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

[guille1434]

Ok, chaps! The corrected leIG 18 is uploaded... Also, very interesting the modding about new move tipes added, it adds a lot to the game units veriety! For the sake of learning, it would be nice to share here the customized movement files, to see what values did you added/changed. I did not know that this aspect of the game was also moddable!

[Horst]

The leIG 18 looks great now, thanks!

To add a new movement type you need to edit following files:
1. Data\movement.pzdat where you add a new IDS_MOVT_* entry above and the new type with stats below the others.
2. UI\Movement\ folder where you add the new (or duplicate) icon files. The first additional type number would be 13. This number is also used in the equipment.pzeqp file as Type of Movement entry.
3. Data\strings.pzdat where you look for the other IDS_MOVT_* movement types and add below your new types with ingame description. If you want compatibility to other languages, then you need to look for the other strings.pzdat files in the Localization folder.

I haven't accomplished showing Movement stats for the new entries in the Library yet. Maybe someone else finds out how to do this.

Note that you need to hex-edit the savedgame if you change movement.pzdat stats during a campaign. The entries are above inside the savedgame file. Quite easy to find if you compare a savedgame, preferably of the same campaign, with the old and the new movement stats. A simple copy & paste procedure if you have some hex-editing knowledge.

Here's another unit mode wish:
How about an anti-aircraft mode for the neglected SdKfz 222 and 234/1? Their 2 cm guns could be elevated to +87° and +70° to attack aircrafts.
This would make move them out of the shadow of the overused SdKfz 232, 233 and 234/2 Puma.
My anti-aircraft units/modes have no zone of control and only spotting 1 because the eyes are in the skies and not on the ground. This balances the universally effective anti-aircrafts units with anti-aircraft, -tank and sometimes artillery mode. Same rule would apply to the recon vehicles in AA mode then.
Sometimes, reconnaissance isn’t that needed unlike air defense, especially in late-war scenarios.

[Razz1]

Courtesy of H Black

[guille1434]

Horst: Thanks for your nice words about the leIG 18!

About your interesting switching concept for high gun elevation recon units, I agree with your idea, but I would apply some changes:


How about an anti-aircraft mode for the neglected SdKfz 222 and 234/1? Their 2 cm guns could be elevated to +87° and +70° to attack aircraft.
Thats a fact, those turret systems had this elevation and were able to fire against aerial targets, but...


My anti-aircraft units/modes have no zone of control and only spotting 1 because the eyes are in the skies and not on the ground. This balances the universally effective anti-aircrafts units with anti-aircraft, -tank and sometimes artillery mode. Same rule would apply to the recon vehicles in AA mode then.

I would make the switch to AA for those recon units, but... I would not give them classification as "Air Defense" unit class, because I think they are not "Air Defense" units proper... Yes, they can fire against aircraft, but they lack the fire control and target aquisition capability of a true AA unit. So, the switched recon unit would be (in my opinion) as follows:

Movement = 0 (I don't like ground units chasing flying aircraft along the battlefield!)

Range = 1 (for guns of 20 mm, or up to 30 mm caliber)

Air attack = Yes, but not the ability to fire on air units attacking adyacent friendly ground unit (no Air Defense class). This will allow the unit to defend itself and to make opportunity fire on any enemy aircraft that happens to remain over it or in an adjacent hex (range = 1)

Spotting = 1 ( I agree, eyes in the sky, not on the ground... too bad there is not a different spotting range for ground and air)

Zone of Control = Yes, I think that as those units are capable to immediately engage ground targets while being in AA mode, they should be capable of "stopping" an incoming ground enemy unit and engage it (when in AA mode, the SA and HA values will be negative, so it cannot attack, but fire back if attacked).


I can think about the following units that had the same turret as the Sdkfz. 222: SdKfz. 234/1, SdKfz. 250/9, Sdkfz. 251/23 and a recon vehicle based on the Pz38(t) with the SdKfz 222 turret.
So, as a first release, here is a Sdkfz 222 pack, in recon and AA modes... I hope you find it useful!

Here is the link to download the pack: http://www.sendspace.com/file/dmrd3r

[Horst]

Thanks, looks pretty cool with the screen opening for AA!

In my game, I’ve changed the AA ranges to
1: <3048m ceiling
2: <6096m ceiling
3: anything above

This nicely separates the (towed) AA into light, medium and heavy organization in most cases what I have also categorized in upgrade series, although some vintage AA gun like the QF 3 inch 20 cwt only has range 2 as heavy.
I always found it too cheap to immediately upgrade auxiliary and other towed light AA into heavy ones right from start. Similar upgrade rules I’ve done to towed artillery.

