Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Mraah
A few posts above, Erik mentioned we can save the battle before playing and I'm not quite sure at which point he meant. Can it be saved right from your first post where you set all the parameters so that it can be replayed over and over again or does it need to generate the battle first and then can be saved.

When you generate a battle, it's immediately written to a "random" scenario file. You can play it as many times as you want. If you want to save it for posterity, you need to rename that scenario file or the next random scenario you generate will overwrite it.

I'm thinking of running a RBG where it's pure tanks, random attacker/defender.

Sure, that's easy.

Regards,

- Erik

Stridor,

Question about the minefield ...

I understood it was a hasty defence but would it be possible to reduce the # of mines and apply them to other locations?
I counted at least 60 mines (if there wasn't a unit mixed in).

... OR, did the randomizer (sometimes call the REEM-domizer from the old days) [:D] bunch the mines up and the RBG has the potential of spreading them out in a hasty defence?

Thank you in advance!

Rob

ORIGINAL: Mraah
I understood it was a hasty defence but would it be possible to reduce the # of mines and apply them to other locations?
I counted at least 60 mines (if there wasn't a unit mixed in).

Each of those is not an actual mine - the icons are rather an indicator of minefield density rather than physical markers for exact mine locations. You can generally assume that there are more markers than mines because the goal of the markers is visibility (for the player that owns the minefield, the opponent doesn't see any mine markers until he hits a mine and then he just gets one in the location where a mine blew up).

Regards,

- Erik

Thanks Stridor for taking the time to do this AAR. I enjoyed it very much.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Each of those is not an actual mine - the icons are rather an indicator of minefield density rather than physical markers for exact mine locations. You can generally assume that there are more markers than mines because the goal of the markers is visibility (for the player that owns the minefield, the opponent doesn't see any mine markers until he hits a mine and then he just gets one in the location where a mine blew up).
Regards,
- Erik

Good morning Erik,

Ahhh, I see. Does the RBG adjust the density for a hasty defence or (for now in this release) is it a basic minefield and the number of fields is the random factor?

Thanks,
Rob

ORIGINAL: Mraah
Ahhh, I see. Does the RBG adjust the density for a hasty defence or (for now in this release) is it a basic minefield and the number of fields is the random factor?

Well, it depends on the battle plan - you could create one to do just about any combination.

The default one lets the player set the minefields, between none, sparse and dense, or you can randomize. The RBG can give you different numbers of fields and also vary the density for each minefield (the game supports four different minefield densities).

Regards,

- Erik

Here's a thought on mines:
While I can't quote sources I do recall reading that minefields
were often used to force an enemy to attack along a certain path
which can be prepared by actually marking the minefield for all
to see. Even though minesweepers would eventually be brought in
(as they would if the field were unmarked) it gives the defender
a deliberate way to dictate the speed and direction of an attack
in the short term.
Is there a way to place an object such as an "Achtung Minen" marker
or perimeter object for use in those cases?

Harking back to Stridors AAR and the small controversy over the victory conditions, set me to pondering.
 
Is the rate at which the victory meter rises (presumably derived from totals of 'kill' points) proportional to the size of the scenario?
 
So, for instance, the loss of one tank from a side with 800 points will raise the meter less than the loss of that same tank from a side with 400 points (by only 50% in fact)?

That's correct, it's all proportional to the total points in the scenario.

Ah! Thats good and that result now makes more sense. Thanks Erik.
 
By the by, can a battle be 'totally' randomly generated so that, say, you end up with no tanks or artillery. Or is it all done to preset mixes?

ORIGINAL: James Crowley

Ah! Thats good and that result now makes more sense. Thanks Erik.

By the by, can a battle be 'totally' randomly generated so that, say, you end up with no tanks or artillery. Or is it all done to preset mixes?

James that is certainly possible.

If you wanted to ensure that you didn't have tanks or arty then set their mix to 0.

If you wanted to get a surprise the computer can be set to randomize the preset loaded (these are nominally historical formations with mixes pre-set and naming conventions and unit types of a particular outfit already defined - once you get up to speed it is possible to add and share your own presets as well) and if that picked preset had no arty of tanks listed then as you would expect, no tanks or arty will appear in your random battle.

ORIGINAL: Stridor

If you wanted to get a surprise the computer can be set to randomize the preset loaded (these are nominally historical formations with mixes pre-set and naming conventions and unit types of a particular outfit already defined - once you get up to speed it is possible to add and share your own presets as well) and if that picked preset had no arty of tanks listed then as you would expect, no tanks or arty will appear in your random battle.

Stridor, how easy, or otherwise, will it be to create presets. I'm reasonably creative but not at all technical.

Also, a question I asked somewhere else but can't find now. Is it possible, at the outset of a battle, not to know what the opposing sides presets are? I really like absolute FoW, so don't want to know whether or not the opposition has or doesn't have a particular asset.

ORIGINAL: James Crowley
Stridor, how easy, or otherwise, will it be to create presets. I'm reasonably creative but not at all technical.

It's actually very easy if you just want a basic preset. It's just a text file. Here are the contents of the "default" preset for the German side, for example:

<preset
side="German"
id="g_default"
name="(Default) German"
title="Force"
infantry="25" transport="10" artillery="10" air="10" gun="10" armour="35"
showinmenu="true">
</preset>

Make a copy of the file, change the percentages to what you prefer, then change the id= and name= to something new to differentiate it. Done.

Now you can get more complex because you can also list units, which will limit the unit choice to those unit types included in the preset, but that's not required at all.

Also, a question I asked somewhere else but can't find now. Is it possible, at the outset of a battle, not to know what the opposing sides presets are? I really like absolute FoW, so don't want to know whether or not the opposition has or doesn't have a particular asset.

If you set the preset to randomize, sure, but in that case you'd probably want to add a few more for extra fog of war. Frankly though, knowing the percentages is not a major giveaway. In my current AAR for example, I never would have guessed that I'd see T-60As.

Note also that when you play the random campaigns, all of that is hidden from you, so every scenario is a complete surprise as far as what the enemy has.

Regards,

- Erik