NEW - WWII Europa Scenario released!

[McMonkey]

Thought as much!

I'll copy and past a section at a time and see if it loads up. Should be able to isolate the faulty section fairly quickly!

Vista is a bit of a pain to work with. You cannot edit the rules file in the scenario folder. You have to alter it, save it to the desktop and then cut and paste it into your scenario folder! Bit of a nanny thing going on. Hopefully Bill Gates crew will get enough negative feedback that they will make an update that can disable some of these OTT security features. If anyone knows of a way of disabling them yourself then please let me know as they are slowing me down man!

EDIT: There are two faulty sections. One in IMPROVE and one in TERRAIN. Can't think what they might be as they look ok. Next step is to go through line by line until I find the bug

Have to go out now for some vitimin D from the sun. I will post the faulty files below. If anyone can spot the mistakes and save me some time please send your answers on a postcard

[McMonkey]

Faulty sections

@IMPROVE
Nothing, 1, 0, nil,
Palace, 10, 0, nil,
Barracks, 4, 1, nil,
Granary, 6, 1, nil,
Temple, 4, 1, nil,
MarketPlace, 8, 1, nil,
Library, 8, 1, nil,
Courthouse, 8, 1, nil,
City Walls, 8, 0, nil,
Aqueduct, 8, 2, nil,
Bank, 12, 3, nil,
Cathedral, 12, 3, nil,
University, 16, 3, nil,
Mass Transit, 16, 4, nil,
Colosseum, 10, 4, nil,
Factory, 20, 4, nil,
Manufacturing Plant, 32, 6, nil,
SDI Defense, 20, 4, nil,
Recycling Center, 20, 2, nil,
Power Plant, 16, 4, nil,
Hydro Plant, 24, 4, nil,
Nuclear Plant, 16, 2, nil,
Stock Exchange, 16, 4, nil,
Sewer System, 12, 2, nil,
Supermarket, 8, 3, nil,
Superhighways, 20, 5, nil,
Research Lab, 16, 3, nil,
SAM Missile Battery, 10, 2, nil,
Coastal Fortress, 8, 1, nil,
Solar Plant, 32, 4, nil,
Harbor, 6, 1, nil,
Offshore Platform, 16, 3, nil,
Airport, 16, 3, nil,
Police Station, 6, 2, nil,
Port Facility, 8, 3, nil,
Transporter, 0, 0, no,
SS Structural, 8, 0, no,
SS Component, 16, 0, no,
SS Module, 32, 0, no,
(Capitalization), 60, 0, no,
Pyramids, 20, 0, no,
Hanging Gardens, 20, 0, no,
Colossus, 20, 0, no,
Lighthouse, 20, 0, no,
Great Library, 30, 0, no,
Oracle, 30, 0, no,
Great Wall, 30, 0, no,
Sun Tzu's War Academy, 30, 0, no,
King Richard's Crusade, 30, 0, no,
Marco Polo's Embassy, 20, 0, no,
Michelangelo's Chapel, 40, 0, no,
Copernicus' Observatory, 30, 0, no,
Magellan's Expedition, 40, 0, no,
Shakespeare's Theatre, 30, 0, no,
Leonardo's Workshop, 40, 0, no,
J. S. Bach's Cathedral, 40, 0, no,
Isaac Newton's College, 40, 0, no,
Adam Smith's Trading Co., 40, 0, no,
Darwin's Voyage, 40, 0, no,
Statue of Liberty, 40, 0, no,
Eiffel Tower, 30, 0, no,
Women's Suffrage, 60, 0, no,
Hoover Dam, 60, 0, no,
Manhattan Project, 60, 0, no,
United Nations, 60, 0, no,
Apollo Program, 60, 0, no,
SETI Program, 60, 0, no,
Cure for Cancer, 60, 0, no,

