User:CommodusIV/sandbox

A Hotseat, or hotseating, is a mode from Medieval 2 Total War allowing multiple factions to be played on the same turn. Using passwords and 'passing on' the save file, this is the predecessor of Head to Head/Co-Op, lacking online functions but allowing many players to participate with whatever diplomatic terms they wish. It is also used to simply control multiple (or all) factions as one player, or test game functions when modding.

This feature is complete through the Kingdoms Expansion and all mods built from it. The features are more rudimentary in Vanilla (requiring mods like Retrofit to work properly) and can be hacked together in Rome 1 Total War. How well it works in mods depends on the mods not using scripts that break the mode.

Mechanics

Each selected faction selected is played on the same turn. This can be just one all the way up to every possible faction. Once all player activities are done, the AI controls what is left and the turn ends. Next turn begins on the first selected faction in the turn order. Depending on configuration set before the hotseat is created, passwords (per user and for the console) and other options can be set. These options do not work as reliably in the vanilla Grand Campaign and require special steps in Rome 1.

Messages can be sent to other player factions through the Overview -> Relations menu. This is a hotseat exclusive feature. What you see is what you get; the message cannot be larger than the given text box, and there is no option to go back to prior text without deleting what was already written. The formatting is not reliable and may confuse sentences if manual breaks are not inserted.

Battles are always done against the AI, since the mode has no online connection. There are modding efforts to work around this quirk, although multiplayer communities have gone purely autoresolve or allowed manual battles against the AI for years. Refer to the See Also section for more.

As everything played is on the same turn, there are balance discrepancies between a faction that plays earlier in the turn vs a faction that plays later. The earlier playing faction will have everything refreshed by next play if the later faction attacks, while the later faction will be, for example, unable to move defeated armies since they were attacked earlier on that turn.

If this is used for multiplayer, the current faction must end turn and save the game on the next faction's screen to manually send to the next player. There is no function to check who is opening what except for passwords (and some file integrity options for multiplayer use). Due to the effects of saving and reloading a turn, 'minor' messages such as building scrolls, trait changes, and various events will not be seen. 'Important' scrolls, events requiring player input and diplomacy scrolls from other players (through diplomats or the relations menu) will always be available the moment the turn is opened/the player uses their password.

Console Commands

If an admin password is used, the command logon followed by the password is required for access. To log back out, use logout. Note that the login is reset when the hotseat is reloaded.

All regular ingame commands apply from here. In hotseating, they can be used to check the map (toggle_fow), add money (including to other factions, ie, add_money 40000 france) CHECK, change settlement populations and more depending on what is desired.

Exclusive to hotseat mode is control, which allows factions to be taken from or returned to AI control. Use this with caution if controlling a faction that was never chosen on the Faction Select screen. In many mods, factions yanked from AI without being player factions in the first place will be made unplayable if the game is reloaded. If you expect to encounter this bug (or have done a quick test to verify it happens), consider selecting all possible factions, then using control to give up the ones you don't want yet.

Control can be used to give every faction to the AI. Note, the game will remember the last player faction and on some level still consider it 'your' faction despite the AI controlling it and you having no vision. As a result, you cannot use commands when it is on 'your' turn, but can do things like open the faction overview screen to check out the world. A faction can be controlled again at (almost) any time, with some lag to be expected. Expect very poor performance with this if the fog of war is lifted and especially if settings for AI movement tracking are enabled.

Configuration

(Kingdoms-Based Hotseat Config)

This configuration may be set anywhere in the file; lower or at the bottom is standard. These options do not have to be specifically set in order to play - however, to have any real control over hotseating features beyond the ingame menus, some options should be set. Others are more obscure. All will be explained below. Most mods typically have these options, either commented out or set to default values from the mod author.

turns=1

a

scroll=1

a

admin_password=password

If console access is enabled when starting the game, it can only be accessed using the password set here. The password is then buried in the save file and can be used to access console by anyone who knows it. It cannot be changed once the campaign is launched. Comment out the line for no password when the console is enabled. CHECK

validate_data=1

a

allow_validation_failures=1

a

disable_papal_elections=1

a

close_after_save=1

a

gamename=hotseat_gamename

a

save_prefs=1

a

update_ai_camera=1

a

validate_diplomacy=1

a

save_config=1

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

(Medieval 2 Vanilla Config} Note: Instead of using the above options, it is advisable to use a very light kingdoms-based mod like Retrofit instead. Even with the above, scroll divisions and password config are not available, and the reliability of the code may vary - especially with the steam version.

Uses

Multiplayer Hotseating

For Total War Center's competitive hotseating forum, see [ Hotseat Campaigns]

Despite a host of possible bugs and exploits, Hotseating has a devoted following that has lasted the release of many newer games. Its appeal lies in the sheer availability of factions compared to later entries and the unique gameplay that comes from it.

