Gambit

...By the way there is A DIFFERENT method with NO new entities, and no SCaR/researches:
I make a new entry in the event manager ext of each entity with the desired aura event.
Then, I have it enabled with the Squad Modifier extension, set on the BONUS squad.
Easy, and NOTHING involved.

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???

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?

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 !!

If changing the map markers in any way would help this process, just let me know. If it would help in the long-term I'd consider it a wise investment.

If you have the time, this would simplify things!

But although very helpful, it is not mandatory, so it's your call

The only change of course is for those markers that lack enumeration, like the mk_enemy_player_one.

No need for any other change!!

(non-coders, please read the LAST line of this post - > Bottomline)

SURVIVAL UPDATE (well, only Survival update, Unification as well)

Code, re-re-updated. Many winconditions (all Survival ones) updated as well.

The idea is to modify ONLY FOUR FILES, on adding a new race.

These files are the world_race ones, with the entities, squads and weapons you already know (no modification there), plus a NEW one called: World_Race_GeneralStats.scar

Each entry in this file has the following form (Dark Angels example):

    darkangels_race =
    {
        HQ = {"darkangels_hq"},
        LP = {"darkangels_listening_post"},
        Turret = {},
        Turret_Srvl = {"darkangels_turret_bolter_no_limit", "darkangels_turret_missiles_no_limit"},
        Mine = {},
        Mine_Srvl = {"darkangels_mine_field"},
        CommanderEntity = {"da_grand_master","da_master_ravenwing_bike","da_master_deathwing"},
        CommanderSquad = {"da_squad_grand_master","da_squad_master_ravenwing_bike","da_squad_deathwing_master"},
        Tier2 = {"ADDON", "darkangels_hq_addon_1"},
        Tier3 = {"RSRCH", "darkangels_chapter_research","darkangels_deathwing_research","darkangels_ravenwing_research"},
        Tier4 = {"RSRCH", "darkangels_heavy_armour_deployment","darkangels_deathwing_deployment","darkangels_heavy_armour_deployment_ravenwing" },
        Tech1BonusSquads_Srvl = {"da_squad_scout_bonus"},
        Tech2BonusSquads_Srvl = {"da_squad_tactical_bonus"},
        Tech3BonusSquads_Srvl = {"da_squad_dreadnought_bonus"},
        Tech4BonusSquads_Srvl = {"da_squad_predator_bonus"},
        Tech4BonusUberSquads_Srvl = {"da_squad_company_land_raider_ares_bonus"},
        HQucs = "Fortress of the Rock",
        Tier2ucs = "Reliquary Fortress",
        Tier3ucs = "Battle Company / Deathwing / Ravenwing",
        Tier3ucs = "Gothica Dominus"
    },

So, you put the race you want to add (not only in Survival!!), and the specifics.

For more details, see here on the generic format and help:

    YOUR_race =
    {
        HQ = {""},            -- Put here ALL the HQs types of the race (usually one, TyrSwr is an exception)
        LP = {""},            -- Put here ALL the LPs types of the race (usually one, AdMech is an exception)
        Turret = {""},        -- Put here ALL the types of standard turrets (usually 1) of the race. Use {}, if none!
        Turret_Srvl = {""},    -- Put here ALL the types of SURVIVAL (no-limit) turrets of the race. ALL RACES must have one!!!
        Mine = {""},        -- Put here ALL the types of standard mine-like entities (usually 1) of the race. Use {}, if none!
        Mine_Srvl = {""},    -- Put here ALL the types of SURVIVAL mine-like entities (usually 1) of the race. Use {}, if none!
        CommanderEntity = {""},        -- Put here ALL the PRIMARY commander entities, once
        CommanderSquad = {""},        -- Put here ALL the PRIMARY commander squads, once
        Tier2 = {"ADDON", ""},        -- There are 3 types of Tier Types: BLDNG, RSRCH, and ADDON.
        Tier3 = {"ADDON", ""},        -- After these types, add as many entries as you need.
        Tier4 = {"RSRCH", ""},        -- If ANY of those is true (or), that tech level is unlocked.
        Tech1BonusSquads_Srvl = {""},        -- Survival Tech 1 bonus squads
        Tech2BonusSquads_Srvl = {""},        -- Survival Tech 2 bonus squads
        Tech3BonusSquads_Srvl = {""},        -- Survival Tech 3 bonus squads
        Tech4BonusSquads_Srvl = {""},        -- Survival Tech 4 bonus squads
        Tech4BonusUberSquads_Srvl = {""},    -- Survival Tech 4 uber/relic bonus squads (better be only one)
        HQucs = "",            -- These are the ENGLISH locale entries, the
        Tier2ucs = "",        -- names of each of the four tiers
        Tier3ucs = "",        -- (buildings, researches or addons)
        Tier3ucs = ""        -- of each race.
    }

