Technical questions

[techumseh]

Maybe you should!

[Mercator]

Re: Back with more questions

Originally posted by Cyrion
1) is there a place where I can change the number of people related to city size??

I believe the 0,000 "suffix" is in the labels.txt, so the best you could do is reduce the population by a factor of ten (or power of ten) by removing a zero from the suffix... That probably screws up the commas though, so you'd likely end up with, say, 3,00,000 or something.

But actually, if I'm not mistaken, in scenarios (definitely when using objectives) you can't see the city population sizes, just your total population.

About that suffix in the labels.txt, I'm not sure if that's for the total population, the city population or both (not to mention the demographics).

[Cyrion]

More questions...

Two easy questions for you guys:

1) is the AI able to use Paratroopers well (or does it handle them as well as the carriers??) ??

2) and I need a confirmation on the following point: a LAND unit with the sub flag would be able to carry missile units, but wouldn't be able to attack land units or cities, is this correct?? I would need a land unit able to carry missiles BUT able to attack cities and units as well...

[Mercator]

1) AFAIK, the AI only uses Paratroopers for a nuke-and-occupy tactic. Other than that I don't think it uses them well.

2) Yep, that's correct. You could use the carrier flag instead, I think.

[AGRICOLA]

A minor addition. Ground units that have the paratroop flag will drop on any unoccupied city, no matter whether the defenders were withdrawn or destroyed.

If an unoccupied city is just out of range for a paradrop, I don't know if the AI will drop a unit next to the city and then have it enter.

[Cyrion]

New question

First of all, (much delayed) thanks to Mercator and AGRICOLA!

And now, here is my new problem: I want to create via events pirates units consisting of a ship carrying 2 pirates(land units with the amphib flag); and I want these units to appear at sea (they would look silly in the middle of a desert).

So:
1) From past experience, I believe you can't create a land unit at sea via event, even if you place a ship on the square before; is that correct??

2) My idea would then be to create 1 land square in the middle of the sea on which I would create the 2 land units; the ship would appear next to it! Would that work? (i.e. would the pirates board the ship??)

Thanks for your attention and answers...

edit: new idea:

3) see 2, but I create the ship ON the land square, which means that the 2 land units would then be asleep aboard the ship which would then be able to sail away with them. Correct??

[AGRICOLA]

2) My idea would then be to create 1 land square in the middle of the sea on which I would create the 2 land units; the ship would appear next to it! Would that work? (i.e. would the pirates board the ship??)

Thanks for your attention and answers...

edit: new idea:

3) see 2, but I create the ship ON the land square, which means that the 2 land units would then be asleep aboard the ship which would then be able to sail away with them. Correct??

I am 99+% certain that 2) will not work. I've never seen AI units on land move aboard a ship that is just offshore. For example, in Techumseh's Market Garden, ~30 German units were trapped on a peninsula due to bridges blown by the Allies. A ferry was available but, although the Panzers crowded up to it, none boarded it.

For 3) to work you would have to ensure that the land units are asleep. I don't know if you can do that.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA


I am 99+% certain that 2) will not work. I've never seen AI units on land move aboard a ship that is just offshore. For example, in Techumseh's Market Garden, ~30 German units were trapped on a peninsula due to bridges blown by the Allies. A ferry was available but, although the Panzers crowded up to it, none boarded it.

For 3) to work you would have to ensure that the land units are asleep. I don't know if you can do that.

Thanks for the answer!

I was afraid 2 wouldn't work!

And I hope 3 will work if I create 1st the units and then the ship! I guess I'll have to try, that and a reverse order creation!

[Exile]

For what it's worth . . . .

My own attempt to create Malay pirates in AoI failed. I did use the trireme slot for the ships in question, and the event that delivered them worked, but when the event fired, the units appeared briefly, then disappeared. I don't think that it's possible to use an event to create naval units or units aboard the naval units.

