Cancelling available Theatre Options

[Mark Stevens]

I thought I knew how to do this, but...how do you cancel a Theatre Option that has appeared in the List of Options, other than by declaring it?

A case in point for (inevitably) Europe Aflame; an Option for the Axis to activate 'Operation Marita' appears when it declares war on Yugoslavia. Our intention is that this disappears - if not chosen - when Belgrade falls. At present it can be 'saved' for later use, which is not the intention.

I've tried cancelling the Event once Belgrade falls, or activating the 500 Event that's normally used to cancel it if it's chosen, but during testing the Option still sits stubbornly in the Axis list of Options.

Am I missing something bloody obvious?

Cheers.

[LOK]

Mark
I had the same problem. (Funny you should ask this question - I used your scenario and help from this forum to solve my problem).

As far as I know Cancel Event does not work for cancelling TOs.

Activate 500 does work but you *must* have the exact same wording in the Theater Option news string otherwise the Event editor interpets that as a new TO.
I hope this helps
Haris

[Mark Stevens]

Thanks, you're right: the solution is to activate the 500 Event that matches the Theatre Option. Cheers.

[Mark Stevens]

Following on from the earlier question: the cancellation of a Theatre Option seems to work, but if another Event is scheduled to trigger it, the TO seems to reappear. 'Europe Aflame' again, I'm afraid: a German DoW on the USSR should (by activating a 500 Event) cancel the Soviet TO to declare war. However, if another, separate Event is scheduled to activate that same TO - in this case the Axis moving to with three hexes of Ankara - the Soviet TO still appears, even after the German DoW has been exercised. At the moment I've been reduced to putting a News String on the TO "USSR attacks the Axis: NOT IF GERMANY HAS ATTACKED FIRST". Clearly a very inelegant solution. It's not just a matter of cancelling that specific Event either, as there are two more that may trigger the Soviet Option.

Any ideas?

I'd be more than happy to e-mail the SCE. to anyone who wants to take a look at it with details of the specific Events that should trigger the cancellation.

I thought that I understood the Editor, but this has me stumped.

[Mark Stevens]

Cheers. I'll take a look. Maybe poor old Mussolini won't get rescued after all!

[LOK]

I am facing similar problems with a large Cold War scenario where declarations of war for a specific country can be triggered by several separate events.
Frankly I do not have a clean solution to the problem. The event editor (although powerful) does not have a real IF THEN ELSE capability. You need to take of all the event chains and cancel each Theater Option separetely. It gets to be cumbersome.

However, I found a partial solution based on a discussion at the TDG design forum http://www.tdg.nu/

I am using disband unit to implement Theater Options. That is, I make dummy units put them in a (distant) area of the map that's off limits and players "declare war" by disbanding the appropriate unit. (A similar approach can be used by occupying/attacking a specific hex but then both players have to agree on the hex, etc).

Two reasons why I like this:
1. You are no longer limited to 16 Theater Options (the Theater Options dialog box does not scroll).
2. It takes fewer events to implement and Cancel "Theater Options".

It does not solve your original problem but it may make it a bit easier to manage the events, triggers, and cancelations.

Thanks
H.
(aka LOK)

[Mark Stevens]

Thanks to both of you.

As I've not too many Events to cancel - it's only the USSR DoW - I'll go with Chuck's suggestion of cancelling each trigger individually - it'll mean cannibalising a couple more Events, but that's not too serious.

[Raindem]

The crazy thing about theater options is that the TOAW engine considers them "activated" when they appear in the list. The only difference is their effect is delayed by the user until he presses the button.

Additional problems come into play when you are working with events that both cancel a TO (prevent it from appearing) or remove it once it is up there. The logic can drive you nuts. That's why I'm leaning towards on-board solutions in cases where it's not a big deal if your opponent knows that you chose an option.