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

[ThvN]

I saw the combination of "bonus" and "nopurchase" on the SE Lysander plane and SE Willys Jeep in the e-file and thought this possibly makes a unit only obtainable by High Command without a chance to actually upgrade an SE unit to this unit.

I guess a special "prototype" trait would be in order for an extra unit to pop up by chance during its availability time, that is otherwise not obtainable by purchase screen. Or you script a specific map to make it appear by chance if such random factor is possible, of course, but that's what I want to avoid. I'd like such chance rather by default during campaigns.

I hope you could follow me in this summer heat.

Ah, yes, I understand what you mean. You want a bonus unit to be 'exclusive', so you cannot upgrade other bonus units into it. That means the 'noupgrade' trait won't help either, unless you give it to all the bonus units in the same class... I think that leaves (unfortunately) only scenario scripts, maybe a random unit trigger script that checks for the presence of a certain unit (on the map) and if it isn't there, it could be spawned with a random chance. But I do not know much about that.

And yes, it is hot, and it will get worse where I live. As soon as the clouds arrive on wednesday, it will become very humid as well.

[stan23]

Does anyone have pzeqp/efx data for the following units; Mobelwagen, Ostwind, Wirlbelwind and Gepard? I want to make these units AA/Ground switchable. I know how to add them to the file itself, (thanx to the forum ) but I have no idea what the actual values should be. Any help is much appreciated. Cheers from Virginia!

[Horst]

Hello stan, welcome to the most annoying work when adding new units!

Adding new units is most fun but gets tiresome if you don’t want to see the muzzle flashes coming out of the rear of tanks.
It’s basically a try an error procedure. I use a test map for that and let units shoot onto each other until I find good values.
Try to find a proper muzzle name first with flat trajectory, like ArtLight1 ArtLight2. Best you copy over the whole line of an existing unit with ground fire first.
If you got a value like (128,-30) (-128,-30) as (x1,y1) (x2,y2) then increasing x1 will move the muzzle flash to the right and decreasing it to the left. Increasing the y1 value to the negative direction will move the flash higher. Normally, you can just copy over the natural numbers from the first parenthesis (unit faces right) to the other one (unit faces left) and keep the signs.

Enjoy!

[asuser]

Hello guille1434,

to your questions:

-Maus Tank main gun elevation: I confirm the data from Horst: -7°/+23° (Source: Book: Deutsche geheime Panzerprojekte/Trojca)

-M7 Priest in soviet duty?: No, only for US, British, Phillipines and Exiltroops from France and Poland (Source: Service history list from manufacturer)

The M7 look marvellous!

Thank you for uploading my Me410. Please feel free to upload the others (Ar, Fiat, ARL, Lokomotives, Ships...)

Greetings from Germany!

[stan23]

Horst. Yikes! Sounds like more work than I'm willing to do. Cut and paste it is. So, does anybody out there have the right values for the Mobelwagen, Ostwind, Wirblewind and Gepard in AT/Ground mode that I can Copy/Paste onto the end of my eqp file at least? I can do without the efx if I have too. All help appreciated. Cheers from Virginia.

[asuser]

Hello stan23,

the difference in AT/Ground mode for these tanks are mainly the kill and the resistance values against air/ground targets. I would start with the fighting values from the tank Panzer II Luchs, because this tank has also a 2 cm cannon only for AT/Ground mode. The Wirbelwind should have a little bit higher kill values against soft targets, because there are 4 Barrels. So like Horst said, it's a little bit try and inspiration. For a more interesting appearance i would choose for efx the attack graphic and sound from the Jet type. I choose this for instance for my version of the Flak Tank Panther Cölian (2 x 3,7 cm cannons). If you have further problems with that story please give a call, i would give you an example what i would choose.

Greetings from Germany!

[guille1434]

Horst: Very good idea about the "prototype" trait! I hope game devs take note!
Stan: I will upload my old mod's efx and eqp files, where I added some AA unit in AT variant, may be you can take inspiration from those values... I remember I tried to carefully balance them against existent stock game units. And tested them also, with staisfactory results... The files are based on PzCorps v1.10, but I think they could be useful to your purpose.

I cannot do it now because of some file upload restrictions here... Wait till tomorrow!

Asuser: That is what I was talking to you about in may mail... Please grab those files!

[guille1434]

A new unit is on its way to the front... The Sturmtiger!
In At and Arty variants, with an assortment of camo schemes.
Enjoy!

PS: There was a glitch with the shadow of the small right hand icon... The shadow did not elevate when the gun tube was moved up! Weird!
Now the package is updated!

[Horst]

Bombastic, you made my day, Guille! Time to blow up the world!

[guille1434]

Ok, Horst, I am glad you like that unit... But now, I think you may give the allies this other one to balance the odds a little!