and

@TERRAIN
Desert, 1,2, 0,1,0, yes, 1, 5, 5, yes, 1, 5, 3, Pln, no, ; Drt
Plains, 1,2, 1,1,0, yes, 1, 5, 1, For, 0,15, 0, Grs, no, ; Pln
Grassland, 1,2, 2,1,0, yes, 1, 5, 2, For, 0,10, 0, Hil, no, ; Grs
Forest, 2,3, 1,2,0, Pln, 0, 5, 5, no, 0, 5, 0, Grs, no, ; For
Hills, 2,4, 1,0,0, yes, 1,10, 0, yes, 3,10, 1, Pln, no, ; Hil
Mountains, 3,6, 0,1,0, no, 1,10, 0, yes, 1,10, 6, Hil, no, ; Mou
Tundra, 1,2, 1,0,0, yes, 1,10, 1, no, 0, 0, 0, Drt, no, ; Tun
Glacier, 2,2, 0,0,0, no, 0, 0, 0, yes, 1,15, 3, Tun, no, ; Gla
Swamp, 2,3, 1,0,0, Grs, 0,15, 6, For, 0,15, 0, Pln, no, ; Swa
Jungle, 2,3, 1,0,0, Grs, 0,15, 6, For, 0,15, 0, Pln, no, ; Jun
Ocean, 1,2, 1,0,2, no, 0, 0, 0, no, 0, 0, 0, no, no, ; Oce
Oasis, 1,2, 3,1,0,
Buffalo, 1,2, 1,3,0,
Grassland, 1,2, 2,1,0,
Pheasant, 2,3, 3,2,0,
Coal, 2,4, 1,2,0,
Gold, 3,6, 0,1,6,
Game, 1,2, 3,1,0,
Ivory, 2,2, 1,1,4,
Peat, 2,3, 1,4,0,
Gems, 2,3, 1,0,4,
Fish, 1,2, 3,0,2,
Desert Oil, 1,2, 0,4,0,
Wheat, 1,2, 3,1,0,
Grassland, 1,2, 2,1,0,
Silk, 2,3, 1,2,3,
Wine, 2,4, 1,0,4,
Iron, 3,6, 0,4,0,
Furs, 1,2, 2,0,3,
Glacier Oil,2,2, 0,4,0,
Spice, 2,3, 3,0,4,
Fruit, 2,3, 4,0,1,
Whales, 1,2, 2,2,3,

They both work if I replace them with the ones from my Nam scenario! Obviously they worked fine in the MGE version!!!

[Palaiologos]

edited


P.S note to self: read other people's answers before posting something.

[Boco]

Not that it's an unusual occurrence, but I'm stumped. AFAIK, the error message refers to line 67 of @IMPROVE in Rules.txt (see Deciphering Error Messages). Although I can't remember whether to start counting with line 0 or 1, I can't see anything wrong with line 67 (SETI) or 68 (Cure for Cancer).

[McMonkey]

Will try those lines first. If that does not work I will do it the long way!

EDIT: Found the problem with terrain. I was missing the line of 'no,' that dictates whether a terrain type is impassable. Just got to work out the problem with IMPROVE and I will be good to go!

[McMonkey]

All sorted now. I double checked IMPROVE before copy and pasting it all across ten lines at at a time (quite tricky with Vista as you have to cut the rules file from the scenario folder onto the desktop, edit it and then copy and paste it beck = pain in the ass!!!). Got all the way through and found no faults, which is really strange as all I had done is copy/pasted it in one go before. All I can think is that I did not leave a gap between the end of the improvements and the start of the next module (?

Not that that matters now. From here on in the fun part begins!

[McMonkey]

Over the past few days I have been working on new ideas for the events. I need some advice of a fairly basic but crucial nature.

These calculations are VERY crude but are helping me plan what will fit.

The sum:
The MGE version had approximately 86 events of various lengths. Is it right to assume that by X this by three to get 258 I should be able to fit in approximately times the number of events if the lengths stay about the same (IE no extra huge text events)?

If so then what events, other than text events, take up the most room? Do TURNINTERVAL triggers have a cumulative effect or is that just a problem with DELAY?

I have read the Macro document but just wanted to double check!

Looking at the MGE events I am shocked by some of the stupid mistakes like -2000 gold from Allies to reward them for capturing Essen I seemed to remember it with rose tinted glasses!

I am VERY excited about the new events I have planned as I think they will make the game work as I had originally intended and will make it a real challenge (hopefully even for Agricola!).

The tech tree scares me a bit (as it always does) but I have a cunning plan (the Baldrick kind!) to get it done quicktime and work

Going to have a proper read of Agricola's AI thread as it seem extremely relevant to what I am attempting to do!

Ta ta

[McMonkey]

Screenshot junkie

I just wanted to post a shot of the map as the ToT zoom view is x1000 more sexy than the MGE one! Had to shrink the image to fix the 800 pixel limit. Not fishing for compliments here, just wanted to wet peoples appetites for WWII epics

I have ditched Grodno and Stavropol in favour of Mareth and Bizerte. Makes sense as the game is intended to be played as Allies!

Events are pretty much sorted already. Just the tech-tree to sort out (sigh) and a bit of reballancing of units stats etc...

When I have these bits done I would like a volunteer to playtest it. If anyone would like to volunteer then let me know.

Agricola. I remember you sent an e-mail a while back which included a few notes on spelling. I have corrected Nijmegen, Mogilev and Voronezh. Don't spose you remember the others? Think I lost the e-mail when my old PC crashed!

[AGRICOLA]

No, it wasn't an e-mail but a posting on this thread. Here's the text of the relevant part.

MINOR PROBLEMS:
1. Nijmegen, Voronezh, Bialystok, Mogilev, Kaunas, Bosporus Control, Straits of Gibraltar, The White House, Poppys and Warehouses are misspelled. Also, the EVENTS file could do with a spell check.

