Hierarchy Module Document

[Curtis Lemay]

Here's how it was working for a reinforcement: It didn't display the icon.

[Curtis Lemay]

Same for a subordinate:

[Curtis Lemay]

Now, after the fix, here it is for a reinforcement:

[Curtis Lemay]

And here it is for a subordinate:

[joey]

Unless my eyes deceive me, I don't see Chamberlain and the 20th Maine. From my reading they played an important part to the Battle of Gettysburg.

[Curtis Lemay]

Unless my eyes deceive me, I don't see Chamberlain and the 20th Maine. From my reading they played an important part to the Battle of Gettysburg.

20th Maine is present => as a unit in Vincent's Brigade. Strong Vincent is that brigade's commander. The scenario doesn't have commanders for organizations smaller than brigades and 20th Maine is just a regiment. So, no Chamberlain.

[Curtis Lemay]

I've fixed Hierarchy bug #23. Somehow, it became possible for the current attachable unit to be the superior unit itself. Then there was no impediment to allowing that attachment. Thus, when the user opted to attach it (to itself), the game crashed to desktop. I've now fixed it so that if that situation occurs, it will reject the option to attach it. How that option ever became available is another question which I will have to address next.

[Curtis Lemay]

Here is the example that causes the CTD: The superior unit is 2nd Brooke. And the current attachable unit is 2nd Brooke. If the attachment button is clicked before the fix, this caused a CTD. Now, it is ignored, so no CTD will occur. Obviously, I also need to address how the attachable unit became the same as the superior unit to begin with. Stay tuned.

[Curtis Lemay]

Ok, I've fixed Hierarchy bug #22. This was an issue with initialization of the "currentAttachableUnit" upon entering the "Page 2" of a superior unit. It wasn't being properly initialized. So, in the above example, if 1st Brooke is the superior unit, then 2nd Brooke is a valid subordinate for it and can be made the "currentAttachableUnit". But, then, I switch to 2nd Brooke's Page 2, and the "currentAttachableUnit" remains "2nd Brooke". This obviously can't be a subordinate of 2nd Brooke! The initialization wasn't checking for that error and let it stand. I've fixed that and the subordinate attachment operation now works much better. There's still one issue remaining with it though. Stay tuned.

[Curtis Lemay]

Ok, I can't recreate Hierarchy Module Bug #21 at the moment. It probably only occurs with undeployed units. So, perhaps it will recur when I update my next CW scenario. If and when it next appears, I should be able to fix it. Stay tuned.

[Curtis Lemay]

I have fixed Hierarchy Module Bug #20. Checking all new events, I found events concerning the Commanders had this issue. Once I put limits in place, they now work much better.

[Curtis Lemay]

Here's how the problem looked: Using fresh event slots won't cause the issue. But, if you re-use an event slot that had a huge number for the "value" parameter, all the Commander events would malfunction as follows. First, I "corrupt" the event slot by giving a "Cancel Event" effect a huge event # to cancel:

[Curtis Lemay]

But now I'm going to "reuse" that event slot for a commander event. But when I change the effect from "Cancel Event" to "Attach Commander", the "value" parameter is out of range for the commanders allowed. The name is an abortion, and if you click on the name the program suffers a CTD.

[Curtis Lemay]

But now, after the fix, changing from that "Cancel Event 9999" to "Attach Commander 1" limits the commander allowed to the max # of commanders that have been made available to side 1.

This issue was also fixed for all the other commander events (Demote, Detach, Promote, Resurrect, Return, Withdraw, and Set Rank for both sides).

[Curtis Lemay]

I've finished updating my Chickamauga 1863 scenario. This is the last of my four CW scenarios that I planned to add subordinates to. This took 6 days to finish although it was just as tough as Sharpsburg or even Gettysburg. I must be getting better at it. This involved creating 194 subordinate Confederates units and 153 subordinate Union units. Creating 41 Confederate formations and 36 Union formations. Creating 64 Confederate commanders and 56 Union commanders. Finally, creating 189 Events. One thing I did to simplify the process was to copy the objectives for the divisions into the new brigades via the XML .gam file. Happily, that worked and saved a lot of tedium in the Editor. Note that this scenario does use Alternate Forces but only a few.

That's the last of scenarios with subordinates for now. Maybe later I will have a chance to add subordinate divisions to the German Corps and subordinate corps to the Soviet Armies in my Soviet Union 1941 scenario, but that will be far in the future if ever.

[Curtis Lemay]

Here are the Confederate Commanders. 64 total (36 created). Note that I continue to add all new commanders created for my scenarios to the end of the Commander List. Before I started that, the total commanders on that list was 2929. I've since added an additional 672 commanders from each of my scenario updates, so far (2929+672=3601).

[Curtis Lemay]

Here are the Union Commanders. 56 total (47 created) Note that, like for Gettysburg, I promoted Rosecrans to General and the Corps commanders to Lieutenant General (as I said for Gettysburg, the Union kept their commanders at Major General for whatever reason.):

[Curtis Lemay]

Here's the Confederate Hierarchy. I continue to believe that the hierarchies will help players organize their grasp of their forces (in addition to greater immersion and realism).:

[Curtis Lemay]

Here's the Union Hierarchy. Interesting that there are three McCook commanders here, commanding a corps, a division, and a brigade. There are also two Kings and two Beattys. Must have been confusing for them.

[Curtis Lemay]

I added a revision to the way the Service Arm is entered for the Units and Formations. Having now done much of this, I've found the way it was to be tedious, with constant switching back and forth between the mouse and keyboard. So, I've changed it so that the entry is made entirely by the mouse. I've given two options: Left-click, the button cycles through the five options. Right-click and a graphical menu is popped-up to select from with the mouse.

Items 17 & 18 are now implemented: