Question: EB hotseat/PBeM

[TruePraetorian]

I've known that people say it's impossible ever since I started EB at v1.0. The issues that I hear you come across are:

-4tpy does not work properly (Which includes Year Jumps, reforms, etc.)
-Gov't markers only placed for first faction
-Recruitment is incorrect
-Money Bonuses incorrect

If there are any more please let me know


Some thoughts I had were to make all Gov't buildings available/all units available and rely soley on the player to select the correct units. It's a stretch but if there is no other way it seems do-able.

For the money script, that could be easily removed (I assume)

AFAIK, the 4tpy script can be remade depending on the number of players, but I have no clue how to fix reforms and such

The question that I am asking is if anyone knows what is required to change to make it playable as hotseat/PBeM. I am willing to do as much as I can to mod it that way, so if anyone would like to assist any help would be appreciated

[Bonny]

I did not test it, but both scripts might work at the same time without problem, since the hotseatscript uses a diferent trigger for activation than the eb backroudn script. The thing that might be problematic would be the campaign_script which generates different starting conditions depending on the players faction.

[TruePraetorian]

Yeah, i've been fiddling around with it. It seems that there are no compatibility problems; no CTDs as of yet. The only issue IS the starting positions/recruitment only work for the first faction. Also, i've noticed that the seasons do not function properly, and characters do not get the trait for what season it is (which is probably in the campaign script as well).

I think I know how to get the recruitment working but not the Gov't buildings or the seasons correct.

[Bonny]

I think I know how to get the recruitment working but not the Gov't buildings or the seasons correct.

The govt building can be done by changing the campaign script.
All entries of bulding placement for AI factions need to be changed to the entries the human palyer gets for the faction.

[TruePraetorian]

Thanks I seem to have the Gov't buildings working, which in turn helped fix the recruitment.

Now the only issue I think I need to resolve is the 4tpy (reforms and season issue) and information on removing the money script/editing it for player factions only.

[phonicsmonkey]

hey TruePraetorian, keep fighting the good fight on this one!

I run the Broken Crescent hotseat in the Throne Room and it's been very successful, but my favourite mod for any TW game is EB, so if you can develop a mini-mod that will make EB available for hotseat play, I'll love you forever and definitely will join any campaign you start..keep posting your progress here!

[TruePraetorian]

Ok i'll be sure to keep you updated. I had some stuff going on the past few days but I'll be resuming today/tomorrow.

And if anyone wants to assisst just PM me

[TruePraetorian]

I was going to start a new thread but i'll see if this post gets enough attention to keep it in the thread.


As it stands, I have made great progress on the PBeM/Hotseat mod.

The 'known' issues I had before creating this were:

-4tpy does not work properly (Which includes Year Jumps, reforms, etc.)
-Gov't markers only placed for first faction
-Recruitment is incorrect
-Money Bonuses incorrect


As I was going through the scripts and stuff, I noticed that the only things needed to really change (AFAIK unless a developer would like to comment otherwise ) were the 4tpy and the placement of Gov't buildings.

-4tpy is in the EBBS. I can definatley make that work depending on the number of players, but that's just it...you need a set amount of players (solutions below).

-Gov't on the other hand was complicated. In order for a PBeM/Hotseat to work, I gave EVERY settlement the homeland trait for EVERY faction. This means you can build all types of Gov't in all settlements. Fortunately, recruitment is only effected by your current faction, so AOR still works fine.

My solution to this is (I think) very agreeable. Either;
A. Fill up all 20 factions (no slave) with players - which may be hard to do..but who knows
or
B. Have an Admin/Moderator. The benifit to being the Admin would you not only get to play, but you get to play numerous factions. Downside: obviously an Admin could change the flow of gameplay if he was not fair (12 faction Alliance? ) Oh yeah, Admin wouldn't control Apeuletheroi(?)(rebels)..waaay to much work and time, plus last I checked they don't function like other factions.

