More than 7 players

Empires in Arms is the computer version of Australian Design Group classic board game. Empires in Arms is a seven player game of grand strategy set during the Napoleonic period of 1805-1815. The unit scale is corps level with full diplomatic options

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Daniel Amieiro
Posts: 135
Joined: Fri May 17, 2013 9:41 am

More than 7 players

Post by Daniel Amieiro »

Well, i have been poking in the .GED file (i have to do in .tpj) to correspondence.

I have found data that binds a country for being playable or not (i tried it, and i got to include Portugal as example as a player country in initial menu). But it doesn't work because seems that 7 major powers are hardcoded in some way in .tpj (with their own relation tables and then a relation table between minors and majors... i found the data)

So my question:
- More than 7 countries, seems that was an Idea in data not supported/coded yet on game (or perhaps yes?). Making a "sizeable" country like Sweden or Poland seems supported (i can change provinces to country id and then make it playable, i fault in making it playable)
- There is a current limitation in code: At least one major ORIGINAL country must be played by an human.
- To add a "extra country" at least 7 majors should be choosable by a player (this is not a big problem).

Same for EiH combat that are in data, but not activated.

Are these upgrades to be soon?

Is there some development path? I love this game, and i see in data files that it was more ambitious than it shown :)
pzgndr
Posts: 3483
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Location: Maryland

RE: More than 7 players

Post by pzgndr »

ORIGINAL: damieiro
I have found data that binds a country for being playable or not (i tried it, and i got to include Portugal as example as a player country in initial menu). But it doesn't work because seems that 7 major powers are hardcoded in some way in .tpj (with their own relation tables and then a relation table between minors and majors... i found the data)

Are these upgrades to be soon?
Is there some development path?

Interesting. Making Sweden or Poland playable with Leaders might be nice, but not sure how much interest there would be to actually play them separately. Maybe just adding Leaders to minors would be helpful, like Bernadotte for Sweden after 1810, and Poniatowski for Poland?

I keep expecting to see Marshall Ellis pop in and say something. He was having password trouble trying to get back on the forum. There should be an upgrade to v1.21 with some improvements. Beyond that Marshall would have to say. If there are some very specific game code tweaks that you could suggest that might help with the .ged and .tpj file edits, maybe Marshall could work them in? Or at least comment about your third-party editor and confirm whatever code limitations there are.
Bill Macon
Empires in Arms Developer
Strategic Command Developer
Daniel Amieiro
Posts: 135
Joined: Fri May 17, 2013 9:41 am

RE: More than 7 players

Post by Daniel Amieiro »

It's not so easy. I cannot know what's coded and what not and why are the coding reasons/chooses. I should be confident that Marshall was wise in his chooses to make more coding in the future. And many choices can be a matter of taste.

I only examine the data in .ged and .tpj, nor what it's hardcoded on .exe

With the data i saw, i would have choosen (what didn't mean it's better)
1.- Unified table between majors and minor relationship (so the "minor" status of a country will be only a data of the country, not affecting toher tables). This perhaps could help in more player controlled minor. I saw that data of defining a country and their home provinces are included in data.
2.- Morale data Per Unit (not per country). For example, TMR, SR, TR and movement are coded by unit. This seems that morale would be used with some bonus if a minor were controlled by other major (like Ottoman Empire), perhaps it would help if a optional dominant power rule were in use, but i think in it on some general bonus if that matters. I would prefer the option that some Units will be Avaiable if some conditions (like a major country controlling) were in control.
3.- Some flexible New Political combinations. I have not seen it implemented in data. The easiest way i can figure would be making a table that contains the code of the new country, the obligatory provinces, and the optional ones, and their units. In political combinations step the "optional provinces" could be added (perhaps separated). If obligatory provinces are present, controlling major power could claim that kingdom. If already owner, could choose to make it bigger.

Example: Kingdom of sweden. Obligatory province: Sweden, Optional: Finland, Norway, Karellia...
If in political phase a player has sweden and conquers (for example) Finnland, it should add Finland to the kingdom.

Data seems to have it partially in mind, because the province data holds the native country and the controlling country. If a province becomes part of a kingdom, the data pointing to the old native country should point to the new one.

Even "major" countries should have this list to regain provices "lost/ceded" to a kingdom of new political combination.

I have a wild list...

4.- I saw data with EIH combat (naval and terrestrial). Tactics like envelope and things like that. It seems unused in a preliminary way. I would love these being coded.

5.- I think the BEST way to edit would be that EIANW would take a .txt file as an input. I'm trying two things, make the txt and then patching on .ged and .tpj. It would be easiest if the .txt were loaded by the program, so coding in future will not be affected



Daniel Amieiro
Posts: 135
Joined: Fri May 17, 2013 9:41 am

RE: More than 7 players

Post by Daniel Amieiro »

And i'm tweaking "at hand". I'm not coding yet the editor (it would take a txt or a excel export) and then patching .ged, .tpj and expect it would work :D
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Marshall Ellis
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Location: Dallas

RE: More than 7 players

Post by Marshall Ellis »

The coding design was done with a max of 10 players in mind for other games using the same engine. We actually have a 2nd game which we worked on in 2008/2009 called Modern Conquest. This game had 10 players: USA, GBR, Russia, China, Israel, India, Arab Faction State, Germany, France, Austrailia and was placed in modern times. Uses the same engine, diplomacy but had a little different combat and different unit types. Never got too far though ... life got busy!

The trick is ... the major player nations HAD TO BE THE FIRST COUNTRIES IN THE FILE. The first X major nations in the file would be playable. That help?
Thank you

Marshall Ellis
Outflank Strategy War Games


Daniel Amieiro
Posts: 135
Joined: Fri May 17, 2013 9:41 am

RE: More than 7 players

Post by Daniel Amieiro »

Hi Marshall. Sure it helps. I have found that should be consecutive (i put down playable countries like turkey and all down turkey weren't a choose. For that Reason i tried Portugal (the 8th country in list) as a first playable ;) and i got it showed in list (I didn't know the ten limit. The main issue (i didn't study all the file yet, i'm about 40%) is the "major" relationship table and if i should trigger other flags on file. I should seek the table of majors and their relationships in .tpj and see if i can complete the table for a 10x10 matrix or similar.

I have seen in countries table some kind of data. 0-> Normal country 1-> Playable country (i prefer a Major country) 2-> ¿Kingdom? I found these mark on C. Rhine and Ottoman, but not on Poland. And things that seems ideas like S. Pommerania.
My "main" Question is: Is it possible to tweak the data to make new kingdoms by "major countries") (like Italy, Westphalia) and can be recognised by actual code?

Daniel Amieiro
Posts: 135
Joined: Fri May 17, 2013 9:41 am

RE: More than 7 players

Post by Daniel Amieiro »

Hi!

I'm continuing tweaking to get and 8th country or a similar one (well, it's not my priority, but i'm trying to comprehended all the data).

I have a problem with economic Manipulation. EM is in .tpj. TPJ is a file with an "standard" text file with data. But there is only seven economic manipulations defined, and it seems that there isn't room for one more (on the other tables it seems i could get even 60 playable countries :D), but not on these.

So, is the em pointed by a major country in country data?(So in a not-yet-playable country i could point to an existing one?)
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