Overlord Scenario Playtest Thread

[CurtSibling]

Got a new folder with a copy of the scenario all set and ready for Lua editing. Hit a small error, which I highlighted on the Lua thread. No doubt some oversight on my part.
I'm afraid my ignorance of the system will be a pest at first, but the advantages of learning this marvelous enhancement are too good to ignore.

Once I get Lua running error-free in the baseline scenario save/scn files, I will post my "shopping list" of changes to implement, based around the feedback advice
@JPetroski gave me a few posts ago. Restricting units to geo-areas is definitely a primary aim. And then I might expand my scope with the other functions...

 

[CurtSibling]

Updates to the scenario this week...!

Made some edit-tweaks as follows...

Germany starts play about to gain the "Air Warfare II" tech, giving them access to the FW190 fighter - Historically suitable in early 1941.
This situation then allows you the choice to research the "Barbarossa" tech, or to defer it till later...This is for player freedom.
Researching this tech in Jan 1941 should allow the attack to launch as close to CIV2 historical accuracy will allow.

At the same time, the Soviets are buidling a "Soviet War Project" wonder in Moscow. (the player can move it to anywhere)
This will trigger a pre-emptive "what if" Icebreaker-style attack if they complete it before Barbarossa is researched. It gives
the Soviets extra science, and replaces the late-game "Science Project", which no-one (myself or the AI) ever built.

The "Soviet War Project" is obsolete when Barbarossa is gained, making it useless, and hopefully, the Soviet civ will ditch it at that point.
I will test all this out, of course. This is while I try to iron out some Lua bugs.

Also, I added the ToTPP feature of @ATTACKS - Meaning certain fighters, tanks and ships are limited to one or two attacks.
This "might" stop the insane kamikaze attacks by ships, and unrealistic multiple fighter attacks from AI, we see how it pans out.
It does add a small dimension of challenge to the player. Meaning you must mass more units for sieges and big air battles.

Finally, I have been messing with the unit stats yet again! I am trying to find a perfect "mix" to urge the AI to utilise all units, and
to make use of infantry, tanks and not just AA guns and air attacks...I shall see how things pan out...Attacks for armor units are
now limited to one, some few special units can attack twice...Like the advanced MRL truck, for instance.

A few edits to the EVENTS, fixing some non-crashy errors and spawns.

 

[CurtSibling]

Latest version now available! Contains many changes as spoken of above. New game recommended for full effect.
Best advice is to protect your stacks! AA units, AA ships, and bomber/Jabo units are for stack defence.
I'll work on a readme file soon - It will explain the best tactics and how to succeed.

Some house rules if you wish, until I can get the Lua system implemented:
No tanks or artillery can be built in a remote city with no factory.
No ships or subs can be built in a remote city with no shipyard.
No national infantry can be built in a remote city with no barracks.

 

[CurtSibling]

ToTPP 15.1 has a wonderful addition of unit roster menu sizing - Perfect to look at these giant stacks...
Like the my UK invasion force in Feb 1941...Which I will try to shuttle across the channel...In a few freight ships...

 

[CurtSibling]

Jan 1942: The USSR sneak attack event worked perfectly...As it truly was a surprise!
They completed the preq wonder months ago, and they chose to attack now...

With many of my tanks deployed elsewhere, the new Ostwar is going to be fun...!
Lucky I ignored Barbarossa in favour of heavy bombers and Pazner IVs!

 

[CurtSibling]

During my playtest currently, the weird crash is happening again. It seems to be occuring when I get research to "future/advanced tech".
Had a look through the tech tree, as it seems like a crash that is caused by the infamous "preq loop", but cannot see any obvious anomalies.

Not sure if this is a bug with ToTPP? Perhaps someone can have a look through the tech tree and spot anything obvious...

Otherwise, the scenario is kind of broken for now.

