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

[guille1434]

Ok, now I will present you with my first mini-mod, don't expect a terrific work, it's just a cosmetic thing but useful for me, and I wanted to share it to anybody who wants to use it. I think is a good idea.

As the past year closed, I decided that I deserved an auto-gift and purchased Panzer Corps Gold edition!!! I felt like playing a Grand Campaign play-through, and so, I installed the software (made a first test run on the vanilla version) and later patched it with the latest versions of Nikivdd's Equiment Update file (v18) and also his Campaign Update files. No necessary to say, the changes made by Nikivdd are excellent...

A detail present in both versions of the Grand Campaign 39 (vanilla and Nikivdd's updates), is that starting the game, you (as the Commander) receive a special air recon unit with a promising hero, Hans Rudel. It is a useful unit, it cannot attack much, but its four hex sight range is very useful... The problem is that his Ju-87 looked exactly like the other one I purchased for air support purposes. This, in the heat of battle, caused the commander (me) to issue the wrong orders to said units (attack orders to Rudel, and recon sorties to the other chaps ---> thanks for the "undo" button!).

Because of that, I had the idea to paint Rudel's aircraft in a different color and to implement it in the game... This mod does exactly that... After you receive Rudel's Ju-87, you land it on an airfield (I think it can only be done in one of the airfields that are under your control at the start of the scenario, I could not upgrade it in a recently taken polish airfield) and upgrade it with the new, green Ju-87 at no extra prestige cost!

The idea was inspired by this profile (I know this profile is for the much more newer Ju-87G version, but I took the colours from it). Also I attach some in-game screen captures of Herr Rudel and his new, shiny aircraft...

To be Continued!

[guille1434]

Here is the mod file, which contains a Readme.txt file with detailed instructions for its implementation.
Enjoy the mod!!

Here are the credits for this small mod:

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Credits:

- To Slitherine, for giving us Panzer Corps.
- To Nikivdd, for giving us the excellent Equipment Update and the Garnd Campaign Update.
- To Bebro, for a tremendous work with a lot of new, excellent looking icons and big units portraits.
The big unit portrait in this mod is the one made by him.

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[guille1434]

Here is a new screen capture and the custom-made unit icon...

[asuser]

Nice idea...good looking recstuka!

I just playing it in the same way, complete grand campaign with the new eqp-file. First time campaign player...

[Mark50]

A detail present in both versions of the Grand Campaign 39 (vanilla and Nikivdd's updates), is that starting the game, you (as the Commander) receive a special air recon unit with a promising hero, Hans Rudel. It is a useful unit, it cannot attack much, but its four hex sight range is very useful... The problem is that his Ju-87 looked exactly like the other one I purchased for air support purposes. This, in the heat of battle, caused the commander (me) to issue the wrong orders to said units (attack orders to Rudel, and recon sorties to the other chaps ---> thanks for the "undo" button!).

That`s a great initiative! It surely will be better to be able to visually distinguish which Ju-87 has Rudel (don`t know why I haven`t thought about it), but as far as the first scenario is concerned I wonder whether a more historical solution would not be to replace the type of plane Rudel is attached to altogether. Apparently Rudel only learned to fly a Stuka in 1941:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Ulri ... rld_War_II
so in Poland he probably flew some recon aircraft. Only problem is I have no idea which type. Does anyone know this btw?
In any case, your distinctive looking Stuka for Rudel would still be used when he actually gets promoted to this aircraft.

[guille1434]

Hello Mark 50:

Yes, I think it would be more historically accurate to give Mr. Rudel another type of recon aircraft... My bet would be a Henschel Hs-126, but maybe someone more knowledgeable on the subject can add some hard facts... And yes, this Stuka would be useful when Rudel is promoted to an attack squadron... I also plan to make Ju-87D and Ju-87G models with his personal colours...

Asuser: yes, the Grand Campaign is a real blast! And is even better when you patch the game using Niki's updated files...

Thanks for your positive comments! I am glad you liked the idea...

[Akkula]

Thanks for your units Guille. The are very beautiful!, but I am not surprised, this is just your standard for any icon you made
You even adopted the "phcas style" by adding the national flags, I like it!.

Thanks for your efforts, keep your hard working, we demand more!

Best regards,
Akkula.

[flakfernrohr]

I love to use Stukas in the game. Only problem is they get shot down so easy by other planes Saved my "bacon" many a time in many battles nonetheless. Great unit Guille. Thank you as always for your immense contributions to PZC.

[guille1434]

Akkula: I added the national flags because I saw that the icons present in your mod's beta have them (besides, it is very easy to remove them). I posted those modern units thinking that they can be useful tou you... Thanks for your kindest words...