Probability of B over A is pretty good IMO, but like a said, the .Org is full of mature members who can refrain from cheating.

Now speaking of players being mature and not cheating, with the only possible way to play being all Gov'ts buildable anywhere there needs to be quite a strong commitment to only build the appropriate building. Like I said about the Admin..it's all about the human factor. I mean, a quick solution to this is to just stop sending them their turn Besides that, it's just as easy to use the console to cheat...so IMO it's nothing to worry about.

But about the Homeland region thing, if (when ) I release this little mini-mod, I will include printable maps with different colors for each faction, kind of like the recruitment viewer. These would show which Gov't goes where. Print it, draw it, tatoo it, whatever, it would just make everyone's lives much easier to know where they are allowed to build.


So, there you have it. PLEASE post me any thing/ideas/suggestions/etc. that I need to take care of before releasing it...if not I expect to release it in around 24-48 hours(ish?) depending on my schedule.

[TruePraetorian]

Ok a little hinderanc in my progress. After setting it all up, I made the hotseat script for all 21 factions. Everything works perfectly from faction to faction...taxes, recruitment, buildings..everything is good. The speed-bump is the slave faction.

When the game gets to the slave faction, no matter if they are in the script or not, I can not get control of them..it skips over them.

This is an issue because the EBBS is intterupted. On the start of the next Roman turn, the game was winter (even though all characters had the summer trait, so the traits and counters work fine.)

As it stands, I need a way to have the script activated on the slave turn, or I need some way to control the slave faction. I have made multiple hotseat scripts...two factions...with slave..without slave..it all keeps boiling down to the slave faction.

Any help would be appreciated and would greatly speed up the process of finishing it

[TruePraetorian]

Well to all following this thread, it's done AFAICT. I solved the slave faction problem by including the 4tpy script under a monitor_event in the PBeM script. Now on the slave turn, it still keeps track of the years and seasons.

I'm testing it currently with no issues. Then again i've only gone through two years before going to bed at 3am, so i'm going to try to test it today and see how far I can get.

Now, as far as some need-to-know info, here:

-All regions are homeland. This means you should, not have to, keep a moderator around OR have around 20 players/more then one faction per player as to avoid the AI building type 1's everywhere.

-Because of the region thing, I will include print-outs for each faction on where you can build a certain Gov't. Simple fix.

-Just like any PBeM, battles should be autiresolved. I DO, repeat, DO have a way to fight the battles out (create a historical battle, minor scripting after), but that would require all players to meet up constantly to fight. If you have any questions just PM me and I can show you how, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are in a hotseat environment (hobby store)

-Just like any PBeM, again, messages don't show up at the start of a turn. Don't know how to fix this, I'm gonna try out some commands (show_all_messages) to see if maybe that works? Just make sure to check your family members regularly, armies, cities (sympathy to Arche Seleukia fanatics ) to know what is going on. If I can find the solution I will.

-As it stands, I don't have a way of generating the modified PBeM. I used Myrdraal's generator but changed a few things. So, I will add instructions on how to get it working.


That's it. I'll be opening a new thread when I release it. If something else goes wrong and I need to fix it, give me a few more hours/ a day and I should have it done.

Oh yeah, about the gov't maps thing, if anyone wants to help out on that be my guest. Since I've been trying to get this to work I haven't got around to that. What i'm thinking is a map with 3 different colors, possibly even region/settlement names included. If no one wants to though, no worries. It'll just take me a bit.
EDIT: I got it. I actually checked out the recruitment viewer and it has the perfect maps I was looking for. No help needed.

EDIT: Also, i'm thinking of adding the entire EBBS script instead of the 4tpy script to the PBeM script. I don't know if it is needed, so if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

[Ritterlichvon86]

Wonderful, you'll be my all time hero if this thing works! My buddy and me will probably starve or die for a lack of sun on our skin if this hits the servers.

Thank you so much Now my Romans can finally crush his pity hellenic armies and loot and plunder his puny cities hahaha!