 

[CurtSibling]

Strategic Bombing, 5,-2, Fli, MP, 2, 3 ; AFl 0 <Heavy Bomber>
Education, 0, 0, nil, nil, 0, 2 ; Alp 1 (School)=(Library)
Special Forces, 0, 0, Csc, Uni, 0, 0 ; Amp 2 <Elite Infantry>
Mobile AA Artillery, 5,-2, Bro, Rad, 1, 0 ; Ast 3 <AA Battery II>
Atomic Research, 0, 0, Che, Eco, 3, 2 ; Ato 4 (Atomic Research Lab)=(Research Lab)
American Science, 0, 0, Plu, nil, 3, 4 ; Aut 5
Economics, 0, 0, Tra, nil, 0, 1 ; Ban 6 (Department Store)=(Bank)
Railroad, 0, 0, Eng, Tra, 1, 1 ; Bri 7 (Rail Station)=(Superhighways)
Mobile Artillery, 5,-2, Too, Hor, 1, 0 ; Bro 8 <SP Artillery>
Mass Media, 0, 0, nil, nil, 3, 1 ; Cer 9 (Cinema)=(Temple)
Chemistry, 0, 0, nil, nil, 1, 2 ; Che 10
Mobile Warfare II, 4,-2, Hor, nil, 2, 0 ; Chi 11 <Armored Infantry/Panzergrenadiers>
Colonialism, 0, 0, nil, nil, 0, 2 ; CoL 12 (Governor)=(Courthouse)
Airborne Warfare, 5,-2, Fli, Csc, 0, 0 ; CA 13 <Paratrooper>
Automobile, 0, 0, Ref, Eng, 2, 1 ; Cmb 14 <Supply Truck> <Motorized Troops>
Communism, 0, 0, Plu, nil, 2, 4 ; Cmn 15 (Russians)
Wunderwaffe, 8,-2, Las, Roc, 3, 0 ; Cmp 16 <V2 Missile>
Conscription, 0, 0, nil, nil, 0, 0 ; Csc 17 <Basic Infantry>(Army Base)
Fortifications, 0, 0, Pot, Csc, 1, 1 ; Cst 18 (City Defences)=(City Walls)(Coastal Battery)=(Coastal Fortress)
Lend-Lease, 8,-1, Aut, MP, 3, 4 ; Cor 19 <Liberty Ship>[500 gold per turn for American Allies]
Royal Air Force, 0, 0, Plu, Fli, 1, 3 ; Cur 20 (Hurricane/Spitfire/Beaufighter/Wellington)
Democracy, 0, 0, ToG, Mys, 0, 2 ; Dem 21 (Americans/British/Chinese)
Total War Economy,0, 0, MP, nil, 2, 1 ; Eco 22 (Factory Upgrade)=(Power Plant)
Electricity, 0, 0, nil, nil, 2, 2 ; E1 23
American Culture, 0, 0, no, no, 3, 4 ; E2 24
Engineering, 4, 0, nil, nil, 1, 1 ; Eng 25 (Warehouses)=(Granary)
AA Escort Vessels, 7,-2, Nav, Roc, 3, 3 ; Env 24 <AA Cruiser II>
Submarine Forces, 6,-2, Nav, Map, 3, 3 ; Esp 27 <Submarine>
Engineer Corps, 0, 0, Alp, Csc, 1, 1 ; Exp 28 <Engineer>
Fascism, 0, 0, Plu, nil, 1, 4 ; Feu 29 (German/Japanese)
Air Warfare I, 5,-2, nil, nil, 1, 3 ; Fli 30 <Fighter/Bomber>(Airbase)=(Airport)
Fanaticism, 8,-1, Feu, Eco, 1, 4 ; Fun 31 (German/Japanese)
Atomic Power, 0, 0, SFl, RR, 3, 2 ; FP 32 (Atomic Plant)=(Nuclear Plant)
