Getting Scenario Intro UI to work for user scenarios

[Miletus]

Hi,

I've created a small test scenario in a new campaign file (based on the original Thirty Years War campaign). When I select the campaign, all the descriptions for the original battles display correctly, allowing me to select any of them to play. When it comes to the new battle I've created, I get a display screen to select it but with a blank map. I can live with that, but also - instead of the standard display of the battle name, date and location above the map, with a fuller description of it to the right of the map, I get nothing except two greyed out boxes randomly displayed. One has this text that I've included in the text1.txt file of my new campaign folder -

"IDS_SCENARIO_DESC_Breslau,"Battle of Breslau, test scenario",

- while the other has the message -

MISSING_IDS_SCENARIO_DESC_Breslau_b

Any ideas of what I need to do to remedy this?

It's a shame getting hung up at this stage as the damn scenario works otherwise (although it's a very basic test one).

I'm feeling hugely frustrated after spending several hours on this. Is it possible, if it hasn't already been done, for someone who's been through this process to document it clearly in a sticky where it's easy to find? Knowing which lines to edit and/or add in which files, for the basic process of creating straightforward new scenarios, would be a very great help.

Thanks.

[rbodleyscott]

The "standard" scenario intro layout in Pike and Shot is different from the standard BA2 layout, which is what the Editor produces automatically. The decision to change the intro layout for Pike & Shot was made late in the development process, and unfortunately the Editor (which is part of the STUB engine) did not keep up. Therefore the SCENUI files it generates need to be edited before they show up correctly in Pike and Shot - however, before you embark on that, there is a better and easier way, described below, which will make your scenario intros look the same as those in the vanilla game.

Of course scenarios will work perfectly well without any SCENUI file at all - if there is no SCENUI file they will just show the default intro map and the IDS_SCENARIO_ string. If there is no IDS_SCENARIO_ string they will show the default intro map and the scenario name in the form it is named in the filename of the .BAM file. So you could just delete the SCENUI_Breslau.txt file generated by the editor (which you can find as described below).

However, if you want to set up your scenario intro to match the ones in the game, it is relatively easy to do. Since you have put your scenario in a cloned P&S campaign it should be particularly easy. Forgive me if I miss any steps, it is late at night here, but if you can't make this work I will help you further tomorrow.

1) Find your custom campaign folder in /Documents (or My Documents)/My Games/PikeandShot/Campaigns/
2) In your custom campaign folder, go to /Data/UI
3) Delete the SCENUI_Breslau.txt file created by the Editor.
4) Make a copy of SCENUI_Lutter.txt (or any other SCENUI file that may be there from the vanilla campaign that you cloned) in the same directory.
5) Rename the copy to the name of your scenario in the form SCENUI_Breslau.txt
6) Do a "search and replace all" on the file - Search for Lutter (or whatever scenario the SCENUI file you copied was for) and replace all instances with Breslau.

If you have done all this correctly, (and I have not missed any steps), if you load up your campaign, your scenario should then appear in the usual format, with the string you have defined for IDS_SCENARIO_Breslau displayed at the top of the screen and the string you have defined for IDS_SCENARIO_DESC_Breslau displayed on the right. If you want to fill out the description in that string, note that "~" is used as a linefeed. You will find this string to edit in text9.txt in your campaign folder. Any subsequent strings generated by the editor (e.g. IDS_SCENARIO_DESC_BRESLAU_B) will not be used by this version of the SCENUI, but you can copy the text into IDS_SCENARIO_DESC_BRESLAU with one or two "~" linefeeds between each paragraph. (Don't put any actual linefeeds in the string). Then it will all show up on the right hand side of the screen as in the vanilla scenarios.

If you have problems I will try to sort it out tomorrow.

I do appreciate that it would be much better if the editor could generate the SCENUI file in the correct form for Pike & Shot automatically. We shall certainly look into whether this can be done in an update.

[Miletus]

Thanks Richard, that seems to have worked.

I'm going to take notes as I go through the process, and maybe at some point a few of us can pool resources to create a basic Wiki guide? I know quite a lot is covered already in various places, including the Scenario Design pdf, but having a step-by-step guide in one place might be helpful?

[rbodleyscott]

Thanks Richard, that seems to have worked.

I'm going to take notes as I go through the process, and maybe at some point a few of us can pool resources to create a basic Wiki guide? I know quite a lot is covered already in various places, including the Scenario Design pdf, but having a step-by-step guide in one place might be helpful?

It certainly would. At the moment we are working on ironing out a few of these hurdles. Then hopefully there will be less stuff that needs explaining!

I should note that if someone is creating a scenario NOT in a cloned campaign, they can still do the above, but they need to find a SCENUI file to clone in the main game installation.
(e.g. /Campaigns/1ThirtyYearsWar/Data/UI/SCENUI_Lutter.txt).

Also they should copy the file BACKDROP.DDS from one of the vanilla campaigns (e.g. /Campaigns/1ThirtyYearsWar/Backdrop.dds) into their campaign folder so that the white text has a dark background.

Also note it is probably best not to create a SCENUI file for MP scenarios because a long IDS_SCENARIO_DESC_ string will not show up correctly in the MP lobby.

As I say, apologies for all this hassle. The Pike and Shot UI was completely redesigned at the last moment and the engine has not yet completely caught up.

[Miletus]

As I say, apologies for all this hassle. The Pike and Shot UI was completely redesigned at the last moment and the engine has not yet completely caught up.

I'm sure it's worth the effort of learning to do this though. I'm playing around with a scenario today and it's a lot of fun. It's going to be a while before I'm likely to have anything shareable ready, but it's good to see that a few people have already got on top of it. So much potential in this game!

[rbodleyscott]

Just a note to say that the scenario description wizard has been corrected for the next update. It shows the scenario title and up to 5 text description boxes in white text on semi-transparent black, scattered around the screen. This, of course, is not the same as the vanilla scenario intros - if you want to reproduce that you will need to follow the instructions above.