Events Thread

[MikeLynch]

Land and sea, actually.

In fact, IIRC I may even have tried it with Domain 3 barbs and it worked. But don't quote me on that one.

 

[yoshi]

Sorry, I meant sea barbs. Land barbs don't disappear (aside from the diplo barb) AFAIK.

Never tried air barbs (at least not mobile ones). Get back to me on that if you want as I wouldn't mind knowing for sure.

i really do not know what a batch file is supposed to contain or facilitate

Just realised I forgot to answer this:

A batch file has the extension '.BAT.'

Used for automating some system action (does stuff without you having to do it manually).

In this case, batch files are used for copying files to other folders--usually overwriting existing files.

It can also be used to automate some procedure; in this case, it's usually used for automating the Delevent action by associating it with a certain .SAV/.SCN file thus automatically clearing the embedded macro scripts in the files.

The main use in scens is to create the effect of season change.

Example:

Clicking 'Winter.bat' in the scenario's folder copies 'WinterTerrain1.gif' and renames it as 'Terrain1.gif' thereby overwriting the original 'Terrain1.gif' file that was there, if there was one).

At this point (or rather, before you do the above), you save your game. When you reload the game, you will see that the original terrain has been replaced by new winter (snow-covered) terrain.


A more sophisticated scen will not only have alternative Terrain1.gif and Terrain2.gif but also alternative Units.gif and Cities.gif files. (The whole procedure can be done using a single batch file.)

An even more sophisticated scen will use alternative, Rules.txt and Events.txt files. So, the data will be different as well as the look (e.g. in winter, air units have less range because their engines are less efficient due to the low temperatures; wheeled units move slower because the land is covered in snow; roads give less of a bonus because they too are snow-covered). The automated Delevent is used here so that the embedded events do not interfere with the new events.

Some scens even upgrade units this way so it saves you having to waste a slot for the upgrade (of course, this implies a new Units.gif and a new Rules.txt--and a new Events.txt if that unit is used in any of the events as the name will probably be changed in Rules.txt).


This ability to add season change is something that makes Civ2 scens undeniably superior to Civ3 scens in that the Civ3 program reads from the .bic/.bix/.biq file (equivialnt of .SCN file in Civ2) and not from the .SAV file like Civ2. This means that any changes made to the Civ3 scenario folder will not have an effect on the saved game.


I think that should explain it sufficiently.

 

[MikeLynch]

Never tried air barbs (at least not mobile ones). Get back to me on that if you want as I wouldn't mind knowing for sure.

Air barbs... hmmmmmmmm. I do have a medieval Dragon unit, and it would make sense for there to be "wild" Dragons flyin' around and wreaking havoc.

I may just do that. Not anytime soon, though.

 

[yoshi]

Well if you do, be sure to also try it with the 'Destroyed after attacking' (Cruise Missile) flag set (to see if it has the same effect as regular air barb). Also try 0-fuel unit (heli).

 

[Catfish]

Land barbs don't disappear (aside from the diplo barb) AFAIK.

Actually, they do – as that barbarian article points out – but you can prevent any barbarian unit from expiring in ToT by simply setting the 7th bit (reverse programmer notation) in column G of the @UNITS_ADVANCED section (rules.txt) to 1.

 

[yoshi]

Serves me right for not reading it properly...then again, I rarely use Barbarians for anything other than space fillers and always set Barbarian activity to zip (I prefer to let events do the work).

 

[dylandlr]

just a wrote an intelligent and thorough reply.... that is now in virtual land someplace.. maybe... lost in frozen browser land..


so


the events files worked great this time round

thank you very much, yoshi

and to all you historical scene-writers: prosit!

 

[yoshi]

Glad to hear it.

(Yeah, sometimes you don't get redirected and the message is lost. A real pain. Kind of like when you accidentaly hit the Esc key by mistake just when you've finished writing a long post.)

