Questions about the editor

[Don Maddox]

I have a few questions about the scenario editor. The manual does not explain the objectives editor with any detail at all. My guess is that these mostly effect AI behavior more than anything else, but I would like to have some more detail from Col Lunsford on what exactly each of these does.

Objective Marker: Do these effect AI behavior? What about when the scenario is set to force oriented? Are they needed for non-AI games?

Key Terrain: These only effect AI behavior, right? Is there any need for them in human vs. human games? What exactly should or should not be marked in order to get them to work properly and not confuse the AI opponent?

Limited Mobility Corridor: The name sounds somewhat self explanatory, but exactly what effect do they have on how the simulation behaves?

All the manual says is "click on the map to place" them, but it doesn't say what they do. Any help will be appreciated.

[Gallowglass]

The Glossary in the manual defines a Mobility Corridor as

"Areas where a force will be canalized due to terrain restrictions."

Usually they have severely restricted terrain on both sides but units transit the corridor relatively quickly, so long as it is unobserved.......

[CPangracs]

Objective Marker: Do these effect AI behavior? What about when the scenario is set to force oriented? Are they needed for non-AI games? These are just areas that give Victory Points,...they aren't needed for the AI to work.

Key Terrain: These only effect AI behavior, right? Is there any need for them in human vs. human games? What exactly should or should not be marked in order to get them to work properly and not confuse the AI opponent?Just a marker,...again, not needed for AI to work

Limited Mobility Corridor: The name sounds somewhat self explanatory, but exactly what effect do they have on how the simulation behaves?No effect on simulation behavior,...purely a marker.

The only things you can have to make the AI work are intermediate and final objectives, the rest is done by the AI. Also, and this is VERY important, you do NOT have to create separate games for single and multiplayer games. You really don't need to even have objectives set for the AI if the enemy is in the defense! In other words, you can create a game for multiplayer and actually play it in Single, and vice versa.

I do suggest that you assign objectives to BOTH Red and Blue, which creates a scenario playable from either side for singleplayer (I did NOT do this with the scenario I posted - I left that for others to do).

Hope this clears things up for you.

Curt

[pmaidhof]

Since you all have agreed that the Key Terrain and Mobility Corridors markers are irrelevant, and only AI initial and Final objectives are necessary for a player to play the scenario vs the AI, what are some of the other ways used to influence AI behavior?

In the scenario editor there are a number of variables:

Games Scenario: Blue attack/Red Attack
Force Objective: Blue/Red “force oriented”, “terrain oriented”, or “withdrawal”
LOC location: Blue/Red map edge

How would the different force objective combinations affect AI? How does “terrain-oriented” affect the AI if “key terrain” is irrelevant? Does it simply put the force into a deliberate defense?

If Blue was on the attack and was “force-oriented” and while Red was “withdrawal”, would that produce an pursuit/exploitation situation provided the AI objectives were both headed in the same direction?

After a couple of runs through of DeltaPooh’s “Heartattack” it seemed that once blue got past the final defensive line south of Baghdad, a Red division appeared to counterattack from the northwest. Was I imagining that? Is there a way to delay a unit from conducting its AI objectives or varying its arrival on map?

Will the size of the map graphic being too big crash the actual game or will it simply not allow you to assign terrain to that potion of the map deemed in excess while in the editor?

I second Don’s request for a scenario creation tutorial – or a updated link to what has already been produced, although I believe that I have collected everything from here, the yahoo group, and the hpssims website.

Any help/insight would be appreciated.