Italian Campaign 2.0 (v.1.99b on 31st of May, 2023.)

[Uhu]

Well I never tested the Italian Campaign with Allied Corps because I don't have it. Maybe who have it - and don't installed the other .... Corps - can say more about this issue. Still in a few days I will upload the newer version of the IC.

Hmmm is it because I dont have the original panzer corps or north afrika corps?

I only have the allied corps version of the game (and all the grand campaigns). Could that be the problem? Otherwise I dont know why it wont work on my game

[okiemcguire]

Hmmm is it because I dont have the original panzer corps or north afrika corps?

I only have the allied corps version of the game (and all the grand campaigns). Could that be the problem? Otherwise I dont know why it wont work on my game

I'm not sure... I have all Panzer Corps products installed.

[okiemcguire]

Hmmm is it because I dont have the original panzer corps or north afrika corps?

I only have the allied corps version of the game (and all the grand campaigns). Could that be the problem? Otherwise I dont know why it wont work on my game

I'm not sure... I have all Panzer Corps products installed.

Ok... retested this time using the Allied Corps icon and startup... And sure enough, the game does not appear...

[Oneironut]

I have been enjoying this campaign and all was working well until the end of the Sidi scenario and the start of Greece1. I get the briefings for Greece 1, but as soon as the UI pops up, the entire map area is black while all the normal buttons in the control panel on the right appear as normal. However, the control panel is totally unresponsive and the only was to exit the game is to kill the application. Has anyone experienced this and found a way around it? I am using v1.4 of the Italian Campaign with v1.05 of Panzer Corps on Windows 7.

[Uhu]

I have been enjoying this campaign and all was working well until the end of the Sidi scenario and the start of Greece1. I get the briefings for Greece 1, but as soon as the UI pops up, the entire map area is black while all the normal buttons in the control panel on the right appear as normal. However, the control panel is totally unresponsive and the only was to exit the game is to kill the application. Has anyone experienced this and found a way around it? I am using v1.4 of the Italian Campaign with v1.05 of Panzer Corps on Windows 7.

Hi Oneironut,

I'm happy you like the mod!
What you described happens mostly when the game didn't find the given scenario in the .../Data folder. Check if the Greece1.pzscn is there.
Another question is if you uninstalled after the Sidi scenario the DMP North Africa Graphics Pack (as written in the after-briefing)?
Also the v1.05 could be also the problem: why don't you update the game on later version?

[Oneironut]

Yes, after trying several things with file locations, I finally decided to do a complete re-install and update. I cleaned out all traces of the game and installed and updated to v1.20 via the updater. Today, I will try to properly install the files for the Italian Campaign...maybe I did not have them in the right locations, though it seemed to be working fine until the Greece1 scenario. Let's hope it was just a version incompatibility issue.

I didn't install or uninstall the North Africa Graphics pack. I assume this would have no effect on game play other than visuals, right? Is is necessary to use the Graphics Pack?

[Uhu]

The question is: what not to install? It is one-click with GSME and another click when you uninstall. Without it the North African theater loose most of it's atmosphere... And there is one gameplay-change too: the mines in North Africa are represented with impassable rivers (with mine overlays on them) - so you will see major rivers in the desert...

I didn't install or uninstall the North Africa Graphics pack. I assume this would have no effect on game play other than visuals, right? Is is necessary to use the Graphics Pack?

[Oneironut]

Uhu,
After the reinstall and update, the campaign is working fine. It transitioned properly to the next scenario, so everything appears well.
There are some 'disconnects' in the way buttons are labeled in the interface for PzC 1.20, but I guess that's because IC2.0 was developed for an earlier version of PzC.

[Uhu]

Version 1.5 have been released!

v.1.5
- Files adjusted to the official 1.20 patch
- Unique (ground/air) Italian heroes pictures are functioning again
- New icons for Soviet Regular, SMG and Guards units
- A new very nice icon of the Italian Cannone 75/46 AA gun - made by Guille - is implemented in the game
- New Greek Fairey Battle icon (changed from Panzercorps 1.20 patch)
- Minor bugs in the scenarios Unicorne and Unicorne_extra fixed
- Minor corrections on the Mareth scenario

Because of game balance it is suggested that you play the campaign "Custom Difficulty" TURNED OFF but with "Gamerules - Classic 1.14" TURNED ON. (So you should not check the "Custom Difficulty" but check the "Gamerules - Classic 1.14".) You can set this at the campaign starting in the Advanced tab.

[Uhu]

Good to hear that!
I hope the buttons have now clear labels - if you still find some issues please report it.

Uhu,
After the reinstall and update, the campaign is working fine. It transitioned properly to the next scenario, so everything appears well.
There are some 'disconnects' in the way buttons are labeled in the interface for PzC 1.20, but I guess that's because IC2.0 was developed for an earlier version of PzC.

[Cataphract88]

Hi Uhu,

After I downloaded the latest version from the link, I got something that looked like a Word document. This will not open

Any advice or solutions please

[okiemcguire]

Just rename the ".doc" to ".zip"...

[Cataphract88]

Just rename the ".doc" to ".zip"...

Thanks for the advice. I had to convert the file into Win-Rar to get it to work in the end.

Thanks a lot for this update Uhu.

