Sneak Peeks, Coming Attractions, Works-In-Progress

[Jason Petho]

ORIGINAL: Deepstuff3725

Any chance some day, way down the road, we might see a CS: Modern Warfare? I'd like to put together and play scenarios with US and coalition forces going up against different insurgents and terrorist groups, being able to use toys like the M1 Abrams tank, A-10s and F-18s, US Navy Seal teams, etc.

Jeff

As we build the OOB's comprehensively between 1948 and 1985, you'll find these goodies in the US, which is COLD WAR ready:


P100049 5 8 22 35 0 0 73 48 54 2 5 1 12 0 0 1 24 62 P100049 9 97 0 1 4 2113551 80 1 85 12 67 42 30 M1 Abrams , M1 Abrams ,
P100050 4 8 22 35 0 0 73 48 54 2 5 1 12 0 0 1 24 62 P100049 9 97 0 1 4 2113551 80 1 85 12 67 42 30 M1 Abrams , M1 Abrams ,
P100051 3 8 22 35 0 0 73 48 54 2 5 1 12 0 0 1 24 62 P100049 9 97 0 1 4 2113551 80 1 85 12 67 42 30 M1 Abrams , M1 Abrams ,
P100052 2 8 22 35 0 0 73 48 54 2 5 1 12 0 0 1 24 62 P100049 9 97 0 1 4 2113551 80 1 85 12 67 42 30 M1 Abrams , M1 Abrams ,
P100053 5 8 24 35 0 0 73 48 54 2 5 1 12 0 0 1 24 62 P100053 10 97 0 1 4 2113551 84 1 85 12 81 48 35 IPM1 Abrams , IPM1 Abrams ,
P100054 4 8 24 35 0 0 73 48 54 2 5 1 12 0 0 1 24 62 P100053 10 97 0 1 4 2113551 84 1 85 12 81 48 35 IPM1 Abrams , IPM1 Abrams ,
P100055 3 8 24 35 0 0 73 48 54 2 5 1 12 0 0 1 24 62 P100053 10 97 0 1 4 2113551 84 1 85 12 81 48 35 IPM1 Abrams , IPM1 Abrams ,
P100056 2 8 24 35 0 0 73 48 54 2 5 1 12 0 0 1 24 62 P100053 10 97 0 1 4 2113551 84 1 85 12 81 48 35 IPM1 Abrams , IPM1 Abrams ,


P102086 1 12 12 33 25 25 16 10 0 2 0 0 1 6 7 0 429 47 P102086 14 2 131 1024 49 4227085 61 1 85 12 0 0 0 SEAL , SEAL ,

P106575 2 0 11 35 0 0 400 350 0 0 0 14 31 7 6 0 376 129 P106575 6 65536 0 0 2052 8208 77 1 85 12 0 0 0 A-10 Thunderbolt , A-10 ,


P105054 2 0 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 26 7 6 0 71 0 P105054 6 0 0 0 524288 0 83 1 85 12 0 0 0 F/A-18A Hornet , F/A-18A ,

[Crossroads]

And of course, the British Army of the Rhine is already part of the CS Middle East British OOB

[jamespcrowley]

Probably a stupid question; does the hex size have to represent 250m?


When you consider that many board and computer squad level games use a hex size of 40 -50 m, 250 seems excessive for formations just over three times as big as a squad.

[Oberst_Klink]

ORIGINAL: jamespcrowley

Probably a stupid question; does the hex size have to represent 250m?


When you consider that many board and computer squad level games use a hex size of 40 -50 m, 250 seems excessive for formations just over three times as big as a squad.

James,

see it this way - up to 6 units can occupy a hex, so the stacking allows up to 6 platoons or vehicles. In smaller scale, 50m/Hex like in WinSPWW2 etc you can stack less units into one hex; which makes sense, right? I just checked it out. So, the hex scale fits into the maximum availale troops/density you can pack in there.

Klink, Oberst

[Jason Petho]

...does the hex size have to represent 250m?

Yes.

It is the fundamental map scale of the series.

[Crossroads]

With Campaign Series, as it was originally developed by a crew of Avalon Hill veterans that founded Talonsoft, it may not be a big surprise they decided to continue the 250m scale of Panzerblitz, Panzer Leader, and Arab Israeli Wars.

SPI's Mech War series of the old were 200m hexes, while their somewhat older Red Star / White Star series were 300m hexes. At the other end there's the coming Normandy: the Beginning of the End choosing to use a higher, 150-200m scale for hexes.

Most of the platoon scale boardgames seem to be there or thereabouts with 250 m hex sizes, seems [:)]

Checked, another 150m hex series are the LnL Nations at War and World at War series.