Random Scenario

When you start a turn in a hotseat you'll be met by a screen with information on the game and requesting a password required to "unlock" the save. This is crucial to prevent other players from snooping on you. In addition, due to the nature of a game the notifications scrolls don't appear when loading a save game, and thus notifications of buildings constructed, units trained, new traits and events will not appear, but must be manually checked.

The start screen of a hotseat, which is shown every time a save file is loaded.

A players usually goes through three steps when playing a hotseat turn.

• Downloading the save file and moving it into the save folder.
• Launching the game, starting the save and actually playing the turn. Here one does everything one would like to do in the game, such as moving troops and agents, building and recruiting, fighting battles as per the hotseats rules and diplomacy.
• Ending the turn, saving the file, uploading it and sending it to the next player.

The message screen in a hotseat, which is used by clicking on the relevant factions emblem in the diplomacy screen. Do note that one can also rename ones own faction by clicking on the faction name on the overview.

Setting up a hotseat

While most mods come with the hotseat function included as it came as part of the kingdoms expansion, one should still tweak it before one goes into proper play. To participate in a hotseat no file editing is required, but if you're to start one yourself some editing is adviced. Here therefore is a template for what your settings should end up looking like. The explanation on what the code does is written following the ##. Do note that this is only neccessary if you're to start and administrate the hotseat yourself.

[hotseat]
scroll = true 				## Enables the start turn scroll in hotseat campaign.
turns = false 				## Enables the forced separate human faction turns (including diplomacy) in hotseat campaign.
disable_console	= false 		## Enables cheat console in hotseat campaign.
admin_password = Whateveryoudlike       ## Specifies the password for administrator access to the dev console when console disabled. Only the administrator of the hotseat should know the password, and it's stored in the save file, thus the other players don't need to have the same content in the cfg file.
update_ai_camera = true 		## Enables camera updates during ai turn in hotseat campaign.
disable_papal_elections	= true		## Disables voting in papal elections. This is usually disabled as only the first human player in the turn will be able to cast a vote, meaning the AI will vote in place of the other players, thus gaining an unfair advantage. 
autoresolve_battles = false 		## Enables forced autoresolve all battles in hotseat campaign.
validate_diplomacy = false 		## Enables diplomacy validation for incoming propositions.
save_prefs = true 			## Enables forced relevant hotseat options to be saved with game, such as the 
autosave = true 			## Autosaves the hotseat game at start of players turn.
save_config = true 			## Saves the cfg file in save directory containing information about next players turn. 
close_after_save = false 		## Closes medieval II directly after a hotseat autosave. As the turns are usually manually saved with certain wording to easier identify the file this is usually disabled. 
gamename = Whateveryoudlike		## Subdirectory name for hotseat save games, shows up on the start screen for each players turn.
validate_data = true 			## Ensures game data files used in previous save match current campaign data files. This is very important to to check that all the players have the same, correctly installed module. 
allow_validation_failures = false 	## Prevents the game loading if savegamne or data validations fail.
 

Competitive Play

Hotseating has a very strong prescense on Total War Center, where several games across several mods are run simultaneously, with Gaming Staff dedicated to keeping things in order. When playing in a hotseat such as on TWC there are several rules in place to ensure fair play, as the AI is quite easy to exploit and abuse. Legend of Total Wars exploit guidecovers only a fraction of the possible exploits, and they are usually banned. The easiest form of cheating would of course be through the developer console, but that it is always locked for players in competitive environments behind an admin password. A typical ruleset can be found in this hotseat.

One important aspect of competitive play is that it's usually all in good fun and friendly. While one does control nations, there should always be a civil and friendly manner, and competing in hotseats is a good way of making friends, should you not let the fighting get over your head. However, there are often tournaments and competitions awarding special prices, which can be tournaments awarding steam gift cards hosted by Youtubers, on discord servers or for special medals on TWC, as indicated by being Official Gaming Staff competitions. These can include Newblood hotseats aimed at newer players or 1v1 Tournaments. However, most hotseats are done with the sole aim of fun, and the commonly used rules help ensure fairness for all, and dedicated admins facilitate a more enjoyable experience for the players.

See also

• The Hotseat Subforum on Total War Center, where you can create, host, join and play in a multitude of hotseats with an active dedicated community.
• The Hotseat Guide Index over on Total War Center, showcasing a multitude of guides that are very useful when it comes to learning how to adapt to the new playing style required for multiplayer.
• The Administrator Guide by Dux, explaning how to set up and run your own hotseat
• The TWC Hotsat Chat thread, where anyone is free to ask questions regarding hotseats