Jump to content

ncc1701e

Members
  • Posts

    669
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    12

Reputation Activity

  1. Upvote
    ncc1701e got a reaction from A Canadian Cat in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Sure, that's the plan.
  2. Upvote
    ncc1701e got a reaction from A Canadian Cat in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Activation of Trigger Blue 1:
    Friendly units are crossing Trigger Blue 1 so activates it.

    As such, the mortar teams are changing their target from Target 1 to Target 2.


    One last shell however falls on Target 1 giving some good results.

    Units of group 3 advance and perform area fire on Target 1 when possible i.e. when no other targets are detected.




    I am launching a small counter attack to divert the units of group 3.

  3. Upvote
    ncc1701e got a reaction from A Canadian Cat in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Alea jacta est. We need to play test the AI now. We will select the Red side to show what the Blue AI is doing.

    Be sure to select the "Scenario Author Test" option to see what is going on.

    To be continued...
  4. Like
    ncc1701e got a reaction from Falaise in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Orders for AI group number 2:
    This group represents the infantry squads that are inside the M1126 Stryker carrier vehicles. Basically, they have quite nothing to do. They have to wait for the Stryker carrier vehicles to be in place i.e. to have executed Order 4 of Group 3.
    So, the Setup just says to wait from 0 to 20 minutes (I should have put a value higher than the scenario length here) for the Strykers to arrive in position.

    Once the trigger fires, they can execute their next order that is Order 2. And, Order 2, says to the infantry to disembark with once again the parameter "Passengers Dismount" and to do a "Max Assault".

    They will have to:
    Go to the yellow square doing a "Max Assault". Perform an area fire while advancing on Target 2 (squares in red). At the end of the movement, be sure to still face those buildings (the square in green gives the direction to face).
  5. Like
    ncc1701e got a reaction from Falaise in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Orders for AI group number 3:
    This group contains the M1126 Stryker carrier vehicles. I would like them to advance toward Target 1. Thus, I am using the Setup plus 3 Orders.
    Again the Setup is without terrain zone to keep the existing deployment of my troops. The vehicles will wait 3 minutes before moving except if some enemy units are entering in terrain zone defined by Trigger Red 1.

    Order 2 contains several things:
    First, advance to their movement zone (squares in yellow). Second, perform an area fire while advancing on Target 1 (squares in red). At last, at the end of the movement, be sure to face those buildings (the square in green gives the direction to face).
    As you can see, this order 2 does not contain a trigger. So, after 7 minutes, the units will switch to the next one i.e. order 3.
     
    Order 3 gives one minute, between 7 and 8 minutes, for the vehicles to reverse. That will generate a smoke screen that will be usually for my infantry attack.

     
    Last order, Order 4, consists of:
    An advance to the yellow squares. An area fire on those buildings in front of us (squares in red). By security, I am still adding a face order (square in green) to be sure of their orientation at the end.
    What is important to see here is that I am adding the option "Can Trigger" just under Order 4 in the graphical interface. Doing that, I am generating another form of trigger. This is a trigger that will activate once the current Order 4 is finished. Please also note that I have selected "Passengers Dismount" at the bottom of the graphical interface to tell the infantry this is time to go...
  6. Upvote
    ncc1701e got a reaction from A Canadian Cat in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Orders for AI group number 4:
    As seen above, this is the mortar section. As I said, I would like to avoid friendly fire so I will change of target with the advance of our friendly troops.
    My intent is to leave the Setup with no terrain zone for the unit to deploy. It means that the deployment I gave for those units will be kept untouched by the AI. However, I am ordering an Area fire on Target 1. This is the red squares that you can see in the following screenshot:

    Here, I am telling the AI to perform an Area fire on Target 1 between 00:00 and 04:00 minutes except if the Trigger Blue 1 is activated. If the Trigger Blue 1 is activated, AI group 4 will trigger the next order after Setup that is Order 2. Anyhow, after 4 minutes, AI group 4 will go to order 2 even if Trigger Blue 1 was not activated.
     
    Order 2 is the following:

    Still no movement as you can see but I am changing the Area fire to Target 2 from 04:00 minutes to 08:00 minutes except if Trigger Blue 2 is activated. I think you understand now that Order 3 will follow either 8 minutes after the beginning of the scenario either when Trigger Blue 2 activates.
     
    Last order is Order 3 where I am changing the Area fire to Target 3 for the rest of the scenario.

