[Mod] Amulet Mod - Units/Graphics/Sound Mod

[bmw763]

If you have a save-game with the unit still in its original form, you can just wait until the next scenario, as Locarnus mentioned earlier. Make your changes in the equipment file and they will take effect at the start of the next scenario (changes don't take effect during a scenario) and you'll be able to switch the unit normally.

Thanks a lot @cw58 and @Locarnus - it worked!!!

[Locarnus]

[...]

I know that many years have passed since the first concept of this mod. I still remember Christmas 2013, thinking about how it would be possible to make just a few changes - here and there. And it expanded, ever more. And there are still options, but all in all, the most important aspects seem to be finished.

Have fun with this game, since it is still simple yet difficult to master. Cherish creativity and options.

If you find any kind of mistakes, feel free to post.

Hello Messmann,
your unit mod is an inspiration!
Together with deducter rebalancing mod way back in the day, your unit variety brought new life to this game.
Standing on the shoulder of giants, I'm trying something similar, just with a different flavor.

A question:
I did take another look at your unit lineup and was wondering if you would allow me to use your "10.5cm_GebH40" icons in my mod ("Locarnus Addon", since it was orginally just and addon to Battlefield Europe by McGuba)?


And a suggestion:
Some time ago I tried out a special house rule for my mod, which I call the "rule of 1".
It states that the player can only have max one unit of each version.
Eg Instead of having two "Panzer IV F2" units, the player has to self restrict to only have/deploy one and then go to a lower version for his second Panzer IV, like F1. Or use a different tank, like a Panzer III, and so on.
goose_2 tried this concept for Afrika Korps and then for the Granc Campaign (ongoing youtube playthrough with some additional house rules by Richard Martin, called "Napoleon" dificulty).

Imho that house "rule of 1" would also work very well with your AMULET mod and provide a new challenge for PzC veterans!
Especially with your "EL units" concept, which provides the necessary variety in some key areas for this to work (like early fighters).

Best regards and thank you for your consideration!

[PanzerCro]

Can I play GC campaigns with this mod ?

[Messmann]

Hello Messmann,
your unit mod is an inspiration!
Together with deducter rebalancing mod way back in the day, your unit variety brought new life to this game.
Standing on the shoulder of giants, I'm trying something similar, just with a different flavor.

A question:
I did take another look at your unit lineup and was wondering if you would allow me to use your "10.5cm_GebH40" icons in my mod ("Locarnus Addon", since it was orginally just and addon to Battlefield Europe by McGuba)?

Thank you for taking an interest in the mod.

You may use the icons and the files as you see fit. It is all for you out there, and you may change it at will. Just name the creator, so that the people might realize that there is something there which might be interesting for them as well.

[Messmann]

Ok, I have realized that there are at least two bugs:

The bug of the SE Artillery, which has the same icon number as the US Grant tank.
The land airfield unit (Luftwaffenbauregiment or airfield builders) does not switch.

I have been working at this mod recently, but have not been able to finish the work because the game does not work anymore - since I got a new pc. I do not know the reason yet, but will try to figure it out.

The game does start, but does not react when choosing new game or a scenario.

[Messmann]

And a suggestion:
Some time ago I tried out a special house rule for my mod, which I call the "rule of 1".
It states that the player can only have max one unit of each version.
Eg Instead of having two "Panzer IV F2" units, the player has to self restrict to only have/deploy one and then go to a lower version for his second Panzer IV, like F1. Or use a different tank, like a Panzer III, and so on.
goose_2 tried this concept for Afrika Korps and then for the Granc Campaign (ongoing youtube playthrough with some additional house rules by Richard Martin, called "Napoleon" dificulty).

Imho that house "rule of 1" would also work very well with your AMULET mod and provide a new challenge for PzC veterans!
Especially with your "EL units" concept, which provides the necessary variety in some key areas for this to work (like early fighters).

Best regards and thank you for your consideration!

Yes, you are probably right, although I have not tried it out yet.

The number or core unit slots and the options for core unit slots are topics I have spent a lot of thought on, indeed. Put differently, modding this mod would have been rather different if I had the options to assign certain numbers of core slots to certain units. Such as, for example, slots for towed anti-tank units, or even units with specific tranports, such as horse-drawn units only.

