Topic: Game mechanics for attacks ?

Sanc50 Topic Opener Joined: 2014-06-09, 17:45 Posts: 6 Pry about Widelands	Posted at: 2014-06-09, 17:54 Hello I'm rather new to Widelands that i discovered from recommendation of a friend knowing that i liked Settlers 2 a lot, and i've been really impressed by how good Widelands was. I did a few games with an AI (set to aggressive) on the Crater map to learn the rope (that fortunately for me were close enough to S2 so it was rather easy to learn) but when it came to meeting the AI on the map, i ran into problems after problems in why sometime i can attack with lots of troops , why sometime i can only deploy a couple of them despite i have several military buildings filled with troops nearby. The latest version of the problem was just a few minutes ago, i decided to take a screenshot because i'm completely puzzled there : http://i.imgur.com/TPP20jJ.jpg I have a Citadel (upgraded fortress), 2 Barriers and a Dungeon that i showed with red arrows, very close to the frontier between me and the AI The AI has 2 Barriers and a couple of Sentry posts working, one of those Barriers was mine some minutes ago but the AI managed to take it. And despite all my buildings are filled with troops, i can deploy ... 0 soldiers to attack any of those enemy buildings. Is that a known bug or is there a game mechanic that i'm unaware about ? Top Quote

wl-zocker Joined: 2011-12-30, 16:37 Posts: 495 Tribe Member Location: Germany	Posted at: 2014-06-09, 18:25 Hello and welcome to our forum. From what I can tell from the screenshot: You should be able to attack all occupied enemy buildings (the range for the soldiers to attack is 25 fields, which is rather large and no problem here). But I think you got something a bit wrong: The barrier on top of the screen is still under construction and the donjon (note that a dungeon is something different) is not occupied (no fire burning in front of it). Could you please check how many soldiers you really have in the other two buildings? You can press "s" to show the statistics above each building ("1 soldier (+4)" means that one soldier is in the barrier and 4 are missing) or you click onto the military site. A window with the present soldiers will open. One soldier will always have to stay in the building to defend it (e.g. with merely a barrier which can hold 5 soldiers, you can only send 4 soldiers to attack). Did you play the tutorial? I think some basics (including the shortcuts) should be explained there. For how to make soldiers, I suggest to play the campaigns. If you still have problems, you can ask here, of course. "Only few people know how much one has to know in order to know how little one knows." - Werner Heisenberg Top Quote

Sanc50 Topic Opener Joined: 2014-06-09, 17:45 Posts: 6 Pry about Widelands	Posted at: 2014-06-09, 18:54 Thank you. Yes, i played the tutorial originally before playing more games on Crater (not yet played any campaigns). When you asked to press S , that showed me the explanation : http://i.imgur.com/iuv3LTx.jpg It basically tells me that i have 0 soldiers in all my military structures in that area ! Lucky me the AI does not seem to attack. I thought they were filled because there was a battle with several soldiers in the area. It makes sense then that i couldn't attack or could only attack with a couple of soldiers in previous similar situations. Now i'm going to lower the amount of troops inside of my far away barriers so they can come to the front before the AI notice my defense lines are ... empty edit : ha ha , the disaster, i managed to redirect 8 of my soldiers that were populating uselessly far away military buildings, but it wasn't enough, the AI launched an attack, took 2 of my Barriers. And destroyed by doing so my ore smelting building ... edit 2 : my dungeon just went down, ouch, my citadel is still defended but i'm now running out of soldiers and out of axes, that's going to be tough to get out of that bad situation, but so much fun edit 3 : i lost the citadel, the 3 defenders did what they could but the enemy was too numerous. That's going to be a carnage on my town now my best defenses have fallen edit 4 : wow, the AI has really no mercy, they ruthlessly massively attacked and destroyed my remaining defense. The headsquarter unfortunately fell, the cows are now ruling my town ! http://i.imgur.com/hpQmhdj.jpg next time i'll get my revenge ! The game is really amazing Edited: 2014-06-09, 19:08 Top Quote

wl-zocker Joined: 2011-12-30, 16:37 Posts: 495 Tribe Member Location: Germany	Posted at: 2014-06-09, 21:51 You can write really funnily, I like your kind of writing It is nice to see that you have so much fun playing Widelands, although you have lost that game - but all beginnings are difficult. You will have to play some more games to get stronger. You can also play without the computer player in order to improve the way you build your buildings etc. The campaigns also teach you that. Some more information about warfare: You can only attack buildings that have soldiers inside. (Maybe you have noticed that you could not attack some buildings of the enemy although their construction had finished.) In the screenshot, your citadel cannot be attacked, but it does not have any influence neither (i.e. when your barrier and the military building left of your citadel is conquered, your citadel will burn down). Once one soldier is inside, the enemy can attack with as many soldiers as he wants to. It is therefore better to have few fully manned military buildings than many ones that are only occupied with one soldier each. "Only few people know how much one has to know in order to know how little one knows." - Werner Heisenberg Top Quote

