Napoléon I 1805 - 1815 ToTPP and Lua scenario updated to v1.3

OK, I'm not sure if it's me but there are two things going on I don't understand:
1. The Hussar unit and I've checked with other unit by giving them Diplo abilities, cannot do ANYTHING with cities. No menu pops up, no sound is made, it just won't go to the square. I actually replaced the game.txt file with one from the old Napoleon and still no ability to investigate the city.
2. There was a hiccup where I had two Nelsons and two Vaillare events. It was awesome, and it might just be me, but it's something you might want a heads up on.

 

Did you name your scenario folder with a period, example Napoléon v1.3? If so you should just name it Napoléon.

It's a known bug that if there is a period in the scenario name that it causes problems including removing the diplomats abilities.

I just rechecked the code and don't know how this is possible as there is only one occasion where both Nelson and Villeneuve are created in the entire event file.

I've never ever encountered this issue before not even I'm my latest play tests so I'll need more information and probably a save file. When did this happen (turn)?


EDIT: As both Nelson and Villeneuve are set to randomly appear within the first 3 turns of the scenario I did a quick test and the event behaved as expected, i.e. the scenario only generated one copy of each unit. I ran the game a few turns after they appeared and the game didn't produce other copies.

So as I indicated, I would need copies of your saved games prior to the two units appearing and the turn when you indicated you reported to have 2 units of each.

 

Actually I'm guilty of stuff .I was ******* around with the game and saved it to an alternate folder, American kingdoms to see if the diplo functions worked there.

Because lau is reset when loading I wiped out the counters when I did that and THAT'S why I got two Nelsons .But screw it I,like it. Not for an actual game which I must restart now but because it was awesome.

Also because I'm impatient and using minor powers as settlers in peace time and have them alpine because I have stupid fingers and a sensitive mouse and now the replacements can't use the transporters. The imperial garde units use them no problem .

This isn't a bug in your end, it's me screwing around but I thought I'd ask .

Cause I did name the folder Napoleon 1.3. So that does explain some things.

 

Hi konig,

I know how much you like to tinker around with scenarios so please go ahead and enjoy yourself. But please be careful that if you are reporting potential bugs, and I hope at this point that there aren't any left, that they are related to the scenario as it was released and not through modifications of your own.

Sincerely,

Tootall

 

I understand that's why I tried to double check. I really don't want to be a fly in your ointment, so let everyone be clear, it seems all of these bugs are the thing s of my own, though the having a "." in the folder name was something I was not aware of. These are not developer bugs.

 

Hi John,

I had the opportunity to re-watch your video last night and would like to thank you once more, on behalf of myself and Knighttime, for the very kind words. As I’ve told him in the past, I believe in giving credit where credit is due so let me begin with his contribution.

In terms of programming, he carried all the heavy load. I don’t believe there is a single game feature or concept or problem I threw at him where he didn’t come up with a viable, working and elegant solution.

The diplomatic framework he set up is truly the heart and soul of the scenario and without it the game, in my humble opinion, would only have been a shell without it. As I mentioned in the Credit section of my ReadMe, that contribution alone was worth its weight in gold and I thank him profoundly for it.

But we were not the only actors in this project. As you indicated, Grishnach’s fantastic range units, city production limitations, administrative bonuses, unit capture features, amongst many others, helped to provide so much flavor to the game.

A huge thanks to Prof. Garfield, not only for the use of his regions concept and help tab, but the countless other game features he’s developed and for his tireless teaching efforts and library of re-usable code.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledged all the beautiful city, icon, terrain and unit art work created over the years by so many wonderful artists (like Catfish, Curt, Tanelorn to name just a few) that give the scenario, I believe its polished look. Of course, a special thanks to Fairline for all his amazing unit collections over the years, including his Napoleonic set.

A thanks to all the players who over the years not only play our scenarios but provide encouragement and feedback and suggestions on how to improve our designs.

