Avro Anson silly question

[bebro]

I haven't played much in a long time. The Avro Anson - seems it cannot attack subs? Shouldn't it been able to do so? It was in a modded scn, but equipment data IIRC original. And good weather, no rain.

Is there something specific I needto know about that plane? Otherwise if it works fine for you folks I need to check whether I messed up something.

[Andor66]

In principle an attack should by possible. Although the machine guns of the military versions seemed to be only defense weapons (mounted on a rear turret), at least some of the versions could drop bombs also. So it might be the designer of the mod You mentioned just wanted a scouting plane.

[bebro]

Thx for your answer. The desinger would be me It's not really a mod, I was just testing some ideas. But I didn't change the Anson's stats....unless I messed someth. else...

[Horst]

No ammo!

Looks like they forgot to give the plane ammo to use its NA 4 attack.

[bebro]

You're right of course, 0 ammo in the eqp file, missed it completely. Thx!

Just wondering whether this is WAD. Also I don't remember seeing the low ammo icon when testing. Maybe it does not appear on units with 0 ammo set.

[bebro]

While we are at questions - what do those numbers in the "theatre" column of the eqp fle mean? Some units have nothing there, some 2345 or 2345678, some other combis. I'd assume they indicate in what theatre you can use a certain type, but I can't make out a pattern here. Does anybody know how this works exactly?

[Horst]

Those numbers indicate the theatre setting in the editor which units may not be used there.
0 Europe
1 Africa
2-8 are custom theatres introduced with Allied Corps. It looks like they disallowed a number of units and classes at beginning to make the first scenarios similar like a tutorial.

[bebro]

Thx again

[ThvN]

Hi Bebro, what a coincidence, I just made a list last week for identifying the theatre numbers... I've been slowly testing some terrain/movement mods, and I haven't messed with the theatre settings yet, so this is all I know at this time:

Theatre

0: Only available in African theatre
1: Europe only

Allied Corps theatres:

2: Border Raids
3: Fort Capuzzo
4: Battle of Girba
5: Italian Offensive, Taranto Raid
6: Sidi Barrani
7: Bardia
8: Beda Fomm

The numbers are set in the Scenario editor (Scenario Params - Global Parameters), so I think they can be changed and used to expand the restrictions on available equipment for certain scenarios. For example, the British Cruiser Mk I tank (unit 537) has theatre set to '2' meaning it will not be available for any scenarios which have been set to Theatre 2. In this case this means only Border Raids, it will be available for the later ones. The Valentine II has 2345678, which means it is unavailable for all the early Allied Corps scenarios and is only available after Beda Fomm.

For example, I think it would be possible to make an early FW 190 which is only available in 'Western Europe' scenarios, and a slightly later model that is available everywhere.

The Avro Anson is a strange recon plane, it cannot be purchased and I've only seen it as an auxiliary recon plane in 'Crossing the Rhine'. In reality it was a maritime recon/sea patrol plane, and it was quickly phased out of combat duties after the start of the war and planes like the Lockheed Hudson took its place. But it was used extensively as a trainer for bomber pilots. I remember discussing this with Uran21 when the new Allied Corps units were discussed, BTW. The Westland Lysander is similar but used more often.

The Swordfish is another special case: its stats are specifically tailored for a single scenario (Taranto), so changing them might break the balance there. But with only a huge naval attack and a single point of ammo it makes absolutely no sense to make it available for purchase.

[guille1434]

In the case of the Swordfish, an important unit used all along the war, again, we can have in the eqp file the "stock" version, specifically configured for the Taranto Raid, and add another Swordfish unit, with more balanced stats to be made purchaseable by the player. Besides, I don't know why to bother adding so many "false" theaters of war when the availability of the units could be easily managed by tweaking their availability dates. The good thing is, I think, modders can use those theater slots for describing more realistic/historical theaters like East European Front, Atlantic, Middle East, etc... It would be very nice to add the possibility of linking differently skinned icons to each different theater, just in the same way as it is currently supported by the icons presente in the "Desert" sub-folder present inside the Graphics/Units folder. For example, if you determine that theater number 2 is the Eastern Front, you could place a folder called "2" in the Graphi/units folder and fill it with all the icons with a special skin camo for that theater, and so on... Just an idea...

[bebro]

Yeah, I used the desert folder for winter camo in Russia. Further specific folders would be nice, though could mean lotsa work to add all those extra gfx - but that's part of the fun for modders

ThvN, thanks for the detailed info. I think it makes sense to limit units to certain theatres or scns, so I'm glad we have that feature, even when some of it could be done like guille said (adjusting dates).

[Mark50]

Let me get this straight... There are two types of theatres and they work differently:

- the 0 and 1 designating Africa and Europe are used to restrict the unit to that particular theatre. For example giving a unit theatre 1 makes it available only in Europe. The 0 and 1 would be the default game theatres so to speak.

- the 2 to 8 theatres are some sort of custom scenario theatres and they exclude the unit from a particular theatre. For example giving a unit theatre 2 makes it unavailable in the scenario that specifies that number.

Someone correct me if I`m wrong.

[Razz1]

You are correct.

[Mark50]

Thank you!

[Mark50]

Is it possible to add a restrictive theatre like 0 and 1 (Africa and Europe) with the effects of having special unit skins for them? Has anyone tried it? Could be useful for adding a Pacific theatre.

[nikivdd]

Is it possible to add a restrictive theatre like 0 and 1 (Africa and Europe) with the effects of having special unit skins for them? Has anyone tried it? Could be useful for adding a Pacific theatre.

The answer to your questions is yes and yes.

Check out the guide i wrote.

viewtopic.php?f=147&t=64818&p=550389#p550389