 

[temurleng]

I want to make a large empire that has no domestic economy whatsoever. I want its income to be based on the presence of another, weak tribe. The idea is that the tribe will represent the market for the empire. For each city of the weak tribe that is destroyed, the large empire will make less money. The empire will thus be encouraged to build a large military to defend the tribe.
That's what I want to do, but I can only think of one way to do this. I would make an events file that would give the empire x cash each turn (say 200 for preserving the tribe's 5 cities), but if a city of the weak tribe is destroyed, the events file will switch to another file that give a lesser amount yearly (160 for 4 cities). At the end of that file, a third events file would be activated if the tribe loses another city, giving the empire only 120 for 3 cities. The process would continue, until the tribe has no cities, causing the empire is losing bucketloads of money.

The problem is I don't know if its possible to switch the events file based on when cities are destroyed. Is it possible, or is there some other way to get done what I outlined in the first paragraph?

 

[yoshi]

You can do that easily if you're using ToT: just use flags.

If you're using MGE, it gets more complicated (involves 'trigger' units).

Why not just forget the events and use active trade routes? (If the trading cities are lost, no gold for you.)

 

[temurleng]

Why not just forget the events and use active trade routes? (If the trading cities are lost, no gold for you.)

There are several reasons I don't want to use trade routes.
Short answer Number 1: Because I want to do something different.
Short answer Number 2: Want to make this scenario as true to history as possible.
Long answer Number 1: Trade routes are conventional, and I want the human civ to make money in a non-standard way. Also, If I did it the conventional way, like how you suggested, the human would easily build and route defenders to it. I want the human player to have to employ different military tactics to defend these key cities.
Long answer Number 2: In the history of this empire, there were many small city-states nearby that were the economic lifeblood of the region. The city-states were major merchant cities: they traded with each other, the states in the area came to them, and the barbarians and peasants in the surrounding hills and forests brought their goods. I want to somehow replicate that, and create long-lasting disadvantages for destroying them.

Since I will be using MGE, could you provide links (or the info yourself) of how to use "trigger units" to accomplish the objective? I'm familiar with trigger units to a degree and thought about using them. The idea had been "lose city-state, lose x gold", but I wanted it to have a positive effect, not negative. Rather than giving a large treasury and saying "defend it", I want the human to build it up.

 

[The Person]

I will post something here if I experience some probelms with the events file when we get to that stage in the Post War scenario. (Which will probably be next year at the current rate.)

 

[yoshi]

@temurleng:

'Trigger units' (just a term I use) esentially do what you can't do using events alone.

Example (haven't tried this but should work--just doing it off the top of my head):

Effect: CivA gets +10 gold each turn per city that CivB owns. So, CivA will get 10 gold less per turn for each city CivB loses. If CivB recaptures cities, CivA will get +10 gold per turn for each city recaptured.

Units:

UnitA (MP=0, defense=1; CivA--no home)
UnitB (MP=1, atk=20 def=1, 'destroyed after attack' flag checked; Barbarian)
UnitC (sea; MP=1, atk=80 (12HP/FP), def=1; CivA--no home)

Events:

- 8 UnitAs and 8 UnitBs created each turn in adjecent (fortified) squares on 2 land tile island in remote part of map (UnitA on middle square).
- Unit B destroyes UnitA each turn.
- CivA gets 10 gold each time UnitA is destroyed.

- If a CivB city is captured, UnitC is created adjacent to UnitB (latter cannot attack former).
- UnitC will destroy 1 UnitB each turn, thus 1 more UnitA will be left over.

Result:

CivA will recieve less gold per turn.

(There is probably a way of doing it using only 2 units but that should give you a pretty good idea.)

@The Person:

Post any questions you feel like and we'll see what can be done to alleviate your troubles.

Good luck with the scen.

 

[temurleng]

Temurleng's Science Minister to His Ruler, Khan of Khans: Sire, our scribes have discovered a scroll purportedly capable of granting us powers of which we have long dreamed. But our illiterate peasants can't decipher it. We are, however, slowly making progress in translating the text. (translation: yoshi, this might take me a while...)

 

[yoshi]

yoshi, this might take me a while...