I would like to extend a personal tribute to you as well. Since the beginning you have been the driving force to adopt lua into our designs. It’s only after you and Grishnach released Caesar that I truly began to understand the immense potential the language provided. So thank you for your videos, enthusiasm and showing the way.

In that sense, this was truly a collaborative community effort and I wanted to thank you all for helping to make this project a reality.

 

John's videos are great - I really enjoyed this one for Napoleon and the on-going OtR series.

Congrats to Yves and Knighttime on this release - I'm looking forward to playing

 

Hey, things to consider for documentation (which is honestly really really awesome!)

1. Is there a mechanical effect for Coalition leader deaths other than that unit does not respawn?
2. What are the chances of death versus respawning for each leader? Does this percentage remain stable or does it go down with each respawn?
3. Which naval vessels work for raiding/blockading? With the English, it seems their blockade works for all the regular warship classes and the amount pilfered is the same from a frigate as it is from a three-decker. Is this true of French privateering in zone 7? Which would mean the most cost-effective thing would be to build as many frigates as possible in Tolun and uber stack in near Alexandria. Does this privateering thing apply for non-ships of the line like Bombards, Transports and hero units (Nelson and Villeneuve)?
4. How many bombardments do naval units get? The rule seems to be the artillery get a bombardment at the cost of one full turn until they run out. Naval units seem to get one bombardment a piece, despite that Troi Decks used to get 2.
5. Tips on how to break Hero units and fortresses.
6. What do Spanish Guerrillas do?
7. Is Marantine Supremacy the ONLY way to avoid war in Spain or can you not renew the alliance and remain at peace?
8. Any tips on how to guard coastal zones? The way I've found that works best is between coalitions to use the hussar to probe in the zones under constriction and once you get the cannot bribe screen, then bring in horse artillery to batter the ship into submission.
9. Generation perquisites for Garde Cavalry, Carabiners and such. I had to look up the later and turns out there's a 15% of line Infanty for.....all Coalition Powers? Or just the Coalition Power in question?

But like I said, really enjoying this scenario.

 

1. Is there a mechanical effect for Coalition leader deaths other than that unit does not respawn?

None other than you don’t have to worry about fighting them anymore, which is no small advantage. The last thing you want to have occur is to have to keep fighting Wellington in Spain.

2. What are the chances of death versus respawning for each leader? Does this percentage remain stable or does it go down with each respawn?

The chance of death remains the same though it varies from one leader to another. The French leaders are the most likely to be permanently killed

3. Which naval vessels work for raiding/blockading? With the English, it seems their blockade works for all the regular warship classes and the amount pilfered is the same from a frigate as it is from a three-decker. Is this true of French privateering in zone 7? Which would mean the most cost-effective thing would be to build as many frigates as possible in Tolun and uber stack in near Alexandria. Does this privateering thing apply for non-ships of the line like Bombards, Transports and hero units (Nelson and Villeneuve)?

Players will need to figure out what strategies work best for them but a few bits of information to keep in mind:
- Don’t forget that each French vessels not only costs francs per turn to maintain but resources to build, resources that prevents you from building ground units
- The British will not let you operate freely in Egyptian waters
- Don’t forget you now have to deal with naval attrition both during summer and winter months so the further away you are from friendly ports the more vulnerable you become to it.

4. How many bombardments do naval units get? The rule seems to be the artillery get a bombardment at the cost of one full turn until they run out. Naval units seem to get one bombardment a piece, despite that Troi Decks used to get 2.

Check out Game Tips One (key “5”) - French Vessels and Naval Shells

The Trois-ponts used to be able to fire 2 shells but it was reduced to one shell per turn in the hopes of increasing the difficulty of achieving MS.

5. Tips on how to break Hero units and fortresses.

Artillery plays a big part in defeating leaders and fortresses. Assault either without them and you will rack up a high body count of casualties.

