Historical Battle Scripting

[Rt. Hon. Gentleman]

Hello,

I'll be brief: I've done Pharsalus and hope to get some more historic battles done prior to release. However, the enemy AI is making a right bloody pig's ear of things. Somehow, I don't think Cnaeus Pompey, one of the greatest generals of the ancient world, would go to so much trouble to move out of my conscientiously created manipular formation to move into a wonky line, then back into a few lines, then back to a single line, and so on for 15 MINUTES, if left to his own devices.

What I really need is some way of scripting the battle, as all the vanilla historical battles are scripted. I need the infantry maniples to stay where the hell they were put unless to respond to player aggression, and I need Labienus's cavalry to attempt the destruction of Caesar's cavalry and subsequent envelopement.

Can anyone help? I don't know much about scripting, and really need to have the battle scripted for it to be any fun at all...


Thanks in advance

[MihaiV]

I can give you a script I made for Magnesia battle and start from there. What I managed to do was for the romans to stay in one place until the seleucids aproach, than gradually "release" the formation blocks (first the hastati, than the principes and then the triarii) as the battle progressed. The result of the script is that the seleucid right wing is routed 80% of the time because of the roman's cavalry attack combined with archers and a hoplite unit that results in the chariots running arround killing their own cavalry.
Another nice thing is that the units were all set on fire at will and holding their ground so a lot of phalanx troops get destroyed as they approach (10-15% in my mod). You could use this code to script some other battles in this idea (gradually releasing units to the ai's control and scripting some cavalry charges). The bad part about using this approach is that if a unit is ordered to charge a certain other unit and the player moves that arround it can be caught by other untis and slain, this effect can be reduced by releasing the unit some time after the charge and calculating the time it takes for the two units to meet.
Another thing to do is to order groups to aproach to missile range of other groups and then order manouvers.
How far are you now in your script?

[tone]

Sounds impressive

[MihaiV]

I've also modified the vanilla version of Raphia and it's now quite challenging. I lost two or three times before I could win it.
As a general note, the ai is confused because of the way it has the unit formations built in the descr_formations. The workaround for this is to start a battle with the mix of units you want to use in the historical battle, look at how the ai positions them and then try to use as much of this as possible in the mod, this way, the AI won't have to break formations too much. The method described above overrides this formation placement by the simple idea that it takes control from the AI and lets the units stay in place.
Both ways offer good results as I've been flanked more than once by the roman legions when using my phalanx at Pydna (no scripting there, just troop positioning).

[tone]

As a general note, the ai is confused because of the way it has the unit formations built in the descr_formations

When you're finished with the scripting you might want to give Faridus, who's just started doing some work on this, a few pointers as to where things are getting confused. Thanks!

[MihaiV]

So there is no confusion I meant the descr_formations_ai, not the descr_formations as that only affects what the player can do.

Here's a copy of what I used for Magnesia script

script

prepare_for_battle

label_unit 0 0 0 general
label_unit 0 0 1 triarii
label_unit 0 0 2 hastati
label_unit 0 0 3 princeps
label_unit 0 0 4 velite
label_unit 0 0 5 swords
label_unit 0 0 6 spears
label_unit 0 0 7 cavalry
label_unit 0 0 8 archer
label_unit 0 0 9 skirm
label_unit 0 0 10 elephant
label_unit 0 0 11 samnite
label_unit 0 0 12 equite
label_unit 0 0 13 hastati1
label_unit 0 0 14 princeps1
label_unit 0 0 15 triarii1
label_unit 0 0 16 spears1
label_unit 0 0 17 spears2
label_unit 0 0 18 swords1
label_unit 0 0 19 hoplite

label_unit 1 0 0 1elephant
label_unit 1 0 1 1cata
label_unit 1 0 2 1cata1
label_unit 1 0 3 1general
label_unit 1 0 4 1horse_archer
label_unit 1 0 5 1silver
label_unit 1 0 6 1silver1
label_unit 1 0 7 1silver2
label_unit 1 0 8 1galat
label_unit 1 0 9 1bronze
label_unit 1 0 10 1bronze1
label_unit 1 0 11 1bronze2
label_unit 1 0 12 1bronze3
label_unit 1 0 13 1elephant1
label_unit 1 0 14 1slinger
label_unit 1 0 15 1archer
label_unit 1 0 16 1agema
label_unit 1 0 17 1elephant2
label_unit 1 0 18 1elephant_armored

label_unit 1 1 0 2general
label_unit 1 1 1 2galat
label_unit 1 1 2 2phalanx
label_unit 1 1 3 2phalanx1
label_unit 1 1 4 2archer
label_unit 1 1 5 2slinger
label_unit 1 1 6 2skirm
label_unit 1 1 7 2chariot
label_unit 1 1 8 2xysto
label_unit 1 1 9 2cata
label_unit 1 1 10 2galat_cav
label_unit 1 1 11 2galat_cav1

