How to make "BombardRange" work?

[FrenzyHuman]

I am thinking of set "BombardRange" from 1 to 2 or even more, so, for example, my Artillery can bombard enemy troops without moving beside the target troop. Can this be done? I tried modify units.txt, no luck. Pls help.

[DDowell]

Sorry FrenzyHuman, no can do.

Tried it myself a while ago and I also went here in hope of finding some info but they all said the same as I'm telling you now:

The bombardment range is fixed to 1 no matter what you enter in the .txt files. Maybe you could do something in SLIC (just guessing) like:
-create an artillery unit on a square next to target.
-use it to bombard nearby square.
-kill the newly created unit.

I don't know how that will work in general (AI?) but let
me know if you try it.

[Martin Gühmann]

I would modify these entries in the unit.txt:

BombardRange 1

And it might help if you would modify this order especially the range entry in the order.txt:

ORDER_BOMBARD {
  Gold 0
  Move 100
  EventName "BombardOrder"

  LocalizedName str_ldl_order_bombard
  StatusText str_ldl_order_bombard

  TargetPretest:EnemyCity
  UnitPretest_CanBombard  

  Range 1

  CPIcon "upsi01.tga"
  ButtonLocation 8
  DefaultIcon ICON_ORDER_BOMBARD
  # FIXME - these are the default special action cursors
  Cursor 7
  InvalidCursor 8
} 

-Martin

[FrenzyHuman]

Thank you DDowell, I understand what you said.

Thanks to Martin too, while I don't quite understand that block of PHP code, to be frank

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by FrenzyHuman
Thanks to Martin too, while I don't quite understand that block of PHP code, to be frank

Its an extract from orders.txt

Martin was pointing out that you might want to find that extract, and chaneg the line:

Range 1

To perhaps Range 2 in order for it to work.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by FrenzyHuman
Thanks to Martin too, while I don't quite understand that block of PHP code, to be frank

Actual it isn't PHP code, I just used the PHP syntax highlighting feature of this feature, I could also use the simplw Quote or Code tag. You can find this piece of code in a file called Orders.txt (this time spelled correctly) in your ..\ctp2_data\defaut\gamedata\ folder, the same directory where you find the unit.txt. So what I actual suggested was to open the orders.txt with any editor e.g. notepad (if you want to modify the file for the original game, if you want to modify a file of Cradle, MedPack2, ApolytonPack or GoodMod you need to look for a file with a CRA_, MM2_, APOL_ or GM1_ prefix). Once you opend this file go to the ORDER_BOMBARD entry that I quoted above and modify the Range entry, I just would increase the number there and look what happens. Note maybe you have to modify every BombardRange entry in your unit.txt, too.
-Martin

[FrenzyHuman]

Thank you all, now it's clear, I will try and see what happens.

[Locutus]

So? What happened?

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by Locutus
So? What happened?

lol

[TheArsenal]

Yes, I'm curious how this comes out as well. It always struck me as strange that the artillery had such limited range.

[Peter Triggs]

What puzzles me about that order that Martin posted above is "TargetPretest:EnemyCity". It doesn't seem to stop you from bombarding enemy units in the field.

[Martin Gühmann]

I think this would only a problem if you only made a bombard goal for bombarding cities but Wes already fixed this by adding a bombard goal for units. By the way has someone a shure idea what these distance to Home/Enemy Boni lines could mean in addation to the short discription here on Apolyton?

-Martin

GOAL_BOMBARD {
  SquadClass:CanDefend
  SquadClass:CanAttack
  SquadClass:CanBombard

  TargetType:City
  TargetOwner:HotEnemy

  Execute    ORDER_BOMBARD
 
  ThreatBonus         -100
  EnemyValueBonus         -100 //WW from 100
  AlliedValueBonus            0 //WW from 1000
  PowerBonus                0 //WW from 150
  DistanceToHomeBonus        15
  DistanceToEnemyBonus        15
  ChokePointBonus          100
  UnexploredBonus         -999999
  ObsoleteArmyBonus            0
  TreaspassingArmyBonus        0

  ThreatenType:DestroyCity
  ThreatenBonus 5000

  ForceMatch:Bombard

  TargetProtectionWonder WONDER_THE_FORBIDDEN_CITY
}

GOAL_BOMBARD_UNIT {        //WW this goal is used for bombarding enemy units
  SquadClass:CanDefend
  SquadClass:CanAttack
  SquadClass:CanBombard

