Hierarchy Module Document

[Curtis Lemay]

Now, several of the HQ and Artillery units helped the front-line elements escape, but then couldn't escape themselves - suffering disengagement attacks and loss of MPs and equipment in doing so.:

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Finally, here is the message that Player Two gets when Player One overrides any of the Designer Preset Rules. This message has never been seen in any PBEM game before. That's because the override choices weren't saved to the scenario file. Now they are. Earlier I had fixed it so that those overrides were effected on the rules (even that had never been done before), but the message still couldn't be seen till now.

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I've finished additional feature #3 (new event effect to set the Mud Accumulation Factor):

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This shot shows the new Mud event effects. Note that I added "Drying" to the Mud Scalar effect. There now are a total of 91 new effects:

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Here's a shot of the Set Mud Accumulation Factor event:

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Here I modified the scenario testing mud accumulation at 1 hour turn intervals to have an accumulation factor of 10000 (x100) via the new event effect. The accumulation was the same as when the factor was directly set to that amount:

[Curtis Lemay]

Now, several of the HQ and Artillery units helped the front-line elements escape, but then couldn't escape themselves - suffering disengagement attacks and loss of MPs and equipment in doing so.:

Note that this problem wasn't quite done: My test for whether the unit had been moved was flawed. The problem was that by the time the game checked for disengagement of the unit, the unit had already been flagged as moved and its MPs deducted! So, it always failed the "unmoved" test. I had to backtrack in the code to before that flagging had taken place, check for "unmoved" just before that and, if it passed, preserve that in a separate flag. That done, it is now working correctly.

[Lobster]

Now for the Player Option to limit HQ and Artillery disengagement ability. My theory is that such units should be able to escape engagement themselves (they are in the rear and, in a real-time world, would escape any breakthroughs) but could not be used to "rescue" front-line defenders.

I've always wondered why Norm made it possible for towed artillery to escape unscathed when withdrawing from hostile units when they were the only unit left in a hex. A HQ unit is typically small and mobile so sure it could do it. But then people use them as rear guards which is really gamey. They would be overrun and killed off. Heck the Soivets even ordered their HQ units to not engage in combat. The loss of technical personnel and officers wouldn't be tolerated. So personally I think it's good to see that can be fixed.

[Curtis Lemay]

Now for the Player Option to limit HQ and Artillery disengagement ability. My theory is that such units should be able to escape engagement themselves (they are in the rear and, in a real-time world, would escape any breakthroughs) but could not be used to "rescue" front-line defenders.

I've always wondered why Norm made it possible for towed artillery to escape unscathed when withdrawing from hostile units when they were the only unit left in a hex. A HQ unit is typically small and mobile so sure it could do it. But then people use them as rear guards which is really gamey. They would be overrun and killed off. Heck the Soivets even ordered their HQ units to not engage in combat. The loss of technical personnel and officers wouldn't be tolerated. So personally I think it's good to see that can be fixed.

I agree but note that I've left it as a player option. The designer can "pre-set" the option even (either way), but the player can still override him.

[Curtis Lemay]

I've finished Additional Feature #1. All that is left is the Huge version I promised => that will have to wait till the Legacy Bugs are fixed:

This was Jack's idea, but I had experienced this issue too. It's a pain to not find the commander you need, build it from scratch, then find it in the canned list. This should help with that problem.

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Here's a shot of the Commander List with the new buttons for searching the list for commanders. First button is the "Search Backward" button. Second button is the "Enter Search Text" button. Third button is the "Search Forward" button:

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Clicking on the "Enter Search Text" button launches the "Text Entry" dialog:

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Type in the text to search for then click the check button to enter it:

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Now the text entered is the Search Target:

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Hover the cursor over the "Search Backward" button and see this in the Info Panel:

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Hover the cursor over the "Search Forward" button to see this in the Info Panel:

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Click on the "Search Forward" button. Rommel is found:

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Click on the "Search Forward" button again. Another Rommel is found!:

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Well, click on it again. This time no other Rommel was found:

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Now click on the "Search Backward" button. It goes back to Erwin Rommel: