Spanish Civil War Mod & Campaign (v0.90)

[LNDavoust]

Thanks a lot (again), Asuser When I had finished the campaign, I will be sure to leave there a comment

[rafdobrowolski]

Of course, any english correction you made = yes sir

-Fantastic!

Palma Scenario -

- On the campaign map, the scenario is titled "Alex." I am curious if that was a historical name of the operation, and intentional, or a mistake?
- What is the point of the anarchist cargo truck? As a distraction? You don't get a reward for keeping it alive it seems. Maybe an oversight, or is it really just and extra unit?
- With the objective to blow the coastal battery. perhaps it should be clearer that you need to use the guerrilleros to blow the bridge next to the battery to disable it. I know the red arrow points there but making it more explicit this is the objective could help with confusion. Saying something like blowing the bridge that doubles as the electronics installation is what the player must do, or maybe just saying that destroying the bridge that leads to the battery will incapacitate the unit. It took me a few plays to realize that I did not have to destroy the battery with the guerrilleros, but blow the bridge with them instead to achieve the objective, after wondering why the arrow pointed there and re-reading the instructions a few times.
- After the scenario, the pins indicating that you achieved certain objectives that have repercussions in the future drop down on the map of Spain. Perhaps they should drop to the location where those objectives were met? I understand this is your full discretion, and the final decision is up to you to make. Might just be a personal preference of mine to see them drop where I met the objectives.

- The Palma scene is completely fictional (together with Cadiz, they are the only two 100% what-ifs of the campaign). Besides, at that very early point of the war, i doubt the militias had any other plan after the landings in Majorca (which were disastrous in real life) apart from just advance over Palma (or more probably, each militia had a plan of its own :/). So i'm afraid the Alex thing is another mistake... Or maybe the name of a double agent just slipped from my computer. Yeah, let's go with the double agent story
- Yeah, the truck is just a distraction for flavour... but maybe it's too much of a distraction? I will think about removing it, or maybe adding some text about anarchists barricading behind some trucks waiting for relief...
- That particular objective did cause problems to players before. I worked the description to clarify the objective, but it seems i didn't do a good work. I will review the whole thing.
- I'm not sure if i get you in this one. What i did with the pins in the campaign map (unless something is not working the way it should) is to use them to mark the point where the achieved objective will be useful in the future (for example, if you knock down the italian tankettes in Madrid, a pin appears around Malaga, at the south, announcing that the italians tank crews will be more green in an action in the future (like 6 scens after): it's a bit spoilerific, but i think it's the way the officials DLCs do it. Are you suggesting that instead of marking the place where the objective will benefit the pins should mark the place where the objective was achieved (in the italian tanks example, Madrid instead of Malaga)?

-Cool, good to know, I didn't realize it was fictional. I guess I should have figured that out when nothing was coming up when I searched it!

-Ya, I would agree with either removing it, or adding a neat little story behind it, or perhaps integrating it into the scenario in some way (get extra RP's if it survives or exits, or something akin to that).

-With the bridge objective, perhaps being just blunt about the player needing to blow the bridge will suffice. Perhaps putting it in brackets [like this] would work???

-Ok, I see what you did with the pins. They fall on the place where you will benefit from them. Totally fine!

Bilbao Scenario -

- When fighters do damage to ground units, the counter for the secondary objective for "do x damage with fighters" does not go up. It is not clear from the instructions that you mean this to mean that it is only damage to aircraft that will count.
- One really has to pay attention which ports the ships are supposed to go to, particularly in the eastern sector. Lost multiple times since the ships would show up a few turns after the dialogue box pops up, and sometimes I took a day or two off between turns. Perhaps making it clearer when the ship actually shows up where they need to go.

- Regarding the fighters in Bilbao, this time the objective works as it should, the problem is then with the description. I will fix it.
- Regardign the ships... well yeah, my intention was to force to the player to note down manually the destionation of the ships each time he recieve a telegrams. I tried to clarify this in the description of the secondary objective ("Noting down the destination of the ships after each communications could be usefull, commander||+30 extra resource points") but most probably i didn't do a good job... Maybe i will add a Pop Up after the first ship arrive. Also, the delay between the message and the ship arriving to the area is intentional: in this way, you can direct your warships to the area the merchants are gonna appear to protect it. I will review the phrasing of the objectives and the ship pop ups to try to

- Regarding the ships objective. You clearly state that one should write them down. Or make "note" of them. A gentle reminder that they should remember where they are going in order to meet the objective would help. But it is your choice.