Sanc50 Topic Opener Joined: 2014-06-09, 17:45 Posts: 6 Pry about Widelands	Posted at: 2014-06-09, 22:19 Thank you, i have indeed lots of fun with Widelands, it managed from my point of view to be even better than my good old Settlers 2, not a minor feat considering how much i liked that game in its time ! Top Quote

Sanc50 Topic Opener Joined: 2014-06-09, 17:45 Posts: 6 Pry about Widelands	Posted at: 2014-06-10, 14:57 Just a little update for fun, i had my revenge ! A screenshot of the preparation of the attack on the enemy headquarters, that has no more soldiers to attack me, and a lot of his own industry have been razed. .. while my axe/armor industry is working non stop to gather more troops to replace my fallen http://i.imgur.com/590XeDQ.jpg Basically once the headsquarter fell, it was just a question of time that i conquer the map, only a matter or taking the minor defense buildings left that were all populated with only 1 soldier (as it wasn't possible for the AI to get more troops anymore) And finally, the last barrier building of the AI fell , a rather satisfying sight after what the AI did to my town yesterday :D http://i.imgur.com/wesgn4i.jpg The world was mine now (well, the crater map i mean ) , but the game didn't finished, odd because i am sure i didn't enabled "endless game" Anyways, i noticed, after crushing the AI that there were a couple of spots on the maps in which there was some of his plots left intact, despite it didn't had any building anywhere, maybe a bug ? : http://i.imgur.com/1srajgu.jpg http://i.imgur.com/hfdlM0x.jpg I got rid of them by building a barrier next to them, but still there wasn't any end to that game, not sure if it's the normal behaviour or a bug (as i didn't enabled endless game). general stats : http://i.imgur.com/aKV71HR.jpg It was a lot of fun Edited: 2014-06-10, 14:59 Top Quote

wl-zocker Joined: 2011-12-30, 16:37 Posts: 495 Tribe Member Location: Germany	Posted at: 2014-06-10, 15:48 Congratulations on your victory. The win condition "Endless game" is selected by default, by clicking on the button (when starting a new game) you can change it (a bit counter-intuitive admittedly). In your news archive, the message with the win condition sent to you at the beginning of the game should still be there - are you sure it does not say "Endless game"? For the win condition "Autocrat", it is only necessary to destroy all warehouses and the headquarters (in build 18; before, you had to destroy every single building). Taking over those spots has never been necessary. I have never heard about a bug in the win condition. If you are positive that you chose "Autocrat", could you please attach the two replay files (and tell which version of Widelands you are using)? "Only few people know how much one has to know in order to know how little one knows." - Werner Heisenberg Top Quote

Sanc50 Topic Opener Joined: 2014-06-09, 17:45 Posts: 6 Pry about Widelands	Posted at: 2014-06-10, 16:57 Ah, that must be it then, i thought it was not enabled by default so as i didn't clicked on the button i thought i was playing a regular game. This means then that my game must have been "endless" , explaining why i had no game ending despite i had destroyed headquarter and warehouses. Thank you, that another thing i'll have to keep in mind for my next game. Assuming i'm not the one annihilated of course Top Quote

einstein13 Joined: 2013-07-28, 23:01 Posts: 1118 One Elder of Players Location: Poland	Posted at: 2014-06-10, 18:58 I can see that you have lots of fun here! Probably you will be a bit confused about soldiers levels. In Settlers 2 you had golden coins to level up. Here you have another buildings and weapons. And to be specific, just see the table here: https://wl.widelands.org/wiki/SoldierLevels/ It can be very helpful with making up a strategy einstein einstein13 calculations & maps packages: http://wuatek.no-ip.org/~rak/widelands/ backup website files: http://kartezjusz.ddns.net/upload/widelands/ Top Quote

Sanc50 Topic Opener Joined: 2014-06-09, 17:45 Posts: 6 Pry about Widelands	Posted at: 2014-06-13, 15:34 Thank you for the link. I like that in Widelands the soldier upgrading system is depending to actual training instead of only and simply getting gold coins like in Settlers 2, it makes more sense to me. I hope more people will learn about the existence of Widelands (i can't believe how i discovered it only recently) and play it, it's really great and in my opinion surpass its inspiration , Settlers 2. Top Quote