Merr Skirmish v1 (solo)

Merr · Post by **Merr** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 10:37 am

Random Campaign, Map, Order Of Battle ... etc.

Credit for Random Map design ... Amaris (Alex) ... Thank you Alex!

For more details (I'll explain more later) ...
viewtopic.php?t=27971

Download link
http://www.gamefront.com/files/20812432 ... ish_v1.zip

Enjoy!

pk867 · Post by **pk867** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:16 am

how is this installed?

junk2drive · Post by **junk2drive** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:50 am

Download the zip file. Extract the folder inside to your MyDocuments\MyGames\BBCBA\Campaigns folder. Start the game and scroll through the campaigns list fpr Merr Skirmish

junk2drive · Post by **junk2drive** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:53 am

Merr I am able to scroll through the battles. Shouldn't they be locked?

Merr · Post by **Merr** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:16 am

junk2drive wrote:Merr I am able to scroll through the battles. Shouldn't they be locked?

You should be able to "scroll"... yes ... But look at the big-center-check mark to start the scenario ... That should be grey, not allowing you to run the scenario.

Is that the case?

If not, you're seeing something I thought I saw when I posted that over at tech support.

vicco · Post by **vicco** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 9:26 am

How do you install this mod for the BA Mac-version?

Merr · Post by **Merr** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 8:05 pm

vicco wrote:How do you install this mod for the BA Mac-version?

Good question ... I don't have a Mac, sorry

I would hate to guess the directory.

pk867 · Post by **pk867** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 8:15 pm

Hi,

I have a Mac. So the path is

~\Documents\MyGames\BBCBA\Campaigns folder

Macintosh HD\users\home folder\Documents\MyGames\BBCBA\Campaigns folder

vicco · Post by **vicco** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:28 pm

pk867 wrote:Hi,

I have a Mac. So the path is

~\Documents\MyGames\BBCBA\Campaigns folder

Macintosh HD\users\home folder\Documents\MyGames\BBCBA\Campaigns folder

Thank you for this tip!

Merr · Post by **Merr** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 7:39 pm

Gentlemen,

I'm currently working on a v1.1 update to fix one bug and add/change a few things...
I should have this up today after testing ...

Below is a quick screenshot on the 1st battle ... Nothing new, just a little action report ...

Panzer Ambush @ The Bridge !

- Visibility is low ... After only getting a few units across the bridge, a German Panzer Platoon rolls around the corner and hits my column!
- Fortunately, the Random "Aid" rolled a Rally this turn.
- The pontoon bridge (not shown, up north) is blocked by a tile of Forest, but my Armored halftrack was able to toss (unload) the troops across the stream to protect the north flank.
- I'm praying that the AI does NOT have artillery support. You can imagine how ugly it would be if they dropped it on my column!

Post by **pipfromslitherine** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 7:50 pm

It's really very cool. Once you are happy with it, we can pop it onto the download list and get it out to more people. At your pleasure of course

.

Cheers

Pip

Merr · Post by **Merr** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 8:18 pm

pipfromslitherine wrote:It's really very cool. Once you are happy with it, we can pop it onto the download list and get it out to more people. At your pleasure of course .

Yeah ... it's 99% ready.

One of the changes I did was slightly increase the HEattack for the Panzer Grenadiers (40%...+16 low/high) and the the US Armored Inf (20%...+8 low/high).
I understood that the panzer grenadiers Might be sporting an MP44 and an extra LMG42.
The slight increase for the US was because ... They are special units

.

Pending that specific change, (I may increase the high end to a value of 112/96... 80+32/80+16, respectively for each unit), there's really nothing else to tinker with (at the moment)

.

You know ... I'm going to pump up the high end (HEattack[1]) to the higher value. That was my original intention anyway!
So, pending any comments from the users we can add this to the download list!

Rob

Post by **pipfromslitherine** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 10:10 pm

Cool. I wonder if we could do a MP version of this - not carryover obviously, but a single random battle? It could even be cool to put it into the next update as an 'official' scenario, then everyone would have it, which ups the chances of people playing it. Do you think it would work for that?

Just crossed my mind.

Cheers

Pip

Merr · Post by **Merr** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 11:18 pm

pipfromslitherine wrote:Cool. I wonder if we could do a MP version of this - not carryover obviously, but a single random battle? It could even be cool to put it into the next update as an 'official' scenario, then everyone would have it, which ups the chances of people playing it. Do you think it would work for that?

Just crossed my mind.

I've been thinking about an MP version but I need to balance it ... Currently, the AI has about a 2:1 to 3:1 unit advantage!

Also, I've been working on a Quick Battle Campaign(US)(solo) ... Actually, it's 3 unlocked scenarios with 3 different map sizes/forces :
- Small .... 32 x 32.
- Medium .... 30 x 40.
- Large ... 30 x 50.
- Each scenario randomly selects the tileset (50/50 chance, Normandy/Bulge).
- Forces are somewhat even.
- This works ... but I need to update some scripts.