[Warhorse]

As part of the NVA/VC camo project, which will be an option, here is the Type 63 resplendent in it's vegetative camo to evade air superiority!!

[Big Ivan]

ORIGINAL: Warhorse

As part of the NVA/VC camo project, which will be an option, here is the Type 63 resplendent in it's vegetative camo to evade air superiority!!

That's pretty slick Mike, I like that!![:)]

[Warhorse]

Thanks John, taking a little time, but going to be boss!

[Warhorse]

Almost done the camo pack, here is the ISU-122 Assault Gun.

[Warhorse]

NVA camo'd vehicles move up a road! All vehicles, and heavy crew-served weapons now are foliage camo'd, will be able to use via JSGME!

[Big Ivan]

Looking real cool Mike, just beautiful!![:)]

[Warhorse]

Thanks man, now on to the ARVN!

[Crossroads]

Here's Mike's PRVN unit images on 2D view. Watch out, they look the business!

[berto]

Another recent (private) Dev Team Forum post:

ORIGINAL: berto

ORIGINAL: berto

I am struggling to implement way point movement...

Done! As in, for example:

---

function battle_plan_hmong_attack_left (turn, side)

local i

move_way_point(HMONG_1ST_COMPANY, {"22,10","22,13"})
for i = 1, #HMONG_1ST_COMPANY do
local trackid = HMONG_1ST_COMPANY
if within(trackid, "22,13", 1) then
attack_strong({trackid}, "22,17")
end
end

end

---

[berto]

A work-in-progress:

[Crossroads]

Not your father’s AI, anymore [:)]

[Blond_Knight]

Im not saying we need an editor for the lua files but how about a syntax checker? Im assuming if you call a variable that doesn't exist it'll output to the log file?

Berto if you need an extra hand I do a lot of powershell and some Linux scripting as a Sysadmin.

[berto]

ORIGINAL: Blond_Knight

Im not saying we need an editor for the lua files but how about a syntax checker? ...

You mean like the standard Lua compiler luac?

---

rober@Rob10rto /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/rober/My Documents/Games/Matrix Games/Images
$ luac -p "$VN/mods/DEV - Test Scenarios"/*.lua "$VN/mods/DEV - Test Scenarios/scenarios"/*.lua
luac: ... - Test Scenarios/scenarios/LA_671216_phou-den-din_H.lua:224: 'then' expected near 'move_rush'

---

[:)]

A support utility I wrote to work together with luac, take a gander at this:

ORIGINAL: berto

Let's see if I can make your heads hurt.

The source code to txt.l, the heart of the new lstrip.exe utility (one component of csluachk.pl):



Needless to say (?), get even just a single ; out of place, omit a vital \ or whatever, the whole thing falls apart, won't compile (translate into machine code). It all has to be just so.

In addition, I have at least one other home-grown utility, csluachk.pl, to check the Lua scripts in various other ways, for example:

---

rober@Rob10rto ~/cslint
$ ./csluachk.pl -G -n -w +e -g vn
...
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:226: mistaken side: FRENCHSIDE
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:226: mistaken side parameter: inc_event_points(FRENCHSIDE, ...)
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:254: mistaken side: FRENCHSIDE
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:254: mistaken side parameter: inc_event_points(FRENCHSIDE, ...)
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:282: mistaken side: FRENCHSIDE
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:282: mistaken side parameter: inc_event_points(FRENCHSIDE, ...)
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:354: mistaken nation parameter: inc_morale_shift(FRENCH_SIDE, ...)
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:370: mistaken nation parameter: inc_morale_shift(FRENCH_SIDE, ...)
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:387: mistaken nation parameter: inc_morale_shift(VIET_MINH_SIDE, ...)
ERROR: for VN_510327_Mao_Khe_H.lua:403: mistaken nation parameter: inc_morale_shift(VIET_MINH_SIDE, ...)
...
ERROR: for VN_521201_Na_San_H.lua:443: mistaken side: French_SIDE
ERROR: for VN_521201_Na_San_H.lua:473: mistaken side: French_SIDE
ERROR: /usr/local/bin/luac: ...rix Games/Vietnam/vietnam/scenarios/VN_540404_PK15_H.lua:208: 'then' expected near 'if'
...
ERROR: for VN_480810_Gionc_Dinh_A.lua:104: mistaken objective hex coordinates: objective_owner(15,11)
ERROR: for VN_480810_Gionc_Dinh_A.lua:110: mistaken objective hex coordinates: objective_owner(15,11)
ERROR: for VN_480810_Gionc_Dinh_A.lua:116: mistaken objective hex coordinates: objective_owner(15,11)
WARNING: in VN_480810_Gionc_Dinh_A.lua, referenced just once: VP_2_CAPTURED
WARNING: in VN_480810_Gionc_Dinh_A.lua, referenced just once: VP_3_CAPTURED
...
WARNING: for LA_630915_SamNeua_A.lua, missing or mistaken on_resume()
WARNING: for LA_630915_SamNeua_A.lua, missing or mistaken on_shutdown()
WARNING: for LA_630915_SamNeua_A.lua, missing or mistaken on_next_phase()
WARNING: for LA_630915_SamNeua_A.lua, missing or mistaken on_next_turn()
...

