Desert Rats 1940-42 beta testing

[bru888]

Fort Capuzzo v. 3.6

I noticed in the last scenario that supply dump = airfield. Here, supply dump = fuel depot which works just as well but in the previous scenario, you explained what you meant in the objective description. Here, you don't.

All of the Italian bunkers that comprise Fort Capuzzo are inert because they don't belong to any AI team, not even Static Defense. Are they just ramparts of the fort or are they supposed to be an active part of the defense?

[bru888]

Battle of Girba v. 3.6

You made the objectives for the British all right, but you loaded the briefing and mission outcomes for the Italians by mistake:

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You may want to link your primary objectives to the three hexes.

The New Orders popup message: "You have successfully held onto your objectives . . ."

[bru888]

Allow me to go back to the campaign itself for a moment.

In this branch, I doubt that you want the player to replay Gubi in the event of a Draw; normally for a Draw you allow advancement to the next branch which would be Dash:

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This caught my eye. You proceed from Race to Kasserine:

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But the Kasserine branch itself seems to allow playing either Kasserine or Kasserine Pass scenarios:

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And the Pass branch itself is blank; I am wondering whether this is intentional:

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It could very well be intentional because you may be offering a choice between Kasserine or Kasserine Pass based on prior results. I cannot tell without playing it through but maybe I will understand more when I get there.

This is a typo:

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[bru888]

Operazione E v. 3.6

The primary mission says "Hold all 3 locations at scenario end" but you point to five (5) primary VPs at the beginning of the scenario, including Sidi Barrani which is the other primary objective. Maybe you mean "Hold at least 3 locations at scenario end"?

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Now with the secondary mission of "Hold at least 2 locations at scenario end" you point to four (4) secondary VPs (suggestion: clearly define primary and secondary VPs in both objectives):

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You have a "Ital 6 locations" trigger in there which checks for Italians owning >5 secondary VPs at the end to fail the British secondary objective. I don't think this trigger is even necessary - AI objectives are important only as primary objectives - but it's never going to do anything anyway.

If you agreed with what I said about the bunkers in Fort Capuzzo, then you will want to put this bunker in a Static Defense or Local Defense AI team:

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In the "Do not lose any British air units" trigger, you give the same "Get a specialisation point / Get 20 resources" that you promise for the Destroy Air/Armor objectives although you don't say so in the objective.

I hate to be a Buq Buq about this, but I question the airstrip spawn triggers only because they are inconsistent. Here's how I read them; if they look fine to you, then very good, of course:
Buq Buq - if there is no British unit standing on the airfield hex, and if there is no Italian unit in the neighboring town, then spawn an Italian airstrip.
Sidi Barrani - if there is no British unit standing on the airfield hex, and if there is no Italian unit standing on the airfield hex, and if there is one Italian unit in the neighboring town or in a surrounding hex (which includes the airfield hex - a contradiction?), then spawn an Italian airstrip.
Mersa Matruh - if there is no British unit standing on the airfield hex, and if there is no Italian unit standing on the airfield hex, then spawn an Italian airstrip.

Three different ways to do this makes me suspicious, you know? ( )

Resume tomorrow with Taranto.

[GabeKnight]

The primary mission says "Hold all 3 locations at scenario end" but you point to five (5) primary VPs at the beginning of the scenario, including Sidi Barrani which is the other primary objective. Maybe you mean "Hold at least 3 locations at scenario end"?
[...]
Now with the secondary mission of "Hold at least 2 locations at scenario end" you point to four (4) secondary VPs (suggestion: clearly define primary and secondary VPs in both objectives)

Bruce, I think those (and similar) may be post-cropping errors. I didn't have those kind of problems on the first versions of the scen. Some of those maps were WAY bigger on my first playthrough of the (beta) campaign.

[Erik2]

Border Raid:
Added Italian primary obj so the scneario may end properly.
Simplified the truck primary obj.
Replaced the British Bren carrier with a more potent unit.
Added another British unit.
Increased aggression for the AB40.
Added another Italian unit.

