1937 - Japan Invades China scenario released! Now with Lua!

[tootall_2012]

As you may have read at the end of post #4 of your “Whither scenario design?” thread, I had the opportunity to test out the artillery bombardment portion of this new feature. As I indicated, I found this approach quite original and innovative.

This could well become a new standard for operational and strategic level scenarios where individual tiles can represent dozens or more miles in width each. The great advantage, as you say, is that it applies to the AI as well as the human player. I certainly recommend to other designers who haven’t tested it yet and who may be interested in this feature to have a look for themselves.

For tactical level scenarios, where each tile can represent a few miles or less, the ‘k’ key feature might still be a more flexible use for ranged munitions that you want to be able to fire beyond one tile. Also the AI ranged munitions feature developed for Battle of Italy might be handy when you want the AI’s artillery to maintain static positions and yet still be able to fire on enemy units in proximity.

Of course the great thing about all of this is that designers are not limited to any one choice and could use any combination of these features within their own scenarios.

 

[techumseh]

I agree that for smaller scale scenarios such as BoI, ranged artillery will be desirable. I wonder if the limitations of the current system can be overcome with Lua? By that I mean the fact that the artillery round must move on the surface and around obstacles like other enemy units. Any chance you could fire at another non-adjacent unit without having to create a 'munition'?

 

[tootall_2012]

Any chance you could fire at another non-adjacent unit without having to create a 'munition'?

I vaguely remember asking the @Prof. Garfield a similar questions quite sometime ago about adjacent enemy targets and I believe he may have indicated it is possible. I do not know if this would be possible for non adjacent targets.

Perhaps if he has the opportunity to view this post he can confirm, though I imagine it would be more complex since when you generate a munition(s) the AI will automatically select which nearby target(s) to attack on its own, whereas if there is no such munitions unit created the selection process will have to be determined by lua.


EDIT: Though if I recall correctly, I believe in BoI that the AI ranged munitions with a range of 2 tiles were still able to attack Allied units two tiles away even if there was an intervening Allied unit in between them. I would have to retest to be certain but this is what I remember.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I agree that for smaller scale scenarios such as BoI, ranged artillery will be desirable. I wonder if the limitations of the current system can be overcome with Lua? By that I mean the fact that the artillery round must move on the surface and around obstacles like other enemy units. Any chance you could fire at another non-adjacent unit without having to create a 'munition'?

I don't see how you could do that using a system that looks like "regular" combat, since you can't move the attacker into the square that you want to attack. If you don't want to generate "munition" units, there are two options that I can think of at the moment:

1. Direct damage to units via some event.

Lua "notices" that an artillery unit "should" attack, and there are valid targets nearby. One is chosen somehow (could be a menu for the player) and then Lua adds some damage to the target, and maybe the attacker. The trigger for this could be an attack made by another unit.

2. Stat bonuses for nearby units.

Infantry attacks. During the combat calculation Lua checks nearby squares and discovers that there is an artillery unit behind the lines, which is eligible to attack the victim of the infantry, and so the attacker gets a boost in stats. This would be done using the combatModifiers module. Defending units could similarly receive support.

 

[techumseh]

It sounds like this could be made to work. How about this? The player selects an artillery unit, and presses a certain key. The player selects a tile containing enemy units that is within range. The player presses the key again and a Lua event inflicts a randomized amount of damage on the strongest defending unit.