Question about Phoenix and Scenarios in General

[FirstPappy]

With the latest update and the release of Phoenix the way I think things are now is the following:

1) The update affects all scenarios and random games generated under Classic, Standard and New Dawn.
2) Phoenix is now added to the list so we now have Classic, Standard, New Dawn and Phoenix.
3) In addition to Random Scenarios there can be public scenarios made with Phoenix.

Please advise where I'm right and/or wrong.

[Ormand]

Pretty much correct.

Updates to the game engine affect everything, with the exception that some features need to be activated with a rulevar. For example, the new anti-supply system is one feature, and it is not advised for the older scenarios because it requires tweaking parameters to make it more balanced and realistic.

The new features to generate random games are also activated with rulevars and have only been applied to PhoenixGame. That is regime selection, name, flag, color, and also expanded climates. They can be applied to the others, but it is one thing to set PhoenixGame off. Also, PhoenixGame makes use of CV specific planes. Only aircraft subformations with CVOperations = True can operate from an aircraft carrier.

Oh yes, there can be any number of scenarios made with Phoenix. Or my completely different mod FourSeasons. It goes even further than PhoenixGame in that it has 14 people types for random games. Something you can do using a stringlist to define the regimes rather than rulevars. This makes them unlimited for random games, but you have to provide pictures, the stringlists for officers, town names, etc. There are also many other differences with interpreting the subformations, companies. And artillery, which has a range of 1, and is typically in a unit. Kind of like many standard wargames given the scale is intended to be 16 mi/hex and a turn is one week.

[FirstPappy]

Understood.

Thank you.

[ernieschwitz]

To clarify and expand:

A scenario can be it's own masterfile. It doesn't need to have one of the ones mentioned. You can make your own. The rules that Ormand mentions in the above to answer one still apply, but you can change any number of the rulevars, to get something completely different.

[FirstPappy]

I would assume in that case that the designer would at least specify the "base" masterfile and list the rule var exceptions as a courtesy to the general user.

[ernieschwitz]

Yes, they should explain the "rules" of the game. I have done so in those scenarios I have finished too. Of course with 500+ rulevars that can be set to different things, that can become a bit burdensome to read. Luckily there is an ingame overview too that you can access. It is in the Statistics section of the game, and is shown in one of the sub-menus there.

As mainly a scenario creator, and not a random game creator, I find that modifying rulevars often can lead to a better scenario specific game. Almost everything in a scenario is changeable. Including the units, the combat stats, their supply usage etc. etc. I like to think of the random games masterfiles as good examples of how one can make scenarios too. They are guidelines, not written in stone.