Gen Von Television Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Hi Guys, hopefully this thread will collect useful tips and advices on designing Scenarios, so everyone who's interested in using the Editor may expand his skills and profit from sharing information here. First off I should say that even if I haven't as yet grasped much of the mechanics of the AI section in the editor, it seems a great improvement on the CMX1 handling and planning for the computer soldiers. In play testing a scenario, how would you check what this pixel guys are doing? Do you turn on 'Scenario Author Test' skill so to have everyone on sight since you cannot have AI vs AI? But if you play in that mode did the AI see all the Human controlled units as well? This small bit of info is not covered in the manual as they point only on the 'player' units that are still 'blind'... I'm also planning on creating a Campaign that should stay on the same map for about 36 hours, almost in the same locations, but not necessarily so: I've read somewhere that using the same map would not keep damaged buildings, vehicles etc. but maybe it was a reference to the Demo, I'm not sure. Is that so? In the manual again there is a hint note about creating a loop or branch that get the player back to a scenario previously played that will reset the map to its pristine condition. So how it functions? I will not reload the same scenario, but recreate another one using the Core Units (if any) but on the same map. Will it retain battle damages? How can battle damages on buildings, vehicles etc. be transported to a new map? I'm confused here. Will I be able to advance or retreat on the same terrain map and retain the damages to the end of the campaign? Lastly about Core Units: I still have to try this out but I would like to know how's best to proceed: mainly I'm concerned about naming and detailing units levels/weapons/ammo: suppose I have actually just one core company through the whole campaign, but several units coming and going from the same formation. Should I add them to the Core Units, so I will have all their details already set? All answers will be much appreciated, and so for other inquiries, tips and solutions! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Wenman Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 As far as I'm aware "Scenario Author Test" lets you see all units, without any FOW applied. It does not however change the AI in anyway and so both your units and the AI can only see each other when LOS exists and the program decides they are spotted. It is a must for testing scenarios in the early stages. There is no way to retain damage created in one battle to be carried over to a later battle. So even if the same map is used over and over it will always appear as created. You can of course can add damage in the editor, and use the altered map, however you can only best guess as to what damage to apply. Rename the damaged map and feed it into the campaign. This will at least allow increasing levels of damage to be reflected albeit will not match that actually created in battle I can't help with core units as I've not played with the campaign editor yet. P 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 Good to know Pete, thanks. About the damages definition it seems to contradict what is stated in the manual. I'm going by memory here but as I recall it's just hinted there in a note that if you decide to loop back to the original battle scenario in case you lose a battle, you will then lose all the damages, burning vehicles and the likes from the previous battle. So to me it sounded like a 'be aware that if you decide to do so' then you will lose all those... or like saying the battle damages will be retained if you proceed in your campaign without looping back to the previous scenario. Would be a pity if we have lost that function (retaining battle damages on a map) during a campaign. This should be easily verified if I decide after all to play a campaign in CMBN (I still hadn't), but then again the campaign should have at least a couple of battles on the same terrain. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 So... you're planning on making a campaign, yet you have never played one? I can't see anything possibly going wrong! The proper way to do campaigns set in the same location is to take the pristine map, then add battle damage to it yourself, and basically make it a different scenario. See the Courage & Fortitude's 2nd and 3rd battles for an example: if you lose the 2nd battle, then the 3rd battle is on the same map but with a cratered landscape and it extends further south. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 I do not worry about everything going wrong: after all as in real wars no plan goes as expected! It wouldn't be such a problem adding damages to buildings, but sure they will be arbitrary. What about vehicles? Of course I make different scenario for each Campaign battles: unit setups and Order of Battle, different AI plans, and so on. I just thought the CMX1 function of retaining the damaged buildings and terrain was a brilliant idea. Now I cannot recall about the burning vehicles, but possibly they were also kept in place (?). The only griping for me is that it should have been clearly stated in the manual something like: No Battle Damages, Burning/Knocked out Vehicles are ever retained from one battle to another.Instead there is just a quick note that if you decide to loop back to a previous scenario you will lose all the destruction of the battle you just lost as if on the contrary you will have all of them back. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASL Veteran Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 The only griping for me is that it should have been clearly stated in the manual something on like: Instead there is just a quick note that if you decide to loop back to a previous scenario you will lose all the destruction of the battle you just lost as if on the contrary you will have all of them back. Yeah, well that sort of an instruction seems unnecessary to me since when you start making your campaign it will become obvious that you are using a new map or reusing an old map prior to any battle damage on it for each battle. In other words, the act of 'doing' will make it obvious as to what's possible and what's not possible. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Another small issue I would like to solve, if it's possible at all: when you add new units, no matter if you have set up zones defined, when you activate the Deploy Units they all appear in a corner of the map, and sometime is tricky to collect them all as they may be placed inside houses etc. Is there any way you can force them to appear in a specific area on the map? In this case it would be very helpful to have a 'unit tray' off map from where you can select each unit for placement on a specific spot instead of going back and forth... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 OK here another piece of information on which I would greatly appreciate an expert view: with some units in the roster I can 'delete' the uppermost HQ units, while sometime this is not happening and I cannot figure why or eventually. Suppose I add to the roster a whole battalion, but want to activate a single platoon, how should I proceed? Would it be possible to add single vehicles or support weapons to that platoon without having to activate the higher HQ? Somewhat I'm puzzled. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjkerner Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 GYT, two things: Check the Changelog thread...I don't have time atm, but I think it states that they changed the Deploy/Set-up so that the units will start out in the set-up zone for that side. Deleting HQ's: Always start from the bottom, but if any HQ (Platoon up to Battalion) has a subordinate unit attached to it, the higher HQ won't delete. To get a platoon only, delete from the bottom up all other Companies, skipping the one with your platoon, then go up and delete the Battalion HQ (I can't remember whether you need to expand the Batt HQ [hit the "+" sign] so that you can delete them individually or not--that is how I do it anyway), then go to your Company and delete the platoons from the bottom, then the expanded HQ units. Voila! