The Cold War: Playtest Thread

[Prof. Garfield]

How would you envision this working? Some event where if the AI has >= a certain gold threshold and owns a city with an international port/coastal flag they may purchase a unit that's for sale and have it shipped there?

Something like that. You said that instead of buying units, the AI was simply given them. My idea is to turn some of these gifts into purchases, perhaps using if statements so that the AI buy from the lowest bidder in a class of equipment, or at least has an increased chance to do so. Otherwise, the weapon sales mechanic doesn't mean much to the European player in single player.

On the subject of European weapon sales, would you like me to change the code so that pro-west can only buy the cheapest equipment offered in a given class? Otherwise, Pro-West would nearly always buy from USA, the only exception being a type of unit not being offered by the USA, since the USA player controls the pro west tribe.

 

[JPetroski]

Something like that. You said that instead of buying units, the AI was simply given them. My idea is to turn some of these gifts into purchases, perhaps using if statements so that the AI buy from the lowest bidder in a class of equipment, or at least has an increased chance to do so. Otherwise, the weapon sales mechanic doesn't mean much to the European player in single player.

On the subject of European weapon sales, would you like me to change the code so that pro-west can only buy the cheapest equipment offered in a given class? Otherwise, Pro-West would nearly always buy from USA, the only exception being a type of unit not being offered by the USA, since the USA player controls the pro west tribe.

I like both of these ideas - I may need to expand the classes for idea #2 though as I think it means that they'd always be forced to buy junk given that all fighters have the same class currently.

To spare that, is it possible to buy only the cheapest unit per attack value? Because all the fighters and tanks in their respective tiers share stats. That way you'd choose the cheapest of MiG15, F86, and Hunter and not get stuck with a Spitfire just because it is the cheapest "fighter."

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I like both of these ideas - I may need to expand the classes for idea #2 though as I think it means that they'd always be forced to buy junk given that all fighters have the same class currently.

To spare that, is it possible to buy only the cheapest unit per attack value? Because all the fighters and tanks in their respective tiers share stats. That way you'd choose the cheapest of MiG15, F

I meant tier when I said category. If units of the same tier have the same attack, then it should be relatively easy to make this work. I'll look into it tomorrow.

 

[techumseh]

Am I missing something? There does not appear to be a multi-player scenario file, regardless of which events I load.

 

[JPetroski]

Am I missing something? There does not appear to be a multi-player scenario file, regardless of which events I load.

You're not missing anything. There is one scenario file and two events files. Basically what the SP events file does is:

1. Moves much of the "afterProduction" text to on turn (so you only see the intro once, instead of 7 times).
2. Adds in AI helper events and mechanisms (rebellions, arms sales, etc.)

 

[JPetroski]

@Prof. Garfield was kind enough to quickly add a couple of nice features that I'm attaching here. These are save game compatible and don't change things so drastically that anyone needs to restart. I am committed to not making drastic changes until you've all had a chance to play this and weigh in, but little non-game breaking tweaks or additions (such as potentially more text boxes or little flavor events) may be added from time to time.

Anyway, if you install this you need to run the Cold War batch file again to load up your events.

Changes:

1. The seller will now receive a notification that a weapon sale was made, including who bought the item and how much net proceeds the seller received.
2. If you hit enter too quickly and missed this, you can now press "1" to bring up an archive box of this message.
3. The Pro-West and Pro-East can no longer give money away and need to buy weapons to transfer funds.
4. The Pro-West now will only buy the cheapest unit in any given class, which effectively means that Europe has a chance to sell to this tribe in MP. Classes are done first by type (so "Fighter") and then tier (which is based on attack rating). So, F-86 vs Hunters, F4 Phantoms vs. Mirage III, etc.

Many thanks to Prof. Garfield for this great little hotfix that makes the scenario that much better.

 

[techumseh]

You're not missing anything. There is one scenario file and two events files. Basically what the SP events file does is:

1. Moves much of the "afterProduction" text to on turn (so you only see the intro once, instead of 7 times).
2. Adds in AI helper events and mechanisms (rebellions, arms sales, etc.)

 

[techumseh]

How do you play a multi-player game when there isn't a multi-player scenario file?