Be that is it may, since the hard coded game does not allow for these changes, the only limit is your prestige. Maybe this will give players the freedom of choice. The other option would be switching to high-end difficulty and /or playing scenarios which are difficult. Which I have been used to do.

[Locarnus]

Thank you for taking an interest in the mod.

You may use the icons and the files as you see fit. It is all for you out there, and you may change it at will. Just name the creator, so that the people might realize that there is something there which might be interesting for them as well.

Thank you, very much appreciated!
I'm really impressed that you have DCS masks for all those units. That must have been a lot of work!

[...]
I have been working at this mod recently, but have not been able to finish the work because the game does not work anymore - since I got a new pc. I do not know the reason yet, but will try to figure it out.

The game does start, but does not react when choosing new game or a scenario.

Uhoh, I hope you find a solution. Guessing win 11 problem?
With win 10 about to be phased out, this could be devastating.

Yes, you are probably right, although I have not tried it out yet.

The number or core unit slots and the options for core unit slots are topics I have spent a lot of thought on, indeed. Put differently, modding this mod would have been rather different if I had the options to assign certain numbers of core slots to certain units. Such as, for example, slots for towed anti-tank units, or even units with specific tranports, such as horse-drawn units only.

Be that is it may, since the hard coded game does not allow for these changes, the only limit is your prestige. Maybe this will give players the freedom of choice. The other option would be switching to high-end difficulty and /or playing scenarios which are difficult. Which I have been used to do.

Yep, more options for restricting the core unit composition could really push this game to the next level.
I tried something in that direction by changing the bonus SE unit selection.
Instead of bonus SE units being stronger than normal units, I made them weaker.
So the player is practically forced to bring some weak units, since those still do not count towards the core limit.
Initially I even made them mainly basic infantry, but that turned out to drastically limit the experience gain of normal infantry (since those basic infantry were always deployed, leading to fewer normal infantry getting training).

Adding a bit more variety, like outdated AT guns and converted, thin skinned tank destroyers and so on did help in that regard. But that brought up the issue of cross class upgrade possibilites (for that I put in the Kübelwagen unit, which can switch between all ground classes, but only during a scenario). I'm still struggling with that approach, especially the balancing. Though it had the nice effect of making the players deploy weaker and slower units even in 1945, which are normally not used at all.

Goose_2 is doing a Grand Campaign youtube playthrough with that "rule of one" (and my Addon mod, with several more house rules). It is working much better than expected. I also deactivated the soft cap mechanic and AI unit spamming, which makes it much more viable to play the Grand Campaign with very low, eg 25% player prestige setting and experience. So far no need to build up a mountain of prestige.
NightPhoenix also started doing a youtube playthrough with the old deducter mod and high difficulty and house rules, but unfortunately he left youtube. Since deducter did not add units and did not change the soft cap and so on, this run might not have gotten to 1945.

It would be very interesting to have a youtuber do a Grand Campaign run with your AMULET mod and "rule of one". Imho your mods variety is ideally suited for that!
For Grand Campaign very low prestige settings (25%), the soft cap mechanic probably needs deactivating. It is just extremely hard to find the right balance in terms of prestige for so many connected scenarios.

[Messmann]

Ok, I have managed to get the game running again. After some funbling about.

I have also found a solution for the 8.8 SE Flak Artillery bug (as already mentioned) and for the airstrip switch bug. The latter might lead to some liberal transport options for airstrip units.

My intention is to assign an infantry switch to airstrip units, thus enabling them able to participate in attack actions. So that they would be able to gain some experience.

I will check and see what I will be able to do the coming days.

[Messmann]

As to the options of the game, I admit not having played the grand campaign completely, as of yet. I took a look at the grand campaign handpick mod version 1.18 and earlier, though. And battlefield Europe.

And a couple of years ago I did some YouTube videos, see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyJe7rT ... JEgnvxnuQt

[Messmann]

Thank you, very much appreciated!
I'm really impressed that you have DCS masks for all those units. That must have been a lot of work!

Yes, I victimized myself with that However, it simply true that many icon creators did not do much for the mask issue. So, yes, there were many mistakes.

[...]
I have been working at this mod recently, but have not been able to finish the work because the game does not work anymore - since I got a new pc. I do not know the reason yet, but will try to figure it out.