  TargetType:AttackUnit    //WW added
  TargetType:SpecialUnit    //WW added
  TargetOwner:HotEnemy

  Execute    ORDER_BOMBARD
 
  ThreatBonus         -100
  EnemyValueBonus         -100 //WW from 100
  AlliedValueBonus            0 //WW from 1000
  PowerBonus                0 //WW from 150
  DistanceToHomeBonus        15
  DistanceToEnemyBonus        15
  ChokePointBonus          100
  UnexploredBonus         -999999
  ObsoleteArmyBonus            0
  TreaspassingArmyBonus        0

  ThreatenType:None
  ThreatenBonus 0

  ForceMatch:Bombard

  TargetProtectionWonder WONDER_THE_FORBIDDEN_CITY
} 

[Peter Triggs]

Both of those goals refer to "Execute ORDER_BOMBARD", which is where the pretest is. It's still puzzling.

"the short discription here on Apolyton? "

Do you mean the documentation or the discussion between WesW and Richard Myers?

[Locutus]

That *is* odd, Peter... maybe TargetPretest is defunct? I think I've seen the AI bombard units so it doesn't seem to be stopping it...

[FrenzyHuman]

Hi Guys,

I think the topic here was "if bombard range can be extended from 1 to 2",
not "if AI can bombard unit/city or not".

Am I right about this?

While there was no problem for AI to bombard unit or city in the original CTPII game,
as far as I experienced.

Back to bombard range, I still haven't got any luck to make it further than 1.

The solution to create a temporary unit close to target and bombard the target,
then kill the temporary unit is very complicated. Because of the terrain, for example,
you have a battle ship with bombard range 2 to bombard an inland city which is located
one square to the ocean, then how can you do that?
change the terrain as well while bombarding?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Peter Triggs
"the short discription here on Apolyton? "

Do you mean the documentation or the discussion between WesW and Richard Myers?

I mean the documentation I don't know wheather it is in the discussion thread between WesW and Richard Myers, I will check this out later.

OK let's go back to the original topic in the order entries there is also a entry Move 100. I guess that determines how much this order in move points cost. 100 move points are the costs to move one quare like grassland no rivers and no roads. But this could also mean that you only can pay 100 move points to the order maybe to increase this number could help.

-Martin

[Peter Triggs]

Originally posted by DDowell
Sorry FrenzyHuman, no can do.

Tried it myself a while ago and I also went here in hope of finding some info but they all said the same as I'm telling you now:

The bombardment range is fixed to 1 no matter what you enter in the .txt files.

DDowell,

I don't remember this coming up before and can't find a link. Could you expand on this?

Thanks,

Peter

[DDowell]

Originally posted by Peter Triggs
I don't remember this coming up before and can't find a link. Could you expand on this?

I've searched for those old threads but came up empty handed.
Although I can tell you that what I was writing was the truth. How can I be so sure:
1. This is the only forum I knew of at the time that was concerned with CTP2.
2. I joined the forum at that point.

This is all the info I can give you, sorry.

Anyway, this thread exists now so maybe the issue will be resolved once and for all.

BTW, I have problems finding older threads (>1 year). I doesn't matter what search words I use or time period (are they removed?).

[Locutus]

Originally posted by DDowell
BTW, I have problems finding older threads (>1 year). I doesn't matter what search words I use or time period (are they removed?).

This was before the server move of earlier today, right? That problem should be solved now.

[Immortal Wombat]

We have all(?) the archives back?

[Locutus]

Most of them are, AFAIK only Apolyton and Off-Topic are still (and probably permanently) absent. And of course everything that was already in an archive at the time we switched from UBB to vBB (which Dan and Markos were never able to convert to vBB) but that's the *really* old stuff...

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by FrenzyHuman
The solution to create a temporary unit close to target and bombard the target,
then kill the temporary unit is very complicated. Because of the terrain, for example,
you have a battle ship with bombard range 2 to bombard an inland city which is located
one square to the ocean, then how can you do that?
change the terrain as well while bombarding?

The easiest solution would be to make a new unit (which cannot normally be built) with the appropriate bombard strength and land & sea movement ability. I don't know how you'd actually activate the ability on the original unit to trigger the SLIC code though.

[Peter Triggs]

Although I can tell you that what I was writing was the truth.

I believe you, I believe you. I tried playing with this last week when Poly was down and got absolutely nowhere with it.

It seems though that someone's been down this road before and I was hoping to find out what they said. But I've had no luck with searches either.

[Locutus]

There appears to be some sort of bug with the search feature... see this thread.