Edwin P.

In another post, HC said he was testing changing the movement of amphibious transports. I expect that if he does this (for the patch) some will complain that the range is too short.

Good post, interesting ideas. One point most often overlooked; 1. The English Channel is not that wide (ranging from 21 miles to 150 miles wide), heck, you can swim across it, cross it in an innertube, and a tunnel was built under it. Second, 2. Cut the range down too low and the Allies will find it hard to reinforce an invasion of France and it will be hard for the USA to reinforce the UK in the event of a Sea Lion if the Germans bomb the British ports. Third, 3. Historically, the importance of air supremacy applied to the planned Sealion invasion and the actual Operation Overlord. Automatic air intercepts of unloading amphibious transports by Air Fleets, Bombers, AND Carriers would reflect the importance of air supremacy.

Any chance for a global variable in a future version? i.e. a variable that could be used to link diplomatic, production, research and planning scripts.

Timskorn: I've been doing the same thing. Essentially using a production routine that triggers once a year (by having it start at a date and having another normal production script that activate a month later.) My guess is that after HC fixes the upgrade bug that this will largely disappear as the AI will spend MPPs on upgrading its units.

Step 1 - Before you try changing anything play the scenario a few times to learn what the winning strategies are and to see the weaknesses in Blue's strategy. Step 2 - Now, the first weakness you see is that Blue's research has no purpose, its totally random. They have a lot of infantry units (corps and armies) but rarely research the techs that these units use. So lets fix this first. In the SC2 Editor open the Tactics III Campaign file (the file that ends with cgn.) and then go to Campaign > Edit AI scripts. Select the Blue Standard Research Script: { #NAME= BLUE Standard Research #POPUP= #FLAG= 1 #TYPE= 2 #COUNTRY_ID= 2 #TRIGGER= 30 #LEVEL= 0 #INFANTRY= 10 [1] #HEAVY_TANKS= 10 [1] #JETS= 5 [1] #HEAVY_BOMBERS= 5 [1] #GUN_LAYING_RADAR= 5 [1] #LONG_RANGE_AIRCRAFT= 5 [1] #ADVANCED_SUBS= 5 [1] #ROCKETS= 5 [1] #ANTI_TANK= 10 [1] #MOTORIZATION= 10 [1] #ANTI_SUBMARINE= 5 [1] #ANTI_AIRCRAFT_RADAR= 5 [1] #INTELLIGENCE= 5 [1] #INFRASTRUCTURE= 5 [1] #PRODUCTION= 5 [1] #INDUSTRIAL= 5 [1] #DATE= 1940/01/01 #FRIENDLY_POSITION= 54,41 #VARIABLE_CONDITION= 2 [2] [100] [0] #TACTICAL_CONDITION= 54,41 [0] #ACTIVATE_POSITION= 0,0 [0,0] [0,0] [0] #CANCEL_POSITION= 0,0 [0,0] [1,1] [0] } There are two important areas; 1st - in the Trigger= 30, means that this will only trigger 30% of the time. 2nd - Look at the research areas. The first number after the tech type is the percentage chance the AI will research this area and the second in brackets is the maximum number of chits it will purchase in this area. Example: #INFANTRY= 10 [1] This means that the AI will research infantry techs only 10% of the time, and when it does it will only purchase 1 chit in this tech area. Since most of its land forces are infantry this is a bad strategy. Not lets change the script to so that it executes 100% of the time and it always; 100%, purchases chits in Infantry while never purchasing chits in areas such as gun laying radar and submarine warfare. { #NAME= BLUE Standard Research #POPUP= #FLAG= 1 #TYPE= 2 #COUNTRY_ID= 2 ; Trigger changed from 30 to 100, so it execute 100% of the time. #TRIGGER= 100 #LEVEL= 0 ; Infantry changed to 100 from 10 so that it purchases infantry chits (Max 2) 100% of the time if it has the money - until it has five chits in this tech area. #INFANTRY= 100 [2] #HEAVY_TANKS= 10 [1] #JETS= 0 [1] #HEAVY_BOMBERS= 0 [1] #GUN_LAYING_RADAR= 0 [1] #LONG_RANGE_AIRCRAFT= 0 [1] ; Advanced Subs reduced to zero % as there is no submarine warfare in this game. #ADVANCED_SUBS= 0 [1] #ROCKETS= 0 [1] #ANTI_TANK= 50 [2] #MOTORIZATION= 10 [1] #ANTI_SUBMARINE= 0 [1] #ANTI_AIRCRAFT_RADAR= 0 [1] ; Intelligence reduced to 0% chance #INTELLIGENCE= 0 [1] #INFRASTRUCTURE= 0 [1] #PRODUCTION= 0 [1] #INDUSTRIAL= 0 [1] #DATE= 1940/01/01 #FRIENDLY_POSITION= 54,41 #VARIABLE_CONDITION= 2 [2] [100] [0] #TACTICAL_CONDITION= 54,41 [0] #ACTIVATE_POSITION= 0,0 [0,0] [0,0] [0] #CANCEL_POSITION= 0,0 [0,0] [1,1] [0] } This simple and dramatic change to the AI focuses the AI on researching Infantry tech and gives it a good chance of reaching level 5 infantry. Note: After you change the AI script, save it (file > save) and then press the update button before pressing the ok button and returning to the main map and exiting the SC2 Editor.