 

[JPetroski]

How do you play a multi-player game when there isn't a multi-player scenario file?

You dont need to have two scenario files. Any scenario can be played in hot seat mode.

 

[techumseh]

If you'd like to be a little more helpful, I'll gladly playtest your scenario for you.

 

[JPetroski]

If you'd like to be a little more helpful, I'll gladly playtest your scenario for you.

I'm not trying to come across as short with you, its just you're asking a question that has a brief answer. Any .scn file can be started in hotseat mode-- there's no special extension like ".hot", which only appears for saves. So all you need to do to play as, say, the Americans and their proxy is to select "start a multiplayer game" in the menu and then select "begin a scenario" and pick the Cold War scenario.

You do need to use the batch file, because I have added events for the SP game that aren't in the MP game, mostly because they make things easier for the AI.

Unless you're playing a game where you intend to play all 7 civs "against yourself," what you really want is the single player events, which will work fine in hotseat so long as you are ONLY playing either the USA and their proxy, or the Soviet Union and their proxy. Don't, for example, play as the Soviets and China.

I hope this helps and sorry if I came across as short. It wasn't my intention.

 

[techumseh]

Thank you. I don't know what I did wrong! Sorry for being both dense AND terse. It was one minor frustration among many recently.

I saw someone recommend playing the US or the Soviet Union and their corresponding ally together in a multi-player game and it seemed to be a capital idea. I'll get on with that. I've started a single player game as China, which I will continue simultaneously.

 

[JPetroski]

Sometimes what happens is if you're involved in a MP game (like Brown Mans Burden), the game kind of "saves" the place of your selection on "load a saved game," so if you just hit enter quick and move to a folder that doesn't have a .hot file in it, it's going to look like there's no file to open. That may have been what happened.

The Soviets are quickly becoming my favorite SP civ to play. The AI puts up a decent enough fight and it's fun to gift help to China and India to help them along.

 

[JPetroski]

I noticed a bug where Chelyabinsk couldn't build the T-55 despite having the military industry. This was because I didn't place them as a USSR home city. This corrects the issue and is save game compatible.

@tootall_2012 I see what you mean about the civilopedia. I'm probably not going to add describe text for units in this scenario but will make an effort later this week to at least get all units showing up in the pedia correctly.

 

[tootall_2012]

One of the advantages of the describe file is that it doesn't require you to include a unit description to make them available in the Civilopedia. Adding them to the unit index is sufficient.

A really hope to be able to have a go at the scenario in the near future. In addition to the game itself, I'm quite curious to see what you've done with lua. BTW, I really like the look of the underwater ocean. Quite cool!

 

[JPetroski]

I noticed a bug where China had a 99% chance of getting a nationalist fighter on their side rather than a 50% chance. This is now corrected.

BTW, I really like the look of the underwater ocean.

I think I got that from the Subworld scenario - definitely not my own stuff.

I'm quite curious to see what you've done with lua.

I think the menus and dialogue choices are my favorite new trick for scenario design... You can use one tech "Diplomatic Maneuvering" and then have it call up a dialogue box with all sorts of possibilities, for example, and then have the same event take the tech away so it's ready to be researched every other research cycle. Quite useful and opens many possibilities!

 

[JPetroski]

I forgot to make a change to the MP events to ensure that the Non-Aligned government swap works. The SP events already had this change.

I'm playing a grand playtest of all 7 civs against myself to see where everything winds up so I'm running into a few bugs here and there that I didn't notice in SP playthroughs.

 

[techumseh]

After a couple of false starts, I'm getting underway again as the Soviet Union and the Pro-East. Here's one suggestion right off the bat:Is it possible to require SSKs to end their turn on the surface map? Diesel-electric boats had to spend large amounts of time on the surface to recharge their batteries, so allowing them to operate indefinitely underwater is not entirely realistic. One of the key advantages of SSNs was the ability to stay submerged for long periods of time. This would provide an additional incentive to research Nuclear Powered Navy early on.

 

[JPetroski]

It would be possible to teleport them to the surface at the start of the next players turn, but it would probably just be easier to remove their native transport and make players wait to "submerge."

 

[techumseh]

Could you use Lua to delete any SSKs that end their turn on the deep sea map? Do AI subs operate on both maps, btw?