Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Modders can post their questions on scripting and more.

Moderators: Slitherine Core, BA Moderators

acesman
Private First Class - Opel Blitz
Private First Class - Opel Blitz
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2018 7:48 am

Re: Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Post by acesman »

Thanks for a tool to add better OOB. One question/complaint, the mod does not seem to work for multiplayer, and definitely not for co-op. Any suggestions on why this might be happening and how it may be resolved?
StellarRat
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:17 am

Re: Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Post by StellarRat »

Can you get this to work in multiplayer for both coop and pvp? Or tell me how to do it? My friend and I have tried multiple ways to generate a workable multiplayer game with the mod, but nothing seems to work. I've copied the folder into the multiplayer folder. It does generate a game in PvP, but when you try to select it to actually play it says we're missing the campaign and scenario info. My friend and I both have the mod installed and we have both copied into our multiplayer folder. It does not work at all in COOP multiplayer. The mod works perfectly in single player and I love it. We would be happy to help test this if you need another person(s) to work on it.
Paul59
General - King Tiger
General - King Tiger
Posts: 3800
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:26 pm

Re: Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Post by Paul59 »

acesman wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 9:15 pm Thanks for a tool to add better OOB. One question/complaint, the mod does not seem to work for multiplayer, and definitely not for co-op. Any suggestions on why this might be happening and how it may be resolved?
StellarRat wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 9:18 pm Can you get this to work in multiplayer for both coop and pvp? Or tell me how to do it? My friend and I have tried multiple ways to generate a workable multiplayer game with the mod, but nothing seems to work. I've copied the folder into the multiplayer folder. It does generate a game in PvP, but when you try to select it to actually play it says we're missing the campaign and scenario info. My friend and I both have the mod installed and we have both copied into our multiplayer folder. It does not work at all in COOP multiplayer. The mod works perfectly in single player and I love it. We would be happy to help test this if you need another person(s) to work on it.
I would guess that one of you has installed the mod in to the wrong Multiplayer folder. It should go into Documents\My Games\BA2\Multiplayer, and NOT into the game's main installation Multiplayer folder (either Program Files (x86)/Slitherine/Battle Academy 2/Multiplayer, or Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Battle Academy 2/Multiplayer if you have the game in Steam).

Honestly, I designed the mods only for SP use, but apparently they work in MP too, see this post from jiltedjock:

https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewto ... 21&t=99959


As for coop, I never knew that BA2 had coop! I have just spent an hour trying to get my Skirmish mods to work in coop, but can't figure it out. Possibly it is just not possible for a Skirmish mod to work in coop, I will ask the technical guys at Slitherine if they have any idea.
Field of Glory II Scenario Designer - Age of Belisarius, Rise of Persia, Wolves at the Gate and Swifter than Eagles.

Field of Glory II Medieval Scenario Designer.

FOGII TT Mod Creator

Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach Tournament Scenario Designer.
StellarRat
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:17 am

Re: Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Post by StellarRat »

Paul59 wrote: Sun Jan 16, 2022 12:28 pm As for coop, I never knew that BA2 had coop! I have just spent an hour trying to get my Skirmish mods to work in coop, but can't figure it out. Possibly it is just not possible for a Skirmish mod to work in coop, I will ask the technical guys at Slitherine if they have any idea.
I figured this out! I stayed up late playing around with your mod and comparing to another mod that is multiplayer and looking at the COOP scenarios that come with the game. It dawned on me that maybe the game is looking for a valid campaign and scenario for COOP and PvP games even though it really doesn't use the info to make a random game in multiplayer aka it's a programming bug.

Here's how I did it.

#1 Under \My Games\BA2\Campaigns\Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9\ You must add a campaign.txt file that has these lines (or least that's what I used)

//campaign description
IDS_CAMPAIGN_NAME,"SKIRMISH",
IDS_CAMPAIGN_TEXT,"SKIRMISH",
COOP
[COUNTER]
COOP

#2 Under \My Games\BA2\Campaigns\Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9\ You must also add a SCENARIOS folder with a valid scenario in it that has same name as what is in campaign.txt under the COOP line i.e. COUNTER. I simply copied the SCENARIOS folder from PETCAT's "Witnessing the Ferdinand" mod into your mod. It doesn't really use any of this to generate a random scenario as far as I know, but somehow this triggers the game to allow you to use your mod in COOP and PvP. It contained these three files.

