264 replies to this topic

[Kasrkin84]

Ok, I'll get those survival map markers sorted ASAP. Only a couple to do for each map, so should be simple enough, albeit quite tedious.

 

A few questions about the entries in World_Race_GeneralStats.scar though:

• Should you not also add the Dark Angels Special Characters (Azrael, Belial, Sammael) to the commander entity/squad tables?
• In the Tech#BonusSquads_Srvl entries, should only one squad be added per table, or can there be more than one?
• If more than one, will each squad added need to correspond to the respective branch of the tech tree (if that race has a branching tech tree)? If yes, don't forget that an additional entry will be needed in case the player hasn't yet chosen a tech tree branch (e.g. Tau before building one of the Command Posts).
• For the UCS references, you might as well use the line numbers from RestrictedTiering.ucs, which is currently bundled with Unification, rather than having the actual text in the Scar file (just make sure the UCS file is correct, in case any of the races' tier levels have been changed since I wrote it). Talking of which, will you be updating the Restricted Tiering win condition to refer to World_Race_GeneralStats.scar rather than have the entries in the win condition Scar file itself?

[Gambit]

Excellent.

These are REAL coder's notes

I came up with these, and what you see are the choices I made. Specifically:

 

Should you not also add the Dark Angels Special Characters (Azrael, Belial, Sammael) to the commander entity/squad tables?

I thought of that, BUT the same entries are used for:

1] The WarGear wincon.

And once you get the "hammer", all your PRIMARY commanders get HPs and Morale, nearly x2.

Belial with x2 hps...

The same for Ahriman (TD), etc.

2] The Assassinate wincon.

This will complicate things, as .. WHICH is your primary commander then?? I mean, if you have BOTH Ezekiel and the Company Master, WHICH one of the two qualifies as "the commander"???

 

For these reasons, I used ONLY the primary commanders (ALL of them, of course)
 

 

In the Tech#BonusSquads_Srvl entries, should only one squad be added per table, or can there be more than one?

Yes, MORE than one!

But for now, I use only one - need time to create more _bonus squads...

 

If more than one, will each squad added need to correspond to the respective branch of the tech tree (if that race has a branching tech tree)? If yes, don't forget that an additional entry will be needed in case the player hasn't yet chosen a tech tree branch (e.g. Tau before building one of the Command Posts).

Nope, although I thought of that....

It CAN be done of course, but needs more coding (a few lines)!

Easy coding, but more work.

We can add this perhaps in the future??? I have too much to do!

 

 

For the UCS references, you might as well use the line numbers from RestrictedTiering.ucs, which is currently bundled with Unification, rather than having the actual text in the Scar file (just make sure the UCS file is correct, in case any of the races' tier levels have been changed since I wrote it). Talking of which, will you be updating the Restricted Tiering win condition to refer to World_Race_GeneralStats.scar rather than have the entries in the win condition Scar file itself?

I thought of that as well. And these entries are for RestrictedTiering, of course!

But... Will we ever add support for more languages? It is HIGHLY unlikely now.

So I wanted to simplify things - just one less UCS file.

I CAN keep the RestrictedTiering ucs entries of course!

But it is one more addition, per added race.

I want to keep it so that you ONLY add as much as

 

Note that I re-vamped RestrictedTiering, so that it is now 100% open and needs nothing to change, once you add a new race. It was easy, since YOU coded open-ended

[Kasrkin84]

The thing with the Dark Angels characters is that I'm fairly sure you are limited to a maximum of 1 at a time (both the special characters and the generic unnamed ones), so there shouldn't be any issue with you having 2 of them at once. Since this isn't the case for the Thousand Sons and Ahriman, he shouldn't be added to this list.

 

Of course localisation for other languages is VERY unlikely at this stage, but I wouldn't want to rule it out in case someone wishes to try some day. Besides, I figured since the ucs file is already there and has pretty much all the required entries filled out it wouldn't be creating any extra work to make use of it.

 

Most survival maps have now been updated, by the way. Just the strongholds left to do, which will take a little longer as I'll also need to sort out the pathing maps for the Soulstorm ones.

Edited by Kasrkin84, 27 January 2018 - 08:31 PM.