Fort Capuzzo:
Italian bunkers now have static defense orders and should be active defenders.
Increased British land command points.
Added British commander.

Girba:
Fixed briefing/outcomes.
Distributed British supply between the primary objectives.
Added map markers to objectives.

Operazione E:
Fixed primary obj txt.
The primary and secondary objectives use gold and silver flags, so they should be clearly marked. They merely point to all available objectives, the player decides which should be held.
Gave Fort Capuzzo static order.
Removed rewards for not losing British air.
Fixed airstrip events.

Campaign:
Fixed Gubi branch.
Most scenarios ending in defeat will now allow the player to replay that scenario, insted of ending in a campaign defeat.
Kasserine Pass will be played instead of replaying the Kasserine scenario.

Link updated to v3.7

[bru888]

Campaign:
Fixed Gubi branch.
Most scenarios ending in defeat will now allow the player to replay that scenario, insted of ending in a campaign defeat.
Kasserine Pass will be played instead of replaying the Kasserine scenario.

I am going to defer to you on this after merely pointing out that after Second Alamein branch, you stop doing the replay scenario for defeat. For Torch and Race, defeat is Defeat. Then comes whatever you are doing with Kasserine/Pass, then you resume the replay scenario for defeat arrangement with Medenine and Mareth. All may be as intended, of course.

Also, you are still "post-phoned" in Defeat.

[bru888]

Taranto Raid v. 3.7

As we have done in the past, I recommend that this objective be marked as achieved from the start and only failed when a carrier is lost. As this is, it's going to award the objective the moment any combat occurs and the carrier is not yet destroyed:

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Also, you may want to think about giving the AI an objective to win should the player go all 12 turns and not do enough damage to achieve this objective. As we have seen elsewhere, when that occurs and there is no AI objective to win in the end, the result is a Draw because Defeat is not possible:

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If you are going to use Signor Lucchini in the scenario, you should find him a proper vehicle:

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[bru888]

Operation Compass V. 3.7

I am getting a feeling of déjà bru . . . I mean, déjà vu now. This trigger is not right in that it should be Value >1. That's because, if the British must hold Sidi Barrani and four other locations, that's five primary VPs out of six. All the Italians need to do to defeat this is hold two primary VPs out of six at the end of the scenario. This is requiring three or more:

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Here's that lazybones bunker again which needs some static defensing:

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[bru888]

Bardia - First Attack v. 3.7

Hey, the lazybones bunker had a litter! None of these bunkers is going to be doing anything in the scenario without an AI team (don't forget the three near the coast):

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Also, you forgot to provide any Italian supply:

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That's it for tonight. I'll be back tomorrow.

[Erik2]

Campaign:
Fixed Gubi branch.
Most scenarios ending in defeat will now allow the player to replay that scenario, insted of ending in a campaign defeat.
Kasserine Pass will be played instead of replaying the Kasserine scenario.

I am going to defer to you on this after merely pointing out that after Second Alamein branch, you stop doing the replay scenario for defeat. For Torch and Race, defeat is Defeat. Then comes whatever you are doing with Kasserine/Pass, then you resume the replay scenario for defeat arrangement with Medenine and Mareth. All may be as intended, of course.

Also, you are still "post-phoned" in Defeat.

That is intended. It seemed a bit silly to do a rerun of Torch, it being a large amphibious invasion. You don't get second changes at these operations.

[Erik2]

Taranto:
Fixed objectives.
Assigned commander.
Added Italian specialisations.

Compass:
Fixed objective.
Assigned bunker.

First Bardia:
Added Italian (and Allied...) supply.
Redesigned objectives.

Link updated to v3.8

[bru888]

Beda Fomm v. 3.8

You have off-map air supply for both sides but if you ever change your minds about the Italians, know that you would be short air supply for their planes in the scenario. You gave supply to the airfields outside El Agheila and Barce but not Benghazi.

