We all know that standard territories have fixed borders. This means that Territory A always borders with Territory B. But now we're going to learn how to make the border conditional. Conditional Borders allow a more flexible usage of borders and this feature makes it possible to have borders which change over the course of a game, based on the possession of territories. Using again the same example, with conditional borders, we can have that Territory A borders with Territory B only if the player holds a Territory C. The third territory will be a sort of key: holding it satisfies the condition and so activates that border.
Sao Paulo can attack Buenos Aires only if the same player holds New York. In addition, Sao Paulo can assault Dakar if the player holds the whole Oceania continent. Obviously this is just a stupid example and I'm sure you can find plenty of better ways to use it.
4.5 - Transformation
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 4:30 pm
by thenobodies80
The concept of Transformation includes the general ability to apply rules that transform any territory in different ways. Transformation rules, called Transforms, can be applied:
to individual territories, or to every territory.
at the start of every turn, every round, or at the start of specific rounds
to neutral armies, player armies, opponents armies, or some combinations of these
to set armies to fixed amounts, change by fixed increments, change by fixed percentages, or make random changes within a range
XML Specification In the XML, Tranforms are specified either globally or as children to a <territory> object, as follows:
In the following we use "Quantity" as representing the army count of a terit count before transformation.
TYPE<type>:
Controls when the transform will execute, as follows:
turn=Each Turn round=Each Round (when first player starts)
APPLYTO<applyto>:
Controls whether a transform will be applied based on the type of occupying armies, as follows:
all=All self = Self (the playing Player only) neutral = Neutral only players = Players only (not neutral) opponents = Other Players only (not neutral or the playing Player) others = Others (all others, including neutral, except the playing player) team = anyone in your team (so includes you and your teammates, also applies to poly where it would be all of your different players. Works in single player as well and acts like self) nonteam = non-neutral players not in your team (same as team but players that are not in your team, works for poly for the other teams. Also works in single player where it will act like the opponents label) teammates = anyone in your team, except for you (is like others but just for your team. Will not do anything in single player)
INC <inc>: [Optional] + or - Adds/Subtracts Amount to/from Quantity, If this is not set then the Quantity will be set to a calculated Amount independent of its current value
AMOUNT <amount>:
Fixed amount to set Quantity to.
UPPER/LOWER<upper>/<lower>: A upper and lower range given so that the system chooses an Amount randomly with equal probability across the range. May be fractional.
PERC<perc>: [Optional]
If set to any non-zero value, use Amount as a % of the current value, instead of as a fixed value.
CONDITIONS<conditions>:[Optional] Each Conditions tag contains a set of Condition tags and optionally a Formula tag to tie them together. Currently conditions apply to territories only.
FORMULA<formula>:[Optional] formula allows construction of boolean logic rules. conditions prefixed with COND_ (see example below). Default is to use logical AND for each condition.
CONDITION<condition>: Each condition tag may contain VARIABLE, TYPE, ID, OPERATOR and VALUE tags
ID<id>: Territory id
VARIABLE<variable>: [Optional] Variable name if you are using a formula
TYPE<type>: The type of test, which controls what the condition will be applied to:
round: the round of the game player: a specific player territory: a specific territory armycount: the size of the army
ID<id>:[Optional] Used when type = player or type=armycount to represent the territory id of the corresponding player or army. For example to set a condition that territory 8 must be neutral, we can use type=player, id = 8, and value=0.
OPERATOR<operator>:[Optional Logical operator to apply to the test, can be and of the standard logical operators: = (default),!=,>,>=,<,<= (< needs to be written as < for both < and <=) as well as "in" or "not in" when a set of values is used in the value tag
VALUE<value>:[Optional A value to test against (or a comma separated set of values when using "in" or "not in" operator) (if using player can also use the same labels as the applyto tag: self, neutral, players, opponents, others, team, nonteam and teammates)
Transformation Process
Transformation is the very first thing to execute on a Begin Turn action.
Go through each territory:
- Set Quantity = Initial value of armies on this territory
For the territory, execute the following process for each applicable Transform in turn: - Apply filters. If Transform does not apply do nothing and skip to next transform for this terit. - Calculate Amount by choosing random number if range or setting as fixed amount - if % is set, multiply Amount by Quantity/100 - If INC = "-" negate Amount - If INC is set add Quantity to Amount - set Quantity to Amount
After all Transforms have executed for a territory: - Quantity is rounded to the closest integer and set to a minimum of 1 - If Quantity has changed, set new army count and send log to game log.
Go to next Territory
Examples
The original suggestion of neutrals that increase (or decrease by changing <inc> to "-") by 1 each turn would be specified as:
Note that the range is specified as -1.5 to 1.5 to give each option -1,0,1 equal chance, since the number is rounded at the end.
The following transform makes a territory get thrown up in the air at the start of Round 20 - it will change by between -100% and 100% (note: a minimum of 1 army is always applied).
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 4:35 pm