Questions about: retreatDirection, Side1edge, & Side2ed

Ironwulf · Post by **Ironwulf** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 4:10 am

Hi I had some questions and I'm hoping someone knows the answers out there...

I'm wondering about options in the xml file:
"Game-fixed"

1. RetreatDirection

As far as I can tell, retreatdirection is set by the Default Retreat option in the Scenario Builder when you look at a unit's details.

I interpret this as the default direction a unit will take when routing.

Presuming that the top edge of the board is "1" and going in counter-clockwise motion, each side is numbered with the right edge being side 4. Bottom edge is side "3". Left is 2.

Now if I want a unit to retreat or route into a specific direction that is not the default for that side in the battle I can set the Default Retreat option to another number other than "0"

Does this work?? I've been testing this and i'm not sure that it does. Do I misunderstand this option or are the mechanics for routing more complex than simply taking the default direction?

2.) Side1edge and Side2edge questions:

In the Map element of this file are the settings:

map cols="40" rows="50" oddcolsstarthigher="1" oddcolsendlower="0" side1edge="3" side2edge="1"

Side1Edge I interpret as the default "Home" side of a map for a given faction in a battle. Side 1 usually has the bottom edge and Side 2 has the top edge.

But what if I wanted to have Side 1 call the top edge as its home rather than the bottom?

Now if I tell Side1Edge to be "1" instead of "3", then side 1 will route to the north by default. Am I correct in this??

Also does this work? I tried it once, and it caused a weird map error (I think - but I could also have corrupted the xml file or caused the game to get confused about the map. Trying to puzzle that one out I saw that there is a setting for "oddcolsstarthigher=1" and "oddcolsendlower=0" Since the map is hexagonal, one column would start or end lower or higher than its opposing column. If I reverse Side1edge and Side2Edge values, do i also need to reverse the oddcolstart values too??)

stockwellpete · Post by **stockwellpete** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:47 am

The rout direction definitely does not work and we have asked Slitherine to look at it for the scenario-builders. I am not sure about your map edges question - I just decide which side should move first in the battle and they are Side One.

Ironwulf · Post by **Ironwulf** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 7:31 pm

stockwellpete wrote:The rout direction definitely does not work and we have asked Slitherine to look at it for the scenario-builders. I am not sure about your map edges question - I just decide which side should move first in the battle and they are Side One.

Thx for the confirmation.

What I think I've noticed too is that if a unit from Side1 (normally has the bottom or South map edge as its route destination) is set to DefaultRoute to say... the West, it will actually kind of move in both directions: SW in the above case. If I had set DefaultRoute to the eastern board edge, it would route toward the SE corner...

I could be wrong but that's just my observation from dozens of replays on it.

But I did get those 3 scenarios done and posted info for them on my blog. (I need to find a file server to host them still).

http://grognardgamer.blogspot.com/p/field-of-glory.html