It IS possible to allow naval (and all the other) barbs in the scenario, but that creates another large set of variables in how all the other barbs behave. You can use Mobile Warfare tech to shut off permanently all naval barbs.

[Cyrion]

Actually they will belong to a civ, and not be barbarans, which should solve the disappearance part!

But that leaves open the "carried" units part...

[AGRICOLA]

If no one comes up with a better idea, you might try this. Create the pirates on the island and the ship next to the island. Then use events to give the pirates a GOTO command to the square occupied by the ship. If you're lucky, the cutthroats will board the ship.

I have absolutely no idea if this will actually work but at least it seems somewhat reasonable.

[techumseh]

Re: For what it's worth . . . .

Originally posted by Exile
My own attempt to create Malay pirates in AoI failed. I did use the trireme slot for the ships in question, and the event that delivered them worked, but when the event fired, the units appeared briefly, then disappeared. I don't think that it's possible to use an event to create naval units or units aboard the naval units.

It IS possible to allow naval (and all the other) barbs in the scenario, but that creates another large set of variables in how all the other barbs behave. You can use Mobile Warfare tech to shut off permanently all naval barbs.

If you want to create land units to be conveyed by transports, both must be created in a port and moved by events.

And there is a flag in ToT which prevents the AI from disbanding barbarian units. Just thought I'd mention it.

[Cyrion]

Pirates experimentation

OK, I did some experimentation on my Pirates creation events, and as the results might prove useful for others, here is all I tried, and what (somehow...) worked

1) I retried the "land unit creation" on top of a sea unit in the ocean; as I thought, it doesn't work: the sea unit appears, but the land ones don't afterwards... No surprise there then!

3) (no, I didn't forget 2, it'll come after): Nearly the same is true as for 1: in short, an event can't create a sea unit on a land square (except if a city, of course).

Originally posted by AGRICOLA
If no one comes up with a better idea, you might try this. Create the pirates on the island and the ship next to the island. Then use events to give the pirates a GOTO command to the square occupied by the ship. If you're lucky, the cutthroats will board the ship.

2) I tried exactly that, and I have been 1/2 lucky!
I wrote this in the events:

@IF
TURN
turn=2
@THEN
TEXT
Pirates 1
ENDTEXT
CREATEUNIT
unit=Pirate Ship
owner=Humanoids
veteran=yes
homecity=none
locations
41,9
endlocations
@ENDIF

@IF
TURN
turn=2
@THEN
CREATEUNIT
unit=Pirates
owner=Humanoids
veteran=yes
homecity=none
locations
40,8
endlocations
MOVEUNIT
unit=AnyUnit
owner=Humanoids
maprect
40,8,40,8,40,8,40,8
moveto
41,9
numbertomove=ALL
@ENDIF

@IF
TURN
turn=2
@THEN
CREATEUNIT
unit=Pirates
owner=Humanoids
veteran=yes
homecity=none
locations
40,8
endlocations
MOVEUNIT
unit=AnyUnit
owner=Humanoids
maprect
40,8,40,8,40,8,40,8
moveto
41,9
numbertomove=ALL
@ENDIF

Where 41,9 is an ocean square and 40,8 an island.

And here is what appear: the 3 units appears as expected, and 1 of the pirates board the ship (and yes, I checked, the hold of the ship is 2!); the ship then sails away...

Weird, isn't it? I would rather have the 2 pirates aboard, but I might do with only one, so the 1/2 lucky!

I'll try to experiment with the hold (change it to 8, for instance, to see if more pirates board, which I doubt...)

[Cyrion]

OK, I tried to play with the hold: even with 8, only 1 pirate boards; and I tried to create 4 pirates instead of 2, only 1 boards!

So I'll end up with creating only 1 pirate who will then board the ship!

[AGRICOLA]

Well, as you said, 1 is better than 0.

Here's another shot in the dark. Perhaps you could try to first create all the pirates and only then have the MOVEUNIT event.

This would also reduce the space needed for this in the events file.