Pip/Iain, Q on squads.csv?

[GottaLove88s]

Pip/Iain,

Gents, can I pick your brain on how squads.csv operates, when it's used with a map... viewtopic.php?f=104&t=36073

AP must be the AP shown for the unit, but what does "move cost" actually mean? I'm trying to adapt Enric's walking mortars so they can still move up to one space per turn, but they also have enough moves to load into a transport when they're suppressed.

Thanks!
GL88

[IainMcNeil]

Phil is on holiday so I'll try and remember!

Its really a legacy. Its the cost per tile to move. When we first designed the game we had shooting using up action points. We ended up taking this out as it resulted in people just creeping forwards as if they moved too far they got no shots. It got very boring to play so we changed to the current system where you get a number of shots not linked to using AP. It works much much better.

[GottaLove88s]

Thanks Iain, Sounds logical. Is there any factoring going on here? For example, if I set AP as 8 and MoveCost as 2, I can move one square; but if I set AP as 16 and MoveCost as 4, I can still move one square. Is MoveCost=1 a default value? Please tell Phil (Pip?) from all of us, to have a great vacation! You've both earned it... and then some...

[IainMcNeil]

I don't remember exactly how it gets used - Phil needs to answer that one.

[junk2drive]

Open the Data folder and find terrain.txt Open it with notepad. I lists all the terrain and the move points required for different units.

[GottaLove88s]

Aha very useful. Thx J2D.

TERRAIN.TXT has 4 AP per square for most infantry types
SQUADS.CSV has 16 AP for most infantry types
So most infantry can walk up to 4 squares per turn (16 divided by 4).

I guess the MoveCost in SQUADS.CSV is some sort of optional handicap factor (it's always set to 1 by default). So a mortar with AP=16, TERRAIN.TXT for infantry of 4 AP per square, and a SQUADS.CSV MoveCost of 4 can "walk" one square per turn...

It's wonderful how "mod-able" you've made BA... it's juicily ready for user-generated content!

[pipfromslitherine]

The MoveCost was indeed somewhat historical - not sure that we actually use it for anything other than complicating the move code and scripting! Basically it multiplies the cost of movement. So if you double the AP and MoveCost in the squads file, then nothing will change (you have 2x the APs and moving costs 2x more).

Cheers

Pip

[GottaLove88s]

Thanks Pip, That makes sense. Please don't remove it tho. Modifying it lets us do funky things like permitting mortars to walk short distances...