ai_active_set on

while ! I_BattleStarted
end_while

ai_active_set off
camera_restrictions_set off

battle_wait 2
define_unit_group romans general triarii hastati princeps velite swords spears cavalry archer skirm elephant samnite equite hastati1 princeps1 triarii1 spears1 spears2 swords1 hoplite

define_unit_group seleucus 1elephant 1cata 1cata1 1general 1horse_archer 1silver 1silver1 1silver2 1galat 1bronze 1bronze1 1bronze2 1bronze3 1elephant1 1slinger 1archer 1agema 1elephant2 1elephant_armored

unit_group_set_fire_at_will_mode romans on
unit_group_set_fire_at_will_mode seleucus on

unit_group_move_to_missile_range_of_group seleucus romans

monitor_conditions I_UnitEnemyUnitInRadius hastati 80

battle_wait 170

release_unit hastati
release_unit hastati1
release_unit spears
release_unit spears1

battle_wait 30

release_unit princeps
release_unit princeps1
release_unit swords
release_unit swords1

battle_wait 10

release_unit triarii
release_unit triarii1
release_unit samnite
release_unit spears2
release_unit general

end_monitor

monitor_conditions I_UnitEnemyUnitInRadius velite 100
battle_wait 50
release_unit velite
release_unit skirm
release_unit archer
end_monitor

monitor_conditions I_UnitEnemyUnitInRadius cavalry 200
battle_wait 180
release_unit cavalry
end_monitor

monitor_conditions I_UnitEnemyUnitInRadius elephant 200
battle_wait 200
release_unit elephant
end_monitor

monitor_conditions I_UnitEnemyUnitInRadius equite 200
battle_wait 180
release_unit equite
end_monitor

release_unit 2general
release_unit 2galat
release_unit 2phalanx
release_unit 2phalanx1
release_unit 2archer
release_unit 2slinger
release_unit 2skirm

unit_order_move_to_missile_range 2chariot archer
unit_order_move_to_missile_range 2xysto archer
unit_order_move_to_missile_range 2cata archer
unit_order_move_to_missile_range 2galat_cav archer
unit_order_move_to_missile_range 2galat_cav1 archer

battle_wait 100

unit_order_attack_unit skirm 2chariot run

battle_wait 50

unit_use_special_ability archer
unit_order_attack_unit archer 2chariot run
unit_set_skirmish_mode archer off
unit_set_skirmish_mode skirm on

battle_wait 30

release_unit skirm

unit_order_attack_unit 1cata hastati
unit_order_attack_unit 1cata1 hastati
unit_order_attack_unit 1agema hastati
unit_order_attack_unit 1general hastati

battle_wait 10

release_unit 1elephant
release_unit 1silver
release_unit 1galat
release_unit 1elephant1
release_unit 1elephant2
release_unit 1elephant_armored
release_unit 2archer
release_unit 2slinger
release_unit 2skirm

release_unit 1silver1
release_unit 1silver2
release_unit 1bronze
release_unit 1bronze1
release_unit 1bronze2
release_unit 1bronze3

unit_order_attack_unit 2chariot archer run
unit_order_attack_unit 2cata archer run
unit_order_attack_unit 2xysto archer run
unit_order_attack_unit 2galat_cav archer run
unit_order_attack_unit 2galat_cav1 archer run
unit_order_attack_unit archer 2chariot run
unit_order_attack_unit hoplite 2xysto run
unit_order_attack_unit cavalry 2chariot run

battle_wait 20

unit_order_attack_unit cavalry 2xysto run
unit_order_attack_unit archer 2xysto run
unit_order_attack_unit hoplite 2xysto run

battle_wait 5

unit_order_attack_unit cavalry 2cata run
unit_order_attack_unit archer 2cata run
unit_order_attack_unit hoplite 2cata run

battle_wait 5

unit_order_attack_unit cavalry 2galat_cav run
unit_order_attack_unit archer 2galat_cav run
unit_order_attack_unit hoplite 2galat_cav run

battle_wait 50

unit_set_morale 2archer routing
unit_set_morale 2slinger routing
unit_set_morale 2skirm routing

battle_wait 100

unit_group_order_attack_group seleucus romans

release_unit 2xysto
release_unit 2cata
release_unit 2galat_cav
release_unit 2galat_cav1
release_unit 2chariot

release_unit cavalry
release_unit archer
release_unit hoplite

release_unit 1cata
release_unit 1cata1
release_unit 1agema
release_unit 1general
release_unit 1horse_archer
release_unit 1slinger
release_unit 1archer

end_script

the commands used in this can be found in docudemon_commands.txt the file can be found on the forum somewhere, don't quite remember where though. If you don't have the commands files (the ones that explain the basic scripting commands, I can just send them to you).

In short, what the script does is to slowly march the seleucids on the waiting romans and charge with the cataphracts in one flank while the other army tries to smash the other flank. Phalanx advances in the center. As for the romans, they stay put and wait for the seleucids to come their way, the exception is a unit of cretan archers backed-up by a heavy greek cavalry unit and some hoplites that aid that attack.