6. What do Spanish Guerrillas do?

They are designed primarily to interfere with French movement. In Spain where, in addition to the ones generated when you capture cities there are others which are randomly generated throughout the Peninsula.

7. Is Marantine Supremacy the ONLY way to avoid war in Spain or can you not renew the alliance and remain at peace?

Check out Coalition Wars Victory Conditions (key “4”) - Franco-Spanish Alliance Renewal

MS is part of the conditions required to renew the Franco-Spanish alliance. Without it you are condemned to fight Spain.

8. Any tips on how to guard coastal zones? The way I've found that works best is between coalitions to use the hussar to probe in the zones under constriction and once you get the cannot bribe screen, then bring in horse artillery to batter the ship into submission.

I usually prefer to let players devise their own strategies but in this case, in Metropolitan France, I typically try to have one veteran RdL and one Gendarmes in each of its coastal cities and then try to have either a few artillery, carabiniers or cavalry units in cities behind to react to any potential British invasion attempts.

9. Generation perquisites for Garde Cavalry, Carabiners and such. I had to look up the later and turns out there's a 15% of line Infanty for.....all Coalition Powers? Or just the Coalition Power in question?

The 15% applies for the Line Infantry you manage to kill for all Coalition Powers combined, i.e. the percentage doesn’t apply per power but for the total of Line Infantry killed.

 

Having now played this scenario up to 1809.

Achieving naval victory is much harder, I was able to, but only with much trial and error. The Irish rebels and Corfu are great additions. However, it would be interesting if the Irish Rebels had move points. Especially if the Irish rebels getting control of Dublin or Cork could lead to an event where a French Infantry and Lancer unit is created in Ireland and could be justified that a French Frigate squadron escaped the blockade with a handful of troops.

Spain continues to be a nut that I find hard to crack.

Did you intend for the French Militia unit to now count against the total number of French units lost for purposes of ignoring zone of control?

It would be interesting if, as in real history, the player could spend a large sum of money to create fortifications on the coastal cities. This was also what Napoleon did in reality to counter the incessant British naval raids and bombardments.


The new tech tree adds a whole new element and is much appreciated.

If you are still in mood to make changes I would recommend removing the General Confederation of the Rhine troops, letting Napoleon receive Saxon troops instead, and then using that slot for your lost Russian Guard Cavalry unit. You could put an event in place that if the allies take Dresden the Saxon troops revert to allied control (would be similar to how the Saxons changing sides in the Battle of Nations helped lead to Napoleons defeat in that battle).

Overall, remains devilishly hard and challenging. Has huge re-play value and a great scenario. I cannot wait to see what scenario you turn your considerable talents to next time.

 

Hi countmc,

When you have a chance, I’d be interested to know the following:

• What was the score and around what month you achieved it?
• Did you attempt to invade England and what happened?
• How did you find the British Naval Blockade of French ports (what was the final total cost)?

I’m glad to hear it. It certainly was historically. Does this mean you failed to renew the Franco-Spanish alliance despite having achieved maritime supremacy?

Yes I did. During my recent research, I discovered that the National Guard served in part as a force pool for Napoleon’s regular army.

In the end, it seemed fitting that all the branches, navy, army, artillery, cavalry, gendarmes should be counted in determining the status of L’Élan Napoléonien and the Ignore ZOC effects as they all drew from France’s manpower reserve.

I believe this was my intent when I introduced the ability for the French player to build extra Coastal Fortresses after discovering the ‘Siege Warfare’ advance. Typically, though not always, most fortified veteran Régiment de Ligne units in a city with a CF will survive shore bombardment from a Three Decker.

I wanted to introduce this uncertainty factor so that the French player didn’t end up taking the defense of coastal France for granted and therefore that they should be wary of possible British invasions.

If I allowed the French to build even minor forts it would be near impossible for the AI to mount credible invasions were they could capture French coastal cities.

I felt that previously the French tended to run out of techs to research by mid-game and would therefore switch their science over to taxes. I therefore decided to add some extra techs and give the player some interesting rewards for doing so.

