CSI Sweep: Germany East 1944

[bru888]

By invitation from Erik. Version 1.0.

Here is the Campaign Tree in spreadsheet format which I feel compelled to lay out whenever the progression is not strictly linear:

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I have not gotten into the individual scenarios yet but it seems there are two variations for each of Poltava (a bonus mission), Mogilev, Babruysk, Minsk 44, Vilna, and Warsaw Uprising. These versions must vary, else why have two of each scenario?

A victory in Korsun Breakout brings the player to a "Crossroad" which leads to one version or the other of these scenarios but also to several scenarios unique to each "Crossroad" option: Narva and Strachwitz Offensive in Option 1; Jassy and Kishinev Return in Option 2. The crossroads meet in the end, at Budapest 44.

This is intended for you to double-check your Campaign Tree layout, to see if you have it as you intended. The only thing that I can recommend is to replicate these "Extra Mission" events that you provided before Strachwitz Offensive:

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and do the same here, before Jassy:

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under the assumption that the idea is the same; i.e., Poltava-2 is a bonus mission for a Major Victory in Jassy.

Other than that, everything looks good in the Campaign Editor. I see you were selective with specialisations according to the Survey of Working Specialisations (at least in the campaign; we'll see in the scenarios ).

[bru888]

Interesting! I learn something new every day about OOB, or so it seems. Apparently, I have to be on the same version of OOB as you, at least right now, in order to do this sweep.

You may recall my talking in the Current Bugs thread about a "hybrid" approach that I was using, staying on 7.1.4 but copying certain folders included in the 7.1.8 update over their counterparts in 7.1.4. I brought that up because folks were complaining about the unit graphic issues introduced in 7.1.8 but my main reason for doing this was because 7.1.6 and 7.1.8 were, to me, unstable with the editors.

So I went to start your campaign and encountered the dreaded strat map!

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I was thinking about some core unit issue but then I remembered, hmm. 7.1.4. Maybe Erik is using some unit, or texture, or something else that was introduced in 7.1.6 or 7.1.8. Sure enough, when I upgraded to 7.1.8, the first scenario started fine:

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No big deal to stay on 7.1.8 for the duration of this project, then revert back to the 7.1.4 / 7.1.8 "hybrid" in order to resume working on my own stuff. Although, you never know; I just tried to crash the Campaign Editor by clicking around on the scenarios several times - a sure-fire method for me in 7.1.6 and 7.1.8, and it didn't fail this time. Fingers crossed?

EDIT: Nope. A couple more clicks when I returned to the screen, and boom. This is why I'm keeping 7.1.4 in the bag, pending what happens to OOB. The problem is, though, that if my editors keep crashing while looking at your stuff in 7.1.8, that's going to hamper things for sure. We'll see.

[Erik2]

Quick reply re the duplicate scenarios.
This is from the original PzC campaign and I think it was done because the next scenario in each brand might be different. So not possible to use a single scenario for both branches.
Anyway, the duplicates are identical so you need only check one.

[bru888]

Quick reply re the duplicate scenarios.
This is from the original PzC campaign and I think it was done because the next scenario in each brand might be different. So not possible to use a single scenario for both branches.
Anyway, the duplicates are identical so you need only check one.

That's good to know, thanks. So, this is the list for the sweep:

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[bru888]

I found the reason why I cannot start or edit this campaign in 7.1.4; it's because you included these new, and to me unproven, specialisations:

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Since these were introduced in either 7.1.6 or 7.1.8, and I don't have them in 7.1.4, I cannot proceed unless I am updated to 7.1.8. As I mentioned earlier, that's a problem for me in that my editors regularly crash in 7.1.8 (I think it has something to do with this laptop being originally Windows 8, then updated to 8.1, then to 10, but who knows?)

I am not suggesting that you remove these specialisations, especially if you think they actually work at this time. Let's just see if the game runs your campaign normally in 7.1.8 with no ill effect.

Let's also see if I can limp along in 7.1.8 with this sweep. I do have another alternative in mind, however.

[bru888]

I do have another alternative in mind, however.

And it's a good thing that I do. Brother, if you can explain to me the true nature of computers and programming, please do. Meanwhile, I have moved to Plan B.

Plan B says, since OOB version 7.1.8 is terrible on Bruce's personal computer regarding the stability of both the scenario and campaign editor (whereas, 7.1.4 is quite serene and dependable), and since Bruce has access to another laptop which was born with Windows 10 rather than being upgraded to it, and since OOB version 7.1.8 runs fine on that laptop in all respects, this CSI sweep will be moved to said laptop.