Yeah, it’s true that air defense is quite powerful for a simple recon unit. I think I will keep the recon class then too in AA mode.
There are always two issues with Movement 0:
1. The unit can easily be forced to surrender with suppression what should not happen to highly mobile recon units at all.
2. Heroes with Movement bonus still provide movement, so whatever unit you thought to have made immobile can suddenly move one hex again. For towed guns, I justify this as fast-deploy skill with transport.
I don’t like hunting AA guns either, that’s why introduced weight rules that makes any towed guns above 1800 kg immobile without transport. 2 Move at <= 900 kg, 1 Move <= 1800 kg. To make it even more difficult to push around the 1 Move guns, they can only be moved in dry condition on flat terrain, otherwise only on city/port/airfield/road tiles in muddy/snowy weather.

Yes, okay, without air defense, zone of control is fine for recons. But I will never bring it back to the other true AA units in AA mode again though. This is the price for guarding either air or the ground. I always hated it with all the many AA guns what the AI purchases around its favored towns, especially if some types didn’t have any direct ground fire/anti-tank mode at all.
Normally in reality, units could switch in a minute from one mode to another, but I see this is a game mechanic like using transport units. Transported infantry would also normally immediately jump out when facing enemies and not sit around idle in a burning transport vehicle. I’m fine with zone of control in the game if a unit can pose an immediate threat as attacker. However, an anti-aircraft unit that was busy attacking or defending against aircrafts in that last turn, can’t normally threat ground units at same time. Defending is all fine with passive attack values, but for providing a chance to fire upon a passing unit – what I think is the point of zone of control – then, in my opinion, is a direct attack like in AT mode in order.

I’ve also introduced NoZoC to any other units with passive attacks like strategic bombers (I play with ZoC for aircrafts) and train/truck transports (which I also gave -1 SA btw. like to any other structures like Radar Station, Hangar, etc. I don't want to see important structures unguarded!).

PS: Wasn't sure if the reconmove trait actually cancels the true reconmove of the recon class, but it does. This is at least a way to restrict the movement of recon vehicles in AA mode a bit.

[guille1434]

Horst:

I forgot to thank you for the explanation about modding new movement types!

About the AA rules:

1) The range - ceiling scale looks ok for me, and also is a very good idea to separate the families of AA guns into light, medium and heavy.

2) I did not think about the surrender "problem"... I believe then, it would be necessary to give Movement = 1 to overcome this.

3) Completely agree with the NoZoc for AA defense units in AA mode. You have a very rational argument here.

4) I also have similar ideas about heavy towed guns (Arty or AA) movement capabilities. Heavy guns (my limit was about 1500 kg, which was also the limit which made a gun air portable or not)
would not move (movement = 0) when deployed for firing, and will only move when mounted in a transport... Or, a very experimental idea: to give heavy guns a new "switch" in where they are "dismantled" (not ready for firing). The surrender issue would not be a problem here because if heavy guns are attacked by mobile forces and beaten, it is not realistic that the crews can retreat with the heavy guns on tow, so it is fine if you lose the unit (too bad the crew alone cannot try to retreat and be saved from captivity).
Lighter units (up to 700 kg or more or less half the 1500 kg "heavy gun" weight limit) should be given movement = 2

Also, you were very clever about the use of the movement types to further refine your movement rules!

Take for example the American heavy M1 240 mm Howitzer:

a) "In battery" state: The unit deployed for firing, movement = 0, all other values as usual. It should not have the capability to be mounted on a transport.
b) "Dismantled" state: the unit will not be able to offensively fire, nor fire the artillery piece in self defense (maybe give it self defense SA = -1 or SA = -2 and HA = -1, to model the crew defensive small guns fire, if attacked). In this state, the unit will be able to be mounted on a transport unit, and may be given Movement = 1 to simulate some kind of limited organic transport capability by itself when not having a transport unit attached.

So with this scheme, one can model in game the longer deployment time that heavy guns take to be ready for firing compared to lighter field guns. So you have long range, heavy hitting artillery, but it will take two turns from dismounting from the transport untill ready to fire. I think is a good idea.

The icon for the new "switching state" would be based on an image like this:

This conversation will be saved in my future "switching - movement rules document" which will be the base for my mod... Thanks for all the explanations!

[guille1434]

Hello People!

Meanwhile, I was having fun making some WWI units, which were posted in BNC's threads... But, in order to have all of the icons made by me in one place, I upload this small WWI units pack, which includes all that have been done till the present. You will find some well-known units:

- British Mk.IV tank (and some variants)
- German A7V tank
- Fokker Dr.I in the famous Red Baron scheme
- Albatros D.V biplane fighter
...And some warships I had previously uploaded here.

I hope you like them!

The link is: http://www.sendspace.com/file/hzdgy8

Enjoy!

