Oudy

I think that the scripting code is fairly robust, but I hope that Battlefront and 1C will be responsive to mission builders requests to expand the scripting commands. I know this was done with Il-2 and hope that it will be the same with TOW. Oudy

Destraex You have to program where to move and attack with all of the units. Once they engage the enemy then the computer figures out who to attack and will advance to the objective. But without any orders the enemy troops will sit at their starting locations. You can combine units into larger groups so you don't actually have to tell each unit where to go, but you can if you like. Sorry, I've never done any flashpoint, CC or CM missions, only ones for Il-2. Oudy

SlapHappy Just for your info, there is a built-in syntax compiler in the trigger window. It will highlight any syntax errors. Oudy

SlapHappy It doesn't matter in which order you create them. I just tested it with a scenario I'm playing with. All the best Oudy

Let me take a shot at this. If I understand you correctly, you want to be able to place your units in specific locations and have a setup area. When you place enemy or allied units, in the editor they appear in the same place in the game, but you have to use placeholders to place your troops in their initial locations. All reinforcements will appear wherever you place them in the editor. To make your initial troop dispositions you have to use placeholders. In the Mission Tree there is a section called ArmyComposition. Under this section there are three others named -- Outdated, Permission, and Placeholders. If you want to place an infantry detachment, right-click on Placeholders and click on "Add Detachment Placeholder" You can rename it to the infantry detachment placeholder you want to use, or else, I believe, it will use the first infantry detachment on your Deployment list. You must do this for all of the units that will be present at the beginning of the scenario. Secondly, if you want to create a setup sector for your troops, you must draw a rectangle around the area, then in the triggers tab, double click "init" enter the command: ActivateDispositionMode ( "Ac_Rect_1" ) Where "Ac_Rect_1" is the name of your rectangle. You can include more than one Rectangle as follows: ActivateDispositionMode ( "Ac_Rect_1" , "Ac_Rect_2" ) Hopefully, that answers your questions. Oudy

Normal Dude I don't believe unit costs can be changed in the Mission Editor. You might be able to alter it directly within the .xml files, but I'm not sure what the impact of doing that might be. Oudy

Maybe the aliens got them I have a couple of other questions about distributing user made campaigns. 1. What is going to be the easiest way to do this? When I add a new battle I have to go into the campaign editor to make sure the "Number" and "Sid" are unique. 2. What is going to happen when there are hundreds of user made battles? Is there an easy way to add new battles and campaigns, or will users have to manually do it? 3. When you zip up your battle for distribution, what files need to be included? I assume the whole directory needs to be included? Thanks again Oudy

Hmm, regarding question two. I create the artillery piece, crew it and give it ammunition. Then I create the towing vehicle, in this case a Zis-5. I can see the crew ID under the artillery, but when I attach the artillery to the truck the crew tag disappears from the mission tree. When I then wake up the unit and detach the gun in the game there is no crew, even after writing down the crew ID and trying to wake it up. Consequently, the only way I could get a crew is to manually create another infantry detachment, eliminate 6 of the men and put that 4-man detachment into the truck...But I would still don't know what happened to the original crew in the Mission tree? I'm probably just missing something obvious. All the best Oudy

Thank you both for your quick answers. I've enjoyed reading the scripting triggers for the battles. Very interesting stuff. Oudy

I have a couple of questions/observations about the Mission Editor. 1. Can a player begin a mission with a gun limbered to a truck and the gun crew inside the truck? If so, how? 2. The only way I've found to begin a mission with guns limbered is to start with them asleep, attach them in the mission tree then activate them with ReinforcementLand command. The problem is that the gun crews disappear and I have to make a new infantry detachment to crew the guns. Why is this? 3. Then, when I make a new gun crew, even if I make one of the men the gunner, he still doesn't get gunnery skills when they are created. So, I have to manually gave him gunnery skills. But... 4. In the mission tree, the skill level of all the units is -1. I assume if it is -1 the game will randomly create skill points. What happens when I manually assign skill points. Do they keep them and will they skill up automatically if they survive or will they always keep their original sill level? 5. In the game you can attach a Russian Heavy Machine gun (either one) to a GAZ-67 Jeep, but you cannot attach them in the mission tree. Is it possible, or do you have to manually attach it in the game? I would appreciate any clarification to these issues, and I'm looking forward to the Map Editor. Thanks Oudy

