Jump to content

Solo Wargaming In Steel Beasts


SomeMonsterGuy

Recommended Posts

Hello, I've been playing around with the scenario editor and I've hit a brick wall in regards to making single player scenarios. what I really want to do with this is to use the scenario editor to make missions for myself and whenever I make an attempt I end up lost on what to do to make the ai fun and challenging but also not spend large amounts of time in the scenario editor mode. Any advice here would be much appreciated.

 

Thank You For reading this and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing you may try is to edit a existing mission.

IE. change the vehicles in it add and subtract some as you see fit.

Add arty or Gunships 

Also try exporting the mission to a new map.

Its relatively easy to do.

You may find some are password protected but most lend well to editing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I suppose the key to fun without spending too much time is intelligent randomization. if you create three to five four initial jump routes based on a single random variable and copy them over to every other unit of Red, you can then plot three to five different courses of action based on the different starting locations for the Red formation alone.

Then you can set "doctrinal spawn conditions" as to the force composition of the enemy, so you won't know if you're dealing with a small force or a large one, tank-heavy or not, etc.

 

All that does not require a lot of effort and a gazillion complicated Embark conditions.

You can then save this scenario under different names with different daylight, season, weather conditions, or modify the ammunition loadout for Blue or Red (which alone can have a big influence on the the tactics that lead to success). If you then also randomize parts of the Blue force to appear or not you'll have a big variety of scenarios with minimal effort.

 

Then the question is what kind of missions you prepare. Defense, assault, bridging a river/dealing with obstacles, or a reconnaissance mission with a minimal number of own forces, possibly even highly vulnerable ones, where success is measured by finding the important enemy in key locations without getting killed (Shift+Lase marks them for the computer, to count them as "detected").

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

Then the question is what kind of missions you prepare. Defense, assault, bridging a river/dealing with obstacles, or a reconnaissance mission with a minimal number of own forces, possibly even highly vulnerable ones, where success is measured by finding the important enemy in key locations without getting killed (Shift+Lase marks them for the computer, to count them as "detected").

 

I wonder...  where and how this Shift+Lase works?  I have noticed that on vehicles with laserange finder, lasing is enough.   But without you need to do  shift+lase?    This would work even on regular infantry  / binoculars? 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Whatever you deem suitably accurate. I was mostly referring to coordinated random spawning in that you don't just spawn a totally random selection of units (e.g. by referencing random variable "New" in your spawn condition), but rather something that would reflect different mission tasks and intent of the enemy (so you'd use random variable "X50" throughout all spawn conditions, just with variable likelihoods, so that parts that belong together spawn togeter).

 

Like the classic question, are you dealing with a small scout probe, a forward detachment, or the advance guard of a major formation (see "Classic" scenario "Are they Attacking Here" for inspiration). Irrespective of which doctrine your simulated enemy follows, he would follow some rules as to how such forces are composed and what their task might be and how to conduct their mission - unless we're talking about some Warhammer-like Howling Horde of the Crawling Chaos where the only rule is that there are no rules.

Which is fine, too, I guess. Whatever floats your boat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Yes. It's the "tag!" signal to tell the computer "I spotted you". Note that it works on releasing the lase button. So hold Shift, Hold Ctrl, guide on target, then lift Ctrl to mark the unit.

I feel like this topic should be its own thread in tutorials since it is mind blowing every time it is described. It is also incredibly useful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm glad you like it.

I agree that it appears underutilized, and maybe it is because we're not promoting it enough. Then again, our current AI routines effectively prevent infiltration tactics to work, so reconnaissance is more dicey in SB Pro than it already is in real life in the sense that you are much more likely to be identified by the enemy as hostile. I'm not particularly happy with that aspect, so maybe that's why I'm not hyping the feature; I simply consider it as still incomplete (but not entirely useless).

 

As far as the practical handling is concerned, it's basically the same as the when telling the driver where to go by "lase to waypoint", or when designating suppression targets. You need the mouse pointer to change first to indicate in which mode you are, and then you can start guiding it to the right location. So the action can happen only on release, unless you wanted a permanent spotting toggle, which I consider as a much worse UI concept.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Ssnake said:

 

I agree that it appears underutilized, and maybe it is because we're not promoting it enough. Then again, our current AI routines effectively prevent infiltration tactics to work, so reconnaissance is more dicey in SB Pro than it already is in real life in the sense that you are much more likely to be identified by the enemy as hostile. I'm not particularly happy with that aspect, so maybe that's why I'm not hyping the feature; I simply consider it as still incomplete (but not entirely useless).

 

 

 

to some extent i have created detection areas in the mission editor ( eg. open fire if units are located in the detection zone + random variable and/or if other friendly units also detect units in order to corroborate information) to adjust detection rates or effectiveness. for what it's worth from customer feedback here, maybe at some point you might include a global setting in the mission editor simply based on a defined likelihood that units are able to sort each other out from all other noise i.e., a penalty modifier which assigns a 30 percent chance of detection for one side or both.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
6 hours ago, Captain_Colossus said:

maybe at some point you might include a global setting in the mission editor simply based on a defined likelihood that units are able to sort each other out from all other noise

If only things were that easy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
52 minutes ago, Volcano said:

yes, its how you designate (report) enemy contacts "manually" to have them show up on the map (when full map updates are used).

They even count as reported if the option for no map updates is set, e.g. for the purpose of the control logic "known enemy units in region X > n"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/30/2021 at 5:57 PM, Ssnake said:

I suppose the key to fun without spending too much time is intelligent randomization. if you create three to five four initial jump routes based on a single random variable and copy them over to every other unit or Red, you can then plot three to five different courses of action based on the different starting locations for the Red formation alone.

Then you can set "doctrinal spawn conditions" as to the force composition of the enemy, so you won't know if you're dealing with a small force or a large one, tank-heavy or not, etc.

 

All that does not require a lot of effort and a gazillion complicated Embark conditions.

You can then save this scenario under different names with different daylight, season, weather conditions, or modify the ammunition loadout for Blue or Red (which alone can have a big influence on the the tactics that lead to success). If you then also randomize parts of the Blue force to appear or not you'll have a big variety of scenarios with minimal effort.

 

Then the question is what kind of missions you prepare. Defense, assault, bridging a river/dealing with obstacles, or a reconnaissance mission with a minimal number of own forces, possibly even highly vulnerable ones, where success is measured by finding the important enemy in key locations without getting killed (Shift+Lase marks them for the computer, to count them as "detected").


Hi Ssnake,

Nice and practical post, thx 

Gave me the enthousiasm to make again a scenario 😊

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...