Convincing the Phyrgians to march on Gordion.

[Exile]

Has anyone ever used the "go to" events command?

If so, how did it work? Did it work at all? Are there drawbacks?

Yes, I've looked at Nemo's Red Front and its commands, but haven't played that one.

I'm looking for someone who has USED this command (or attempted to use it).

[jim panse]

I have only "playing" experience with them but I think Pablostuka could help you out, he used those commands in his Spanish Civil War scenario I think.

Basically it works like this: You need to define the area in which the respective units should move and the units (which means the respective owner civ) where to move to.

To simplify this, I copy'n'pasted an event from Captain Nemo´s "Second Front" scenario (explanations below):

@IF
RECEIVEDTECHNOLOGY
technology=28
receiver=Germans
@THEN
CREATEUNIT
unit=Panzergrenadiers
owner=Germans
veteran=yes
homecity=None
locations
99,75
97,75
99,77
99,79
endlocations
MOVEUNIT
unit=AnyUnit
owner=Germans
maprect
96,76,98,74,101,77,99,79
moveto
97,67
numbertomove=ALL
@ENDIF

The first part is all common-place yada yada

And not comes the interesting part: the command line (MOVEUNIT) is clear, also the following implications/restrictions (like "unit=AnyUnit" and "owner=Germans").

* The funny part is the next one: the red text in such an event defines the area. It must be 4 valid coordinates - which are written down there in this example.

* The blue marked part marks the (valid) map grid where to the units defined at the beginning of this events command are going to.

* The green marked part marks the number of units of assigned civ´s units in the defined area that should execute that command.

Well, that´s it. Nothing spectacular about that I assume - and you are around these Civ 2 places longer than myself.

All you have to do now is to follow those instructions to get the proper result - if I am not mistaken

Happy creating, I am more than looking forward to your project, Phenix

[jim panse]

EDIT: double post, please delete.

[curtsibling]

It seems to move all units in a unthinking horde towards the map area designated.

In ToT, you can determine exactly what units heed the event...

Not sure if MGE supports specific commands of that nature.

[Exile]

Thanks, Jim (although I'm guessing that isn't really your name, lol)

Curt, moving unthinking barbarian hordes is precisely what I'm trying to do right now.

Here are some of my ideas;

1.) Use one of these events to move all barb units in northwestern asia minor toward gordion, and then, when gordion is taken, toward hattusas, the hittite capital. What I'm thinking of is CITYTAKEN triggers that activate the MOVETO orders. At a certain turn, the first trigger activates and moves all Phyrgians toward the preferred destination, in this case, Gordion. When gordion is taken, this activates another CITYTAKEN trigger and a new MOVETO order that sends all the barbs in the area to hattusas. If I set these orders (once triggered), to activate every turn, am I correct in assuming that these MOVETO orders will continue to send barbs in the selected area to the selected target ad infinitum?

2.) The hyksos will appear, take a few cities, and generally decline quickly, helped along by the egyptian player's earnest attempts to expedite the process. It's currently set up so that the city of Tanis, in the delta, will fall to them. It's also virtually inevitable that the egyptians will, at some point, take it back. When that happens, a CITYTAKEN event will trigger the MOVETO command, and everything in egypt will be told to move to specified points in palestine/syria, much the same way as the event above, with multiple targets, the seizure of which will activate the next event. Once again, the question of permanence arises. The way that I'm considering doing this, once these MOVETO commands are activated, egyptian units will move to the targets in palestine/syria until the scenario ends.

Comments? criticisms? Suggestions?

[jim panse]

As far as I can tell you from my playing experience of "Second Front" and "Red Front" the honourable Captain issued those orders not only to "AllUnits" of the German civ (we are still talking "2nd Front" issues like in my example given above) but also to more specified units like "StuG III" for example.

I cannot tell you how long the effort of those units will last when they are given that command "Moveto" ...

What Pablostuka did in this SCW scenario is like this:

@IF
TURN
turn=-1
@THEN
MOVEUNIT
unit=ANYUNIT
owner=Republican Spanish
maprect
82,70,90,70,90,112,82,112
moveto
56,60
numbertomove=ALL
@ENDIF

This triggers the AI to move (and attack with) their units each turn. Unfortunately I cannot tell you how long the effect of the initial "MOVETO" command lasts ... but:

Given the fact that Cap'n Nemo used that event command cited above extensively in Red Front I assume the regular "MOVETO" command is not working eternally ... though I am not sure about that and I am afraid you´ll have to test that one out ...

