The truth about multiplayer Campaign

[Swoosh So]

Well after the recent hotbed of speculation about the possibility of a multi player campaign i feel its time to say this...


Did most of you know that the only thing stopping a multiplayer campaign in mtw is an input output text file to allow the playing of battles online? YES a simple text file compatible with the army selection screen on the multiplayer foyer

CA programmers if i may ask i know you wont make this possible for mtw (its too late now) But why not keep the -ian command and allow us this 1 small feature for Rome total war? All you have to do is to make the file outputted at the save game screen before battle starts in the campaign we save the game then input the file once the battle has been fought online Please consider this as its such a small thing and it would do so much for many players in the community.

Even if you wont iinclude this in rome total war cculd you please post here stating why?


Swooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh

[1dread1lahll]

swoosh, I recall the devs saying that their would be 'new camera options' for RTW...but they did not say what that would be..as for -ian it defeated the limited camera option that the host of a game might wish to set, thus was unfair.... I did like to ability to raise the angle and pan down more though, the current camera options are not as good as I would like.

[Swoosh So]

Lahll the -ian command function i refer to has nothing to do with camera commands, it allows multiple players in the single player campaign. I think its certain that camera angles have to be changed for rome totalwar.

[ShadesWolf]

Interesting Swoosh So

I played around with the '-ian' command quite a bit in doing some testing in the forum and it was quite successful.

My only problem was the AI also issued orders, hense it make the switching between factions almost impossible

Very interesting http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Nowake]

Salve all.


Excuse my ignorance, I heard discussions on the -ian command since a long time now, but I never was intersted to really find out what does it do. Swoosh, can you be more specific? It really is related to playing campaigns in MP? It was somekind of an experiment of CA that was never drawn to a close?

[Duke John]

The command -ian was added by the programmer to allow some Ian to play the game and make screenshots with greater freedom. An example is the ability to move the camera in battles in whatever direction you want, even high above the battlefield. This command was if I recall correctly removed from MPgames as it could be abused to see then entire battlefield when you flew high above your army.

Cheers, Duke John

[Cazbol]

-ian is a switch which is put at the end of the windows shortcut string. Pressing the keys 1, 2, 3 etc. switches between the active factions. For example, if you're playing the Danes, and then press key 8, you're all of a sudden in control of the Mongols or Sicilians or someone else, but not the Danes. The camera effect applies too.

[Nowake]

Thank you both, but your describing different things. Again, which is which? And how can you activate it?

[Cazbol]

Quote[/b] (Nowake @ Mar. 17 2004,07:27)]Thank you both, but your describing different things. Again, which is which? And how can you activate it?
The -ian switch has two functions (at least) and therefore they both get described here. Both the camera and the faction switching.

To activate it:
Right click on the shortcut and choose properties.
Find the shortcut pathname.
Behind the "Medieval.exe" or "MTW.exe" (don't remember the exe file's name) add " -ian" so it becomes:
"......./Medieval.exe -ian"
Start the game and the -ian switch is now active.

The use in MP campaigns is in having one player control one faction; make his moves; save without pressing End Turn; emailing the savegame to another player who then switches to his faction and repeats the process; with the last player pressing End Turn. As described the AI will however mess with all but the last faction, ruining the whole thing.

[Puzz3D]

Quote (dessa14 @ Nov. 26 2003,19:56)
------------------------------------
You can turn AI off for all factions using -ian or C just add them to the command line then press I in the campaign to turn off ai.

Quote
eat cold steel
Programmer
Group: CA
--------------------
Yes as many as you want, and spaces in between each one. I've had a look at the list just now, there are too many to list here, most are debug things like setting hardware sounds and stuff. These are not very interesting and can be fiddle with from option screen anyway. A few interesting ones I've spotted, not sure if they actually work or not but here they are.
D - debug mode, runs in a smaller screen
C - selfrun mode, just let the AI fight itself (mostly the same is -ian)
-old_rebels uses a different way of generating rebellions
-green_generals newly created replacment is non-experianced
-loyalty:X set the suto tax to maintain X loyalty
-bbc apparaent allow the host to pause MP games
-strictserver you may also need to have this off for pause

Again command switch is mostly for debuging, these may not work and can crash your game.

While in debug mode (D, C, or -ian) various keys do wonderful things to the strategy map. The number keys allows you to change factions, a turns on auto run - ends the turn as soon as it starts. # or ' depending on what keyboard you have let the AI take over your faction, along with autorun makes the game play itself, great for testing out mods. To see your AI controlled faction fight in battle mode instead of auto resolve press Shift # or '. To turn off AI control press the number key for your faction. G toggle see the whole map on and off, same as the cheat. Don't press F12 as that quits everything.

Quote
eat cold steel
Programmer
HOF Award 2003
Group: CA
Posted: Oct. 20 2003,04:29
--------------------------
Time for one of my hidden-in-some-obscure-thread-secert-extra-command-line-switch-post me thinks. New to the VI patch:
-old_age:A where A is when the old age kicks in for generals, for kings, royal blood and hero add 10 years to that. It default to 40 which gives you the above variation you see now.
-death_msg:R where R is the rank of a general must be to get a general dies of old age parchment when you are displaying non-critical messages.
-critical_death_msg:R same as the one above, but it display a death message regardless of if the non-critical message check box is ticked or not. The default is death_msg:4, critical_death_msg:11. This gives the same behaviour as before the patch - you only death message when you want non-critical message and the general is rank 4+.

[Nowake]

Quote[/b] (Cazbol @ Mar. 17 2004,16:44)]
Quote[/b] (Nowake @ Mar. 17 2004,07:27)]Thank you both, but your describing different things. Again, which is which? And how can you activate it?
The -ian switch has two functions (at least) and therefore they both get described here. Both the camera and the faction switching.

To activate it:
Right click on the shortcut and choose properties.
Find the shortcut pathname.
Behind the "Medieval.exe" or "MTW.exe" (don't remember the exe file's name) add " -ian" so it becomes:
"......./Medieval.exe -ian"
Start the game and the -ian switch is now active.

The use in MP campaigns is in having one player control one faction; make his moves; save without pressing End Turn; emailing the savegame to another player who then switches to his faction and repeats the process; with the last player pressing End Turn. As described the AI will however mess with all but the last faction, ruining the whole thing.
Thank you Cazbol. I'll play with it for a while, see how is getting along http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif


Hey Puzz, it seems you have an entire history on this. Good info m8