Didz's Dumb Question Thread

[Merak]

i just think no one has found the right config file to change for taking screens in the mean time i have heard FRAPS do the same thing

[Didz]

i just think no one has found the right config file to change for taking screens in the mean time i have heard FRAPS do the same thing

Hmm! well hopefully someone will sort this out soon. I usually like to do AAR's on my games but I'm not even going to try without a folder that saves all the screenshots I take.

I have FRAPS but I've enever used it. I thought it was only used for movies, so I'll have to check it out.

[Merak]

if you do AAR:s i would love to read it.

and what does your signature mean?

[magnum]

Ok, wait. Didz said something that now gave me a stupid question to ask (bound to happen as I haven't read a manual. We don't need no stinkin manual!)

Scholars can steal tech by moving them into enemy schools?

[Merak]

yes but it is from the beginning realy hard to do (10 - to 13 % is the most i have seen) so i never bother with it i do like to kill the oponents gentlemans though

[Didz]

Scholars can steal tech by moving them into enemy schools?

Yes...I've had limited success stealing knowledge from Georgia just before my Ottoman army swept in and annexed their state and now I'm targetting the Novgorod College in northern Russia.

The percentage chance varies according to the technology you target and the skill of your scholar but in the case of Georgia I managed to pilfer two techs before I annexed them, the %chances were something like 24% and 22% per turn, and the worst that seems to happen if you fail is that your scholar gets expelled. But he can walk straight back in again, so as long as you aren't worried about your reputation it doesn't matter.

The pain is finding the target schools, and checking whether they have anything worth stealing, hence the question.

if you do AAR:s i would love to read it.

and what does your signature mean?

I did one for MTW2 which actually won a prize, so I'll probably give it a go if I can sort out the screenshot business. I've been on my Sega Pass Account and raised a ticket asking for clarification of where the screenshots are stored. According to their knowledge base screenshots are stored as .tga files in the tga folder just like previous TW titles but I've already checked that and they are there, in fact there is no tga folder.

PS: Just the record I check the CD's that came with my Special Forces Edition Boxed Set and there is no manual included on the disks. And be careful if you decide like me to google for a download, there are a lot of scam sites offering you a free copy. I just tried downloading one and my anti-spyware system lit up like a christmas tree.

[quadalpha]

The manual is on Steam. It would have answered quite a few of your questions (about trade ships, for one).

You do have LOS along all your trade routes; can't be that much trouble to look.

There is no list of foreign schools, but surely it can't be that much trouble to look for them.

[Didz]

The manual is on Steam. It would have answered quite a few of your questions (about trade ships, for one).

Nah! thats just the little pamphlet that comes with the box, I have that already. I was looking for a proper manual that explains how to play the game

You do have LOS along all your trade routes; can't be that much trouble to look.

Don't think so...not unless there is a bug thats reporting my trade route to Sweden as blockaded when it isn't. But I'll double check.
[Having double checked]
Hmm! ok I think your right though it needs a bit of detective work to sort out exactly whats going on, and even so there is a bug with the maginifying glass in that it never pointed me at any of the causes I think I've worked out.

This is what I think is happening.

Trade Route with:
Barbary States (worth 69 per turn) - It looks like their trading port at Surt has been captured by The Knights of St.John, and as thats their only trading port it has severed my trade route.

Savoy (worth 78 per turn) - Nice their trading port is being blockaded by The Barbary States, annoying as the Barabary States are my allies, and their fleet would be better employed dealing with the Morrocan's but <shrug>.

Denmark (Worth 107 per turn) - It looks like their trading port Aarhus has been captured by the Swedes, they have another port but it has no trade route to it so I assume its not a trading port. I know for a fact that when I clicked on the 'show me' button for this report it showed me the straits of gibraltar and there is no reason there for Denmark to be blockaded.