These fellows don't have an AI team and I don't see a trigger that assigns them to one:

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[bru888]

Operation Sonnenblume v. 3.8

May I suggest that you replace this trigger with a mirror in reverse of "All Tobruk"?

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Here is my reasoning. In this scenario, you want the player to play out all 40 turns and win only if still holding Tobruk at the end (the only primary objective). Fair enough; I think we talked about this and you said you thought there would be enough action for 40 turns. Problem is, if the player loses Tobruk and cannot retrieve it by scenario-end, then he should lose (not Draw) and that requires the AI to win its objective. This trigger will not fire anyway; there are only two primary VPs on the map. But even so, you don't want it to fire just because the Axis has won X VP's. You want a trigger that does the same as "All Tobruk" in reverse but only at scenario-end: At that time, if the Axis holds Tobruk, it wins and the Allies fail its primary objective.

[bru888]

Ras el Mdauuar v. 3.8

I believe you want primary objectives here. The secondary objectives are for the frontline forts:

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Same here:

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Two things with this trigger; first, you define with it how this secondary objective can be failed but you don't provide a way for it to be achieved:

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My usual recommendation in this case is to mark the objective as achieved to begin with and fail it only if the player loses all four of those hexes:

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The other matter with this trigger is that neither spawned unit is assigned to an AI team and therefore will remain dormant:

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[bru888]

Operation Brevity v. 3.8

These fellows don't have an AI team and I don't see a trigger that assigns them to one:

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This is strange. Did you mean to start off this unit as surrounded and cut off? (I noticed it's also a deployment hex.)

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Also, this scenario has two human players:

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[bru888]

Operation Battleaxe v. 3.8

I'm not sure what this trigger is supposed to be doing. It's saying, if there are no British land units within 4 hexes of this spot, setup AI teams to Seek & Destroy, but the target hex is out in the sea?

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[bru888]

Operation Crusader v. 3.8

This scenario has very many AI teams, so you have "black boxes" for AI teams numbered 21 and above, but I found four units that have no AI teams as indicated by hyphens:

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[bru888]

Bir el Gubi v. 3.8

You have one of those stuck Objective IDs here; it should be the Italian primary objective that is completed:

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None of the spawn units in Axis stuff is placed on the map (there would be a Remove Hex button if so). I'm not sure what happens in this case. Does the unit still get spawned but placed in the AI's reserve for its later deployment? I doubt it, but maybe you know this to be true and intend it. If not, then each T2/T3/T4 spawned unit needs a destination:

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[bru888]

Dash to the Wire v. 3.8

"The strike against the Axis forces has caught them by surprise."

In my opinion, this trigger should be like the other two Ax triggers. It's different, I suppose, because the British own this hex in the beginning. But say they lose it but then take it back before the end of the scenario. Shouldn't they get credit for it in the end and have it count toward the three objectives? This trigger denies them that opportunity:

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As we have seen with other "defend/hold from the beginning" objectives, it's best in my opinion to mark those objectives as completed from the start so that failure triggers like the "Supply dump-x" ones work properly. As it is, if the objectives are not marked as completed from the start, you don't have any way of awarding those objectives in the end:

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You have a mismatch here in these two triggers:

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Which will make this look weird during gameplay:

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But I wouldn't bother linking any of those "Supply dump-x" triggers to objectives because you are not really tracking counts; each of them is "one and done."

You have a popup here but I don't see this image in the folder and it's not one of the ones that OOB will provide automatically:

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Here's a "throwaway" non-sequitur comment: I am in a good position to know how difficult designing scenarios is, and especially for single-player. All of these fault-findings are no knock on you, Erik. Anybody thinking so should sit his rear-end down and try doing what you do. I have done seven scenarios so far, and they were like seven cases of childbirth. For you to crank all of these scenarios out, with as few mistakes as I have found here, is remarkable.

On that note, I will call it a night. I will resume tomorrow with Second Offensive.