I need help with mission ending control logic

[Striker]

I need some help with the end mission control logic and scoring. Specifically I need the mission to show "Major Defeat" if the player either loses or quits early. I know how to do most of the settings but I'm stumped when it comes to setting the scoring to make this work. I do have events set for the simulation logic to use for the player losing the regions or being wiped out and for the enemy being defeated so I've done most of the setup.

The mission end events work and it does show "major victory" if you actually win. I just need help with the finalizing of the other part I mentioned. I'm happy to send the file so you can have a look. I just don't want to send this to multiple parties so unless you absolutely know this aspect of the editor please don't offer to help. I'm not trying to be a jerk I just don't want to waste time with speculative or partially correct answers.

Thanks.

[Ssnake]

1. Make an event N that goes true if mission time > 0:00.
2. Make a condition M that event N is true
3. Set an event/condition score that assigns a value representing maybe 20% of the total score points as the baseline, and assign penalties if condition M is true for less than the minimum amount of time that you want the player to stay. Add this and the points of other "minimum" mission goals to set the threshold for a "minor victory", and the points of any number of bonus goals which, if fulfilled, ratchet up the score to "major victory". Don't forget issues like force preservation as a possible "minimum" or even bonus goal

[Striker]

OK, so before I saw your post I was working on the issue and I came up with this solution on my own. I don't know if this is exactly correct based on what you're stating but it works. Maybe you can look at my logic and see if something needs changing.

I'm going to have to post this twice because of the limit.

The first thing I did was create a "Failure Event" based on two parts.

I have two distinct regions that the enemy is trying to get to that the friendly forces have to defend.

The first part is "operational friendly tanks anywhere < operational enemy forces in region 9"

note: I only have two full strength tank platoons so I changed this to "Unit 1/A is < 25% (first panel) and Unit 2/A is < 25%" (second panel). This way both my tank platoons would be disabled to trigger a mission failure.

The second part is "operational friendly tanks anywhere < operational enemy forces in region 14"

The next event I created is based on success if there are less than 2 enemy units still operational.

I then set "Blue Mission To End If", "Mission Failure True"

or "Mission Success True"

or "less than 17 friendly forces"

The reason I did that is there are 16 computer non-combat units and 8 player controlled tanks so if you end up with less than 17 all the user tanks should be destroyed.

added: I changed this last panel and added one more to state that "if unit 1/A < 1 member and unit 2/A < 1 member". That way the mission ends only if my two platoons are destroyed eliminating any of the uncontrolled units factoring in.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Striker

[Striker]

Then I set up the scoring using the "Event Points" mode.

I named the first one "Quit Early" and selected "Mission Failure" from the drop down.

I used that and if the player quits before 15 minutes have elapsed then it triggers a low point score, "0" to be exact.

I think I screwed up here, I believe the first box is hours and the second is minutes so I changed to 00:25 for quitting before 25 minutes into the scenario.

Then I created one labeled "Lose Battle" and gave it 10 points but at mission end this time.

Then I made one labeled "Win Battle" using "Mission Success" in the drop down and gave it 100 points also at mission end.

Using that logic setup the scoring and events work together like this.

1. The battle ends if the conditions are met in the events by either no blue tanks or only a couple red forces left.

2. The scoring logic uses the "Mission Success" or "Mission Failure" to trigger the points assigned for each of those variables.

3. The mission score is tallied and in the debriefing it shows the correct outcome based on either no points, low points or all the points.

Does this seem like the correct way to do what I want to achieve?

Also, is there something you would change in the logic panels?

Edited December 20, 2013 by Striker

[Ssnake]

It's a rather binary score with the choice between all-out victory or major (or total) defeat. I think it leaves a bit of room for a more gradual scoring element, like the survival of (player-controlled) units where you could set a baseline of 80% survival and bonus, if more units are still there at mission end, and a more or less severe penalty for higher losses (depending on whether you want to reward an aggressive pursuit of the mission goals or a more cautious behavior that preserves the fighting force).

These gradual scoring elements are ultimately also judgement of the player's behavior and to that extent follow an educational purpose. It is therefore impossible to give a general advice how exactly you would want to reward and punish behaviors because it depends on the mission priorities and the designer's preferences.

[Striker]

I know that the scoring is a little restricted but do you think that the logic flow is correct in the way I set it up? I'm just trying to understand how it works and if it functions correctly.

[Ssnake]

It SEEMED to me that you nailed it. IOW, I didn't spot an error (which doesn't guarantee that there is none), and I'm too lazy now to go through it again line by line with extra scrutiny.

[Striker]

Thank you Ssnake. I think I'm starting to get a handle on how the logic system works. I'm happy I was able to figure part of it out and the rest with your help. I'll keep working on it and testing different ways to do it on different scenarios.