alpaca's Script-O-Rama

[alpaca]

Note that this is only about editing campaign_script.txt (and show_me scripts)

I had a novel idea:
We seriously need a scripting tutorial. I think it's pretty hard to learn it by yourself, but at the same time that's what you desperately have to do if you want to become good.
So, I will start working on a basic tutorial, which I will edit into this very post, but in addition to that, the script-o-rama will contain a few other sections (in following posts):
- Scripting examples (how-tos mainly, and tutorials about special script features)
- Scripting tasks (these are supposed to challenge would-be scripters to think a bit first, and will have a proposed solution attached)
- Scripting concepts (here, I'll talk about some tricks and concepts I often use that are not exactly trivial, but can be very useful - these will be more like articles really)

For all of that, I'd like to ask for the help of the community.
Anybody who feels like he'd like to contribute a bit can write an example, task or concept article - and over time, I hope that the script-o-rama will become a knowledge-base in which all different experience levels of scripters are well-served.

You can also ask questions here or pose a scripting challenge which people can try to solve - I'll do that from time to time, as I think it's a good way of finding a good solution to have thoughts from different people on the topic.

At long last, this will go to both the .org and the TWC which will give it hopefully maximum exposure.

Please comment on what you think about this idea :whip:


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Contents

I The Tutorial

II How-Tos
II.1 Spawning characters and armies
II.2 Scripting for difficulty settings and player/ai only

III Articles
III.1 Logging for Scripters
III.2 Available UI Elements
III.3 Things to look out for

IV Examples
III.1 A good four turns per year script
III.2 A take on a re-emergent factions script


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Section I: The Tutorial



Prerequisites

To follow this tutorial, you'll need:
- Either the files released by CA(here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=73971)) or the files export_descr_character_traits.txt, export_descr_ancillaries.txt, text/export_VnVs.txt and text/export_ancillaries.txt unpacked from the packs - for the latter two you need to convert them from the unpacked .strings.bin files using my .strings.bin converter (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=75229)
- A working mod folder, or a config using file_first. See this tutorial (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=76289) for instructions
- CA's docudemon files (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=83119)

It will also help to read these tutorials and articles:
- My traits tutorial (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=77176)
- My trigger tutorial (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=77177)
- The "Things to look out for" article

Please note that I will use -tags to signify additional information that you won't necessarily need, but you should refer to if you want to know something specific or didn't understand something. It will look like this:
-
In syntax definitions, I'll use the following symbols:
<x> - required argument
[x] - optional argument
{x,y,z} - set of required arguments (i.e. choose one, the special set {logic_token} means you can use one of the following: {<,<=,==,>=,>,!=} so smaller, smaller or equal, equal, greater or equal, greater, not equal)


Scripting

Writing a tutorial is always a hard and arduous process. It entails a lot of frustration and demands a large time commitment, but on the other hand it's often a very good way to become better at what you're writing about.
So, why am I writing this tutorial? To get better at scripting? Probably not. I'm already somewhat good at it, and most of what will go into this tutorial will probably be daily routine for me.
I'm writing this tutorial to allow new modders an easier access to one of the most difficult, but at the same time most interesting, areas of modding.
The problem I have with writing a scripting tutorial is that it's already pretty difficult to explain the basic concept behind it, but once you have grasped that, thinking out and developing your own scripts won't become easier.
A last word before I get to the actual tutorial: Before attempting to script, you should make yourself comfortable with editing traits or ancillaries, and especially with triggers. These are a bit easier to handle and provide a good start before you continue with scripting.

In this tutorial I want to walk you through the steps that you have to follow to create your first own script, which will give you some money and fire an event once you conquer Constantinople playing the Turks (note that I'm not one to start with a "hello world" equivalent for scripting but will take you right into the action).


1. The campaign script

The campaign script (data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt) is executed once at the start of the campaign and will then continue to run until its end. The state of the campaign script (including counter values and such) is stored in the save-game, in contrast to RTW.
So, what can you do with this file? If you open it in a text editor and have a look at it, you will notice that it's already pretty long in its unmodded state.
It contains a part that handles the Mongol and Timurid invasions (which is linked to descr_events.txt) and a few tutorials for the player.
However, for this tutorial, please copy the file and in the original, delete everything until it looks like this:

script

wait_monitors
end_script
What you see above is an empty script, except for the wait_monitors command which tells the game to wait until all monitors are finished:


2. Monitors

Ah yes, the basic and most important scripting construct. If you want to become a scripter, it's paramount to understand these correctly.
Ok, but what is a monitor? First of all, there are two different types of monitors: monitor_event and monitor_conditions. Of these, monitor_event is far more important and more frequently used, because most conditions have a trigger requirement and therefore can't be used in a monitor_conditions
For our tutorial, we will only use a single monitor_event that will observe our capturing Constantinople:

monitor_event GeneralCaptureSettlement SettlementName Constantinople
and FactionType Turks

add_events
event historic turks_capture_constantinople
date 0 0
end_add_events

console_command add_money turks, 20000
end_monitor
This monitor is fairly straight-forward. It checks on a general capturing a settlement, and if that settlement is Constantinople and the general is Turkish, it will execute the code.
Nothing much fancy happens there, either: We throw a historic event for the player (we'll need to describe that later, mind) and give the Turks 20000 florins in cash.


2.1 monitor_event

The struct for monitor_event looks like this:

monitor_event <Event> [not] <Condition>
[and [not] <Condition2>]
...
end_monitor
<Event> tells the game at which time it should execute the monitor and check whether all <Conditions> are true. Only if all of them return true at the time the monitor is run, the code will actually be executed.
Examples for events are CharacterTurnEnd, FactionTurnStart and ButtonPressed - examples for conditions are I_TurnNumber, CharacterIsLocal and I_InBattle.
Basically, an event is what it says on the box. The game has an event engine that will execute any triggers and monitors watching a specified event when that event occurs. I'm not sure about the order in which they are executed though.

For more info on events and conditions, please refer to my triggers and monitors tutorial (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=77177)

2.2 monitor_conditions

The monitor_conditions command is in a lot of ways similar to monitor_event, with the important difference that instead of having an event that executes the monitor, it uses a meta-event that executes the monitor_conditions every now and then to check if all specified conditions are true.

The struct for monitor_conditions looks like this:

monitor_conditions [not] <Condition>
[and [not] <Condition2>]
...
end_monitor
The syntax is basically the same as above, without the triggering event.
This command has the advantage that it gives you a way to "instantly" react on things, with the drawback that the game will slow down considerably if you use a lot of condition monitors.
The other important downside for monitor_conditions is that since it doesn't have an event that can export certain information, you can only use so-called independant conditions (usually signified by an I_ prefixed to the condition, but it works with all conditions that don't have a trigger requirement).


3. Counters

Another important scripting aspect are the so-called counters. If you did a bit of programming in the past, these are somewhat similar to variables, but not quite.
The main use of counters is to store values, however it's often difficult retrieve these values again. To do that sometimes requires a lot of creativity and unorthodox thinking (I'll write a few how-tos later to show some of these principles and get you started) so a lot of counters are only used for boolean (i.e. yes/no) operations.
To use counters, you will first have to declare them. The syntax for this is:

declare_counter <name>
This will initialize your counter and set it to 0
You can then interact with it via the set_counter and inc_counter commands and the I_CompareCounter condition.
set_counter:
This sets your counter to a fixed value. The syntax is set_counter <name> <value>

inc_counter:
This command is sometimes more useful. It doesn't set your counter but changes it's value by adding a number to it. The syntax is inc_counter <name> <value> where value can be negative to decrease the counter

I_CompareCounter:
This condition takes the counter name, a logic token and a comparison value as arguments (I_CompareCounter <name> {<, <=, ==, >=, >, !=} <value>). Note that <value> can only be a constant value (i.e. a number you enter through your keyboard) and not another counter or condition
In our example, I want to modify the above monitor to give the Turks less money when they capture the city for the second time and no money at all when they lost and recaptured it twice (but still fire the message).
Consider this code:


declare_counter turks_capture_constantinople_counter

monitor_event GeneralCaptureSettlement SettlementName Constantinople
and FactionType Turks

add_events
event historic turks_capture_constantinople
date 0 0
end_add_events

if I_CompareCounter turks_capture_constantinople_counter == 0
console_command add_money turks, 20000
end_if
if I_CompareCounter turks_capture_constantinople_counter == 1
console_command add_money turks, 10000
end_if

inc_counter turks_capture_constantinople_counter 1
end_monitor


4. Describing the Event

Well this doesn't actually have anything to do with scripting, but we need to do it to finish our tutorial. To add the turks_capture_constantinople event to the game, we need to give it a title and body in data/text/historic_events.txt:
{TURKS_CAPTURE_CONSTANTINOPLE_TITLE}The Turks capture Constantinople
{TURKS_CAPTURE_CONSTANTINOPLE_BODY}An incredible event has occured! The Turks captured the unconquerable, glorious city of Constantinople and now have a foothold in Europe. The whole occident trembles in fear before the mighty new conquerors who were able to take one of the greatest cities of Christendom apparently effortlessly.