Jagdbomber II, 7,-2, Phy, Sth, 2, 3 ; Gen 33 <Ar-234 Blitz>
Partisan Warfare, 0, 0, Csc, nil, 0, 0 ; Gue 34 <Partisans>
Gunnery, 0, 0, nil, nil, 1, 0 ; Gun 35 <Field Artillery/AA Battery>
Mobile Warfare I, 4,-1, Cmb, Gun, 2, 0 ; Hor 36 <Light Tank>
Asian Culture, 0, 0, no, no, 0, 3 ; Ind 37
European Culture, 0, 0, no, no, 0, 2 ; Inv 38
MRL Artillery, 5,-2, Cmb, Roc, 3, 0 ; Iro 39 <MRL Truck>
Industrialisation, 0, 0, Bri, Ban, 2, 1 ; Lab 40 (Factory)
Luftwaffe, 0, 0, Plu, Fli, 1, 4 ; Las 41 <Bf-109/Bf-110/Ju-87 Stuka/Ju-88>
Mobile Warfare III, 5,-2, Chi, MP, 2, 0 ; Ldr 42 <Medium Tank>
ASW Operations, 7,-2, Esp, Rad, 3, 3 ; Lit 43 <Submarine II/Escort Carrier>
Heavy Artillery, 5,-2, Gun, Cmb, 1, 0 ; Too 44 <Heavy Artillery>
Merchant Marine, 0, 0, Map, Ban, 3, 3 ; Mag 45 <Freighter/Troop Ship>
Shipbuilding, 0, 0, Lab, Sea, 3, 3 ; Map 46 (Shipyard)=(Offshore Platform)
Improved Infantry, 5,-2, Csc, Eco, 0, 0 ; Mas 47 <1944-Era Infantry>
Mass Production, 0, 0, Lab, Ban, 2, 1 ; MP 48 (Munitions Plant)=(Manufacturing Plant)
Air Warfare II, 6,-2, Fli, MP, 1, 3 ; Mat 49 <Heavy Fighter>
Medicine, 0, 0, nil, nil, 1, 2 ; Med 50 (Hospital)=(Colosseum)
Air Warfare III, 7,-2, Mat, Rad, 1, 3 ; Met 51 <Advanced Fighter/Bomber>
Amerika Bomber, 7,-2, Las, AFl, 2, 3 ; Min 52 <Ju-390>
Mobile Warfare V, 7,-2, Tac, Bro, 2, 0 ; Mob 53 <1945-Era Tank>
Imperialism, 0, 0, Plu, nil, 0, 2 ; Mon 54 (British/Germans)
Religion, 0, 0, nil, nil, 0, 2 ; MT 55
Popular Culture, 0, 0, nil, nil, 0, 3 ; Mys 56
Modern Navy, 5,-2, SE, Too, 3, 3 ; Nav 57 <AA Cruiser/Heavy Cruiser>
Nuclear Fission, 0, 0, Ato, Uni, 3, 2 ; NF 58
Royal Navy, 0, 0, Plu, nil, 3, 3 ; NP 59 (Gives British Ships +1 Movement)
European Science,0, 0, no, no, 0, 2 ; Phi 60
Jagdbomber I, 7,-2, Las, Mat, 2, 3 ; Phy 61 <Hs-129>
SCEN TECH, 0, 0, no, no, 0, 0 ; Pla 62 TWICE REMOVED
World War II, 0, 0, Pla, nil, 0, 0 ; Plu 63 ONCE REMOVED
Panzer Destroyer,8,-1, Rob, Fli, 1, 3 ; PT 64 <Il-2 Sturmovik>
Public Works, 0, 0, nil, nil, 1, 1 ; Pot 65 (Modern Sewer)=(Aqueduct)<Worker>
Radar, 0, 0, E1, Lab, 2, 2 ; Rad 66 (Radar Station)=(SAM Battery)
Improved Logistics, 0, 0, Bri, MP, 1, 1 ; RR 67 <Upgrades Railroads>
Special Air Service,8,-1, Cur, CA, 0, 0 ; Rec 68 (SAS Squad)
Refining, 5, 4, Lab, Che, 2, 1 ; Ref 69 (Refinery)=(Stock Exchange)
