What do all the advanced options mean?

[FroBodine]

There are no tooltips, and there is no Allied Corps manual (at least I could not find one in the game's install folder). And when I click on the manual from the Allied Corps start menu, it gives me the Panzer Corps manual.

Anyway, what does all this mean exactly?

1. Player and AI prestige - does this mean you and/or the AI get more prestige than normal when you take objectives?
2. Player and AI experience - what does this do? How do you get more or less experience?
3. Number of turns (1-5) - what does this do?
4. Player and AI strength - what does this do?
5. AI level (0, 1 or 2) - what does this do?
6. Combat random (normal, limited, chess) - what does this do?
7. Reform units - what does this do exactly?

Thanks!

[FroBodine]

112 views and not one person knows what all these advanced options mean?

Well, I guess I can hope a developer will be able to help me.

[terje439]

1. From my understanding you/AI gets more prestige from whichever income source (taking objectives, simply per turn basis etc)
6. Seem to remember being told this has to do with actual battle results compared to those you get when howering over the enemy. Normal - the result can vary quite a bit from what is predicted. Limited - the actual result can differ some from the predicted result. Chess - what you see is what you get.

[gerg71]

Agreed....Lets get some clear definitions of these advanced options.

I love the fact that this game is growing into something more and the creators aren't afraid of giving us new options. But clear definitions of these are important.

Lets hope we see something soon, I think jglazier's list is a good start.

[VPaulus]

Please check this threads:

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 21&t=43093
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 21&t=43018
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 21&t=43070

I'll try to get more information. Sorry, jglazier, but I have been so busy in the last days, that I haven't yet succeeded in looking with a proper eye to the new patch.

[VPaulus]

I've asked to Tarrak, one of our moderators in Slitherine forum, and he replied:

Question 1: Player and AI prestige - does this mean you and/or the AI get more prestige than normal when you take objectives?
The slider affect players or respective AI prestige. It affects both the prestige gained during the campaign as well as starting prestige at the begin of the campaign. It scales between 0% and 200% .. careful when moving player prestige to 0%, you will start with 0 prestige and you will not receive any.

Question 2: Player and AI experience - what does this do? How do you get more or less experience?
The slider affect players or respective AI experience. It affect both the experience gained during the campaign as well as starting experience at the begin of the campaign. It scales between 0% and 200% .. careful when moving prestige to 0%. You will not gain any experience at all.

Question 3: Number of turns (1-5) - what does this do?
The slider deducts or adds the set amount of turns to the turn limit of all scenarios in the campaign.

Question 4: Player and AI strength - what does this do?
The slider deducts or adds the set amount strength to all the units. It affects the base strength of the units before overstrength. For example if the slider is set to +5 the basic strength of standard units become 15. They can be still overstrengthen by 5 points up to 20. Conscripts would have a base strength of 20 as they already have a base strength of 15. Moving the AI strength slider to 5 basically is the Mannstein level of difficulty.

Question 5: AI level (0, 1 or 2) - what does this do?
The slider set the level of the AI. What exactly which settings do is impossible to say but one can safely assume the higher it is the better the AI will play tho in heavily scripted scenarios the freedom of actions for the AI is quite limited so one may not notice much difference at all. On the predefines settings the AI is set to 0 at Sergeant and Lieutenant, to 1 on Colonel and on all other difficulty levels to 2.

Question 6: Combat random (normal, limited, chess) - what does this do?
This governs the randomness of the rolls used by the game. Normal settings is like the game always used to be. Limited allows some randomness but limits it to be within 20% of the prediction. Chess turns any randomness off so that combat always ends as predicted.

Question 7: Reform units - what does this do exactly?
This works exactly like the reform units cheat introduced a while ago except it stays active through the whole campaign. All killed units move to reserve with zero strength and can be reformed before the next scenario.

He replied to the best of his knowledge, but he can't guarantee their are really 100% accurate. Especially in what concerns the amount of variation on the limited option may be different.

[FroBodine]

Thank you VPaulus. And thank you to Tarrak, wherever you are.

All this would be a mute point if there were popup tooltips in-game explaining all these new settings.

I don't know if I will ever use any of these, except for AI level, but it's sure nice to have them as options.

I'm loving Allied Corps so far. It's a great expansion to an already fantastic game. I just wish that the maps had a little more variety to the tilesets after all these years, and MORE COLORS. Green with more green is really just blah.

[VPaulus]

I've corrected Question 4.

[VPaulus]

Now the reply from ThvN, anotehr moderator in Slitherine forum:


First of all, if you want to use these advanced settings, don't forget to tag the 'Custom Difficulty' box, otherwise the game will still use the preset difficulty.

Question 1: Player and AI prestige - does this mean you and/or the AI get more prestige than normal when you take objectives?
Yes, 0% means the player (or the AI) get only half of all prestige income, and 200% mean they get double the amount.

Question 2: Player and AI experience - what does this do? How do you get more or less experience?
If set to 200%, that side will earn double the experience from combat, set it to 0% and that side will receive no experience.

