A. Smith's Div. is Maj. Brian

[Captain_Orso]

I ran across this once before and actually reported it here Ripley's AACW Believe It or Not. When creating a division with A. Smith the division's name is "Maj. Brian". This happened a number of turns ago already the first time and so that my division numbering and organization didn't get mixed up I used a different leader to build this division. Now I have updated to patch level 1.17a and tried it again and I still get the division created with A. Smith being named "Maj. Brian". Way back when, when I reported it the first time it was Curtis who's division got to be named "Maj. Brian".

Since in this game I created a number of divisions after the first time the "Maj. Brian" appeared and it only happens with A. Smith now, I think it has something to do with him, at least in reference to my current installation.

[lodilefty]

Nothing obvious in the DB.

Seems to be using some sort of Flavor Name from one of the Units in the Division...
Could you look at the individual units and see if you can find 'Maj. Brian'? Then I can look a bit deeper...

[Captain_Orso]

I think I've figured part of it out. Only took me like 3 hours

This is A. Smith in the .hst file:

Code: Select all

      {Unit}
      1005267
      892
      0
      526
      1
      1007821
      1000001
      0
      1
      0
      -1
      0
      0
      -1
      0
      -1
      -1
      0
      0
      -1
      0
      0
      A. Smith
      Cavalry
      NULL
      2nd US Cav.
      NULL
      NULL
      Maj. Brian
      NULL
      NULL
      NULL
      #CbtPower#0#CbtPower#
      NULL
        {SubUnit}
        1004496
        583
        1
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        100
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        1
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        A. Smith
        {/SubUnit}


A. Smith at one time was leading the 2nd US Cav., which was IIRC part of a command which got smacked up pretty bad in Tuscon AZ. By the time they reached friendly territory some of the units had starved and possibly gotten attacked again -- I don't remember exactly and my archives unfortunately don't go back that far --, but some of the units were destroyed right when they reached Creeks IT.

At any rate, the 2nd US Cav. is long gone. A. Smith is sitting in Louisville KY and acting very strangely.

The 2nd US Cav. starts the game in Fort Leavenworth KS as seen here in the "1861 April w-KY Campaign.scn" file (4th line after {Group} is the region number):

Code: Select all

    {Group}
    1000902
    -1
    50001
    1043
    -1
    1000001
    1174
    2132
    50001
    1043
    -1
    -1
    -1
    0
    1174
    2132
    1
    -1
    0
    0
    0
    -1
    -1
    1
    0
    1
    0
    0
    -1
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    2nd Dragoon
    NULL
    NULL
    NULL
    NULL
    NULL
    NULL
    #Kind#0#Kind#
    2nd Dragoon|NoLeader|1043|1|
    NULL
      {Unit}
      1000903
      244
      0
      1043
      1
      1000902
      1000001
      0
      1
      0
      -1
      0
      4
      -1
      0
      -1
      -1
      0
      0
      -1
      0
      0
      2nd US Cav.
      NULL
      NULL
      2nd US Cav.
      NULL
      NULL
      Maj. Brian
      NULL
      NULL
      NULL
      #CbtPower#34#CbtPower#
      NULL
        {SubUnit}
        1000904
        86
        20
        15
        0
        4
        4
        0
        0
        70
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        1
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        0
        2nd US Cav.
        {/SubUnit}
      {/Unit}
    {/Group}


And we see above that Maj. Brian is the Flavor Commander of the 2nd US Cav. So it's obvious, the command, which got driven out of Tuscon by Stand Wattie, and had to trek through the wild without supplies for for unending days, dragging their sick and wounded over the hard, dry, frozen desert floor; Indian scouts trying to trick them into diverting into the green valley off in the distance, but the wrong direction; being cursed a thousand fold by their scouts before being abandoned by them; and just as they reaching the first signs of civilization, starving, dehydrated, nearing delirium, they are savagely attacked again by Indians -- could the scouts have gotten their revenge? -- leaving but a pitiful few to drag themselves into the Creek settlement... but not before A. Smith ate him and now he's possessed by Maj. Brian


I wonder if the game has some problems with a unit being combined with a leader being destroyed and then not getting that unit unwoven from the leader.

[Captain_Orso]

I've confirmed my suspicion. If a leader is combined with a unit and that unit is destroyed some of the information remains with the now lone leader stack. If the unit that was destroyed had a Flavor Commander name that name is retained. If the leader then subsequently is used to create a division, the Flavor Commander name of the destroyed unit becomes the division's name instead of the normal division number.







This was only tested with Union leaders, but I imagine that it's the same thing with Confederate leaders with the difference that confederate divisions are named after their commanders with the "'s Division" added.

The reason that this doesn't occur more often is that of all the units with which a leader can combine cavalry are the smallest and most likely to possibly be destroyed, but many do not have Flavor Commander names. Units generated at setup or through events may or may not have a Flavor Commander name affixed to them.

Of the Union cavalry units, only those from Pennsylvania and New York have Flavor Commanders listed in there unit files. Of the Confederate cavalry units only those from Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky have Flavor Commander names defined in their unit files.

[Ethan]

Great investigation, Thom, as usual.

BTW, Sherlock Holmes would seem a beginner compared to you.

Best Regards!

[Captain_Orso]

Thank Julio I hope I don't let all this praise go to my head. It's full of enough junk as it is