[UMC] Loyalist Ability

[junoslord]

A challenge to the old hands...

I have an idea for a big battle campaign and thought of a cool way to help build up a larger army, I call it the Loyalist ability.

What it would do is muster any Loyalist unit that has reached level 1 at the beginning of each scenario. (Or at the least require no gold to recall them.) After that they would require upkeep like any unit, unless they where Loyal as well.

This of course could become an abused ability, like any other, in the hands of users who want super human armies. But those of use who try to create larger than normal scenarios could benefit from having a seasoned cadre available to help along the level 1 and 0's. Serious makers and players won't abuse this because if you're playing a campaign and you know that you get a group of 10 or 20 'free' units every scenario you have to know that at the end of the campaign 10 or 20 level 3 units wont be anywhere enough to win the final scenario and that you need to use this cadre to build up other units.

So if campaigns are designed right there shouldn't be any serious abuse. (By serious abuse I mean makers who want their games taken seriously, not just those making Hero Bloodbaths for themselves or their buddies.)

BTW, with the simplicity of WML is it possible this is possible already? Some sort of filter for Loyalist, and [if yes] then you could place them somewhere fixed... extra work for the maker but if you control your Loyalist units you'll always know the maximum number of them possible, and even their names. (In my campaign all the Loyalists are introduced NPC's, not recruits, so I would know who they are.)

What I mean is something like this (and I'm sorry if this is over simplified, I've been at WML for 2 days now, but I get how it works just by reading through you guys' work):

In scenario one I introduce two level 0 Peasants, Jack and Jill, normally.

In scenario two could I then run some thing like this:

[filter]
Jack alive? y/n
[if no end]
level 0? y/n
[if yes end]
unit place: Jack (7.7)
[/filter]

[filter]
Jill alive? y/n
[if no end]
level 0? y/n
[if yes end]
unit place: Jill (8.7)
[/filter]

I would have to run this at the front of every scenario of course, and add to it as I introduce more NPC's throughout the campaign.

Any thoughts, ideas, or help would be appreciated.

[zookeeper]

The simplest way would be to simply refund the player for their >lvl0 recalls, although it obviously has the drawback that it prevents you from recalling if you can't afford one in the first place. On the other hand, automatically recalling the units might annoy the player since they'd still cost upkeep.

Code: Select all

[event]
    name=recall
    first_time_only=no

    [filter]
        [not]
            level=0
        [/not]
    [/filter]

    [gold]
        side=1
        amount=20
    [/gold]
[/gold]

If you want it to only apply to certain unit types rather than all >lvl0 recalls, then you can change the contents of the [filter] to type=Spearman,Horseman,Bowman,etc,etc or whatever you want. Or to id=Jack,Jill,Joe,etc,etc.

[JaMiT]

In scenario two could I then run some thing like this:

[filter]
Jack alive? y/n
[if no end]
level 0? y/n
[if yes end]
unit place: Jack (7.7)
[/filter]

[filter]
Jill alive? y/n
[if no end]
level 0? y/n
[if yes end]
unit place: Jill (8.7)
[/filter]

Your "unit place" would mean recalling a unit, and your StandardUnitFilter would go inside that, not outside. (You could pick just about any non-initial scenario from any mainline campaign to see examples of your idea in action.) Assuming those units' ids are "Jack" and "Jill":

Code: Select all

    [recall]
        id=Jack
        [not]
            level=0
        [/not]
        x,y=7,7
    [/recall]
    [recall]
        id=Jill
        [not]
            level=0
        [/not]
        x,y=8,7
    [/recall]

Drop the "x,y=" lines to have the units appear next to the leader instead of at the specified coordinates. If there are a significant number of these units, you may want to warn players that leveling these units will cause them and their upkeep to be automatically transferred to the next scenario.

Another alternative might be to just give the player 20 gold per "loyalist" unit, and let the player decide whether to recall them or to use the gold for additional recruits. Or maybe ask in the WML Workshop for other tricks?