[Oneironut]

Good to hear that!
I hope the buttons have now clear labels - if you still find some issues please report it.

Uhu,
After installing the latest version, the interface looks and works great, and the campaign is working flawlessly. Great work!

[rezaf]

I played around with this for a bit ... but I'm not a good enough PzC player. I can clearly see nikivdd's handwriting - he's obviously sooooo much better than me at playing this game.
I got to Greece, which was when things get a slaughter and you can even lose your Bersiglieri troops to a single assault. Ah well.

One thing I didn't like was the starting screen, so I cobbled together an alternate version - I'm not an artist, but I'll upload it anyway just in case anyone want's to use it - considering my limited skill, I'm quite proud of it.


New version, full size.
Original preview
Original version, full size.

Edit: Updated to a (hopefully improved) new version.
_____
rezaf

[Uhu]

Thanks Rezaf for the feedback!
Sure IC 2.0 is not an easy campaign like the vanilla GC's. Even I who was part of the scenario-creating - so I saw the maps with the units - could make DV's in almost every scenarios only after several tries (on Rommel). I would say when I tested Nikivdd's scns I mostly encouraged him to make it a little harder. There are many 'tricks' which can help to make DV's (which are essential at least on harder levels): the good managing of prestige point - buying/selling temporally core units, not to loose any core units before Moscow'43, making victories with low casualties... Many points for taking attention but for me it was therefore so enjoyable. And the feeling when finally - after many tries and angry words - making the DV it is priceless!

The Startscreen what you made is really nice! I cannot make a promise that it will be the official startscreen but I consider it...because it is really nice.

I played around with this for a bit ... but I'm not a good enough PzC player. I can clearly see nikivdd's handwriting - he's obviously sooooo much better than me at playing this game.
I got to Greece, which was when things get a slaughter and you can even lose your Bersiglieri troops to a single assault. Ah well.

One thing I didn't like was the starting screen, so I cobbled together an alternate version - I'm not an artist, but I'll upload it anyway just in case anyone want's to use it - considering my limited skill, I'm quite proud of it.

_____
rezaf

[rezaf]

Hey Uhu, nice to see you're still around.
I haven't given up entirely yet and was going to post more in-depth feedback later, but I'm going to give you a teaser since you stepped up: My main issue with this campaign is in the unit balance, specifically the relative strengths of the Italian vs. the Allied units.
Unit stats were clearly balanced as to make a somewhat challenging game when playing as the germans - so some enemy units are sometimes unrealistically strong (relatively speaking) because otherwise things would be too easy.
In your campaign, however, we're the italians, with much weaker units than the germans. Great care has to be taken when selecting the opponent's forces so this doesn't turn to an exercise in frustration for the player who does not possess th3 l33t skillz. Imo, bebro did an excellent job in this in his IJN campaign.
Everything is fine and dandy (if challenging) in the IC as well ... up until a point. The sixth mission, specifically - I think it was Sidi Barrani?
Anyway, considering the inferior italian equipment, it's a tough fight, which is ok - but you get far too little prestige to recover from the losses you almost inevitably are going to take - you're assaulting a fortrified position head-on on a tight schedule. You HAVE to trade blood for time, and then reinforce with prestige.
After this mission, I had so little prestige I couldn't bring half a dozen units back to fighting strength even AFTER resorting to normal instead of elite replacements.
But in Greece, this decision proved to be my downfall, as I had very few units with considerable overstrength capacity left, and the greek troops you face are balanced to be a challenge to experienced units of a german player - puny italians are no match for them. The Greek troops are able to literally overrun the italians, sometimes one-shotting them. There's far too many of them as well, imo.
With not even enough prestige left to cover losses, let alone cover them with experienced replacements, I'm not going to be able to buy new units as reinforcements, which means it's game over.
I'm going to fall back a couple of missions and replay from there, but I'm sure I won't get to a different conclusion on the points of ther being too little in terms of prestige rewards and in terms of the greece forces being ridiculously overpowered.

Ah well, I wrote far more than I intended to already - I'll play some more when I find the time and give you in-depth feedback on each mission when I finish or hit a brick wall again.

Oh, and about the Startscreen, you can of course use it if you want, but if you don't like it or have other reasons for not including it, that's fine by me.
If I get to it, I would like to retouch a few of the italian units, and there I'd hope you'd include the improved versions, but god knows if that's ever going to happen.
_____
rezaf

[rezaf]

I'm writing this as a seperate post so it doesn't get lost in the wall of text above: Sorry I neglected to mention this in my previous post, but of course I want to express my gratitude to you and nikivdd for your hard work in making this campaign.
_____
rezaf

[Uhu]

Version 1.6 published!

Changes:
- Mod updated to the game version 1.22
- It is advised (for gameplay balance reasons) to play the game with 1.14 rules! After starting the campaign click on the Advanced/Advanced Options/Game Rules and choose Classic (1.14).
- An Italian Light Cruiser is added to the player's core force at Malaga
- Some additional information in the briefings about the desert and minefield conditions of this mod (they are not the same as the desert and minefields conditions in the original game).
- Many new icons for almost all involving nations!
- New icon for minefields

I hope, all scenarios will work fine, but if you encounter any issues, please report it to me. I will look for it!

[Cataphract88]

Unable to open the file after downloading.