New (maybe) scenario: Red Star Over China

Alinestra Covelia · May 10, 2007, 17:51

I've got a lot of free time over this summer and I want to do something with RONTAP. I'm hoping to work on a series of little scenarios linked together to detail the rise of the Chinese Communist Party in China during the 1920s through to 1940s. I have a fairly good understanding of the time period, based not least in part on Edgar Snow's classic journalistic reports "Red Star Over China".

The main problem for me is that I am not familiar with the scripting language at all. I understand a very very small amount of C++, so the layout of the functions is not alien to me. However, I'm going to end up with lots of questions. I hope I can ask them here.

Currently, the first scenario I'm thinking of doing is this. If any of you have ideas as to how to implement this in code, or design ideas as to what would be more fun to play, I'm happy to hear them!

Part One: The Shanghai Massacre:

Background:
In the late 1920s, the Chinese Communist Party had grown into a large political entity that was still largely civilian in nature. The Nationalist government ordered a large scale sweep of their main base, Shanghai, to eradicate the Communists. This action destroyed the Communists' urban support networks, forcing them into their communes in rural China. However, key personnel, including a rising leader Mao Zedong, managed to escape.

Gameplay:
This scenario would consist of a small map, filled almost entirely with buildings and cities representing Shanghai's many different suburbs. The gameplay consists of the human player controlling various non-combat units, including Scholars, Civilians, and maybe even a Spy or two, and trying to move them all to the western side of the city, where a friendly Fort awaits them.

This would simulate the evacuation from the city of key Communist personnel. The personnel would "pop up" at points in the city every so often (perhaps appearing garrisoned in buildings, if that's even possible) and the player has to get them safely across the enemy city and over to the Fort.

In opposition, the Nationalist forces will have foot soldiers performing sweeps of the neighborhoods looking for Communist leaders, and they will shoot on sight. The human player has a few Spies that cannot bribe, but which can plant informers in buildings. The Spies can plant informers at key locations around the city and suburbs, giving the player visibility of where the enemy's patrols are currently.

A canny player can figure out when the coast is clear to send the Communist personnel across.

The human player will also have some ability to "bribe" certain houses in the city, which will allow him to garrison units inside. This could be useful in areas of high patrol frequency, where a Communist personnel could benefit from hiding out.

As long as one Communist personnel member makes it to the fort, the human player can continue the campaign, but there will be benefits to be had if others survive with him.

What do you think of this idea for a starting scenario? How do you think I should go about making it? Is a script even necessary? (The first thing that springs to mind is that I'd need to disable the enemy's attrition, otherwise the player doesn't really have a chance.)

Alinestra Covelia · January 26, 2008, 13:23

Here's the map I'm thinking of using for the CTW campaign:

I'm thinking the scenario will start off with the Communists fleeing Shanghai to go through warlord (barbarian) territories until they reach Yan'An.

Each turn, the Nationalists will put armies into territories they own but will not engage the Communists directly. While that's happening, Japanese armies will enter and seize coastal areas.

It should take the Communists about 5 turns to get to Yan'An, at which point they can begin diplomatic dealings, e.g. talk to the Soviets or the Nationalists. Eventually they must accede to an Alliance against the Nationalists.

This then gives China two attacks per turn against Japan (Nationalists and Communists each get one) which will eventually drive Japan's armies off the mainland.

Once that happens, it's a mad scramble to declare war against each other, with the Communists having a lot of cheap units and the Nationalists with more artillery and planes.

Alinestra Covelia · January 26, 2008, 13:23

This is a reduced size version of the background file I'm hoping to use for this scenario. I want to use this as a "Communist victory" art.

Copyright: me

Alinestra Covelia · January 28, 2008, 15:30

...and here's a similar reduced size picture that I'll be using if you beat the scenario playing as the Nationalists (Kuomintang) under Chiang Kai Shek.

Copyright, still me

Alinestra Covelia · January 29, 2008, 01:03

I'm working on a background art file for the scenario when it loads. This is just the concept art. I'm sure I'll put more on it in future.

Copyright me

Alinestra Covelia · January 31, 2008, 13:51

An updated splash background for the scenario loading frame:

This time I've added in the four flags of the major players in China at this time: the Communists (later the PRChina), the Nationalists (later ROChina in Taiwan), the Qing dynasty flag, and the Japanese Imperial flag.

Alinestra Covelia · January 31, 2008, 15:33

I have now hit a snag with the CTW map. I was led to believe that merely putting a CTW map in the Conquest folder will allow the RONTAP engine to create a new .xml file in the same folder. All I have to do is to start up the game, select the new map, and quit out of the program once the map loads.

The map loaded fine, and I quit out.

The directory did not create a "CTW_RedStar_Map_01.xml". Instead it created a "strings" xml which had some information. But it didn't create an .xml with the same name as the map png.

I need an xml file to appear otherwise I can't get it running. I've tried to make my own xml file, by paring down the Cold War .xml file, but that still crashes the game.

Anybody know what I should do?

