MP Scenario Creation Tutorial

MP Scenario Creation Tutorial
by Leffe7
last edited 31.3.2012

The goal of this tutorial is to teach you how to create a simple multiplayer scenario.
You will be able to specify the order of battle for both sides and the starting locations for divisions.
You will follow step-by-step the creation of a scenario about a fictional union assault on Culp's Hill.

Recommended Software: Garniers EditOOB and GEditCSV
http://norbsoftdev.net/forum/garniers-toolbox/14903-order-of-battle-editor
http://norbsoftdev.net/forum/garniers-toolbox/15871-csv-file-editor
Excel or OpenOffice for advanced tutorial (part 5)

Optional
In the SDK documents, experienced users will find useful information for editing all kind of stuff. In this basic tutorial you won't need this.
http://norbsoftdev.net/forum/modifications/40248-sdk-14-beta

Advanced Tutorial: If you want to edit the starting locations of individual regiments and brigades and their formations replace Part 3 with the advanced tutorial in Part 5.

1.1 OOB Selection

Choose a standard OOB or a custom OOB found on the norbsoftdev forum.
Some examples of custom OOBs:
http://www.norbsoftdev.net/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=44&id=28824&Itemid=103#28824 (post #1)
http://norbsoftdev.net/forum/modifications/38678-oobs-converting-my-tc2m-packs (post #20)

For the example in this tutorial we modify the OOB "oob_Gettysburg_sample1.csv" already installed with SOW and found here:
C:\NorbSoftDev\Scourge of War - Gettysburg\Mods\NSD Sample 1\OOBs

Create a new subfolder under "Mods", e.g. "Custom_OOB". Inside, create a subfolder named exactly "OOBs".
This is where you can put your custom OOBs and the OOB you will edit yourself.
Copy and rename the Gettysburg OOB to "OOB_SB_Culps1.csv". The beginning "OOB_SB" is mandatory.

Your file and folder structure should look like this:




1.2 Editing the OOB

Start EditOOB, load "OOB_SB_Culps1" and start editing it. It's pretty self-explaining.
When selecting the most senior general, right-click and select "collapse" to get an overview.
In the upper section you can delete, copy and drag-and-drop the units.
In the lower section you can edit the names and all kind of stats of generals and units (not covered in this basic tutorial).

• On the confederate side I want one brigade with some artillery.
  In Jubal Early's division, keep Hays brigade and the Supply Wagon and delete the rest of the division.
  Drag and drop the batteries of Carrington and Tanner from Hilary Jones division to Early.
  Delete everything else on the CS side.

• The union force will be led by Gen Schurz, consisting of divisions Ames and Steinwehr. For balance reasons the 2nd brigade of Steinwehr is skipped. The rest on the union side is deleted.

Click Tools \ Refresh Unit Strengths. It should look now like this:



Save and exit EditOOB.
Launch SOW, under modifications, activate "Custom_OOB" as one of your mods, so you will be able to select the OOB_SB_Culps1 when launching a game.
Start a sandbox game with your edited OOB and see if it works.

Hint: Create regular backups of your OOB file. Run frequent Sandbox Games with the modified OOB to see if it doesn't crash the game and all units appear as desired.

2.1 It is now time to set your SOW Options to the following values while creating and testing the scenario. Once it's finished you can set any options you want.


2.2 Launch a sandbox game with your OOB, the correct map, Army vs Army, choose number of objectives (= "0") and uncheck "balance forces".


2.3 Make a Copy of your "C:\NorbSoftDev\Scourge of War - Gettysburg\Work\Scenarios\SandBox" folder and rename it to "Culps1".


2.4 In your scenarios folder, edit the file "scenario.ini".
Make sure that those lines are set

[Init]
type=bp
map=4_PPT
StrategicAI=1
StartTime=12:00:00

map : Choose the correct value for your scenario:
1_McPherson
2_DD_RT
3_CulpsHill
4_PPT
5_ECF
Alpine
ANT_1
ANT_1PM
ANT_2
ANT_3
Gburg
KS
PCL1
PCL2
PCL3

StartTime must be set to your correct value, or it will be taken from your sandbox settings. The EndTime should already be correct in the "battlescript.csv" file.

Hint: If launched as a singleplayer scenario, you can only select your commander from the sandbox game. When launching as a multiplayer scenario you can select any commander.

3.1 Make sure you have the debug mode activated. If not, add these lines to your "C:\NorbSoftDev\Scourge of War - Gettysburg\Work\sowgb.ini" file:
[Debug]
DbgLvl=2

3.2 Launch the scenario "Culps1" (SP or MP doesn't matter), when in-game fly to the desired starting locations of your divisions and note their loc x and loc z coordinates.
Top of Culps hill for the confederates, looking northeast:


A little north of Benners farm for the union troops, looking southwest:


This gives the following coordinates
loc x/loc z
CS: 79588/62771
US: 57071/84165

Hint: Ignore positions after decimal point.

To identify the heading, you can turn left/right your in-game character in the compass direction and read the DIR information found in the thir line of the debug window. If you only scroll with the mouse in-game, the DIR numbers don't change.
dir x / dir z
CS (northeast): -0.71/0.71
US (southwest): 0.71/-0.71

3.4 Start Garniers GEditCSV (Basic mode) and open the scenario.csv file from your scenario folder.
3.5 For each unit, copy/paste the loc x, loc z, dir x and dir z noted above in the appropriate columns. All units from the same division can have the same coordinates.