If you also want to have a custom picture for the event, you'll have to create data/ui/southern_european/eventpics/turks_capture_constantinople.tga and respectively for all cultures (I used the Jihad successful picture).

Now, enjoy your new historic event :2thumbsup:

https://img211.imageshack.us/img211/8200/turksconstantinopleng5.th.jpg (https://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=turksconstantinopleng5.jpg)


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Section II: How-Tos


Spawning characters and armies
This is one of the "daily bread" tasks for a lot of scripters and it's actually fairly easy to do.


spawn_character

To create a character by script (that is, an agent), the command you're looking for is the spawn_character command. It is described in the docudemon as:

Identifier: spawn_character
Parameters: faction, character as in character description in historical battle
Description: create an army at a particular location
So the syntax is spawn_character <faction> <character description>
The character description is in fact the same as the one used in descr_strat, so you should be comfortable with it. Just select the right tile, name and character type and you're set up fine.
A working example is

spawn_character england William, diplomat, age 18, x 2 y 15
Actually pretty much any tile is valid to spawn a character. You can spawn diplomats at sea or on woods for example, which will render them immobile and prone to die in storms :laugh4:
The only caveat to this command is that you can't give your spawned characters traits directly but you can use the console_command give_trait afterwards because, well, you know the name you entered in the character description.


spawn_army

This command is somewhat similar to the above but instead of creating agents it will create captains or named characters with whole armies attached to them.
In the docudemon it reads like this:


Identifier: spawn_army ... end
Parameters: faction, character and units as in army description in historical battle (character description for general and unit descriptions for remainder of the army)
Description: create an army at a particular location

Be careful with the syntax there, as the example is very outdated. The character description is almost the same as in descr_strat (except for the omitted army keyword), so this example would work:

spawn_army
faction slave
character Primus Branka, named character, age 18, x 73, y 28
traits GoodCommander 1
unit NE Catapult exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end
So the syntax is:

spawn_army
faction <faction>
character <character description>
[traits]
unit <unit description>
...
end
This command is commonly used to spawn rebel armies and such, but it can serve as a way to create generals for a faction (they don't go into the family tree).

I hope you like this little how-to and have fun spawning characters and armies.


Scripting for different difficulty settings and player/ai only scripting
by tornnight

Difficulty Script


declare_counter difficulty
declare_counter difficulty_easy
declare_counter difficulty_medium
declare_counter difficulty_hard
declare_counter difficulty_very_hard
declare_counter difficulty_set

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
and I_CompareCounter difficulty_set = 0
and CampaignDifficulty = easy

set_event_counter difficulty_easy 1
set_event_counter difficulty_medium 0
set_event_counter difficulty_hard 0
set_event_counter difficulty_very_hard 0

set_counter difficulty 1
set_counter difficulty_set 1

log always Campaign Difficulty: easy

terminate_monitor
end_monitor

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
and I_CompareCounter difficulty_set = 0
and CampaignDifficulty = medium

set_event_counter difficulty_easy 0
set_event_counter difficulty_medium 1
set_event_counter difficulty_hard 0
set_event_counter difficulty_very_hard 0

set_counter difficulty 2
set_counter difficulty_set 1

log always Campaign Difficulty: medium

terminate_monitor
end_monitor

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
and I_CompareCounter difficulty_set = 0
and CampaignDifficulty = hard

set_event_counter difficulty_easy 0
set_event_counter difficulty_medium 0
set_event_counter difficulty_hard 1
set_event_counter difficulty_very_hard 0

set_counter difficulty 3
set_counter difficulty_set 1

log always Campaign Difficulty: hard

terminate_monitor
end_monitor

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
and I_CompareCounter difficulty_set = 0
and CampaignDifficulty = very_hard

set_event_counter difficulty_easy 0
set_event_counter difficulty_medium 0
set_event_counter difficulty_hard 0
set_event_counter difficulty_very_hard 1

set_counter difficulty 4
set_counter difficulty_set 1

log always Campaign Difficulty: very_hard

terminate_monitor
end_monitor

AI/Player Script

declare_counter local_england
declare_counter ai_england

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
and FactionType england

set_event_counter local_england 1
set_event_counter ai_england 0

if not I_HotseatEnabled
terminate_monitor
end_if

end_monitor

monitor_event FactionTurnStart not FactionIsLocal
and FactionType england

set_event_counter local_england 0
set_event_counter ai_england 1

if not I_HotseatEnabled
terminate_monitor
end_if

end_monitor

You can also add building capabilities specific to a campaign difficulty level and depending on if it's for the AI or player.

income_bonus bonus 200 requires factions { england, } and event_counter local_england 1 and event_counter difficulty_easy 1

income_bonus bonus 400 requires factions { england, } and event_counter ai_england 1 and event_counter difficulty_easy 1

You can now use the difficulty counter for events that occur during the Local Faction and AI Factions. The CampaignDifficulty condition only works correctly for the Local Faction. It returns medium for AI faction events.

I_CompareCounter difficulty >= 3




Section III: Articles


Logging for Scripters

This is quite a short article, but nonetheless very important.
I hope you are familiar with the game log file, as it can give you much valuable information about what happens in the game.
For our needs however, the whole trace information is a bit too much, we don't want to know which files are missing when we're scripting, so the right setting for us is:

[log]
to=logs/system.log.txt
level=*script* trace
This will give us information such as when a certain trigger fired (with the trigger name logged) and logs the execution of script commands, but won't discard any crucial error message from other parts of the game, either. So it's a very useful thing for scripting and I'd suggest to use it to everyone who wants to improve their productivity instead of wondering whether a certain trigger works.


Available UI Elements

This is a small thing few people besides R:TW veterans know about, but which is very useful. Consider for example the ButtonPressed event/condition combination. It needs the name of a UI element as a parameter, but except for looking through the .exe or sussing it out the advice file there's only one way to get these:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=929325&postcount=5

The above are for R:TW, but most of the stuff hasn't changed. Just try out good candidates and if you're lucky you'll find the one you're looking for.

An example for the usage of these files: You want to trigger a monitor on the player's pressing the construction button. The right header for that is:

monitor_event ButtonPressed ButtonPressed construction_button
Please note that you have to use ButtonPressed twice, once for the event and once for the condition.

Things to look out for


Scripting in general
When you change something in your script, it won't work with saved games. You have to start a new campaign.
Commands
terminate_battle appears to crash the script engine. After using it, no monitors worked for me.

Events
The loading order for the TurnStart and TurnEnd events is: CharacterTurn[Start/End], SettlementTurn[Start/End], FactionTurn[Start/End]
Take care when using BuildingCompleted - after triggering, it disables the create_building console command for some time. Introducing a wait within the monitor works.

