Scripting

[Myrddraal]

I posted this as a side point in the WoT mod thread, but maybe someone here can answer it:

If we could change the number of turns in one year that would be awsome. For example, have four seasons to a year instead of two.

I was thinking of a possible way of doing this. I was looking around the prologue_script.txt file, and I noticed that you can enter cheats. They use the line console_command, and then enter the cheat code.

For example, they make sure you don't lose ur character by making him invulnerable:

console_command invulnerable_general "Gaius Julius"

If we could somehow make this type of script work for other campaigns, then you could write out a very long script which would do this:

Turn one: do nothing (spring)
Turn two: change the season back to summer (summer)
Turn three: change the season back to summer (autumn or fall for the americans)
Turn four: do nothing. (winter, the date would then automatically advance by one at the end of this turn)

It would do this in cycle for the whole game period, and there you go, four turns to a year.

Now I don't know if it would work, but its an idea worth looking into.

[Myrddraal]

I take it no-one knows better than me...

[Kraxis]

Let me ask... You have to do this all the time right? And you sure the characters don't as they shouldn't?

[Bacchon]

That looks like it would work to me... Only problem I could think of was that it'd still advance the year after every two turns, regardless of the season. You'd thus have two years per season cycle according to the game display, unless you could script that to change as well, but that would take a huge amount of work, as you'd probably have to script it to change each and every year manually. I, personally, could live with having two years/season cycle, wouldn't matter to me. Characters would only live through half as many years by the season cycle, though the same as by the clock.

Excellent idea, though.

-edit-

If the years do advance as one year/two seasons and not one year/season cycle, you'd also have to double the number of playable years. Also not a big deal for me, my games never finish after 100BC. 'Course, I never made it into Late Era in MTW. *shrug*

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Hope there's a way around that, I need it for my AmericanConquestTotalWar mod. It would be long but I need more than an 8 turn Civil War (I was gonna make the turns into months)
-Capo

[Myrddraal]

Its easy enought to do in the prologue script, but I can't make script files for any other campaign. Am I wasting my time?

[dclare4]

I don't think its useless if you can get away from the 'year/age' paradigm. Like if you thought of turns as turns and modified the game likewise. For instance I was thinking instead of born, coming of age and died it could be - "A new officer is commissioned/arrives at (theater of war) and is beginning HQ staff duties" for born, "A new officer receives his command" for coming of age and "Officer retired/dies of natural causes/transferred out of (theater of war)" for dies. I for one would like to see more turns per year and if you got the script working that will give RTW four seasons thats great, maybe you could post it?

Cheers,
Clare

[tommh]

Have you tried this:

script
Prologue_Campaign_Script.txt



At the bottom of the appropriate desc_strat file? This is going to be difficult without some idea of the script language and format. For more ideas see the scripts in the show_me directory.

[Myrddraal]

My god, I can't believe I missed it...

Thx Tommh, I'll see what I can do...

[Myrddraal]

I have a script that works:

	declare_counter PressEndTurn


	console_command date -50
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 101

	while I_CompareCounter PressEndTurn = 101
	monitor_event ButtonPressed ButtonPressed end_turn
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 1
		terminate_monitor
	end_monitor
	end_while


	while I_CompareCounter PressEndTurn = 1
	console_command date -50
	console_command season summer
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 100
	end_while

	while I_CompareCounter PressEndTurn = 100
	monitor_event ButtonPressed ButtonPressed end_turn
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 2
		terminate_monitor
	end_monitor
	end_while


	while I_CompareCounter PressEndTurn = 2
	console_command date -50
	console_command season summer
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 200
	end_while

	while I_CompareCounter PressEndTurn = 200
	monitor_event ButtonPressed ButtonPressed end_turn
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 3
		terminate_monitor
	end_monitor
	end_while


	while I_CompareCounter PressEndTurn = 3
	console_command date -50
	console_command season winter
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 300
	end_while

	while I_CompareCounter PressEndTurn = 300
	monitor_event ButtonPressed ButtonPressed end_turn
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 4
		terminate_monitor
	end_monitor
	end_while


	while I_CompareCounter PressEndTurn = 4
	console_command date -51
	console_command season summer
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 400
	end_while

	while I_CompareCounter PressEndTurn = 400
	monitor_event ButtonPressed ButtonPressed end_turn
		set_counter	PressEndTurn 5
		terminate_monitor
	end_monitor
	end_while


	terminate_script

This makes the game run from the date -50 and has four seasons for the first turn.