3.6 Save and exit GEditCSV.

Hint: If you place your units too close to the border of the map, they may appear somewhere else in-game. Choose other coordinates and try again.
Create regular backups of your scenario.csv file. Run frequent Scenario Games to see if it doesn't crash the game and all units appear as desired.

4.1 Setup a SP or MP sandbox game. Make sure all the sandbox settings (map, objectives, time limit, etc...) match those of your scenario. Launch a sandbox game with this setup. Solved in Part 2.4!

4.2 Host a multiplayer game. Choose "Create a scenario game" and select your scenario.

4.3 The players can now each select a commander and play as usual. Congratulations, you have just created your first MP scenario!

In the basic tutorial you have the following limitations: All units below division stick to their divisions starting location. You cannot place brigades and regiments individually. And you cannot modifiy the starting formations of units.
For advanced users, replace Part 3 with the following:

5.1 In your work folder, edit sowgb.ini so your Debug section is looking like this:
[Debug]
MPLog=1
DbgLvl=2
NoAI=1
AlphaOmega=1

Now you will be able to move the units of both sides and the AI will not do anything. If you want to play SOW, disable the last 2 lines:
;NoAI=1
;AlphaOmega=1

5.2 Edit scenario.ini file
Under [init] is a line sandbox=1 (value from 1-4). Set this to
sandbox=0

5.2 Launch your scenario
Set the starting location and formation for every unit as you like. Don't forget to accelerate the game if it takes a long time for them to move.

5.3 While still in-game hit "L". This will create a startlocs_...csv file in your work folder.
Now you copy/paste the values in loc x, loc z, dir x, dir z and Formation from this file into your scenario.csv file.
You can do it with GEditCSV, but only one cell at a time.
You can also use Excel, OpenOffice or something similar and copy whole columns but make sure the csv file is in the same format in the end again, otherwise SOW will crash when loading your scenario.

You should actually be able to "March" the troops for individual unit placement.
There may be another linne you need to add when in debug mode that wont let the ai target troops
during the deployment stage. I made a few scenarios when the game 1st came out and I was able to place units anywhere I wanted to.

Many thanks for all your hard work on this Stefan.

Digby will need to use this for his campaign. As we found on Friday, even for other games a scenario provides a more authentic experience that the stock sandbox game with randomly distributed troops and x number of objectives worth y number of points each.

Martin

Thanks very much for this tutorial, Stefan.

I think you could post it on the NSD forum too - it could be a sticky in the Mods forum. It might encourage ther modders to post tutorials, which I think would be a good thing.

Excellent. Thank you very much.

Spoom, I had heard there is a [noai] switch you can put into the ini file so that the ai won't shoot each other, this allows marching units around the battlefield to their savegame scenario start points as you said, so diviusions can be split up and even regiments posted around in various places. This would be vital in campaign scenarios where I am sure we will see brigades operating alone and probably cavalry regiments too.

Does anyone know the exact format of the [noai] command?

The two commands you'll need are:
NoAI=1
AlphaOmega=1

They are put in the [debug] section of the ini file. Just remember to either comment them out or set them to 0 when you want to play the game.

Great, thanks.

Tutorial is updated.

rem NoAI=1
rem AlphaOmega=1

Actually to comment out the line use a semi-colon (
Like this:
;NoAI=1
;AlphaOmega=1

Actually to comment out the line use a semi-colon (
Like this:
;NoAI=1
;AlphaOmega=1

Well, it seems anything put before the command will deactivate it. But I will use the SOW standard way then

Leffe7 wrote:2.1 It is now time to set your SOW Options to the following values while creating and testing the scenario. Once it's finished you can set any options you want.


2.2 Launch a sandbox game with your OOB, the correct map, Army vs Army, choose number of objectives (= "0") and uncheck "balance forces".


2.3 Make a Copy of your "C:\NorbSoftDev\Scourge of War - Gettysburg\Work\Scenarios\SandBox" folder and rename it to "Culps1".


2.4 In your scenarios folder, edit the file "scenario.ini".
Make sure that those lines are set

[Init]
type=bp
map=4_PPT
StrategicAI=1
StartTime=12:00:00

map : Choose the correct value for your scenario:
1_McPherson
2_DD_RT
3_CulpsHill
4_PPT
5_ECF
Alpine
ANT_1
ANT_1PM
ANT_2
ANT_3
Gburg
KS
PCL1
PCL2
PCL3

StartTime must be set to your correct value, or it will be taken from your sandbox settings. The EndTime should already be correct in the "battlescript.csv" file.

Hint: If launched as a singleplayer scenario, you can only select your commander from the sandbox game. When launching as a multiplayer scenario you can select any commander.

I have the OOB and it works fine. Now I am trying to create the scenario files. When I copy my scenario.ini file however, I do not see the fields mentioned below. I feel like I am missing, or the instructions are missing a step.

Any ideas?

-Neal

getting lost here:

2.4 In your scenarios folder, edit the file "scenario.ini".
Make sure that those lines are set

[Init]
type=bp
map=4_PPT
StrategicAI=1
StartTime=12:00:00

Hi Neal

StrategicAI and starttime should already be set in your ini file. Just make a check if they are there and the time is right.
Type will be missing, you must add it yourself (bp means you can play the scenario as SP or MP)
Map should be there, but I think it was missing once I created a scenario. So just make sure it is there and has the correct value for the map you use.

All other lines in the ini file should be left untouched.

You can also send me your files and I will have a look at it.