(no subject)

[ThinkLibertarian at aol.c]

Hello all.

I'm almost finished with the D&D Chainmail ab files, but I'm stumped on how
to implement the command limits for unit selection.

First, some background:
A warband (army) comes from one of six factions (races).
Certain models are Commanders, and they have a command rating (from 1 to 5).

When you build a warband you have to have:
- one point of command for each in-faction Wild Troop.
- one point of command for every out-of-faction Model.
- two points of command for every out-of-faction Difficult or Wild Troop.

Things get a little more tricky when you recruit an out-of-faction Commander.
You can't have more out-of-faction command points than in-faction command
points. Also, you can't use out-of-faction command points for the limits
specified above.

I've implemented several hidden stats to help me: Command Points, In-Faction
Command Cost, and Out-of-Faction Command Cost. Wild Troop and Difficult
Troop are also defined as Options.

But, I can't figure out how to calculate and compare these stats for
validation purposes.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rich





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Stress - that confusion created when the mind must override the body’s basic
desire to choke the living crap out of some idiot who desperately needs it



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

 

[rob]

Unfortunately, the current version of AB doesn't provide an optimal way to
handle the command point structure within Chainmail. Even though we
received a verbal OK to do data files for Chainmail, the folks at WotC have
been very secretive until something was inked in writing, and that still
hasn't been accomplished yet. :-( Needless to say, I didn't know about the
special command point rules on warband construction until I got my starter
set.

That being said, there IS a reasonable way of solving this problem. It's
just a little bit clunky. Since there is no way to compare accumulated
stats in AB, totalling up the in-faction and out-of-faction command points
(plus those for Wild Troops) provides numbers that you then can't use. :-(
I promise to address this in the next release of AB, so keep those stats in
place for the future. Until then, however, you will need to utilize types.

The key will be to assign a type to each model, as appropriate to its
command value and/or command cost. You can then use the "trat" attribute to
impose appropriate validation constraints on the roster. The difficulty
that arises with this approach is that there is no way to track models that
cost more than one command point or have a command value greater than one.
So how do you solve that? Well, the clunky solution is to use dummy child
units. When a unit has more than one command point, you need to attach to
that unit a dummy child unit that also has the proper type and has a number
of models equal to the extra command value/cost. You then must use the
model-based comparisons of the "trat" attribute. To help mitigate the
clunkiness factor of this approach, name the dummy child units something
clearly to be ignored and assign them a stat-set that consists of a single
attribute that is obviously to be ignored. Another thing to do is designate
the unit as display-only via use of the "disp:noprint" attribute. You must
also assign the "forc" attribute to these units in order to assure that the
types assigned to these units are included in the "trat" comparisons. Once
you have the child units and types implemented, it should be easy to write
the necessary "trat" attributes to verify all the correct relationships as
in place within the roster.

Like I said, it's a clunky solution, but it's not a horribly ugly one.
I'll make sure to implement the necessary functionality for a clean
solution in the next release of AB.

If you have questions about the above solution, don't hesitate to ask. I'm
not certain how familiar you are with writing AB data files, so I may have
glossed over some important details in my description. If so, I'll be happy
to clarify.

Thanks, Rob


At 01:17 PM 11/3/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello all.
>
>I'm almost finished with the D&D Chainmail ab files, but I'm stumped on how
>to implement the command limits for unit selection.
>
>First, some background:
>A warband (army) comes from one of six factions (races).
>Certain models are Commanders, and they have a command rating (from 1 to 5).
>
>When you build a warband you have to have:
>- one point of command for each in-faction Wild Troop.
>- one point of command for every out-of-faction Model.
>- two points of command for every out-of-faction Difficult or Wild Troop.
>
>Things get a little more tricky when you recruit an out-of-faction Commander.
>You can't have more out-of-faction command points than in-faction command
>points. Also, you can't use out-of-faction command points for the limits
>specified above.
>
>I've implemented several hidden stats to help me: Command Points, In-Faction
>Command Cost, and Out-of-Faction Command Cost. Wild Troop and Difficult
>Troop are also defined as Options.
>
>But, I can't figure out how to calculate and compare these stats for
>validation purposes.
>
>Any help would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>Rich


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 726-9689
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com