Wartime Agriculture,0, 0, Lab, Csc, 1, 1 ; Rfg 70 (Industrial Farm)=(Supermarket)
Republic, 0, 0, Plu, nil, 0, 2 ; Rep 71 (Americans/Chinese/Neutrals)
Red Army, 0, 0, Cmn, Csc, 2, 4 ; Rob 72 <Soviet Forces>
Rocketry, 6,-2, Eco, Che, 3, 0 ; Roc 73 (Secret Weapon Project)=(Darwin's Voyage)
Reconstruction, 0, 0, Pot, MP, 1, 1 ; San 74 (Modern Housing)=(Sewer System)
Sea Trade, 0, 0, Tra, nil, 3, 3 ; Sea 75 <Civilian Liner>(Harbor)
Atomic Weapons, 0, 0, NF, AFl, 3, 2 ; SFl 76 <Atom Bomb>
Jet Aircraft, 5,-2, Met, Roc, 3, 0 ; Sth 77 <Jet Fighter>
Sea Power, 0, 0, Map, Lab, 3, 3 ; SE 78 <Destroyer/Light Cruiser>(Naval Base)=(Port Facility)
Kamikaze Weapons, 8,-2, Roc, Fun, 3, 0 ; Stl 79 <MXY-7 Ohka>
Super Heavy Vessels,7,-2, Wri, MP, 3, 3 ; Sup 80 <Super Battleship>
Mobile Warfare IV, 6,-2, Ldr, Roc, 2, 0 ; Tac 81 <1944-Era Tank>
Christianity, 0, 0, nil, nil, 0, 4 ; The 82 (Church)=(Cathedral)
Alliance, 0, 0, Plu, nil, 0, 2 ; ToG 83 (Americans/British/Chinese)
Commerce, 0, 0, nil, nil, 0, 1 ; Tra 84 (Local Industry)=(Marketplace)
Officer Training, 0, 0, nil, nil, 0, 2 ; Uni 85 (Academy)=(University)
Wehrmacht, 0, 0, Plu, Csc, 1, 4 ; War 86 <Grenadiers/Panzergrenadiers/Panzer III>
Barrage Battalions, 7,-1, Rob, nil, 0, 0 ; Whe 87 <Assault Troops>
Capital Ships, 5,-2, Nav, Map, 3, 3 ; Wri 88 <Battleship/Carrier>
Advanced Technology,1, 0, FP, Roc, 2, 2 ; ...
Barbarossa, 0, 0, War, Feu, 1, 4 ; U1 90 [Germans and Soviets will fight each other]
Moscow Captured, 0, 0, no, no, 1, 4 ; U3 91 [German Victory Condition]
Leningrad Captured, 0, 0, no, no, 1, 4 ; U2 92 [German Victory Condition]
Stalingrad Captured,0, 0, no, no, 1, 4 ; X1 93 [German Victory Condition]
Barbarossa Success, 0, 0, no, no, 1, 4 ; X2 94 [Given when the Germans have both techs 91 and 92]
Caucasus Success, 0, 0, no, no, 1, 4 ; X3 95 [Given when the Germans have both techs 91 and 93]
London Captured, 0, 0, no, no, 1, 4 ; X4 96 [German Victory Condition. Triggers war with USA]
Torch, 5,-2, ToG, Ldr, 3, 4 ; X6 97 [Creates an Allied invasion of Mediterranean]
Overlord, 5,-2, ToG, Tac, 3, 4 ; X7 98 [Creates an Allied invasion of Western Europe]
Unthinkable, 0, 0, no, no, 2, 4 ; X7 99 [Allies and Soviets will fight each other]​

