Purchase points

[griffin33]

OK, help me out here. I was trying to check the balance in a scenario, but I can't seem to find the unit purchase points in the Editor. What am I doing wrong? I also tried it with a new scenario in the Editor, and I still can't seem to find 'em. So now I'm feeling really stupid...................

[ASL Veteran]

OK, help me out here. I was trying to check the balance in a scenario, but I can't seem to find the unit purchase points in the Editor. What am I doing wrong? I also tried it with a new scenario in the Editor, and I still can't seem to find 'em. So now I'm feeling really stupid...................

There are no purchase points in the editor.

[JonS]

Purchase points are only in the QB generator.

[griffin33]

No points in the Editor?? So when you're setting up a battle from scratch, you have no idea of the point count on either side?

[JonS]

Nope.

It's been like that since CMSF. In the 30-odd(?) scenarios I've made in CMx2, I haven't missed it at all.

[ASL Veteran]

No points in the Editor?? So when you're setting up a battle from scratch, you have no idea of the point count on either side?

Why would you need to know the points? The entire 'point' of having points is so that opposing players can purchase their own troops before fighting a quick battle. If you are making a scenario the player can't purchase their own force, therefore the points aren't needed. The player has to use the force you give them and you can just 'buy' whatever you want to and plop it into the scenario. You might want to use the points to buy the opposing forces, but if the player isn't buying their own force then it seems rather pointless to me for you to use the points since allowing the player to buy their own personally tailored force is the entire point behind having points in the first place.

Points are also not an indicator of 'balance'. If you buy a thousand points worth of trucks for one side and a thousand points worth of tanks for the other side the fact that both sides just spent a thousand points doesn't make the match up balanced. It's really 'pointless' to have points in the editor because they serve no purpose. They aren't an indicator of balance. They aren't being spent by the player who is commanding a specific force.

I hope you get my point.

[Nelson 1812]

It would be nice to see the points, as although not necessary for the scenario, it is a good guide to balance a game, especially for unit type (Elite-greens), and game category (ME, probe, attack, assault.)

Although, most this does get ironed out in the testing, it would, in my opinion give a person who is new to scenarios building more confidence, and in tournament games ensures balance.

Historically it helps too, with rarity values.

Do not build many scenarios, and so I would like to see the points included.

[The Steppenwulf]

Combining the two tools that Japanzer wrote facilitates the process of taking a QB set up and putting it into the scenario. Unfortunately, whilst it appears to automate this quite well I have never actually performed it myself. It's just one of those things one downloads and never gets round to playing with. Consequently I cannot endorse the method from personal experience (especially because CM v 2.00 may have changed some things that are incompatible with the tool) - I can only go on what I have seen in his videos:

Both tools can be downloaded from the repository.

VSL's quite right though; competitive balance is a vague construct at best and means even less in scenario battles. If you want competitive fairness - where no player can go down feeling cheated - it's best just to stick with QB play. In other words just create the map, leave out the units and upload it for others for play as a QB map only.

In my view well-thought out scenario OOB's predominantly are ones that are appropriate both for the size of the map and its terrain and the tactical nuances that characterize those map features. This is what produces tactically interesting and varied gameplay. You cannot condense this judgement nor the qualities of the final product down to some magic formula of purchase points scoring.

[griffin33]

Thank you very much for your opinions. As you can tell, I'm not experienced in building scenarios. If someone does build one for the old SL Remagen Bridge, I'd love to hear about it. I really liked that battle. I really appreciate the effort that goes into scenario creation, and I thought points would help me understand the game a little more thoroughly is all.