The game does start, but does not react when choosing new game or a scenario.

Uhoh, I hope you find a solution. Guessing win 11 problem?
With win 10 about to be phased out, this could be devastating.

I accidentally deleted the my games folder, and after retrieving it, the game did not recognicze old saves and scenarios. I did have many saves on a second hard drive, though.

Yep, more options for restricting the core unit composition could really push this game to the next level.
I tried something in that direction by changing the bonus SE unit selection.
Instead of bonus SE units being stronger than normal units, I made them weaker.
So the player is practically forced to bring some weak units, since those still do not count towards the core limit.
Initially I even made them mainly basic infantry, but that turned out to drastically limit the experience gain of normal infantry (since those basic infantry were always deployed, leading to fewer normal infantry getting training).

Adding a bit more variety, like outdated AT guns and converted, thin skinned tank destroyers and so on did help in that regard. But that brought up the issue of cross class upgrade possibilites (for that I put in the Kübelwagen unit, which can switch between all ground classes, but only during a scenario). I'm still struggling with that approach, especially the balancing. Though it had the nice effect of making the players deploy weaker and slower units even in 1945, which are normally not used at all.

Goose_2 is doing a Grand Campaign youtube playthrough with that "rule of one" (and my Addon mod, with several more house rules). It is working much better than expected. I also deactivated the soft cap mechanic and AI unit spamming, which makes it much more viable to play the Grand Campaign with very low, eg 25% player prestige setting and experience. So far no need to build up a mountain of prestige.
NightPhoenix also started doing a youtube playthrough with the old deducter mod and high difficulty and house rules, but unfortunately he left youtube. Since deducter did not add units and did not change the soft cap and so on, this run might not have gotten to 1945.

It would be very interesting to have a youtuber do a Grand Campaign run with your AMULET mod and "rule of one". Imho your mods variety is ideally suited for that!
For Grand Campaign very low prestige settings (25%), the soft cap mechanic probably needs deactivating. It is just extremely hard to find the right balance in terms of prestige for so many connected scenarios.

I guess when someone is really interested in "unusual" units, the low prestige style of playing would be helpful. Combined with a house rule, like the rule of one, could make things interesting.

It depends on the scenario, though. Especially in user created campaigns, there is no guarantee you will win easy victories with this mod, even at Colonel difficulty. So, especially in user mods, there might be more surprises.

Balancing is also connected to early, mid and late game years. In terms of force concentration, numerical relations and hero potential, there are great differences. I have come to the conclusion that without changing the hard code, there is no general solution to this.

I have also considered playing at Manstein level, without the soft cap.

[Locarnus]

I guess when someone is really interested in "unusual" units, the low prestige style of playing would be helpful. Combined with a house rule, like the rule of one, could make things interesting.

It depends on the scenario, though. Especially in user created campaigns, there is no guarantee you will win easy victories with this mod, even at Colonel difficulty. So, especially in user mods, there might be more surprises.

Balancing is also connected to early, mid and late game years. In terms of force concentration, numerical relations and hero potential, there are great differences. I have come to the conclusion that without changing the hard code, there is no general solution to this.

I have also considered playing at Manstein level, without the soft cap.

Yeah, real balancing is not possible with so much being hard coded.

While adding strength to enemy units really increases the challenge, Manstein frontloads that challenge a lot.
In gc39 enemy 15 strength units increase the difficulty a lot more than in later years, when heroes, experience and overstrength are available to the player.

Field Marshal is imho better in that regard, though it really brings out the problems with the skewed and hard coded experience gain mechanic. Where arty and strat bombers quickly gain experience, but normal units are very slow to do so.

[caesar67]

Great look of your elite and SE units in your video! I will try your mod next week . I think it is a great idea, to give the players the opportunity to buy those elite units. Especially when they are distinguishable from other units on the map.
It would give me the possibility of having different army corps on the map.

[Locarnus]

Hello,

I was just watching a youtube Let's Play series with your Amulet mod:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erBP6Oz ... o&index=21

The player got two bonus SE units, unfortunately both being in the AA class.
Force loading the different bonus SE classes is annoying even in vanilla (inf and tanks), but can become a real chore with many bonus SE classes.
In my Locarnus Addon mod I now also have bonus SE units in several different classes, resulting in the same problem.