  7. Like
    ncc1701e got a reaction from Falaise in AI triggers small tutorial   
    So that you are not lost with the graphical interface, I will detail exactly what to be done in order to create orders and selecting triggers. Here, I am taking AI group number 1, as an example, but there is absolutely no unit inside. This is just to show you the needed manipulation.
    In the first screenshot, you can see that there is nothing in the red colored zone. This is the default Setup. To add one order, you need to click on the Add button. You cannot apply a trigger on a Setup. This means you can't trigger reinforcements by a trigger as I understand:

    Once the Add button has been performed, go back to the Setup order by clicking on Order 2 and selecting Setup:

    On the bottom, you can now see and click on Wait For button:

    A pop up appears allowing you to select the trigger you have created (I will explain the Group 3, Order 4 value later):

    Select Trigger Blue 1, or another for example, then click on OK:

    You can now play with the + and - buttons to adjust timing of the order.

    Here the values are Exit Between 00:00 and 01:00 and Wait For = Trigger Blue 1. It means that, if units were in AI group number 1, those units will wait during 1 minute the occurrence of Trigger Blue 1, so waiting friendly units passing over the terrain objective defining Trigger Blue 1.
    Two cases here:
    If friendly units are passing over Trigger Blue 1, between 0 minute (start of the scenario) and 1 minute after the beginning of the scenario, the units of AI group 1 will immediately perform the order defined in Order 2. If the trigger is not activated 1 minute after the beginning of the scenario, the units of AI group 1 will perform the order defined in Order 2 anyway. If you want absolutely the trigger to be waited before going to Order 2, set the second timer to a value higher than the scenario length.
  8. Upvote
    ncc1701e got a reaction from A Canadian Cat in AI triggers small tutorial   
    I agree with you guys, this is how I see it too. If you look later in the v4.00 manual, you can see the following paragraph linked to triggers (page 109).
    Exit between Times
    The first thing to understand is how the “Exit Between” times affect tripping. The first time tells the AI to NEVER start the Order until that time even if the Trigger is tripped. The second time tells the AI to NEVER start the Order later than that time even if the Trigger is not tripped. The time period between the first and second settings is when the Order is paused waiting for the Trigger to be tripped.
    If you want a Group to always wait for a Trigger to be tripped leave the first timer to 00:00 and set the second timer to something greater than the scenario’s maxi- mum game time. If you want a Group to give up on a Trigger if it isn’t tripped by a particular time (a failsafe) then leave the first timer to 00:00 and set the second timer to the time you have in mind. Sometimes you will want a Group to wait until a specific time even if the Trigger is tripped, in which case you set the first timer to that time. If the Trigger is tripped before then the Group will start executing it’s Order only when the first timer’s time is reached. If it hasn’t been tripped by then the Group will remain idle until either the Trigger is tripped or the second timer’s time is reached (whichever happens first).
    And, if a trigger is tripped, the TacAI will perform its next order after the SECOND time inside the Exit Between FIRST and SECOND.
  9. Like
    ncc1701e got a reaction from Bil Hardenberger in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Before continuing I would like to give some few reminders on the AI. The AI is programmed by painting on the map the orders that must be performed by each AI group created. AI is not complicated. You just need to practice.
    You have four options on the 2D map:
    Movement zone:
    You can paint square in yellow by left clicking on each of them. The map area that you will define is the zone where you want your AI group to arrive at the end of a particular order. The TacAI will determine the way to go there so if you want to influence the desire path for reaching an objective, you will need to create several orders. Do not forget that the zone that you will define must be large enough for your units. If your AI group contains four tanks, a movement zone of one square is may be not a good idea because the four tanks will not enter in one single square. You may define discontinuous squares. Again, practice to master this is the way to go.
    Fire zone:
    You can ask your units in the AI group to perform an area fire of a given map zone. For that, you need to paint the square of the zone to attack by using Ctrl-left click. This will paint your square in red instead of yellow. Please note that you can perfectly combine a movement zone and a fire zone in one order. This way, you can ask your units to move to a given position to perform an area fire on something, just do not forget the LOS rules apply. There is a second important thing to know. The area fire order has the lowest priority for your AI group so if your units find a good target, they will engage it first.
    Facing zone:
    Sometimes, a movement will end up with your units not looking toward the enemy. To mitigate this, you can select one particular square that your units will face at the end of their movement. To select this square, do Alt-left click on it. It will be painted in green. Since this is a single square, I recommend not to select the green square too close of your ending movement zone. Remember all your units will face the same square...
    Withdraw zone:
    You can ask your units to retreat. Your units will deploy smoke screens if possible. And, if there are vehicles in your AI group, those vehicles will reverse showing their big front armor. But, this is useful also in attack to create a smoke screen for your units. For this, you need to select one particular square by Shift-left clicking on it. The square will be pink. And the square must be in the direction your units/vehicles must face while reversing.
     
