scripts as well as I do other events but it might be as a result of a periodic check whereby the AI detected that Axis strength in certain theatres had fallen below some threshold.

Regards

Mike



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