SOW Scenario Generator

To get the units to positions you want, use the alphaomega=1 and noai=1, (be sure they are all in lowercase), click on division commander and then click on the formation you want the division in. The wayward units should move to the correct locations. You can then use the 'SOW Add StartLocs To Scenario' program with the startlocs file, as described in the manual, to automatically change the locations in the scenario file.

I still can't get the alphaomega/noai thingy working right but that's not the issue I've run into at the moment. One of these days I will have to go back and look into it, though.

I have the battlescript working fine.... as long as I don't stop.

As I understand the MP game restart process the idea is to save the game, note the time, and change the starttime to the time of the saved game in the scenario.ini file. I am assuming this is the .ini file in the Netserv Directory since changing it in the original scenario directory merely causes the game to start at the new time with everyone in their original position.

Second, the battlescript file in Netserv has a tendency to double space the lines. This results in a "KS SCRIPT not in line 2" error on the .log file. This is because all of the even numbered lines are blank. Fortunately, copying and pasting the original battlescript file to the Netserv directory seems to solve that problem.

Third, regardless of the above two solutions the game refuses to read the script. Units which were underway and moving/fighting at the time of the save continue. The others stand still.

I have also noted that in order to start a Saved Game one must access it from the SP menu. This then has the effect of changing the MP game into an SP game which allows the use of pausing but something is telling me that this is not what is intended.

What am I missing?

Nevermind.

I was reading the instructions from Norbsoft v 1.03 in combination with the instructions from the KS Multiplayer Scripting manual 1.29+ when I suddenly realized that they were talking about two different things. I deleted all of their stuff and just did it your way and voila. General Von Schmettau got off his ass and started moving when the time came.

The "pause" feature DOES work and I won't be complaining about that. Useful when you have to go take a leak or something.

Glad you got it figured out. The battlescript file that needs to be modified is the original one in the scenario folder. It and all the other files in it get copied to the Netserv folder each time you pick that scenario to play in MP. However in SP, the files are not copied.

I have also noted that in order to start a Saved Game one must access it from the SP menu. This then has the effect of changing the MP game into an SP game which allows the use of pausing but something is telling me that this is not what is intended.

To restart a game in MP, create a file named restartmp.ini in the original scenario folder. inside that file put the following two lines:
[files]
name=
After the = put the name of your saved game file which is in the SOWWL\SavedGames folder. Do not include the .sav part.
When you play MP with others, you'll have to send each player a copy of your save game file. They will then have to place it in their Saved Games folder.

Yeah, it was the restartmp.ini that was fouling me up! KS is working brilliantly this morning. I'm now in the process of balancing the scenario. I'm timing how long it takes for the furthest Prussian divisions to form up and reach the battle so that they don't all arrive at once or else arrive in such a piecemeal fashion that they get shot to hell before their supports arrive.

Ultimately it might be easier to set them up out of visual range of the French and just release them one by one without the long approach now that the script is working. But for now its doing what I want it to do.

Thanks again for all your assistance.

I got the alphaomega/noai thing working by turning them on in the game .ini and then temporarily changing the scenario.ini to have the strategicai back to "1". Moved a few generals, hit "L" and was rewarded with the startlocs file.

I then went back and set the .ini changes back to "0" and restarted. All is well.

I take it that evtarrived and evtcont do not work on KS?

No, the scripting logic is not available.

I'm not surprised. With the way you insisted about the formatting of the military time it did not seem logical that putting "evtarrived" in there was going to go over to well!

Is there any limit to the number of brigades that can be put in a single division?


BTW, it seems that there is a glitch still with the re-start process. In effect while it will re-start it adds the amount of time elapsed from the start of the game to the first save to the script. IOW, if I start a game at 8 AM and have a unit on hold until 8:30 it will start moving at 8:30 as long as I do not save and restart the game. Assuming that I save the game at 8:16 and restart it the unit that was supposed to get moving at 8:30 will wait until 8:46 and then get going. Obviously, early in a game this is hardly noticeable. Later in the game it is a considerable problem.

