I spent a few hours trying to understand how did this tragedy has happened.
I started to write this as a question but then it evolved so I'll be grateful if you advise/move it if it lands in incorrect section or something.
So I went into normal mode and opened console for some testings so now I understand why.
The ottoman army was defeated at Kirkkilise earlier and I moved my army away from here.
I left a small army with allies attached (who ran away like cowards as usual) and when I came back I noticed my mercs (and 7k allies) are about to die a horrible death.
I expected the Ottomans to go through Gelibolu and/or Edirne or even around Edirne to avoid rebels which didn't happen.
And so: When you conquer entire Balkans there is no way to cross from Anatolia to Balkans again if you don't capture the fort at Gelibolu or Constantinople... unless?
In the screen above the Gelibolu and Selanik fort were destroyed (THANKS AI Now I can't go to Anatolia fast enough!).
So in that case you can still go from from Kocaeli to Gelibolu or even Edirne through Constantinople and from there to entire of Balkans (I expected that).
What I did not expect is that even if you conquer ENTIRE BALKANS area and hold forts of Constantinople and Gelibolu then
20k "Army from Balkans" moves to Kocaeli.
10k "Army from Anatolia" moves to Ankara.
The 20k "Army from Balkans" seems to have never left Constantinople's ZoC and, even after Kirkkilise was captured by the enemy (thus entering the reach of their ZoC), the army is allowed to go back to the province it came from because of, what I suppose, it is remembering that the Kirkkilise province didn't belong to Constantiple's ZoC at the time... Probably?
Meanwhile any other army, like 10k "Army from Anatolia", is not allowed to hop over Constantinople's fort as it has already left its ZoC.
But didn't the 20k army ALSO leave ZoC while stepping onto Kocaeli already? Well yes, but actually no. "The Return Province is updated when a unit leaves a non-ZoC province"
Thinking I'm on a good trail I have sent the Balkan army once again from ally owned Kirkkilise to Kocaeli and had Byzantines occupy entry to Balkans again. (Changed the save file already)
I suppose the Kirkkilise has been marked as to be rewritten maybe? Or to be deleted? Maybe?
But when I go to Constantinople, stop there and then
The Return province is updated. The unit cannot return to Kirkkilise anymore so the pathfinding fails and should recommend using ships, but surprise it doesn't (and I suppose I'll never guess why unless I analyze the code itself Does it store the previous/old Return Province somewhere or something?).
On the screen above you can see "First army" as it moves from Kocaeli straight into Kirkkilise while "Second army" stopped at Constantinople and was unable to move to Kirkkilise in any other way than moving to Silistre first then shift clicking to Kirkkilise.
It can still move anywhere else by Return Province, it can also move onto Ships and land in Silistre (automatic transportation enables that) however it cannot automate transport to Kirkkilise as if it can't pathfind anywhere to it unless it returns to Kocaeli and by that resets/fixes itself.
However going back onto the main topic:
The conclusion is that the Balkan army should not be able to cross over Constantinople right into their previous Return Province since it creates a very location specific problem (but I suppose the same principles may be applied to other straits).
You may easily use it to hop over two forts with 40/60k troops right into Balkans ignoring the forts and jump back to Anatolia whenever you like as long and as long as you have at least 1 stack that is able to reoccupy the Kirkkilise back and by reoccupying that you may throw every other Anatolian or Tunisian army (even without Return Province) from Anatolia back into Balkans as long as you have fleet superiority to control the strait.
Is that a problem? I think so. Solution? I'm just an amateur but if trying to fix it I'd do (while leaving updating Return Province as it is):
(I assume you have already tried to update the "Return Province" as the army steps onto non-ZoC province and it may cause some problems)
If stuck at Kujawy, because all other forts are captured, when Łęczyca is our only "Return Province" it is possible to move from Kujawy to Łęczyca and even Kraków (but still unable to leave without reoccupying the forts).
If this change will be made then it will become not posible to unless the fort at Płock gets reoccupied and unit becomes free from ZoC.
I will be happy to hear what other's opinion about this is, whether it is a problem, bug or if I just wasted a bunch of time and salt because of kebabs
I started to write this as a question but then it evolved so I'll be grateful if you advise/move it if it lands in incorrect section or something.
The ottoman army was defeated at Kirkkilise earlier and I moved my army away from here.
I left a small army with allies attached (who ran away like cowards as usual) and when I came back I noticed my mercs (and 7k allies) are about to die a horrible death.
I expected the Ottomans to go through Gelibolu and/or Edirne or even around Edirne to avoid rebels which didn't happen.
