Slitherine

Well, here's where I stand.

I'm doing a new gallic campaign, using the existing campaign structure.

This means 8 scenario groups, in the format 4-4-4-6-5-6-6-6 for a total of 41 scenarios.

I am currently working on scenario #15, which puts me halfway through the 4th scenario group.

On the one hand, I could call this just past 1/3 of the way done, based on number of scenarios. On the other hand, the later scenarios will be larger, and take more time. On the gripping hand, I have spent a lot of time so far just teaching myself the editor.

Believe it or not, I spent about 4 hours last night just wrestling with the brifeing files. Those are the files that control the camera views and text boxes during the intro sequences, just before you deploy your troops. This is not to be confused with the flyby that happens right after you deploy and hit the crossed-swords "fight button".

Color me stupid, I guess. You'd think " <x> <y> <z> <lookx> <looky> <lookz> would be a fairly straightforward format, but it drove me absolutely crazy until I had an epiphany. It seems that if the engine, in reading through that string, encounters a number it doesn't like, it throws up its digital hands, exclaims "ah screw it!", and ignores the rest of the string.

Thus, if your <lookx> value is out of range, the <looky> value is ignored...apparently.

Then again, I've been wrong before. To wit, the "Rename" button is not entirely evil. It does indeed change the name that appears by default in the "name" box that appears when you press "submit". But upon using the "Rename" button, you must immediately exit the editor and restart it, or suffer problems saving.

However, as I stated before, the "Rename" button does not change the scenario name in the scenario list at left of the editor screen. That is changed in the localisation.txt file using the IDS_MAPNAMEXX variable, where XX represents the number of the scenario.

Oh, yes, scenario numbers, yet another source of endless delight. The numbers of the 12 scenarios in the first 3 groups, ( 4 per group), go like this...

32
37
38
39

40
41
42
45

44
46
47
48

Fun stuff!

Oh, yes, and back to camera views in the briefing file.

I suppose I may as well share my notes here, such as they are.

***edited per pip's post below***

The format of the briefing files (C:\Program Files\BlackBean\LegionArena\Mod\Brit\data\Battle\Briefing) is -

<x> <y> <z> <lookx> <looky> <lookz> <left> <top> <right> <bottom>

where the first 6 are the camera views, and the last 4 are the boundaries of the grey text box. Here's what I have for notes so far, but take it with a grain of salt.

All notes below assume that north is the top of the map.

1) For <x> a larger number moves the camera north, and a smaller number moves the camera south.

2) For <y> a larger number moves the camera farther off the ground

3) For <z> a "larger" negative value moves the camera east, and a "smaller" negative value moves the camera west

4) For <lookx> and <lookz>

1 x 0 is north
0 x 1 is west
-1 x 0 is south
0 x -1 is east

5) for <looky> a negative number is down from straight across, and a positive number is up from straight across

8 ) For <top> a smaller number moves the top edge of the text box up, for a bigger box, and a
larger number moves it down, for a smaller box.

I still have some serious questions, like for <z>, why in the name of seven hells is the value negative?

The look vector is just that, a vector. So the cardinal compass points would be:

1 0 0
0 0 1
-1 0 0
0 0 -1

You should bear in mind that the positive x axis goes away from you as you look at the deploy screen, the y axis is up and down, and the negative z axis goes left to right (again on the deployment screen).

I think (and you will need to try this out, because it may be disabled in the release version) you can also add DEBUG 1 to the user.txt file, and then using CTRL+R and CTRL+E allows you to switch camera modes, you can then use the return key to dump out (to the error.log file) the current camera position and facing. As I say, I don't know without checking if this will work in the release version, but it's worth a try .

Hope that helps!

Cheers

Pip

Hey Pip...

What does vector mean in this context? I confess the above flew right over my head

(my brain aches this morning)

It's just a 3D direction vector. So the actual ordinate values don't really matter, as it gets normalised (that is, everything gets scaled so the total length is 1).

