Problem with 'Collection' Ability

[Kaoru]

Pardon me for making two topics - if I recall, from my time here before, the standard protocol is 'One topic per subject', and I'm operating under the auspices of this. If this is incorrect, feel free to let me know, and I'll conglomerate my topics, in the future. Incidentally, the question's at the bottom, everything between here and there is just a recounting of my steps, for transparency, clarity, and to show I'm not mucking up anything along the way.

Much simpler issue, though, here: I'm having trouble getting the Collection ability to work. Among my ahistorical tinkerings with various scenarios, I happened across the question: "What if both sides in the War of 1812 had a few more generals - and one each who was extremely talented?" Think a Grant-and-Lee (to use a Civil War comparison) sort of dichotomy.

It's one among many modifications I'm intending to do to the War of 1812 scenario, right in line with halving turn length (from a month to a fortnight) so as to make it approximately the length of the other two big campaigns. The turn-halving is a matter of event modification, balance and testing, and I won't bother with it here, I can handle it on my own. The generals are a matter of research, testing, picture-making and implementation. I can handle that, too.

The abilities are giving me trouble, though. I intended for each side's "Great General" to have contrasting-and-complementary abilities, matched with their (fictitious if necessary) bios. The 'Collection' ability-type used in Napoleon's Campaigns seemed perfect for the task. I crafted a new "Collection" ability, based on the Wellington template, added the appropriate entries to the string, .ini and other files, and booted up the game.

The ability was there! Unfortunately, it didn't seem to actually have any of the effects of its component pieces (about ten in all - just above the threshhold for simply giving the abilities to this general one-by-one in the model.)

Also, though it showed the 'Military Genius' ability on the portrait, and instructed me to 'See the unit's element panel for details' on what abilities this conferred, the element panel displays only the collection-ability itself - which appears, as I stated, inactive.

(I tested this using a national ability - 'Anglo-Canadian' - both inside, and beside, the collection ability. When nested inside the ability, it had no effect, and the unit he was commanding suffered extreme command penalties. When listed as the general's second ability, outside of the Collection ability, it functioned normally.)

So: Is the "Collection"-type ability bugged and nonfunctional in WIA? Is there something special I need to do in order to make it work? Am I doing anything wrong? Elucidation would be a great help! To aid further, here's the actual code of my ability, itself. I've added a few other abilities in - this one is in its proper place, sequentially, just so you know why its UID is so high.

Code: Select all

UID = 122
Name = $abi_nam_Genius_Jameson
Alias = Genius_Jameson
Kind = $abiCollection
Text = $abi_txt_Genius_Jameson
ImageID = abi_Genius.png
Color = $colAbi_Tan
Appliance = Self
Family = 0
Level = 1
ProgRate = 2
Param0 = $Beloved_By_Army
Param1 = $Strong_Discipline
Param2 = $Defensive_Terrain_Analyst
Param3 = $MoveRanger
Param4 = $Patriot
Param5 = $Brave
Param6 = $GoodSub_Cmd
Param7 = $Fast_Move
Param8 = $Strong_Morale
Param9 = $Superior_Tactician
Param10 = $Fire_Discipline

Thanks for anything you can contribute, folks.
~Kaoru

[PhilThib]

WIA was developped after Napoleon's Campaigns, so the abilities work the same. There is nothing wrong in what you have designed...except, iMHO, the UID number

In order to work, UID must be in sequence and follow each other...if there is a gap, it won't work. The last UID of WIA ability list is 115...so your should work only if its number is 116.

In addition, you have to add this in the abi_Alias file in the Aliases directory

Hope this shall work.

[Kaoru]

WIA was developped after Napoleon's Campaigns, so the abilities work the same. There is nothing wrong in what you have designed...except, iMHO, the UID number

In order to work, UID must be in sequence and follow each other...if there is a gap, it won't work. The last UID of WIA ability list is 115...so your should work only if its number is 116.

In addition, you have to add this in the abi_Alias file in the Aliases directory

Hope this shall work.

Still blown away by the fact that I'm getting feedback from you - seriously, awesome! But, I'm afraid that your advice doesn't work. Like I mentioned near the end, this is just the last of several abilities I added - and it exists in the abi_Alias.ini file, too. As you can see:

Code: Select all

$Genius_Napoleon = 108
$Genius_Wellington = 109
$Genius_Nelson = 110
$Guard_Commit = 111
$Canadian = 112
$Westerner = 113
$Southerner = 114
$Northerner = 115
[color="Blue"]$Easterner = 116
$Troopmaster = 117
$Poor_Logistician = 118
$BadSub_Cmd = 119
$Great_Patriot = 120
$Uncharismatic = 121
$Genius_Jameson = 122[/color]

(All of those are extant abilities, in my current mod - most are pretty self-explanatory, too.)

This has been in place since before I even made this topic, so it couldn't be interfering with that ability. leure:
Any other ideas? Does the Military Genius ability have to be the only one a general has, to work right? Or does it have to not be the only one a general has? Also, for reference: The most abilities that can be contained in a 'Collection' is 15, right? But is the lowest number 5, or 1? (Just for reference!)
Stumped and confused,
~Kaoru

[PhilThib]

There are no minimum number of abies beside 1 in the collection. I believe 15 is already a huge number, so this is the max, but in theory there could be more (it is also a physical limit at how many can be displayed and visible in the detail panel).

I am puzzled why it does not work. I am used to work only with Excel files, not text ones. May be ask some help to [color="Blue"]Lodilefty[/color] on this, he is our WIA expert.

[Pocus]

The Collection, ability is just a display artifact. Basically, you are saying: mask me the ability $Brave. But it still have to be there, i.e, you should create all abilities.

Aside that, I don't quite see where can be the problem.

Hope it helps.

[lodilefty]

AFAIK, the Collection ability works, but you must also code each ability desired into the Model for that leader.....

I tinkered with it long ago [version 1.02 I think], and haven't looked at it lately

[Kaoru]

The Collection, ability is just a display artifact. Basically, you are saying: mask me the ability $Brave. But it still have to be there, i.e, you should create all abilities.

Aside that, I don't quite see where can be the problem.

Hope it helps.

AFAIK, the Collection ability works, but you must also code each ability desired into the Model for that leader.....

I tinkered with it long ago [version 1.02 I think], and haven't looked at it lately

That did, indeed, do the trick! I was under the impression that the Collection ability was an actual collection - one ability that nested the effects of any ability included under its Params. This clears things up considerably - thanks! My two military geniuses are now working properly (though their respective 10th abilities are cut off in the unit-elements tab, since they have the Military Genius ability. Oh, well! They're still taking effect, which is good.)

Thanks muchly for all the assistance, Phil, Pocus, and lodilefty!
~Kaoru