[solved] Allies side user mods made with versions up to 1.14

[fsx]

Hi!

During testing the new modding features in 1.20 beta, Alex spoke about a bug PC had since the first days.

Please, check your mods with 1.20!
It could be, that the deploy hexes for allies side dont work - if the scenarios made with an editor version 1.14 or lower.

Could someone give me a feedback for that?

[Rudankort]

Actually, I implemented a workaround fir this. In the past, axis deploy zones were used for both axis and allies, and allied deploy zones were ignored. So, when 1.20 loads an old scenario, it duplicated all axis zones to allied ones. New scenarios are not subject to this fix. With this system in place, I hope that the bug is fixed and backwards compatibility is preserved too. Let me know if that is not the case.

[fsx]

Actually, I implemented a workaround fir this. In the past, axis deploy zones were used for both axis and allies, and allied deploy zones were ignored. So, when 1.20 loads an old scenario, it duplicated all axis zones to allied ones. New scenarios are not subject to this fix. With this system in place, I hope that the bug is fixed and backwards compatibility is preserved too. Let me know if that is not the case.

[bebro]

Thanks you for the info guys, quite interesting

A related question:

I have 1.20 installed, but no AC yet. Can the allies receive random SE units in custom campaigns without further changes? Pre 1.20 it seemed the only way to do this was to change sides, so putting the player's allied forces as side 1 'axis' units in the editor and vice versa...however, since AC has those SE units I'm wondering how it's working (esp. with mods)

[Rudankort]

Indeed, there was an issue with allies not getting SE units, and it was fixed for Allied Corps. Since there is only one EXE, used in both AC and 1.20 patch, allied SE units must work in custom mods now, even if AC is not installed.

[bebro]

Thanks, good to know

[bebro]

One thing I have a problem now with is modding heroes. Are the hero entries in strings.pzdat not used anymore? I used these before 1.20 changed to US, Jap or Sov names, and it did work using GME and changed pics.

Now this way does not seem to work anymore under 1.20. I take it the game refers to heroes.pzdat now? My problem is now that I added Soviet names there, and the heroes do get assigned in-game just fine, but I don't get the pics for them to show up.

For example the 1.20 file has first

• # *************** Random names ***************
  # Flag Name
  0 Andreas
  (...)

...then the same for surnames. I added Sov entries starting with "3" (Sov country code)

Finally for the pics:

• 0 0 -1 ground1.png

this is for German etc.


So "3 0 -1 ground1.png" would be the Soviet flag code etc., but it does not seem get a pic displayed for Soviet heroes, unless I made a mistake editing, but I can't see any so far.

To be clear - these Sov heroes apearing in the game do not show *any* pic, not even the "wrong" ground1.png (and following numbers up to ground50) which are originally displaying German soldiers. Tabs seem ok.

Do I have to follow any convention for those pics? Do all entries have to use unique names (so no double-use of anything like "groundXX.png")? Has anybody an idea how to solve this?

[ThvN]

Just so I understand correctly, do the changed (Russian) names show up in the mod? Because I assume the game does read those nation codes correctly if they do.

And what happens if you rename some of your hero graphics into existing filenames, will they show up in the stock game (as 'German' hero portraits)? Because that means those images can be displayed by the game, which excludes another problem. Just trying to narrow down the options.

[bebro]

Hi ThvN, there some problems with names too. I get the modded Russian first names fine, though not all the surnames. But no pics at all.

This could point to a problem in my modded heroes.pzdat, the problem is just that it looks ok, so if there are mistakes they are very difficult to spot. I tried to have exactly the same structure of my modded entries (compared to the stock data), just combined with the Soviet country code (3).

The pics were shown before 1.20, and they actually use names of existing gfx. But pre 1.20 I just modded the German names in the strings.pzdat to Russian ones, and used the original filenames for pics displaying Soviet soldiers.

So this old method actually just replaced anything "German" with Soviet content without changing filenames or the heroes pzdat, and enabling everything via GME made sure those replacements were used by the mod.

But under 1.20 all hero stuff seems to require entries in this file, so the old way seems no option anymore. Well, I'll test around a bit more to see if I get it to work better...

[ThvN]

Bebro, since you cannot rule out a formatting problem in your heroes file, what program do you use to edit it? Because you mentioned 'tabs', I assume you do not use Excel or similar? If you send me the file, I can have a look with Excel to see if I spot anything weird. Or send the 'beta' mod with the files as it is in its current state, so I can see if I can help find the problem. Other than that it will be very hard to help diagnose the problem for me.

[bebro]

Thanks ThvN, very nice offer. I want to try out some more things before, but if that doesn't help I'll happily come back to this

[bebro]

Quick heads-up, I have redone the heroes file using a fresh 1.20 copy, and things are looking way better now. In a short test I got he first hero incl. correct names and pic. I can't say exactly were the problem has been, maybe some kind of formatting m istake indeed.

Anyway, it is hopefully solved.