Conditions
MissionSucceeded doesn't seem to work properly. That is, it appears only to trigger on slightly_successful. A possible workaround is to use
MissionSuccessLevel > not_successful


Section IV: Examples


A good four turns per year script

I made a very neat version for a 4tpy script that utilizes the power behind setting timescale to 0.25 in descr_strat (so years will take 4 turns). Here's the code:

declare_counter season_counter

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
inc_counter season_counter 1

; 0 equals winter
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 0
console_command season winter
end_if
if I_CompareCounter season_counter > 0
console_command season summer
end_if
; Reset the counter on the autumn turn so that it'll be 0 next turn
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 3
set_counter season_counter -1
end_if
end_monitor
What this does is basically having a counter that goes in a cycle of four different states (0,1,2,3) where actually the states for 1,2 and 3 are the same. So it'll tell the game it has winter only on every fourth turn and summer on all other turns. Characters will only age on the transition from the winter to the next summer turn, so they'll age at the same rate as the years go by.
This script is also very easily adapted to an even smaller timescale (1/n where n is a natural number, e.g. 1/12=0.083333) by simply increasing the requirement of the last if statement to n-1:
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 11
set_counter season_counter -1
end_if

If you use smaller timescales be careful with events because add_events with a date of 0 won't work anymore (discovered by wilddog, I can confirm it)



A take on a re-emergent factions script
by Red Spot

first of all it might be interesting to know there is only 1 skill-level at wich I play this game; Very Hard
side-effect is that some factions go bankrupt in a matter of turns on this setting, so I've included a sizeable cheat for the AI factions wich makes having a good econ. more or less a player-feature (AI does not know how nor is able to compete with the player in the area of having a decent econ.)
it is also needed for the respawned factions as I am not willing to add new (dummy) units with no upkeep.

secondly, as just about everyone knows, when you have like 12+ -ish settlements its basicly cat in the bag, you win ...
with respawning factions it means that whoever has slain a faction or at least owns their original settlements has some hard fighting to do every once in while when factions re-appear
I also find it somewhat dissapointing if I'm not at some point encountering certain factions as they have been slain before I actually really come into contact with them, now there will always be the option to face them in battle

the script; the events are dorment, I mean the script by itself does not start anything, it relies on an event in descr_events.
when this event is triggered it will trigger an event in the script that than does a check on destroyed factions the next turn and per destroyed faction calls an event to respawn the faction with a small(-ish) random interval.
at this point though the script keeps itself active, I mean it keeps calling the respawn event every [random x] turns and keeps doing so untill the game is finished, in effect keeping all factions alive though with possible "dead-intervals" :P

on a side note; no use in spawning agents with re-appearing factions as it doesnt really work, if say you have 1 town hall and 1 diplomat and than spawn a diplomat it wont spawn, when you're not at your agent-limit you can spawn one, but as when you dont own any settlements you dont have a town hall you also cant have a diplomat ...

do note; factions need the ability to horde for this to work, wich can be read about in the second post of this topic


;SET FOLLOWING EVENT IN DESCR_EVENTS TO START THE RESPAWNING!!!
;;;event counter faction_respawn_trigger
;;;date 1

;Interval set at 40-80 years -> 80-160 turns.
;faction_respawn_event ==> global spawn starter event

;faction_respawn_england ==> per faction spawn event

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
script

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;the trigger on a seperate event so it can be used in like EDB, kill it once it has done its job!
;;;
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType faction_respawn_trigger
and EventCounter >= 1

add_events
event counter faction_respawn_event
date 1
end_add_events
terminate_monitor
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
;;;
monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType england
and Treasury <= 10000

if I_LocalFaction england
terminate_monitor
end_if
console_command add_money england, 12000
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;check after the player did his/her turn, else we could miss out on yet an other victory.
;;;
monitor_event FactionTurnEnd FactionIsLocal
and I_EventCounter faction_respawn_event >= 1

;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
;;;
if I_FactionLeaderTrait england Factionleader == 0
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_england
date 3 25
end_add_events
end_if
;;;

;;;
;;;reset the counter and call the event again in order to have better control over the spawn-intervals.
;;;
set_event_counter faction_respawn_event 0
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_event
date 38 78
end_add_events

end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
;;;
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType faction_respawn_england
and EventCounter >= 1

spawn_army
faction england
character William, named character, age 30, x 100, y 150, family
traits GoodCommander 4 , Loyal 4 , ContentGeneral 3 , BattleChivalry 3 , GoodRiskyAttacker 2 , Fertile 2
unit NE Bodyguard exp 2 armour 1 weapon_lvl 1
end
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

wait_monitors

end_script
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[alpaca]

Post 2: Scripting Challenges

Allright people, this post is for now reserved for what I'd like to call scripting challenges.
I'll issue these from time to time to instigate research and thoughts about certain scripting problems, or simply to show off when I found out something cool and want to tell everyone how good a scripter I am http://www.twcenter.net/forums/images/smilies/emoticons/character0280.gif

Anyways, here we go with the first challenge:

Scripting Challenge #1: Re-Emergent factions
issued on May, 20th 2007

The task is simple: Create re-emergent factions similar to those you know from the original MTW. I didn't try to do that myself, yet, so I'm not sure if it's possible. If you have a proposition, simply post it in this here thread.
The best one will be put into the script-o-rama, and I will participate, too.

Solution:
alpaca


The solution to this problem involves two basic steps. The first is to make the would-be emergent faction horde, and the second is to spawn it an army.


1. Hording

To make a faction horde, all you have to do is open descr_sm_factions and add some entries that look like those of the Mongols or Timurids:

horde_min_units 10
horde_max_units 20
horde_max_units_reduction_every_horde 10
horde_unit_per_settlement_population 250
horde_min_named_characters 2
horde_max_percent_army_stack 80
horde_disband_percent_on_settlement_capture 0
horde_unit Mongol Infantry
horde_unit Mongol Foot Archers
horde_unit Mongol Heavy Archers
horde_unit Mongol Heavy Lancers
horde_unit Mongol Light Lancers
horde_unit Mongol Horse Archers
These determine what happens after your faction loses their last settlement, and more importantly, allows it to remain in the code after it died. These are pretty self-explanatory, so let's get to step 2:


2. Army Spawning

First of all, you'll find a how-to about spawning above, so I won't explain the code here. What you have to do to have a re-emergent faction is to spawn it an army somewhere on the map with a family member which will re-introduce them to the game. You can see a good example of that by looking at how the guys at CA OZ did it for the Mongols and Tims:

spawn_army
faction mongols
character Jebe, named character, age 30, x 292, y 166, family ;command 8, dread 9, loyalty 7, piety 1
traits EasternWarlord 3 , GoodCommander 2 , Bloodthirsty 2 , BattleDread 4 , StrategyDread 2 , PublicFaith 1 , Loyal 2 , ContentGeneral 3 ;command 8, dread 9, loyalty 7, piety 1
unit Mongol Bodyguard exp 6 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
...
end
Notice the bolded "family" keyword which will allow you to set up a faction tree again.

Ok, that's basically it. Easy, huh?
There are two main problems with this: Firstly, you will somehow have to determine where to spawn (or move) the faction, unless you want to always spawn them in the same place and secondly, the family members will always have the same names. You can add a bit of randomization which will of course increase the complexity of the code by a fair margin.

Well, have fun with your newly re-emerging factions



Scripting Challenge #2: Attrition
issued on August, 30th 2007

This one is a very open challenge. I think a large part of the community is looking for the best way to simulate the effect that prolonged campaigns and diseases have on an army (especially a medieval one which would certainly live off the land in a very ruinous fashion). So, let's hear your suggestions! The best propositions will be put in here and if it makes sense I'll write a how-to or an article about it, combining them in some way.

[alpaca]

From future import content

[alpaca]

Read on, nothing to see here

[alpaca]

Just one more to go...

[nikolai1962]

just an easy thing to do to crank up the early game difficulty a bit. remove stuff from the descr_strat file like buildings and units and then add them back in the campaign_script but AI only e.g


; ---------------------
; start up

freeze_faction_ai aztecs

if not I_LocalFaction spain

console_command create_building Leon, farms+1
console_command create_building Leon, port

console_command create_building Castille, garrison_quarters
console_command create_building Castille, bowyer

create_unit Castille, Peasant Archers, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0
create_unit Vaasco, Javelinmen, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0
create_unit Vaasco, Peasant Archers, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0
console_command add_money spain, 6000

end_if

similarly add some extra rebel garrison units in the nearest cities for the player faction e.g


if I_LocalFaction spain

create_unit Toledo, Peasant Archers, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0
create_unit Extramaduras, Javelinmen, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0

end_if

pretty quick and easy.


edit: just noticed on my test/mod version that adding the ports this way doesn't seem to work. the building is built in the settlement but no port on the map and no trade. i think this used to work in RTW but it must be different in MTW2. the recruitment buildings work though.

