Home » MODDING HQ 1.13 » Flugente's Magika Workshop » New feature: creature raids
New feature: creature raids[message #353154] Sun, 15 April 2018 17:27 Go to next message
Flugente

 
Messages:3509
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany
Sometimes, I'm inclined to listen to others, in this case, to this idea.

The idea of this feature is that with Arulco blowing up in open warfare, opportunistic forces decide to benefit from the overall confusion and attack our weakspots. Small forces seemingly pop up from nowhere and attack cities/SAM sites we do not (sufficiently) defend. While they don't permanently hold territory (they vanish after each attack), their tendency to kill civilians makes it imperative we stop them.



There are three types of attacks we face:

  • bloodcats
  • zombies (if that feature is active that is)
  • bandits
Every day, these forces get reinforcements according to their ini settings, and then decide on possible raids against player-controlled sectors. Note that bloodcats and bandits aren't entirely stupid, they will only attack sectors if the defense forces aren't too strong (as seen in the video, they do not take into account militia reinforcements from other sectors, which bites the bloodcats in the ass in the above video). Zombies don't care about that happy

Once an attack happens, the forces attack the sector from the direction of an adjacent accessible non-city sector. Due to coding reasons, even bandits belong to the 'creature' team, which means they will attack everyone, including civilians (if that sounds odd, mentally replace 'bandits' with 'deniable death squads'). If they kill a civilian, that results in a loyalty penalty. If they defeat us in autoresolve (or we didn't even defend the sector), that still happens.

Bandits are on the same stat & trait level as green militia/enemy admins, and draw their equipment from the enemy admin tables. Unlike other creatures, they can be captured and will be treated as ADMIN prisoners.
Bloodcats only attack at night, which allows them to get closer to your forces without immediately being gunned down (not in the video though, for... educational reasons).

As we might want to control where these raids are allowed to happen, we can do that via Map/SectorNames.xml:
Toggle Spoiler

Note that in stock this is only set in town/SAM site sectors. It would work everywhere, but this is kinda pointless in the wilderness - an attack would only happen if player forces happen to be there at the time the raid is scheduled.
I omitted some sectors - west of Grumm, southern parts of Meduna, maps that are just tedious to defend - because there is no proper territory these forces could attack them from. If we ever implement mermaid attacks, that might change.

Relevant JA2_Options.ini settings:
Toggle Spoiler


Whenever we kill a bloodcat/zombie/bandit during such a raid, they will not be able to attack again - it is thus possible to completely drain their forces, though they do get daily reinforcements.
Note that bandit reinforcements are are somewhat depending on game progress (more bandits later on), while bloodcat get a lot less once their lair has been destroyed. Zombies are just... a lot.

The intent of this feature isn't to directly rival enemy attacks - though you can achieve that by turning the settings up enough - but to force the player to defend his territory better, or experience sudden ambushes in the hinterland.

I am well aware that the fact that these attacks happen so suddenly and feel a bit unfair. In that regard, I am planning a little something that should give the player a chance to knwo when attacks will happen, but for now. this will suffice.

This feature is savegame compatible.

This has been added to the trunk in r8454 and GameDir r2420. Using the new exe without the new GameDir poses a significant drain on your mana pool.

[Updated on: Sun, 15 April 2018 20:59]




I know now that it could never work between us, as much as we wanted to, it could never be! Not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black.

If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.

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Captain

Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353158 is a reply to message #353154] Sun, 15 April 2018 19:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
silversurfer

 
Messages:2793
Registered:May 2009
Looks nice. happy

Now I have work to do with the WF maps...



Wildfire Maps Mod 6.07 on SVN: https://ja2svn.mooo.com/source/ja2/branches/Wanne/JA2%201.13%20Wildfire%206.06%20-%20Maps%20MOD

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Lieutenant
Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353167 is a reply to message #353154] Mon, 16 April 2018 12:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
grim is currently offline grim

 
Messages:344
Registered:July 2006
Location: France
Very nice feature, one again. A nice addition for the existing game and for mods too !
I didn't get why it would be pointless in the wilderness exactly. Regarding bloodcats it would be redundant with the existing ambushes, but bandit ambushes could be interesting. Do i miss something ?

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Master Sergeant
Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353168 is a reply to message #353167] Mon, 16 April 2018 14:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ATigersClaw is currently offline ATigersClaw

 
Messages:209
Registered:October 2014
Such a great and immersive addition!

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Sergeant 1st Class
Re: Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353171 is a reply to message #353168] Mon, 16 April 2018 17:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Slax is currently offline Slax

 
Messages:1411
Registered:July 2006
Location: People riding polar bears...
Bandits, huh?
Do we get bandit lairs/hideouts/stashes too? greedy



1.13: Install JA2, unpack latest, play.
AIMNAS: Complete 1.13 installation, Download ZIP and unpack, play.

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Sergeant Major
Re: Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353176 is a reply to message #353171] Mon, 16 April 2018 18:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
RunAwayScientist is currently offline RunAwayScientist

 
Messages:85
Registered:September 2001

Huh, so this is how I can kill off all of Kingpin's troops without engaging them myself.