Sweden (worth 260 per turn) - Rostock is being blockaded by the Danish Fleet which explains that, but again I wasn't shown that when I clicked on the show me button. I was actually shown the Morrocan fleet in the Straits of Gibralter.

[AH! hang on sussed it] The reason I was shown the Morrocan fleet in the Straits of Gibraltar was that I was at war with them, and so they were blockading all my trade through the straits. The problem is that defeating the Morrocan fleet and opening the Straits of Gibralter to my trade has merely uncovered secondary reasons why that trade is still blocked which weren't reported to me by the 'show me' button because they were not the main reason at the time.

So, whats actually missing is a 'show me' button on the trade screen that says this is why your trade route is blocked now. Rather than just the one on the report which only shows you the cause that turn.

There is no list of foreign schools, but surely it can't be that much trouble to look for them.

Not if you don't mind pawing over the map of the world screen by screen and hovering over every settlement until the mouse over text tells you whats there. I mean I found a couple that way but it takes ages and I assumed the game would provide a simpler method as its a key aspect of gameplay.

The other issue of course is that even having found a school, you then have to find out if they have any knowledge worth stealing, which at the minute I can only do by calling up the diplomacy screen and asking to trade technologies with that country.

I was just expecting there to be some simple report somewhere that listed all the schools and what technologies were available for stealing from each. It seemed like a sort of obvious feature given the role of scholars.

[MikeV]

Fortis balore et armis

Fortis balore et armis roughly, "fearsome force at arms"

[quadalpha]

Fortis balore et armis roughly, "fearsome force at arms"

Balore ... bleating?

[Didz]

and what does your signature mean?

Sorry...I completely missed this question, and only noticed when MikeV tried to answer it for me.

Its supposedly my family motto, and according to the researcher it translates roughly as 'Strong in peace, or war'

I think you can only unfix plug bayonets. Don't think there's a performance hit though.

Nope! you definately can't unfix plug bayonets. I posted a warning about that earlier. Fixing plug bayonets turns you musketeers into expensive spearmen for the rest of the battle, and apparently thats working as intended. However, 'wiggy' does say you can unfix socket bayonets, but I think he's wrong, for a start you don't have the option to fix them in the first place they just appear on the ends of your mens muskets, and secondly the button he says to press to unfix them doesn't exist. I suspect this was a feature CA decided to abandon by failed to tell the advisors about.

At the start of your turn (after hitting the end turn button and letting it run through the other factions, but not when you load/continue from a saved game file), among the info droppings on the left will be one or more with an anchor symbol stating "Trade route raided." Bring up the full dialog and click the magnifying lens: it will take you to the fleet that's sitting on your trade route.

Thats was actually my point. When those reports appeared they all pointed to the Straits of Gibraltar where a Morroccan Fleets was blockading my trade route from the Altantic into the Med. I've dealt with that now and the Morrocan Fleet is lying on the sea bed just off the coast of Algiers. However, my trade with Denmark and Sweden is still blocked and there is no way of finding out quickly e.g. by clicking on the trade route in the Trade Report why it is still blocked.

In effect the 'Trade Route Raided' report only provides you with a snapshotof the primary reason your trade is blocked not the full story, and if you deal with that primary cause there is no report that says 'Well done, but you still can't trade with Denmark because Sweden has captured their Trading Port'. I was only able to work this out only by carefully tracking the trade route right back to its source and spotting that the flag flying over the port was the wrong colour.

The preferences.empire_script.txt file has this entry, by default:

gfx_screenshot_folder ./screenshots; # gfx_screenshot_folder <folder>, Folder to where save screenshots relative to Empire directory #

Two things to note:

1. The directory has to exist (this software is too dumb to create it).
2. You can change it to someplace else by editing the file and re-starting the app.

Also, the Alt-PrtScrn key combination copies the current screen to the Windoze clipboard. You should be able to fire up your favorite picture editor and use Paste to grab it.

So, just to clarify then, if I create a folder C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\The Creative Assembly\Empire\screenshots you think this may work.