And so: When you conquer entire Balkans there is no way to cross from Anatolia to Balkans again if you don't capture the fort at Gelibolu or Constantinople... unless?
In the screen above the Gelibolu and Selanik fort were destroyed (THANKS AI Now I can't go to Anatolia fast enough!).
So in that case you can still go from from Kocaeli to Gelibolu or even Edirne through Constantinople and from there to entire of Balkans (I expected that).
What I did not expect is that even if you conquer ENTIRE BALKANS area and hold forts of Constantinople and Gelibolu then
20k "Army from Balkans" moves to Kocaeli.
10k "Army from Anatolia" moves to Ankara.
Meanwhile any other army, like 10k "Army from Anatolia", is not allowed to hop over Constantinople's fort as it has already left its ZoC.
But didn't the 20k army ALSO leave ZoC while stepping onto Kocaeli already? Well yes, but actually no. "The Return Province is updated when a unit leaves a non-ZoC province"
Thinking I'm on a good trail I have sent the Balkan army once again from ally owned Kirkkilise to Kocaeli and had Byzantines occupy entry to Balkans again. (Changed the save file already)
I suppose the Kirkkilise has been marked as to be rewritten maybe? Or to be deleted? Maybe?
But when I go to Constantinople, stop there and then
The Return province is updated. The unit cannot return to Kirkkilise anymore so the pathfinding fails and should recommend using ships, but surprise it doesn't (and I suppose I'll never guess why unless I analyze the code itself Does it store the previous/old Return Province somewhere or something?).
On the screen above you can see "First army" as it moves from Kocaeli straight into Kirkkilise while "Second army" stopped at Constantinople and was unable to move to Kirkkilise in any other way than moving to Silistre first then shift clicking to Kirkkilise.
It can still move anywhere else by Return Province, it can also move onto Ships and land in Silistre (automatic transportation enables that) however it cannot automate transport to Kirkkilise as if it can't pathfind anywhere to it unless it returns to Kocaeli and by that resets/fixes itself.
However going back onto the main topic:
The conclusion is that the Balkan army should not be able to cross over Constantinople right into their previous Return Province since it creates a very location specific problem (but I suppose the same principles may be applied to other straits).
You may easily use it to hop over two forts with 40/60k troops right into Balkans ignoring the forts and jump back to Anatolia whenever you like as long and as long as you have at least 1 stack that is able to reoccupy the Kirkkilise back and by reoccupying that you may throw every other Anatolian or Tunisian army (even without Return Province) from Anatolia back into Balkans as long as you have fleet superiority to control the strait.
Is that a problem? I think so. Solution? I'm just an amateur but if trying to fix it I'd do (while leaving updating Return Province as it is):
(I assume you have already tried to update the "Return Province" as the army steps onto non-ZoC province and it may cause some problems)
- After moving 1 province, and updating Return Province, redo the pathfinding and in case of a 'blockade' of some sorts (No longer a Return Province) stop the army.
- [Not recommended since more resources will be consumed for pathfinding so that's bandaging a hole on a ship so the fish can't go in but the water does lol]
- Besides "Return province" store which nation occupies/controls this province and check if it isn't the enemy.
- If the occupant of "Return province" is not the same -> If it's the enemy -> If standing on enemy ZoC -> Do nothing because that's the only way out; Else -> non-Zoc province -> Update Return Province.
- If the occupant of "Return province" is not the same -> If it's neutral (e.g. if we're Ottoman's ally and didn't join their 2nd war) -> Either check if we have the military access -> Yes? Return Province reachable. Unless we want it to be unreachable if not controlled by the allied forces then don't check whether it's the enemy or not and just go check if we're on the enemy ZoC.
- If ally releases occupied province (either by disembarking or from behind the enemy lines) and the unit didn't update Return Province (they didn't move or pathfind at all) it will still be able to treat it as "Return Province" again (unfortunately) and at the same time will not allow to hop over the forts when it is fully occupied by the enemy.
Unfortunately because they will still be able to hop over if it's flipped back, but it will not cause large change in how ZoC works if you want to avoid major changes while at the same time will require you to either use ships or army from behind enemy lines.
If stuck at Kujawy, because all other forts are captured, when Łęczyca is our only "Return Province" it is possible to move from Kujawy to Łęczyca and even Kraków (but still unable to leave without reoccupying the forts).
If this change will be made then it will become not posible to unless the fort at Płock gets reoccupied and unit becomes free from ZoC.
I will be happy to hear what other's opinion about this is, whether it is a problem, bug or if I just wasted a bunch of time and salt because of kebabs