Hope it helped anyhow

[jim panse]

Oh, btw, sorry for the double post.

My Christian name is Stephan, Exile

[Dr Kellogg]

Originally posted by jim panse
Given the fact that Cap'n Nemo used that event command cited above extensively in Red Front I assume the regular "MOVETO" command is not working eternally ... though I am not sure about that and I am afraid you´ll have to test that one out ...

Yes, seems like the units don't reach their destination under all circumstances.
Maybe its the same like giving one of your units the "go to" command ingame and it stops when being blocked by an enemy unit or city?

[Lord Spurious]

Well, it's me, Exile, and this is a DL, technically against the rules here, but for some reason my main account won't let me in and I don't have the password. If someone can fix this it'd be nice.

Until then, I'll use this to continue the dialogue--I've got a scenario to complete.

Kellog, I'm thinking the same thing. I'll bet that that's precisely what it does. The command is given, each turn, to units in the prescribed area. But if the unit encounters something before reaching the intended destination, then it stops and addresses that problem, and in the process, cancels the MOVETO order.

The "turn=-1" keeps it repeating, moving the units every turn. Whether they reach the spot is less certain. This command, once I understand it, could make for MUCH more comphrehensible barb movement. And after all, what I'm going for here is just what Curt said--mindless barbarian hordes.

Has anyone ever USED this command in an event file? I'd like to hear about it if so.

[Boco]

Often the AI will indeed override goto commands. So yes, resetting them frequently helps. Unitkilled is a good trigger to use -- i.e. it re-issues the command many times in a turn. I've had some luck coupling the turn=-1 and unitkilled triggers with identical moveunit actions.

Besides that, it helps to make the destination a juicy one for the AI: liberating a city the moving civ founded, having decent odds of succeeding in combat, having cheap AI units and expensive enemy units in the target zone can all help.

I've never done this systematically, but it might help to grease the path the AI will use. Under human control in 'manual mode', issue the goto command from the menus just to see where the unit goes. You may need to change the terrain a bit.

As for banning, well I've been banned once for a illegal picture stored in the upload section and once for not keeping my profile's email address up to date. Merc was very helpful in linking me up with MarkG.

Isn't it Phrygians?

[techumseh]

These two events (in this case, from Operation Market-Garden) in combination seem to keep everybody moving along:

@IF
TURN
turn=Every
@THEN
MOVEUNIT
unit=AnyUnit
owner=Germans
maprect
0,66,38,66,38,86,0,66
moveto
13,79
numbertomove=all
@ENDIF

@IF
UNITKILLED
Unit=AnyUnit
Attacker=Anybody
Defender=Anybody
@THEN
MOVEUNIT
unit=AnyUnit
owner=Germans
maprect
0,66,38,66,38,86,0,66
moveto
13,79
numbertomove=all
@ENDIF

Nemo did a tip on this which is available on the Cradle of Civilization site.

[Harry Tuttle]

So Tech, how large is the polygon that's moving to 13,79?

[Lord Spurious]

Eureka!

Thanks, Brian. That's exactly the kind of info I'm looking for. The any-unit-killed trigger is a great idea.

Boco, I've watched the movement of high-movement caravans given the GO TO command in this latest scenario while testing it, and they, at least, aren't affected by intervening units/zoc. Caravans keep moving toward the target until they connect (or are killed.)

The essential issue is to prevent powerful barbarian units from simply wandering across the countryside aimlessly when I've got something more focused for them to do. Instead, I want to control their movement and appearance as much as possible. I've got a new trick to limit the geographical appearance, and if I can use the MOVETO command in the ways described, it'll change the barbarians for the better.

[techumseh]

Why it's....hmm, let's see....it's 38X(86-66) which is ...ahh, 38 by 20. Which is 760 square, er, squares! Yes, that's it.

Or, put another way, most of the the bottom third of the map.

[Gagliaudo]

Originally posted by Exile
2.) The hyksos will appear, take a few cities, and generally decline quickly, helped along by the egyptian player's earnest attempts to expedite the process. It's currently set up so that the city of Tanis, in the delta, will fall to them.

Only historically (if you're interested): the Hyksos elected the occuped city of Avaris (in the Delta, too, and - don't recall - not too far from Tanis, however) as their capital. No more, just this. Keep on, Exile