How do Core Unit Files work?

[76mm]

Hi, I did a search on this topic but didn't find anything on this forum.  A google search turned up a few threads from here and there but nothing very helpful.  Of course, I've also RTFM.

I don't really understand how Core Unit Files work; I get the concept, but not the details.  For instance:

1)  From what I can see, Core Unit Files only save unit losses, etc., within a campaign.  If you just load one into a scenario, play the scenario, and then load the Core Units into another scenario, the losses, etc. do not seem to be carried over.  Is that correct or am I doing something wrong?

2)  Assuming that Core Unit Files only work within compiled campaigns, I don't understand the concept of "synchronizing" Core Unit Files with existing campaign battles as described in the manual.  It sounds like all that "synchronizing" does is change the actual core units, but in doing so you lose all of the casualties, experience levels, and other customizations, etc.--is that correct?

3)  Is there any way to bring the Core Unit File from the end of a campaign into a new scenario, either outside of the campaign, or added to the campaign later?  For example, what happens if you just add another scenario to the campaign script and recompile?  I'm guessing that you would lose all of the campaign results when you recompile the campaign, but wanted to check to see if anyone has tried this.

[A Canadian Cat]

4 hours ago, 76mm said:

Hi, I did a search on this topic but didn't find anything on this forum.  A google search turned up a few threads from here and there but nothing very helpful.  Of course, I've also RTFM.

I don't really understand how Core Unit Files work; I get the concept, but not the details.  For instance:

1)  From what I can see, Core Unit Files only save unit losses, etc., within a campaign.  If you just load one into a scenario, play the scenario, and then load the Core Units into another scenario, the losses, etc. do not seem to be carried over.  Is that correct or am I doing something wrong?

Core units preserving casualties only works within a compiled campaign. You can load units from one scenario into another scenario but all that is doing is creating a copy of those units in the new scenario. Separate scenarios remain separate.

 

4 hours ago, 76mm said:

2)  Assuming that Core Unit Files only work within compiled campaigns, I don't understand the concept of "synchronizing" Core Unit Files with existing campaign battles as described in the manual.  It sounds like all that "synchronizing" does is change the actual core units, but in doing so you lose all of the casualties, experience levels, and other customizations, etc.--is that correct?

Not sure what you mean there. Casualties are only tacked during the pay of a campaign. Customization of experience levels or deletion of sub units would be discarded after synchronizing.

 

4 hours ago, 76mm said:

3)  Is there any way to bring the Core Unit File from the end of a campaign into a new scenario, either outside of the campaign, or added to the campaign later?

No.

4 hours ago, 76mm said:

 For example, what happens if you just add another scenario to the campaign script and recompile?  I'm guessing that you would lose all of the campaign results when you recompile the campaign, but wanted to check to see if anyone has tried this.

Not sure what you mean there at all. If you add another scenario then your campaign is now one battle bigger. I do not know what you mean by loosing results if you recompiled it because your casualties and results are tracked as you are playing an already compiled campaign.

[76mm]

Thanks, everything more or less clear, with one exception:  this "synchronizing" thing--I don't understand what it is, or when/why it is done.  In the manual, it says:

"After a unit appears in the Activated Units column it can be manipulated,
such as having a unit’s Experience changed or deleting a formation so it isn’t
available, just like in a normal scenario. These changes can be undone or redone
as often as desired. However, these changes are not automatically incorporated
into existing battles for the Campaign. To have such changes registered each
existing scenario file must be “synchronized” with the Core Units File in order to
bring those changes into existing battles (see below).

and then:

"From time to time changes may be made to the Core Units File that require synchronization
with existing Campaign battles. This is generally an extremely easy and
painless thing to do. Just open up the scenario file and Import Campaign Units
again. Core Units already in the scenario retain almost all of their customization,
such as placement, Group assignments, Orders, etc. Therefore, synchronizing
with the Core Units File does not wipe out hard work! What it does do is remove
units no longer in the Core Units File, imports newly added units, and updates attributes
(such as names, experience, etc.). The latter is probably the only potential
drawback of synchronizing since customized settings like that must be redone."

What does the bold wording above mean?  And the italicized wording?  Is it saying that while you are creating a scenario, before compiling, you can change the Core Unit File?  The first paragraph seems to imply that changes to experience will be synchronized, and the second paragraph seems to imply that they won't be synchronized...  What does "synchronizing" actually do?

[A Canadian Cat]

39 minutes ago, 76mm said:

Thanks, everything more or less clear, with one exception:  this "synchronizing" thing--I don't understand what it is, or when/why it is done.  In the manual, it says:

"After a unit appears in the Activated Units column it can be manipulated,
such as having a unit’s Experience changed or deleting a formation so it isn’t
available, just like in a normal scenario. These changes can be undone or redone
as often as desired. However, these changes are not automatically incorporated
into existing battles for the Campaign. To have such changes registered each
existing scenario file must be “synchronized” with the Core Units File in order to
bring those changes into existing battles (see below).

For the sake of argument lets say you have a three battle campaign and you also have a fourth scenario file that holds your core units. As you create your three battles you start by importing the core units to each. Then you remove a portion of the formation for some of the battles and then as you are creating the third battle you decide you want to reduce the experience of a platoon. You are free to do so. But that means the platoon in the third battle will have less experience than the same platoon in the first battle. Instead what you can (should ?) do is open the core units scenario file and tweak the experience down for that platoon. Then synchronize the core units into all three battles so they all have the same soft factors.

 

39 minutes ago, 76mm said:

and then:

"From time to time changes may be made to the Core Units File that require synchronization
with existing Campaign battles. This is generally an extremely easy and
painless thing to do. Just open up the scenario file and Import Campaign Units
again. Core Units already in the scenario retain almost all of their customization,
such as placement, Group assignments, Orders, etc. Therefore, synchronizing
with the Core Units File does not wipe out hard work! What it does do is remove
units no longer in the Core Units File, imports newly added units, and updates attributes
(such as names, experience, etc.). The latter is probably the only potential
drawback of synchronizing since customized settings like that must be redone."

What does the bold wording above mean?  

Just that you can synchronize the core units with your campaign battles if you make changes (the above example would be one reason).

39 minutes ago, 76mm said:

And the italicized wording?  Is it saying that while you are creating a scenario, before compiling, you can change the Core Unit File?

All of this is before compiling yes (mind you you can compile the cam file more than once to test - you just get the campaign settings as they are at the moment of compiling). You have to change the core unit file and then synchronize that change to all the campaign scenarios that use core units by re importing the core unit file.

39 minutes ago, 76mm said:

 The first paragraph seems to imply that changes to experience will be synchronized, and the second paragraph seems to imply that they won't be synchronized...  What does "synchronizing" actually do?

The changes that will be synchronized and updated in your scenario are the formation's structure (added units will appear, removed ones will disappear) and the soft factors (experience, motivation etc will be changed to match the core units file). What will not change is the AI group they are assigned to and all the other things in italics will not be changed. This allows you to change the character and the contents of the core units without loosing your AI planning, setup etc.

[76mm]

Thanks, very helpful; I really couldn't understand the wording in the manual, in fact I interpreted the last bullet point in 180^ the wrong way.