The more sides a fortification covers the longer it costs to build.

The best way to learn AI scripting is to start simple, and Bill Macon's Tactics III Mod - available at cmmods.com - is a great place to start. The map is small, the units few and rebuilding the AI scripts takes no time at all, compared to the standard SC2 1939 campaign scripts. A perfect learning tool for those wanting to Mod SC2. The Challenge: Build the best AI for Blue that you can and post your development notes here.

13. Trigger if MPPs in Bank > XXX In playing several games I have come across cases where the AI has 1000+ MPPs in the bank. It would be helpful if the AI could have a parameter that would trigger a script if the bank balance exceeded a specifed amount. Example: #Bank= 0 (default) Example: Normal Script - Builds 1 of each unit type: #Trigger=100 #Bank= 0 #Infantry= 20 [1] #Army= 15 [1] Bank Script for excessive cash - build lots of units, if AI has accumulated an excessive amount of MPPs: #Trigger= 100 #Bank= 1000 #Infantry= 100 [10] #Army= 100[5]

I would change this to: Naval Patrol - Intercepts Amphibious Transports in Range. Thus it would ignore other naval vessals - such as subs, cruisers, carrier fleets and normal transports. I would also allow bombers to perform the same function.

I am asking because I tried to execute a script, that continously sent USA units to the UK one a turn, and they all offloaded at St. John's, until every tile was covered! My guess is that this happended because they each had the same plan ID and same goal position.

I agree, a surrender button would be a nice option.

If you have a repeating sea transport with size=1 does the existing sea transport (if still in transist) cancel and unload at the nearest port (Halifax for example) each time a new one activates at the origin point (New York for example)?

Looking good. How will you handle the comparitively large number of Argentine conscripts vs the comparatively few number of highly trained British troops? In my view the key for Argentina is sinking the British transports before they can land. A big problem for them was UK access to USA and UK satellite photos which they lacked.

Thanks HC. I will test this to see what happens.

My script for the UK to conquer Iraq and Iran worked fine. Then when the UK forces advanced into the Caucaus mountains, the corps, army and armor afely advanced through the mountains on the way to liberate Stalingrad the AI controlled UK HQ got stuck in the mountains valley next to the Southern Russian river. In this case the HQ should have waited for a Russian (now UK controlled City) to reach supply 5 and then operated to it. Any ideas on how to prevent this problem in the future?

I would like to see a Condition parameter added to the unit script. Why? So I can have units from the USA appear in Egypt, but only if the USA is active and at war with the Axis.

Excellent point. Also, after you update the AI/Events can you exit the editor without saving as long as the only changes you made were to the AI or Events. I assume you can as the AI scripts will have been updated, but I always save when exiting just to be sure.

In Sc1 partisans popped up in the Caucaus mountains, in SC2 they don't. I was wondering what was the reasoning behind this change? Of course, I modified this (via the Cool Editor in my game) but I wonder why they were dropped in SC2.

Many thanks for the clarification.

Reduced amphibious transport range. Interesting. They will be at sea longer and bomber units will have a chance to spot them before they can land, and the longer they are at sea the weaker they become. So the Allies will still be able to launch a Torch operation to North Africa from the UK or USA, but the Axis can spot them before the invasion if they have a bomber at Casablanca. Correct?

My German subs got stuck in ice off the coast of Greenland in Sc2, that's far worse than a measly point of damage.

I like bombers as they are, but would allow them to auto intercept amphibious units.

"If Rockets are not used for attack in your own turn, they should have the ability for defensive fire. Heck maybe they should have it for both! Perhaps you could attach them to a certain unit like HQs for defensive fire, like IRL fields of fire were preliminarily targeted." Good idea. Attach a rocket to a unit within range, makes sense. That unit's defense (Soft Defense or Armor Defense) is boosted during the first attack. A 0-2 attack result might become a 7-0 attack result. Of course, the attacker would not know it until he attacked, as the effect of supporting artillery would not be shown in the pre-battle forcast of friendly and enemy losses. Rocket Tech Suggestions Summary: 1. Shore Batteries in Cities 2. Artillery support to attached unit 3. Auto Attack on Amphibious Transports that unload in range. [ May 02, 2006, 06:56 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

You are correct, if Berlin or Munich is threatened the other garrison scripts should cancel. Which means, I should probably go in and adjust the cancel conditions for all Allied and Russian Scripts. Question - a number of scripts check for an Axis unit at a specified range 3,3. Shouldn't they be checking for Axis units within a range 1,3?

Yes I did, I will try it with a lower number, while I patiently wait for HC's notes on AI scripting.