CSI Sweep: Operation Varsity

[bru888]

By Erik's invitation, v. 1.0

Let's start with your thread link, shall we?

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Wow, this is weird for me. Two humans! (As there should be, since this is 2 vs. AI):

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A couple of minor quibbles.

Brünen qualifies for this but is not included with the linked objective hexes for the U.S. player *:

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* The U.S. player also does not see Fort Blucher. The British player does see these two points but is missing the foxhole in Schneppenburg.

Perhaps this explanation should be more explicit, as in " . . . " [Uh, I'm not sure, actually. You'll have to bear with me as I get into this unfamiliar scenario style. Whatever the objective is, I think it deserves a few more words.]:

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[bru888]

Should this be set for a team scenario like this or do you have exclusive U.S. and U.K. deployment in mind? *

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* No, never mind. There is no deployment in this scenario; it's all spawned allied units.

Here's something I'm not understanding. The scenario starts with spawned allied paratroopers. Why then have this sole British howitzer on the map, and rather close to German lines in the bargain?

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[bru888]

Okay, now I'm starting to get this. Before I get into the triggers, though, may I recommend that you mention that the team has to "Capture at least 10 towns"? Else, each player may be under the impression that his own faction must do so. "In conjunction with the Americans/British, capture at least . . . ":

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Same with "Secure all 4 exit points," "Capture Wesel," and perhaps "Supply," really. (Though I still haven't figured out "Supply" yet.)

[bru888]

Just a few more preliminaries. Perhaps you want to differentiate just a bit with this briefing; the British would say "after our 1st AB debacle at Arnhem."

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Also, "Your paras should reach their designated zones . . ."

[bru888]

Alliance 2 is the U.S. and alliance 3 is the U.K. Correct me if I am wrong, but you need a set of "0" (bad) and "1" (good) outcome photos for both alliances; i.e., outcome_2_0, outcome_2_1, outcome_3_0, outcome_3_1. You don't need anything for alliance 4 (Germany).

So instead of this:

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perhaps it should be this:

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[bru888]

Enough fluff-duff; on with the nitty-gritty. I think you have a significant logic error in your primary objectives setup.

In the beginning, you have only one primary objective, "Capture Wesel." The other primary objective is inactive:

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Digging to find where that other primary objective is enabled, I found it here in these triggers:

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The fallacy is, the Allies must take 10 secondary VP's before the "Secure all 4 exit points" objective is enabled. True, Wesel is east of most of the secondary VP's but it is not far out of the way, either. Indeed, from where the paratroopers land (presumably near their initial objectives), they need to proceed in all directions to "Capture at least 10 towns."

So . . . why not go southeast and take Wesel as directed? The trouble is, if they do that before they take 10 towns and activate the other primary objective, the scenario will be over. The trigger event for "All Wesel" is Capture VP Event and when that happens, the sole enabled objective is completed, scenario over.

The easiest solution might be to have "All Wesel" turn on the "Secure all 4 exit points" objective instead. A popup message would be in order, if so.

[bru888]

The British take their first four objectives, completing the mission and enabling the next objective of two more capture points:

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But then the same trigger disables the previous objective immediately after completing it? I think that is redundant and may complicate matters:

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Same for all of those "fulfill" triggers; unless you have a reason for disabling the objective after awarding it, I would remove all of those "disable" effects.

Same principle of superfluity here in that the German "Exit" objective is already activated at the start of the scenario and it's not evaluated until the end:

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When the U.S. and U.K. have seized all of their capture points, it turns on the "Supply" objective for each faction:

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As I mentioned above, the mission description for "Supply" is a skimpy "SDPx = supply drops." What does that mean? From the linked hexes, it appears to be taking five more capture points to the northwest and it's the same 5 hexes for both the U.S. and the U.K. Therefore, it's a team deal.

[bru888]

But there is more to that "Supply" objective. There are two other triggers that also turn on that objective, requiring possession of three more capture points (two for U.K., one for U.S.):

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These triggers have one more effect; that of enabling a folder. I believe they were meant to enable the Supply folder but right now, they are not doing so:

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Opening that folder, though, makes it apparent what it means; if the Allies take these points (the five pointed to by the objective and a sixth, highlighted here), they increase the available supply at each point:

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[bru888]

Let's recap the "Supply" situation so far:
1) Completing "Brit fulfill-2" or "US fulfill-2" will enable the "Supply" objective.
2) But so will "Supply enable Brit" and "Supply enable US" which look at a different set of capture points.
3) "Supply enable Brit" and "Supply enable US" appear to have been intended to enable the "Supply" folder but are disconnected.
4) The "Supply" objective is linked to five capture points but the "Supply" folder contains a trigger for a sixth capture point.

Now, so far the effect of all this is that the "Supply" objective can be activated but:
1) The "Supply" folder is off and therefore this module is inoperable anyway.
2) Although the "Supply" objective can be activated but there is no way to complete it.

However, there is this last trigger:

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Which, if I am not mistaken, has the effect of shutting off the "Supply" objective immediately and always, on any event! So, my friend, I am wondering if you lost your way or you looked at this convoluted situation and decided to shut it off by deactivating the objective and not enabling the folder. The net effect is - so I believe after walking through this but unfortunately I cannot test it - that the human players will see no reference to "Supply" whatsoever. Maybe that was your intention after all.

Oh, wait a minute. That last trigger will not be in effect because the folder is disabled. That means either "Brit/US fulfill-2" or "Supply enable Brit/US" enabling the "Supply" objective is a problem. It will appear to the human players and there will be no way to achieve it. Unless I have missed something, I believe you need to rework this module or do away with it.

[bru888]

This is technically inaccurate. By my best count, there are 18 secondary VP's on the map. If the Allies need 10, the Germans win if they allow them only 9 or less, keeping 9 or more for themselves at the end of the scenario. So, this should be Value > 8:

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Trigger (British) "T3 air" is set for Turn = 5, just like the next trigger:

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Trigger (British) "T6 air" is set for Turn = 5, just like the trigger above it:

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This looks like an error. It should be, if Team 1's air units are visible . . . :

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. . . to the Germans, not the Americans, then change 7 FJ to Seek & Destroy:

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End of sweep. Sorry if it was a bit disjointed and rambling. As you can see, I had some trouble wrapping my head around this one.

[Erik2]

You can see why I wanted some help with this rather convoluted scripting
Before I start digging in to the details, here's the way I want it to function:

Operation Varsity started with the ground operation. The lone artillery unit is joined by a number of Commando and Royal Marine units crossing the Rhine river near Wesel. The paras will reach their designations on turn 4 if they fly in a straight line. So they should arrive about the historical landing times.

The various para secondary objects are for player information. I created them to lead the player by the nose making sure they followed orders

1.sec obj: The US para brigades capture DZX and DZW while the glider brigade capture LZS. This disables the sec obj and enables the divisional LZN sec obj.
2.sec obj: Capturing LZN disables the sec obj and enables the supply obj.
3.sec obj: Capturing each supply location SPD1, SPD2 etc will grant 20 supply from each location. When all supply locations are captured, this sec obj is disabled.

The British have similar sec objs.
Now, maybe I should leave the sec objs enabled so as not to confuse the players and the sweep master
I already got 2 test players asking about this, so the answer is most probably 'yes'

OK, I'll fix stuff and try to simplify the scripting.