Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

Working with tiny little details today, the unit box icons set, that is.

Touched upon the HQ / 1st Platoon (radio) and Digging-in icons (shovel) to make them stand out a bit better:




Also, Helicopters can't just hover around for eternity, with their 9 turn (default, can be changed in AAI scenario file) flight time there's an accompanying Fuel Level icon to indicate when flying with fumes. If the helicopter flight won't return to their HQ or Supply unit, they will crash land instead.

ORIGINAL: carll11

looks great,,,,,do we have a fighting hole/IP image you can show us?

Only certain unit types are permitted to operate in the Underground zone.

ORIGINAL: berto

Looky dis:



By displaying the trackids (all orgs) in the Organization Dialog, not just in the Unit List, I have made it way easier to SAI direct unit and organization actions. This is going to pay astounding productivity dividends!

ORIGINAL: berto

In order to minimize confusion, I now have the org[sorg] displaying consistently between the Unit List and the Organization Dialog:



In the csmklua.pl auto-generated orgnames, however, I will append just the org trackid # (not also the sorg trackid #).

ORIGINAL: berto

The up-to-date list of CSEE trigger functions, with the newest additions highlighted:

on_air_attack (hc, pid, name, side, nation, points, strength)
on_build_barrier (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname)
on_build_light_bridge (hc, dir, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname)
on_build_vehicle_bridge (hc, dir, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname)
on_clear_hex (hc)
on_clear_lz (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname)
on_damage (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname)
on_entrench_hex (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname)
on_hex_attack (hc, side, nation)
on_ied_attack (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname, points, strength, HQ, Leader)
on_improve_hex (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname)
on_lay_mine_field (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname)
on_mine_attack (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname, points, strength, HQ, Leader)
on_next_phase (turn, side)
on_next_turn (turn)
on_objective_capture (hc, values, side)
on_resume ()
on_set_ied (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname)
on_shutdown ()
on_startup ()
on_unit_move (hc_from, hc_to, trackid)
on_unit_attack (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname, points, strength, HQ, Leader)
on_unit_kill (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname, points, strength, HQ, Leader)
on_unit_reduce (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname, points, strength, HQ, Leader, loss)
on_unit_reinforce (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname, points, strength, HQ, Leader)
on_unit_release (trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname, points, strength, HQ, Leader)
on_unit_remove (hc, trackid, pid, name, side, nation, oid, orgname, points, strength, HQ, Leader)

ORIGINAL: berto

Introducing the new-and-improved csmklua.pl.

Here is a usage summary:

---

$ ./csmklua.pl -h

Usage: csmklua.pl [-h|-help] [{+|-}G|-debug] [-a[bbreviate]] [-p[rune]] [-r[everse]] -g[ame] {me|vn|cw|ef|wf|pf} -f <scenario file> -o <lua file>

---

The highlighted options are new. [-p[rune]] prunes, removes, unused (in the scenario, non-existent) orgs from the auto-generated set_org_list() list. [-r[everse]] reverses the org list order. Ordinarily you will want to specify '-a -p' but omit '-r'.

With the following command

---

rober@Rob10rto ~/cslint
$ ./csmklua.pl -a -p -g vn -f LA_670315_Interdiction_H.scn -o LA_670315_Interdiction_H.lua

---

this generates the LA_670315_Interdiction_H.lua file automatically, with it looking like so:

---

...

function set_org_lists ()

--traceon()

ALLA = counters_all(SIDE_A)
ALLB = counters_all(SIDE_B)

-- auto-generated org lists to follow; rename, resequence, regroup, and reorganize as necessary

-- KEY:

-- [P] Platoon
-- [C] Company
-- Battalion
-- [R] Regiment
-- [G] Brigade
-- [D] Division
-- [K] Corps
-- [A] Army

_29TH_TRANSPORTATION_BTN_812 = {1,35,36,37,38,39,42,3,4,5,6,9,33,810} --
_29TH_TIEU_DOAN_HQ_1 = {1} -- [P] [22,1] NVA Battalion HQ (foot)

