conboy's campaigns

[conboy]

Do your worst, Hombre!

I think it's hard and Gabe agrees.

The AI turns are slow in the later games... not much I can do about that.

Good to hear from you, Dee-Wight!

conboy

[JTFox001]

Hi conboy.

Two points to raise in the Sicily scenario.

1) When advised that the P40's are leaving only 2 out of 3 leave.

2) Completed Phase I objectives by turn 5 and collected the three RCT Phase II objectives by turn 12. Then realized I had the Ranger Phase II still to get. Got that on turn 15. When the turn started the turn over view showed I had failed to get the Phase I objectives.

Cheers

[conboy]

Thanks!

I'll check these out. Never-ending struggle, this.

Maybe if you keep going, you'll get credit for the Phase I objectives and won't have to nuke out. Save each turn so you can reload and nuke if you get denied a victory.

I could not get the Phase I error to repeat... see pic. It was okay on turn 16 as well. I'll keep checking.
(I was late with the engineers at the south mara bridge, so I didn't get the objective...)


thanks again!

conboy

Screenshot 40.jpg (496.11 KiB) Viewed 2507 times

[JTFox001]

Hi.

Played till the end and got a draw. All 21 locations secured and reached final objective in time. Will replay and see what happens.

For the record.

Playing OoB Ver: 9.0.0 (64 bit), US 3rd Inf Div Ver 2.0.1

Cheers

[conboy]

You drew because you didn't get the Phase I objectives. I played it yesterday and it worked, there must be a boogie-man somewhere in the objectives. Please advise if you play it again and let me know how it goes. I looked again and can't find the error.
Gunny hit a similar one, and I thought I fixed it by turning off the objective after it was met. Then it pops up again 9 turns later... can't figure it out. But I will eventually.

thanks for playing!

conboy

[JTFox001]

Second play through worked. I left a unit in each of the Phase I objectives to ensure they remained mine.

Took the liberty to have a look in the editor and saw the boogie man. May I suggest you make him a light tank, that way players would see the flag change.

Cheers

[conboy]

JTFox,

saw the boogie man. May I suggest you make him a light tank, that way players would see the flag change.

Can you help me out here with just a few more details? I was speaking figuratively about the boogieman. What unit should I change to a light tank?

If you have the time to explain, or give me a hint or two, it might save me a couple of hours of head-scratching!

thanks so much for your comments!

conboy

[JTFox001]

Sorry conboy, should have been more specific. I think finding out the Boogie Man is real and not just in moves throw me.

I think the recon unit sneaks down at some point and passes through a Phase I Obj.

Cheers

[conboy]

Maybe so, but the Recon can't take ground so the flag wouldn't change and the objective wouldn't be affected. I'll find the problem, eventually. It seems to affect only about 5% of the players and I can't replicate the error. Very strange!

Please keep me posted.

thanks again,

conboy

[GabeKnight]

Two points to raise in the Sicily scenario.

1) When advised that the P40's are leaving only 2 out of 3 leave.

2) Completed Phase I objectives by turn 5 and collected the three RCT Phase II objectives by turn 12. Then realized I had the Ranger Phase II still to get. Got that on turn 15. When the turn started the turn over view showed I had failed to get the Phase I objectives.

2 Lica

As for 1) the P40K won't be removed if they are landed on the airfield! They don't count as deployed or something like that. It's an exploit that also works with some stock scens.

And 2) all "Axis fail" triggers do fail the player's "PhaseI" objective, so my guess is that some PhaseII town was again in enemy hands (changed ownership) on turn 16.

Suggestion: include a "Set Folder State" effect to deactivate the "Axis - Hold any primaryPhase II Loc = Turn 16" trigger-folder inside the "Allied victory conditions/Take all Phase II Primary Locs < 17" trigger, the same as you did with the Allied PhaseI win trigger.

PS: BTW, and I may stand corrected, but to my knowledge it makes no sense to give the AI team more than one prim. objective.

[JTFox001]

Hi conboy.

Firstly, congrats for getting the campaign in to the community content.

Second, now played this scenario 4 times and only failed once as reported above. Just your luck if this error happens on the first go.

Moving on to the next one.

Cheers

[conboy]

Gabe, JTFox,
Thanks for the feedback!

I checked the Phase II Axis objectives, and if they are not met, the Phase I Allied objectives are failed, not the Phase II. Grrr! That explains why some players get hit with it and others don't. If you meet all the objective timelines, you'd never know that the Phase II Axis objectives were beshat (don't look that word up...)

I don't think it's a problem for the players to have an extra non-core fighter for the rest of this scenario. It's sloppy but it does not affect balance because after the artillery at Castronova is knocked out, there is no more enemy to engage or even find with a scout plane.

