Jan III Sobieski scenario

[GhostOfDisco]

Well, I haven't given up on this scenario yet! (Though I do need to spend some more time on it. )

One concept I've been working on is the possiblity of a Sobieski dynasty as space program - i.e. you research enough political reform text to establish royal elections vivente rege (i.e. build the Apollo wonder), and then it's a race for the factions to get "their" candidate elected. In the player's case, the "home" candidate will be Jan Sobieski's son, presumably his eldest Jacob. (In reality, when the royal elections commenced following Jan's death, Jacob was going to be Austrian's candidate (though stuff prevented this) - however, whether or not Austria will support Jacob or forward a candidate of its own in the scen is up to the AI. ) In trying to figure all the stuff out, I tried to cheat my way into the spaceship race - gave myself all the techs, built the Wonder, but I couldn't get a spaceship built. It's been a long while since I started making the scenario, but I suspect I may have disabled the space race when I first started the "game" upon which I based the map, the scenario and its world. I'd like to hex edit it so I can "go to space" again, but my attempts at hex-editing it myself have ended in failure to determine the problem (is it just me, or does Höfelt's hex-editing guidelines seem not to apply to ToT files?) Anyways, here's the latest .sav file, if anyone wants to determine why I can't do the space thing:

[Elensar]

Do you have Total War (or whatever its called) set in the scenario options, or is that just a Multiplayer Gold thing? Keeps Republics from meddling with the player declaring war, but I think it automatically rules out spaceships.

[Catfish]

It's been a long while since I started making the scenario, but I suspect I may have disabled the space race when I first started the "game" upon which I based the map, the scenario and its world.

Bloodlust is off. The date in the saved game is 4000 BC. Try AD.

I'd like to hex edit it so I can "go to space" again, but my attempts at hex-editing it myself have ended in failure to determine the problem (is it just me, or does Höfelt's hex-editing guidelines seem not to apply to ToT files?)

It's for FW with bits tacked on for MGE. There's probably a ToT version around somewhere.

[GhostOfDisco]

I've got good news and bad news...
The good news is that the Apollo Program works! Now it's possible to send a ship- er, get a Sobieski elected vivente rege in the game!

The bad news is I've run into a problem with Sobieski's election. Now, the point of the event was to be that the player got tech #63, which would then upgrade Jan Sobieski (via Leo's Workshop (aka the Sejm)) to the Jan III Sobieski unit. However, when the appointed turn came, Jan didn't upgrade, which is probably because the unit is "unbuildable" by the Polish player. So I tried a workaround - the player gets a certain tech, which triggers and "upgrade" tech, but then the"upgrade" tech is taken away- and wound up with this:

@IF
TURN
Turn=41
@THEN
PlayWaveFile
rev.wav
TEXT
^^ Just as they did five years ago, the Republic's nobles elect a king; this time, they
^^ choose none other than Jan Sobieski himself for their monarch.
^^
^^ Both Jan's military prowess and his wife's intrigues factor in his election...
ENDTEXT
GIVETECHNOLOGY
technology=99
receiver=Poles and Lithuanians
FLAG
continuous
flag=2
Who=Poles and Lithuanians
state=on
@ENDIF
@IF
TURN
Turn=41
@THEN
GIVETECHNOLOGY
technology=63
receiver=Poles and Lithuanians
@ENDIF
@IF
ReceivedTechnology
technology=63
receiver=Poles and Lithuanians
@THEN
TAKETECHNOLOGY
WHOM=Poles and Lithuanians
TECHNOLOGY=99
@ENDIF

But this hasn't worked. What do you think I need to do?

[AGRICOLA]

If one removes all the non-essential statements the events sequence becomes

@IF
TURN
Turn=41
@THEN
GIVETECHNOLOGY
technology=99
receiver=Poles and Lithuanians
@ENDIF

@IF
TURN
Turn=41
@THEN
GIVETECHNOLOGY
technology=63
receiver=Poles and Lithuanians
@ENDIF

@IF
ReceivedTechnology
technology=63
receiver=Poles and Lithuanians
@THEN
TAKETECHNOLOGY
WHOM=Poles and Lithuanians
TECHNOLOGY=99
@ENDIF


The above sequence results in the Poles and Lithuanians receiving and losing Tech 99 on the same turn. . . . before it can do the upgrade. Try changing the last @IF to

@IF
TURN
Turn=42
@THEN
TAKETECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY=99
WHOM=Poles and Lithuanians
@ENDIF

[techumseh]

Did you get my email, John?

[AGRICOLA]

Did you get my email, John?

Yes, Brian. Unfortunately, there was a longer than usual (10 days) dead zone between unplugging Oddjob II in Canada and reconnecting to the Web in Florida. Sorry 'bout that.

I am currently finishing a lengthy reply to your email. Expect it later today.

[GhostOfDisco]

@IF
TURN
Turn=42
@THEN
TAKETECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY=99
WHOM=Poles and Lithuanians
@ENDIF

In that case, how do you plan on preventing the player from "starting construction" on another Jan III Sobieski during the one turn he has the tech?

[AGRICOLA]

I hadn't planned anything because I wasn't aware that there was a potential problem.

Actually, there may be no problem because in my latest version of RULES for the scen both Sobieskis are unbuildable in @UNITS_ADVANCED. However, I have no idea if Leo's will upgrade an existing unbuildable unit to another unbuildable unit. If it will, then there is no problem. If not, then you do have a problem and may have to resort to a house rule that forbids building either Sobieski or use 2 EVENTS files and do a switch on turn 41.

[AGRICOLA]

Unfortunately, Leo's will not upgrade any unit (buildable or unbuildable) to an unbuildable one. Consequently, JS III has to be buildable for an upgrade to happen.

That being a given, it now becomes a question of persuading players to not build JS III clones.

A house rule is one possibility. Another persuader would be to change the cost of JS III in RULES to 127 (AFAIK the maximum for a unit). Good ol' JS III may be a good unit . . . . but not 1270 shields good.

On the other hand, a truly ruthless player might decide that it might be a good idea to disband the JS III upgraded from JS in order to RB a wonder.

I think that you will have to pick whatever you consider the lesser evil. However, whatever you do, do not leave the cost of JS III as 1 or you will have 'X' JS III clones running around ('X' = number of Polish cities).



Personally, I would have both JS and JS III unbuildable, forget about the upgrade, use EVENTS to spawn JS III and produce a popup asking players to disband JS. No muss, no fuss, no complications.