To solve the problem I have learned to march enemy units to different spots on the map, killing some time in the process, before issuing the final attack order on the main objective. The reason I was wondering about the number of brigades allowed is that it would be easier to have a handful of very large divisions to give orders to as opposed to a lot of small divisions.

Of course it is also true that I am getting good enough with this thing that I am getting tired of defending and want to march out and kill something!

Time keeping for MP scripts is different than for SP.  Time is reckoned by the number of times an officer accesses the AI code.  For div. and corps. commanders, that about every 20 sec.  It does not use the computer clock since that varies a little from computer to computer.  But every computer accesses the AI code in a uniform manner.  For a restart, you have to edit the battlescript.  Change the startscenario time to the time of the crash.  Then delete the orders the have already happened.  Only the host need do this.

The maximum number of brigades in a mixed division is 10 inf. brigades, 6 cav. brigades and 8 batteries. Check the division formations in drills.csv.

The maximum number of brigades in a mixed division is 10 inf. brigades, 6 cav. brigades and 8 batteries

I am happy to test this capacity in my command in our next MP game. French or Russian Guards please.

"Then delete the orders the have already happened. "

That instruction does not appear in the manual.

Worth a shot.

I saw that, thanks. It is now added and will be in the next version.

OK, so I have learned that one has to be very careful about the MP and SP versions.

I took one of your stock scenarios ( KS_Austrian_1 ) and wrote a script for it. The first two Austrian divisions were set to move off at 15:01 and 15:15 and the third at 15:17 and the 4th at 15:20. I tried it as MP first.

The first two did as ordered and I saved the game at 15:16 and stopped it. I made the changes to the script and restarted the game using the SP method. That did not work. I put the restartmp file into the scenario folder and restarted using the MP method. That worked to a degree.
In the past when I restarted a game the third division would have moved out at 15:33...exactly 16 minutes late as that was the amount of time which I had run off the clock before saving the game. The 4th division would have moved at 15:36.

Instead this time the 3d division moved out at 15:27 and the 4th division at 15:30. Ten minutes later than the ordered time for the movements. I have no idea where the 10 minutes comes from. Previously I understood where the 16 minute delay came from as that was the elapsed time to the Save Game file.

Tomorrow I will spread out the commands a bit and see what happens. If the 10 minute lag remains constant I can live with it even though I still have no idea where it comes from.

Did you mistakenly write 15:06 instead of 15:16 on the startscenario line?

No, I double checked that first.

The funny thing is that when it was adding 16 minutes to the time of the event it made sense because it seemed as if it was reading the scenario start time on the .ini file and I figured that was part of the save game file. But now that I have knocked out the previously executed orders I ma getting this 10 minute lag and that is just weird.

Here's the log file from last night, at least the end part of it.

15:16:16 ----------------loading: GFX_Tree_3
15:16:16 Chain of Command: Top Commander Maréchal Louis-Nicolas Davout
15:16:16 Chain of Command: Top Commander Feldmarschalleutnant Johann von Hiller
15:16:16 SowWL Level Loaded...
15:16:16 20:43:44
15:27:34 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Micheal von Gorup ordered to: Amovespec:loc:72715-45013
15:27:34 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Micheal von Gorup ordered to: Awheeldest:south
15:27:34 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Micheal von Gorup ordered to: Aformtype:11
15:27:34 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Micheal von Gorup ordered to: Auseroad
15:27:34 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Micheal von Gorup ordered to: Aorders:Attack
15:30:20 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Friedrich Erbprinz zu Hessen-Homburg ordered to: Amovespec:loc:72715-45013
15:30:20 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Friedrich Erbprinz zu Hessen-Homburg ordered to: Awheeldest:south
15:30:20 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Friedrich Erbprinz zu Hessen-Homburg ordered to: Aformtype:11
15:30:20 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Friedrich Erbprinz zu Hessen-Homburg ordered to: Auseroad
15:30:20 BattleScript: Feldmarschalleutnant Friedrich Erbprinz zu Hessen-Homburg ordered to: Aorders:Attack
15:31:32 MESSENGER ARRIVED: Generalmajor Carl von Riese -
15:32:45 Unloading Level


There's an earlier note in the log that says it read the battlescript.csv and loaded 10 commands. And here are the 10 commands in the script.

