Guille's PzCorps Support Base - Multipurpose Icons and more.

[bondjamesbond]

https://war-book.ru/transporter-lws/
https://warspot.ru/5638-armeyskie-zemnovodnye
https://dzen.ru/a/YKfq5ORnfW985WP5


https://en.topwar.ru/28330-tanki-gibrid ... stiki.html

[guille1434]

Thanks for the new icons, Guille, they look great! Can't wait to get them plugged in to the game. Nice work, my friend!

Hello Cw!

I am glad you liked the icons, of course, but I am the one who have to say thank you because all of your extensive testing work with the "Marine Inf system". The least I could do was to make improved icons for you to replace those odd looking German Marines with a more "vanilla looking" ones...

Thanks again for your nice words!

[guille1434]

Now, I will continue with the Marine Infantry implementation subject...

Bearing in mind all the testing made by Cw58, I think the best possible implementation of such a type a unit at present should be like this:

- The Marine infantry should be a "two way" switchable unit, and both of them have to have an amphibious capable movement type.

- The first condition is necessary for the unit to be able to be embarked in a "strategic" maritime transport unit, and be able to be deployed on sea hexes at the start of a scenario which is part of a campaign and as well on land hexes.

- The unit itself, as said, would have two switches:

1) A landing craft switch: with shallow sea movement (also over lakes and major rivers) with a moderate speed, may be three hexes. Other stats: good ground defense, moderate Soft Attack, low air defense (Landing sites should have friendly air cover!).
2) An Infantry switch: like a regular infantry unit, but with a special "Inf Amphibious" movement type to allow them to move shallow seas (this is unavoidable, because is the only way to allow the unit to "switch" from the landing craft state to the infantry state. Other stats: may be like any other "elite type" infantry, with good initiative, etc... Possibly also the "bunkerkiller" trait" coupled with a moderate Hard attack value to deal with coast fortifications.

About the icons to be used, I think I have them all covered:

- A Landing craft graphic with small infantry figures on board, complemented by a suitable firing animation.

- An infantry type icon with a small (empty) landing craft added on it, something like the small 251 halftrack graphic added to the PzGrenadiers icon.

- A third option should be present: the infantry type icon (with just the soldiers figures present). This last would be useful because I think that the Marine infantry unit should have the possibility to be upgrade to a regular infantry unit (without the amphibious capability) at players will, if he likes to use the marines like regular (but good quality) infantry unit, just like German Flallschirmjagers were used like elite infantry late in the war but they lacked the air dropping training, so they were not capable to make air assaults. This possibility, while causing the loss of its amphibious assault capability, would give the unit other abilities: may be a little better movement over a larger quantity of terrain types, being air transportable, the possibility to add a regular organic transport unit, etc...

This is all for the time being... As always, any constructive ideas and debating of the already presented ones are welcome!
Greetings to all!

[guille1434]

Lol, there's a lot to unpack in your 2nd post so I'll have to think on it awhile. I think a new icon would be great but it might depend on what the solution is in the end; LC with MGs blazing or Marines w/ LC in the background?

I will probably try testing the theory from my previous post. It seems to be the closest to your original idea which was brilliant, by the way.

Oh, just remembered you said something about new terrains in one of those 2 posts. I saw the same comment about adding new terrains but it's a little unclear what is meant by "at the end of the list". Is it after this?: IDS_TRN_RIVER
Or after this?:
# Terrain features
# Name
Major River
River
Railroad
Road

I recently tried adding a new terrain at the very bottom and then again after "IDS_TRN_RIVER". The first attempt did nothing but I had some success in the 2nd attempt. I was able to use it in the editor and apply traits but it messed up some of the other terrains. For example, suddenly my wheeled-movement units could only travel 1 hex.... in clear terrain. So there's something definitely wrong there or with my modding.

A comment about this very interesting possibility of adding a new terrain type to the game engine. A new "beach" terrain type would be useful for a better implementation of a "Marine infantry" type unit. This way, the landing craft can have its special movement type giving it the ability to move over shallow waters and beach hexes (also preventing the unit to land in any type of coastal terrain, as it is in reality), making possible to switch to the infantry type unit on the beach terrain hex, and eliminating the soldiers walking on water effect (like modern day religious prophets).

I think the new terrain type(s) should be added after the line which reads: IDS_TRN_RIVER (the last line of the terrain types list). If this was not to be, I think the game comment should read that the new types should added after the END of the file, but as it says "list" I think the correct place is after the last terrain type in the list part of the file.

Also, there are other files that should be modified accordingly, like the strings.pzdat one, and I don't know if am forgetting about something more...

I know the beach type could be introduced to replace one of the "not used" or redundant terrain types (types that are very similar between them and can be "unified" like, for example the clear and countryside types). This is not the ideal solution, because it would imply to modify a lot of maps, and also one has to be careful to avoid replacing a terrain type that it was already used by other popular mod to avoid compatibility issues: for example, if my memory serves me well, in Battlefield Europe mod, the "Jungle" terrain type was recycled to be used as another terrain type (it has something related to the existence of "upgrade capable" and "upgrade non-capable" cities/ports, etc..., I think).

[guille1434]

Meanwhile, on another subject...