Malaga Scenario -

- Also perhaps indicate the arrival of the liaison officer in some way, like with a red arrow (if possible) - if the player does not hit the "next unit" button, they could be confused and miss the scout car with the officer inside.

- Yep, you are right, will do it.

Air Raids Scenario -
- You speak of "attainments," in both the primary and secondary objectives, but I think what you mean is "objectives." Use that word instead.

This was by far my least favorite scenario in the whole mod. It was tough to figure out for me, and a bit too much of a puzzle for a casual gamer. There is just too much going on, and it is hard to convey from the instructions what one needs to do. It was hard to plan for as well. I could see some folks liking this one, but I found it frustrating, since it was such a diversion from the other scenarios in terms of how it played. I could see this scenario needing some more refinements to make it enjoyable for me. The idea is great, but I did not like this scenario that much as it currently stands, and I ended up skipping it after a few turns. The only scenario that I did not like in the entire mod.

This is seriously a fun mod and I am looking forward to it being entirely done! I just hope i can import my core force into the new version....

- Don't you think that speaking of objectives instead of attainments could confuse the player, since the attainments in the context of this scene are no primary or a secundary objectives exactly? That is the reason i try to find an alternative word, although maybe attainment wasn't a good one. The other candidate i had was "achievement", but in my mind is too related actually to the gaming world, and that is not a relationship i want to make inside the game. The closest spanish work i can think of is "logro".

Just to clarify, the attainments are "happy findings" (other expression which i find extremely inadequate for the context of bombing things, even in a game, but i use here to try to make myself understandable) you can or can get when you correctly bomb an objective in the scenario. So let's say you bomb a munition factory: you will always drop the supply rate of that area, which you need to win the scen, but sometimes (there is a randome trigger behind this, usually you have 1/3 or 1/2 chance) you will get to an additionl "prize" (bad choice of words, again), the attainment. The rational behind this is that the precision of the bombers at that moment of the warfare "art" was very poor. Many times you could only get limited results. In the example of the munition factory, maybe you will damage auxiliary infrastructures (the access road, or a workshop nearby where the trucks are resting, or even the workers houses... :/) and cause some confusion to the area. And that's it. Even that can be valuable as a war effort, since the production in the factory will temporary drop, and the enemy will spend resources, with garrison wings or antiair guns, to protect the factory. But sometimes, by pure chance, the damages could be more serious: direct hits to the factory... or even to the munition depots, which goes boom: that's an attainment. In the context of the scenario, if you attack enough objectives, you will get enough attainments (again, by pure chance) to get the secondary objective. There is some luck involved, as with anything in the game that involves random triggers, but i found it adds replay value to the game.

Maybe you already understand this from the scen, but i just wanted to make sure you did to explain the mechanich behind the thing and why i doubt calling "objective" wasn't a good idea. "Critical hit" could also work, maybe...

Regarding the scen itself... yeah, the feedback im getting from it until now is quite polarasing: 2 of you love it, 2 of you hate it I have to think about it. The thing is still in beta state, so maybe i will be able to present it in a way it's more engaging and fun, even for the casual gamer. Another possibility is to create and alternative simpler bombing scene (bru had several of these, i think, i'm sure great ones) and leave the bigger one as an standalone scene... I'm pretty divided right now with the whole thing.

I get what you are saying now. I like your idea of a "critical hit." There isn't a similar word that conveys in English what "logros" conveys in Spanish. Perhaps focusing on critical hits and explaining them as such in the text somehow would be a great idea.

[rafdobrowolski]

Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text! How do you just quote segments in a reply? I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....

[Zekedia222]

You delete the text in a quote.

Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text! How do you just quote segments in a reply?

Simply use backspace to delete whatever text you don’t want, like you would normally deleting some text.

[LNDavoust]

I get what you are saying now. I like your idea of a "critical hit." There isn't a similar word that conveys in English what "logros" conveys in Spanish. Perhaps focusing on critical hits and explaining them as such in the text somehow would be a great idea.

Duly noted (insert thumbs up icon here).

Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text! How do you just quote segments in a reply? I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....

What Zekedia said

[GabeKnight]

If you click on the "reply with a quote" button to the right of the post, you get something like this:

Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text! How do you just quote segments in a reply? I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....

In the text it looks like this:

Code: Select all

[quote=rafdobrowolski post_id=865899 time=1594939906 user_id=118319]
Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text!
How do you just quote segments in a reply?  I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....
[/quote]

The parts beginning and ending in "[" and "]" are not shown and are interpreted
by the forum software. The text that is inside the [quote=.....] and [/quote] is being
quoted in the post. Everything you write "outside" is not quoted.