There are a few bugs. The seasons don't seem to want to change, there is currenly one summer, and three winters. I'll see what I can do.

[Myrddraal]

Ok, ignore that previous post, the code was flawed. The flaw was that the year ends some time after the player presses end turn.

Here is the new and shiny, bugless and concise Script:

	console_command date -50

	while I_TurnNumber = 0
	end_while

	console_command date -50
	console_command season summer

	while I_TurnNumber = 1
	end_while

	console_command date -50
	console_command season summer

	while I_TurnNumber = 2
	end_while

	console_command date -50
	console_command season winter

	while I_TurnNumber = 3
	end_while

	console_command date -51
	console_command season summer

	console_command date -51
	console_command season summer

	while I_TurnNumber = 4
	end_while

	console_command date -51
	console_command season summer

	while I_TurnNumber = 5
	end_while

	console_command date -51
	console_command season winter

	terminate_script

This can be repeated as much as you like.
Hope someone finds this usefull. Please tell me if your using it, I'd like to know how many people use it.

Now all we need is a way of increasing life spans.

To the Mods: Is this worthy of the Guides Forum?

[Barbarian Axeman]

Hi Did this work

[dclare4]

Hi Myrddraal,

Should I put it in the scripts folder or the *campaign_name* folder? Really excited about this!

You rule!
Clare

[Myrddraal]

You should put it in the campaign folder, and make a line at the bottom of the descr_strat.txt like this:

script
descr_Script.txt

Or whatever ur script file is called.

MR_EGG thats great, as I said I hadn't tested it much and I had assumed that aging would be doubled. I can see this is going to be useful for my Wheel of Time Mod as well...

@GodsPetMonkey, U got there first! Thats what I was about to do. Thx.

[Myrddraal]

I noticed your script generator generates 2 winters and 2 summers if you put it to 4 turns a year.

Maybe you could add an extra option:

Number of these turns to be summers.

This would be convinent for those who want to do Months, and have the winter months snowy.

[[cF]HanBaal]

hi Myrddraal! Great job you got here! I always wanted RTW to have 4 turns also

Three questions:

1-Reading MR.EGG's post, can we assume the characters' lifespan is related to years and not turns? If not, have you (or anyone else) found a way to make it so?

2- Reading your script sample, I also assume you managed to make 3 summer seasons and one winter season per year right?

3- Considering conditions 1 and 2 as achievable, would you mind if we implement this feature into the EuropaBarbarorum mod? All credits due of course

[Myrddraal]

As far as I know, 1 is true, though I haven't tested it myself.

2 is true.

And of course I don't mind. If I didn't wan't people using it, I would never have posted, but I do like people to appreciate, so the credits are welcome ;)

[GodsPetMonkey]

I noticed your script generator generates 2 winters and 2 summers if you put it to 4 turns a year.

Maybe you could add an extra option:

Number of these turns to be summers.

This would be convinent for those who want to do Months, and have the winter months snowy.

Well, I admit I just knocked it up in like 20 mins, pretty simple to do, but I guess I can work in such a feature, give me a bit of time and I'll get back to you

EDIT -
Actually, that was alot easier then I expected, and only took me about 5 minutes to implement and test, grab the new version here;
http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Rt...iptGen_101.zip

[eadingas]

You two guys have made whole new worlds open to the modding community

[barbarian warchief]

ok, I made each turn represent 1 month but now I cant save and it doesnt autosave either. Also, generals dont age for 6 turns then they age every turn after that then process repeats itself at the start of the year.