Identifying the triggers for the paradrop and engineer messages

[hardjoy]

Which are the triggers for the messages that appear for the paratrooper message 'you can now use the "p" order' etc.? -is it the tech CA (Combined Arms) or the unit in the paratrooper slot becoming avaliable? I was under the impression that it was the prior, but now I'm not sure. Same goes for the engineer/transform message.

Maybe my problem lies in another place. Will techs given by events trigger the same messages? My hunch tells me it isn't so... in which case I will need to do a little workaround to fix my idea in place...

Anyone knows something about these effects?

[Henrik]

Paratrooper message goes with the paratrooper unit, not the tech. I think the same goes for the engineer but I am not sure of that one.

Events won't trigger these messages

[hardjoy]

Thx, Henrik -Got a little inspired from your tip the other day... but it seems I ran into a little trouble. Wanted the beheading of Mary queen of scots be put on display, when the english discover and kill their first scottish assassin... -which then cancels the effect of elizabethan diplomacy...

Thought that was a neat way to cancel their wonder i.e. let the english have some control with when the wonder is obsoleted, making the game more diplomatically interesting as the english. As long as they can survive without killing scottish assassins, they get to keep the wonder. And in theory it works very dramatically, with mary's cut off head put on display

But for the last to work, apparently I need a little workaround...

[hardjoy]

Managed to find a reasonable solution, setting the english research project to 'catholic plots' from the beginning of the scenario. Looks neat doesn't it?

There is one minor drawback, though. The 'Mary' unit appears in the civilopedia, even though obsoleted and unbuildable... which is kind of corny.

[DarthVeda]

uh? It appears in the civilopedia if it's pre-requesites are "no"?

wth?

by the way that's very cool...

[hardjoy]

The unit can't have preq's of no, since it is the availability of the unit that triggers the message, apparently (the paratropper slot). In this case I have the english research Catholic Plots, which enables the Mary of Scots unit (para slot), while they and all other civs have a tech that obsoletes that same unit.

As Henrik said, the message won't appear if the tech is given by events. Not sure if the message appears, if one trades to the tech... gonna look into that - if Catholic Plots can be a no,no tech while researched and still trigger the message, I have no problem, since I can make it exclusive to the english then. And I'm not sure if the unit will appear in the pedia then. Anyway, the last is a minor problem, even though it does spoil the surprise dramatic element a little bit.

[Silpy]

I know this is a tad off topic, but this is the nearest one.
Firstly, the Settler/Engineer go with the unit, not the slot. This applies for any unit that you define the 'role' with a number 0-6 (or is it 0-7?)
But the Paritsan slot will allways be produced like Partisans.
Well, on a sen. I am making, I have created a Tactical Nuke. It flies like a Nuke, makes the Nuke explosion and is shot down by the SDI defence, and the AI know they are nukes. But, your opponents do not reconise it as one! A bit of a problem. Ive looked in Rules.txt to sort it out, but there seems to be no tag telling the AI it is a true nuke unless it is in the Nuke space, which is in use.
(By the bigger nuke) Any suggestions?

PS. If you put 'no' you can still use events.txt to create them, or simply start out with it. But I did not gather the role for said unit. The AI do not understand how to use said unit.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by Silpy

Firstly, the Settler/Engineer go with the unit, not the slot. This applies for any unit that you define the 'role' with a number 0-6 (or is it 0-7?)

Yes and no: the role will allow to create a settler like unit; but if you want to create an engineer (i.e. a faster working settler), then you need to use the engineer slot for a settler-role unit!

[Silpy]

Ah.

But any ideas about my nuke?

[Panda]

Well, if the unit is in the original nuclear missile slot, then you have the "our words are backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS" in the diplomacy screen, but that's the only thing I can think of atm.

Sorry, I'm not too sure what you mean by "true" nuke. Either a unit has an attack value of 99 and explodes like a nuclear unit, or it isn't one.

[hardjoy]

A note on the paratrooper and transform messages : works best when used for very civspecific events, since they are exclusive to the player-controlled civ that triggers them. The above message, for example, needs to be followed up with an event like "News of Mary's death reaches Spain" or something similar, which will then appear on the subsequent turn. So while they send a powerful message, if used for specific events, these need to be civspecific.

[Silpy]

OK.
When I mean 'true nuke' I mean a nuke that is reconised by the AI when using and on diplomacy screen. It currently occupies a extra slot. I wanted this 'mini-nuke' (abit like IRBM's) to be in Rocketry, and the Normal Nuke to be later (Computers, perhaps?) My problem is that even if I switch their places, you will get the AI lobbing the nukes around like Cruse missiles. Have I found a limit to what Civ II Unit creation can do?