Good ideas nomanhan I know that there are some horseshoe shaped defensive positions for artillery but I don't know how much protection or concealment they provide. On the issue of detaching guns, I agree wholeheartedly. You need to be able to detach guns when the truck has been hit. If there is a way to do it, I would love to know. Oudy

I'm kind of waiting until the map editor comes out as well. Until then I'm learning the mission editor and getting my historical facts together. Oudy

The following is just some random musing about the game and campaigns. I think that one of the misconceptions about TOW, a misconception that has led to a number of people to feel let down is the scale of the game. This game is not designed for strategic or even grand tactical combat; it is essentially a platoon oriented tactical game. If you want larger maps with massive armies slugging it out, then TOW will disappoint. But if you want to simulate smaller scale engagements the game shines. First of all, it's important to remember that this is a 3D not 2D game. Consequently, it eats processor speed and video cards for lunch. the maps that come with the game are 2K x 2K but in most of the scenarios, the playable area is a bit smaller. Trying to load and play on a map much larger would bring even cutting edge machines to their knees. A large map with large numbers of troops would be unplayable. So, we have to keep these parameters in mind when designing campaigns. I believe the game engine can reasonably handle a platoon size force. I’ll use a German infantry platoon as an example. To generalize, a German infantry platoon contained 4 infantry squads, a light mortar section, and an HQ unit totaling 50 men. Even at platoon strength it is going to be difficult to micro-manage all of the men individually. Add to that tanks, SPGs, artillery and I think it's fair to say that platoon-sized battles are reaching the limit of what can reasonably be managed by you and handled by your PC. This leads to the issue of maps and map sizes. The battles we are able to simulate are but small parts of much larger battles. There are other platoons, companies and battalions on both sides of us. Heavy mortars and artillery are a good ways behind the front line, which is certainly why they aren't represented with models in the game. We are left to imagine how the larger battle is faring. The only thing we can be concerned about is the enemy force in front of us. Larger maps wouldn't necessarily allow us to simulate a whole battle. Scenario designers need to keep this in mind when designing campaigns. Here I'm going to say something that a lot of purists might think blasphemous. TOW includes a fairly wide variety of maps spanning from France to the Soviet Union. Once we get the map editor and can move static objects, it really doesn't matter what map you use to simulate your battle. Find a map with the topography that fits the tactical situation you want to model; it doesn't matter whether you use the St. Lo map to simulate a battle on the Eastern front. You will be able to draw your own picture on the blank map. You can still maintain historical OOBs even if the map isn't historic. Who’s to say that a map from a part of France wouldn't fit a 2k x 2k section of terrain in Russia? However, I would like to see a greater variety of maps created with interesting topographical features. Ultimately, the best campaigns will be tied together with a good historical story, so you feel that you are participating in a larger campaign. Once we get the map editor, I think that we’ll have the tools to create campaigns limited only by our imaginations. Please remember that these are just preliminary observations, but I'm excited for the future. All the best Oudy

Fingers crossed for the map editor. I've been playing with the mission editor and once the map editor gets added I think there will be a lot of user added campaigns. Oudy

DeLaVega If that is your first effort, I can hardly wait to see what you come up with once you have a little more practice. I bet they'll be absolutely stunning. Oudy

Hobo is absolutely right. In this battle the Germans know exactly where the Polish units are because they are scripted to know. There is a trigger called ConstantAttack that draws a small 50x50 rectangle around your units and orders the Germans to storm. Tanks will storm your greatest concentration of tanks and the same for infantry. Just because they attack in the direction of your troops, however, they use regular LOS rules; ie they don't automatically see you and fire unless they have LOS. I imagine it is coded this way to prevent German troops from wandering aimlessly around the map. You can still hide units from the enemy if you have a small group doing a flanking movement since the Germans are scripted to attack your main force. Consequently, this is not a case of "all-knowing" AI, but it is the way this particular encounter is scripted. Hope that helps Oudy