The idea is, when adding these, your race to have the maximu compatibility with the system and most (hopefully all...) Win Conditions.

NEEDLESS to say, I modified MANY scar thingies in scarutil!

As for Survival, the NEW races I have added thus far (besides the 9+4), are: Dark Angels, Thousand Sons and Tyranid Swarm.

So we are half way there (16 races supported) - there are nearly the same more to go!

The problem is that you MUST add the specifics for survival.

Which means you need to also do some AE...:

Turret Import (add "_no_limit" suffix)
1] Can be built anywhere.
2] No CAP requirements. (But KEEP army/structure requirements)
3] Adjust cost in accordance with the race's specifics.
4] UCS + UI positioning + Last UCS line + icon + model proper import.
5] Smaller no_build_buffer (usually, 1->0 or 2->1)
6] If there is NO free building UI slot, then you must use AdvMenu, and a FreeUI small update!

Squad Import (choose 5 squads, add "_bonus" suffix)
1] No Squad CAP cost (veh, inf or otehrwise).
2] No requirements at all (delete the extension)
3] Optionally, modify the max loadout of each squad, if you want (they always start with max, so min has no effect)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am coding many days str8, so I need to relax a bit - adding new races will have to wait.

And you do NOT want to see my to-do list.

My tests so far are FLAWLESS and neat, but again I must be 100% that everything works PERFECTLY.

Then, I will deal with the >2 players, survival maps!

This, will be ready by the next week's end.

----------------------------------------------------------

Bottomline: I will have a NEW Unification build for you to test in about 2 weeks . It will be including: More survival races, Updated SCaR environment and more defending players Survival support! (for now we have ONE 3p vs AI map made by brother Kasrkin, so you will try that).

Indeed!

Nice idea. The SCaR player can do whatever we want anyway, so yeah

For now, let me finish with the make-any-race-available as players (the modular approach).

I broke the code, and I was about to sleep and fix it tomorrow, but...

... I could not sleep!!! (I have never withdraw from a coding challenge).

So, I fixed it JUST NOW (3:25am here, took me 4 hours!!!)

Sounds like something that would be better off as "mk_enemy_player_1", "mk_enemy_player_2", "mk_enemy_player_3", etc. rather than the way it is now. Would certainly make it much easier to expand the code for more players. What do you think?

You will have to modify ALL maps!!!

If you are up to it, then why not

I see this causing some problems actually - this AI-controlled attacker would likely capture all of the strategic points/relics around the main attacker's base, rendering them much more vulnerable when the player launches their counterattack at the end of the game.

Ah...

Regardless, we can do something about that, at the appointed time.

...But this is FAR form where I am now.

I tried to make EVERYTHING modular, and ... I broke the code even more !!!  

Will have it all fixed by tomorrow of course but I HATE having something not working - even for a night...

What about the "mk_enemy_player_one" and "mk_enemy_player_two" markers? Will you want a "_three" version as well, or is that something else?

Set it "_three", and I will take care of it!

Are Coop AIs well handled once the player races have been expanded? I mean, is any special requirement for defensive AIs in comparison to the human player? I think all races need to have a special squad turret unlimited and a special squad about reinforcements which I assume you're putting in the attrib/race folders in the unification mod.

Non-Human players get STANDARD defences (not survival ones), because I cannot make the AI build multiple turrets (TOO comples, plus there is no way to pass SCaR variables to the AI)...

Bottomline, AI defenders, play as NORMAL skirmish players.

Otherwise the complexity would beimmense! (it already is, and trying to add the modular turrets, I BROKE it altogether )

For what I read, only the (main) attacker AI is scripted. How does the assistant attacker AI work? Is it only headed to annihilation wincon instead of going to capturing OPs?

