New Project TSK Coop Campaign .Questions.

[Wesley762]

Hello everyone

Im rather new on this website altho not to KAM.
And recently i started my own Project to Completly Make the Full TSK Campaign in Coop using Krom and Lewin's Editors.
This will be For 2 players and maybe later some varients with more players.
for now it will just be all seprate maps as i not sure an actual campaign With map etc can be implended in MP.

My main goal is to make suitable habitats for the 2nd player and make them Fit in the original TSK Maps.
Im taking alot of time into perfecting the maps to make sure Quality is Deliverd and that it looks natural.

As im almost done with Mission 2/3 there are some things im curious about or unsure.
And i hope this community can help me with these Questions down my long path to 20 Coop Missions .

- Note most questions are AI related which are Based on the original(GOG) TSK Singleplayer Campaign Scripts.

Questions.
1. How can i make the AI produce Soldiers faster.
i tried placing more Schools but they simply dont use the 2nd School to make Recruits.

2. AI Defence positions.
when i make Defence positions for AI First and Second line.
for some reason when the map starts they start shifting all troops around and switch postions and such.
i made sure that the first lines are already taken by already stationed troops right on top of the positions.
so im wondering why the backups and first line are switching etc or what determines the Priority of what position to fill first.

3. AI attacks
when i plan attacks the repeated attacks interfer with the planned big attacks.
since they use all there spare troops to attack asap when they have the req. troops.
making the big attacks Never take place. is there some way to make the AI reserve troops ?
ps. even if i do plan single attacks on timer without Repeated attacks they do not take place.

4. Imagine Mission1 TSK. your village gets attacked by Laurenburg en the Blue player.
ive beefed these attacks up and also scripted the attacks to take place and player 2.
altho in the case of the enemy Winning this battle.. they just walk back to there camp and dont try to destroy you.
how can i fix this ? it seems to happen with all attacks when they march to my storehouse. and i interupt them with my army but lose..
they simply return... without destroying my sorry ass.

5. when trying to add new messages for in my missions in the Lib. files i cant seem to get it to display.
i tried putting it in the KaM Remake\data\misc "text.eng.lib" "text.dut.lib"(im dutch)
altho im guessing they need to be placed in "remake.dut.libx" but when Manually open that with Lewin's Lib Decoder 0.8.2.
it doesnt seem to load correctly as it states "HßHß" in alot of lines and im sure some of those lines displaying correctly ingame.

Id Appriciate if i can get some clearance on all this or some tips for my new project.

Thanks for your time and Kind Regards,
Wesley762

[SirCabbage]

I do like this. A lot. I was always a builder so I found the TSK and TPR campaigns too hard to ever actually bother with. Having some backup would be awesome for builders like me. Esspecially if there was some way for Builders like myself to send resources to the other player

[Wesley762]

ive opened a topic for my project.
its located in the Map Design Section and will be updated frequently with my progress.

- Wesley762

[Wesley762]

i solved some of the issues myself but these remaining 5 issues really got me stuck for actually Finishing missions...\
so i would really appriciate if someone can shed some light on these 5 issues.
since i need the ai to train faster for tougher attacks and the ingame messages to cover the lore of player 2 etc.

- wesley762

[Lewin]

Hi,

1. How can i make the AI produce Soldiers faster.
i tried placing more Schools but they simply dont use the 2nd School to make Recruits.

You need to use the script command:
!SET_AI_CHARACTER EQUIP_RATE <TICKS>
The default is 1000 ticks, so !SET_AI_CHARACTER EQUIP_RATE 1000. There are 10 ticks per second, so 1000 = 100 seconds. This means by default the AI will train 1 soldier every 100 seconds.
To edit the script you'll need to use version 0.3_beta of my mission editor. Place the command in the section for the AI player you want it to effect. e.g. so for the 3rd player, place it somewhere after the line !SET_CURR_PLAYER 2. (1st player is !SET_CURR_PLAYER 0)
You also need to use this method to add !CENTER_SCREEN to both of the human players. (my editor assumes there will be only 1 human player, as coop doesn't exist in KaM TPR/TSK which it was made for)

However, if you add this command then open the mission in the latest version of my editor (0.9) it will ignore the command and when you save it will be removed! (because my editor was only designed to work for KaM commands, not the new ones we have added) So you must do this AFTER you finish with the mission in the graphical version of my editor.
I hope that makes sense.

2. AI Defence positions.
when i make Defence positions for AI First and Second line.
for some reason when the map starts they start shifting all troops around and switch postions and such.
i made sure that the first lines are already taken by already stationed troops right on top of the positions.
so im wondering why the backups and first line are switching etc or what determines the Priority of what position to fill first.

Front/back line do not effect the fill priority, it only effects whether the soldiers will attack. Front line soldiers will not be used in attacks. The fill priority is the order you define the positions. The top position will be filled first, etc. If you define the positions and the troops in the same order, they should be taken correctly and won't swap.

3. AI attacks
when i plan attacks the repeated attacks interfer with the planned big attacks.
since they use all there spare troops to attack asap when they have the req. troops.
making the big attacks Never take place. is there some way to make the AI reserve troops ?
ps. even if i do plan single attacks on timer without Repeated attacks they do not take place.

Make sure the condition for the single attack is correct. (number of soldiers required)
You can't make the AI do repeating attacks and reserve some soldiers for big attacks, the system is too limited. You can make multiple AI villages at the same place and have one do repeated attacks, the other big attacks.