Grandpa Troll · February 2, 2008, 06:13

Alinestra

We now have a news article and hopefully can get some qualified people on board to assist!

Best of fortunes and hang in there!

Grandpa Troll

Alinestra Covelia · February 2, 2008, 15:20

Yay! Thanks, Grandpa Troll!

So, right now I'm vexed about creating the "Red_Star_Map_01.xml" file. Does anybody know how to force the game engine to make one, and what sort of bare minimum stuff needs to be in it?

Edit: I am not particularly bright.

Even if you run RONTAP, it will create it in the "conquest" folder in the original RON directory, not in the RONTAP directory.

Well, we solved one mystery.

Locutus · February 2, 2008, 16:28

Haven't modded RoN in years but it sounds like you're doing the right things.

The image you posted is JPG, is that the same file you're trying to import into RoN? I think that only takes PNG files. And even if it does take JPG, the JPEG compression does weird things with the colours which can screw up the map generation -- if you zoom in on the border regions of the territories in the image you posted you can see that there's odd artifacting going on there. PNG is lossless so it doesn't have that problem.

If you have a PNG, could you post it here? I'll see if I can find anything wrong with it, try to import it myself. If you're using the JPEG you posted, take the original, make sure it doesn't have any artifacts (clean it up if it does) and convert it to PNG, BMP, GIF or some other lossless format that RoN can handle (I'm not sure which are, other than PNG).

Edit: oh, you do need a rendered image as well, that needs to be the same size as the map image. Have you got that? And if you post the PNG, could you post that too?

Alinestra Covelia · February 2, 2008, 18:41

Hey there Locutus! Good to see you around again.

All graphics in game are indeed .png files. (The reason why I uploaded the jpgs is that I wasn't sure if Poly will correctly display then as attachments or [img] URLs.) I'll upload the "render" that I made, although that's currently in a very rudimentary stage.

The map .png file has absolutely no stray pixels. I spent the best part of a day going through and erasing the stray pixels that were left over when I imported one selection from a .jpg by mistake. You can bet I won't be doing that again!

Alinestra Covelia · February 2, 2008, 18:46

Here are the two map .png files I have, in a zip format.

Locutus · February 2, 2008, 20:05

Hmm... I tried loading the map, which at first seemed to go alright in that T&P recognised it as a new map for which new XML needed to be generated, but while loading I got a fatal error: no valid nations defined (well duh, that's what the XML generation is supposed to do). I tried the same thing in the original RoN and that worked fine, I could play a scenario and everything and the XML was generated as expected. Tried again in T&P a couple of times, including after copying the XML generated by the original game over to the T&P folder, but always with the same result: no valid nations defined.

That said, my RoN install seems a bit buggy anyway, tried to play a normal game but it crashed to desktop within 15 minutes, something which I never recall the game doing when I was still actively playing it. Maybe my install is just messed up.

Either way, I have the XML generated by the original game, I've attached that, maybe that'll help you along. You can easily see what the XML is 'supposed' to look like by opening the files of an existing campaign -- it seems like the bare minimum for a playable game is there in my attachment, but then I don't get why it's not playing. It's not a whole lot, but I hope this helps...

Grandpa Troll · February 2, 2008, 20:25

Thanks Locutus

Alinestra Covelia · February 2, 2008, 20:36

Very interesting! So it seems that there is something the original RON can do (xml generation) which the add-on cannot do.

Cool!

Thanks again, Locutus! I'll get bashing on with this and then come back sobbing furiously when the next snag hits!

Locutus · February 2, 2008, 20:51

Always happy to help if I can. T&P is supposed to be able to do it as well, I got the info on how to do it from a T&P document to begin with. No idea why it's not working, but I'm not complaining if the XML helps you...

Alinestra Covelia · February 2, 2008, 23:06

The xml seems to load okay but then the CTW map fails to load. It says there are no valid nations on the map. I'm going to look closer at the strings.xml to see what I need to change there.

Alinestra Covelia · February 3, 2008, 00:22

I've set the "client state" trigger to "1".

Where do I define which states are the clients to which other states?

E.g. I want to have a tribe - Manchukuo (based on the Egyptians) - to be predominant in the northeast of China, but to be a client state of Japan, meaning that Japan can station its troops there and attack from there.

Locutus · February 3, 2008, 08:48

Sorry, only ever modded the original RoN, never T&P, so I can't help you with that. I'm sure there's an element in the XML for it, you'll have to see if you can find a complete listing of all valid XML elements for T&P.

Stings.xml should only have localisation strings in it, I doubt that's the issue. The structure of the XML is probably just different in T&P than it is in RoN, you have to study the T&P XML files to see if you can figure out what's missing/different. Looking at that myself, I see that the default campaigns for T&P all have some TRIBE elements at the bottom of the main XML that refer to separate XML files with nation info, as well as some VALID_NATION elements which seem to set playable nations -- I suspect you may have to add both of those yourself to the RoN XML to get rid of the 'no valid nations' error (I tried just adding VALID_NATION alone but that doens't work, seems you really have to define the TRIBE stuff too, which takes a bit more effort).

