Units experience

[Kossatx]

Hi, anyone knows how to mod the units experience rank in an scenario? Thanks!

[Robotron]

So you want to use the experience system from my mod in the basic game.

I'm afraid that's not so easily done but you can try the following:

- copy the script game.experience.lua from data/scripts/game into the same folder of the basic mod

- copy the medal graphics "exp_1", "exp_2", "exp_3" from data/graphics/flags into the same folder of the basic mod

Now the difficult part: open the script main_hud.lua from Potzblitz in an editor and check for all lines with occurrences of "experience" or "exp_" and copypaste those lines over the corresponding places in the main_hud.lua script of the basic game.

The line numbers will vary since the Potzblitz script is quite a bit modified.

[Kossatx]

Thanks very much Robotron, but the modification I want to do is over your own mod... I enjoy a lot with your Potzblitz mod and only want to do a few changes, one of them is to modify some units starting experience. I'm not making my own mod because I don't have your abilities, I only want to play your mod with a few changes

[Robotron]

Ah, okay.

To change specific unit expierience you first have to tell the game at game start which units are to be affected.

First tell the game at which hex the unit is.

This is done by the GetHex(x,y) command, where x and y are the hex coordinates.

For example let's change the starting experience of the Serbian unit in Belgrade.

The Belgrade hex location is at x 109 and y 38 (as you can see by the x/y coordinates display I cunningly added above the game/turn date).

So the syntax would be:

Code: Select all

local hex = GetHex(109,38)

"local" is needed so the hexes' stats like territory, ownership, unit status (if any) etc. are put into a variable and can be assessed.

Now let's edit the unit experience on that hex at 109,38.

Code: Select all

hex.unit.luaData.experience = ??? 

where ??? is any non-negative value you like. Trained level starts at 100. Veteran level starts at 200. Elite level starts at 300.

So, to change specific units you type

Code: Select all

local hex = GetHex(x,y) 
hex.unit.luaData.experience = ???

for every unit you want to change experience for, where x,y and ??? are placesholders for the values you want to enter.

Now, there's a small problem: Potzblitz already assigns experience for all units already on the map at game start.
For example, all Serbian units are assigned a random value between 150 and 250 in singleplayer where the player is CP and between 90-250 for singleplayer as Entente or multiplayer.

This is done in game.events.lua starting in the function called StartExperience which starts at line 2372.
So in case you really want to assign very specific unit experience to specific units you must override the values given by that function by assigning the values you want at the end of the function.

The whole function ends at line 2589. So you can insert NEW lines between line 2588 and 2589 to enter your values until you have assigned all values.
But you have to make sure that the values you want to assign are only assigned at the start of the game.
Therefore you have to put all your changes into a IF...THEN...END statement likes this:

Code: Select all

if game.turn == 1 then

local hex = GetHex(109,38)
hex.unit.luaData.experience = 500

local hex = GetHex(107,42)
hex.unit.luaData.experience = 200

local hex = GetHex(107,38)
hex.unit.luaData.experience = 100

end

This would assign 500 experience points to the Serbian unit in Belgrade, 200 exp points to the unit in Cetinje and 100 points to the unit in Cer.

If you want to "bulk-assign" unit experience to ALL units of certain factions, like making all Russian units veterans you have to change the randomizer intervals in the loops for that faction in the function.


For example at line 2543 you will find the loop that assigns a random value of 10 to 110 exp points to ALL Belgian units:

Code: Select all

for unit in belgium.units do					
    GetUnitExperience(unit)
    unit.luaData.experience = math.random(10,110)
end

the "math.random(10,110)" statement is the randomizer for the lowest (10) and highest possible (110) values. Change those to values you feel more appropriate.

Instead of using the randomizer you can of course define specific values like:

Code: Select all

  unit.luaData.experience = 666

This would assign 666 exp points to all Belgian units in the loop above.

[Kossatx]

Great! Thanks for your time Robotron, I'm a fan of your mod!

[Tulius Hostilius]

So you want to use the experience system from my mod in the basic game.

I'm afraid that's not so easily done but you can try the following:

- copy the script game.experience.lua from data/scripts/game into the same folder of the basic mod

- copy the medal graphics "exp_1", "exp_2", "exp_3" from data/graphics/flags into the same folder of the basic mod

Now the difficult part: open the script main_hud.lua from Potzblitz in an editor and check for all lines with occurrences of "experience" or "exp_" and copypaste those lines over the corresponding places in the main_hud.lua script of the basic game.

The line numbers will vary since the Potzblitz script is quite a bit modified.

Hi Robotron,

If you can give me here a push, I would appreciate.

I am trying to introduce the experience in my mod, but I am dallling to do so. The first to steps seem simple, and I think that I did them correctly, but when I change the main_hud.lua the problems begin. The game initiates but crashes on the first combat.