    Once the AI menu selected in the editor, you have access to several buttons in the below screenshot:

    The yellow colored zone, in the screenshot, gives access to all the possible AI plans within a given scenario. There are up to five AI plans per side plus a special Support Targets plan for artillery and air support strikes at the beginning of the scenario. Basically, one AI plan contains the orders for several AI groups. You can perfectly finish a scenario with one unique AI plan. The other plans are here to surprise your human opponent by new sets of AI orders for your AI groups.
    The orange colored zone, just below (yes yes this is orange), allows to increase the percentage of a given AI plan to be selected. If you have one AI plan, the default value of “Used Frequently” is the one to take. According to the manual: "A Plan with “Used Sometimes” is two times more likely to be chosen than “Used Rarely” while “Used Frequently” is four times more likely to be selected".
    The pink colored zone gives access to each AI group to give them some orders. Pay attention to select the correct AI plan (Blue or Red) and then the correct AI group to not mix up everything. With a litte practice, this works like a charm.
    The green colored zone allows to select, within one given AI group, several orders. By default, the first order of an AI group is Setup. You can use the button Add to add more. The subsequent order will be named Order 2, ...
    The white colored zone permits to select several actions that your units must do (orders, floors to occupy, stances, ...). I invite you to read the manual to understand each possible value.
    The red colored zone contains two importants values. Exit between 00:00 and 20:00. What does it mean? The units is the number of minutes and seconds since the beginning of the whole scenario. This concept is key to understand how it works. According to the manual: “Exit Between ... and ...” tells the AI Group at what scenario time to leave their current Map Zone and when to arrive at the next Map Zone.
    The first number tells the Group to stay at the current Map Zone until the specified scenario time is reached. With this setting a Group never moves on to the next Order before the specified time is reached.
    The second number defines the latest time that an AI Group should arrive at it’s next order, and causes the Group to try very hard to get to the next Order in the plan before the specified scenario time is reached. This does not mean the Group will do it, just that it will try. If it has taken excessive casualties, is immobilized or heavily engaged, it may blow the set time. It will still attempt to execute the next order in the plan, just not within the time that the scenario designer allotted for it."
    The blue colored zone is the one interesting in this tutorial because, clicking on it, this allows to select the triggers that we have created.
    Now that this brief summary is done, let's go to the orders for each AI group.
  10. Like
    ncc1701e reacted to MOS:96B2P in AI triggers small tutorial   
    @ncc1701e thanks for taking the time and effort to make this +3 .  
  11. Like
    ncc1701e reacted to JoMac in New DAR: ncc1701e vs JoMc67   
    And, another Good Game for NCC...Umm,  that's all I have...Sigh :-(
    Joe
  12. Like
    ncc1701e got a reaction from Rutek in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Who said that the AI is not able to perform an attack? See no loss on Blue AI side, but it was lucky. Remember that I have removed RPG-7.

    Now, I will redo the same with some more resistance on my side. For the record @domfluff before modifying it, here is attached the current 001 try.btt file.
    001 try.btt
  13. Like
    ncc1701e got a reaction from Sgt.Squarehead in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Who said that the AI is not able to perform an attack? See no loss on Blue AI side, but it was lucky. Remember that I have removed RPG-7.

    Now, I will redo the same with some more resistance on my side. For the record @domfluff before modifying it, here is attached the current 001 try.btt file.
    001 try.btt
  14. Like
    ncc1701e got a reaction from Sgt.Squarehead in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Activation of Group 3, Order 4:
    With the Stryker carrier vehicles moving again and finishing their order 4, this is activating Group 3, Order 4 trigger for the infantry i.e. group 2. As such the infantry dismounts and attacks.

    Koff koff, who is the idiot that has fired all this smoke? 🤣

    The infantry i.e. group 2 has also an area fire order on the buildings in front of them.

    Close combat due to the smoke but they do not see each other.

    Several fire fights are starting.




    Even the 3rd Platoon HQ of AI group 2 is able to call an indirect fire support mission with the on map mortar of AI group 4. TacAI is awesome!!!

  15. Upvote
    ncc1701e got a reaction from MOS:96B2P in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Activation of Trigger Red 1:
    Starting the scenario, all units are in position and my setup was not changed by the AI since I have not painted any terrain zone in their respective setups of each AI group.

    The first mortar team is targeting Target 1 as planned.

    Same for the second mortar team.

    The Stryker carrier vehicles are not moving as planned.

    Target 1 begins to receive some shells.

    I am moving a small team to activate Trigger Red 1 for Blue AI.

    And immediately the Stryker carrier vehicles begin to move.

    Target 1 is still fired at by the mortar teams as expected.