Alinestra Covelia · February 3, 2008, 11:10

As mentioned above, I've discovered why the .xmls appeared to be broken - they were being created, just not in the T&P conquest folder. They're still appearing quite normally in the RoN conquest folder.

I'll post more of the .xml when I'm done with it. Right now I'm defining all the country numbers.

Alinestra Covelia · February 5, 2008, 23:09

Here I'll post battles that I found from Wikipedia and other sources during the relevant time frame.

I think I will base it from about the time of the expulsion of the Last Emperor in 1924. The game will probably at least until 1949 and possibly a few turns afterwards, to allow the CCP a chance to knock out Taiwan, or to allow a victorious KMT to try to recapture Outer Mongolia

1924: Puyi exiled from Beijing by Warlord Feng Yuxiang
1926-1928: Northern Expeditions KMT vs. CCP
1930: Central Plains War.
1931 Sept to 1932 Feb: Japanese invaded Manchuria in Mukden Incident near Shenyang.
1936: Xi'An Incident. Nationalists forced to make peace with Communists. (If the Soviets haven't forced the Communists to make peace already.)
1937 July: Marco Polo Bridge incident. War with Japan.
1937 December: After Japanese take Nanjing from Nationalists, Nationalists can take mission to destroy dams along Yellow River. If they succeed, flooding reduces the territory strengths by 1.

[expect more to be added to this list!]

Alinestra Covelia · February 12, 2008, 01:15

A quick question. I was looking at the Alexander and Napoleon scenarios. I liked the customized generals.

Anybody know if there's a way to mod generals or units so that they give special powers like that? I'm thinking of giving Chairman Mao a power that boosts foot soldiers, Chiang Kai Shek might have a power that boost artillery, etc. Zhou En-Lai might be a Senator-like unit that has a very large amount of bribe and uses his powers much faster than a normal Spy does, etc.

Alinestra Covelia · February 26, 2008, 11:30

Is there any way of modding a building? This question actually has several parts to it.

1. I want to reassign the Temple so it looks different. Instead of being a religious building, I want to assign it to the statute of Lenin so the Communists gain border push, city hp, and income through building those in their cities. Can this be done?

2. I want to reassign the Temple to the Lenin statue, but only for the Communists. If possible I'd like to have Nationalists building normal Temples and Communists build Lenin statues. Can this be done?

Alinestra Covelia · March 3, 2008, 20:21

Right now I'm taking a course in Chinese law and jurisprudence. If nothing else, this will give me a fair bit of flavor terms to use for the various techs in the game.

conky149er · May 24, 2008, 20:31

any chance i can paly this mod on RSTP?

Alinestra Covelia · May 24, 2008, 22:51

What's RSTP? Thrones and Patriots?

The scenario, if ever done, will require the addon.

motter28218 · January 13, 2009, 20:19

Originally Posted by Alinestra Covelia

Is there any way of modding a building? This question actually has several parts to it.

1. I want to reassign the Temple so it looks different. Instead of being a religious building, I want to assign it to the statute of Lenin so the Communists gain border push, city hp, and income through building those in their cities. Can this be done?

2. I want to reassign the Temple to the Lenin statue, but only for the Communists. If possible I'd like to have Nationalists building normal Temples and Communists build Lenin statues. Can this be done?

Don't know if you're still looking for help on this or not but to answer your questions:

1. Yes, go into buildingrules.xml and search for the Lenin Statue, in the field that says FROM type in Temple, then go to the TRIBEMASK and enable the statue for whatever nations you wish to build it. If you don't know how to do this just ask and I'll explain.

2. Yes, after you decide which nations you want to build the Lenin Statue then search for the regular temple and in the tribe mask disable it for the nations you chose to give the Lenin Statue. Do this and your desired nations will be able to build Lenin Statues with Temple powers and everyone else will build normal temples. Any other questions feel free to ask. Hope this helps.

Otter

Alinestra Covelia · January 14, 2009, 13:06

AWESOME!

Thanks Otter, I really appreciate the help. I'll let my evil twin collaborator know, and we'll get on that right away!

Again, you rock!

(I am very excited.)

motter28218 · January 14, 2009, 17:26

Originally Posted by Alinestra Covelia

AWESOME!

Thanks Otter, I really appreciate the help. I'll let my evil twin collaborator know, and we'll get on that right away!

Again, you rock!

(I am very excited.)

No problem, let me know if you need any other help. I am pretty good at scripting. You might want to download my Napoleon Mod - play the game and then view the script to see how I made the events in the game happen. It show's pretty much how to do just about anything and I'm sure you could adapt it to your Mod. Let me Know when you finish it I am interested in trying it out. Great to see other's modding good job.

Otter

Alinestra Covelia · January 16, 2009, 14:41

Another question. I want to implement actual changes to the interface buttons (like to change the graphics for the government types). Is there any way to make those changes to the scenario/custom/ directory and/or the mod directories?

Or do I have to make backups of the relevant files in the game root itself and replace them each time I'm done playing?