 

[CurtSibling]

My suspicion is that there is an error loop hidden among the national techs, or late-tech tree, as the crash/bug only appears at the tech tree end.

I can't really progress with the scenario until I get this sorted out. So my next move is to recreate the tech tree from the ground up.

If anyone has the scenario, please let me know if you spot anything odd in the tree, or if the game crashes once you have all the techs.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

During my playtest currently, the weird crash is happening again. It seems to be occuring when I get research to "future/advanced tech".
Had a look through the tech tree, as it seems like a crash that is caused by the infamous "preq loop", but cannot see any obvious anomalies.

I wrote some code to check for prerequisite loops, and didn't find any. (ctrl+shift+F3 brings up the console, then use load script button to run the file)

I did test the code on rules that did contain a loop, and it was caught, so the code seems to be working correctly. The code I wrote can't distinguish between <no> and <nil> prereqs, so that might be a problem. I don't know much about these sorts of errors, so I'm not sure what to check for. Maybe try setting future tech with prerequisites nil,nil, and see if the crash still happens.

 

[CurtSibling]

Thanks for looking into this, @Prof. Garfield.

I made every tech in the CIVILIZE list as having nil,nil as prerequisites. It still crashed.
I then kept this setup, and reverted both the Labels and Game text files to vanilla, still crashing.
In cheat mode, interestingly the other civs did not have the crash...Then, I made a breakthrough.

When used cheat to delete a large number of units in my civ, the crash ceased.
So it must be a unit limit issue. I must check what the limits are in ToTPP...
I assume the crash must be due to the huge map and vast armies...

The save where the crash was happening had 834 units, and when I brought that down to 462, no crash...

Time to check the ToTPP patch setup...!

 

[CurtSibling]

700 units seems to be the magic number, as using cheats, I reduced the unit count until the crash stopped.
Now anywhere over that number, CIV2 seems to crash. I have the ToTPP limits well outside that range, somewhere at 10000 units just for testing.

Maybe this is a bug worth reporting in the ToTPP thread...It definitely stuffs my vision of a grand WW2 campaign scenario!

 

[voltar]

Just to say I have an Imperialism3 game with nearly 4,000 units running stable.
Pretty stoked for Overlord, I play the heck out of Dictator7 (the version on sleague has mad bugs though, prereq crashes with Chemsitry IIRC in some files, event problems with calls to nonexisting units Panzers and GIs mostly IIRC, spent hours fixing it lol) and Eurasian Wars

D8 when?

 

[CurtSibling]

Thanks, Voltar!
Overlords was the "Dictator 8" of the 2020s! I doubt this latest WW2 adventure will be the last, as I am always looking to create the perfect megalomania.

Yeah, this crash is somewhat mysterious, and only seemed to appear when I switched to ToTPP 15.1 - Tempts me to go back to 13, which worked fine.
Seems this bug/crash only really happens with ground units, and when the "G" key is used to move to a city...I guess it can be avoided for now...

It encourages the player to keep his unit roster tidy...And at least navy and air units can still be sent to distant destinations with the "goto" command.

 

[Civinator]

Curt, can it be, that you have disabled TOTPP patch 24 during your test ?

 

[CurtSibling]

@Civinator
I have messed with the numbers, but never turned it off, as the save won't load without that patch active.

 

[voltar]

For the record i'm on 15.1, it can't just be unit counts.

 

[CurtSibling]

Well, when I reduce the unit count below a certain number, the crash stops. And it only affects land units. I can still use "goto" with any other domain unit.

 

[CurtSibling]

If any of you guys would like to install this latest build of the scenario and test, I'd be grateful.
I have a zip of Overlords currently, including the crashy save (the files are safe to use)...

Can you install, load the save, select a land unit, and hit "g", then tell me what happens?

As for ToTPP 15.1 patches, I have everything but these following selected:
"City/Unit Overview"
"City Sprites"
"Directshow Music"
"Lua Scripts"
"Lua Scenarios"
"Move Debug"
"Debug Scripts"

 

[voltar]

Yup fatal error for me there. Dunno.

 

[CurtSibling]

Well, at least it is not my ToT installation, then - I am leaning towards a ToTPP bug, or one of the new @COSMIC2 settings I added recently.

Detective hat time!