I don't know what to do now. Given that it is already distributed widely, and that if the player doesn't meet the Phase I or Phase II objectives, the best the player can get is a draw, then I think I'm going to leave it the way it is until Shards opens the window for updates on the Community Content box.

I am certainly chalking this lesson up to: Keep the Objectives as Simple as Possible!

I just hope this isn't the reason that only a couple of players have reported finishing the campaign since I first posted the current version. I should have listened to Gunny more carefully when he reported it. I checked out the Phase I objectives but ... but ... but ... not the Phase II (why should I? Phase I was the problem! Nope. Wrong.)

Gabe,
I always appreciate your comments -- your comments have encouraged and helped me all along, so thanks again.

JTFox, thanks for keepen awwn and not going away mad!

signed,
perplexed in Dixie (which is damn near frozen now)

conboy

[conboy]

Gabe,
All human Primary Objectives must have a reciprocal AI objective.
Do you mean that it is better to have a single overall AI objective that fails the human if all the human objectives aren't met?
I think that would serve the purpose but it would fail all the Human objectives, and the player might not know which one fouled him up in the end.
But the other way sure makes a lot to manage, as the latter part of this thread indicates...

conboy

[stevefprice]

Hiya Conboy, so I finally finished the campaign a few days ago!

Firstly, love the work and effort gone into it, entertaining and educational too regarding the 3rd ID. Also highly frustrating.

Worth noting I played on level 3 and found it very hard. I took warbonds 3 times. I feel the RP balance is slightly off as I coped fine with the 7th and 15th but the 30th ran out badly as all the support amour also uses their RPs.

My thoughts are from Anzio onwards as we've already spoken about the early scenarios,

All scenarios required the odd reload at various points and some had to be started again from beginning as I'd fail by a turn or two. Certainly challenging I've no idea how anyone can win on level 4 or 5

Anzio beachhead siege is very tough. I struggled with sitting put when a counter attack looked good for me. Surprised when enemy units spawned behind my advanced lines. May be worth a note to not advance .

Anzio breakout was a doddle by comparison.

Dragoon II was a good fun one with opportunity to envelope enemy units.

Vosges to Le Tholy tricky negotiating the terrain

Low Vosges to Strasbourg very tough as the enemy kept popping up and needed to be cleared from all woods.

Kaysersberg - Guémar a fun little one and took a couple of turns as you need to get the initial troops right.

Colmar Pocket Breakout - Loved this one, again the chance to encircle units and no surprise random wave upon wave of Panthers attacking you like at Anzio.

Siegried Line and Rhine River - I liked the use of additional forces here being triggered at the right points. Artillery and AA takes some thought to nullify. Had to reload this a couple of times because I spent too long playing safe in the initial moves.

Rhine to Nuremburg - Interesting one although the very large map was off putting.

Nuremberg to Munich - More encirclement but slow as you grind through Nuremberg - Nice touch with foreign units in there.

Berchtesgaden and Obersalzburg - I'll message you

Some of the big maps made me rush moves as I assumed they space would be used, had I known it was eye candy I'd have possibly not need warbonds so much.

Biggest frustration were the Anzio scenarios (apart from breakout) as I had to curb my natural Pattonesque tendencies . I know my regular MP opponents dropped out at that point as the fun value plummeted. Given the Brit were at Anzio I know a bit more about it so had expectations as the the units involved.

All that said, thank you for the work you put into it as I have enjoyed it and glad I persevered to the end.

[conboy]

SteveFPrice,
Thanks for the run-down. I'm very glad you made it through and surely appreciate your comments. Sorry your mates got frustrated with Anzio. When I update it, I'll warn the players to stay put. Didn't your mateys read about the Battle of Hastings? Anyway, I'll not have the Germans pop up so close to the US Lines when I update, I didn't expect players to be racing north. I am keeping your comments and those from others so I can make some adjustments there when Shards invites for an update on the community box.

I think I stated in the narrative associated with the campaign that I did not have the RP/income set correctly. One guy had a massive overkill of RPs when playing and I had to go to the well a couple of times. I guess I had it right if one player had too many and I had too few. Nothing wrong (in this campaign) with getting more RPs.

When I started developing the campaign, I was a toadal novice, so Anzio and the Italian battles were a little rough because they were the first ones I did. But (I didn't know this at the time though) Anzio 9 Feb 1944 was the worst day of any US Division in the war, so the scenario should convey that. But not with enemy popping up behind your lines. I ran out of steam on the German ones and needed a bad talking to from ColonelY to finish them properly. I guess what I'm saying is that there is a disparity between level of "sophistication" between scenarios because I didn't do them in chronological order. I already had Anzio half-done (I have a standalone scenario of it posted) so anyway that was a good starting point.

