Adding Minor Factions back into Art of War

[Darth Stalin]

Well, I'm veeery happy that the TR has reached 2.0 level... but... now I have 2 questions:

1. Why in Art of War "large" campaign (with 91 planets) there are no Hapans and Yevethans?

2. How can I add the Hapan and Yevethan forces to the campaign?
As I understand from other EaW:FoC mods, I should add the H/Y planets to the planet list as well as appropriate trade routes, and then add the forces on these planets, right?

[Corey]

The more factions, the more times each planet has to change hands in order for a faction to win the GC. That means more battles and more forces get lost, which makes the freeze come a lot earlier. That's why in the larger campaigns we've limited it to just the main factions.

If you want to add them, then yeah, just put the planet names into the list in the Campaigns_All.xml, and create trade routes for them, then add the forces, but again we left them out for a reason so don't be surprised if you start hitting the freeze much earlier.

[Darth Stalin]

Okay, yet what about these command lines:

      <AI_Player_Control> Sarlacc, None </AI_Player_Control>
      <AI_Player_Control> Yevetha, None </AI_Player_Control>

and

      <Markup_Filename>Sarlacc, DefaultGalacticHints </Markup_Filename>
      <Markup_Filename>Yevetha, DefaultGalacticHints </Markup_Filename>


BTW: I got a strange error - when loadingt the game I got message "Expect strange bugs - xml parse error. File Campaigns_All.xml has syntax errors"

[Corey]

The first one tells the game which AI the faction should use. "None" actually refers to a specific AI type where it'll be inactive on the galactic map but active in tactical battles. The markup file is necessary as well, it should just be left as DefaultGalacticHints for all factions.

The error means somewhere along in the code you've broken something. Either missed a comma, forgotten an end tag, etc.

[Darth Stalin]

The problem is that I can't see anything "broken" - all lines were just copied and pasted from other scenario files (Black Fleet, Cluster and Essence of war).

What is even stranger that I tried to upload the attachment to my post but I got a message that "attachment folder is full".
What can that mean?

[Corey]

Based on what you emailed me:


Where you have this:
      <Starting_Forces> Yevetha, Polneye, Yevetha_Star_Destroyer_Two </Starting_Forces>
      <!-- Polneye
      <Starting_Forces>Yevetha, Polneye, Y_Ground_Barracks</Starting_Forces>
      <Starting_Forces> Yevetha, Polneye, Yevetha_Infantry_Squad </Starting_Forces>
      <Starting_Forces> Yevetha, Polneye, Yevethan_Heavy_Scout_Squad </Starting_Forces>
      
      <!-- Jtptan Space Forces -->
      <Starting_Forces> Yevetha, Jtptan, Y_Star_Base_1 </Starting_Forces>


You have a comment starting at Polneye and going all the way until the "-->" after Jtptan. Basically everything between <!-- before Polney and --> after Jtptan are ignored by the game (shown in my post by the fancy green colouring). Usually this just means it'll load fine and just ignore that data, but you get a syntax error because there's an additional "<!--" inside the comment, so it's essentially trying to put a comment inside a comment, which isn't going to work. If anyone says "commentception", I will ban them for a week.

All you need to do is change the above to this:

      <Starting_Forces> Yevetha, Polneye, Yevetha_Star_Destroyer_Two </Starting_Forces>
      <!-- Polneye-->
      <Starting_Forces> Yevetha, Polneye, Y_Ground_Barracks</Starting_Forces>
      <Starting_Forces> Yevetha, Polneye, Yevetha_Infantry_Squad </Starting_Forces>
      <Starting_Forces> Yevetha, Polneye, Yevethan_Heavy_Scout_Squad </Starting_Forces>
      
      <!-- Jtptan Space Forces -->
      <Starting_Forces> Yevetha, Jtptan, Y_Star_Base_1 </Starting_Forces>

Also, every GC has a code section for each GC. Right now you have them added in the Imperial version, there's other sections for the NR, EotH and PA, indicated lower in the file by
<Campaign Name="Sandbox_All_Rebel">
etc

[Darth Stalin]

Thanks a lot, Corey!
I knew I?ve missed something ? the file just needed ?a fresh look??

You have a comment starting at Polneye and going all the way until the "-->" after Jtptan. Basically everything between <!-- before Polney and --> after Jtptan are ignored by the game (shown in my post by the fancy green colouring). Usually this just means it'll load fine and just ignore that data, but you get a syntax error because there's an additional "<!--" inside the comment, so it's essentially trying to put a comment inside a comment, which isn't going to work.

Yep, I know ? as I saw in similar files (also the modded files) these comments mark just the description of a particular force etc. to make the file easier to read.

Also, every GC has a code section for each GC. Right now you have them added in the Imperial version, there's other sections for the NR, EotH and PA, indicated lower in the file by
<Campaign Name="Sandbox_All_Rebel">
etc

I know that too just wanted to tweak the Imperial campaign, as I usually play the Empire.
Now I?ve started the TR 2.0 and everything seems OK ? the game loaded properly, selection works correctly?
BTW: the ?intro text? looks awesome! the only flaw of that is that in the background the game runs without a pause, which may cause some confusion (don?t know if it is possible to be attacked while the intro is still running??)

[Eclipse]

The game is paused during that intro, only if you press a button the game stars if not, only the background music plays which would be cool to disable it during the intro if possible.

[Singularity]

I've heard only 2 or 3 of the factions can have proper AI at a given time, so even if they add another faction, it wont be able to move or anything.

[Corey]

As many as you want can, and in the smaller scenarios we give all of them functioning AI. Art of War Light, for example. The problem only comes in larger scenarios when more factions, specifically more active fsactions, will make the freeze come sooner.

[Lord Xizer]

Hm, I see. So that was one of the issues with the AoW?

[Lord Xizer]

Could there be two AoWs then perhaps? one with all the minors as playable and the other as it is now? That way everyone is represented in a way. Warlords, Yevetha, and Hapans without the main Factions, a smaller side AoW perhaps.

[Corey]

A lot would have to go into those factions just to get them to the point where thery even feel as good as "tacked on." Additional factions are far less than fully functional, and with these there's not even the content to justify putting them in that position in the first place. The Yevethans work in the Black Fleet Crisis because it's a small GC so their small amount of units and infrastructure doesn't detract from it.

[Lord Xizer]

A lot would have to go into those factions just to get them to the point where thery even feel as good as "tacked on." Additional factions are far less than fully functional, and with these there's not even the content to justify putting them in that position in the first place. The Yevethans work in the Black Fleet Crisis because it's a small GC so their small amount of units and infrastructure doesn't detract from it.

Ah I  see