Flak: Yes, Stukas hit very hard, but they also are easy prey for high performance fighters. In this playthrough, while I was playing the Narvik scenario of GC39, my powerful 12 strength Ju-87B was caught unescorted by a British Spitfire... Final result: 4 Strength Stuka... Needless to say, it quietly limped to an airfield and stayed put for the rest of the battle... Also, thanks for your positive comments!

[flakfernrohr]

The Stuka being the Granddaddy of the A10 and other similar devastating ground attack aircraft (including Apache, Hinde, etc) is a sitting duck without great air control. BUT when they can get out and put to good use, they are really awesome in the game.

I made an acquaintance several years ago whose last name was actually Stuka. I don't believe he even knew what a WWII Stuka was

[Mark50]

Yes, I think it would be more historically accurate to give Mr. Rudel another type of recon aircraft... My bet would be a Henschel Hs-126, but maybe someone more knowledgeable on the subject can add some hard facts...

I think I`ve managed to answer my own question. If Wikipedia got the name of the unit (Aufklärungsgruppe 121) right then it was probably a Dornier Do 17P:
http://www.ww2.dk/air/recon/aufkl121.htm

[guille1434]

A new version of Rudel's Recon Aircraft Mini-mod... A Do-17P Added. You can upgrade Rudel's Ju-87 to a Do-17P recon aircraft or to a Ju-87 (both has their distinctive green camouflage for giving them its distinctive look)... The Do-17P aircraft is more historical accurate than a Ju-87. This Do-17P aircraft has no offensive capabilities (only defensive fire) but it is a little faster than the Ju-87. I thought about giving spotting = 3, but this, added to the spotting +2 of Hans Rudel hero, gave a total of 5 hexes spotting, which looked a bit excessive, so it stayed with spotting = 2 + 2. Also this mod gives the "reconmove" trait to Rudel's Ju-87B and Do-17P.

Enjoy!!

[asuser]

Nice!

Could be well integrated into the new e-file from Nico.

[guille1434]

Indeed... It was thought to be used with Nico Upgraded equipment file. In fact I "borrowed" this same file as the basis for this mod...

[Mark50]

Cool, thank you! Nice to see you`ve added info cards too.

[guille1434]

Mark: Thanks for your nice words! If you like, here is an improved big unit portrait for Rudel's Do-17P... To include in the mod you will have to rename it to "Do_17_Rudel"and copy it (overwriting) in the UI/bigunits folder...

[Mark50]

Thank you!

[guille1434]

A useful variant of the Hurricane fighter that was missing (I think): in Belgian colors... One plain coloured version and a camouflaged (SE variant?). Maybe useful for scenarios set in 1940 year in western Europe.
Enjoy!

[Mark50]

Indeed, that was a big miss from the game as bebro never got to update his air-mod for the Low Countries. But instead of giving them a faction colour, wouldn`t it have been better (maybe even easier) to make them in the original camouflage which I think is pretty much the RAF one? If I`m not mistaken yours are based on bebro`s British Hurricane which had that camo.
http://www.clavework-graphics.co.uk/pro ... e_001.html

Btw, how do you make your shadows for aircraft? I`ve seen your Bre.693 posted in the other thread and it looks very convincing. I`m guessing you had to make that from scratch.

[guille1434]

Indeed, i did not think about painting the Belgian insignia on the camouflaged RAF Hurricane... Here is the result of this simple conversion...

Shadows: I use a simple method that I imagined and works rather well. I use the Paint.Net software. I will try to explain it here in a simple and comprehensible way...

1) Open the icon you want to draw the shadow in Paint.Net.
2) Select a square area that covers all of the icon, and is bigger than it.
3) Use the "Magic Wand" tool to select the icon (make sure the selected percent value of the tool makes it to select the whole icon).
4) Go to the main menu bar Edit command and select "Invert selection"
5) Go to the main menu bar File command and select "New"
6) Copy the selected surrounded area in the new image and fill it with any (visually better dark) color.
7) Select the empty area (the icon shape).
Pick a color from the color tool R = 51, G=51, B=51 and Opacity Alpha = 148 (the vanilla icons shadow is R=0, G=0, B=0 and Opacity 148, but I use a bit lighter shadow).
See the attached image with the indicated color values.
9) With the paint bucket tool fill that shape with the selected shadow color.
10) Select the colored surrounding area and delete it
11) Reduce the shadow shape to 50% size.
12) Copy your new shadow to the original icon in the desired position.
13) Done!