If you want to separate a large piece of quoted text into smalled pieces and
answer them, you have to copy&paste the whole [quote=...] and [/quote] bits
around the text you want to quote and your text in between.
Example:

[quote=rafdobrowolski]
Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except
for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text!
[/quote]
Yes!

[quote=rafdobrowolski]
How do you just quote segments in a reply?  I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....
[/quote]
Like this!

In the forum the example looks like this:

Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text!

Yes!

How do you just quote segments in a reply? I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....

Like this!

[Bobster66]

Just finished playing through this update, and have to say that it is absolutely terrific!

I really liked all the informative popups for the added flavour, the uniqueness of each scenario and the sometimes extremely challenging predicaments.

[rafdobrowolski]

If you click on the "reply with a quote" button to the right of the post, you get something like this:

Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text! How do you just quote segments in a reply? I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....

In the text it looks like this:

Code: Select all

[quote=rafdobrowolski post_id=865899 time=1594939906 user_id=118319]
Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text!
How do you just quote segments in a reply?  I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....
[/quote]

The parts beginning and ending in "[" and "]" are not shown and are interpreted
by the forum software. The text that is inside the [quote=.....] and [/quote] is being
quoted in the post. Everything you write "outside" is not quoted.

If you want to separate a large piece of quoted text into smalled pieces and
answer them, you have to copy&paste the whole [quote=...] and [/quote] bits
around the text you want to quote and your text in between.
Example:

[quote=rafdobrowolski]
Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except
for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text!
[/quote]
Yes!

[quote=rafdobrowolski]
How do you just quote segments in a reply?  I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....
[/quote]
Like this!

In the forum the example looks like this:

Oh, damn, My suggestions and responses for all the other scenarios, except for the air raid scenario, are in the quoted text!

Yes!

How do you just quote segments in a reply? I am not too forum tech savvy apparently....

Like this!

Thank you Gabe!

[LNDavoust]

Just finished playing through this update, and have to say that it is absolutely terrific!

I really liked all the informative popups for the added flavour, the uniqueness of each scenario and the sometimes extremely challenging predicaments.

Wow, thanks for you kind words, Bobster. I certainly tried to add at least a "special feature" to each scenario to avoid the feeling of repetition that some land campaigns in OoB suffer from (just IMHO). On the other hand, sometimes I wonder if the lack of predictability in some scenes of the Campaign detracts from the fun... I had the same doubts regarding the abundace of Pop Ups, but the feedback in this regard has been quite positively until now, so I feel better now in this department

I don't want to pester you by any means but, if you have the opportunity and the inclination, I would like to know a bit more about your experience with the mod. Something as simple as stating your most favourite part of the campaing (scene, unit, feature... anything goes! ) and also your least one would help me a lot with further developments.

Anyway, I'm very happy that you had your fun with TSP, so thank a lot for letting me know

[Bobster66]

I don't want to pester you by any means but, if you have the opportunity and the inclination, I would like to know a bit more about your experience with the mod. Something as simple as stating your most favourite part of the campaing (scene, unit, feature... anything goes! ) and also your least one would help me a lot with further developments.

Anyway, I'm very happy that you had your fun with TSP, so thank a lot for letting me know

Well, my favourite part was how new/different everything was from anything we've seen in OOB so far. But some good points were the small core sizes along with the meager RP allotments. As small as the RP rates were you really nailed the appropriate amount to allow the player to complete the objectives. Hard decisions need to be made on how to spend what you got.

The least favourite part was not knowing what to expect next! And of course that's actually a good thing. Although a good number of scenarios had to be replayed multiple times to finally get an acceptable result, there was only one time I thought an objective was probably impossible. That was were we had to do so much damage with our bombers and when that was completed we had to do it again.

[jeffoot77]

hi,
I m playing this campaign and it is very pleasant to play, the missions are various and difficulty is just perfect (3/5) , it is very well balanced! Almost the perfection of Erik's campaigns!

I like my small core unit group and for now, i will begin mission 05 . I hope you will finish this awesome campaign. You have talent. Take your time

[LNDavoust]

I'm having problems with my computer these last days (revelation: coffe is great for you in the morning, no so good for you motherboard, it seems... ) so sorry if I don't answer posts or PMs as frequently as before. I have see there is a new version of OoB in the oven, as well as a multiplayer tournament too, so I'm happy the game is still recieving love from the developers.

