Matrix Games Forums

Everyone,

I'm working on editing the starting comanders file for the July 1861 Setup and I have some quesstions.

* Start Date - I assume that January 1st 1861 is turn 0 and January 15th is turn 2, and it counts up from there?

* What do the Columns WP and VMI do? I assume the relate to West Point and the Virginia Military Institute or am I wrong here?

Anything else anyone knows about this section would help. I have so far figured out how to change the stating locations for generals.

Rook

OK - If you start with the July 1861 Scenario –

* When the Turn value is set to “4” a General arrives in Late September 1861
* When the Turn value is set to “6” a General arrives in Late October 1861

Rook

Next Questions - What does the Rank Value do?

* If set to one the General arrives with a Rank of "1 Star"
* If set to two the General arrives with a Rank of "2 Stars"
* If set to three the General arrives with a Rank of "3 Stars"
* If set to four the General arrives with a Rank of either "1 Star" or "3 Stars"??? Any ideas here?

Rook

If you start in late july the turn is 13 and the nov scenario is turn 20. A general set to turn 4 should be available at the start.

ORIGINAL: chris0827

If you start in late july the turn is 13 and the nov scenario is turn 20. A general set to turn 4 should be available at the start.

Thats what i though should happen but every timed I treid it that's not the effect I got. I must be doing something incorrect then.

Rook

ORIGINAL: rook749

ORIGINAL: chris0827

If you start in late july the turn is 13 and the nov scenario is turn 20. A general set to turn 4 should be available at the start.

Thats what i though should happen but every timed I treid it that's not the effect I got. I must be doing something incorrect then.

Rook

There is a random factor that delays generals. I don't think the devs have given much information on how that works. If you want a general to be there at the start of a scenario give him a start date of 0. He'll be there if he's a 100% guy.

Ahhh, a random factor. Now that might expalin a little. I guess it was just dumb luck that the two times I tested I got results thast looked the same.

Thanks Chris.

Rook

ORIGINAL: rook749

Ahhh, a random factor. Now that might expalin a little. I guess it was just dumb luck that the two times I tested I got results thast looked the same.

Thanks Chris.

Rook

As far I know we haven't been told how long the random factor can delay a leader, In my opinion if they can be delayed they also should have a chance to show up early. As it is now it is impossible for a leader to show up on their arrival date they will always show up late. You could always adjust the arrival dates and move them up a few months.

I'll ask Gil if he can chime in on this and help with understanding how that works.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I'll ask Gil if he can chime in on this and help with understanding how that works.

It seems to me if there is a random element then the generals should have a chance to show up on time or early as well as late.

ORIGINAL: chris0827

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

I'll ask Gil if he can chime in on this and help with understanding how that works.

It seems to me if there is a random element then the generals should have a chance to show up on time or early as well as late.

I would agree with that, there should be a 33% chance that the general shows up on time, 33% late and 33% early. That would be fair and increase the chance that some games will be a little different from game to game.

Rook

For the record the reason I am asking is I wanted to adjsut the starting date for each General to the date they first received command of a birdage for a mod but was having trouble working out why when I input one value I never receiver a result I expected.

Awating a response now from Gil [;)]

Thanks All.

Rook

I'm here. To be honest, I don't check the modding sub-forum that much, simply because the main one and the developers' forum take up so much of my time. So anytime someone has a question that I haven't answered after a few days just send me a message and I'll pop in.

First, regarding West Point and VMI, I think we might once have had some ideas about using that info in some way, and therefore kept track of it in putting together the database of generals. But we are not using that info after all, so those columns are as vestigial as your coccyx. (Frankly, I'm surprised we didn't delete them from the finished product. No harm done, though.)

Let me give you an important tip: if modifying the commanders.txt file, do not sort it so that it's order is different from that of the official file. The reason for this is that we will be making numerous changes in future patches -- especially in terms of ratings, special abilities that can be taught, start dates, and bios as they're finished -- so you're going to want to be able to copy and paste from one file to the other after each patch, and this will be impossible to do if the files are ordered differently. (Also, if sorting moves the first and last rows the file will not work.)

As for start dates, Jimwinsor put together this table (the provided number is Early Month, the missing odd number is Late Month):

1861 1862 1863 1864 1865
Jan 0 24 48 72 96
Feb 2 26 50 74 98
Mar 4 28 52 76 100
Apr 6 30 54 78 102
May 8 32 56 80 104
Jun 10 34 58 82
Jul 12 36 60 84
Aug 14 38 62 86
Sep 16 40 64 88
Oct 18 42 66 90
Nov 20 44 68 92
Dec 22 46 70 94

Finally, I thought you should know that Jimwinsor has corrected the start dates for all 100-percenters and 25-percenters in his revised July scenario and I plan to copy and paste that info into the file for the standard scenario, so you might want to wait until then instead of doing work that might prove redundant.

Let me know if you have more questions.

rook749,
It looks like I misled you a bit. The table I gave you is accurate, except that, as we discovered tonight, the code doesn't seem to know that. Instead, the code has been treating Turn 0 in the July scenario as falling in July and in the November scenario as falling in November. In the upcoming patch we will have corrected this, so that the table is indeed followed by the program, meaning that Turn 0 will always be early January 1861, Turn 24 early January 1862, etc. I apologize for the confusion.

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

rook749,
It looks like I misled you a bit. The table I gave you is accurate, except that, as we discovered tonight, the code doesn't seem to know that. Instead, the code has been treating Turn 0 in the July scenario as falling in July and in the November scenario as falling in November. In the upcoming patch we will have corrected this, so that the table is indeed followed by the program, meaning that Turn 0 will always be early January 1861, Turn 24 early January 1862, etc. I apologize for the confusion.

Thanks for the feedback Gil, I was about to post that it seems that your chart is in error as I had ben running some tests with start dates and could not get mine to match your post.

Looking forward to the next patch & updates.

Rook

Some additional, irksome issues have come up pertaining to how to implement start dates. I'll explain more once Eric and I have decided what to do, but essentially there's an issue that has arisen because of the need for different commanders.txt files in each of the scenarios. And it's driving me crazy...

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

Some additional, irksome issues have come up pertaining to how to implement start dates. I'll explain more once Eric and I have decided what to do, but essentially there's an issue that has arisen because of the need for different commanders.txt files in each of the scenarios. And it's driving me crazy...

Not a problem at all Gil, I was very happy to see your response as for a bit there I thought I was plain crazy.

Rook