random scenarios

[techumseh]

Does anyone know if ToT supports the multiple and random scenario selection from FW? Jules Verne was an example. There were actually 6 different versions of the same scenario, one of which was randomly selected when you loaded the scenario.

[Cam]

(Trigger finger - apols)
[This message has been edited by Cam (edited December 27, 1999).]

[Cam]

Believe it or not, I was going to ask the same question only yesterday, and then I thought that someone will say; "Why don't you test it and find out for yourself?" - I know that sounds like a cheeky remark, but alas - why not? So did I test it? Not yet! Anyone?

The other question I was going to ask was Is there any way of checking a tribe's 'flag progress' in a game? I can imagine the number of events that should work but don't because some flag went over that didn't, or the wrong flag number was turned on, etc. My early investigations would indicate that there isn't. Anyonex2?

[William Keenan]

Techumseh ... Let's find out!

Cam ... that is what flags are for. Please send me an example.

[Cam]

William,

In the 'Somewhere in Time' part of the 'Time Threat Paradox' scenario, the player must capture 10 particular cities on one of the maps, each one turning on a flag upon capture. What I'm wondering, is there any way of checking which flags are on or off at any point in a game - say I've got six of the cities, is there a way of identifying this other than by simply counting them off the screen map? (Sorry - was that a ramble?)

[William Keenan]

As a scenario designer I would use the checkflag with a mask and count to check how many cities the player has captured.

@IF TurnInterval
Interval=10
@AND
CheckFlag
Who=Somebody
Mask=0b00000000000000000000001111111111
Count=5
State=On
@THEN
Text
^You have captured Five cities!
^Only Five more to go.
EndText
@ENDIF

[Dracon]

okay, let's try the random .alt files shall we?

[William Keenan]

The .ALT files are not coded in ASCII (plain text). Which means there is probably some utillity program required to make/read them.

There are no special codes that I can find imbeded in the other files that would trigger the civ engine to look for these .ALT files.

[Cam]

Fear not - it works!

I did four alternate games by placing one with a freight, one with an explorer, one with a marine, and one with a dragoon in a newly created scenario. First time I opened it - the explorer was present, second time was the dragoon, third the explorer, and fourth the freight.

[Cam]

William,

Thanks for the advice on the flags - makes perfect sense. As before, if authors make 'blues' by misspelling tribe names in events, I think the possibility of flags going astray would be pretty high - what you've suggested looks like a sensible approach.

[William Keenan]

Cam ... how do you create the .ALT files to do this test???

[William Keenan]

The use of Somebody in the example above assumes that the AI is not going to be taking any key cities which may or may not work depending on the scenario.

If you misspell a tribe name in the events it gives you an error. Transposed names however are still a problem.

[techumseh]

Thanks gentlemen! Cam, your answer begs another question. Are the scenarios selected at random, or in sequence?

[Cam]

Answering the second, first, I believe they are random. In the four games I opened, two contained the explorer unit, while there only one freight, one dragoon, and no marine.

William's question - I started a game. Opened the cheat menu. Inserted a unit (dragoon) in the visible area of the Romans. Saved it as a scenario 'crud.scn'. I then deleted the first unit (dragoon) for another (marine). Saved it as 'crud2.scn'. This continued for 'crud3.scn' (exporer) and 'crud4.scn' (freight).

I then went into Windows explorer and renamed 'crud2.scn' to 'crud2.alt', and did the same with 'crud3.scn' and 'crud4.scn'.

When beginning a new scenario, the option is 'crud.scn' but it will seemingly randomly choose from the four variants.

[techumseh]

Thank you Cam! This creates exciting possibilities.