[alpaca]

i'll add a bit here that i use a lot when i get home :)
Great, I'll start working on it after I tested 1.2 a bit more thoroughly. Actually primarily wanted to get some comments about the idea while I was doing that ;)

[SigniferOne]

This is the classic spawn_army hint, considering the fact that the docudemon explanation always stumps newbies:


spawn_army
faction romans_julii
character Foedus Chaerea, general, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 20, , x 54, y 124
unit roman generals guard cavalry, soldiers 20 exp 9 armour 1 weapon_lvl 0
unit roman legionary first cohort ii, soldiers 40 exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit roman legionary cohort ii, soldiers 60 exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit roman praetorian cohort i, soldiers 60 exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end

What's changed is that there is a comma after every unit name. This comma is absent in docudemon example of spawn_army, thus causing endless crashes and headaches for those starting out.

Great idea Alpaca, I should have a few more examples soon.

[alpaca]

Well spawn_army works like this now:

spawn_army
faction slave
character Primus, named character, age 18, x 147, y 379
traits GoodCommander 1
unit NE Catapult exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end

Not sure if the soldiers thing still works, the attributes are handled through traits now.

[SigniferOne]

Ok right, that's better syntax. But you forgot the comma, after unit name :)

[alpaca]

Nope, it's a working code example.

[SigniferOne]

Hmm ok well I'll test it out soon enough, this is puzzling for me. Meanwhile, I dug up Epistolary Richard's two scripting threads, which are frankly worth gold. I really think you should make a prominent link to them, or else incorporate them somehow: Beginner's (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=46738) and Intermediate (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=57014) Guide to scripting.

There are some fascinating tidbits from the Intermediate Guide. For instance, say you want your script to automatically automerge all units for you, but there's only one problem -- there is no scripting command to automerge. No worries, because TW scripting allows you to call shortcuts! Thus, you can create a script to automerge, or to automatically call Ctrl+S to periodically save your campaign, or any other shortcut like that. Here's the code (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=57014&page=4), from the Intermediate Guide:



monitor_event CharacterSelected FactionType romans_brutii
and FactionIsLocal
call_object_shortcut campaign_hud automerge_units
end_monitor

monitor_event SettlementSelected FactionType romans_brutii
and FactionIsLocal
call_object_shortcut campaign_hud automerge_units
end_monitor

monitor_event CharacterSelected FactionType gauls
and FactionIsLocal
call_object_shortcut campaign_hud automerge_units
end_monitor


or if you want your script to speed things up,



here is a neat scripting command which I found whilst working on the MP campaign:

call_object_shortcut

Here is an example of the syntax:

call_object_shortcut strat_ui speedup_ai

the strat_ui bit is the category of the shortcut. If you open data\text\descr_shortcuts.txt and scroll to the bottom end, you'll find a list of the shortcuts with their categories to the right.

Here's a list of all ui_elements that can be called: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=929325&postcount=5

One interesting thing from there is that you can have your script order a "order_halt" shortcut (Backspace), and trigger it whenever an enemy character becomes visible. Without this feature, normally your issued movement orders will be continued to full, even if enemies become visible in the meanwhile; else, you need to carefully watch all your characters' movements and quickly press backspace, not a pleasant alternative. Of course this script would need to be balanced, because you don't want it preventing your characters from movement altogether, when within sight of enemies. So you'd have the script disable itself after it first triggers.

[alpaca]

Yep I was planning to go through these again to see what I can incorporate here.
Would be cool if you could explain a bit about the scripts you mentioned so I can copy&paste them into one of my above posts as examples, or about the call_shortcut as a concept (that was actually one I had planned but I am not at all averse to somebody else doing the work :beam: )

[nikolai1962]

I think it's the create_unit command that doesn't work if you leave out the comma after the unit name.

[SigniferOne]

Yep I was planning to go through these again to see what I can incorporate here.
Would be cool if you could explain a bit about the scripts you mentioned so I can copy&paste them into one of my above posts as examples, or about the call_shortcut as a concept (that was actually one I had planned but I am not at all averse to somebody else doing the work :beam: )
Sure, no problem. I'll do it in a little bit, when I get everything straightened out over here.

[lordyu]

; Campaign script
;
script
; ---------------------
; counters

declare_counter Opened_Faction_Overview_Scroll
declare_counter Opened_Settlement_Scroll
declare_counter mongols_Volograd
declare_counter mongols_Ani
declare_counter mongols_Baghdad
declare_counter timurids_Volograd
declare_counter timurids_Ani
declare_counter timurids_Baghdad


; ---------------------
; start up

freeze_faction_ai aztecs

restrict_strat_radar false

;----------------------
; monitors

;-- Mongols invasions --
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType mongols_invasion_warn 1

and EventCounter > 0
; ADD SCOUTING INVASION
add_events
event counter mongols_invasion
date 4 8
end_add_events
if I_EventCounter mongols_invasion_warn == 2
terminate_monitor
end_if
end_monitor

monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType mongols_invasion
and EventCounter > 0
if I_EventCounter mongols_invasion == 1
add_events
;;; SCOUTING INVASION
events emergent_faction mongols
date 0
; region Ani_Province
region Volograd_Province
region Baghdad_Province
movie event/mongols_invade.bik
;ADD MONGOL INVASION 1
events counter mongols_invasion
date 2
end_add_events
is there anything wrong with this script. The mongols will not appear and i keep getting CTD.
i traced the problem to this
00:50:00.781 [game.script.exec] [trace] exec <if> at line 42 in Europa/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt
00:50:00.781 [game.script.exec] [trace] exec <add_events> at line 44 in Europa/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt
00:50:01.546 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.

[alpaca]

I think it's the create_unit command that doesn't work if you leave out the comma after the unit name.
As I said earlier, it's a freaking working example :laugh4:

@lordyu:

monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType mongols_invasion_warn 1

and EventCounter > 0

Should be

monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType mongols_invasion_warn
and EventCounter > 0

[nikolai1962]

As I said earlier, it's a freaking working example

yes but there's two ways to spawn units, spawn_army and create_unit. create_unit needs the comma.

[alpaca]

yes but there's two ways to spawn units, spawn_army and create_unit. create_unit needs the comma.
Ah my apologies, I didn't read your post correctly :bow:

[SigniferOne]

lordyu, the actual problem in your code (aside from the "1" typo in the event handler) is that you use == in your if statements. You need to use =. The error log was helpful in tracing down that one.

[alpaca]

In my experience you can use == as a logic token, it's the same as =
The original campaign script uses ==, too

[alpaca]

Ok, I resumed to work on this by adding a bit more to the tutorial. Will have a look at adding more stuff, too. Kick me a bit in the backside from time to time so I don't let this slip :laugh4:

[LorDBulA]

Could You maybe make a list of new/changed features from RTW scripting?
That would be really helpful. I love that You can triger events from script, storing trigers in save files is pericles and IsSettlementBesige (Dont know exact frase) event is so great.
What else M2TW holds?
Links for CA docudemon files would also be great.

[alpaca]

Well I actually don't remember much about what has changed from RTW.
One of the things is that map-related stuff often doesn't work in show-me scripts (because the map isn't loaded at game start anymore but at campaign start).
The state of the campaign script is saved now though so that's no huge problem because we can use that for almost everything.
Another important change in 1.2 is the set_event_counter command which allows you to interact between different scripts, the edb and all files requiring triggers, and the ability to dynamically change leader AI personalities by script.

Anyways, I'll see what I can get together. A link to the docudemons will be added to the tutorial prerequisites.

[alpaca]

Added a how-to about spawning armies and characters.

[grif]

Hi!
Does not work with a patch 1.2
Why? Here my command:

monitor_conditions I_TurnNumber = 1
spawn_army
faction turks
character Bel_Kermek, named character, age 30, x 279, y 138
traits GoodCommander 2
unit ME Bodyguard exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkomans exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkish Archers exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end

terminate_monitor
end_monitor

And in a patch 1.1 works. :dizzy2:

[alpaca]

Hi!
Does not work with a patch 1.2
Why? Here my command:

monitor_conditions I_TurnNumber = 1
spawn_army
faction turks
character Bel_Kermek, named character, age 30, x 279, y 138
traits GoodCommander 2
unit ME Bodyguard exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkomans exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkish Archers exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end

terminate_monitor
end_monitor

And in a patch 1.1 works. :dizzy2:
Hmm it still works with that syntax for me, maybe you didn't add the name to the Turks' list of names?