The ctgw.log is the following:

Log date: 2018-09-07 21:37:48
[21:37:48][6188]Running Steam build
[21:37:52][6188]Unable to read game settings. Using defaults.
[21:37:54][6188]Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series version: 4.5.13521 Compatibility Profile Context 24.20.11016.4
[21:37:54][6188]Commander: The Great War(v 1.6.6)
[21:37:54][6188]Audio device used: OpenAL Soft
[21:37:54][6188]Loading main script
[21:37:54][6188]Loading app script
[21:37:54][6188]App version:1.6.6
[21:37:54][6188]Today is: 7.9.2018
[21:37:59][10168]Invalid railroad from: KRISTIANA
[21:38:04][6188]Staring game turn 1
[21:38:04][6188]Phase start: central_powers
[21:38:08][6188]game/game_experience.lua:43(global GetUnitExperience) game/game_experience.lua:43: attempt to index local 'unit' (a number value)

The line 43 in the game_experience.lua is:

if unit.lua.Data.experience == nil then

and I confess that I am stuck here for some time….

[Robotron]

it's unit.luaData.experience

not unit.lua.Data.experience.

Can you spot the difference? Simple but quite important.

[Tulius Hostilius]

it's unit.luaData.experience

not unit.lua.Data.experience.

Can you spot the difference? Simple but quite important.

Thanks... and I am terribly sorry, I made a mistake and with that induced you to a mistake.

I copy the all file from yours (game.experience.lua), as you mentioned in your first post, so it is correctly spelled in the file, the error that I made now, was not copy/pasting from the file to the post in this forum (it is in other PC), writing it manually and having the typo with the additional dot. In other words, the problem is not there in the additional dot.

So the line 43 is: unit.luaData.experience == nil then

Probably I should note that I didn’t made any change to the file game.experience.lua besides changing it by yours to beginin to work with the experience and the changes in the file and the only changes made previously to the file main_hud.lua was to introduce the coordinates.

[Robotron]

I'm confused. Are you still getting the same error?

[Tulius Hostilius]

I'm confused. Are you still getting the same error?

Sorry for not being clear. That typo that I wrote here confused the things.

Yes. I am getting the error posted above.

The last ctgw.log is the following:

Log date: 2018-09-08 17:09:50
[17:09:50][5280]Running Steam build
[17:09:53][5280]Unable to read game settings. Using defaults.
[17:09:55][5280]Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series version: 4.5.13521 Compatibility Profile Context 24.20.11016.4
[17:09:55][5280]Commander: The Great War(v 1.6.6)
[17:09:55][5280]Audio device used: OpenAL Soft
[17:09:55][5280]Loading main script
[17:09:55][5280]Loading app script
[17:09:55][5280]App version:1.6.6
[17:09:55][5280]Today is: 8.9.2018
[17:10:03][7464]Invalid railroad from: KRISTIANA
[17:10:08][5280]Staring game turn 1
[17:10:08][5280]Phase start: central_powers
[17:10:18][5280]game/game_experience.lua:43(global GetUnitExperience) game/game_experience.lua:43: attempt to index local 'unit' (a number value)

And in the mentioned line (43) of your game_experience.lua file we can see:

“if unit.luaData.experience == nil then”

The game goes well until the first attack. With the attack freezes and I must do Ctrl+alt+del to get out.

If I want to play the game I must return to the old fiiles game_experience.lua and main_hud.lua.

I followed your instructions in your first post here. So probably the error is in the file main_hud.lua since I didn't change the game_experience.lua. In that sence the ctgw.log confused me.

[Robotron]

Phew...this is getting complicated. Let me explain.

There is a special function called StartExperience(), which is part of the event list in PotzBlitz.
This function makes sure all units on the map at game start are being assigned a value for experience.
That function is triggered, like all the other events by another function called TriggerTurnEvents, which is also part of game_events.lua.

Copy the whole function called "StartExperience()" found in game_events.lua in PotzBlitz into YOUR MOD's game_events.lua

Then insert a function call for the StartExperience() function into the TriggerTurnEvents() function in YOUR MOD's game_events.lua so that it reads (for example):

Code: Select all

function TriggerTurnEvents()
  
StartExperience()
   
ChrismasTruce()  

..etc...

Then report back.

[Tulius Hostilius]

Phew...this is getting complicated. Let me explain.

There is a special function called StartExperience(), which is part of the event list in PotzBlitz.
This function makes sure all units on the map at game start are being assigned a value for experience.
That function is triggered, like all the other events by another function called TriggerTurnEvents, which is also part of game_events.lua.

