Recycle Disbanded BGs

[Aetius2]

Hi,

I have a question about returning disbanded BG's.

The manual states that:

17.8 DISBANDING
Battle Groups are disbanded whenever they are forced to leave a map, and can’t retreat, either
through loss of victory locations or from morale failure. A disbanded Battle Group becomes
unavailable for the reminder of a campaign or operation. However, some teams/units from a
disbanded Battle Group may be absorbed into nearby friendly Battle Groups as long as they are
under the same parent formation.

In the campaign.txt there is a setting:

# Recycle Disbanded BGs (0 = Never come back, 1 = Return next day)
1

Is this setting only valid for BG's that are disbanded by the player on the strategic map (disband button) and not valid for the BG's that are "forced to leave a map, and can’t retreat, either through loss of victory locations or from morale failure" as the result of a played game?

[SteveMcClaire]

The 'Recycle Disbanded BGs' setting in campaigns.txt applies to all non-static battle groups. Static battle groups can't be recycled.

For LSA this value is set to '0' which is the behavior described in the game manual.

If you change the value to '1' then BGs that disband, either by player order or being unable to retreat, will re-enter the strategic map the next morning, assuming there is a spot for them to do so.

[Aetius2]

Hi Steve, thanks for the clarification.

I've set the setting to "1", in both the mod i'm working on (radzymin'44) and the stock game i came to the conclusion that disbanded BG's don't return if they are disbanded as described in debrief text in attach.

Could you check this?

Thanks in advance

[Aetius2]

Further info:

campaign.txt disband settings:
#########################################################################
# Misc. options / features
#########################################################################
# Recycle Disbanded BGs (0 = Never come back, 1 = Return next day)
1


Disbandtest operation in attach.
Screenshots of operation in attach.

[Aetius2]

operation

[SteveMcClaire]

Thanks for the information, I will look at it when I can.

To set expectations, it is unlikely there will be an update to fix an option not used in the stock game. If it is not working and LSA is updated for other reasons then I may be able to include a mod-support fix like this.

[Aetius2]

seems this issue has been reported a couple years ago:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... 92&mpage=2

I did a search in the forums before posting but the search function doesn't seem to work for me.

[Aetius2]

I understand if it isn't used in the stock game you can't use an official update for it.
If it turns out to be just a minor effort to fix, maybe a beta patch "use at your own risk", only available in the forums can be an option?

Several mods in the pipeline for LSA would benefit from this fix imho.

Aetius

[Aetius2]

Any scheduled LSA updates in the near future?
A fix for this would make a lot of modders very happy [:)]

[Aetius2]

A lot of mods would benefit if this function would work.
Since a fix in an official update is probably not very likely in the near future it might be a option for modders if this feature could be turned on/off in the saved game using a hex editor.
Or even better an extra function in the "SaveGameEditor" tool to enable or disable this option.

Steve, can this feature be turned on/off in the saved game or is this hardcoded in the game engine?

Aetius

[SteveMcClaire]

The setting for recycling battlegroups is in campaign.txt. It is not stored in saved game files so you can edit campaign.txt (and restart the game) at any time to change it.

[Aetius2]

Yes, i know it's in the campaign.txt but this function doesn't work, see above comments and the statement you've made earlier:
"To set expectations, it is unlikely there will be an update to fix an option not used in the stock game. If it is not working and LSA is updated for other reasons then I may be able to include a mod-support fix like this."

I was searching for a "workaround" to get this function to work because this is a real nuisance for every modmaker.

Aetius

[SteveMcClaire]

I had a chance to look into the use of the legacy 'recycle BGs' setting in Last Stand Arnhem.

It does seem to be working, but there are some interactions with other settings that may be preventing some BGs from recycling.

If a BG does not start the scenario on a map with a friendly full supply depot, it won't recycle unless the campaign.txt setting "BGs that start on a friendly depot map can only reform on maps linked to starting map by friendly depots" is set to 0. If the BG does start the scenario on a map with a friendly full supply depot it should work with either 0 or 1 for this setting.

In addition the "Maximum distance from starting map a BG can look for a supply depot to reform on (-1 for unlimited)" setting in campaign.txt will restrict how far the game will look, from the BGs starting map, to find a supply depot it can reform on.

I'm looking at fixing the case that does not appear to work properly when the recycle setting is turned on by mods -- and that is BGs that do not start on a map with a full friendly supply depot won't recycle without the 'linked map' setting off.

[Aetius2]

Hi Steve,

----------------------------------------------------------
If a BG does not start the scenario on a map with a friendly full supply depot, it won't recycle unless the campaign.txt setting "BGs that start on a friendly depot map can only reform on maps linked to starting map by friendly depots" is set to 0. If the BG does start the scenario on a map with a friendly full supply depot it should work with either 0 or 1 for this setting.
--------------------------------------------------------

Indeed, in this case the disbanded BG will return the next day but not on a friendly depot map like we want but on the map where it started the campaign (wich might be deep in enemy territory when the campaign progresses).

This is also unwanted/unusable for a modmaker, example:

Lets say a day has 4 turns, on turn 1 an axis BG is gets surrounded and is forced to disband, the allied BG will move away 3 turns only to discover the next day the same axis BG is back on the map where it started and was defeated only now deeper in allied territory, i'll make a test GC about this and post screenshots to make it more visual.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm looking at fixing the case that does not appear to work properly when the recycle setting is turned on by mods -- and that is BGs that do not start on a map with a full friendly supply depot won't recycle without the 'linked map' setting off.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for looking into this, modmakers will be very glad if this gets fixed.

Aetius

[Manoi]

Any news about this problem? Please Steve, some mods are in development and this bug is causing us a lot of trouble. Thanks

[SteveMcClaire]

I have made the changes for this and the new build now needs to go through the release process. I do not have an estimate on when this will be comlete but I will post here if/when I have more information.

[Aetius2]

Thanks Steve for fixing this, makes a huge difference in making campaigns and operations for mods.

[Manoi]

I have made the changes for this and the new build now needs to go through the release process. I do not have an estimate on when this will be comlete but I will post here if/when I have more information.

Thanks for your work. A good news for the community.

[SchnelleMeyer]

Thanks Steve for doing the work and pushing through a fix for this issue. It will surely make for better mods. This is why I buy Matrix games: they support their games and the modding community even a long time after release.

[Tejszd]

Thank you Matrix and Steve for fixing this issue and creating a new patch/update!