_TRANSPORT_COY_34 = {35,36,37,38,39,42} -- [C]
_LIGHT_TRUCKS_35 = {35} -- [P] [16,3] Light Truck
_LIGHT_TRUCKS_36 = {36} -- [P] [16,6] Light Truck
_LIGHT_TRUCKS_37 = {37} -- [P] [18,13] Light Truck
_LIGHT_TRUCKS_38 = {38} -- [P] [17,13] Light Truck
_LIGHT_TRUCKS_39 = {39} -- [P] [15,10] Light Truck
_LIGHT_TRUCKS_42 = {42} -- [P] [14,12] Light Truck

_NVA_RIFLE_COY_2 = {3,4,5,6,9} -- [C]
_1ST_PLT_3 = {3} -- [P] [14,12] NVA Rifle Platoon 63 C
_2ND_PLT_4 = {4} -- [P] [15,10] NVA Rifle Platoon 63 C
_3RD_PLT_5 = {5} -- [P] [18,13] NVA Rifle Platoon 63 C
_FIRE_SUPPORT_MORTARS_6 = {6} -- [P] [16,3] 82mm Mortars
_FIRE_SUPPORT_HMG_9 = {9} -- [P] [16,6] NVA Heavy Machine Gun
_THAM_BAO_33 = {33} -- [P] [21,14] NVA Reconnaissane Platoon 63
_37MM_AA_810 = {810} -- [P] [17,13] Type 55 37mm Anti-Aircraft Guns

_LAOS_MILITARY_REGION_IV_529 = {811,806,807,796,797,781} -- [K]

_IRREGULAR_FORCES_534 = {811,806,807} -- [D]
_SUPPLY_DEPOT_811 = {811} -- [P] [0,2] Supply Cache (HQ)

_SARAVAN_ROAD_WATCH_COY_805 = {806,807} -- [C]
_ROADWATCH_TEAM_1_806 = {806} -- [P] [0,2] Action Team 62
_ROADWATCH_TEAM_2_807 = {807} -- [P] [0,2] Action Team 62

_PALACE_DOG_782 = {796,797,781} -- [R]

_AIR_AMERICA_784 = {796,797} --

_HELICOPTER_COY_785 = {796,797} -- [C]
_UH34_796 = {796} -- [P] [0,2] UH-34 Seahorse
_UH34_797 = {797} -- [P] [0,2] UH-34 Seahorse

_606TH_ACS_NKP_802 = {781} -- [C]
_SPOOKY_781 = {781} -- [P] [T1: 0,3] AC47 Gunship

-- hand-crafted org lists, if any, to follow

--traceoff()

end

...

---

Apart from the auto-generated org lists, the rest of the .lua file is much like before, but with the addition of the ten new on_* trigger functions.

In the above set_org_lists() org list, you will note that the counter trackid is appended to each org name (whether platoon counter or a higher level parent org), as in:

_29TH_TRANSPORTATION_BTN_812 = {1,35,36,37,38,39,42,3,4,5,6,9,33,810} --

(This matches the units display in the in-game Organization Dialog. See here.)

This solves the thorny problem of org name duplicates. The problem is that in the source .org files, org names are not unique. Many of the org names are the same from one org to the next. We can't have duplicate org names in our .lua files, because orders for one unit/org would override orders for identically named units/orgs. This was a show stopper bug, a must-fix.

(In order to work properly, the revised csmklua.pl calls the cslint.exe syntax checker utility, newly added to the publicly available Tools/CSlint toolkit. Although one can use cslint.exe directly for QA work (I do all the time), for your purposes you can ignore it. csmklua.pl calls it silently in the background. You need know nothing more than that.)