Here all of you can have the "multipurpose" Sherman Calliope...
I noticed that the stock game eqp file give this unit an ammo value of 10 (!) the same or very similar to the gun tank... I believe this should be lowered, because the rocket launcher was an add-on (i think units using this modified tank were still armored units and not artillery units) and it has no reloads on board... Too bad the eqp file could not give two kinds of ammo to the same unit! (maybe in a future patch or game version?)

Have (rocket launching) fun!

By the way: There was a glitch with the shadow of the small right hand icon of the Sturmtiger... The shadow did not elevate when the gun tube was moved up! Weird!
Now the package is updated! Go get it! Sorry for the inconvenience!

[guille1434]

Stan: here are "my" versions of the eqp and efx files for the initial release of the "multipurpose units mod"... I think you have all the information you were asking for (the converted AT units of various german AA units).

I really hope this is useful to you!

[guille1434]

Well, back to the amazing aircraft department... Here I upload a small pack of additional camo schemes for the BV-138, the base icon and the new camo skins were specially developed by my partner Asuser. I feel like they deserve to be seen by everyone here! Enjoy the view!

[guille1434]

And then again, a very original, very new icon made by my German friend-and-icon-making-factory Asuser...
Here you can see the Ar-232 heavy frontline transport aircraft. Think that this plane had an all up weight double than the Ju-52 and could take off and land on terrain that few others planes of its weight could... Look at the detail of its multi-wheeled undercarriage! Undoubtedly, a piece of icon art! Give this man a huge thank you and, as always, feedback is welcomed!

[guille1434]

And idea I recently had, for all the folks here:

Could you please (the people who stops in this thread and download stuff from here) tell us which was the icon (or, may be the two or three of them) you liked most, and what were the reasons of your choice? I think this can help us to know which are the best style or techniques to make new units, and re-edit existing ones!
Besides, I am really curious about what was the icon that was more liked by the community! :mr.green:

Please, take a minute and give us some feedback!

[guille1434]

Another original icon by Asuser... A French immediate post-war tank... a possible "what if? unit for a very late war mod/scenario... The ARL-44
The pack includes a regular brown french colour, a desert camo and a blue grey colour scheme (compatible with the French What If unit pack).

Enjoy!

[asuser]

Hello Guille,

thank you very much for the presentation of the icons. I'm proud to be with you in our modding project. Best of all: This is not the end, there is more to come, Great!

Greetings from Germany!

[Horst]

Excellent, the Calliope can properly use its gun now as it should be. Although I don’t want to sit in that tank if an enemy targets the launcher above the turret…

Yeah, the Sturmtiger came indeed very powerful in my game and especially resilient to enemy artillery fire and even direct tank attacks. One of the units where I wish again there would be a Fortkiller+10 trait (and +50 for Gustav maybe) to make it less effective against enemy tanks. Historically, they blew up a couple of Shermans from afar, but I don’t think they would have done so well in direct fire encounters.

About the best: well, the new Tiger tanks look indeed quite awesome. Maybe too awesome compared to the vanilla ones. Don’t see this as request now, but I would gladly replace every other vanilla unit with such quality. What could be improved on the Tiger and Sturmtiger are the rollers maybe. They seem to be too much exposed by light compared to other models, like the Tiger (P) or E-50. More shadow on the rollers would make the tanks look less artificially clean maybe.

[stan23]

guille1434
Fav icon?...that's easy; Tiger I all the way, puts the vanilla stuff to shame! Only thing that could improve it is a big unit of same quality. Oh, and any German unit that switches. Keep up the good work. Cheers from Virginia

[stan23]

To all
Does anyone have the SS SdKfz 10-4 AT(Ground mode) icon in the 'common' SS camo scheme? All help appreciated. Cheers from Virginia.

[guille1434]

Hi Guys! Thanks for the nice words!

About the Tiger: I am glad you like it so much... The same is for me! The reason I "made" this unit is because I did not like the looks of the stock game icon. Anyway, it is fair to say that this icon is heavily based in a work previously made by Metalman (I think he is a user from the German DMP forums). Most of the credit goes to him, I downloaded various very good icons from this forum member...

To Asuser: I am also very proud to have formed this partnership with you, besides a very talented modder, you are a very nice chap! As I always said, sometimes 1 + 1 equals to more than 2!

To Horst: Thanks for the feedback!
About your very correct thought about effectiveness against fixed structures (fixed, big, very hardened targets) and tanks (mobile, hard, comparatively small targets) the best way would be to differentiate the attack values of units, adding a "Fort Attack" value alongside the now used "Hard Attack" value. This way, you can model a very effective unit against fortifications (think for example the Sturmtiger, or the big railroad guns) and not making it, at the same time, a super tank-killer (which those units, of course, were not). I hope this suggestion is read by someone of the game developing team!