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Thanks mjkerner, GYT, two things: Check the Changelog thread...I don't have time atm, but I think it states that they changed the Deploy/Set-up so that the units will start out in the set-up zone for that side. Are we talking about the Editor [Deploy Unit] command, aren't we? As for the deleting process, yes I got that: starting from bottom up. The oddity here is that with some units I can just keep the singled out platoon, while with other units I won't be able to delete the Bn HQ, and of course neither the Co HQ...:confused: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjkerner Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 From the Changelog thread. For once my memory served me correctly! * In the editor, when units are purchased they will try to set up by default inside friendly setup zones if the zones have already been created. __________________ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Thanks mjkerner: I just made the mistake of adding units before having set the setup zones...! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Not so: the added units just land in a faraway corner of the map... :< PS: well, not all of them. Some units deploy in the defined area, but many right on the corner... It seems that the defined setup areas should be very wide even if after I deployed them manually these areas were big enough to contain them all.. another puzzling aspect to deal with. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjkerner Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Yes, I noticed things aren't quite cleared up myself. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 Or actually am I doing some mess up? I'm deploying core units, and maybe that is what makes a lot of difference... Yet it would be nice if at least they will be dropped around defined deploy areas and hidden in faraway corners... I really would like to see a Tray tool, and even better an OB clickable table to graphically describe the units and select them. At least in CMX1 you were able to enlarge the units like giants so none went missing in the bushes... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 I'm toiling around with the AI plans and it occurred to me that if I give the Assault command to a Tank it will just sit there and do nothing: at the moment I only use the command Advance, Quick and Dash, and the mode Active. Am I wrong? The second question is about the tanks crossing railways: can they do that in Advance/Active mode? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paper Tiger Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 If you want to give an AI group an ASSAULT order, there must be at least two units in that group in order for it to work. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 Thanks! That's why if I have a single tank in a group ordering it to assault will result in a stalled move. Now I should also double check all my plans since quite often I have some groups with a single units, or sometime a couple. This limitation is valid for any kind of unit, isn't it? In fact I already had incorporated AFV into Platoons, so now it will become handy to have a tank or AFV covering the backs of the grunts trying to keep dry from the lead shower thrown at them... Again, have you any idea if the tanks can cross the railway lines? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted March 27, 2012 Author Share Posted March 27, 2012 OK I made a fast check on tanks crossing the railway line and indeed they can: I checked it by making them move Fast, Quick and Normal without any particular problem, except they all slow down a bit when crossing. Then I made them run ON the railway line, and also that is possible, except that no matter how fast you order them to move, they all have the same speed: just slow! I hope this may be useful to keep in mind for everyone. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Bear with me, but right now I have no time to play a campaign, as I'm designing many battles to assemble one, so I don't know for sure and in the manual is not clear stated: for each battle of the campaign I've created separate tactical maps, briefing text and designer's notes, and as I got it the 'core battle' file used to compile the campaign will contain the first briefing, notes and image used for the whole campaign. So when you enter a later battle in the Campaign you will read different briefings and see different maps: is this correct? Have I done a useless work for a campaign (I have almost finished it) or will it be worth? In the worst case I can use them as separate battles... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broadsword56 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Another small issue I would like to solve, if it's possible at all: when you add new units, no matter if you have set up zones defined, when you activate the Deploy Units they all appear in a corner of the map, and sometime is tricky to collect them all as they may be placed inside houses etc. Is there any way you can force them to appear in a specific area on the map? In this case it would be very helpful to have a 'unit tray' off map from where you can select each unit for placement on a specific spot instead of going back and forth... There's no "unit tray." But you can set the locations the units appear in when the scenario launches, with pinpoint precision. If you want the player to be able to alter the deployment of a unit, paint a deployment zone and deploy the unit inside that zone. If you want a unit to start in a specific spot and not let the player change where it starts the battle, then deploy the unit on the map with no deployment zone under it. But you have to do this manually in the editor with every unit and leader -- if you just have the units in the scenario, and paint a deployment zone, but don't actualyl place the units in the zone, CMBN will often launch the scenario with all the units crammed up in the corner of the map and not let the player move them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Thanks, but this was not the issue I was pointing at: I was referring to the Editor function [Deploy Axis] and [Deploy Allied] forces. No matter if you set up the zones, they will bunch up all in a map's corner, and when you have big maps collecting them and deploying the units in the proper areas takes a lot of scrolling, and often times you missed a piece here and there, hidden in a building or hedgerow... Not a very efficient way to build scenarios. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undercovergeek Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 i usually double click on the hq unit - that allows me at least to pick up a whole company and move it, or shift (or control) and left click highlights as many units as you want one at a time and then move the whole group to your destination 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen Von Television Posted April 3, 2012 Author Share Posted April 3, 2012 Yes, but when you have a couple of mechanized battalions with armors and a few infantry companies to sort them out is tedious and a lot of hassle... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Wenman Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 but when you have a couple of mechanized battalions with armors and a few infantry companies to sort them out is tedious and a lot of hassle... Well if you've got that many units it's going to be tedious which ever way you cut it. One trick I have used is 1. select a bttn, so it shows in the righthand window of the unit editor. 2. Deselect all but one company 3. go into 3d screen and deploy the selected company. 4 go back into the editor select another company and rinse and repeat. This makes it easier to find units/platoons etc as you never have more than a co's worth to deloy at any one time. P 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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