Also, I want to point out that I was an extremely inexperienced Scenario designer when I started -- so this campaign is an example of what one can do when one's mind is set on at thing. So you, too, can play the 10-button Cajun accordion, properly set duck decoys, flat-pick fiddle tunes on the guitar, learn Italian, make an OoB campaign, and do all the things that make life interesting (while raising children), if you set your mind to it and be determined and your wife leaves you alone for a little while each day. Except Italian verb conjugation.

And, of course, accordion playing is forbidden in most urban areas.

Thanks for playing and getting back to me,

conboy

[JTFox001]

Completed Sicily and moved on to Italy.

Scenario 3 SanF caught me out. It took 3 attempts.

1) Charged straight in and got smashed by the Arty at the Phase II objectives, took a few turns recover, but to late to complete by turn 22.

2) Better deployment and by better plan got Phase II by turn 18. Then got carried away with Bernard blocking force and lost the landing zone on turn 21.

3) Used same plan as attempt 2 but kept an INF unit at the landing hex. Also better use of scout plane.

It's good to get beat now and again, makes read the brief more closely and plan better. Lesson learnt.

Cheers

[conboy]

JTFox,
Thanks for keeping me updated. Note that in the S-3 (Operations) portion of the brief, players are admonished to:
"- Deploy the regiments abreast before approaching the fortified positions behind the rivers to prevent the enemy from concentrating fire on one area."

We have been nagging the Artistocrats about allowing players to access the brief during the game without exiting it. That would be a big help in many campaigns/scenarios. I don't think it's high on their list.

I don't know another way to remind the players without giving too much hints during gameplay. Sorry it took you 3 tries, but it's a difficult scenario.

Again, thanks for playing and posting your progress here!

conboy

[GabeKnight]

I was really "disappointed" that the Anzio siege scen had an automated "early" victory on turn 12. It was so much fun and I wanted to add some more turns with #overtime to continue playing...

Screenshot 307.jpg (983.44 KiB) Viewed 2296 times

PS: I think you've misspelled siege with "seige" in the scen description

[conboy]

Thanks, Gabe.
I have been informed that some players have not completed the campaign because of the difficulty of the two Anzio scenarios. So, I am content with the early victory award, also after that point, the scenario doesn't get more interesting. Although you have several full-strength Panzer V battalions aiming straight for the gap between the brits and the 3d division!

Also, looking at your RP tally board, you are way ahead on the 3d Division and about right on the others. That disparity drove me crazy when setting up the campaign, and it never got straightened out. As I have said, on the next-to-last playthrough by Dwightd, he had a lot of RPeez, and I -- playing at the same time -- had to go to the Warbonds well a couple of times. I guess it's a matter of skill and style, and with 20 battle scenarios, the differences between players gets quite exaggerated.

I am getting some feedback from players regarding victory criteria, of which you are aware. I think I will wait until Shards invites an update to fix, now that the campaign is posted on the community content. It seems that only a few players are hitting the weak spots in the campaign design. Most don't either see them or plow ahead with the nuke button. It's a bafflement that some players hit all of the bad spots and others don't even encounter them.

thanks for your comments! Keep 'em coming!

conboy

[GabeKnight]

[...] I am content with the early victory award, also after that point, the scenario doesn't get more interesting. Although you have several full-strength Panzer V battalions aiming straight for the gap between the brits and the 3d division!

No, no, all's good, I was just making fun.
You're right, I think you've hit the speet spot with the turn limit. They've already lost their "steam"; enemy air defeated, most arty destoyed or crippled and my lines were holding. What gap?
It was a turn start screenshot! Some of my units were just being pushed back a bit. Nothing to worry. I'm actually quite proud of my perimeter. Almost every unit backed by AT, with enough reserves to hold on.

If someone wants to test the AT-support mechanic, this is the scen!

I think the RP balance was okay. You always need more for inexperienced players and/or some dumb mistakes on the way. And you really don't want the campaign/scens to be too hard. Endless reloading of turns just to get it "right" is no real fun.

I can't say that I've tested your campaign really thoroughly. I've actually just played it, enjoyed it and told you about the things I've noticed. Never tested a variant of "defeat" or not achieving (secondary) objectives, for example. But during my current play-though I did not encounter anything noteworthy so far.

I think I will wait until Shards invites an update to fix, now that the campaign is posted on the community content.

My advice as always: Better don't wait...
Don't overdo it with the updates, but if you have some major fixes for your campaign, I would recommend to contact him yourself with a link to the updated campaign version.