[bru888]

Korsun Pocket v. 1.0

If you look carefully, there are 9 victory points on the map:

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Keep that in mind while we deal with this. Whenever you say "at scenario end," there is always the decision: Do you mean all the way to the end (the full amount of turns) or do you mean whenever the scenario ends, which could be sooner? The way this trigger is designed, the Germans will achieve victory as soon as they conquer 5 VPs. If instead, you want it to evaluate after the full 20 turns, allowing for the possibility of Soviet counterattacks in the meantime, you would need to set it for Turn Start, Check Turn, Scenario End:

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Now, returning to the 9 victory points, the German objective is to "Hold at least 5 objectives at scenario end" and if they indeed hold 5 and win, that leaves 4 for the Soviets to hold on to and still lose. So I believe this needs to be "5 objs" as the Soviet objective (yes, the objective name is immaterial) and more importantly, this should be "Value > 4":

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This trigger, in conjunction with the Supply triggers in the Wehrmacht folder, worked perfectly, congratulations:

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I will have a recommendation later on, though. For now, my immediate concern is that it does not have an equivalent Soviet objective for the AI to win or lose accordingly. It may be nitpicking, but if the human player fails this Ju52 supply mission, the Soviets ought to win it and, if the "5 objectives" mission is also failed, the human player should suffer a Major Defeat (not all primary objectives achieved while the AI has achieved all of its objectives). You only have the Soviet objective of thwarting the German "5 objectives" here:

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This basket of aux units works, as evidenced by the mission not being failed at the beginning; I was concerned whether it would accept any three but since you don't have more than three of any unit type to begin with, it's obviously working. However, the wrong objective is selected in the Effects:

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This is normal now, in 7.1.6 / 7.1.8? I'm still working with 7.1.4 on my stuff and I'm not used to seeing this yet:

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[bru888]

Korsun Pocket v. 1.0 (continued)

Here's the recommendation about the Ju52 supply mission. I played it out and notice that, with the fifth and final plane, I was cutting it close time-wise:

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Which is fine; the mission needs to be challenging. The only thing that bothered me, though, is that the player must remember which supply airfields he has visited previously - each airfield will only accept and exit one Ju52 - and in the situation above, a wrong guess could be unfairly fatal.

You can see from this that I completed the mission successfully but there is no indication as to whether or where the Ju52's had landed:

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Now here is a question for you and the reason why I am asking it will be apparent in a moment. When you place empty hangars on a map like this:

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are you aware of, and is it normal (yes, that's two questions; put one on my tab) that they disappear when the scenario is started?

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Which questions are a bit moot, I guess; I'm just curious. Anyway, they do lead to this hopefully helpful idea. What if, as a plane lands at one of the supply airfields:

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instead of just disappearing, it also spawns a hangar unit (which doesn't disappear, apparently) with the same trigger? I experimented with this as seen here:

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and thus I knew, when approaching with my next plane, not to choose that airfield again but another one nearby and still available:

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Thread to be continued . . .

[Erik2]

There are PzC campaign maps in most of my custom campaigns. You can find it in the folder.
And it seems that I may redo the branching and remove those duplicate scenarios...

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[bru888]

By the way, a bit of experimentation led me to discover another reason for my strat map failure in 7.1.4; sometime in 7.1.6 or 7.1.8 they added 17 new Soviet units, as follows:

Soviet_Guards_41
Soviet_Guards_42
Soviet_Guards_43
Soviet_Guards_44
Soviet_Guards_45
Komintern_Tractor
KV-1_m1940
Matilda_MkII_USSR
PzKw_38t_USSR
PzKw_III_J_USSR
122mm_A19
BT-7A
SU-1-12
GAZ-AAA_Maxim
GAZ-MM_25mm
R-10
Su-2

I am sure that you used at least a few of these in your scenarios. No problem of course; this is on me, not you, and I now have an alternative resource as I mentioned. You just may need to keep this in mind in order to remind players that they have to be patched up to 7.1.8 in order to play this campaign.

[bru888]

I am sure that you used at least a few of these in your scenarios.

Sure enough, there are a bunch in the first scenario. It's circumstances like these that make me uneasy:

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The point is, these units and the new specialisations have not been really released yet. The assumption that we have is that they are being introduced for an upcoming DLC featuring playing as the Soviets. I look at them as unfinished. Will they be finished and released? Sure, if you are optimistic.

But I guess you would not be putting in so much time on this game if you were not optimistic so let's assume that sooner or later your expectations will be fulfilled and the game will grow into the full use of these new units and specialisations. That justifies continuing with them as they are, in my mind and no doubt in yours.

I did find these particular Guard Infantry units on the map and at least one of them moved normally for the short time that I viewed the scenario. You used some others like the GAZ guns and they were not even missing their editor images, so all is probably fine.

[bru888]

Korsun Breakout v. 1.0

There are no primary VP hexes linked to the objective. By careful scanning, I counted 9 of them which makes the 3/7 split of German and Soviet objectives okay.

