Filling out the map

[honch]

The game so far looks awesome. I am a HUGE modder of SC2 and one of the things that I found looking in the default campaigns was the need for other types of terrains and minor ports and cities. I modded these into SC2 but there is limitations on what you can do with them. At this scale there is even more of a need to fill out the map some more. Is there plans to provide minor cities, minor ports and/or the ability to add other terrain types. For example, in my SC2 mods I have added minor cities and ports such as Dunkirk, Dieppe, Rhodes, Zagreb, Bratislava etc. Its alot of flavour that makes games that much more interesting. Why say that Patton just took hex 124,57 when you can instead say that he has just caputured Nuremburg or Caen? Why say that the Russians have encircled the German 10th army in hex 302,125 when you can instead say that they have surrounded the Germans in Tula or Brest-Litovsk?

[firepowerjohan]

The game so far looks awesome. I am a HUGE modder of SC2 and one of the things that I found looking in the default campaigns was the need for other types of terrains and minor ports and cities. I modded these into SC2 but there is limitations on what you can do with them. At this scale there is even more of a need to fill out the map some more. Is there plans to provide minor cities, minor ports and/or the ability to add other terrain types. For example, in my SC2 mods I have added minor cities and ports such as Dunkirk, Dieppe, Rhodes, Zagreb, Bratislava etc. Its alot of flavour that makes games that much more interesting. Why say that Patton just took hex 124,57 when you can instead say that he has just caputured Nuremburg or Caen? Why say that the Russians have encircled the German 10th army in hex 302,125 when you can instead say that they have surrounded the Germans in Tula or Brest-Litovsk?

In CEAW you can not only mod the units and map but you can also modify alot of the gameplay

Terrain effects can be modified so if you want fortress to be more powerful or you want to slow down vehicles in forest or you want to allow more levels and greater effect of entrenchments it is all there in the script.

There is also a general script that contains alot of crucial numbers for battles, effectiveness(=morale), supply, casualties, research and even AI parameters.

So you can in fact go into the general script and edit how large the normal casulties are in certain types of battles, how much effectiveness (morale) penalty will be for certain actions in the game, how easy units will retreat from battles and how fast they will regain morale.

But most important of all, we intend to make the standard game balanced so that modding is not a must i.e that it can be played from version 1.00 standard and be a solid game.

[Plainian]

So is it possible to add in placename holders for hexes then as dhucul asked? Villages/Towns which have zero game benifits apart from adding extra chrome to the game?
Is there anything hard coded which can't be changed? Rivers? Coastlines?

[firepowerjohan]

So is it possible to add in placename holders for hexes then as dhucul asked? Villages/Towns which have zero game benifits apart from adding extra chrome to the game?
Is there anything hard coded which can't be changed? Rivers? Coastlines?

Everything can change, river, coastline, you name it. But terrain is painted by the png images we have so even you create a mountain then you have to paint that into the maps. But resources (City, Fortress, Sea Port, Mine, Oil Field, Capital) and names on map are painted by code so those you can add/remove without ruining anything.

You can also replace the png for the maps or make an entirely new map to make scenarios on. We have plans for releasing an editor later on, but currently no time for it.

[Plainian]

Very impressive. In pbem games will there be checks to make sure both players are using the same 'map file'?

[kafka]

as for modding, it is possible to define nation specific units and technologies, say that level 3 armour for Germany is not the same as level 3 armor for SU (so to model nation specific constraints and concepts would)?

in other ww2 grand startegy games such as HOI or SC units of a technology level share the same attributes for all nations and unfortunately there is no way to mod this away. Will this be possible for CEAW?

Thanks

[IainMcNeil]

The intention is that a level 3 tech would be the same for every nation. This is by design so players do not have to learn the subtle variations between different nations, and keeps the UI easy to understand.

They way to achieve what you are looking for is by starting the nations at different tech levels.

[vypuero]

One thing that is different is that the tech levels can be adjusted by each side - so for example a Tank will be different for Germany vs Russia because in all likelihood each side will have different tech levels for their tanks in various attributes, based on what choices they made in research - so in fact there will be uniqueness in that fashion, and its under the player's control rather than being arbitrary.

[IainMcNeil]

Yes, what Vypeuro means is that there are number of areas you can improve your tanks such as armour, attack & anti tank. The overall tech level is the total of these three areas so a tech level 3 tanks could be
Armour 1
Attack 1
AT 1

Or it could be
Armour 0
Attack 3
AT 0

[firepowerjohan]

One thing that is different is that the tech levels can be adjusted by each side - so for example a Tank will be different for Germany vs Russia because in all likelihood each side will have different tech levels for their tanks in various attributes, based on what choices they made in research - so in fact there will be uniqueness in that fashion, and its under the player's control rather than being arbitrary.

Also, one thing that really makes the advantage for German units last throughout the war is a "Organisation technology" that is very very tough to get i.e you need alot of research points for each level.

Organisation increases effectiveness of all units and currently we have in the script (can easily be modded) 4 levels giving 6% each, meaning if a USSR corps has effectiveness 60 then a German corps at L3 Organisation will have 60+6+6+6=78% effectiveness.

1339 Starting Organisation Levels
Germany L3
UK L2
USA L2
France L1
Italy L0
USSR L0
All minor countries L0