[grif]

Hmm it still works with that syntax for me, maybe you didn't add the name to the Turks' list of names?
Has added names.
With this command the army does not appear also other commands cease to work.

P.S. I ask a pardon for bad English, I work with the program the translator.:book:

[alpaca]

If other commands stop working you made a mistake or used a command that disables them somewhere. Some commands aren't safe to use, so try just putting spawn_army into your script and nothing else (and be sure to put it into a monitor because the script can't spawn armies on game start)

[grif]

If other commands stop working you made a mistake or used a command that disables them somewhere. Some commands aren't safe to use, so try just putting spawn_army into your script and nothing else (and be sure to put it into a monitor because the script can't spawn armies on game start)
And how it is better to make?
Write please that there was an army.:dizzy2:

[alpaca]

You can for example use a monitor_event ButtonPressed TrueCondition to check if the command works. That will fire it once you press a button.

[grif]

You can for example use a monitor_event ButtonPressed TrueCondition to check if the command works. That will fire it once you press a button.Here so? Does not work.
monitor_event monitor_event ButtonPressed TrueCondition

spawn_army
faction turks
character Bel_Kermek, named character, age 30, x 279, y 138
traits GoodCommander 2
unit ME Bodyguard exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkomans exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkish Archers exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end

end_monitor
:wall:

[alpaca]

Do you have something in your error log?

[alpaca]

Added an article about logging.
By the way, you can click the index stuff to jump to the appropriate section, so you don't have to scroll down.

[alpaca]

Allright, I found an idea for the first scripting challenge on the TWC:

Scripting Challenge #1: Re-Emergent factions
issued on May, 20th 2007

The task is simple: Create re-emergent factions similar to those you know from the original MTW. I didn't try to do that myself, yet, so I'm not sure if it's possible. If you have a proposition, simply post it in this here thread.
The best one will be put into the script-o-rama, and I will participate, too.

[grif]

It is impossible. I shall alter existing Mongols.
Thanks.

[alpaca]

It is impossible. I shall alter existing Mongols.
Thanks.
It's not impossible, in fact I already did it yesterday... Keep any suggestions coming people

[LorDBulA]

Scripting Challenge #1: Re-Emergent factions

It's not impossible, in fact I already did it yesterday...

So I guess You have won.
Congratulations man.
I hope You will share Your idea ( I dont mod M2TW yet ).

[alpaca]

So I guess You have won.
Congratulations man.
I hope You will share Your idea ( I dont mod M2TW yet ).
This is not about first finding a solution but about finding a good solution. I'll post my approach in a few days.

[LorDBulA]

So how about that idea?
Can You elaborate?

[alpaca]

So how about that idea?
Can You elaborate?
Ok, I put the solution in the second post.

[alpaca]

Added a how-to by tornnight about some tricks with event counters (scripting stuff depending on whether the faction is a human/ai faction and which difficulty setting the player chose)

[Kobal2fr]

Interesting challenge. Let's see... you can't allow anyone to really destroy a faction because it would mess up the family tree when they re-emerge, right ? Or is there a way to start them over ? I'll assume not. Also, since factions are destroyed when they have no cities, you can't pop a stack out of nowhere so... Here's my idea :

First, you create a few additional cities, somewhere inaccessible. Maybe landlocked in the americas, or on Atlantis, or in the arctic... Somewhere no-one can get in, and no one can get out. When a faction is "destroyed", fire a script that gives one of those lonesome cities to them, with just enough militia that they don't revolt. Also, start *another* script that will start a countdown, say 10 turns on VH, 50 on Easy. When that countdown is over, you pop a RandomChance trigger on every EndTurn that, if successfull, triggers a re-emergeance, which is : one pre-determined full stack of troops popping up near said faction's former capital, with the mission "take that capital in 5 turns". If they succeed, the reward is they lose their former unreachable city and start anew. If they lose, then the stack disappears, and the countdown resets.
Then again, the AI being what it is, I'm not sure it can deal coherently with a lone stack away from its borders... but hey, you never know till you've tried.

Am I close to your idea ?

EDIT : something else hit me : the Mongols and Timurids AREN'T destroyed when they first pop up and they have no city, maybe duplicating their event would do the trick in a simpler fashion ?

[alpaca]

Well you can read the solution. You can do it exactly like it's done for the Mongols and Timurids.
Be sure to also give them a few characters with the family keyword (as is done in vanilla) though or there could be problems.

[Red Spot]

Hi Alpaca,

first of all ... great tut. you and .. er .. the gang made, as I've worked for extended periods of time with so called script-editors this was actually somewhat hard to understand (more cause I had to "un"-learn a few things ...)

anyway based on that horde-script you have in the 2nd post I'd like to ask you or anyone else that might know it a hopefully simple question(s).

-is there a way to check up on the existance of any kind of remnand from a horde-faction (my idea is to make the Mongols and Tim.. er guys regular factions and than add up the max (31 ?) factions hording factions distributed across the islam and catholic factions (eg; 3 islam hording- and 4 catholic hording-factions) wich than after say 50-ish turns start spawning near so called rebel-capitals (in the center of what once was rebel-terf.), but I'd like to say respawn them ~20-50 turns after a possible dead (to make sure no matter what the player always has some fearsome (behind the lines) enemies to deal with and ofcourse cause I'm just plain evil ... :P)

edit;
think I've already found an answer to this one .... no you cant directly, but can indirectly ...
create a trait for the horde-factions and give it when a general comes to age, check each turn for the trait and if it no longer exists in that particular faction start a random counter (or possible as the mongols are spawned, date from now)
/edit

-on a side-note, and if my memory serves me right I think impossible, but I'd rather have some expert confirm it than just abandoning it, is it somehow possible in M2 to check up on the "capital of faction x" or "get nearest settlement [faction] [ref.pos/settlement]" (for a "almost dead faction reinforcement spawn in")

I know I can just use the starting capital and place armies like in the nearest forest (auto-hiding them so you wont see them just "pop-up") just incase the settlement is no longer owned by that faction, but that leaves them with possibly small armies scattered wherever they are no longer (poss. causing a logistic nightmare for the AI)

any (on the side) advice would be much apreciated ..;)


G

[alpaca]

Yeah you can probably check a FactionLeaderTrait on faction turn start (CharacterTurnStart is executed before FactionTurnStart so you can just give it in a trigger or somesuch).

There's no very good way to solve your second problem, the only thing you can do is to use SettlementTurnStart triggers together with the I_SettlementOwner condition

[Red Spot]

Thank for the reply Alpaca

I've already changed my plans somewhat, based on what I think should be both interesting and possible ..:D

Not to go too much into it I basicly want all Catholic and Islam factions to horde when they lost their last settlement, get killed, and than after some time in a sort of rebel flavour respawn like the Mongols do.

Anyway I made a script for the English wich hopefully does as intended, havent had the time to actually test it yet, but hope you might want to look at it, in particular the resetting of event counter, is that possible?


script

declare_counter english_respawn_counter

monitor_event FactionTurnStart not FactionIsLocal
and FactionType england
and FactionwideAncillaryExists actor false
;no English familiy members alive


if I_CompareCounter english_respawn_counter == 0
add_events
event counter enland_respawn
date 10 25
;timescale 0.5->20/50turns untill respawn
end_add_events
inc_counter english_respawn_counter 1
;stop the event from happening each turn without terminating the monitor.
end_if

end_monitor

monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType england_respawn
and EventCounter > 0
;do the actuall spawning within its own monitor, like campaign script, no its not copied ..... :D

if I_EventCounter england_respawn == 1
add_events
event emergent_faction english
date 0
region London_Province
event counter enland_respawn
date 1
end_add_events
end_if

if I_EventCounter england_respawn == 2
spawn_army
faction england
character William, named character, age 30, x 100, y 150, family
traits GoodCommander 2 , BattleDread 4 , StrategyDread 2 , Loyal 2
unit NE Bodyguard exp 2 armour 1 weapon_lvl 1
end
;possibly "need" to spawn general in defined region(this case London)
;make sure to change some ancillary triggers to be handed out on ComingOfAge.

inc_counter english_respawn_counter -1
inc_counter english_respawn -2
;make sure we can do it again later by resetting the counters.
end_if
end_monitor

wait_monitors

end_script

edit;
dont look at the .. er .. flexibility between "england" and "english" its already changed in the original ... ;)
/edit

edit2;
I've been looking a bit closer at the examples in the main post and see the use of "set_event_counter"
guessing I should use that to change the counter of a campaign map event??
did a search through the docudemon files but they only speak about "set_counter" ....
/edit


G

[Red Spot]

sorry for double posting ...