The first briefing mentions these places but they are not marked on the map:

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The second briefing mentions this river, which is on the map, but the briefing does not point to it:

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Here's another version of that semantic debate. This says the Germans must hold at least 3 VP's at all times; that implies defeat if they ever fall to 2 or less:

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The trigger does not evaluate this until the end of the scenario. A side issue is, there is only one primary objective in this scenario and it cannot be marked as completed at the beginning. So in this case, it has to be this way:

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With the other secondary objectives achieved, you rewarded both factions. Why not the Waffen SS here:

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I don't think this spawn is actually going to happen because it's missing a Target Hex:

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This image file is not in the scenario folder (perhaps it's an OOB generic that can be called up this way, come to think of it):

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All of these Yaks, T3, T6, T9, T12, and T15, lack assignments to an AI team. Once spawned, they are going to stand around like a herd of . . . yaks!

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[bru888]

Narva v. 1.0

Two orphans here (no AI team):

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As far as objectives go, this one is cut-and-dried. All objectives to be evaluated at scenario-end:

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The only difficulty is that these two are set for Turn = 1 instead of Scenario Turn Limit:

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Also, I am questioning this one in two ways. First, there is no corresponding Soviet objective to be won or lost accordingly. Second, there are only infantry units defined. The KM contingent consists of 4 infantry, 3 tanks, 4 artillery, and 3 AA guns. Those other types probably should also be defined here:

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Lastly, I noticed a disconnect of AI teams in these two triggers. That may be intentional (if zone-1 team is doing poorly, Zone-3 team to rush in and support, perhaps) but I thought I would bring them to your attention just in case:

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Thread to be continued . . .

[Erik2]

Since these new Soviet units are part of the official 7.1.8 and not just a beta version, I assume they will make it into the post-Soviet-DLC update as well. Yeah, I'm an optimist.

[bru888]

Yeah, I'm an optimist.

Never change!

[bru888]

Strachwitz Offensive v. 1.0

This one looks like a humdinger! No pussy-footing around, just barge ahead and take one flag after another. Get all 10 and you win! (Of course, you have only 19 turns to do so or you lose - I wouldn't be surprised by complaints about that. )

Orphan here:

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and here:

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Let's count the bombers and see if I missed something. There are 3 on the map to start with:

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and three more are added with this trigger; that makes 6 in total:

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If that's it, then this trigger if faulty; it's calling for 9 or more bombers (or air units, but there aren't any others):

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Moreover, you promise 3 specialisation points:

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but you deliver only 2 should the player accomplish the impossible!

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Lapsing into your habitual "bait and switch" habits again, eh? You're just asking for a class-action lawsuit, mister. I'm trying to keep you honest here!

[bru888]

Poltava v. 1.0

I like to think of myself as a niche participant with these CSI sweeps but that means my usefulness is limited when it comes to gameplay and balance. I will take a moment to mention this remarkable situation, however, even though it is made from observation, not experience.

I was struck by this picture, in which I have highlighted where the German player deploys his units, versus the vast array of Soviet units on the map. Given much more Soviet presence, there wouldn't be any room on the map for German deployment:

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With only 96 land Command Points and no prospect of any more to be added, say at an average of 3 CP's per unit, the German player can deploy 32 core units along with the 5 aux units already on the map. They are facing what I estimated to be (I lost count but I could estimate the total by the scroll marker position) well over 200 Soviet units on the map.*

I'll go so far as to recommend that you consider rebalancing this one even before you put it out to beta. Frankly, seeing it in advance from the CSI angle, I wouldn't even want to tackle it in beta.

*231, to be exact - I later thought of running a calculator tape on the numbers of land units in Soviet AI teams. Yes, I know many of these units are in reserve but despite what the briefing says, the German objective is still to take 8 objectives. After the first two VP's are taken, 31 reserve units are activated; after four VP's, another 25 are activated, and after 6 VP's, another 21. The odds are overwhelming even before what happens after 7 VP's, should the Germans even get that far.

[bru888]

Poltava v. 1.0 (continued)

There are a couple of orphan units. Without AI tasks, they will not participate in the battle which could be the deciding factor for Soviet victory or defeat!

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The base set for these two bombers is here but there is an AA-gun sitting on the airfield. Will that pose a problem?

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The briefing mentions armories and guns but I see no provision for them on the map or in the triggers:

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The "Check Hex Owner" Target Hexes for these two spawns seem out of the way, away from any VP or airfield:

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[bru888]

Mogilev v. 1.0

Remove the break mark:

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This trigger has two faults. First, it's one of those "retain units / hold onto X until the end of scenario" missions in which case the objective either has to be marked as completed at scenario start, to be failed only if two or more aux units are destroyed, or it has to be evaluated with Turn Start / Check Turn / Scenario turn limit:

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Set as it is, for Combat Event, the objective is completed with the first combat event. Only, here, it's awarding the wrong objective:

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That's because the second fault is that it's linked to the wrong objective:

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[bru888]

Babruysk v. 1.0

Two orphans, here:

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and here:

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That's it for this one. You're getting good at this!