Reply With Quote(Trigger finger - apols)
[This message has been edited by Cam (edited December 27, 1999).]
random scenarios
Does anyone know if ToT supports the multiple and random scenario selection from FW? Jules Verne was an example. There were actually 6 different versions of the same scenario, one of which was randomly selected when you loaded the scenario.
(Trigger finger - apols)
[This message has been edited by Cam (edited December 27, 1999).]
Believe it or not, I was going to ask the same question only yesterday, and then I thought that someone will say; "Why don't you test it and find out for yourself?" - I know that sounds like a cheeky remark, but alas - why not? So did I test it? Not yet! Anyone?
The other question I was going to ask was Is there any way of checking a tribe's 'flag progress' in a game? I can imagine the number of events that should work but don't because some flag went over that didn't, or the wrong flag number was turned on, etc. My early investigations would indicate that there isn't. Anyonex2?
Techumseh ... Let's find out!
Cam ... that is what flags are for. Please send me an example.
William,
In the 'Somewhere in Time' part of the 'Time Threat Paradox' scenario, the player must capture 10 particular cities on one of the maps, each one turning on a flag upon capture. What I'm wondering, is there any way of checking which flags are on or off at any point in a game - say I've got six of the cities, is there a way of identifying this other than by simply counting them off the screen map? (Sorry - was that a ramble?)
As a scenario designer I would use the checkflag with a mask and count to check how many cities the player has captured.
@IF TurnInterval
Interval=10
@AND
CheckFlag
Who=Somebody
Mask=0b00000000000000000000001111111111
Count=5
State=On
@THEN
Text
^You have captured Five cities!
^Only Five more to go.
EndText
@ENDIF
okay, let's try the random .alt files shall we?
The .ALT files are not coded in ASCII (plain text). Which means there is probably some utillity program required to make/read them.
There are no special codes that I can find imbeded in the other files that would trigger the civ engine to look for these .ALT files.
Fear not - it works!
I did four alternate games by placing one with a freight, one with an explorer, one with a marine, and one with a dragoon in a newly created scenario. First time I opened it - the explorer was present, second time was the dragoon, third the explorer, and fourth the freight.
William,
Thanks for the advice on the flags - makes perfect sense. As before, if authors make 'blues' by misspelling tribe names in events, I think the possibility of flags going astray would be pretty high - what you've suggested looks like a sensible approach.
Cam ... how do you create the .ALT files to do this test???
The use of Somebody in the example above assumes that the AI is not going to be taking any key cities which may or may not work depending on the scenario.
If you misspell a tribe name in the events it gives you an error. Transposed names however are still a problem.
Thanks gentlemen! Cam, your answer begs another question. Are the scenarios selected at random, or in sequence?
Answering the second, first, I believe they are random. In the four games I opened, two contained the explorer unit, while there only one freight, one dragoon, and no marine.
William's question - I started a game. Opened the cheat menu. Inserted a unit (dragoon) in the visible area of the Romans. Saved it as a scenario 'crud.scn'. I then deleted the first unit (dragoon) for another (marine). Saved it as 'crud2.scn'. This continued for 'crud3.scn' (exporer) and 'crud4.scn' (freight).
I then went into Windows explorer and renamed 'crud2.scn' to 'crud2.alt', and did the same with 'crud3.scn' and 'crud4.scn'.
When beginning a new scenario, the option is 'crud.scn' but it will seemingly randomly choose from the four variants.
Thank you Cam! This creates exciting possibilities.
For Cam
<<< Standing Ovation >>>
Nice job!
Well, thanks, but it's hardly groundbreaking stuff - but at least we all know now! It will give any scenario with a 'search and destroy' element greater replayability no doubt, and this is only extended upon through the 'flag and mask' possibilities and the 'extra random features' add in ToT's events macro language.
Can you associate other files with .alt files?, e.g, your .alt files has a different events.txt to the main .scn
Yep!