4. Imagine Mission1 TSK. your village gets attacked by Laurenburg en the Blue player.
ive beefed these attacks up and also scripted the attacks to take place and player 2.
altho in the case of the enemy Winning this battle.. they just walk back to there camp and dont try to destroy you.
how can i fix this ? it seems to happen with all attacks when they march to my storehouse. and i interupt them with my army but lose..
they simply return... without destroying my sorry ass.

Yes that's what happens in KaM... there isn't really a way to avoid it except by making regular attacks so they will attack again soon. When we extend the AI scripting we'll make this possible.

5. when trying to add new messages for in my missions in the Lib. files i cant seem to get it to display.
i tried putting it in the KaM Remake\data\misc "text.eng.lib" "text.dut.lib"(im dutch)
altho im guessing they need to be placed in "remake.dut.libx" but when Manually open that with Lewin's Lib Decoder 0.8.2.
it doesnt seem to load correctly as it states "HßHß" in alot of lines and im sure some of those lines displaying correctly ingame.

You only need to put the messages in text.###.lib, not remake.###.libx. (it is for new text we have added)
However, that's not a good solution because we don't want to modify these text files for campaigns/missions. We will add a way to have custom messages for campaigns and missions but it is not possible at the moment.

I hope this helps
Lewin.

[Wesley762]

Thanks alot Lewin,

atleast now i can go ahead and finish some missions and move on with the project.
altho i do find it a bummer i can make new messages it really takes away the involvement of the 2nd player.
imo without these things the 2nd humand is just a third wheel.
which makes me wonder what is the reason "we dont want to" add custom messages ?
and isnt id possible for me to make a new .lib specially for my campaign and let the missions tab messages from that .lib ?

[Garnu_Thorn]

Even though I have no experience in KaM map editing, I did think of something relating to this problem:

3. AI attacks
when i plan attacks the repeated attacks interfer with the planned big attacks.
since they use all there spare troops to attack asap when they have the req. troops.
making the big attacks Never take place. is there some way to make the AI reserve troops ?
ps. even if i do plan single attacks on timer without Repeated attacks they do not take place.

If you want a big attack and keep one village, another way I'd say you would have to script all the attacks but make sure the AI can have those soldiers at the times of the attacks. Either that or make sure the AI is properly spawning a lot of soldiers of the specific type you aren't sending through the repeated attacks, like calvary, or pike soldiers.

[Lewin]

altho i do find it a bummer i can make new messages it really takes away the involvement of the 2nd player.
imo without these things the 2nd humand is just a third wheel.
which makes me wonder what is the reason "we dont want to" add custom messages ?
and isnt id possible for me to make a new .lib specially for my campaign and let the missions tab messages from that .lib ?

If you make a new .lib file the game won't open it because it doesn't know about it. And if you place your messages in the text.###.lib files and send that file to people, there will be some problems:
a) With each update of the Remake your file will be overridden.
b) If someone else edits the file and sends it that will overwrite your messages.
It's a very bad solution to add text to that file for fan-made missions.

My plan is to make the Remake load a new .libx file from the mission folder where you place the .dat and .map files. Then custom messages can go there and people can create translations. So the mission folder might have:
MyMission.dat
MyMission.map
MyMission.eng.libx
MyMission.dut.libx
MyMission.txt
etc.
When we have added that feature you can make the messages display, but at the moment it is not possible. Keep all of the messages you want to be shown and when we support it you can add them.

[Wesley762]

@Lewin
ok thanks for the explanation
there is one more issue i ran across while programming the AI.
in fighting missions.. the AI still doesnt help his fellow groups when i attack 1 with an archer.
the one i attack is the only one that comes to me the rest just stays in there positions..
i set AI agressiveness to 200 and defence radius to 60 which should cover the whole map (mission 3)

is this just a bug or limit in the AI or am i doing something wrong ?

also could you give me an small indication when the next remake will be released (roughly)
and where i should send my missions once i consider them Finished and checked/tested by several people.

@ Garnu_thorn
Thanks for the advice i actually didnt think of that yet !
il test it out and see if this will work.

[Lewin]

Aggressiveness does not effect the Remake yet, we only have limited knowledge of its function in KaM anyway. Currently in the Remake soldiers will only do things when they are in defence positions. In KaM soldiers have limited function outside of defence positions, e.g. they will help others. This is where aggressiveness has a big effect as far as I know.
I noticed that the AI won't help other soldiers under attack within their defence radius, which is a mistake. I've fixed it.
The bottom line is: The AI in the Remake is incomplete and limited.

I don't know when the next release will be, maybe in 1 month or so.
You can email your missions to contact@kamremake.com

[Wesley762]

ok Mission 1 / 2 / 4 are done.
the only thing i cant seem to get working is Center Screen.
can someone help me out why this might not work ?
im doing it in Mission editor 0.3 Beta and i put : !Center_Screen 20 85 behind the 2nd human player
but instead if i start a game the screen gets centered on the upper left corner.

[Lewin]

You have to use !CENTER_SCREEN not !Center_Screen. The script commands need to be upper case. In version 0.3 there are buttons along the top to help you add commands like that so you don't have to remember them all. Also you can edit a command by pressing CTRL+E while your cursor is on that line. (commands specific to the Remake won't work of course)

[Wesley762]

this is not 100% related to topic.
but i was wondering if it is possible to use the TSK/TPR Campaign maps (as in the pre mission Chart screen) as showing picture for my missions ?
with the dots/flags etc the ones i submitted to contact@remake.com for Krom few days ago ?

EDIT (Lewin): Was not even 1% related to topic, I moved it to the correct thread.

[Lewin]

It will be possible to use maps in custom singleplayer campaigns, but currently we don't have plans for maps/briefings in co-operative missions.