Normandy UK Campaign beta-test

[Erik2]

BrucErik CSD Studio has put together a UK/Canadian campaign.

Download link v1.5:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xz6zvk6rten84 ... 5.zip?dl=0

Please report any issues/possible improvements in this thread.

Have fun and happy holidays everybody!

Campaign tree

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[Zekedia222]

I’ll get right on it!

[bru888]

Remember that at any crossroads, you can save the game with a specific name (or rename one of the auto-save files) in order to return to that junction and choose a different path later.

[Zekedia222]

Here’s how its been so far.
I picked Sword Beach. I like that you deploy troops in waves, with you progressively building up. The main challenge of the first scenario isn’t really the enemy [they are quite small in number], it’s the organization. When you land 20-something troops in a mine-filled beach, crowded with supply ships, support ships, destroyers, and whatever else, you are bound to suffer that kind of problem. It appeared in the middle of the landings, but has kind of alleviated itself later on. All in all, Sword Beach is good!

[bru888]

Zeke, thanks, keep going. Be aware that we are looking for three things: 1) Bugs, of course; 2) Gameplay balance, a key factor; and 3) Enjoyability: Things like was it too easy/hard, too long/short, etc.

[terminator]

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[terminator]

Gold Beach (1/4):

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[terminator]

Gold Beach (2/4):

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[terminator]

Gold Beach (3/4):

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PS: Le Château de la Ferrière or Château de la Ferrière it is up to you

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[terminator]

Gold Beach (4/4):

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PS: Lounges -> Longues -> Longues-sur-Mer (full name)

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PS: Vassieux -> Vaussieux

[Erik2]

My first French lesson in 45+ years
I'll see if I can find the correct accents on my Norwegian keyboard.

The missing Canadian specifications is really up to the devs to fix. But it looks like only factions that get an official campaign will have proper specs assigned.
I'd rather not create a mod just to include the missing specs...

Edit: Ah, I see the spec issue.
When you create a new campaign in the editor, the game enters 1-1-1900 in the spec start date by default. Kind of stupid
Better if it used 1-1-40 (or -39) as default.
I'll fix it and update the campaign.

Edit2: Fixed spec and French accents. Link updated in first post.

[bru888]

My first French lesson in 45+ years

Funny how the brain works. Most times I can hardly remember what I ate for dinner last night, but as I was surveying terminator's lessons, the phrase popped up in my head: "accent aigu et accent grave."

Say, terminator, should your house be on one of these maps?

[terminator]

I think I found the explanation for the presence of this "Aérodrome" (airfield) near Crépon :

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PS: building an Airfield there could be a Secondary Objective

[terminator]

Bazenville airfield b2-normandy 1944 :

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[Erik2]

I see that this campaign is close to your heart, terminator.
Nice research.

[Mascarenhas]

I started beta testing with Gold Beach. A logistics nightmare and a minefield maze. You guys designed this mission to a draw being the best possible outcome for the player, unless one resorts to some unpredicted cheat. Beautifully designed, I must say.

Two glitches, apparently
1) Coastal Guns seems not operational
2) At the end of this mission I got an empty map and no follow- up for the next mission.

Furthermore, I am aware that it's a game parameter, but achieveing 6 or 7 out of 8 main objectives and also the secondary one should not be considered as a simple draw.

Congrats for the outstanding work.

[bru888]

I have a couple of thoughts about the coastal guns. There are only two of them in the scenario. Not that I want to make this scenario any harder, but I would think there should have been more.

That's one thought. The other is to keep in mind that coastal guns, unlike fortresses, fire only on seagoing targets. That's why they might have seemed not operational. The one to the west, in Longues (Erik, that spelling needs to be corrected, too, according to terminator) is too far from the action while the one in Mont Fluery is too far from the coast - it can barely reach the beach.

Now, regarding the "empty map," I got the same thing just by using #igotnukes:

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Not even the right hemisphere. It turns out that none of the beach scenarios will advance to the second scenario in line, so it's got to be a problem with the campaign itself. And it's a doozy.

I cannot find the source of the error. I stripped the campaign down to two scenarios and no specialisations. No good. It looks like the campaign file is corrupted. And since I had it for a while and worked on it, I cannot be sure that it's not my fault.

Erik, maybe you can look at it on your end. Meanwhile, I'm going to rebuild it and make sure that it works. By the way, I did find one thing: One of those inactive specialisations, Bomber Stream. Who knows what happens when the scenario file is saved when something like that is involved? I'm not saying that's it; I'm just saying that it could be it. Who knows with this game?

Anyway, I'll be back. Erik, I'm sure that you will post again if you find and resolve the problem in the meantime.

[Mascarenhas]

Juno

Same situation as Gold, another draw. Way too far from the historical D Day outcome for Juno operation. Too many minefields, too few engineers, too short time allowance and resources to go significantly beyond bach shore. I had to revive an engineer KIA unit and never had enogh points to even deploy all my remanescent units. Ended with a crash while trying to save gameplay for study. . Don´t know how to upload crash report to you guys.
Greetings,

[bru888]

Juno

Same situation as Gold, another draw. Way too far from the historical D Day outcome for Juno operation. Too many minefields, too few engineers, too short time allowance and resources to go significantly beyond bach shore. I had to revive an engineer KIA unit and never had enogh points to even deploy all my remanescent units. Ended with a crash while trying to save gameplay for study. . Don´t know how to upload crash report to you guys.
Greetings,

Could you restart Juno, use cheat code "igotnukes" and see if you can advance to June Day 2? If not, and it crashes again, it's probably the same problem as above.

EDIT: Ah, no matter. I am making progress rebuilding the campaign file. We should have this fixed soon, folks. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Mascarenhas]

Bru,

Nuked it an got no crash this time, but that empty map you also found.
Waiting anxiously your fix for the campaign.
Congrats