World War Two Europa vII

[techumseh]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA


Jeez, if that is true, in Fortress Europe I've been wasting my time at the start of the scen by ordering crews to scuttle any Allied Freighters on the high seas in order to avoid the following event:

@IF
UNITKILLED
unit=Freighter
attacker=ANYBODY
defender=Allies
@THEN
TEXT
Vital cargo sinks below the icy waves of the Atlantic
costing the allies 150 gold.
ENDTEXT
CHANGEMONEY
receiver=Allies
amount=-150
@ENDIF

To test whether the negative CHANGEMONEY works, I started the scen, moved and changed nothing during the Allied turn and ended the turn. At this point the Allies had 1955 gold and a deficit of 103 gold per turn so one would expect them to have 1852 gold in the treasury at the start of their next turn.

As expected, some keen-eyed U-boat skipper spotted one of the Freighters and deep-sixed it. Nothing changed at the time of the sinking but, at the start of the next Allied turn, the treasury had only 1702 gold.

1852 - 1702 = 150, the exact value of the freight sunk by the dastardly U-boat.

OK! I always assumed that since the gold didn't drop immediately, the event didn't work. When you give gold, it gets added right away. Good to know. Thanks.

[curtsibling]

Knowing that money hits like this can be delayed (like tech events, etc) is interesting!

You do learn something new every day after all!

[techumseh]

Re: U-boat spawning. The only way I can think of doing this in MGE is to have the U-boats spawn in the German controlled ports in France and Norway, and move via events to the shipping lanes. If there is no alternate coordinate for their spawning, then once each port is Allied controlled, no further U-boats will be created from that event.

This has the disadvantage of making the U-boats more vulnerable to a smart British player. Perhaps adding some Luftwaffe units in the ports would keep them at bay?

[techumseh]

Originally posted by McMonkey


I had a look at the Red Front Batch file but when I try to run it the file just opens and closes back down straight away. Is there a way of fixing this?

Sorry. It has to do with the syntax (whatever that is), not being suitable for Windows XP. I think Boco figured out what had to change for it to work properly in XP. It wasn't a huge change. There was a thread on this a year or two ago.

[techumseh]

Here, it's simpler than I thought. http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...light=bat+file

[McMonkey]

Originally posted by techumseh
Re: U-boat spawning. The only way I can think of doing this in MGE is to have the U-boats spawn in the German controlled ports in France and Norway, and move via events to the shipping lanes. If there is no alternate coordinate for their spawning, then once each port is Allied controlled, no further U-boats will be created from that event.

This has the disadvantage of making the U-boats more vulnerable to a smart British player. Perhaps adding some Luftwaffe units in the ports would keep them at bay?

The CHOICE file solves my problem with the batch files, thanks. I will have a play around with this later tonight.

My method for spawning U-Boats is as you describe but the MOVE UNIT event has no effect. I will try your work around with two events and see if that solves the problem. Maybe the U-Boats will respond differently if I take away the CAN ATTACK AIR flag!?!

[techumseh]

No, it will have no effect. Properly done MoveUnit events do work, including for naval units.

[McMonkey]

If progress seems slow this week it is due to the fact that I am getting up for work at 6am and I am too tired to concentrate on development when I get home. I have not given up or anything! Next week I have more holiday so I will try and go for the final push.

I have been looking at CIV SWAP and have been toying with the idea of using multiple events and rules as well as reintroducing the summer/winter seasons of Europa.

I wanted to know how easy people find Civ Swap to design/play with and get tips about bugs and ideas on applications.

It would mean that I could add more text messages, represent seasons, add major Axis counter attacks and generally expand the games scope. Your comments would be appreciated!

[Eivind IV]

Originally posted by McMonkey
I wanted to know how easy people find Civ Swap to design/play with and get tips about bugs and ideas on applications.

Civstweak, CivCity, mapcopy, Dario's Civ2 Pbem Fixer, I have has only good experience with.

CivEngineer on the other hand, once ruined a scenario for me. If you are to introduce stackable terrain, use CivStack.

CivSwap I have never heard of. What does it do?

[McMonkey]

As far as I understand it is a Utility that automatically runs the batch files by keeping track of the gamesa progress using the auto saves.

This is what Mercator wrote at the start of his read me file:

"CivSwap by Jorrit "Mercator" Vermeiren
Last Changed: 2 April 2005

Introduction
CivSwap is a program that can keep track of the turn of an ongoing Civilization II game by monitoring the game's autosave. More importantly, it can then launch a specified program or batch file on set turns. Such a batch file can then be used, for example, to swap a scenario's events or graphics.

File swapping has been used before in Civilization II scenarios, but until now, the scenario player had to interrupt his game to run a batch file. CivSwap automates this process, leaving the scenario player nothing to do but reload the latest (auto)save.

This documentation is strictly meant for scenario makers who want to use the CivSwap functionality. In other words, do not include this readme with your scenarios! CivSwap is supposed to make things easier for the players, not harder by making them read lengthy technical discussions. However, I will give some pointers as to what you, the scenario maker, can mention in your scenario's documentation to explain the players what they need to do to make it work. I will conclude this readme with an elaborate example."

I have always been reluctant to use Batch files in my scenarios but I am coming around to the idea having played some very good ones using them. Civ Swap seems like a good way to make the most of them!

