US Civil War 2012 - Scenario Idea/Discussion

[GhostOfDisco]

Hmm... does anybody know any programs or anything that will help you check events.txt files for errors?

I ran a spell checker through it, though that is by no means the best way to check for Civ 2 errors, but I thought it might detect errors in the names of civs, units, etc.

Also, in my latest version on my computer, I've put in CS & Nemo's Iowa (you can see the MGE pic in the WW2 units thread.) All I need are the pics for the F-23 and the transport, and I'm set.

Or maybe not, one idea I've toyed around with in my mind today is a "cheap" air unit, which you can build before you get factories. It can attack infantry and artillery, but won't do so well against the armor and other advanced units (to say nothing of fighter jets!) It might have a range of 1 turn, but it might not - planes with said range can hit a number of targets, which might give the SP player too great an advantage when playing against the AI (attack all the AI's infantry with one plane!)

The plane for this unit would probably be something like the A/T-37, A/T-5, or an F-5, T-38, or F-4 at most.

Of course, given the number of units I already have, I might not use them anyway (I could get rid of the Nimitz carrier and have the US use generic "futuristic" carriers, but I'm not sure I want to get rid of said CVN...)

[EZRhino]

Originally posted by GhostOfDisco
Hmm... does anybody know any programs or anything that will help you check events.txt files for errors?

Try adding the line @DEBUG right after @BEGINEVENTS. Load the scenario. Then close and look in the scenario folder for a new file, report.txt. The file should list all events up to the first inoperable one, I think...

[techumseh]

That's right. It produces the same readout as the MGE events parser. It will not detect event errors which utilize flags and masks, however. You must playtest to see if they work.

[GhostOfDisco]

You absolutely sure?

I've put @DEBUG after @BEGINEVENTS, and it seems to have no effect. Is report.txt generated, because I've had a report file and it's been blank. I've been using MGE, and while I know the DEBUG thing works with FW, it doesn't seem to do so with MGE.

I dunno. La Belle Epoque doesn't seem to work with my MGE version either, and Hartel's Gold & Blood caused the program to quit. I dunno. I'll see what I can do...

[:) Smiley]

I like the idea of cheap buildable units to supplement the ones you start with - it would reflect a realistic situation where all kinds of civilian equipment gets pressed into service.

[GhostOfDisco]

I fixed the events file. Turns out I had "US Mech Inf." units instead of "US Mech. Inf." units mentioned in the events, and thus messed up the whole file.

As for the "cheap plane" thing, since my lasts posts and such I came up with the solution: the cruise missile slot! Since the missiles really don't play any role in the game (at least I think - do any of you players use them a lot?), I thought that I could use it's slot for the "cheat fighter."

Upon testing it, though, it seems that the sounds are all jet sounds. Which is somewhat fine to me - I was thinking it might be a jet (though I could be wrong) - though it does bring up the question - what kind of plane should take the slot?

I'm thinking mostly trainers, probably jet trainers such as the L-39 Albatross, T-37 Tweet or maybe even the T-38 or so because I want them to be able to attack other aircraft (true, they probably can't win against, say, a Rafale or an F-22, but they could fight other "budget planes") and I just can't see two, say, Cessna Skyhawks duking in out in the air. (Or could they? Could common prop planes, modified with some machine guns and (maybe) missile racks and such, do basic dogfighting maneuvers?)

Looking up some stuff on the 'net, it seems that the BD-10 kit-built jetplane might have been a candidate for the "cheap fighter" given the easy-to-build nature and its fighteresque jetness, were it not for the fact that 1)only two are left and 2)the plane doesn't exactly have a perfect safety and reliability record, to understate things.

Though I might be open to prop craft, if I find a way to get it in a unit slot that uses said sounds without messing up my already-placed units and such.

So, any suggestions as to what plane should I use for the "budget fighter-bomber" unit?

Also, those who are playing the CNA - how "deep" should the Union reinforcement stuff go (i.e. the events where when one city is taken, reinforcements are spawned in nearby cities)? Making the "defense line" in the CNA was relatively easy, but given the Union's size... (not to mention file size!)

Also, the "cheap fighter" unit might add a bit more punch to the "militia/rebels/polygamist" events I hope to write.

[techumseh]

Any unit with the 'missile flag' produces the sound labled "missile' in the sound folder. Air units with a range of 1 or more without the 'missile flag' use the 'aircmbt' sound, up to the helicopter slot. All air units past the helicopter slot use the 'jetcmbt' sound. All air units with a range of 0 are helicopters and make that sound, regardless of where they are.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by techumseh
Any unit with the 'missile flag' produces the sound labled "missile' in the sound folder. Air units with a range of 1 or more without the 'missile flag' use the 'aircmbt' sound, up to the helicopter slot. All air units past the helicopter slot use the 'jetcmbt' sound. All air units with a range of 0 are helicopters and make that sound, regardless of where they are.