You wouldn’t happen to have ancestors from the region would you?

As far as I was able to determine in my research, the Saxon contingents simply didn’t contribute as many troops as the Rhine Confederation did to Napoleon’s forces and therefore I opted for the latter.

As I may have indicated, starting in 1813, it is quite possible, if the right conditions are met, for Napoleon’s minor allies to defect. Contingents of Saxony and Brunswick may potentially, at that time, join the Allied camp.

As I may have mentioned in other threads, I’m currently working on the Battle of Alesia. The scenario attempts to reproduce the 3 day battle around the oppidum between Caesar’s Roman army and Vercingetorix' troops caught within the hill fort and the Gallic Relief force sent to free them.

It doesn’t have the same scope or scale as Napoleon but I hope players will find it interesting and fun to play nonetheless.

 

Probably a bit late for this, but here's some more accurate replacements for some of the units if you want to use them: Kingdom of Italy troops, Gen's Cuesta and Blake of Spain and Duchy of Warsaw / Polish Legion troops.

 

Hi Fairline,

Thank you for the updated units, they look great.

As you might have noticed the two Spanish leaders were actually modified versions of some of your Russian leader graphics. They were my poor attempts, at the time, to distinguish the 2 leaders from their Russian counterparts..

For those who are interested, I added a new v1.3 units file in the Scenario League site located here.

It replaces the current Neapolitan, Polish and Spanish leader units.

You simply need to unzip the file and place the units.bmp in your scenario folder to overwrite the previous version.

 

If I may inquire, what criteria about an infantry unit leads you to draw them with their rifle pointing from their mid-section, and which having their rifle pointing up an angle? Is it purely an "offensive," and "defensive" stance, or a "heavy" and "light" infantry types, purely stylistic, or something else.

 

It was done purely so that player's could easily distinguish between the "offensive" vs "defensive" type infantry units no matter the nationality. It thus avoids ambiguity for the players as they can tell immediately at a glance what type of unit they are dealing with.

 

I figured it was probably that, or "light" and "heavy' infantry, but I thought I'd clarify to be absolutely certain.

 

Using the bottom row Polish as an example, the first pose is for line infantry, the second for tougher elite infantry (grenadiers, guards etc) and the third for light infantry (he sorta looks like he's running...). I've used this convention consistently with all the Napoleonic units I've drawn.

 

There's just been a big gap between @tootall_2012's release and @McMonkey's remake of Bonaparte, which I believe was the last serious swing at the topic previously in the Scenario League. It makes perfect sense, though.

 

Really impressive stuff. Kudos to Knighttime and Tootall!

The recent developments have inspired me to give ToTPP and lua a go myself - mostly by going through the .lua files in OTR, Napoleon, Caesar etc. and attempting figuring out what everything means. I have a quick question that i haven't been able to find in the files:
How are the labels for the Kingdoms i.e. "Batavian Republic" and other areas such as "NORTH SEA" made? I have searched through the lua files in the scenario folder, but haven't been able to figure out the method for implementing custom labels such as these on the game map.

Sorry if this is painfully obvious, I am not experienced in any of this.

Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help a newcomer like me

 

Map landmarks are not a Lua feature, but a part of the base TOTPP, and can be changed when the cheat mode is on using ctrl+shift+2 (this instruction is in the TOTPP launcher).

If you want to learn Lua, I would recommend starting with my Lua Lessons (link is in my signature), rather than jumping into an events.lua file. I would strongly advise not trying to learn from OTR. It wasn't written with teaching in mind, I was figuring things out while writing the stuff, and a lot of it is poorly organized since at just about every step I was thinking that it was almost done but for one or two adjustments, so I just wanted to put the code somewhere.

If you want a specific OTR feature, ask me for it. I might have already written the feature in a more reusable format, or be willing to do so. At the very least, I'll be able to point you to where in the OTR file you can find the example.