Time ToID Command FromID X Coord
KS SCRIPT
15:16 startscenario
15:17 Feldmarschall Leutnant Micheal von Gorup Amovespec:loc:72715-45013
15:17 Feldmarschall Leutnant Micheal von Gorup Awheeldest:south
15:17 Feldmarschall Leutnant Micheal von Gorup Aformtype:11
15:17 Feldmarschall Leutnant Micheal von Gorup Auseroad
15:17 Feldmarschall Leutnant Micheal von Gorup Aorders:Attack
15:20 Feldmarschall Leutnant Prinz Friedrich zu Hessen-Homburg Amovespec:loc:72715-45013
15:20 Feldmarschall Leutnant Prinz Friedrich zu Hessen-Homburg Awheeldest:south
15:20 Feldmarschall Leutnant Prinz Friedrich zu Hessen-Homburg Aformtype:11
15:20 Feldmarschall Leutnant Prinz Friedrich zu Hessen-Homburg Auseroad
15:20 Feldmarschall Leutnant Prinz Friedrich zu Hessen-Homburg Aorders:Attack
18:00 endscenario


Damned if I can see it!

Did you copy the revised battlescript into the netserv folder?

As a matter of habit I usually empty the Netserv folder and let the game regenerate it as needed.

If you are playing SP, that folder doesn't get filled.

So I decided to start from scratch and instead of editing one of your existing scenarios I made my own.

The first attempt at SP did not work at all. It refused to read the script.

I then used the same map and oob and created an MP version. For some reason, that did work.

Three Austrian divisions, Dedovitch, St Julien and Homburg. The first was scripted to move at 15:01, the second at 15:10 and the third at 15:15.

I ran the scenario and the first division duly moved out at about 15:01:03. I then saved the game at 15:05 but allowed it to continue running. St Julien moved out at 15:10:11 and Homburg at 15:15:17.

At that point I stopped it.

I changed the scenario starttime to 15:05, deleted the earlier commands, copied the revised battlescript to the netserv directory and restarted using the SP - load saved game procedure.

It seems to have worked.

Dedovich was already moving but St. Julien did not start until 15:10:15 which may have been 4 seconds later than the first run through OR might simply be the first time my eye detected movement among his units. As the scenario ran the second division continued to the objective set for it and did eventually get there.

Homburg's division remained stationery until 15:15:19 and again, this may have simply been when my eye detected movement. As before, he executed the instructions given in the script.

I kept notes of what I did and maybe tomorrow I'll try a larger scenario and see what happens. Right now, this seems to be a success.

As doing the Ligny OOB is taking forever, I thought I might take a look at the Scenario Generator as an alternative.

On the face of it, there aren't enough division slots to add in all the formations needed. However, if I do two scenarios, can I start the second with a Corps No of 1 greater than the last one in the first scenario and then merge the CSV files together?

Yes, that would get around the division limitation. However, if the multi-corps side is being scripted, there is no reason not to have more than one.

So the generator is working pretty well. One does need to watch the time format on the battlescript very closely but I have it rocking pretty good for defensive efforts. I'll get around to attacking something soon enough.

One question is that the TC button works fine for the officer/unit selected but does not work for subordinates. Is that a glitch or is it something I have done or failed to do?

The TC button with the single flag TC's just the selected unit. The TC button with 4 flags TC's the selected unit and subordinates.

When I click the TC single flag it lights up the multiple flag button as well. But it only TCs the commander. The units ignore him and his stance.

Are you suggesting that in lieu of that I ONLY press the multiple flag button when I want to TC the brigade?