---

And many other possible errors.

Im assuming if you call a variable that doesn't exist it'll output to the log file?

Yes, the Lua interpreter will surely log all significant errors (in the standard game log files engine.log & error.log, but also optionally in the new lua.log), for example:

---

rober@Rob10rto /cygdrive/r/Temp/logs
$ cat error.log
2018-07-31 05:16:36 vnengine.exe: [ERROR ID 3000] (lua.cpp, line 317, Lua::Load()) user.lua file load error: user.lua:178: 'end' expected ( to close 'function' at line 88) near <eof>
2018-07-31 05:16:59 vnengine.exe: [ERROR ID 3000] (appl.cpp, line 3186, ApplWindow::LOnNextPhase()) in ApplWindow::LOnNextPhase, error running function 'on_next_phase': scenarios\MoveWayPointTest1.lua:67: attempt to call a nil value (global 'move_way_point')

---

By means of the CSEE log() command

---

FUNCTION

log (logfile, loglevel, msg)

DESCRIPTION

Log a message, at the given level, to one of the standard game log files.

INPUTS

logfile -- any of

ERRLOG
APPLOG
LUALOG

loglevel -- any of

LOG_DEBUG
LOG_INFO
LOG_NOTICE
LOG_WARNING
LOG_ERROR

text -- character string, or some function or expression evaluating to a character string

RETURN VALUE

none

EXAMPLES

log(LUALOG, LOG_INFO, "entering on_startup(), turn is " .. current_turn())

log(APPLOG, LOG_INFO, "entering on_startup(), turn is " .. current_turn())

log(ERRLOG, LOG_ERROR, "unit trackid " .. trackid .. " does not exist")

SEE ALSO

message ()
message_once ()
_message ()
note ()
note_once ()
_note ()
debug ()

---

and its cousins (the SEE ALSO), you can log the CSEE up the wazoo.

A sample use:

---

log(LUALOG, LOG_DEBUG,
"turn " .. current_turn() ..
", i " .. i ..
", j " .. j ..
", trackid " .. trackid ..
", loc " .. loc ..
", from " .. from ..
", to " .. to
)

---

And its corresponding lua.log file output:

---

rober@Rob10rto /cygdrive/r/Temp/logs
$ cat lua.log
2018-07-31 07:52:44 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) turn 2, i 1, j 3, trackid 293, loc 59,78, from 59,73, to 50,68
2018-07-31 07:52:44 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) turn 2, i 1, j 2, trackid 293, loc 59,78, from 50,73, to 59,73
2018-07-31 07:52:44 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) turn 2, i 1, j 1, trackid 293, loc 59,78, from 59,78, to 50,73
2018-07-31 07:52:44 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) moveit(), trackid 293, hexcoor 50,73
2018-07-31 07:52:48 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) turn 3, i 1, j 3, trackid 293, loc 56,76, from 59,73, to 50,68
2018-07-31 07:52:48 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) turn 3, i 1, j 2, trackid 293, loc 56,76, from 50,73, to 59,73
2018-07-31 07:52:48 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) turn 3, i 1, j 1, trackid 293, loc 56,76, from 56,76, to 50,73
2018-07-31 07:52:48 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) moveit(), trackid 293, hexcoor 50,73
2018-07-31 07:52:53 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) turn 4, i 1, j 3, trackid 293, loc 53,75, from 59,73, to 50,68
2018-07-31 07:52:53 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) turn 4, i 1, j 2, trackid 293, loc 53,75, from 50,73, to 59,73
2018-07-31 07:52:53 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) turn 4, i 1, j 1, trackid 293, loc 53,75, from 53,75, to 50,73
2018-07-31 07:52:53 vnengine.exe: [DEBUG ID 10] (lua.cpp, line 445, l_log()) moveit(), trackid 293, hexcoor 50,73
...

---

Oh, yes, there will be all sorts of diagnostic support for the CSEE Lua scripting, much of it home-grown. Lots of possibilities here, but lots of pitfalls also. We'll try to help you avoid the pits.

[Blond_Knight]

OK thats cool!