AGEOD Forums

In our glorious 17-nation MP game, we have some players that control Brazil and Mexico. These guys have their armies and navies locked although there is no "lock icon" on their units. Why is that and which is the least painful way to unlock them? We could, in theory, script their destruction and recreation via events, but this might have unforeseen consequences, especially for historical generals. Any other ideas? If you need .hst and .trn files for the said nations to investigate I can provide.

(I believe this has been discussed in the past, and even commented by me, but I can't find the thread)

I can confirm they are not locked on purpose. IIRC this is due to some stupid error in the excel file that creates the scenario. I'll check it tomorrow again.

Are Brazil and Mexico the only ones concerned?

Nope, as far as I've checked (SwitchFaction and playing normally the next turn) other nations as well: for example Greece (which interests me btw). Please check with a certain priority Argentina, Egypt, Denmark, and Persia, beyond the previous two as these are the next candidates for players in our MP.

Also, some nations, notably Mexico, have a full awareness of the whereabouts of units on the strategic map (F5) although they don't have necessarily defensive agreements with major nations or, obviously, units everywhere.

If you could look at it as well...

Kensai wrote:Also, some nations, notably Mexico, have a full awareness of the whereabouts of units on the strategic map (F5) although they don't have necessarily defensive agreements with major nations or, obviously, units everywhere.

If you could look at it as well...

This I don't know how to solve, it's a code issue. For the lock thing, in the past, the error came from the fact that unlocked units in the Excel setup should use the 0 value, and not the NULL value...a stupid scripting error makes the engine consider NULL is not = 0, but equal to the last selected numerical value (which usually is 999, the last locked unit of the previous country).

I told that many times before, but it seems someone "fixed" the OOb and reintroduced the error. I need to recheck that once more

Try this fix, there were about 25 errors introduced when the scenario was updated for chrome names, and this should solve most of the issues. Please report if not.

NB: this is done on the basis of the 'standard' scenario, and may be not working for your modified multiplayer scenario. This is why I have enclosed the OOB fix, that you put inside the Includes folder of the game before re-generating the scenario with your MP script

We have a player checking it right now. I really appreciate the time you spend on helping us fix these minor glitches.

Hopefully, this is not work wasted and all these quick fixes might be part of a future official patch, together with the work the community makes on creating events for unscripted nations. PoN is immense in untapped opportunities!

The 1850 GC.scn file goes into VGN/Scens and the 1850GRC_OOB.inc into the VGN/Includes directory. What then? I load my savegame and proceed the turn; then they should move? Will it work for an ongoing game or would it have to be restarted?


Thanks for the fix, btw

There are two problems with the Brazilian and Mexican armies.
The first is that their units are permanently fixed - the show up in F2 with a duration of 999. When in this state any attempt to move gets a message saying they can't move. This is what the changes to the OOB would do for other countries in a new campaign. We can remove this in an event and they then show up as unfixed.

However they still can't move, this also applies to any new units they build, and to units given a fix duration that then runs out. Any attempt to move them gets a message saying they can't reach their destination.

OK I have found out how to remove the restriction on movement - you need to change the faction to be a major - i.e. change IsMajor = 1 in the faction definition file.

However I have no idea what other effects this has. I think it is what allows other nations to trade with your capital using you ships.

" I think it is what allows other nations to trade with your capital using you ships."

yeap, this how they told us when this discussion went on few days ago, however, consider that it also is supposed to have more side effects.

Engine seems to evaluate more questions/test parameters despite not having the option to use the decisions anyway (unless scripted from you)
maybe only my subjective impression:

whilst testing it few days ago. turns take significantly longer in a steady state analysis with a 1900 (12 turns) test run

also ran into problems with stability of PON, but it could be a mistake from me either.
for your MP, its not supposed to matter, i guess...

Thats weird however, as Holland, Sweden and Spain are minors as well, but can move their troops without problems or 'fixed' units

sagji wrote:OK I have found out how to remove the restriction on movement - you need to change the faction to be a major - i.e. change IsMajor = 1 in the faction definition file.

However I have no idea what other effects this has. I think it is what allows other nations to trade with your capital using you ships.

One possible side effect, as the developers have said in the past, is the fact the nation becomes "costly" computational-wise. We shouldn't care though, unless we convert too many of nations to major. And we won't.

Kensai wrote:Nope, as far as I've checked (SwitchFaction and playing normally the next turn) other nations as well: for example Greece (which interests me btw). Please check with a certain priority Argentina, Egypt, Denmark, and Persia, beyond the previous two as these are the next candidates for players in our MP.

This was reported a long time ago... and was fixed by Pocus....
Weird, we may have reintroduced the old code and went back to the old problem...
I will try to find the old discussion we had about this problem...

EDITED: I found it... back in 2011, we exchanged emails with Pocus about this problem, the answer was:

problem fixed, the pathfinder was not initialized for minors at peace..

Like I said, this was solved ... so, the fix should be present...

Is this in any way connected with the spawn bug we have for CSA and MUG? Although they appeared as nations, when we load their turns their map is not shown (everything brown). Making selecting their units impossible.

This seems related to a problem now that I have taken charge of MP Brazil.

Is the former pathfinding issue perhaps related to the inability of Brazilian units to take advantage of mutual supply and passage rights with other countries? We just get a bounce when trying an order with the message up top center

"The region cannot be entered (impossible terrain, frozen weather, neutral terrain, blocked by a fort, wrong water type, surrounded ...)"

This works both for land units ordered to enter Argentina and naval forces to go elsewhere with treaties.

Do I need to be at war with someone to make it work? I can send (or attach here?) the TRN and HIST files but they are for the slightly modded MP installation.

Thanks!

Well, now that I am at war I can use Passage Rights at least (don't know about Supply yet). So it is related to the peace issue.