  16. Upvote
    ncc1701e got a reaction from MOS:96B2P in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Activation of Trigger Blue 2:
    My small arms did not do much damage to the Stryker carrier vehicles. But, the Stryker vehicles did take care of the threat. That was the important thing to see and understand here. The area fire order given to group 3 is low priority. The enemy infantry was taken care of first. One of the vehicles of group 3, so a friendly unit, is on Trigger Blue 2 so activates it.

    Followed by a second one that is resuming the area fire.

    The third one is coming.

    My units are in a bad shape:
    3rd group HQ already eliminated 1st team pinned down 2nd team pinned down


    Since Trigger Blue 2 was activated, the mortar team once again changes of target from Target 2 to Target 3.


    To illustrate once again, the lowest priority of the area fire order on Target 1 for any group, here group 3, I am attacking with a team one of its vehicle.

    Bad idea... 🙂

  17. Upvote
    ncc1701e got a reaction from MOS:96B2P in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Activation of the withdraw order:
    Looking at the number of minutes since the beginning of the scenario, 7 minutes 05 seconds has passed. This is time for the withdraw order to fire. Smoke screen already appears and vehicles of group 3 are reversing.


    This activation was done only based on a timer. So this is important to estimate correctly the right time to do the order's activation.

    I am taking the opportunity of the smoke to reinforce my positions.

  18. Like
    ncc1701e got a reaction from domfluff in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Sure, that's the plan.
  19. Like
    ncc1701e got a reaction from domfluff in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Activation of Trigger Blue 1:
    Friendly units are crossing Trigger Blue 1 so activates it.

    As such, the mortar teams are changing their target from Target 1 to Target 2.


    One last shell however falls on Target 1 giving some good results.

    Units of group 3 advance and perform area fire on Target 1 when possible i.e. when no other targets are detected.




    I am launching a small counter attack to divert the units of group 3.

  20. Like
    ncc1701e reacted to Sgt.Squarehead in AI triggers small tutorial   
    I tend to use AI group #1 for my static units, things like HMGs and antitank guns that the AI doesn't always place as well as it might (especially when part of a mixed AI group).
  21. Like
    ncc1701e reacted to A Canadian Cat in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Cool. Not a bad strategy really. Thanks for the explanation.
  22. Like
    ncc1701e reacted to MOS:96B2P in AI triggers small tutorial   
    Thanks @ncc1701e.  Interesting stuff.  +1
  23. Like
    ncc1701e reacted to George MC in RT Unofficial Screenshot Thread   
    The village of RAKOW, Poland, around 40km SE of KIELCE. This is VILLAGE Z in the AAR report at this link: http://www.allworldwars.com/Small-Unit-Actions-During-German-Campaign-in-Russia.html#2212

    The map above (kindly sourced by Hugh Davie from Soviet AARs) shows the general dispositions of the Soviet forces in this area during August (RAKOW = PAKYB). The German attack came in from the west along the line of HILL 251.3

    View from HILL 25.3 looking east towards RAKOW.
    The context of this AAR is the German effort to reduce/eliminate the Soviets Baranow bridgehead in Poland during early August 1944.
    I should note whilst I was researching this action, whilst this AAR appears super detailed a significant number of key facts are incorrect - unit make up, commanders, and Soviet opposition. The same action is described in the book 'Armoured Bears' on page 240-241 and whilst having slightly less detail, more or less ties in with the actual German OOB (and listed commanders) and TOE at the time, although again its vague as to the Soviet opposition. I also have access to Soviet AAR reports (which Hugh Davie who used to haunt these forums very kindly translated for me) and they provide an intriguing ins-sight into the fighting in this area. Whilst they confirm a German attack, and the numbers of tanks and light SPW involved are 'broadly' consistent with the size of the German kampfgruppe involved, they diverge on other details such as German losses, the actual direction and the objectives of the attack. All in all though none of the sources dove tail perfectly!! Still, they all agree that Soviet artillery eventually stalled the attack from moving beyond the outskirts of RAKOW.

    German Panzer IVs moving up in the early dawn.

    Approaching RAKOW and taking fire.
    "Three German tanks were immediately disabled, one of them catching fire. Hauptmann Zobel (commander of the 8/II/Pz.Rgt 6) ordered the two platoons to withdraw."
  24. Like
    ncc1701e reacted to A Canadian Cat in Pathfinder mission + areal photos of Sicily   
    Closing the loop on this - I didn't realize I never included the link to the actual scenario on the scenario depot: http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-fortress-italy/cm-fortress-italy-add-ons/pathfinders/
     
  25. Like
    ncc1701e reacted to A Canadian Cat in Pathfinder mission + areal photos of Sicily   
    The vineyard next to the road turned out pretty well...


    but and now the creek looks good too.

×
×
  • Create New...