[Gambit]

The thing with the Dark Angels characters is that I'm fairly sure you are limited to a maximum of 1 at a time (both the special characters and the generic unnamed ones), so there shouldn't be any issue with you having 2 of them at once. Since this isn't the case for the Thousand Sons and Ahriman, he shouldn't be added to this list.

Ah, so you are saying that I should use Sammael (the RW hero), Belial (the DW hero) and Azrael (the BC hero) as well, but NOT Asmodai (the BC chaplain hero) and Ezekiel (the BC librarian hero)... Yes, this WILL work. AND IT IS PROPER

I am only thinking the wargear boost.... Sammael with the WG will be a Hero Commander with nearly 10000 HPs...

Not that I have problem with that!

 

Of course localisation for other languages is VERY unlikely at this stage, but I wouldn't want to rule it out in case someone wishes to try some day. Besides, I figured since the ucs file is already there and has pretty much all the required entries filled out it wouldn't be creating any extra work to make use of it.

Yes, I thought of that, and I was a bit "divided".

See, the player will HAVE to write those UCS lines anyway... So the idea is to write them in ONE file, instead of two...

It is EASIER for me as you have it now, of course! But it seems more "organised" and neat as I have it now - yet less language-friendly. Remember that we have MORE English-only entries (including the Core UCS updates), so I think it is VERY risky to try using a different locale anyway.

I do not know... What do you think? What you say goes.

 

 

Most survival maps have now been updated, by the way. Just the strongholds left to do, which will take a little longer as I'll also need to sort out the pathing maps for the Soulstorm ones.

Updated with the proper marker enumeration???? EXCELLENT AND FAST !!

[Gambit]

- OK, added the 3 DA Hero commanders as well. They are ALL relic units, so the Wargear is OK, EVEN if they reach 10k hps! Their Relic status justifies that. (AND you are unable to field any other Relic unit anyway)

 

- AND added support for MULTIPLE tech bonus squads per Tech level, as requested! (I couldn't resist).

Now, if you populate the arrays with more _bonus squads (or with THE SAME ONE, TWICE, etc ), they will ALL spawn simultaneously as reinforcements.

Note that ALL squads come with in FULL loadout.

 

But I have not added support based on branch... This requires more work, and more _bonus squads...

 

 

 

So what remains for now are the UCS entires. Will use use locale int values (as you have it in Restricted Tiering), OR strings?

Brother K, please read my previous post on thins before answering!

Edited by Gambit, 27 January 2018 - 11:28 PM.

[Kasrkin84]

So what remains for now are the UCS entires. Will use use locale int values (as you have it in Restricted Tiering), OR strings?

Brother K, please read my previous post on thins before answering!

 

Honestly I'm torn on this one. I've always tried to keep all in-game text in ucs files rather than have it in the scar file itself, but that's probably just a personal preference. What do other people think?

[Gambit]

We share the same dilemma, then!

 

My main arguments:

1] We will NEVER make a non-English version (too many races, too many implications, the game is now played by a selected few, etc.)

2] ONE file to rule them all, is what I am trying to achieve. Well, actually FOUR, not one That is, the four World_Race_Something files.

 

But I am OK with anything!

Guys, what do you think?

 

UCS range, or simple Strings for Race Tier naming?

[Roderick]

How limited are UCS lines when considering potentially new races expansions? How much lines are necessary to be included in scar strings for each race and potentially new ones?

[Kasrkin84]

There's enough space UCS to keep us going until the end times, I wouldn't worry about that. Only thing I'd recommend is that any Scar-heavy mods (like Unification, including the Survival stuff) be kept to UCS references below 10 million where possible, as above this value sometimes Scar does some weird stuff (changing odd-numbered UCS references to the preceding even number, for some reason).

[Gambit]

The idea is to make things as "modular" as possible...

With the race entry I posted above (it is further enriched now ), win conditions like Assassinate, DestroyHQ, Wargear, NoFlyers etc, are FIXED, and you need NOT make any changes to them AT ALL.

 

To add a new race, you ONLY have to update the World_Race files, and EVERYTHING else will work fine - EVEN Survival!!!

The same is true for Restricted Tiering - you enter the proper values for your race, and the WinConditions needs NO updates.

