Historic event on first turn?

**Delysid** · January 06, 2010, 03:17 AM

Hi all, i've gathered that historic events cannot be set to appear on the first turn when you start a campaign through descr_events. Apparently this must be scripted to happen however I'm not really sure how to do this.

So my question is how do i script a historical event to happen on the first turn?

**Ramashan** · January 06, 2010, 12:33 PM

I imagine you would have to use a campaign script which is launched from the descr_strat file at the start of the campaign. I, however, don't know scripting, only have used campaign scripts for things in mods.

You'll see the script coding bit at the bottom the descr_strat in mars campaign that comes with the vanilla game.

**HouseOfHam** · January 06, 2010, 01:25 PM

1. If a generic advisor message would suffice, you can do it via a campaign/background script. This is the method used in RTR VII: TIC.

Essentially, the script contains some kind of monitor/condition tied to turn 0

Code:

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
           and I_TurnNumber = 0
    advance_advice_thread Carth_General_Intro_1_Thread
    suspend_unscripted_advice true
end_monitor

plus, the advice thread definition in export_advice_thread.txt:

Code:

AdviceThread Carth_General_Intro_1_Thread
    GameArea Campaign

    Item Carth_General_Intro_1_Text_01
        Uninhibitable
        Verbosity  0
        Threshold  1
        MaxRepeats  0
        RepeatInterval  1
        Attitude Normal
        Presentation Default
        Title Carth_General_Intro_1_Text_01_Title
        Text Carth_General_Intro_1_Text_01_Text1

and text\export_advice.txt:

Code:

{Carth_General_Intro_1_Text_01_Title}    Carthage will be restored!    
{Carth_General_Intro_1_Text_01_Text1}    You are Hamilcar “Barca” (b. 280 BC), now the supreme military commander of Carthage\netc.

2. If you want a historic-event-like scroll to appear - if your mod is based on BI and doesn't use religions, you can use the fact that at the beginning of a campaign, you automatically get the dominant religion event scroll. You can change the appearance of that scroll (both format and text) to be whatever you need. This is the method used in RTR VII: FOE.

In descr_event_images.txt, tweak scroll appearance for the dominant_religion event:

Code:

dominant_religion
    icon            historic
    heading_items    6
    footer_items    4
    importance        high
    format
    {
        string    center tnr_med 73,61,40,225 rtr_vii
        spacer    6
        string    center tnr 73,61,40,225 fate_of_empires
        spacer    8
        title_image    center
        spacer    16

        multistring    left verdana_sml 160,132,84,225 left foe_intro

        spacer    6
        divider        160,132,84,225
        spacer    2
        string    center verdana_sml 160,132,84,225 rtr_vii_team_greetings
    }

*The 4 comma-separated numbers are RGBA colors.

Then, in text\event_strings.txt, define corresponding tags and text:

Code:

{rtr_vii}    Rome: Total Realism VII

{fate_of_empires}    Fate of Empires

{foe_intro}            Welcome to the RTR VII: Fate of Empires campaign.\n
\n
blah blah blah\n
...\n
Good luck.\n

{rtr_vii_team_greetings}    RTR VII team salutes you!

**Squid** · January 06, 2010, 03:20 PM

The third way to to do it via trait gain messages. Give a local character a hidden trait with a gain message on the first turn, so when your first turn starts that character gets the trait and you'll receive the trait message in historical-event type scroll.