Question 3: Number of turns (1-5) - what does this do?
It lowers or increases the number of turns normally available for a scenario. Example: -5 = change scenario length from 20 to 15 turns, +3 = change scenario length from 20 to 23 turns.

Question 4: Player and AI strength - what does this do?
The default strength points of all units from that side get lowered or increased by the set amount.For example, Player strength = -5 means all player units that are normally 10 strength are now 5. AI strength = +3 means all AI units with 10 strength are now 13 strength.

Question 5: AI level (0, 1 or 2) - what does this do?
Set the difficulty level of the AI, i.e. how smart it is. This has less effect in heavily scripted scenarios, as the AI is often preprogrammed for certain behaviour, so the effect will depend a bit on the scenario. To give an idea, for the preset difficulty levels, 0 is used on Sergeant and Lieutenant levels, 1 is used on Colonel, and 2 for General and above.

Question 6: Combat random (normal, limited, chess) - what does this do?
Determines the deviation setting for the dice rolls that determine combat results.
Normal= standard Panzer Corps deviation (100%).
Chess= no deviation (0%), combat results are exactly as predicted.
Dice chess= deviation is decreased a lot, to about 20%, instead of the normal 100%. So combat results will vary max. 20% from predictions.

Question 7: Reform units - what does this do exactly?
If a core unit is destroyed during a campaign, after the scenario ends it can be 'reformed' in the next deployment fase by reinforcing it from 0 strength to 10 (you basically buy it back). This will reset its experience to 0, but the heroes that it has stay with it.

[FroBodine]

Excellent! Thanks again.

[Trifler]

Thanks VPaulus.

I've compiled everything into a single post for everyone: Custom Difficulty Settings

[Texican]

How about pop tool tips, where mouse over an option and a little text window pops up and tells you what it is?

And, how about urging those devs to hurry up and patch a fix in so the British player can buy non-British units (i.e., Australian, Indian, New Zealand), etc... Makes no sense to see them in the buy tab and not be able to purchase them. (Incidentally, I blame the beta testers for letting this slip past, not the devs. How could hundreds of beta testers, presumably knowledgeable in this war and the African campaign, not clue in to the oddity they they are unable to purchase non-British Allied units?)

[Razz1]

^ It was by scenario design.

Plus I believe the decision was based upon time constraint for release.

Your option effects balance as all the maps would need to include the countries and there are only so many slots available.

It may change in a future patch or someone like my self may add it in a Mod.


The equipment offered for those allies is inferior and at best equivalent to the British for a short period of time. So in the big picture they don't effect game play and I believe the design was left at that conclusion.


I myself would like to have the option to use them as core units. I know it can be done as soon I will release my Danzig 1939 Campaign which uses multiple cores through out the whole campaign.

[Venkman]

Hi,

in case i willdecrease dificulty by "reform unit" , lower turns and ect...
Does it mean and it will be considering as a cheating ? Is it still possible to obtain achievements ?

Now the reply from ThvN, anotehr moderator in Slitherine forum:


First of all, if you want to use these advanced settings, don't forget to tag the 'Custom Difficulty' box, otherwise the game will still use the preset difficulty.

Question 1: Player and AI prestige - does this mean you and/or the AI get more prestige than normal when you take objectives?
Yes, 0% means the player (or the AI) get only half of all prestige income, and 200% mean they get double the amount.

Question 2: Player and AI experience - what does this do? How do you get more or less experience?
If set to 200%, that side will earn double the experience from combat, set it to 0% and that side will receive no experience.

Question 3: Number of turns (1-5) - what does this do?
It lowers or increases the number of turns normally available for a scenario. Example: -5 = change scenario length from 20 to 15 turns, +3 = change scenario length from 20 to 23 turns.

Question 4: Player and AI strength - what does this do?
The default strength points of all units from that side get lowered or increased by the set amount.For example, Player strength = -5 means all player units that are normally 10 strength are now 5. AI strength = +3 means all AI units with 10 strength are now 13 strength.

Question 5: AI level (0, 1 or 2) - what does this do?
Set the difficulty level of the AI, i.e. how smart it is. This has less effect in heavily scripted scenarios, as the AI is often preprogrammed for certain behaviour, so the effect will depend a bit on the scenario. To give an idea, for the preset difficulty levels, 0 is used on Sergeant and Lieutenant levels, 1 is used on Colonel, and 2 for General and above.

Question 6: Combat random (normal, limited, chess) - what does this do?
Determines the deviation setting for the dice rolls that determine combat results.
Normal= standard Panzer Corps deviation (100%).
Chess= no deviation (0%), combat results are exactly as predicted.
Dice chess= deviation is decreased a lot, to about 20%, instead of the normal 100%. So combat results will vary max. 20% from predictions.

Question 7: Reform units - what does this do exactly?
If a core unit is destroyed during a campaign, after the scenario ends it can be 'reformed' in the next deployment fase by reinforcing it from 0 strength to 10 (you basically buy it back). This will reset its experience to 0, but the heroes that it has stay with it.