Campaign design - miscellaneous issues

[Shan]

Hi everyone!

I am getting serious into working on a campaign (to be released in roughly a week) and the good news is that by trial+error + reading the manual again and again, I managed to sort out a lot of unclear things by myself already, but there are some issues left...

Bunkers (my main issue): When I deploy bunkers and the like, I want to have them face into the appropriate direction, but when I load this file again in the editor or test-play it, more often than not, they all face 'left' again - what mistake have I made here? Also, I got the same problem with ground vehicles and parked aircraft - it's probably not the most relevant thing, but it just looks dumb on my newly-designed airfield map when the static aircraft are not parked in the correct direction in their revetments- I mean, it's for Libya, but come on... ;-)

Waypoints: I found that they should be set only after buying and deploying all units, as well as editing the roster- otherwise they are gone and you have to set them all over again, right? And as soon as the respective AI unit sees an enemy, its waypoints are dropped - but once that enemy is out of sight or destroyed, does the AI pick them up again? It seems no.

Reaction: Even though all my AI defenders are set to reaction turn 99, sometimes they happen to do a 'Banzai' charge - it even happened before a sizeable number of enemy victory hexes were captured. I read the threads on this, and it seems there's not much you can do about that, right?

Spotter planes: my AI doesn't use them - I bought them for AI but unless I pre-planned a spotter mission for AI, I never ever saw him use them (other aircraft he does use of course).

I might add some more questions later as they show up - thanks for your opinions in advance!

Shan

[Mobhack]

Facings will be returned to default as I recall, if you purchase any new troops. Buy your units, then deploy them and save should be the fix.

Th AI does not know about or use certain troop types. Spotter planes are one - if the scenario designer pre-plots a pass that will happen of course. Ditto Bombers, para drop air etc - strictly for one pre-plotted pass by the designer. Ditto ammo units - if in the defence, AI units parked by an ammo bunker will take supply from it, but only because you set that up. If going forwards, ammo trucks are just another vehicle to the AI. The AI does not use gold spots, or (unless lucky) arty observers, either. Still - the developed camo AI is miles better than the original "tin lemming charge" of SP1-2-3 (But I would say that )!

Waypoints are dropped for good when the AI abandons them due to close objective or to engage troops seen as they trundle along. Waypoints are used to move a body of troops to somewhere useful in the scenario. They are probably therefore best if the formation is advancing in cover from where they cannot see enemy to react to (in woodland or behind hills say). They are not "patrol routes". Some folk swear by them (and go into loads of detail plotting & fine-tuning them) - most others simply let the AI do its thing and use the starting point (perhaps with reinforcement used to delay things a turn or 2) as the key determinant.
Also - once a player has played a scenario he will likely have a clue about a waypoint-led flank march or such like, and use a platoon or 2 to trigger them off the path. So a flank march may just be beter done in a scenario by a reinforcements arrival - YMMV.

Reaction turns apply only if defending/delaying of course. And also see point 32 of the release history for version 2.0. (I will assume you have read the release history for each version through, as all players should do, since it is required reading . If not - it is found in the GG under the link "Release History").

Basically - for scenario design, set the map, then buy the required troops and then do all the detail work about deployment, reaction turns etc. (It is also best to do the map first, and save it off as a map file so that can be recalled if you decide to restart from scratch.). Also - before worrying about any waypoints, reaction turns or whatever - test the scenario without them and see what in your scenario needs fine tuning (this could do with waypoints that with reaction set, this unit really needs setting up facing South, we could do with 4 more turns in the scenario itself and so on). Refine the scenario from this initial first draft which is simply plonking the forces roughly on the map and seeing what happens. Then add detailed tweaks as you incrementally refine by play. Dont dive into the detail of waypoints and reaction turns in the first phases of the design!.

Cheers
Andy

[Shan]

Thanks Andy, this clears up a lot, I'll check out your recommendations. As long as the AI is defending, my scenarios work fine mostly, but creating a meaningful AI attack is another story - this needs more experience I guess, but I'm trying.

[Mobhack]

In the attack, since the reaction turns really dont count - try using reinforcement arrival for the later waves. Reinforcements are much more controllable.

E.g use to time it so the armour arrives on the line as the leg grunts engage, or to make human wave #2 step off 2 turns later, #3 2 turns after that etc.

Just deploy them on the start line, but set to arrive as reinforcements a few turns after game start. That gives you better control of the timing (it may mystify a human who tries to play the scenario as the normally AI side - however as a designer you may well want to limit his options !


Cheers
Andy