Proposal for more dynamic campaign design: Condition Strings

[DocMoriarty]

While working on my own campaign i thought about an easy (to implement and use) way to make them more dynamic and to carry over information from one map to the following maps without too much change in the current PzC engine.

Two new Action Triggers in Scenario Parameters:
Set Condition String
Remove Condition String
Based on the current triggers (time, map) plus in the future condition strings actions can be defined and result in setting/removing a condition string. These condition strings are then saved along with the other campaign data so that later scenarios in the campaign can define triggers which test for a condition string being present or not.

Change in unit definition in map (shift click - unit properties):
Here a trigger definition for spawning the unit or not should be added.
With this change in unit definition the designer can control whether (map, condition strings) and when (time trigger) units spawn on a map (unless the hex is occupied). That offers a way to either make unit presence dependant from actions in previous (or this) maps in the campaign or to add reinforcements at a later time in the map.

Usage:
Example 1 (transferring information from one map to following maps by condition strings):
When on a map a unit named HMS Hood gets sunk this triggers an action which sets the condition string HMS_HOOD_GONE. Then another scenario in the campaign can spawn the HMS Hood depending on whether the condition string was set or not.

Example 2 (within one map):
In one of my maps the players troops needs to assault a facility and then try to escape. Testing flags is not a good choice in this case because in the escape phase of the game the facility can be recaptured. But once the facility is taken an action trigger sets condition string FACILITY_TAKEN. Later the victory conditions can test for FACILITY_TAKEN (found a workaround using a special named guard unit instead).

Those are just two examples, i bet people can find a lot more use of condition strings to make campaigns much more dynamic. Whole groups of units could depend on condition strings in later scenarios depending on what happened before or you can make scenarios where reinforcements suddenly pop up at turn[-3;-3] and beat the devil out of the player if he isn't gone yet.

There should also be a way to test for condition strings in briefings. The engine could generate the current active condition strings as hidden fields or something in the briefing html wrapper so that a briefing can somehow test for it and display messages like "Wow we didn't expect you to sink HMS Hood with just one destroyer at your disposal!". I would have to reasearch html for a bit to find the correct way to make them useful in html.

In campaign.pzdat it's not really necessary to make things dependant on condition strings since the branch to follow can already be selected by the victory conditions in the scenario or like in that one briefing or the main campaign by choosing a path (Kiev or Moscow, not sure this is hardcoded in the engine though).

[Xerkis]

This indeed would be very good to have.

I’ve also said before that triggers should be able to be fired more than once. Now they only fire one time and that is it. I think it would be very useful to have triggers with the option of either firing once or more than once.

like it a lot.

[DocMoriarty]

Yes i agree absolutely, triggers should be definable as fire once or fire always when condition is met.