Cheers

Pip

The easiest way to do it is as Phil suggests, by pressing the return key when you have a view set up that you like. It will output the xyz coordinates of your view vector & position to the error.log file & this can be cut and paste in to the briefing file. DOing it by hand is almost impossible. I only tweak values by hand when I have it almost right but need to adjust it a fraction of a degree to avoid somethign I dont want to see or raise it up a bit if it is too low & below the ground.

Rotating the map sounds rather simple, similar to Stereoscopic 'mapping' in Geology, it is just a matter of going through and learning the mechanics and tool usage and having time to do this.

A built-in scenario and map editor would be nice and friendly.

Magobarcid

if they would've had time they would've incorporated it. I don't mind either way. Most editors suck.

'Most editors suck.'???? Not really!!! TalonSoft's WWII games and CivilWar General and a whole bunch more have very good map and Order of Battle etc. editors. The Great battles of Alexander/Hannibal/caesar has a decent editor for maps and OOBs, although the OOB placement sometimes gets fickle.

Chris

iainmcneil wrote:The easiest way to do it is as Phil suggests, by pressing the return key when you have a view set up that you like. It will output the xyz coordinates of your view vector & position to the error.log file & this can be cut and paste in to the briefing file. DOing it by hand is almost impossible. I only tweak values by hand when I have it almost right but need to adjust it a fraction of a degree to avoid somethign I dont want to see or raise it up a bit if it is too low & below the ground.

OK, but how do you get the camera pointing where you want it, in order to do this dump? In what mode does this happen?

I've done the camera views by hand for 23 scenarios by now, and I'm actually getting pretty smooth at it. I have an almost intuitive grasp of the adjustments by now, and I can just think "Hmm, OK, move the camera about 2000 units west, about 500 north, and tweak the view angle north and down."

So I go plug in some numbers and I'm close. A few tweaks and voila!

The beauty is that the briefing files (a misleading name, since the actual text of the briefing is in the localisation.txt file) don't seem to be loaded at game startup, but rather read on demand. This means I can go into the game, look at the views on scenario startup, and see what they need. Once I am at the deployment screen, I can alt-tab out, and adjust the file. Then alt-tab back into the game, into the army camp, back out to deploy, and the game reads the edited briefing file, and shows me the new views.

Yes, I said alt-tab. For some odd reason, I can alt-tab out of the deployment screen without crashing. But I still crash on alt-tab out from any other view/screen...

Anyhow, I've done it manually for 23 scenarios now. It's actually fairly easy and fun for me at this point.

The only times it gets time-consuming, taking multiple tweaks, is when I am trying to zoom in for a real close up view. Then I can get close very easily, and then spend 10 tweaks getting it juuuuuuust right

But now I understand why some of those numbers go 6 places to the right of the decimal point, if you are C&P'ing a dump.
Me, I can do it by hand and get exactly the view I want without ever using more than 2 significant digits to the right of the decimal.

Then again, I still write HTML by hand, too

vector - definition???
Glossary

From Apply Now,
Your Guide to Physics.
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Definition: A quantity in which both the magnitude and the direction must be stated. Force, velocity and field strength are examples of vector quantities. Note that distance and speed are scalar quantities whereas displacement and velocity are vector quantities. Vector quantities are often denoted by boldface type for with an arrow above or a bar below the symbol.
Examples: While speed (like 30km/hr) is a scalar, velocity (30km/hr North) is a vector, consisting of a speed and a direction (north).

Taxes may be considered negative vectors or vectors with negative properties or components.


Solution to tax vector negativity: Become legally dead. I had a friend that was legally dead for quite a few years due to a mix-up with his Social Security number, so he didn't pay taxes during that time period. Makes sense to me.

Chris

CTRL+R and CTRL+E change between 2 camera modes which can make it simpler to position the camera.

Cheers

Pip