Here's a better way to do it (I think, because it uses one less unit type):


A = UnitA (owner=CivB)
B = UnitB (owner=Barbarians)
A1 = UnitA (owner=Barbarians)

- UnitA's first coordinates are occupied by a Barbarian UnitA.
- UnitA's second coordinates are adjacent to UnitB.

- If there are 3 UnitA's being spawned each turn (3 cities), then it looks like this:

A1 A1 A1

A(3)<--B

- If UnitA (owner=CivB) killed--by UnitB--then CivA receives 10 gold.
- If one of the 3 cities is captured, the corresponding Barbarian UnitA is deleted (via ChangeTerrain), thus the corresponding UnitA will appear there instead of adjacent to UnitB as it usually would.
- (Note that UnitA's will just pile up at the first coordinates until CivB re-captures its city. The problem with using ChangeTerrain to delete the extra UnitA's that appear is that if it's set to do so each turn it will allow Barbarian UnitAs to appear again--without the city being re-captured. Perhaps putting the event in just the right order; i.e. CT event AFTER UnitA created but BEFORE Barbarian UnitA created).

Result:

A A1 A1

A(2)<--B

Now, UnitB will kill one less UnitA (as 1 UnitA is at its first set of coordinates).

If all 3 cities are taken:

A A A

?<--B

(Just get rid of the lone UnitB with a ChangeTerrain event each turn (triggered by destruction of UnitA so UnitB has time to destroy UnitA(s) before being deleted by the CT event).

NOTE: Don't use Fortresses in this version (i.e UnitB has to be able to destroy all in 1 attack).


If you don't like to see the 'trigger' combat in the corner of the screen, you can also use another AI civ (e.g. CivC) rather than the 8th (Barbarian) civ so that you won't see the combat taking place (i.e. Barbarian units are visible to all players whereas other civs' units are only visible once revealed). Just be sure that they are always at war (i.e. start out at war and don't negotiate).

This explanation is not as clear as I would like it to be because I'm used to doing it directly via Events.txt...and it's the first time I've applied the 'trigger unit' thing to something like this (so I'm not 100% sure about it).



Another, simpler way fo doing it is to just use terrain instead (i.e. have 1 tile of terrain with high output near CivA's cities--1 each?): when a CivB city is captured, the corresponding tile changes to low-output terrain. Changes back when city re-taken.

Downside is that ChangeTerrain also deletes any units that happen to be on that tile when the event triggers. Could put an 'Impassable' unit there belonging to a neutral civ (i.e. a civ that everyone starts out allied with and can't negotiate with) that gets replaced whenever the CT event triggers.


I think I'll just create the Events.txt for you. You can just fill in the necessary values like owner, unit name, and coordinates. It'll be faster that way.

Both versions (in this post) are in the same events file I've attached.

 

[kobayashi]

very clever, i tip my hat to you yoshi.

how about swaping terrain between water and land to control the arrival of the fodder units.

No I am not Japanese, anyone know what the Kobayashi maru is?

 

[yoshi]

If you mean the lone UnitB left over if cities are taken, can't do that as without using flags (i.e. would require ToT), as it's an event that could only take place when x number of cities taken...if I'm reading my own post correctly.


Isn't the 'Kobayashi maru' the unwinnable battle simulation that Capt. Kirk cheated on, as indicated to Tuvok (Christie Ally) in 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'--Ricardo Montalban rules...in Star Trek...and Fantasy Island...(cough)...it's sad being a Mexican in Hollywood.

 

[yoshi]

Oops, I meant Saavik, not Tuvok. There I go mixing up my vulcans again...

 

[guard84]

Hey y'all....I've got an events.txt file that I'm pretty sure I've completed and written correctly...I've doublechecked all the names and adjectives against the Rules file, but it still insists I've made an "bug in the events.txt file." If somebody wouldn't mind taking a quick technical check of my file for me, please email me at christopher.curtiss@gmail.com with "events.txt check" in the subject. Thanks a lot.

 

[yoshi]

Sent you an e-mail. Will look over it.