COUNTER.BAM
COUNTER.DDS
COUNTER_AUTOACH.BSF

Anyway, once I had a COOP working I just copied the \My Games\BA2\Campaigns\Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9 folder with the changes I made into the multiplayer folder (\My Games\BA2\MULTIPLAYER\ENHANCED RANDOM SKIRMISH MOD 1.9) and PvP also started working! So, it's all working!

Interestingly COOP play needs your mod to be in \My Games\BA2\Campaigns while PvP needs your mod to be in \My Games\BA2\MULTIPLAYER\ if you only put it in multiplayer COOP won't work and vice versa. As far as I can tell you must make the changes I described for it work for multiplayer at all. Your other mods seem to work in PvP simply by adding them to the MULTIPLAYER folder, but they will not have a COOP option. I believe that is because they have actual scenarios in them while your Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9 does not.

You might consider adding a dummy scenario to your Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9 and having Slitherine update the mod for download. My friend and I like the random COOP and PvP games it's generating FAR more than the using the BA2 defaults.
Paul59
General - King Tiger
General - King Tiger
Posts: 3800
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:26 pm

Re: Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Post by Paul59 »

StellarRat wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 6:50 am
I figured this out! I stayed up late playing around with your mod and comparing to another mod that is multiplayer and looking at the COOP scenarios that come with the game. It dawned on me that maybe the game is looking for a valid campaign and scenario for COOP and PvP games even though it really doesn't use the info to make a random game in multiplayer aka it's a programming bug.

Here's how I did it.

#1 Under \My Games\BA2\Campaigns\Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9\ You must add a campaign.txt file that has these lines (or least that's what I used)

//campaign description
IDS_CAMPAIGN_NAME,"SKIRMISH",
IDS_CAMPAIGN_TEXT,"SKIRMISH",
COOP
[COUNTER]
COOP

#2 Under \My Games\BA2\Campaigns\Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9\ You must also add a SCENARIOS folder with a valid scenario in it that has same name as what is in campaign.txt under the COOP line i.e. COUNTER. I simply copied the SCENARIOS folder from PETCAT's "Witnessing the Ferdinand" mod into your mod. It doesn't really use any of this to generate a random scenario as far as I know, but somehow this triggers the game to allow you to use your mod in COOP and PvP. It contained these three files.

COUNTER.BAM
COUNTER.DDS
COUNTER_AUTOACH.BSF

Anyway, once I had a COOP working I just copied the \My Games\BA2\Campaigns\Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9 folder with the changes I made into the multiplayer folder (\My Games\BA2\MULTIPLAYER\ENHANCED RANDOM SKIRMISH MOD 1.9) and PvP also started working! So, it's all working!

Interestingly COOP play needs your mod to be in \My Games\BA2\Campaigns while PvP needs your mod to be in \My Games\BA2\MULTIPLAYER\ if you only put it in multiplayer COOP won't work and vice versa. As far as I can tell you must make the changes I described for it work for multiplayer at all. Your other mods seem to work in PvP simply by adding them to the MULTIPLAYER folder, but they will not have a COOP option. I believe that is because they have actual scenarios in them while your Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9 does not.

You might consider adding a dummy scenario to your Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9 and having Slitherine update the mod for download. My friend and I like the random COOP and PvP games it's generating FAR more than the using the BA2 defaults.
Thank mate, that's great work!

I would take issue with some of your findings though:

1) These lines are not needed in the CAMPAIGN.txt:

IDS_CAMPAIGN_NAME,"SKIRMISH",
IDS_CAMPAIGN_TEXT,"SKIRMISH",

I doubt that the game would read them from that file, and they are already in the mod's Text1.txt file with the proper mod name and text intro.

2) You only need the COUNTER.BAM file in the Scenarios folder (or whatever named scenario you are using), the .dds and .bsf file are not essential.

3) These changes are not needed for the Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod to work in MP, it just needs to go in the correct Multiplayer folder.

4) It should be possible to get my other skirmish mods working in coop, I have just successfully got the France 1940 Skirmish working. Strangely, the Cold War skirmish mod would not work, maybe because the scenario names have numbers in them (if so, it should be just a case of renaming rico's scenarios).