Copy the whole function called "StartExperience()" found in game_events.lua in PotzBlitz into YOUR MOD's game_events.lua

Then insert a function call for the StartExperience() function into the TriggerTurnEvents() function in YOUR MOD's game_events.lua so that it reads (for example):

Code: Select all

function TriggerTurnEvents()
  
StartExperience()
   
ChrismasTruce()  

..etc...

Then report back.

Thanks again for your patience!

Made the changes. Still have an error. Probably must change something else. This is the first time that I touch the file game_events.lua, so no previous problems there.

New Ctgw.log:

Log date: 2018-09-08 18:59:36
[18:59:36][6932]Running Steam build
[18:59:40][6932]Unable to read game settings. Using defaults.
[18:59:41][6932]Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series version: 4.5.13521 Compatibility Profile Context 24.20.11016.4
[18:59:41][6932]Commander: The Great War(v 1.6.6)
[18:59:41][6932]Audio device used: OpenAL Soft
[18:59:41][6932]Loading main script
[18:59:41][6932]Loading app script
[18:59:41][6932]App version:1.6.6
[18:59:41][6932]Today is: 8.9.2018
[18:59:47][10216]Invalid railroad from: KRISTIANA
[18:59:52][6932]Staring game turn 1
[18:59:52][6932]game/game_events.lua:203(global StartExperience) game/game_events.lua:203: attempt to compare nil with number
[18:59:52][6932][C]:-1(method Start) std::exception: 'Lua Error:game/game_events.lua:203(global StartExperience) game/game_events.lua:203: attempt to compare nil with number'

Side note: that Invalid railroad from Kristiana puzzles me!!! I suppose that is a vanilla thing.

And the part that I added to the game_events.lua:

------------------------------- NEW EVENT FROM POTZBLITZ MOD ---------------------------------------
function StartExperience()
local france = game:GetFactionById(0)
local britain = game:GetFactionById(1)
local russia = game:GetFactionById(4)
local germany = game:GetFactionById(2)
local austria = game:GetFactionById(3)
local turkey = game:GetFactionById(5)
local italy = game:GetFactionById(8)
local serbia = game:GetFactionById(7)

local belgium = game:GetFactionById(6)
local romania = game:GetFactionById(18)
local bulgaria = game:GetFactionById(19)

local neutrals = game:GetAllianceById(0)


if game.turn == 1 then


for unit in austria.units do
if unit.type == Unit.NAVAL or unit.prototype.name == "fighter" or unit.prototype.name == "smallgarrison" then
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = 0
elseif unit.prototype.name == "cavalry" then
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(300,350)
else
GetUnitExperience(unit)
--unit.luaData.experience = 100

unit.luaData.experience = math.random(40,140)
end



end

for unit in serbia.units do
GetUnitExperience(unit)
--unit.luaData.experience = 100

unit.luaData.experience = math.random(150,285)

end

for unit in belgium.units do
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(10,120)

end

for unit in bulgaria.units do
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(70,130)

end

for unit in romania.units do
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(20,120)

end

for unit in turkey.units do
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(30,120)

end


for unit in france.units do
if unit.prototype.name ~= "submarine" and unit.prototype.name ~= "fighter" and unit.prototype.name ~= "smallgarrison" then
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(130,150)
end
end

for unit in britain.units do
if unit.type == Unit.NAVAL and unit.prototype.name ~= "submarine" then
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(180,280)

elseif unit.prototype.name ~= "submarine" and unit.prototype.name ~= "fighter" and unit.prototype.name ~= "smallgarrison" then

GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(250,350)

end
end


for unit in germany.units do
if unit.prototype.name ~= "submarine" and unit.prototype.name ~= "zeppelin" and unit.prototype.name ~= "fighter" and unit.prototype.name ~= "smallgarrison" then
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(140,170)
end
end

for unit in russia.units do
if unit.prototype.name ~= "submarine" and unit.prototype.name ~= "zeppelin" and unit.prototype.name ~= "fighter" and unit.prototype.name ~= "smallgarrison" then
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = math.random(50,150)
end
end


end

--- exp per round

for faction in game.factions do
if faction.alliance.id ~= 0 then
if faction.luaData.collaps ~= 0 then
if faction.luaData.collaps < 10 then
for unit in faction.units do
if unit.luaData.experience == nil then
unit.luaData.experience = 0
end
if unit.luaData.experience ~= nil and unit.prototype.name ~= "smallgarrison" then
unit.luaData.experience = unit.luaData.experience + math.random(1, (10 - faction.luaData.collaps))
end
end
end
end
end

if faction.alliance.id ~= player.alliance.id and faction.alliance.id ~= 0 then
if faction.luaData.collaps ~= 0 then
if faction.luaData.collaps < 10 then ---------------------- THIS IS THE LINE 203 in the File
for unit in faction.units do
if unit.luaData.experience == nil then
unit.luaData.experience = 0
end