2. City names are inconsistent. Generally, the map uses anglicized city names but there are exceptions such as Wien rather than Vienna, Nürnberg rather than Nuremberg, Königsberg etc.

3. Nitpick: The USAF did not come into existence until after WWII. During the war it was the Army Air Corps.

4. Part of the following statement in EVENTS is incorrect.
"Enigma reports recommend stationing units on grid refs A, B and C
to reduce U-Boat activity dramatically. I suggest you note co-ordinates."

One cannot block the spawning of naval units. U-boats and, for that matter, any other naval unit will spawn at the bottom of any stack of blocking units and can freely move out from under the stack and attack it.

[McMonkey]

@AGRICOLA

All spelling mistakes noted are fixed. Did you spot any other?
I have also re Anglicized all the names, no umlauts and Wien is now Vienna.
USAF Fighters are now just US Fighters.

The original events file has been binned and a brand new one has been started. I have given up on the daft U-Boats spawning at sea in favour of Wolfpacks utilising the ToT COUNT= function.

I have mad a large list of alterations, improvements and new ideas based based on the feedback I got here and at CFC.

If anyone has any other suggestions please fire away.

Remaking this game is a lot of fun as the 'will it work?' factor is not such an issue. I know where I went wrong first time and now I am just fixing that and expanding. Having a strong base to build from is a bit different to starting from scratch!

[McMonkey]

A couple of queries:

a. Does 'x2 vs Air' apply to air units themselves? IE Would a Jet Fighter with 'x2 vs a/c' be twice as deadly when being attacked by fighters?

b. Can aircraft be given the 'x2 vs Horse' ability to make them Tank/Vehicle busters? Obviously I will set most vehicles to 2 movement.

c. If the answer to b. is yes then I intend to give Ground Attack aircraft the 'x2 vs Horse' ability to make them more effective against vehicles. They will also have the 'Can attack a/c' ability.
Would they be more likely to attack ground targets if I set their role to 0=Attack or 3=Air Superiority?

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by Werd100
b. Can aircraft be given the 'x2 vs Horse' ability to make them Tank/Vehicle busters? Obviously I will set most vehicles to 2 movement.

Beware: 2 movement isn't the sole condition, unless I'm mistaken the units need to have 1hp and not more for the bonus to work!

c. If the answer to b. is yes then I intend to give Ground Attack aircraft the 'x2 vs Horse' ability to make them more effective against vehicles.

Sadly, I don't think you can: the bonus works on defense, not offense!

[McMonkey]

Thanks Cyrion. Was planning to have a tinker with the unit stats today. This info is important and will save me a lot of wasted time! Thanks

[McMonkey]

Stats all sorted (bar testing). I had to mess around a bit to get a good ballance. Did not want Armour to be the only unit worth building. I decided to give them high attack(10+), medium defence (5), 1 hit point and 3 fire power plus good mobility (IE 2 moves). This should make them good offensive units but poor defenders.

Infantry have 1/3 movement, medium attack (8) and good defence (6) plus 3 hit points. They can also ignore city walls. Hopefully this will make them useful for attacking and then holding cities alongside artillery.

Anti-tank guns (towed+mobile) obviously have the x2 vs horse ability which boosts their 4 defence to 8 when they are faced with armour and other vehicles. They are also quite cheap.

Anti-aircraft units (towed+mobile) have the x2 vs air ability which boosts their 4 defence to 8 when facing air attacks. This, along with their relative cheapness should make them worthwhile units.

The one I am not sure about is mobile artillery as their good attack, mobility combo could make them too strong. Their low defence would not be an issue if they are accompanied by motorized infantry. I may just make them very weak defensively and very expensive to limit their employment.

If anyone can see any major flaws or have any comments then let me know.

I need to find a way to distinguish Fighters from Ground Attack a/c. I realise giving G/A the x2 vs horse will not work but someone must have a bright idea on how to make them different. What effect does giving a/c the attack role over air superiority have?

All smart ideas welcome!

[McMonkey]

Busy day off (as if!) making the tech tree and science rates work. I divised a way of organizing the tech tree so I didnt go mad. Thought a nice printout would be handy too. Just need to think of some appropriate names for the techs and edit the rules so units fit the slots then I'm done...horay!

Some of the spare slots (IE no effect/unit/improvement) will be used for bonus events as it seems I have not yet completely filled the events file, ToT rules!

Nearly at the stage where I will need a playtester to help hunt bugs and give feedback. Anyone who wants a go please apply here.

Here is the tree printout so far (nice colours ). The yellow is the Tech name, Pink is for the second prereq and green is for what effect/unit/improvement you recieve. I know it bears remarkable similarities to the tree from vanilla civ but it is really quite different...honest, though not in the league of Tecumseh or Kobayashi!

Should sleep now as I will just mess things up!