Wait, there is no assistant attacker thus far!

If I do it, yeah, this player will be a standard AI skirmish player - like the defender AI.

ALL IN ALL:

- ONLY the Human player enjoys Survival benefits.

- Defending AI players are normal players. No AI modifications.

- The Attacking AI has special treatment of course.

- If we ever add a 2nd attacking AI, it will be a normal player, as all defending AIs

@Brother Kekoulis: ... (I like the way Slaanesh approves!)

No problem. Same markers as before, except with "mk_P3_pos" and "mk_bonus_P3", I'm assuming?

Yes!!! Just like the other maps, with  the proper marker indexing, just as you said (1,2, and now 3 as well).

By the way, please add all the markers we have for player 3 as well, so that to add turrets, get reinforcements, etc!

No need to hurry, I am still perfecting the open-player-race approach, I guess I will have finished by week's end.

Seems excellent so far!

OK, I am a real "geek"...   I am coding 2 days str8, but I am done!!!

Everything works OK so far.

Importing a new player race is quite modular, but you will need the new turret and the 5 new reinforcements squads.

First new race to import was Dark Angels.

Import time... 1 hour

Anyway, my first test was flawless!

Question1: I will perfect it, and import one more race for now. Any suggestions???

Question2

I think that Survival is up to ONE more Defending player. That is, 3p vs enemy attacking AI.

I am planning to make the code support up to (theoretically) 7 defending players, of course, but 4 human players will be TOO much!

Brother Kasrkin, can you create a map with 3 players + 1 Enemy, and add the appropriate markers???

If I am to update it, I WILL need one such map!!!!

Question3

Here is an alternative, for adding FOUR Defending players: We use the 3p scheme, BUT:

1] Add one more normal ENEMY AI player, assisting the TRUE enemy player. This way, the 4 defending players will be facing 2 opponents, one "normal" AI and the "survival" attacker.

2] The survival attacker will be sending THREE waves (not 4), so 1 (random) player will NOT be attacked per turn, and will have more time to assist his friends or strengthen his defences.

What say you?

OK, so this whole time, I am recoding

But things got... Messy. I started updating (as opposed to re-writing) the code.

And thus, there are additions upon additions upon additions (no from scratch designing).

Everything will be operational and MUCH more consistent and fast.

But if anyone else (other than me) ever ties to update it... OUCH!

To be honest, even I am looking at parts of the code I have written in the past, and need some time to understand what the hell I was doing!

Anyway, it is UNLIKELY someone else to take over the coding at this pint, so we are OK.

PROGRESS

I have updated the core survival + 3 (of the five) wincons.

Once everything is ready, I will start adding more PLAYER races.

It is now easy to add a race. You only need to follow the format, and enter the proper stats (HQ name, Tiers, Commanders names...).

Will be done by the end of the week, then testing, then addin' races!

Well, first let me say that even adding a new player race is MUCH!!!

There are so many instances, that it is practically ... silly.

I was under the impression that it would be a week's job - it is more.

And given the chance, I will definitely recode many parts

Brother Kekoulis, there is no need or your new build, in the case of EC being a player race.

But at some point (in the future...), I will add support for more Enemy AI attacking races, and then I WILL need it !

Were the extra four enemy races added by Argonaut?

I do not know, I suppose so.

As it is now, there are MANY parts to consider, when adding races, so I guess YES, the 4 races were part of the initial coding.

Just please try to improve your use of English as well.

You will BOTH get better in a language AND have a work fully written in the published language - as it should. No translations!

Two, in the price of one

but, but, but, but, and, and, and, and. what, what.what, was, was, was, was, there, there, there, there?

Brother, I have to remind you that English is not the language this work is written upon...!

Translation (especially when not made by a pro) always steals much of the beauty of the original.

... Agreed, though. There is much repetition.

Alex, we have spoken about that in the past - language IS a barrier

How about trying to write ... DIRECTLY in English?

I know it is not your native language. But can you please try?

OK, problem 100% resolved with Tyranids. I informed brother Miros on this.

The new version will have NO issue and will cause NO range overlaps.

Thud, the old version will SOON be obsolete (the new is on the way!), so you may remove the Tyranids conflict from the 1st post.