if unit.luaData.experience ~= nil and unit.prototype.name ~= "smallgarrison" then

if unit.commander == nil and (GetUnitExperienceLevel(unit) <= 1) then
unit.luaData.experience = unit.luaData.experience + math.random(1, 10)

elseif unit.commander ~= nil and (GetUnitExperienceLevel(unit) <= 2) then

unit.luaData.experience = unit.luaData.experience + math.random(1, 10)

end

end
end
end
end
end



end





--neutrals start training

if game.turn >= 8 then

for faction in neutrals.factions do
if faction.luaData.alignment > 95 or faction.luaData.alignment < 10 then

for unit in faction.units do

if unit.type == Unit.LAND then
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = unit.luaData.experience + math.random(1,6)

end
end
else
for unit in faction.units do
if faction.id == 9 then
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = unit.luaData.experience + math.random(1,6)
end
if unit.type == Unit.LAND then
if math.random(1,100) < game.turn then
GetUnitExperience(unit)
unit.luaData.experience = unit.luaData.experience + math.random(1,10)

end
end
end
end
end
end
end

-------------------------

I made a note in line 203.

Now the game crashes as soon as a push the button start, after (or during) the introduction about Serbia.

EDIT: Probably I should mod your mod and not vanila.

[Robotron]

Yes, sadly, I have to agree to that notion.

It is nearly impossible for me to hunt down bugs if I don't have access to the same sources that you have in your mod.

Implementing partially developed stuff like experience or transfer of production/ammo points took me a lot of time and I simply cannot recall every single vital step that was needed to get that to work, especially after half of year of not working on the mod.

I must admit my coding style is totally messy and all over the place, which is contributing to problems when other people want to pick something from Potzblitz to use in their mods. I'm just an amateur too, after all.

See, the game was not really meant to be modded beyond a certain degree. That's why it takes huge amounts of energy to get something like the diplomatic system implemented. Changing values for techs or units is one thing, if you want to mod in completely new stuff, you'll have to be ready to take the hard road and that includes learning LUA script and wrap your mind around the way the game works.

The AI for instance was designed to cope with any sort of map, not with a map of WW1. I do believe, originally the coders wanted to re-use the engine for games about other wars. But then the original coder left and the engine was deemed to be "not stylish enough" and accessible anymore. From the code snippets I've seen of Strategic Command: WW2 in Europe, I certainly think that it's built on the CTGW engine, made up to date with better looks and easier modding possibilities.

I hope you don't lose interest in the game though.

[Tulius Hostilius]

Unfortunately you are right. The game engine is interesting but has its limits. The almost absence of diplomacy is evident. Even so a game editor would be awesome.

Do you have the game Commander Napoleon at War? The one about WWII seems even older and just adapted to new systems.

I don’t have Strategic Command: WW2, and I confess I am a bit saturated of WWII themed games and media, so probably I won’t buy it in a near future.

And it is curious that you said that the AI was built for any sort of map, and that other wars could use it, because that was one of the first things that crossed my mind, and it is surprising that all these years nobody tried it. For instance this could work well in a Spanish Civil War set, or in the Prussian wars that unified Germany (with Denmark, Austria and France). But than again, we don’t have a map editor.

As for the style, it can be considered a bit retro, but I really like it. Apart from a scenario in TOAW, it is the first WWI hex Game that I played and that covers all the war. There was one ages ago but only with battles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_Line:_1914-1918. Anyway this just to say that this game will be in my collection for the years to come, modded or unmoded. But I just bough the DLC “Afghanistan '11: Royal Marines”, so probably I will divert my gaming time attention.

Also, probably I will begin to change your mod. So probably I will post in your thread soon some newbie doubts. By the way, did you change the combats for the AI? They seem bloodier than in vanilla, and it doesn’t seem just the effect of the Commanders. I saw 3 Russian garrisons vaporize an Austrian one (with a commander), entrenched, in just one round.

[Robotron]

Yup, Russian attacks on Austrian units and German attacks on French units have been boosted when under AI control so the game does not bog down immediately.
Russians will enjoy this bonus until Tannenberg has happened or winter falls.
For Germany the bonus will last until no new hexes are conquered in France or winter falls and Paris was not taken.
These bonuses also exist in multiplayer but are much lower.

[Tulius Hostilius]

Got it. I read your pdf, but I must have missed that. Interesting concept.

Meanwhile I noticed that there is a Strategic Command: WW1 and you were probably talking bout that one.

[Robotron]

No, I was not talking about that game. It's not even hex-based.

[Tulius Hostilius]

No, I was not talking about that game. It's not even hex-based.

I didn’t check the game, just saw the title and assumed it was hex-based. Now I saw in google that the units seem to move in lozenges. So the one of WWII it was the one you were mentioning.