 

This is what I mean "modular".

 

Now, Restricted Tiering has locale descriptions on Tier Names per race.

These can either appear within a "standard" UCS file (and put the ranged in the World_Race file)...

...OR, it can directly be text

 

Using text has ups (ONLY one file to change, NO other modification, no UCS additions), and downs (it will be English-only).

I am more leaning towards TEXT, for this "modular" reason.

 

After all, THERE IS NO CHANCE we have multi-language support, at this point.

 

But that is just me!

What do you think?

Edited by Gambit, 28 January 2018 - 11:16 PM.

[fuggles]

I think that it's annoying to me when it's not in English, so the contrary must apply.

[Gambit]

OK, progress report...

This is also for Unification, not only Survival of course, but here it goes anyway:

 

1] Core code made modular at 100%. As I have said, to add a race you simply have to edit the 4 World_Race files.

Note: I imported Ultramarines (of course!!), and they are now 100% supported (I have just left out the bonus Survival squads, and the survival turrets). But on the process, I noted that the World_Race_Weapons entry was NASTY! Ultramarines have like A MILLION weapons!! To that end, I updated my Macro as well. Now, adding the weapons of a new race IS ONE CLICK AWAY (most of the times...)

2] Winconditions are now modular at 99% (I have some leftovers and checks I have to make).

3] Survival support for defending players is now complete. YOU CAN CHOOSE ANY RACE! But I have to yet put all the no-limit turrets and the bonus squads in, for half of the races... STILL, the game WILL play!

4] Brother Kasrkin has sent me nearly half a dosen 3pVsAI Survival maps!! I will start adding support for MORE defending players, the next week

 

Needless to say, I code like a madman

 

REQUEST

I would love some more HARD testing on ALL winconditions, to make sure they work 100% consistently. I will upload then next Unification build, most possibly on Sunday.

Anyone interested???

[Kasrkin84]

REQUEST

I would love some more HARD testing on ALL winconditions, to make sure they work 100% consistently. I will upload then next Unification build, most possibly on Sunday.

Anyone interested???

 

I'm away this weekend, but definitely during the following week.

[Roderick]

Don't forget to make a little document on these files for future preservation or if anyone else needs to take over.

 

Are the bonus squads for strategic points holding specially composed or picked from the available ones? Which are the criteria you are following?

[Industrial_Strength]

I can't guarantee availability but I'm more than willing to do as much testing as circumstances allow. Perhaps PM me if your interested.

I may need to update some mods if I do; as I don't have the current (or any!) build of certain mods. Would vary based on what you want tested if I have the most current build. Or whichever build you want tested that is. (Assuming most current)

But the offer is out there & just PM me if your interested in having me play test anything. As I'm playing / testing Unification with Revora based mods as much as possible regardless. Be wonderful to put it to use. Help the community in anyway I can. Thanks.

[Kasrkin84]

Don't forget to make a little document on these files for future preservation or if anyone else needs to take over.

 

Are the bonus squads for strategic points holding specially composed or picked from the available ones? Which are the criteria you are following?

 

From looking at the previous build, they're composed of new squads created for this purpose (usually a duplicate of the original SBPS with the suffix "_bonus", and a few things changed like squad/vehicle cap being reduced to zero).

[Gambit]

Don't forget to make a little document on these files for future preservation or if anyone else needs to take over.

Well, I have included many remarks ("--") in the code.

If you follow the order of imports, it is easy to see what everything does.

Plus, with the modular format, some winconditions are like 1/3 of the original size!

 

Are the bonus squads for strategic points holding specially composed or picked from the available ones? Which are the criteria you are following?

As brother K said.

You simply need 5 squads, taken from the available ones, OR you can create new ones as you see fit.

I want to add the "auras" that campaign squads get, but this would mean creating new entities as well = more silly work...

(again, the leader extensions should ONLY be added if the squads have leaders, just like in Strongholds).

I have already made a small guide, on how to add them

[fuggles]

Or make the aura depend on a research which the scar completes.

[Kasrkin84]

Or make the aura depend on a research which the scar completes.

 

Would still require new entities that are set up to use the aura.

[Gambit]

... I could give the existing the ability, and then the ability to have the research as requirement