AI only troops - Solution!

[permanent666]

I do not know if someone else ever came up with this solution but I found a way to give one side more troops if played by the AI. I have problems right now to take screenshots as i switched to vista but I will try to write it down how it works:

1. Make a Map

2. Choose a location which is from low importance. lower the elevation by at least 5 (10 is better) and fix the elevation around it like this: 201020. I will call it the dump.

3. Buy units for the AI and decide which units should not be available for H2H. Put them in one or more AI groups.

4. Place those units into the dump. (Important: do not paint a regular setup zone over the dump)

5. Then assign a Setup zone in the AI editor for those groups outside the dump.

6. This is it. Now the AI will move those units out of the dump but in H2H the player cannot use them.

[Pak40]

Sounds a lot easier just to make an exact copy of the AI version, rename the scenario as xxxx_HTH, then remove the extra AI units. It will also look better than having a bunch of units stuck in depression.

[JonS]

Sounds a lot easier just to ...

Superficially yes. But whenever you create a fork you also create a significant on-going administrative burden. Every change you make from that point onwards must be ported across to the other version(s). Another group of shell craters? Don't forget to add them to the other map. Realigned road? Open up the other version. More troops? Spark it up again. Changed voctory locations and/or points values? You know what you need to do.

And if you upload it to The Scenario Depot, in no time you're going to have 4, 6, 8, 10 versions of nominally the same scenario. Which freaking one am I supposed to be playing? :confused:

666's hack is aethetically ugly, but in other ways has a lot of elegant.

Edit: another approach would be to completely finish one version (H2H, or vs AI) before forking and creating the other version. I'm not sure that'd work though. I find the process tends to be more iterative than that, and there'd more than likely be things you only think of while creating the second version which you'd then want to back-port into the original.

Edit2: Once upon a time I started a project to create a templated attack scenario, then swap out the bn-sized attacking force for typical force combinations from each of the CMSF Allied nations - a US Stryker Bn, a US Bradley Bn, a UK light inf bn, a UK warrior Bn, a US light inf bn, a USMN bn, etc. The meta-idea was to look at how different forces could be used to tackle an identical problem. From a scen design perspective, it was kind of the same as creating distinct H2H and vs AI scenarios. In the end, I barely finished the first scenario of that project before abandoning it. I never really felt the scenario was Finished (with a capital F) so was reluctant to fork it, and also anyway quailed at the thought of creating multiple briefings and briefing imagery.

[Pak40]

Superficially yes. But whenever you create a fork you also create a significant on-going administrative burden. Every change you make from that point onwards must be ported across to the other version(s). Another group of shell craters? Don't forget to add them to the other map. Realigned road? Open up the other version. More troops? Spark it up again. Changed voctory locations and/or points values? You know what you need to do.

No, you don't upkeep both versions. You just edit the one "original" version. In his case, it will be the one with the AI plans. Make your road & map edits, save it, then save AS and overwrite the H2H version. Then delete the units again. Done.

And if you upload it to The Scenario Depot, in no time you're going to have 4, 6, 8, 10 versions of nominally the same scenario. Which freaking one am I supposed to be playing? :confused:

It's pretty obvious if you properly load scenarios to the depot as BETA or 1.0. Scenario names should be, as an example, SCENARIOxxx_Vs_Computer_BETA and SCENARIOxxx_H2H_BETA. They should be uploaded to the scenario depot as one .zip package and anyone can figure out which file to use.

[JonS]

No, you don't upkeep both versions. You just edit the one "original" version. In his case, it will be the one with the AI plans. Make your road & map edits, save it, then save AS and overwrite the H2H version. Then delete the units again. Done.

The first time, sure.

After that? Not so much.

It's pretty obvious if you properly load scenarios to the depot as BETA or 1.0.

Yes, and you still end up with multiple multiples of the same nominal scenario.

[Pak40]

The first time, sure.

After that? Not so much.

And every subsequent time after that, if it comes to that. It's a hell of a lot easier to delete a few units out of the unit roster than to make the same map edits twice, especially if you're making elevation, road, or bocage edits. That stuff would be a nightmare to track. Plus, my suggestion is a surefire way to ensure that you've got identical maps.

Yes, and you still end up with multiple multiples of the same nominal scenario.

There is a delete key on the keyboard. It's not that hard to delete the older versions. Not sure what the big deal is here.

[permanent666]

Sure you can make multiple versions of the map for AI play and H2H - this solution is just an alternative.

Today I had the idea to use an exit objective on the unit dump. So the units will vanish if you play H2H.

Yes it does not look very good but you can use trees to hide the unit dump.

There is one more problem: water - if you use water on the map you have to make sure that the dump level is not below the water level. Also it could mess up your victory conditions.

Another thing is if you want to put armor into the dump it has to be quite big. I think you can only place one tank per action Spot. Maybe you could declare one map edge as unit dump.