The file names in my testing being; Events.txt, Events2.alt, Events3.alt, and Events4.alt . Note, the events are not necessarily connected to the broader scenario alternate file, so you can have the file 'Crud3.alt' working with 'Events2.alt' in one game and the next time 'Crud3.alt' pops up it could be working with 'Events4.alt'.
one word comes to mind Cam ... Tip.
So there is no way of linking a specific events file to an alternate scenario, if I am reading that last post correctly?
I have just got ToT for Xmas and am currently working on a Fantasy scenario which uses the alternate random scenario selection. I have also come up with a way to link the .alt to one events file and have it make sense for each alt scenario . I was going to submit this as a tip after the scenario got made...
[This message has been edited by Miner (edited December 30, 1999).]
Cam, what about other files? rules, units? game?
This is cool stuff folks. Expect to see some of it in my next scenario. And this time I'm NOT letting Mike Jeszenka review it. He'll go apoplectic
William,
Love them tips! Happy to do so - particularly as I don't think it's ever been covered (that is, this hasn't been addressed for pre-ToT Civ2). It'll be a introductory ToT level tip too, which will help balance what I hope will be plenty more advanced level ToT guides in the Scenario League Design Tips section.
Dracon,
I'm not sure, and that's one that will need testing again, but I'd imagine that it would be 'do-able'.
Miner,
Oh no - I'm not saying it can't be done, (never say never!). I'm not sure if I'm reading your post correctly or not, but if there's no aternate events file (i.e. only events.txt) the game will use that file regardless of which scenario version comes up. However, it seems from what you're saying (reading it another way) that you have been able to link the scenario variants (e.g. Crud.scn, Crud2.alt, Crud3.alt,...) with the event variants (Events.txt, Events2.alt, Events3.alt, etc.) in their stated order and not have this randomised(?). When's your scenario due out? Any preliminary info'?
[This message has been edited by Cam (edited December 30, 1999).]
Cam
No I havent worked out how to link an events file to an alternate scenario file
(ie events1.alt matches with crud1.alt or whatever). There can be only one events file, events.txt. What I have figured out is by using flags and the extra event space available, you write events suitable for all of the alternate scenarios and put them in events.txt. The events check which scenario you are in by using @AND. The @AND checks the presence of a technology which indicates which scenario you are in. Make sense yet? I'm probably not explaining this well.
The scenario should be out before the end of Jan.
Oh - I see! Got ya! More good thinking. I look forward to seeing the product of your labour!
Folks,
Was watching this thread with interest.
I have knocked up 5 ToT "Random-Start" Scenarios for my ExtendedOriginal "No Spaceships, No Aliens" modpack if anyone wants to try them out.
Each Scenario starts with a different set of maps and distribution of settlers. Each of the various worlds is custom-designed
to avoid the limitations of the 'normal' or 'land-dominant' settings in the Rules.txt
(Settings 6 & 4) and in some cases to make the land-forms seem less Earth-like.
In addition each Civ starts with at least 2 settlers, often one of those starting out on one of the alien worlds. This keeps the competition up on each world. (No Civ has a world to themselves where they can just sit and build without having to worry about attack). (However not every settler on every world is likely to survive...)
I haven't figured out how to change the Rules.txt so that the game dumps settlers on more than one world at start-up yet. (Don't know if it is possible , other than hacking a few events into the events.txt).
I even tested it. (And it seems to work !).
As always, available at : www.users.bigpond.com/Kestrel18
Happy New Year.
I wrote ...
Mick replied ...Mick,
In the Verne Scenario there were six different versions of the same
scenario, one of which was randomly selected when you loaded the
scenario.
How did you do it?
Hi William,
The procedure was very simple. After building and saving the six scenarios,
I labelled one of them, Verne.scn and the remainder, Verne2.alt,
Verne3.alt,..., Verne6.alt. That's it. Since I had prepared an introduction
for the scenario, I also had to make 5 copies of it and label them
Verne.txt, Verne2.txt,...,Verne6.txt so that whichever one was chosen, the
introduction would appear. You can probably substitute whatever name you
want for Verne, you must maintain the number sequence, however. Although I
never tried this procedure for the Test Of Time scenarios, I believe it
should still work here, too.
Mick Uhl
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