Well, my favourite part was how new/different everything was from anything we've seen in OOB so far. But some good points were the small core sizes along with the meager RP allotments. As small as the RP rates were you really nailed the appropriate amount to allow the player to complete the objectives. Hard decisions need to be made on how to spend what you got.

The least favourite part was not knowing what to expect next! And of course that's actually a good thing. Although a good number of scenarios had to be replayed multiple times to finally get an acceptable result, there was only one time I thought an objective was probably impossible. That was were we had to do so much damage with our bombers and when that was completed we had to do it again.

Interesting feeback, Bobster, thanks for letting me know. Yeah, the bomber scenario is still in a beta state, so probably it is not possible to obtain a major victory at the moment without cheating (balancing difficulty is one of the final things i do with the scens). That will work fine in the next upedate ^_^

Regarding the difficulty, i have to say that in part is a designing decision of mine, but i'm suspect that in part it is also just bad/inexperience designing skills. Maybe i will redo some scenarios after the 1.0 version, we will see, but i expect that in the end the balance will be better than in the current version of the mod. Again, thanks for your feedback

hi,
I m playing this campaign and it is very pleasant to play, the missions are various and difficulty is just perfect (3/5) , it is very well balanced! Almost the perfection of Erik's campaigns!

I like my small core unit group and for now, i will begin mission 05 . I hope you will finish this awesome campaign. You have talent. Take your time

Very kind words, jeffoot, it's great you having you fun with the campaign As a player I also like a lot small cores at the beginning (love the feeling of building it up during the campaign, wich usually OoB does quite well) so i guess my personal preferences were transfered to the mod

When you finish the campaign remember to come again and give me some precious feedback for the upcoming versions

[jeffoot77]

ok i will .

Mission near Madrid with the two bombers was incredible. I don't know if you did it on purpose but i let ennemies advance near the town in sud-est and i cut the line behind them :two panzer trapped and others units . It was hard but so fun to make it.

Thxs again for this great mod.

[jeffoot77]

Malaga Scenario : i didnt get any convoy to escort until the end.. i have been waiting until turn 15 then 20 but nothing appear.. I think i forget the liaison officer Not clear.

For the rest, no problem, a lot of fun to play !

[michacey]

I am interested in trying out your campaign but have some problems downloading and installing. I joined MEGA and downloaded it from their site. I unzipped it using explorer and instead of a folder it showed the explorer icon. I have been trying to download it again with no success. It gives me the following message:
(The Spanish Prelude 0.75 .rar
317.9 MB317.9 MB
File transfer has been completed and decrypted. Please choose "Save" to save the file to your computer.)
Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

[Nordlingen1634]

Good work, i´ve played until 6th and like it so much. Very well balanced and conceived.

A campaing from the nationalist perspective it would have been much more flexible and easy to do, in my modest opinion. But that`s fine anyway.

My suggestion, for the following scenarios, is no forgot the main battles , just this.

-La Gran Ofensiva de Zaragoza (Belchite, Quinto, Codo)
-Teruel
-Alfambra
-X,Y,Z (Línea Matallana)
-El Ebro

Thanks for remembering this war, the WWII begins there.

[LNDavoust]

ok i will .

Mission near Madrid with the two bombers was incredible. I don't know if you did it on purpose but i let ennemies advance near the town in sud-est and i cut the line behind them :two panzer trapped and others units . It was hard but so fun to make it.

Thxs again for this great mod.

Hi, jeff, thanks for the feedback

Yeah, cutting off SOME units in the University City Scenario was indeed a possibility, so congrats for your tactical success If the isolated units, though, were more than 4 or 5, the situation could be a bit rididiculous and it could be considered a poor design from my part. But i guess that if you liked the scenario that means it wasn't a complete military parade for the republicans and it was enough challenging to be fun (if you say otherwise i will review the IA of the nationalists units in further updates).

Malaga Scenario : i didnt get any convoy to escort until the end.. i have been waiting until turn 15 then 20 but nothing appear.. I think i forget the liaison officer Not clear.

For the rest, no problem, a lot of fun to play !

