Fort Wars 3.1

        Fort Wars 3.1 adds countless new tricks that I’ve found in the past few months, including scatter effects, change units in area, unstealth, and more. Highlights include a great new 1500 kills award, with a surprise “Blessing of Arkantos”.

        This is the last major change you will see to Fort Wars.   Unfortunately, it’s about time I move on - I’m getting busier and busier these days and can’t really find time to work on this (hence why this version took over three months to finish :p )

        The site information (stats etc) have also been updated.   Hopefully all loose ends have been tied up before I leave FW. :p

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VERSION HISTORY:
[3.1]
- Editted by pftq
- AOE3 TWC 1.02, December 26 2006 to March 4 2007
- Dutch merc reverted to Hackepell (was most balanced at that point).
- Mortar HP fixed from being doubled.
- Iroquois Rams cost lowered from 6 to 5 coin.
- Spahi cost raised from 6 to 7.
- Russian reinforcements have Lil’ Bombards instead of Great Cannons.
- Age detection enabled and non-Age1 games automatically end.
- Ronin gain 500 base HP to reduce vulnerability to Rifler tech.
- Super Bolas Warrior cost decreased 60 to 50 coin to boost popularity.
- 800 kills award gives 2 bolas instead of 1.
- Computer Players automatically move Alain to help skip instructions.
- Computer Players automatically spawn infantry units.
- Computer Players choose a random choice out of the 3 when they reach an award.
- Skip Instructions fixed (broke when Nomad Age introduced)
- Updated HP stats to those of patch 1.02
- Instructions redone.
- “Revolt” Special added at 50 coin cost, changes units to Outlaw Musketeers.
- 250 kills award changed from 2 range to 3 range for artillery, 1 building upgrade to 2.
- Stopped coin from counting when players are dead.
- Sioux cutoff bonus message fixed.
- French bonus typo fixed.
- Nomad 75 coin unit start changed to 50-75 coin units, to add variety.
- Scatter Bear Special added, which scatters units when the bear dies.
- Base Fort Attack (affects upgrades) tripled to give slightly better fort.
- Llama scatters units in center and resets stealth units to default stance every few minutes.
- 1500 kills award: Omniscience (Spies), Revolution (All Spawned Units to Fusiliers), Blessing of Arkantos
- Gaining 15000 XP or more in one kill automatically cancels out.
- Wardogs disabled
- Nomad fixed gun removed.
- Spawn triggers converted to XS and combined using kb functions; ingame lag reduced significantly.
- Highlanders cost raised from 8 to 9.
- Portuguese bonus changed: ranged infantry get 2/3 attack upgrade every 2 bought; less speed.
- Award text recoded more efficiently. (faster load time)
- Store Island triggers optimized for load time.
- Island units anti-grouping (ES has autogroup units) effect optimized to reduce load/lag.
- Arrowknights removed from spawn.
- Fixed bug where French Oprichniks do not receive HP bonus.
- Iroquois ram HP +50% base and cost made 3 for 12 coin; cavalry get 50% seige boost instead of 25%.
- Aztec Bonus changed to: Spawned Heavy Infantry are faster and have 30% more HP but no Cavalry spawn.
- Aztec Merc changed to: Arrow Knights; reinforcements come with Skull Knights.
- Replaced 7500XP: Special Duration with RR Worker Special, which changes Spawned Units around Buffalo to RR Workers.
- Coin limit on Llama removed and increases indefinitely to 120xp per sec.
- 600 kills award changed from 4 oprichniks to 5 oprichniks.
- Added return function to automatically move George Crushington and Bolivar away after seeing instructions.
- Petards population down to 3 from 5; costchange of 5 coin changed to 3.
- Newly discovered arrays put into use and filesize greatly shortened.

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        Finally finished the Advanced Triggers Set.   These consist of a number of features many have said were impossible - but here they are.

        Advanced Triggers Set

        The counter and tracker I wrote for my site is extremely powerful and has been requested a number of times by seemingly random people.   I’ve packaged it up and rewrote the code a bit to make it even easier to use.

        This was one of my first fully function mySQL and PHP based scripts, although it is not the first I released. I used it on my own site for many months before considering a release version. I’ve always hated how static and unchangable things were when I downloaded scripts. Every aspect of the counter I ever needed changing, I made it changable in the settings file. I hope it will be one of the most customizable and easy-to-use scripts you will have.

         The installation is very simple (only 3 steps). The script does all the work.

         Once installed, the counter consists of a huge array of features. These are but a few of what is possible:

Scatter Effects  

This is perhaps one of the most complex effects I have created. The basic idea is that units in an area “scatter” or move to a random location. There are two effects. One of them, “Random in Area”, will have each unit move to their own random location, in the area you specify. The other one, “From Original Location”, will have each unit move in a random direction from their OWN location.

What am I talking about?