One of the scenarios (small/medium/large) will work perfectly as an MP scenario. Actually, I could build all three and let the player decide how big of a battle they want to play in MP ... Basically, it should keep all MP "types" happy for a little bit.

If that is cool ... I can create a British Campaign, which will add the Desert tileset, with appropriate units.
If that is even cooler ... I'll build a German Campaign, same as British camp tileset above.

Anyway ... The "quick battles" are more suited for MP play. I'm going to add my Hetzer and the Panzer Grenadiers into the mix. Also, I need to add a small chance the "heavy" tanks might be selected ... Nothing too huge, I think one Tiger or KingTiger here and there

.

Rob

Post by **pipfromslitherine** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 1:08 am

Well, if you have it all in hand, I will leave you to it then...

(puts feet on desk and opens newspaper)

(then remembers the iPad version needs finishing, as wells as lots of other stuff, so sighs and gets back to the codeface...)

I think that a 3 size campaign using the Normany/Bulge tilesets would be a great start.

Cheers

Pip

Merr · Post by **Merr** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 2:51 am

pipfromslitherine wrote: I think that a 3 size campaign using the Normany/Bulge tilesets would be a great start.

I just finished up a 4 scenario campaign (phew!) ... I even built the MP version (double phew!) ... Over the next few days I'll be tweaking it.

It's 4 now since I added a HUGE map (64x64) ... Eh, might be too big but it would be better if I didn't have a 64 unit limit!

Oh ... Let me tell you about my "unload unit" change ... This is extremely helpful for the German AI as well as the German Player in MP. I got rid of the "random facing" when unloading (this was kinda dumb anyway), and I spent time debating on how I can face a unit (even considered the ClosestUnitsToUnit function). I decided to just leave it alone, but, I now evened the playing field ... let me explain ...

As you know, in the PlaceUnit() function, there's a special "facing=8" condition that will load a unit to a transport if it's facing 8. Well, this works fine-and-dandy for the Allied player because that facing points to the right side (enemy side) of the map when it unloads AND when the unit is destroyed. The Germans are screwed by this (to put it mildly).
Of course, the player can unload the unit, change facing, then reload the unit but now the AI isn't going to unload and reload (well, someday when I write a "Fetch-the-doggie-treat" script for the AI dog (transport)

.

So, in my scenarios, I added a new condition to my new function for my OOB placement and since the Germans are starting on the right part of the map (most scenarios do anyway), facing 4 (not 8 ), it works beutifully! It's such a simple change I really can't imagine why I didn't figure out the flow of the function before now. Below is a snipet of the my modified PlaceUnit() function ... I changed the facing of the unit when it's being "tested" after it adds it to the map (only for side 1) ...

Code: Select all

	// place the unit out of map bounderies, so we can test its type later on
	id = AddUnit(15, 15, side, type) ;
	if ( side == 1 )
	{	
		SetUnitFacing(id, 180) ;
	}

Since this is the initial loaded unit facing, the German player (or AI) has a balanced unload to start the scenario !!
It doesn't break the "facing" parameter because if it's not going to load on a transport it will add the unit to the map (later) with the original facing parameter.

Anyway, back to tweaking ... Oh, I'm up to v1.2 for the Merr Skirmish ... I keep adding more AI changes (ugh!).

Rob

Post by **pipfromslitherine** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 2:57 pm

If you polish it any more, it will be too shiny to play

.

Looking forward to seeing it.

Cheers

Pip

Merr · Post by **Merr** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 10:30 pm

pipfromslitherine wrote:If you polish it any more, it will be too shiny to play .

Looking forward to seeing it.

Yeah ... me too! I've got one more AI function I need to try out, and I now decided that a huge map of 64x64 is just too big, so it's downsized to 30X60 ... There was too much map to cover on a 64x64.

Oh ... I do have a request that you can please add to your to-do list ....

Can you make a function called "GetUnitFacing(id)" ? It needs to return the facing in degrees. All the other facing functions you have now compare the facing to a tile or another unit, and it's unusable in my case.

The idea is to use the function in the PlaceUnit() function, where it can get the facing of the transport and apply that to the unit before it loads. This will cover all the bases regarding the initial setup.

It will run just before the unit loads (not at the place indicated in my example) ... Something like ;

facing = GetUnitFacing(GetGlobal("gTransport")) ;
SetUnitFacing(id, facing) ;

Thanks in advance,

Rob

Post by **pipfromslitherine** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 10:45 pm

Added to the todo list. It won't be in for the next update, we're already into testing on it, but should be in the following one.

Cheers

Pip

giffin · Post by **giffin** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:53 am

pipfromslitherine wrote:It's really very cool. Once you are happy with it, we can pop it onto the download list and get it out to more people. At your pleasure of course .

Cheers

Pip

How often do you download new custom battles for Battle Academy. I have down loaded all single player battles in the game. Are there more coming?

thanks! Love this Game!