Test Results
Well I created the folder and took some screenshots, but nothing appears in it. You sure its not necessary to do anything else like change the <folder>? (BTW: I also made sure the screenshot was being taken, by pasting it into a word document and its definately being taken just not being stored.)

Incidently, it appears the Russians and Japanese have cracked this, I've found a Russian website which includes a download of a modified preferences file that handles screenshots correctly, and I've found a Japanese site which shows a line by line analysis of the preferences file which notes on how to modify all the options including the screenshots. Unfortunately, not being able to read either Russian or Japanese it doesn't help much. The only thing I did manage to work out is that you can change the default unit sizes from (Default = 0) to (Double=2) to (Ultra=1) don't ask for a logical explanation to that but thats what it said. Apparently, Ultra produces units with 160 men in them. I have tested it though, so make sure you take a back-up copy of the file if you plan to experiment.

[anweRU]

In effect the 'Trade Route Raided' report only provides you with a snapshotof the primary reason your trade is blocked not the full story, and if you deal with that primary cause there is no report that says 'Well done, but you still can't trade with Denmark because Sweden has captured their Trading Port'. I was only able to work this out only by carefully tracking the trade route right back to its source and spotting that the flag flying over the port was the wrong colour.

Yep. It is the AI's favorite tactic - send an army or fleet into an opponent's trade ports. Once in a while you'll see a proper blockade, that is the blockading fleet just outside the port as in previous TW titles. That happens when there is an army or fleet in the port already.

In your case Denmark will never recover unless (i) Sweden is destroyed or (ii) you declare war on Sweden, ally yourself with Denmark, get military access, sail near to Arhus, and drop an army (just one unit is enough) on the port to flush out the Swedish fleet.

That's because the zone-of-control of the Swedish fleet in the port covers the land connection (arrows) between Copenhagen & Arhus, so the Danes cannot send an army to rescue their port from foreign occupation...

[Jason X]

Nope! you definately can't unfix plug bayonets. I posted a warning about that earlier. Fixing plug bayonets turns you musketeers into expensive spearmen for the rest of the battle, and apparently thats working as intended.

when I first fixed plug bayonets, I had the same nasty shock so after the battle I read the description of the tech - definitely working as intended.

However, 'wiggy' does say you can unfix socket bayonets, but I think he's wrong, for a start you don't have the option to fix them in the first place they just appear on the ends of your mens muskets, and secondly the button he says to press to unfix them doesn't exist. I suspect this was a feature CA decided to abandon by failed to tell the advisors about.

no. if you read the tech description in game, it makes it clear that the point of socket bayonets is that you don't need to fix and unfix them - your line infantry can shoot or melee with bayonets without having to fix/unfix bayonets. just switch them to melee mode and they'll stab away, switch melee off and they'll go back to shooting.

in general, i find the tooltips and right click for info pretty extensive in-game (which is a polite way of saying RTFM :

[Didz]

No. if you read the tech description in game, it makes it clear that the point of socket bayonets is that you don't need to fix and unfix them -

The only reason I mentioned this is that 'Wiggy' says you can do it. Which made me wonder if I'd missed something. But as you say it sounds like this might have been a planned feature that got cancelled only nobody remembered to tell 'Wiggy' about it.

[Kobal2fr]

The only reason I mentioned this is that 'Wiggy' says you can do it. Which made me wonder if I'd missed something. But as you say it sounds like this might have been a planned feature that got cancelled only nobody remembered to tell 'Wiggy' about it.

On a related note, both the in-game advisor and the tech description state that ring bayonets boost melee but detract from accuracy & reloading - I wish there was a way to affix/remove them. In fact, I'm pretty sure the battle advisor plainly says "you can affix them, but..." so seems to me they're not working as intended.

That said, I'm not sure they really give penalties to shooting, and AFAIK it's not something that's easily tested in a custom battle, since you can't pick and choose which techs apply :/