Is this true for ToT too??

[:) Smiley]

Originally posted by GhostOfDisco
Looking up some stuff on the 'net, it seems that the BD-10 kit-built jetplane might have been a candidate for the "cheap fighter" given the easy-to-build nature and its fighteresque jetness, were it not for the fact that 1)only two are left and 2)the plane doesn't exactly have a perfect safety and reliability record, to understate things.

yeah, some things really ought to be left up to the pros, and building jets is one of them.

though if this is set in 2013, I could see unmanned aircraft being used.

[techumseh]

Originally posted by Cyrion


Is this true for ToT too??

Yes, while you can select sounds for ground units without worrying about pre-determined slots as in MGE, this only applies to ground units. Air units still follow the pattern above.

[GhostOfDisco]

Well, then ... I could use the Engineer slot for the "cheap plane," and maybe (maybe) make it a prop.

Wait, the Rafale, F-16 and B-52 all use the "prop" sounds, so I might have to do some adjusting... maybe a lot...

[GhostOfDisco]

However, I did upgrade the graphic for the towed artillery - I modified a a field gun graphic from Patine's Korean War scenario, and found the graphic to the soldiers ... somewhere (I forget exactly where at the moment.) Still, it looks better and meshes better with the rest of the graphics than the artillery pic I used before...

[GhostOfDisco]

Did some improvements recently, but when I tried to run it with this file as the events file, the game would just quit...

...can anyone figure out just what is wrong with this file (and, better yet, how to fix the problem?

Also, what jet should I use for the "Cheap Fighter" - the L-39 Albatros (Warsaw Pact trained), T-38 Talon, or some other jet trainer? (Please be specific )

Just wondering.

[GhostOfDisco]

Just an update and stuff. (I might be repeating myself on some points in the post, but what the heck.) Apparently nobody's interested in seeing what the problem is with the latest CNA events file, but anyway, let me explain some things...

Early on in testing the game (mainly as the Union trying to conquer the Commonwealth), I noticed that the AI tended to be static. Warfare consisted of moving up to one city and taking out its units, then moving on to the next one etc. The AI never made it interesting. To make the AI defense more dynamic, I thought of two options:

1. The "2194 solution," as I got it from Nemo's classic scenario "2194 Days of War." Namely, during every turn the enemy gets new units, fresh and with NONE for their home city. I thought of this solution upon remembering how events-generated Panzers and SS have at times managed to stage some pretty good counteroffensives during the US invasion of Nazi-held Europe in said scenario.

2. A variation of AGRICOLA's dynamic defense strategy (I forget where the link is; but I'll find it.) Generally, every time you take a major enemy city, reinforcements are spawned in a nearby city (or cities) which should encourage the enemy to counterattack. To be more specific, when a major enemy city is taken, a task force consisting of a SP artillery unit, an armor unit, and a mechanized infantry unit (all Veteran NONE units) is spawned in a nearby city (depending on what cities you haven't taken already.)

Implementing these strategies for the US events file was relatively easy - the CNA's different segments are generally compact and their invasion routes were easily predicted. The CNA events file was a different story. The Union is a large, contiguoug landmass, and while the CNA's objective is primarily defensive, a good CNA player will probably find it beneficial to go on the offense. Conqsequently the question is, "How deep do I go?" How far into the Union should the unit spawning sites go, and how can you do that without overflowing the events memory file?

You can see my answer in the events file above. The problem is, when I try to run the scenario with said events file, I get this:

AppName: civ2.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: ntdll.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.2180 Offset: 00001230

I don't even get a "something wrong with the events.txt" message - the program just quits before I even get to the title screen. Size could be suspected, as the file is, for MGE scenario events files, huge, but at 24,047 bytes it's smaller than the events file for LOTOR, which comes in at 26,247 bytes - and the computer thinks Kobayashi's events file is A-OK.

So, if you could find out just what's wrong with the CNA events file, I would greatly appreciate it.

On another note, I've been wondering about the CNA's main battle tank. As you can see from my units file, I've done as a rule of thumb given the CNA and USA different American vehicles that fulfill the same purpose - Bradley (USA) and Stryker (CNA) for APCs, F-16 (USA) and F-15E (CNA) for jet fighters, etc. - but the Abrams is the only tank that currently seems to be in the arsenal. Rather than make an Abrams for CNA, I'd prefer to give the Commonwealth a tank of it's own, and making fairline-quality vehicle graphics from scratch I cannot do. So, I've been giving them a foreign tank to make once they've gotten the ability to make tanks again. I've been using the Black Eagle tank, but I've been thinking about using the T-95 instead. I'm not quite sure what kind of tank I'll ultimately use for the CNA's original armor, but here's an MGE- and CNA-ized version of fairline's T-95 graphic:

[curtsibling]

Nice work - Those new modern units are causing a stir!