Pacific War scenario busted

[larryfulkerson]

So um.........I'm using version 3.4 ( 178 ) to Pacific War ( v 2.0 ) and EVERY TIME the game gets to the point where it calculates the Allied reinforcements the game hangs. This scenario was designed for COW ( I believe ) and so I'm thinking I need somebody who still owns COW to open it in the editor and save it ( as a version 3.0 ? ) so that I can open it in 3.4's editor and save it to make it a 3.4 version scenario.

OR maybe there's a logic problem in the scenario that causes it to hang ?

Either way I'm attaching it here below. Just clip off the ".txt" from the filename and unzip it to get the scenario

[1_Lzard]

wtf?

Will the sce do the nasty on me? Seems to run fine, so far............straight out of the zip!

We're using the same version of the game. I've got acow, and if you really want I'll do the conversion, but suspect it's something else, Larry........

Have you tried rebooting? I had a graphics malf this morning and a reboot cured it. No idea what the malf was about but it wasn't serious, eh?

[X(]

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: 1_Lzard
Will the sce do the nasty on me? Seems to run fine, so far............straight out of the zip!

Well, maybe it's not hung......maybe it just takes an increadably long time to figure out the Allied reinforcements. Or something. Have you made it past Allied turn 2 yet? I had the problem just before the start of the Allied turn 2.

[ralphtricky]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

ORIGINAL: 1_Lzard
Will the sce do the nasty on me? Seems to run fine, so far............straight out of the zip!

Well, maybe it's not hung......maybe it just takes an increadably long time to figure out the Allied reinforcements. Or something. Have you made it past Allied turn 2 yet? I had the problem just before the start of the Allied turn 2.

Larry,
Can I get a save right before it hangs, please?

Thanks,
Ralph

[ralphtricky]

Never mind, you just have to be very, very, very patient. It is a lot faster than COW, though. It's on the list to optimize for 3.5 now.

Naval replacements take up to 300x300xfastest speed of any naval unit. It looks at every deep water hex on the map, then looks for the nearest enemy unit while finding the best place to put a unit. It probably does this for every unit to be placed. Something like that anyway. It's very inefficient. I need to create a map with hexes to the nearest enemy unit, something like what the continent checking code does.

Ralph

[ralphtricky]

it looks neat anyway, let me know how it plays.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: ralphtrick
Naval replacements take up to 300x300xfastest speed of any naval unit. It looks at every deep water hex on the map, then looks for the nearest enemy unit while finding the best place to put a unit. It probably does this for every unit to be placed. It's very inefficient.

Oh. Well. That's what the problem is. I'm too impatient. FITE took only maybe a full minute on my machine to calculate everything and so I thought maybe Pacific War should take about the same amount of time but your explaination turns the light bulb on. There's a boat-load of ships and most of the huge map is deep water. So....

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: ralphtrick
it looks neat anyway, let me know how it plays.

Do I understand correctly that

1) the PO Assist function is "turned on" for all the PO units in the game?
2) The objectives that Elmer pursues are those that the PO Asisst function comes up with?
3) The Red Line that leaves a hex that contains a unit means that that unit reconstitutes in the
hex that the red line points to?

And now, how Pacific War plays:
Overall Elmer does a good job and plays well enough that I'd want to take him on in the 3.4 version.
But:
1) I've seen Elmer make "suicide" attacks that kills the attacking unit.
2) Elmer has a habit of leaving "holes" in the front lines from time to time.
3) There's some units doing the "pee-pee dance" of movement still. Just from one hex to another hex and
then back to the original hex. Rince and repeat.

There are a plethera of islands that don't have supply points in Pacific War and therefore can't be the host to a unit for any length of time before the unit needs to be replaced with a fresh one. The Naval Elmer dude doesn't seem to get it that bombarding with DD's ( with a range of 1 ) is a bad idea. I've seen 45% losses due to that. Kamchatka island ( large enough to have several urban areas ) doesn't have a supply point therefore I exclude it as a target for explotation. There's no supply point for the Allies on the main Japanese Island so in the end-game phase when you're invading and pursuing on the main island(s) you have to replace tired units constantly to maintain a decent advance.

Other than that I like this scenario a lot.

[1_Lzard]

Right then!

Got a hang on T-5, most likely because of what Ralph said.

Your right about Elmer! Far as I can tell, LOL!

[:D]

[sPzAbt653]

Me three, turn 5, waited 10 minutes and nothing happened so I shut it down.

[ralphtricky]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Me three, turn 5, waited 10 minutes and nothing happened so I shut it down.

I'm pretty sure it takes at least a couple of minutes for each unit that reconstitues, so I'm not surprised. I think it would have finished, it just isn't a quick process right now.

Moving carriers are also an issue, but not as bad as it was. For them, it will look at each hex within range, and then look at what the planes can hit. There's one scenario that I think Bob Cross wrote that specifically says that you should start the scenario with the PO On to avoid that issue, although it does a LOT better with 3.4. With 3.2, it could be hours, now it's down to less than a minute on a fast machine.

Ralph

[Menschenfresser]

Man, we've all gotten so spoiled with T3's load times. I remember back in the day loading up GiO and then turning the TV. Sometimes I'd get half way through a two hour movie before it was ready.

EDIT: LUXURY!

[ralphtricky]

Thanks Larry, I've got this stickied to look at for 3.5.

The PO Assist button plays just like Elmer does when you're playing against him. It is intended for lazy people (like me) and for scenario designers to allow Elmer to play their side. The idea is that I could now possibly try something like FitE, although I'd almost certainly have to play both sides to adjust the PO tracks. The objectives initially are the ones that were set by the designer, although you can override them by pushing the magnifying glass to do other things. You can also set which set of tracks (1-5) that you follow for the cases where the designer switches them on you, or to get a clear set of tracks. There's a document describing how this works in the documentation folder.

The red line points to the next objective. I believe it is the first one that is friendly controlled.

He understands the odds, although he ignores supporting artillery, so I'm not sure why he makes suicide attacks.
I've got a thread open on the sceanrio design forum about the holes. I'm not sure why he's doing that.
I've seenthe pee pee dance, but it is tuned down. I'm not sure I can nail his feet much more and leave him limber until I rewrite him to understand WHY he's doing things, and that's going to take time and a big stick.

I'll look at bombarding with DDs at a range of 1, I'm suprised the DDs can be hurt while doing that.