Without going into too much detail, without showing too many examples, I can point out the following benefits from the new csmklua.pl way of doing things:

[*]Solves the duplicate org name problem.
[*]For every platoon and higher level org in the .org file, every entity has an assigned org name. In earlier csmklua.pl versions, the naming, and trackid listing, only went as high up as battalion level. Now, orgs, and their attendant trackid lists, go as high up the organization hierarchy all the way to Army level, no omissions.
[*]Non-existent orgs -- present in the .org file but not used in the scenario -- are omitted from the org list, assuming the -p[rune] option is indicated (please do that always!).
[*]The unit/org trackid is appended to the org name, for ease of reference.
[*]The org names are shorter. (Unlike before, where in order to differentiate an otherwise identically named org from one higher level org to another, we appended the higher level org identifier to the lower level org name. This created some very l-o-n-g org names.)
[*]set_org_list() no longer calls counters_sorg() or counters_aorg() for every org trackid listing. (Those functions are still available, but will be used much less, in special situations only.)
[*]set_org_lists() is executed at the start of every on_next_phase(). Because in set_org_list() we do simple, explicit list assignments, because we avoid using counters_sorg() and counters_aorg(), the list auto-generation will run much quicker.
[*]For all of the above reasons (and apart from the inclusion of org names for individual platoons), the auto-generated org lists, are shorter, and easier to use. And because the org list names are much shorter, this trims the bloat elsewhere in the .lua file where the org names are referenced.

Wins all around!

ORIGINAL: berto

An example to help explain better the differences between the old-style and the new-style csmklua.pl auto-generated org lists.

Here is the file LA_670315_Interdiction_H.org:



Here are old-style (to the left) and new-style (to the right) LA_670315_Interdiction_H.lua files auto-generated from that .org file (also from the scenario .scn file, and the .oob files):



Several things to note:

[*]In the new style (to the right), individual org trackids have been appended to the org name mnemonics. For the 29th Transportation Battalion, its org name mnemonic is _29TH_TRANSPORTATION_BTN_812, because 812 is that org's trackid (2nd field) in the .org file (which see).

[*]For the 29th Transportation Battalion (magenta highlights), in the new style, the trackid list is specified explicitly. We no longer use the join() function (as in the left) to join together earlier specified trackid list mnemonics. Now we list the component trackids explicitly (as in the right). As you can see, this helps to reduce the bloat. Except for...

[*]Again for the 29th Transportation Battalion, in the new style we list, and provide org name mnemonics for, each and every constituent platoon in that battalion. Hence all of the _LIGHT_TRUCKS_35 etc. in the new-style org lists.

[*]Note the '[P] [16,3] Light Truck' (and so on), which helpfully shows the org type, the unit's hex location (platoons only), and (for platoons) its unit name (as lifted from the .oob files). The intent here is that csmklua.pl will do all the referencing for you automatically. You really should not have to refer to the .org or .scn or .oob files at all when scripting the scenario. csmklua.pl will have done all of that footwork for you.

[*]In the case of the Irregular Forces org (turquoise highlights), note that in the old style (to the left), there is no list assignment, the listing is null, because the org name mnemonic for that org is commented out. In the new style (to the right), _IRREGULAR_FORCES_534 is assigned the explicit (no join()) trackid list {811,806,807}. The new csmklua.pl will auto-generate all higher org trackid lists, all the way up to Army level, if need be. You don't need to figure this out. csmklua.pl will do it for you!

[*]In the old style (to the left) org lists, orgs are listed whether or not they are present in the scenario. In the new style (to the right), any "nonexistent" (unused) units and orgs are not listed. For example, the NVA Dac Cong, trackid 32. Not in actual use in this scenario, it is therefore not listed in the new-style (to the right) org lists.

[*]In the old style (to the left) org lists, orgs are listed in reverse order, with lower level, subordinate orgs listed first, followed by the higher level parent orgs. This was necessary, because earlier we used the subsequent join() calls to build the parent org lists. In the new style (to the right) org lists, the orgs are listed more naturally, higher level orgs first, followed by their constituent lower level orgs. (Using the csmklua.pl -r option, you can reverse order the lists, if for some reason you really want to do that.)

It required a lot of clever coding, both in csmklua.pl but also in the revised cslint.exe (which csmklua.pl calls internally), to achieve all of this. Having gone through the arduous process last year of creating org lists by hand, believe me when I say that csmklua.pl is a tremendous time saver. Be sure to make use of it!