Here is a small visual mod, which makes roads more visually different from railway tracks on the game map. The idea was being discussed in a different subforum, and it seemed a good one for me, so here it is...

Using the files posted by Japoivvb in that other sub-forum as a base, I prepared a "visual mod" to improve the identification between railway lines and roads in the game map. This consist in three files: LayerRoads.png, LayerRoadsFrozen.png and LayerRails.png

To install the mod, just go to the Graphics/Tiles in-game folder, make backups of the original three named files, and just replace them with the ones provided here. Anyone can experiment with those files to adjust color/saturation/brightness to suit each one's taste... And if you are still not satisfied with the results you can delete the files and copy the original ones from the backup file.

Credits to Japoivvb who had the excellent idea about the "curvy" roads and very gently provided me with the base files to start working with. Thank you Japoivvb for sharing your files!!

Here is the link to download the compressed file: https://www.sendspace.com/file/f8am89

Enjoy!!

[cw58]

Thanks Guille & Japoivvb!

These are an excellent addition to map graphics. They look very nice on the main map but are especially helpful on the strategic map and in the editor when zoomed out. I usually have a hard time distinguishing between roads and railroads on the latter maps but it's quite easy to see the difference with the new graphics. I'll post small pics, before and after, of the main map but the biggest difference is on the zoomed out maps.

old roads and rails.jpg (240.16 KiB) Viewed 2607 times

new roads and rails.jpg (229.18 KiB) Viewed 2607 times

[cw58]

And here again in the editor, zoomed at 33%:

old roads and rails editor.jpg (170.03 KiB) Viewed 2605 times

new roads and rails editor.jpg (175.45 KiB) Viewed 2605 times

[guille1434]

Thanks Guille & Japoivvb!

These are an excellent addition to map graphics. They look very nice on the main map but are especially helpful on the strategic map and in the editor when zoomed out. I usually have a hard time distinguishing between roads and railroads on the latter maps but it's quite easy to see the difference with the new graphics. I'll post small pics, before and after, of the main map but the biggest difference is on the zoomed out maps.

Hello Cw! As always, thanks for taking over the work of testing these new files. Indeed, it looks like a visual improvement making it much easier to differentiate roads and railway tracks.

Thanks for posting those "before-after" pictures!!

[rubyjuno]

I'm on GC44E and using these tiles and it makes a massive difference... how did I ever manage without them?
One question though, why have both tiles (normal and frozen) been changed, but only normal rail and not frozen rail (LayerRailsFrozen.png)? Just wondered, apologies if the answer is obvious

[guille1434]

Hello Rubyjuno!

That was just because the original LayerRailsFrozen.png file, in my opinion, needed no further modification to be easily differentiated visually from the frozen roads file. May be, if you like, you can upload a picture of any part of a game map in winter (frozen) condition, to see how it looks and see if it is necessary to apply further changes, I'm open for suggestions.

Greetings.

[Japoivvb]

Sorry muy fault, I had problems to upload Frozen tiles on the post, i will upload them later.

[Japoivvb]

uploaded in mentioned post
https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=110927

[rubyjuno]

Hello Rubyjuno!

That was just because the original LayerRailsFrozen.png file, in my opinion, needed no further modification to be easily differentiated visually from the frozen roads file. May be, if you like, you can upload a picture of any part of a game map in winter (frozen) condition, to see how it looks and see if it is necessary to apply further changes, I'm open for suggestions.

Greetings.

Hi Guille, thanks for your quick reply. I'm sure you're right about the frozen rails, I just wondered, that's all. Cheers!

[guille1434]

No, problem Ruby! Anyway please note that Japoivvb just uploaded a superb graphic for the frozen rails. You can try both of them and keep the one you like more.

Japoivvb: thanks for this new file!!

[guille1434]

Here is "my" version of the FrozenLayerRails file which has some more tiles than the standard version, for better compatibility with some mods apart from the "official" content... Enjoy!

[phcas]

Hello Guille.

Are you by any chance still working on new graphics or other things?

Greetings PHCAS

[jugasa77]

Hello Guille.

Thanks for share your icons.

Do you know how can I edit the fire and the sound?

[jugasa77]

Hello Guille.

Thanks for share your icons.

Do you know how can I edit the fire and the sound?

It seems I have to edit the efx.pzdat file.

[PanzerCro]

Can someone help me ? I donwloaded some of units that are not in the original game, like german Brandenburg or Panzerfaust, added them into unit folder, but I don't see them in the game ? What did I wrong ?

[cw58]

Can someone help me ? I donwloaded some of units that are not in the original game, like german Brandenburg or Panzerfaust, added them into unit folder, but I don't see them in the game ? What did I wrong ?

A couple of links that might help you:

https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25895

https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=291176

Besides the new icons in the unit folder, you need to make a new entry in the equipment.pzeqp file (located in the data folder) with a unique id#. You will also need to make a new entry in the efx.pzdat file (in the graphics folder). There's a little more to it but that's enough to get the unit into the game.

Be sure to make a backup of both of these files before modding. You can edit the files with notepad but I don't recommend it. It's too easy to make a mistake; much better to edit with a spreadsheet like OpenOffice or Excel.

You can also just copy & paste the necessary lines from another mod into your own files. Please post again if you still have problems getting it to work.