I've changed the script and incorp your suggestion on factionleader trait

am just a bit confused about the diff. between.


if I_EventCounter england_respawn_event >= 3

if I_CharacterExists William

and


if I_EventCounter england_respawn_event >= 3
and I_CharacterExists William

anyway the full script;


script

declare_counter england_respawn_counter

monitor_event FactionTurnStart not FactionIsLocal
and FactionType england
and FactionLeaderTrait Factionleader >= 1

if I_CompareCounter england_respawn_counter == 0
add_events
event counter enland_respawn_event
date 10 25
end_add_events
set_counter england_respawn_counter 1
end_if

end_monitor

monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType england_respawn_event
and EventCounter >= 1
;do the actuall spawning within its own monitor, like campaign script, no its not copied ..... :D

if I_EventCounter england_respawn_event == 1
add_events
event emergent_faction england
date 0
region London_Province
event counter enland_respawn_event
date 1
end_add_events
end_if

if I_EventCounter england_respawn_event == 2
spawn_army
faction england
character William, named character, age 30, x 100, y 150, family
traits GoodCommander 2 , BattleDread 4 , StrategyDread 2 , Loyal 2
unit NE Bodyguard exp 2 armour 1 weapon_lvl 1
end
;possibly "need" to spawn general in defined region(this case London).

add_events
event counter enland_respawn_event
date 3 5
end_add_events
end_if

if I_EventCounter england_respawn_event >= 3

if I_CharacterExists William
spawn_army
faction england
character Robert, named character, age 20, x 100, y 150, family
traits GoodCommander 2 , BattleDread 4 , StrategyDread 2 , Loyal 2
unit NE Bodyguard exp 2 armour 1 weapon_lvl 1
end
end_if
;possibly "need" to spawn general in defined region(this case London).
set_counter england_respawn_counter 0
set_event_counter england_respawn_event 0
end_if
end_monitor

wait_monitors

end_script


G

[SigniferOne]

Hmm, very nice find on the "family" keyword alpaca! I hadn't noticed it when I was looking at the Mongols/Timurids code. But so, how does the game know how to reconstruct the family, since the relations are nowhere specified in the spawning code? Does it look at descr_strat.txt or something?

[Red Spot]

edit;
removed my query as it was again a matter of my great spelling/english ....
remember that english/england thing I had a few post back, its has become enland/england instead of what it should be england/england ...

edit2;
though in a quick and dirty aproach, I have it running, just had a full spawn cycle as it should, though had to change the FactionTurnStart to an existing faction(scotland in this case) as a dead faction has none.

If you want I can post the finished version heavilly commented ...
/edit


G

[Red Spot]

I pretty much did the script and more, I'll just go and double post again to show it to whoever wants to read it, imo it uses some nice trickery that could be usefull to others ...

it uses some trickerey to figure out if a faction exists or not, basicly it just resets a variable(counter) and sets it when the faction has a turn(and thus exists) and so knows that every faction that did not set the var. does not exist ..


;SET FOLLOWING EVENT IN DESCR_EVENTS TO KICK-START THE RESPAWNING!!!
;faction_respawn_trigger

;Interval set at 40-80 years -> 80-160 turns.
;faction_respawn_event ==> global spawn starter event

;faction_respawn_england ==> per faction spawn event

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
script

declare_counter faction_exists_england

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType england
and Treasury <= 10000

if I_LocalFaction england
terminate_monitor
end_if
console_command add_money england, 12000
end_monitor
;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType england
and I_EventCounter faction_respawn_event == 1

set_counter faction_exists_england 1
end_monitor
;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType faction_respawn_england
and EventCounter >= 1

spawn_army
faction england
character William, named character, age 30, x 100, y 150, family
traits GoodCommander 2 , Loyal 2
unit NE Bodyguard exp 2 armour 1 weapon_lvl 1
end
spawn_character england Laurence Bidell, diplomat, age 42, x 101, y 150
spawn_character england Richard, spy, age 36, x 99, y 150
end_monitor
;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType faction_respawn_trigger
and EventCounter >= 1

add_events
event counter faction_respawn_event
date 2
end_add_events
terminate_monitor
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType faction_respawn_event
and EventCounter >= 1

if I_EventCounter faction_respawn_event == 1
;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
set_counter faction_exists_england 0
;;;
;;;
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_event
date 2
end_add_events
end_if

if I_EventCounter faction_respawn_event == 2
;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
if I_CompareCounter faction_exists_england == 0
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_england
date 3 25
end_add_events
end_if
;;;
;;;
set_event_counter faction_respawn_event 0
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_event
date 38 78
end_add_events
end_if
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
wait_monitors

end_script
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;


G

[alpaca]

I pretty much did the script and more, I'll just go and double post again to show it to whoever wants to read it, imo it uses some nice trickery that could be usefull to others ...

it uses some trickerey to figure out if a faction exists or not, basicly it just resets a variable(counter) and sets it when the faction has a turn(and thus exists) and so knows that every faction that did not set the var. does not exist ..


G
So if I understood it correctly on a quick glance what you're doing is give england a chance to respawn every 50 years or so if they don't exist?

Wouldn't it be easier to just check "I_FactionLeaderTrait england faction_leader" (or whatever it's called) or "I_FactionLeaderAttribute england authority >= 0" (if they work, I didn't test them)?
In fact, I'd check on the FactionTurnStart of the local faction whether england exists and then do some event counter stuff to give a delayed spawn effect after some years or so - I did not yet work out a decent use for the feature ~;)

[Red Spot]

How would I do that, can I somehow specify a diff. faction within the command;
and FactionLeaderTrait Factionleader >=< #

that was basicly what prevented me doing it the way you just described and find some other way to figure out if a faction I could not get hold of still did exist, basicly using the fact I cant get hold of them for it.


G

[alpaca]

There's an indy command for that: I_FactionLeaderTrait, it should work as I quoted it but you can never be sure without testing :P

[Red Spot]

didnt know that, it surelly isnt in the docudemon files I have ...
anyway I'll check it out and see if I can clean up the code a bit, thanks again ;)


G

[alpaca]

didnt know that, it surelly isnt in the docudemon files I have ...
anyway I'll check it out and see if I can clean up the code a bit, thanks again ;)


G
Where do you think I got it without trying it out? It was added in 1.2 so you need the docudemons for that to find it. It could be it doesn't work though, so test it before using it.


---------------------------------------------------
Identifier: I_FactionLeaderTrait
Trigger requirements:
Parameters: faction type, trait description, logic token, level
Sample use: I_FactionLeaderTrait england BadCommander >= 2
Description: Test a factions leader traits
Battle or Strat: Either
Class: I_FACTION_LEADER_TRAIT_TEST
Implemented: Yes
Author: ScottL

[Red Spot]

well I've got the ones linked in this topics main post (double checked) and it surelly isnt in those files ...

