Mobhack Unit A0 Edit Question

[Akmatov]

Andy,

Thanks for taking the time to explain this one to me.

I had hoped I was just doing something wrong, but now I know better how the system works and will work within it.

I know I had been able to change the units within the A Formation in the past, I suspect it was with that 'other' SP decendant.

Once again many thanks for this wonderful game and I'll be buying a copy of the CD shortly.

William

[PlasmaKrab]

Andy, I know units can be transferred from one platoon HQ to another in scenarios or battle deploy. (they can, can't they?)

So, can this be done with the A0 as new HQ unit, so the HQ unit is changed to a custom HQ platoon in some special cases?
That doesn't mess up the OOB, if the unity check is only made at this level.

Thanks for any answer!

Plasma

[Mobhack]

PlasmaKrab said:
Andy, I know units can be transferred from one platoon HQ to another in scenarios or battle deploy. (they can, can't they?)

So, can this be done with the A0 as new HQ unit, so the HQ unit is changed to a custom HQ platoon in some special cases?
That doesn't mess up the OOB, if the unity check is only made at this level.

Thanks for any answer!

Plasma

In a SCENARIO - the BGHQ is a "company" formation, and so can have subordinate formations x-attached, and also subordinated units x-attached directly to make a command platoon. No problem. you can also change the HQ unit to a tank or whatever as desired (but will lose the HQ abilities as an "almost" FOO, and the fact that a 6 man infantry formation is usually more damage-tolerant than a vehicle).

In the OOB, the original code allowed designers to add subordinates, HOWEVER - the AI would choose these at random from whatever was available at that point in time as part of the automatic HQ purchase. This was a total pain if it chose the wrong APC/Tank or whatever as the end user could not choose it manually, or change it (scenario editors could, but scenario editing allows the flexibility to add as desired anyway).

And it was also a total pain for those folk who wanted a small battle (based on a rifle coy say) and then got these "default" troops added, eating up the small points allocation - any as sub formations could be deleted (if the end user knew how !) - but any thrown into the BGHQ as defaults in the A platoon, could not be manually removed. Some folk as I recall had "defaults" with HQ, an APC for him, an FOO, an arty battery and some SAM.. Way back in 96 or so, in some of my original hacked OOBS, I used this approach (briefly! as well - and found the lumps to be a problem in small-points forces for these reasons.

So - for stand alone battles, the BGHQ is now screened to the first slot only to stop such problems. I seem to have done this 18 months or so ago (It is in the DOS version).

Scenario designers can add as desired, and in a campaign, the end user can x-attach as well. In fact - he can x-attach in a generated battle as well. Therefore, any such "default lump of stuff in the HQ" OBATS are now obsolete. I probably put this sanity check into it at the time I did the new x-attach code (??) and forgot then to update the warning in the mobhack help file which was no longer necessary. I have now updated that paragraph in the help HTML, and that will update in the forthcoming patch.

Cheers
Andy

[PlasmaKrab]

Thanks for the answer, Andy, just what I wanted to know!

If I understood it all, in the default case (battle) the HQ remains as it is, and a scenario designer is able to add some subtleties to a command platoon if needed.

Thanks again!