Select Action File

[tecbuilder]

It would be nice to change what action files are used during the game. Is there some way to do this already? If so, I've missed it.

[D92115]

I sort of second this. For the most part the method of excluding the tamer stuff toward the end is very intricate and allows for a lot of flexibility and choice, but it takes a significant amount of time and even skill and experience to make sure things are rated right where you want them. This suggestion is sort of a blunt way of adjusting things and probably not what I'd use in general, but occasionally it's nice to just kick the basic actions out about 3/4 into the game and rely solely on the Dr. D. Light pack. There have been one or two occasions where I've simply restarted the game after a while of playing with the basic pack left out.

[tecbuilder]

What has happened to me is that I start the game and accidentally forget to select or unselect certain files. Of course I don't notice until we've been playing for a while and don't want to start over.

[Don]

Hi,

I would be very interested in hearing input from others on this one. It is actually a pretty significant game change because the AI logic is choosing actions based on the available action set. To change the available action set in mid-game like that would currently cause an AI reset, which would be difficult to manage. It could be done of course, but I would want to hear if there is a lot of interest in this.

Don

[romeo]

For anyone creating new actions life got harder since you have chosen for better (I think) to supply more actions. But this meant any new custom actions are less likely to be played. The current approach of overriding everything in the basic action file by creating an empty action is not very user friendly and destroys the newly gained diversity. From other posts it can be seen that people start from scratch.

Dynamic loading of action files would be nice (faster test turnaround a plus) but is it worth the effort and risk?

Here are my suggestions:
a) remember the last used action files. This avoids mistakes and helps in game startup. Should be easy to do.
b) introduce a relative weighting factor for each loaded action file. This factor can be dynamically adjusted and will influence which action in a given set of elegible actions can be played. This allows also to "tune out" of the basic actions during the later phases without reloading anything. The weight should be stored together with the list of all available action files so it does not need to be assigned every time the game is started.

c) a)+b) will tackle the posted problems in this thread. Another way to allow more control over probability of custom actions to be played would be to introduce custom properties. But as said, this is not the same but a related topic.

[tecbuilder]

a) remember the last used action files. This avoids mistakes and helps in game startup. Should be easy to do.

Works for me.

b) introduce a relative weighting factor for each loaded action file. This factor can be dynamically adjusted and will influence which action in a given set of elegible actions can be played. This allows also to "tune out" of the basic actions during the later phases without reloading anything. The weight should be stored together with the list of all available action files so it does not need to be assigned every time the game is started.

The weighting factor may already sor of exist in that the priority could be used for this. A higher priority number of the action file would have a higher weighting effect. I like this idea. And as a user I can easily change the priority of an action file.

[Don]

Romeo,

I think these are excellent ideas. The whole scheme of priorities and overriding was created to solve a set of problems, but like many such changes, it has introduced new problems of it's own. I think your suggestions are good ones.

Custom properties are actually mostly implemented but I never exposed them because I was afraid users would be unwillling or unable to supply a suitable graphic image for the custom property. It needs to be an 8 bit alpha blend image (where the grey scale represents transparency). I would be interested to hear comments on how interested people would be in custom properties if they had to create a special purpose graphic to support the custom property.

Thanks,

Don

[D&M]

It occurs to me that as the properties list expands, there will be insufficient squares on the board to accomodate all properties in one game. Perhaps not a problem as it would create more player controlled variation between games, but then again some people may like to have all available properties every game. Making the board bigger (more squares) would presumably be a nightmare ? Just thinking aloud !

Personally would be quite happy playing around trying to produce an 8 bit alpha blend image if only I knew what one was or how to make it
Not just making the custom graphic of course. Also have to write (or edit existing) actions with sufficient range of levels to be used on a custom property. Not an insignificant effort and not sure how many people would actually do it?

[tecbuilder]

To make even more work for you Don, how about multiple boards.

[Dean7878]

If the graphic is the big hold up a few tech types could make up a few generic icons for us to choose from!