I'll do a forum search to see if I can find some newer ..

edit;
ok that was easy enough, the 1.2 docudemon files;
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=83119&highlight=docudemon
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=83119
/edit

edit2;
and a redone version;

;SET FOLLOWING EVENT IN DESCR_EVENTS TO START THE RESPAWNING!!!
;;;event counter faction_respawn_trigger
;;;date 1

;Interval set at 40-80 years -> 80-160 turns.
;faction_respawn_event ==> global spawn starter event

;faction_respawn_england ==> per faction spawn event

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
script

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;the trigger on a seperate event so it can be used in like EDB, kill it once it has done its job!
;;;
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType faction_respawn_trigger
and EventCounter >= 1

add_events
event counter faction_respawn_event
date 1
end_add_events
terminate_monitor
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
;;;
monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType england
and Treasury <= 10000

if I_LocalFaction england
terminate_monitor
end_if
console_command add_money england, 12000
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;check after the player did his/her turn, else we could miss out on yet an other victory.
;;;
monitor_event FactionTurnEnd FactionIsLocal
and I_EventCounter faction_respawn_event >= 1

;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
;;;
if I_FactionLeaderTrait england Factionleader == 0
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_england
date 3 25
end_add_events
end_if
;;;

;;;
;;;reset the counter and call the event again in order to have better control over the spawn-intervals.
;;;
set_event_counter faction_respawn_event 0
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_event
date 38 78
end_add_events

end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
;;;
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType faction_respawn_england
and EventCounter >= 1

spawn_army
faction england
character William, named character, age 30, x 100, y 150, family
traits GoodCommander 4 , Loyal 4 , ContentGeneral 3 , BattleChivalry 3 , GoodRiskyAttacker 2 , Fertile 2
unit NE Bodyguard exp 2 armour 1 weapon_lvl 1
end
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

wait_monitors

end_script
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
/edit


G

[alpaca]

Would you mind writing a sentence or two about the script? I'd like to put it in one of the posts but it's a bit drab to supply it without even a description :2thumbsup:

And thanks for reminding me to update the docudemon link.

[Red Spot]

dont really know what you like to know so I'll make it a few more lines and leave it up to your cut and paste skills to make it into 2 lines ..;)

first of all it might be interesting to know there is only 1 skill-level at wich I play this game; Very Hard
side-effect is that some factions go bankrupt in a matter of turns on this setting, so I've included a sizeable cheat for the AI factions wich makes having a good econ. more or less a player-feature (AI does not know how nor is able to compete with the player in the area of having a decent econ.)
it is also needed for the respawned factions as I am not willing to add new (dummy) units with no upkeep.

secondly, as just about everyone knows, when you have like 12+ -ish settlements its basicly cat in the bag, you win ...
with respawning factions it means that whoever has slain a faction or at least owns their original settlements has some hard fighting to do every once in while when factions re-appear
I also find it somewhat dissapointing if I'm not at some point encountering certain factions as they have been slain before I actually really come into contact with them, now there will always be the option to face them in battle

the script; the events are dorment, I mean the script by itself does not start anything, it relies on an event in descr_events.
when this event is triggered it will trigger an event in the script that than does a check on destroyed factions the next turn and per destroyed faction calls an event to respawn the faction with a small(-ish) random interval.
at this point though the script keeps itself active, I mean it keeps calling the respawn event every [random x] turns and keeps doing so untill the game is finished, in effect keeping all factions alive though with possible "dead-intervals" :P

on a side note; no use in spawning agents with re-appearing factions as it doesnt really work, if say you have 1 town hall and 1 diplomat and than spawn a diplomat it wont spawn, when you're not at your agent-limit you can spawn one, but as when you dont own any settlements you dont have a town hall you also cant have a diplomat ...

do note; factions need the ability to horde for this to work, wich can be read about in the second post of this topic


G

[alpaca]

Allright, I just copied the whole thing (I don't like rummaging around in other people's texts very much ~;)). I'd also like to make you aware that I copied it into the TWC script-o-rama which is mirroring this one here and vice-versa.

Thanks for participating :2thumbsup:

[Red Spot]

Maybe you have some more ingenious idea's Alpaca, I'm "thinking" about adding some sort of "check up starting factions capital and spawn reinforcements if under siege/lost settlement"

but the lack in at least seeing a decent method is preventing me from putting much effort into it.

I'd like to check up on a siege, but thats lacking as spies/siege-engines can prevent any turns on siege, I mean the player has the ability to take settlements within the same turn as he/she started the siege.

Doing it with settlementcaptured has the problem (afaik!) of needing the other 2 commands as well (sacked/exterminated) in order to be truely able to tell if a settlement is taken.

Last would possibly be to just have an event+monitor to check up on the ownership of a settlement, this would imo be the way to go, but than again the method I'd favour least as it could mean I'm just spawning a "late army" (I'd rather have them spawn in before the settlement is lost and than prevent a second spawning untill at least no earlier than next siege, terminating the monitor if the settlement is ever lost)

any thoughts or suggestions?


G

[alpaca]

I'm not exactly sure what you'd like to do. The "canonical" way to make a garrison script is using monitor_conditions I_SettlementUnderSiege

[Red Spot]

was assuming that that might be bypassed by using like a spy and have hime open the gates within the turn you start the siege, guess I'll have to play a bit more with the commands ..:)


G

[alpaca]

was assuming that that might be bypassed by using like a spy and have hime open the gates within the turn you start the siege, guess I'll have to play a bit more with the commands ..:)


G
No, monitor_conditions are "real-time", i.e. they have a kind of heartbeat which calls them every so and so often (some fraction of a second usually). So it'll trigger immediately when you initiate the siege, spy or no spy.

[Red Spot]

have started an effort in making some sort of garrison-script, but stumbled upon a few problems ..

-settlementturnstart/end doesnt just trigger once per turn it seems, more like 5 times a turn (rather annoying, but can be avoided)

more of a problem;
-create unit is rather bugged, in that if you spawn more units than the settlement can hold it no longer works, but there is no way (that I know of) to check up on the existing garrisons size or free slots


do you by any chance have encountered this as well Alpaca, perhaps have a solution for it
I know the AI generally has few enough units in a settlement to easilly be able to spawn a few units but without checking up on it knowing it can bugger up my game I'd rather not do it at all ...


edit;
I've created a bit of a work around that also doesnt make my campaign-script less .. er .. "spawn-ish" .. :)

It simply sets an event counter if a faction is under siege somewhere and than give them some additional recruitment pools when the event is triggered, hopefully making it look more as if a faction rallies additional troops in defence of the besieged settlement.
You'll see the player also gets this ability the first time he/she is besieged for a single turn, this is just cause I like to terminate unused monitors instead of leaving them idle :)

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType england
and I_EventCounter faction_england_besieged == 0
and I_FactionBesieged england

set_event_counter faction_england_besieged 1

if I_LocalFaction england
terminate_monitor
end_if
end_monitor

monitor_event FactionTurnEnd FactionType england
and I_EventCounter faction_england_besieged == 1
and not I_FactionBesieged england

set_event_counter faction_england_besieged 0

if I_LocalFaction england
terminate_monitor
end_if
end_monitor



G

[alpaca]

Why do you want to spawn more than a full garrison? That's a bit much if you ask me :inquisitive:
Checking the number of units in a garrison won't work well unfortunately as you'd have to check every unit type in each settlement separately.

SettlementTurnEnd triggers once for each settlement, when it ends its turn (which is just before the FactionTurnEnd).

[alpaca]

A new challenge has been called:


Scripting Challenge #2: Attrition
issued on August, 30th 2007

This one is a very open challenge. I think a large part of the community is looking for the best way to simulate the effect that prolonged campaigns and diseases have on an army (especially a medieval one which would certainly live off the land in a very ruinous fashion). So, let's hear your suggestions! The best propositions will be put in here and if it makes sense I'll write a how-to or an article about it, combining them in some way.

[Red Spot]

just spawning 3 units, but was testing "what would happen if .." scenario's.

figured there might always be the odd chance of somehow you overspawning a bit, of if 1 unit/turn is spawned in a sieged settlement but the siege takes 8-ish turns ... etc etc ...


turns out, as fas as I've tested, that that specific monitor adjusts the spawning to a number of units it can spawn.
so if you set a monitor to spawn a full 20 unit army at an empty settlement it would fully spawn, but with 10 units garrisoned it will only spawn 10 units, if you now would remove all 20 units (10 + 10spawned), the monitor adjusted the command and will now even though it can spawn 20 units only spawn 10 units
leave like 15 units and the monitor wont only spawn only 5 units but again adjust itself to max 5 units, it will go down but wont go back up!!

Edit;
in reply to your challange, I've set up a chain of plague event throughout my campaign, not like the mayor one in vanilla but a sweaping sort of plague that every 5-6 years (10-12turns) causes one in a settlement like 3 regions away from the previous outbreak, causing mayor powerswings and such
Imo does somewhat what your asking for, but has little to do with scripting.


G

[alpaca]

That so?