Bravo. I will exploit this to its full potential.

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Corporal 1st Class
Re: Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353179 is a reply to message #353176] Mon, 16 April 2018 20:15 Go to previous messageGo to next message
silversurfer

 
Messages:2793
Registered:May 2009
RunAwayScientist wrote on Mon, 16 April 2018 17:27

Huh, so this is how I can kill off all of Kingpin's troops without engaging them myself.

You can't because San Mona is not raid territory. Even if you change it I doubt that the green bandits will be a match for Kingpin's goons. big grin



Wildfire Maps Mod 6.07 on SVN: https://ja2svn.mooo.com/source/ja2/branches/Wanne/JA2%201.13%20Wildfire%206.06%20-%20Maps%20MOD

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Lieutenant
Re: Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353182 is a reply to message #353176] Mon, 16 April 2018 21:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
townltu

 
Messages:384
Registered:December 2017
Location: here
RunAwayScientist wrote on Mon, 16 April 2018 18:27

Huh, so this is how I can kill off all of Kingpin's troops without engaging them myself.


Bravo. I will exploit this to its full potential.
Why prevent the even bigger exploit(which btw aready existed in vanilla, at least partially)
to get >20 commandos incl ammo and armour by stealing them from kingpins goons?
On min item progress setting it has much higher impact as effect is not limited to fewer bandits in San Mona.


Besides, regarding smFaces.sti:
Saw the 2 traffic signs and wonder whether they are intended to take e.g. a bloodcat skull if one is present?
Also the bandits portraits may need to be replaced in long term
as the auto resolve bandit portraits will "collide" with sets for N/R/E-PC based on Wiz8 portraits like e.g. this one
1st & 2nd variation

[Updated on: Mon, 16 April 2018 21:22]

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Master Sergeant
Re: Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353183 is a reply to message #353182] Mon, 16 April 2018 21:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Flugente

 
Messages:3509
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany
@grim: Wilderness is rather pointless, because:
Every day at 7:00 we run a little function. All raid teams get their daily reinforcements and roll which sectors they will attack for today, and at what time (thus as a sideeffect, any sectors we take after that are safe from raids for today). While it would be possible to decide on what sector to attack later, I coded this for a reason - with a soon-ish update to intel, the player will be able to learn of these attacks beforehand, which wouldn't be possible if the locations are changed on the fly. As a result, a wilderness attack would only ever occur if the player forces happen to be present at the right sector at the right time, and are small enough for the raid to happen. It's possible, but... rare I guess.

@RunAwayScientist: Yes and no. In stock, San Mona gets no raids (any lowly bandit or hungry cat would think twice about attacking a city armed to the teeth). If no player forces are present, nothing would happen - you get the message that civs have been killed, but without loyalty, that doesn't do anything.
However, if the player is prestnt and combat happens in tactical, this becomes a lot more devastating than you might have thought. Civilians (which include all of Kingpin's men) only become hostile to anyone if the player attacks them. Otherwise they simply won't fight back. A single bandit can defeat them by shooting at them until his gun runs dry, then beat the entire sector to death. They simply don't fight back. Unless we 'awaken' them by attacking them, then they'll kill creatures (and us).
So... yeah.

@townltu: The traffic signs are simply placeholders, in case I add new faces and forget to commit the file. I wanted to add pink unicorns in the beginning, but the palette has no pink :-(
As to the faces... yep. All in time, I guess.



I know now that it could never work between us, as much as we wanted to, it could never be! Not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black.

If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.

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Captain

Re: Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353225 is a reply to message #353183] Thu, 19 April 2018 11:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
townltu

 
Messages:384
Registered:December 2017
Location: here
some pics of an undead and 3 bandits, err...
respetively pics intended to fit as portrait for undead/bandit in autoresolve.

https://s1.imagebanana.com/file/180419/VIOm0asO.png


Pink unicorn is doable, free 4 - 5 palette slots for color variations,
switch colors of affected pixels in few existing pics :D

[Updated on: Thu, 19 April 2018 11:59]

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Master Sergeant
Re: Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353235 is a reply to message #353225] Thu, 19 April 2018 22:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Flugente

 
Messages:3509
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany
I rather doubt Ms. Merkel is proactive enough to pose a legitimate zombie threat. And those bandits look way too unsettling.

[Updated on: Thu, 19 April 2018 22:54]




I know now that it could never work between us, as much as we wanted to, it could never be! Not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black.

If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.

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Captain

Re: Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353237 is a reply to message #353235] Thu, 19 April 2018 23:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
DepressivesBrot is currently offline DepressivesBrot

 
Messages:3658
Registered:July 2009
I think that's May, hair looks too fluffy for Angie's bowl cut.


Chat with us!
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(Pls don't use my forum PMs for general game queries)

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Captain

Re: Aw: Re: New feature: creature raids[message #353238 is a reply to message #353237] Thu, 19 April 2018 23:39 Go to previous message
townltu

 
Messages:384
Registered:December 2017
Location: here
theresa is 4th, angie 1st as vampire(teeth removed), in case not clear 3rd is vlad in the 80ies

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Master Sergeant
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