[iceFlame]

Transported infantry would also normally immediately jump out when facing enemies and not sit around idle in a burning transport vehicle.

Well, maybe not the really dumb ones.

[Messmann]

My anti-aircraft units/modes have no zone of control and only spotting 1 because the eyes are in the skies and not on the ground. This balances the universally effective anti-aircrafts units with anti-aircraft, -tank and sometimes artillery mode. Same rule would apply to the recon vehicles in AA mode then.

I would make the switch to AA for those recon units, but... I would not give them classification as "Air Defense" unit class, because I think they are not "Air Defense" units proper... Yes, they can fire against aircraft, but they lack the fire control and target aquisition capability of a true AA unit. So, the switched recon unit would be (in my opinion) as follows: (...)

Many thanks for the ideas with regard to "AA recons". As far as artillery is concerned, I remember the DMP Mod "Ostfront", which assigns each artillery piece a transport vehicle specifically, so that you would have to switch whenever you wanted to move to another location. Only the light artillery has some kind of "on the fly" movement capability.

However, I have been reluctant to pay too much attention to this discussion and similar discussions in other fori before, because it appears to be slightly overstretching in terms of what the game does offer and portray and what it actually can represent. Please remember that there is no way to define what a unit represents or actually stands for in way which would be universally defined and unquestionable.

You certainly do not have to agree with me, but my argument runs as follows: I am not able to turn an abstraction into reality. And with regard to my mod, I will not design my units as such. For example, I have considered to introduce the anti-air mode for scout vehicles, but I have also come to the conclusion that recon vehicles suffer so many strength point losses anyway that it would be too much to burden them even more, so to speak.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

A short request that should be able to be made in 5 minutes:

With the WWI mod, I have got some very nice "wavy flag" icons done by RumpNissen, and now have no victory point marker to match them. Any chance you could make a silver star that can appear on top of the flagpoles for the victory points? Here's the file for the flags, so you can position the star accordingly:

flags.png (103.29 KiB) Viewed 5414 times

- BNC

[Arvidus]

oh no!

I completely forgot about that! -_-

I humbly apologize! I'll get to work on it right away

[guille1434]

Hello guys! I think those last two posts should have been made in the "WWI Mod Graphics" thread... Just to keep things in order...

[guille1434]

Another air unit made compatible with the Elite Units Mod... The Do-17Z, in all the already known schemes, base icons and mask included.

Cheers!

[AugustinMalar]

oh no!

I completely forgot about that! -_-

I humbly apologize! I'll get to work on it right away

Please also for the WW2 wavy flags.

[guille1434]

Some two more Dorniers that were missing, in Finnish Air Force colours...

[iceFlame]

Another air unit made compatible with the Elite Units Mod... The Do-17Z, in all the already known schemes, base icons and mask included.

I really like the (SE)? camo 'Do' in particular. Great looking unit! I think I'll borrow that one so it can grace the skies in my custom mod soon.

Thanks very much!

[guille1434]

Hello IceFlame!
Indeed, the reason I upload those units is for the modders and players to populate their maps with them. Use anything you like!

[iceFlame]

Hello IceFlame!
Indeed, the reason I upload those units is for the modders and players to populate their maps with them. Use anything you like!

Cool. And thanks for keeping this thread alive. It really helps new players to have such a good selection of custom icons to make the game even better.

[guille1434]

IceFlame: Thanks again for your nice words! I am glad you stop here from time to time to do some "Icon shopping"

Now... a variation on the basic Do-17 airframe... The Do-215 in-line engined variant. This time in the colours of the Hungarian Air Force. I think it could be useful for the Hungarian Mods that we have around here!

The German Do-215 pack is coming soon...

Enjoy!

[McGuba]

That Dornier look really cool, thanks!

I think I will make a update for the Turan campaign after the release of the Battlefield: Europe mod.

In return, I would share a few modified vanilla icons that I made for this (almost) finished mod. Someone might find them useful.

First here is an Italian Obice da 149/19 - I made this modification as the vanilla icon looks more like the 149/14, which was an older howitzer, inherited from WWI:

Italian_149mm_149-19.png (26.04 KiB) Viewed 5274 times

Bigunit image:




http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/149/19_Mod._1937


Then another missing (if I am right) Italian unit, the Autoblinda 40, the earlier version of the Autoblinda 41 with a smaller turret, housing two machine guns. (The vanilla "AB_40.png" shows the AB 41...):

Italian_AB_40_40.png (25.32 KiB) Viewed 5274 times

for the bigunit:




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AB_40



And finally a captured Hotchkiss H35/39. The Germans captured and used 550 (!) of these, so I think it should have its own icon, just like the Somua S 35, which was used in much smaller numbers:

German_Hotchkiss_H35.png (25.02 KiB) Viewed 5274 times

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_H35