Anyways, if you don't want the player to get the thing at all, you can use the terminate_monitor before executing any code. On termination, the monitor will immediately break and not finish to execute iirc.

Edit:


in reply to your challange, I've set up a chain of plague event throughout my campaign, not like the mayor one in vanilla but a sweaping sort of plague that every 5-6 years (10-12turns) causes one in a settlement like 3 regions away from the previous outbreak, causing mayor powerswings and such
Imo does somewhat what your asking for, but has little to do with scripting.

I wouldn't exactly call that an attrition script. It doesn't specifically affect armies and in fact does quite the opposite: encourage the player to stay outside the settlement.

Edit2: Funny discovery about the create_unit. In that case you probably want to use a number of different create_unit commands which only spawn one unit each.

[Red Spot]

I've tried that, got the impression you where saying that a create unit command with amount "1" wouldnt be adjusted downward, but that doesnt seem the case.

I've thought about making a monitor for each of my "armour era's" (in my game every level of armour has to be invented like gunpowder) but all that means is that after 20-ish turns in a new era the reinforcements may spawn again..

Anyway I've got some other way of working slightly around the situation and have also found out that reloading the campaign(save) "fixes" the monitor again ...


G

[alpaca]

I've tried that, got the impression you where saying that a create unit command with amount "1" wouldnt be adjusted downward, but that doesnt seem the case.

I've thought about making a monitor for each of my "armour era's" (in my game every level of armour has to be invented like gunpowder) but all that means is that after 20-ish turns in a new era the reinforcements may spawn again..

Anyway I've got some other way of working slightly around the situation and have also found out that reloading the campaign(save) "fixes" the monitor again ...


G
Yeah I was thinking just that. Weird stuff. Maybe the console_command create_unit works better? I think it uses almost the same syntax (but probably also the same code).

create_unit <settlement/character_name> <unit_id> <opt:how_many> <opt:exp/armour/weapon>

[Red Spot]

so basicly just add "console_command" in front of it ..??

from;
create_unit London, Armored Sergeants, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0

to;
console_command create_unit London, Armored Sergeants, num 2
(to start without armour/weapon upgrades)

will try, thanks ;)

ps; something that might be interesting, nothing special may just save others the time to test it, a little code for being able to set a flag in EDB when crusades are active;

monitor_event CrusadeCalled IsCrusade

set_event_counter crusade_active 1
end_monitor

monitor_event CrusadeEnds IsCrusade

set_event_counter crusade_active 0
end_monitor
(change "IsCrusade" to "IsJihad" for Jihads ...)


Edit;
just tried the console command thingy, worked like a charm!!

the formatting is diffirent;
console_command create_unit London "Feudal Knights" 8 1 1 1

numbers represent the same as with the regular command, though the number of units, in the example 8, is capped at 5 units
the good thing is that it does not adjust itself downwards, it spawns what it can and than when it can again the full number (of max 5 units)


G

[alpaca]

Ok good, one problem less.

As for the current challenge: Don't try anything with reduce_unit_strength. Unfortunately it freezes the game.

[Epistolary Richard]

The only idea I recall being mooted to represent Attrition was to make every unit a general's bodyguard (i.e. add the general_unit attribute to them in edu) as the size of bodyguards can be controlled in the trait files.

The drawbacks to such an idea though are heavy as you would lose the unit picture, and as soon as each unit 'captain' died the entire unit would be gone. Might work for a small scale mod with not many units, but a lot of 'character', but certainly not suitable for the standard, larger scale mods people make.

[alpaca]

The only idea I recall being mooted to represent Attrition was to make every unit a general's bodyguard (i.e. add the general_unit attribute to them in edu) as the size of bodyguards can be controlled in the trait files.

The drawbacks to such an idea though are heavy as you would lose the unit picture, and as soon as each unit 'captain' died the entire unit would be gone. Might work for a small scale mod with not many units, but a lot of 'character', but certainly not suitable for the standard, larger scale mods people make.
Hey ER, nice of you to stop by

Aye, I pondered the option, too. In addition to what you mentioned I imagine it would seriously slow the game down because triggers like CharacterTurnEnd would have to be checked for each unit on the map (which is about the number of characters times 20)

The current "canonical" way of doing it is like in EB to limit movement rates and morale.

I had a quite nice idea what could be done but what I mentioned above kind of ruined it. You could still randomly kill off whole units but that's not a very attractive option, either.

[BozosLiveHere]

ER said that there is a destroy_unit command in Kingdoms, maybe now the problem will become trivial.

[alpaca]

ER said that there is a destroy_unit command in Kingdoms, maybe now the problem will become trivial.
Which problem? Being able to destroy buildings doesn't help us in the least with attrition :inquisitive:

[Epistolary Richard]

destroy_unit - but as you mentioned that takes out an entire unit rather than reducing the number of men in a unit (which would be the desired result).

[alpaca]

Whoops sorry I was overjoyed at the prospect of being able to destroy buildings so I misread it :laugh4:

[CavalryCmdr]

Re-Emergent factions

I realize this thread (on this site at least) is pretty much dead, but I figured I'd still put this out there.

A problem (depending on the intentions of the script writer of course) with your solution is that a random horde will spawn when the last city is captured if any family member still lives.

If you only want your scripted army to appear at your designated time change


horde_min_units 10
horde_max_units 20
horde_max_units_reduction_every_horde 10
horde_min_named_characters 2
to


horde_min_units 0
horde_max_units 0
horde_max_units_reduction_every_horde 0
horde_min_named_characters 0
I'm not sure if they all have to be 0, but I know this works.
This way the faction will die normally, but still remain in the code to be revived at a later date.

This will record as an error in the log


14:56:45.739 [script.err] [error] Script Error in medimod/data/descr_sm_factions.txt, at line 22, column 32
file: "descr_sm_factions.txt": horde_min_units should be nonzero!
but otherwise causes no problems.

It is also a good idea to script in neutrality with all factions at the point of death as, because they are still present, thier relations (stance and faction standing) prior to death is still remembered by other AI factions. Thus, if you kill a factions you will always be considered 'AtWar' with them even though they are dead. This also causes some complications on re-birth as the horde AI is uncontrolable and will not consider previous relations until a setlment is occupied.

[Monkwarrior]

Just in case it is useful for somebody, I report here a method to start the campaign in the middle of the initial year, instead of at the beginning.

Let's say we want a 12 turns per year campaign, but it must start in September of 1212.

We use alpaca's script modified in this way:


declare_counter season_counter
set_counter season_counter 9

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
inc_counter season_counter 1

; 0 equals winter
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 0
console_command season winter
end_if
if I_CompareCounter season_counter > 0
console_command season summer
end_if
; Reset the counter on the autumn turn so that it'll be 0 next turn
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 11
set_counter season_counter -1
end_if
end_monitor
But the year (seen using show_hud_date = true configuration option) will change in turn 12, not in turn 4. For this purpose we must add new options:


declare_counter season_counter
set_counter season_counter 9
declare_counter year_counter
set_counter year_counter 0

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
inc_counter season_counter 1

; 0 equals winter
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 0
console_command season winter
end_if
if I_CompareCounter season_counter > 0
console_command season summer
end_if
; Reset the counter on the autumn turn so that it'll be 0 next turn
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 11
set_counter season_counter -1
end_if

if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 0
inc_counter year_counter 1
end_if

if I_CompareCounter year_counter == 1
console_command date 1213
end_if

if I_CompareCounter year_counter == 2
console_command date 1214
end_if
; more lines are needed depending on the duration of the campaign.

end_monitor

I've used this system in the first tests of a campaign with 50 turns per year, beginning in the 34 turn of the first year, and it works (only tested the first "New Year Event").

[anweRU]

I'd like to set a script similar to the very first script in this thread, i.e. adding money to a faction that captures a settlement. However, I want to add a different set of conditions:

For example, consider Jerusalem:
If a Catholic faction captures Jerusalem from a Muslim faction, it gets bonus money.
Otherwise, it doesn't.
If a Muslim faction captures Jerusalem from a Christian faction, it gets bonus money.
Otherwise, it doesn't.

So I need to check the faction that owned the settlement before its capture. Also, would I need to repeat this script for every faction, i.e. Moors, Egypt & Turks for the Muslims, and England, etc. for the Catholic?