The units in the following picture all started out near the titan. In a single effect, “Scatter - Random in Area”, with the Edge Only enabled, the units are forced to the edge of the area’s radius - each one choosing its own spot.

Units Scattered to Edge of Area

Try doing that with any effects you have prior to this.

Explaining the Fields:
- Unit Type ID - Number that is the id of the protounit or class (AbstractInfantry, Building…) you want. IT IS RECOMMENDED YOU DEFINE THIS. Otherwise the trigger will blindly loop through every unit type in the game, not knowing what to look for specifically (even if you want ALL unit types, use the CLASS ID for “All”). DOWNLOAD THE ID VIEWER EFFECT TO FIND ANY ID YOU WANT. Not defining works but it uses a LOT of memory - if you do use it, do NOT loop without a condition.

- From… - Define a single player to scatter from or have it convert from ALL players (not including the player being converted to obviously).

- Scatter Radius: How far units will go either from - themselves, in “From Original Location” - or the Target, in “Random in Area”.

- Edges Only: This will set it to only fill the perimeter, basically forcing the unit to go exactly to the edge of the radius.

These are the trigger effects included in this set:

Scatter - Random in Area: Units around the CENTER UNIT will go to a random location within SCATTER RADIUS of the TARGET.
Scatter - From Original Location: Units around CENTER UNIT will go to a random location within SCATTER RADIUS of THEMSELVES.

Some things to keep in mind:
- The locations chosen are random - the same location may be chosen twice.
- AOM/AOT Issue: Cinematic Blocks and similar objects do not return Object Info (use object info tool in editor) and cannot be used as target or center unit. Try Invisible Target or other invisible objects that return object info.

Copy Effects

Meanwhile…. I also created this out of a request.
This effect was requested by nottud at aom.heavengames.com

The effect copies units within a set area and pastes them in another area (areas determined by center units). There are two effects, one retains the player owner of each unit, the other converts them to a player. An option is also available to retain unit positions, creating a true Copy effect.

Explaining the Fields:
- Unit Type ID - Number that is the id of the protounit or class (AbstractInfantry, Building…) you want. IT IS RECOMMENDED YOU DEFINE THIS. Otherwise the trigger will blindly loop through every unit type in the game, not knowing what to look for specifically (even if you want ALL unit types, use the CLASS ID for “All”). DOWNLOAD THE ID VIEWER EFFECT TO FIND ANY ID YOU WANT. Not defining works but it uses a LOT of memory - if you do use it, do NOT loop without a condition.

- From… - Define a single player to copy from or have it copy from ALL players

- Retain Unit Positions - Toggle this on to copy the units exactly as they are, including the locations of each unit, in relative to the center unit.

These are the trigger effects included in this set:

Army Copy Units in Area - Retains the owner of each unit, a true copy effect.
Army Copy Units in Area TO PLAYER - converts the units to the player of the army as well.

Some things to keep in mind:
- Army Deploy stops working if the deploy point is full; if this may happen, it’s a good idea to Retain Unit Positions to avoid clogging.
- AOM/AOT Issue: Cinematic Blocks and similar objects do not return Object Info (use object info tool in editor) and cannot be used as target or center unit. Try Invisible Target or other invisible objects that return object info.

        Another set of trigger effects for AOM and AOE3 designers…

         These are one of the more unique, less straight-forward trigger effects I have made. One of many things RMS have over scenarios is the randomness of each game. The below effects should add some of that missing element to scenarios and open up many more possibilities.

The basic workings involve:
- Radius: As with other effects and conditions, radius determines how far a selected location can be. Unfortunately, due to a lack of the squareroot function in XS, filling every spot within the radius actually forms a square.
- Edges Only: This will set it to only fill the perimeter. If every spot is filled, you will see a hollow square.

         The fact that the radius is a square should not really much a problem. The only way you can notice is if you actually fill every spot, which you probably wouldn’t be doing (in a serious use of the effect) anyways.

Screenshots of what I mean:
Perfectly Filled Squares
Perfectly Hollowed Squares
Instant Box Wall Created With Triggers

         I’ve taken the effects I found useful and also combined it with the ToUnit Effect. Perhaps it is just preference, but I see no point in using an area selection, other than being lazy. Using a unit target, you can simply place a block down to specify the area - not only that, but you can also have a moving area (moving unit). That is far more useful.

These are the trigger effects included in this set:

Army Build Building Near Unit
Army Deploy Near Unit (Heading removed for Space, let me know if this is a problem)
Army Teleport Near Unit
Invoke God Power Near Unit (Area GPs only, and with single location)
Move From Area To Near Unit
Teleport Units to Near Unit
Unit Build Building Near Unit
Unit Create Near Unit

Download NearUnit Effects Here

Some things to keep in mind:
- Army Deploy deploys next to the obstacle if an obstacle is an encountered - therefore you will not have a perfect square or line.