[McMonkey]

I have been looking at the possibilities of batch files and Mercator's CivSwap program.

A few questions:

1- I know you need to include the DELEVENT file to effect the changeover of events files. When you use a batch file to swap events during a game does the game counter reset itself?

IE. You are prompted to run the batch file on turn 20 via a text event. When you reload the game and start playing will the events start counting from turn 1 again or carry on from turn 20?

2 - When would it be best to have a text prompt telling the player to run the batch and swap files?

IE. I want the player to swap to winter graphics on turn 20. Should the prompt be set to trigger on turn 19 or 20?

I have added a prompt in Alpha version of Fortress Europe to swap to the 1942 files:

@IF
TURN
turn=9
@THEN
TEXT
January 1942 - Swap over Units
ENDTEXT
@ENDIF

But this prompt comes up during the AI's movement. It would be easy for the player to forget and therefore mess up the order of the batch files, events etc...

Is this just because the Allies are the sixth in line to play? Is there a way to make this happen as the allies take control?

Any advice would be appreciated

[AGRICOLA]

Originally posted by McMonkey
1- I know you need to include the DELEVENT file to effect the changeover of events files. When you use a batch file to swap events during a game does the game counter reset itself?

IE. You are prompted to run the batch file on turn 20 via a text event. When you reload the game and start playing will the events start counting from turn 1 again or carry on from turn 20?

Carry on from 20.

Originally posted by McMonkey
2 - When would it be best to have a text prompt telling the player to run the batch and swap files?

IE. I want the player to swap to winter graphics on turn 20. Should the prompt be set to trigger on turn 19 or 20?

This seems to be a question of semantics. Consider following, slightly edited example from The Struggle for Europe.

@IF
TURN
turn=19
@THEN
TEXT
^^=WINTER!=
^
^^At the end of your turn save the game under the name XXX.sav (important!),
^^Run the program ALLIES.bat,
^^Select Load season files - Winter 1942-43.
^^Then return to the game, reload XXX.sav and end your turn.
ENDTEXT
@ENDIF

This means that the AI civs will operate under winter conditions during their turns, as will a player at the start of his next turn.

Alternately, you can use either on or both of the following events to let players be the first to play under winter conditions.

@IF
TURN
turn=19
@THEN
TEXT
^^=WINTER!=
^
^^At the beginning of your next turn save the game under the name XXX.sav (important!),
^^Run the program ALLIES.bat,
^^Select Load season files - Winter 1942-43.
^^Then return to the game, reload XXX.sav and end your turn.
ENDTEXT
@ENDIF

In this case, the AI civs will have summer conditions and a player will be the first to have winter.

To make doubly sure that the files are switched at the start of the player's turn, you can always add another reminder

@IF
TURN
turn=20
@THEN
TEXT
^^=WINTER!=
^
^^Immediately at the start of your turn save the game under the name XXX.sav (important!),
^^Run the program ALLIES.bat,
^^Select Load season files - Winter 1942-43.
^^DO IT NOW!!!!
^^Then return to the game, reload XXX.sav and play your turn.
ENDTEXT
@ENDIF

"DO IT NOW!!!! " is optional.

[McMonkey]

Thanks

A double reminder may be worthwhile. I guess because the counter does not reset it won't matter if the player is a bit late running the batch file. I will be careful to avoid timed events triggering on the same turn as the swap over.

IE. If the swap is turn 19, I will make sure that the first 'Turn=' event happens on turn 20 or after, just in case! Or if I really want a 'Turn=19' event to trigger for the Axis I will put it in the events file that is going to be swapped over as the Axis will move before the player has a chance to run the Batch file!

One other question. Why is it important to save the file by a specific name?

I noticed that Red Front had the line DELEVENT RF.sav and the event instructs:

@IF
TURN
turn=19
@THEN
TEXT
Save the game now under the name RF.sav (Very important!). Bring up the explorer
and double-click the program Redfront.bat, select Winter of 1942-43 from the menu.
Then return to the game and reload RF.sav
ENDTEXT
@ENDIF

What do I need to do in my scenario? Save the game as FE.sav and add the line DELEVENT FE.sav?

I guess this is just telling the computer to run Delevent against the saved file called FE.sav, right? Seems logical!

[AGRICOLA]

Yes, that line has to be in the DOS batch file.

You can open any of the DOS batch files REDFRONT or 0ALLIES ( or whatever you call your DOS batch file ) by R click and select Edit. The files are in text format. Do a search on RF or EU in the files and you will find a line like:

"DELEVENT EU.sav"
"DELEVENT RF.sav"

Replace this line with your DELEVENT FE.sav

Editing and adapting either REDFRONT or 0ALLIES will save you the trouble of writing your batch file from scratch.

[McMonkey]

Thanks. I have already created a Batch file by adapting the Red Front one. I just wanted to make sure I understood how everything worked

I am now wondering what the advantages of using CivSwap are. As I understand it CivSwap automatically runs the batch file but you still need to prompt the player to re-load the game. To make it work correctly the player has to remember to make sure CivSwap is loaded every time they start playing and they have to make sure Auto save is switched on.

If this is correct then it seems to me that it creates as many complications as it solves! If the player forgets to load CivSwap or forgets to switch on auto save then it will not work. IMHO it is just as easy to run a well structured Batch file when prompted as it is to use CivSwap, or am I missing something?