I will update the Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod to version 2.0 at some point, including the ability to play coop, I will also put a MP version up on the server to save players having to install it themselves. I can't promise when that will happen though, I am very busy with other projects at the moment.

cheers

Paul
Field of Glory II Scenario Designer - Age of Belisarius, Rise of Persia, Wolves at the Gate and Swifter than Eagles.

Field of Glory II Medieval Scenario Designer.

FOGII TT Mod Creator

Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach Tournament Scenario Designer.
Paul59
General - King Tiger
General - King Tiger
Posts: 3800
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:26 pm

Re: Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Post by Paul59 »

One slight problem with making the Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod COOP compatible is that it now appears in the Campaign list with the Counter scenario, which doesn't work properly as it was made for a different mod.

The solution would be if we had a scenario purpose made for Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod to replace the Counter scenario.
Field of Glory II Scenario Designer - Age of Belisarius, Rise of Persia, Wolves at the Gate and Swifter than Eagles.

Field of Glory II Medieval Scenario Designer.

FOGII TT Mod Creator

Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach Tournament Scenario Designer.
StellarRat
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:17 am

Re: Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Post by StellarRat »

Paul59 wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:43 pm
I would take issue with some of your findings though:

1) These lines are not needed in the CAMPAIGN.txt:

IDS_CAMPAIGN_NAME,"SKIRMISH",
IDS_CAMPAIGN_TEXT,"SKIRMISH",

I doubt that the game would read them from that file, and they are already in the mod's Text1.txt file with the proper mod name and text intro.

2) You only need the COUNTER.BAM file in the Scenarios folder (or whatever named scenario you are using), the .dds and .bsf file are not essential.

3) These changes are not needed for the Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod to work in MP, it just needs to go in the correct Multiplayer folder.

4) It should be possible to get my other skirmish mods working in coop, I have just successfully got the France 1940 Skirmish working. Strangely, the Cold War skirmish mod would not work, maybe because the scenario names have numbers in them (if so, it should be just a case of renaming rico's scenarios).

I will update the Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod to version 2.0 at some point, including the ability to play coop, I will also put a MP version up on the server to save players having to install it themselves. I can't promise when that will happen though, I am very busy with other projects at the moment.

cheers

Paul
I did not try to see the minimum amount of files that would work, so I have no doubt that less than what I used would work. I haven't done any scenario construction in the editor so my knowledge of the files generated is about zero. I'm glad you've refined this to the minimum as that is always best.
StellarRat
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:17 am

Re: Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Post by StellarRat »

Paul59 wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:43 pm
I would take issue with some of your findings though:

1) These lines are not needed in the CAMPAIGN.txt:

IDS_CAMPAIGN_NAME,"SKIRMISH",
IDS_CAMPAIGN_TEXT,"SKIRMISH",

I doubt that the game would read them from that file, and they are already in the mod's Text1.txt file with the proper mod name and text intro.

2) You only need the COUNTER.BAM file in the Scenarios folder (or whatever named scenario you are using), the .dds and .bsf file are not essential.

3) These changes are not needed for the Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod to work in MP, it just needs to go in the correct Multiplayer folder.

4) It should be possible to get my other skirmish mods working in coop, I have just successfully got the France 1940 Skirmish working. Strangely, the Cold War skirmish mod would not work, maybe because the scenario names have numbers in them (if so, it should be just a case of renaming rico's scenarios).

I will update the Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod to version 2.0 at some point, including the ability to play coop, I will also put a MP version up on the server to save players having to install it themselves. I can't promise when that will happen though, I am very busy with other projects at the moment.

cheers

Paul
I did not try to see the minimum amount of files that would work, so I have no doubt that less than what I used would work. I haven't done any scenario construction in the editor so my knowledge of the files generated is about zero. I'm glad you've refined this to the minimum as that is always best.
StellarRat
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Private First Class - Wehrmacht Inf
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:17 am

Re: Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod 1.9

Post by StellarRat »

Paul59 wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:19 pm One slight problem with making the Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod COOP compatible is that it now appears in the Campaign list with the Counter scenario, which doesn't work properly as it was made for a different mod.

The solution would be if we had a scenario purpose made for Enhanced Random Skirmish Mod to replace the Counter scenario.
I agree. Just any old scenario that could actually be played if someone was so inclined would be fine. We use the random map generation so it just creates something else anyway.
Post Reply

Return to “Battle Academy 2: Modders Corner”