Branching in event files?

[Tomnoddy]

I'm trying to write a complex peace negotiations event , where the player gets several options for punishing the agressor, on each issue. Basically it's giving the player a chance to write their own "treaty of versailles mk2" , assuming a WWII that ends earlier and involves fewer nations than it did historically.

The first event would resolve the issue of the franco german border. The player gets 3 choices

1) Aachen, Colonge and Saarbruken are ceded to France. The most punitive option.

2) No changes to the border

3) Aachen, Cologne and Luxembourg to France, Strasbourg and Mulhouse to Germany. Will upset the populace of both nations, but will ensure a river always separates these traditional enemies, and makes a blitz through the low countries less likely.


The second could offer an olive branch, on the question of former african colonies

1) give back Togoland
2) you must be joking

as would the third, whether to allow predominantly german / german speaking regions to remain part of the reich

1) let them keep austria
2) let them keep austria and sudeten
3) absolutely not!

the fourth "polish security", deals with any changes to Germany's eastern border

1) Push the frontier back to the Oder-Niesse line, but let them keep East Prussia
2) Push them back to the Oder and turn over East Prussia to Poland, Memel to Lithuania (most punitive option)
3) Allow the germans to have Danzig, in exchange for them paying for the construction of a line of forts on german-polish border


After all of this, the AI makes a choice whether to become revanchist or not.

Now, i'm aware you can use AI chance code, eg.


action_a = {
name = "Venegence! We will regain what we have lost!"
ai_chance = 70
command = { type = trigger which = ????? } # All manner of unpleasant behaviour
}
action_b = {
name = "We can't complain, let's move on"
ai_chance = 30
command = { type = domestic which = interventionism value = -1 }
command = { type = dissent value = 2 }


but is there a way to make the chance of revanchism get higher, the more punitively the Allies act?

Written in pseudo BASIC programming language, it'd go

IF German_Allied_Hatred > Randomise (200)
THEN
CALL REVANCHISM
ELSE
CALL PEACE
ENDIF

Otherwise i think i could have each treaty option cause slider moves on the German government, and afterwards the event that decides AI behaviour will be based on government type

eg. a social conservative germany has only 10% chance of revanchism, a paternal autocrat state 40% chance of revanchism, facist 80% and national socialist 100% chance.

It was always kind of disappointing in SMEP that after defeating Germany in a 1936 franco-prussian war, they'd make no more agressive moves for the rest of the game.

 

[Tomnoddy]

After a lot of procrastination i'm going to have a go at this. I should probably start smaller for my first ever mod but hey, we all gotta start somewhere (?!?)

I'm going with the sliders approach. More punitive peace settlement moves will shift german sliders towards authorotarian, right wing, interventionist and hawk. Magnanimous options will move the sliders the other way. This leaves me the option of adding ai switch events later, which can send Germany on a war path as it tries to reclaim what it has lost.

I've hit another problem however.

Let's say you choose to make germany pay reparations to Belgium and Netherlands, so they can build their own line of Forts. The way i was going to handle this was , to call an event which reduces the IC of stuttgart by 10. Two years later, Stuttgart regains 10 IC, Antwerp and Eindhoven gain level 10 forts.

The problem is when to trigger the second event. Is there any way to make it happen two years after the first?

i've seen

date = { day = 1 month = january year = 1936 }
offset = 7
deathdate = { day = 30 month = december year = 1963 }

in other events. What does this offset thing mean?

Failing that, i've got to write a separate chain of events every six months or so between september 1939 and september 1942, to somewhat realistically model the completion of the forts.

 

[Tomnoddy]

Even better - a "keep it simple stupid" approximation - permanently reduce the IC of Stuttgart by four, add the forts immediately.

Rebuilding the two lost IC will cost about the same in IC and take about as long as it takes to build those two level 10 forts.. nice abstraction.

The usual method that the game uses, removing money or supplies from the stockpile, seems inadequate for a situation such as this. Deducting an equivalent IC-days worth of supplies or money will give germany a huge negative balance, which will take some time to correct - by which time units might disband from lack of supplies, or research stop.

 

[Titan79]

i've seen

date = { day = 1 month = january year = 1936 }
offset = 7
deathdate = { day = 30 month = december year = 1963 }

in other events. What does this offset thing mean?

Well, I have no big experience with events but I can tell you at least that the "offset" parameter should be the check the AI makes for that event, i.e. in this case the event would be checked from 01/01/1936 every 7 days.

 

[Tomnoddy]

Thanks. I took a break last night but it's nearly there (keep it simple approach). Just got to code the question on the Africa colonies.

It's a bit rough and ready in that it assumes historical path taken by an AI Germany, and if you're not playing as France the decisions happen for you.

After that i've got to try and work out how to make a post-Hitler state into a threat.

 

[Tomnoddy]

OK, well that was fun. Been play testing as France and then Germany and also in hands-off mode.

In a France game, i chose the land swap option, but Poland chose to grab as much German territory as possible from the treaty. I tried to soften the blow by giving back Togoland and allowing them to keep Austria and Sudeten, but Germany ended up going Paternal autocrat (it can go democratic if you're very lenient in the treaty). Within a very short space of time, Germany demands territory from Poland and wins everything back, including Danzig. Then they DoW Czechoslovakia, Poland declares war on Germany, and both get annexed. Meanwhile, the Allies are quite unconcerned.

I let the game run another 9 months but nothing else happens. Germany hasn't rebuilt much of an army yet, which is possibly why.

Not sure why they went after Czech (other than them not having any units built yet) since they weren't holding any of their cores. They were an easy target ofc, no army built yet. I should probably make another event so that in the event of a Czech/Poland war, Germany stops short of total annexation. The last thing it needs is a land border with the Soviets, with their army still in tatters from the allied defeat.

I'd like to change the German AI so it goes after Austria, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria, nations which the Allies don't care too much about, at least until they are much stronger.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

I'd like to change the German AI so it goes after Austria, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria, nations which the Allies don't care too much about, at least until they are much stronger.

If so, you'll need to edit the 'ger_1936.ai' file as well as creating many ai switch files for Germany.

 

[Tomnoddy]

Indeed i will, and i'll have to learn how to do that - so far the only thing i've created is events.

I spent my following week at work dreaming up an ahistoric scenario as to how this post-hitler germany would proceed.

Then my next block of time off appears and i start playing another game. When i come back to AoD i'll have another go at this.

I don't want to put Poland or Czechoslovakia in the Allies, but i need a way to stop AI germany attacking them 100% of the time, within a month of WWII ending!

Anyway, i think Germany would be a much better country with northern Italy (the Italian riveria) in their hands. A much more pleasant coastline for rich germans to retire to, and of course a naval base in the mediterranean. Sothern Italy can rule itself, we don't want partisan infested low IC provinces thanks very much.

If we do fight Poland or Czech we should offer them peace and leave a rump state. Again , partisans, and the need for a buffer state with the Soviet union comes to play here. Romania is safe as a buffer state and an oil producer. As for our other worthless allies, Hungary and Bulgaria, they let us down in both wars, time to unite the axis under proper leadership and bring these backwards nations into the twentieth century. It's for their own good really.