As a workaround I made specific cross class upgrade units, that are not intended for fighting, but just for bridging unit classes for upgrading. Different ones for aircraft and Kübelwagen for ground units (also for normal units, not just bonus SE ones).
This also helps a lot with the PzC hero rng.
For exmaple if an artillery gets two useless spotting heroes, it can simply transfer to recon class.

Several of your units already allow one way unit class transfers, eg an AA unit using the 8.8cm Flak can be upgraded to AT and arty class. And the Kommando unit can even transfer from infantry to tac bomber class.

This is my Kübelwagen cross class upgrade unit for bonus units. It can be bought from all relevant ground unit classes. I use class indicator plates baked into the unit graphics, otherwise they would use the same graphic. The theater flags (18) are also Addon specific and can be removed:

Code: Select all

33510	Std Kblwg Heer Inf	0	120	7	40	5	3	0	2	-3	-1	-1	-1	9	18	3	0	0	Kubelwagen_0Inf.png	1.11.1938	1.1.1946	2			Kübelwagen Heer Inf	bonus reconmove		se	33511	18	sea rail air glider	
33511	Std Kblwg Heer Pz	1	120	7	40	5	3	0	2	-3	-1	-1	-1	9	18	3	0	0	Kubelwagen_1Pz.png	1.11.1938	1.1.1946	2			Kübelwagen Heer Pz	bonus reconmove		se	33512	18	sea rail air glider	
33512	Std Kblwg Heer Aufkl	2	120	7	40	5	3	0	2	-3	-1	-1	-1	9	18	3	0	0	Kubelwagen_2Recon.png	1.11.1938	1.1.1946	2			Kübelwagen Heer Aufkl	bonus primary		se	33513	18	sea rail air glider	
33513	Std Kblwg Heer Pak	3	120	7	40	5	3	0	2	-3	-1	-1	-1	9	18	3	0	0	Kubelwagen_3Pak.png	1.11.1938	1.1.1946	2			Kübelwagen Heer Pak	bonus reconmove		se	33514	18	sea rail air glider	
33514	Std Kblwg Heer Ari	4	120	7	40	5	3	0	2	-3	-1	-1	-1	9	18	3	0	0	Kubelwagen_4Ari.png	1.11.1938	1.1.1946	2			Kübelwagen Heer Ari	bonus reconmove		se	33515	18	sea rail air glider	
33515	Std Kblwg Heer Flak	5	120	7	40	5	3	0	2	-3	-1	-1	-1	9	18	3	0	0	Kubelwagen_5Flak.png	1.11.1938	1.1.1946	2			Kübelwagen Heer Flak	bonus reconmove		se	33510	18	sea rail air glider

[Locarnus]

Hello,

just watched another episode of the german Let's Play youtube series by "Playing with Dennis" of the Grand Campaign with your Amulet mod:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQe4gic ... o&index=34

In this episode at 17:43, his SE 8.8 cm Pak 36 turned into an american M3 Grant when he switched it (unit ID 3511)

I fixed that unit ID double entry in the equipment file below (by commenting out the M3 Grant line).
The unit ID 4045 is triple used (Funkmess VB, EL Funkmess VB, SE Funkmess VB), but neither of those 3 is switchable so probably no priority issue at the moment.
edit: Fixed the 4045 triple unit IDs as well, EL Funkmess VB now has ID 2045, while SE Funkmess VB has ID 3035 in line with the other adjacent EL and SE units.

To use this fixed equipment file, just
a) download the zip file,
b) extract the equipment.pzeqp file and
c) put that equipment.pzeqp file into your "Panzer Corps\Data" folder (of the Panzer Corps install where you already have the Amulet Mod 330 installed). Overwrite the existing equipment.pzeqp file in that location.

Note that the equipment file is only loaded at scenario start. So if you are playing an ongoing campaign, the fix will only take effect after you finish your current scenario and transition to the next one.

edit: Fixed the 4045 triple unit IDs as well, EL Funkmess VB now has ID 2045, while SE Funkmess VB has ID 3035 in line with the other adjacent EL and SE units. No downloads as of yet, so I assume everyone downloading will have the file with both fixes.

Amulet330fixed-equipment.zip

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