Yeah, as Raf said some messages ago, i will have to review the whole liason officer thing in Malaga to make it more clear for the player. At some point in the scen (maybe turn 12, i don't remember now) a Pop Up appears that inform you that the retreat is ready and they are awaiting for you final order. At the same time, a "liason officer" unit (a soviet recon BA) appear at the very east of the scene and you have to exit the recon unit to execute the operation. Anyway, as i said, i will try to clarify this in next updates for sure.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, i'm very happy you had your fun with the mod ^_^

[LNDavoust]

I am interested in trying out your campaign but have some problems downloading and installing. I joined MEGA and downloaded it from their site. I unzipped it using explorer and instead of a folder it showed the explorer icon. I have been trying to download it again with no success. It gives me the following message:
(The Spanish Prelude 0.75 .rar
317.9 MB317.9 MB
File transfer has been completed and decrypted. Please choose "Save" to save the file to your computer.)
Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

Hello michacey, thanks for your interest for TSP

I reviewed both the link and the file and they appeared to be working ok in my actual computer. It seems to me that you have a problem with the mega downloading system, probably because of your browser (maybe a pop up blocker is the problem?). Perhaps changing the browser could help? Anyway, MEGA is (in my very limited experience) quite fast as a server, but also a bit "moody", working a bit different than other similar storage services. It downloads the files in two phases, the transfer phase (when you can see the tranfering progress in the browser window) and the actual download phase (when the file is actually being copied into your computer). Sometimes between the two steps you have to confirm or allow the download in your hd. Another strange thing it's that you don't need a MEGA account for downloading files, just for uploading them, so again i think somehow your browser doesn't like MEGA as a site

Anyway, i have reuploaded TSP in mediafire, another storage service. Please, let me know if you can download the file from this site (otherwise i will try to upload it to another site)

https://www.mediafire.com/file/zc01lujgkaykyig/file

[LNDavoust]

Good work, i´ve played until 6th and like it so much. Very well balanced and conceived.

A campaing from the nationalist perspective it would have been much more flexible and easy to do, in my modest opinion. But that`s fine anyway.

My suggestion, for the following scenarios, is no forgot the main battles , just this.

-La Gran Ofensiva de Zaragoza (Belchite, Quinto, Codo)
-Teruel
-Alfambra
-X,Y,Z (Línea Matallana)
-El Ebro

Thanks for remembering this war, the WWII begins there.

Hi Nordlingen, thanks a lot for traying the mod playing the campaign!

I agree that the nationalist prespective could be easier to do: the nationalists have the initiative for most of the war, while the republicans remained at the defensive, reacting to the rebels with just some minor exceptions. That forced me to introduce some jumps in the narrative of the republican campaing that were just a bit unnatural (for example, you fight in the north front, and then in Madrird (centre) and then in the south within just a few scens/months, wich doesn't very logical for a single army corps).

On the other side, the nationalist campaign is the one who have usually received all the attention from the proffesional wargaming community in videogames, for example like in the current PzC II, were spain is a "logical" prelude for german WWII campaigns. Therefore, i thought that as a rookie modder i could offer a more novel and different experience choosing the other side, which could also offer interesting stories, while giving the player an overall insight to the spanish war Anyway, there are some projects here in the forum to create nationalist campaigns for OoB, so i doubt mine is the only take we will have for the conflict in future mothns

Regarding the battles you mentioned, the current campaing will only cover until Brunete (summer'37). There is an additional republican campaign planned which cover the second half of the war, where yes, we will visit Belchite, Teruel, Valencia (XYZ line) and the Ebro Offensive So, with the probable exception of Alfambra, rest assured i intend to cover the big ones

I'm still undecided, though, about how to finish this second campaign. I know that the most cannonical way to do it will to follow the historical events and finish it with the defeat of the republicans in Apr'39 but... as with the gemans in the 45 that kind of closure is always a bit depressing for me as a player. The "Endsiege" option didn't also feel completely right to me in OoB... I have an idea on what to do, but when i resume the works in the mod, i will discuss here the possibilities in a more extended way to ask for feedback from you guys regarding this matter

Anyway, thanks again for playing and giving me your feedback, Nordlingen, much appreciated ^_^

[LNDavoust]

Oh, i almost forgot.

The current version of The Spanish Prelude (v0.75) was only tested in the previous OoB vanilla version of the game. The actual post Tournament versions (8.5.4 and 8.5.6) didn't introduce a lot of changes, but i didn't have the opportunity to test TSP in these new versions. Therefore, if you plan to play TSP and havent updated yet OoB, my advise would be not to do it until you have finished with my mod.

Alternatively, if you have already tried my mod in the new versions of the game (8.5.4 and 8.5.6), let me now. I will still plan to check extensively for problems with the newest versions in the future, but the more feedback and computers tested, the merrier