Parties attached to eachother, some clarification wanted

[MartinF]

I was hoping that someone here could explain to me how this whole attachment thing works.

it would seem that when parties are engaged in combat, they are 'attached', and I think that parties who are in a town are also attached to that town.

Anyway, I don't really understand how it works or how it influences what is going on. If I don't know that, I can't use it, so I'd like to learn.

Any clarification would be much appreciated.

 

[killkhergit]

You could have a look at what is called and processed when the party encounter dialog/menu pops up.

Edit: Here's a lead:

  [anyone,"lord_attack_verify_commit", [], "{s43}", "close_window",
   [
    (call_script, "script_lord_comment_to_s43", "$g_talk_troop", "str_lord_challenged_default"),
    (call_script, "script_make_kingdom_hostile_to_player", "$g_encountered_party_faction", -3),
    (call_script, "script_change_player_relation_with_troop", "$g_talk_troop", -30),
    ]],

Ah well. It just closes the window. I'll gotta have a look at game_menus. Interesting

 

[Mordachai]

I hope I'm not derailing your thread, but I'm hoping my questions / confusion might generate more replies & light on the topic...

Basically, I'm confused between the distinction of a troop and a party.  Yes, a party is something that is on-map, has an icon, and has its own ID.  It can have 32 slots of stuff "attached" to it - other troops & a count of each troop type.

But what whigs me out is that the distinction is totally blurred for centers.  You can equally treat a center as a party and as a troop, it seems (from a great deal of the code). 
So does that mean that centers happen to use the same ID number for their party as for their troop ID?
Is this also the case with the player's troop ID and party ID? 
When is the distinction between troop ID and party ID relevant?

And yes, as the MartinF seems to be asking - how does a party "attach" to another party (moving troops between them is somewhat intuitive, but the idea of the party being "in" another party - the player's stack being in a town, is fuzzy at best).

 

[jik]

sorry MartinF, would like to help on that, but I'm not sure as well.  It would seem that by attaching one party to another, there would be no discrepency as to which party to encounter if your party hits that instance(such as a battle, or a town).  I see it more clearly when you enter a town.  You are attached to the town so that any other party hitting the town does not hit you, or possibly even see you?

I would think that it's to remove the confusion of which will be encountered between the attached parties if a 3rd party comes into contact.  Does this make sense to you?  All just theory though, from looking at the encounter and simulate battle scripts.

As to  Mordachai, think of a troop as a single unit, where as a party is a container of troops.  Yes troops are containers too, but they usually contain items.  Troops define the soldier and its stats, which cannot be defined in a party.  The party defines what troops are together.

 

[MartinF]

I'm pretty sure a center is a party and not a troop, but I think the distinction is somewhat vague in the game.

troops can only exist in parties. So p_main_party is your party and your troop is trp_player.

what makes you think you can equally treat centers as troops or players? As far as the stacks go, I think the party stacks are treated separate from the towns stacks. The game just makes it looks like the party is 'in' the town but from a code point of view, the different parties, including the town, are just stacked up on top of eachother.

So is the distinction perhaps that when a party goes into a town of its own faction, and the name of the hero shows up on the mouse-over window, it is then 'attached' to that town? Meaning that if the town gets attacked, it's considered in the defense, etc?

Where's bloody Jinnai when you need him?

 

[Mordachai]

jik, MartinF - thanks.  Yes, conceptually, jik, you're right, parties contain troops, troops contain items, for the most part, and parties can be attached to other parties.

I just could swear that I had seen centers being used as an argument where a troop was required... but now I'm searching my files and do NOT see it.  D'oh!  Maybe I was just tired and confused last evening...  I'll post it here if I find it again - but for now I'll assume I was seeing vapors.

 

[jik]

jik, MartinF - thanks.  Yes, conceptually, jik, you're right, parties contain troops, troops contain items, for the most part, and parties can be attached to other parties.

I just could swear that I had seen centers being used as an argument where a troop was required... but now I'm searching my files and do NOT see it.  D'oh!  Maybe I was just tired and confused last evening...  I'll post it here if I find it again - but for now I'll assume I was seeing vapors.

I use some "center" references in my village kit.  Centers refere (in my experience) to towns, and maybe castles, but not all parties.  The center is what villages are bound to.

Some slots are like that.  Such as the slot "slot_town_lord", which is a party slot, but cannot be used for villages (I was getting an error when I tried to use it for a village).

 

[Mordachai]

Jik- the SOD mod allows you to give villages as fiefs to your lords - and it does so by setting slot_town_lord for the village.  I really don't think that villages are any different than castles or towns in this respect.