Preview and modding questions

bebro · Post by **bebro** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 8:22 am

Thx for all the kudos from everyone

And to Razz for pointing me towards the GME.

gunhojr · Post by **gunhojr** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 9:25 am

very nice indeed bebro someone said you do sprites for hoi where can i check this out.

bebro · Post by **bebro** » Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:08 pm

gunhojr wrote:very nice indeed bebro someone said you do sprites for hoi where can i check this out.

There used to be threads about them incl. links at the paradox forums, in the HOI2, DD/Arma modding section. Here's one of them:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/sho ... ost7587503

But I've just seen the links are dead. Files got lost probably during the filefront disaster. Looks like I have to dig out my backups.

bebro · Post by **bebro** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:52 am

Some more modding/editor questions by me, maybe someone can help me with those:

1. In the editor, primary objectives are yellow, secondary red - but it seems in the game there's no way to make a graphical difference? Or is there?

2. Is there a way that the "generate tiles" command does not change various overlays done before? I manually changed certain coastal tiles to display those beach tiles included in the standard terrain set instead of the "normal coast", but noticed they were all changed back to "normal" after I did a mini-change on a terrain tile somewhere else one the map and used "generate tiles" again. Or do I need to generate tiles only onces for a map regardless of later terrain changes?

3. To edit additional tiles into the gfx for overlays, can you just extend the gfx for layers for another 136 px (seems the base suqares are 136x136)?

El_Condoro · Post by **El_Condoro** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 12:21 pm

1. No, there isn't unfortunately. They seem identical to all appearances and only really act as a means to set different victory conditions, but because they're identical to look at, it gets very confusing.

2. Again, no. This has been a major gripe with designers since day 1, and is with me today.

Any time you press G the tiles get re-generated and will overwrite things like bridges and stations that have been set. A real pain. The only way is to do the changes by using overlays and not using G or redoing them afterwards.

3. No idea, sorry.

bebro · Post by **bebro** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:41 pm

Thx for those answers.

Meanwhile I did a little test for 3) and it seems to work. At least the additional overlay tiles showed up in the editor and could be placed on the map, didn't test if that would cause any trouble in-game so far. But it looks promising

flakfernrohr · Post by **flakfernrohr** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:22 pm

I loathe the Generate Tiles command. I learned the hard way after a major map design and losing damned near everything and hours of work. I sometimes hit it by accident when I go too fast. I wish they would just remove the command from the menu.

El_Condoro · Post by **El_Condoro** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:30 pm

That might be a little extreme!

If it wasn't available at all you would have to place overlays for every hex - not my idea of fun. Just make it so that it doesn't overwrite overlays outside the normal terrain ones would be enough, I think.

bebro · Post by **bebro** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 6:16 pm

Right now I have a problem with deployment hexes. The manual doesn't state a difference between grey and green hexes, so I thought you place the grey types for axis, the green ones for allied deployment? Do I need to do something else to get them to appear at the beginning of the next scn in a campaign?

Because I just did a test with my USMC campaign, but had none of them visible at the start of the second scn. They're placed in the editor though (I used the green type, since I play allied, hope that's right), all on clear terrain. Any help with this issue would be appreciated.

Some more things I wondered about:

Do I actually need to type in "axis" and "allies" in the scn params in the editor, or will the game have those as default when I enter nothing under "Sides"? Similar question arises for the victory types...

El_Condoro · Post by **El_Condoro** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:39 pm

I would place green and grey deployment hexes and see which ones work (remove the ones that don't after). I had the same assumption as you for my Allied Red Dawn campaign but it seems they are not Axis and Allies but perhaps Attacker and Defender colours.

The name of the sides can be anything you like - Allies, The Good Guys - whatever. I always put in text so I don't know what it will default to if left blank. Same with victory conditions, although I don't think there would be a default because they are so customisable. I always put in text. There is also a box for victory type, which I think is 0 = DV, 1 = MV and 2 = Loss in the campaign.pzdat.

bebro · Post by **bebro** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:15 pm

Well, I use grey deployment hexes now and this works. Didn't figure out so far whether it depends indeed on axis/allies or attacker/defender settings, will see that later when I have scenarios where attacker/defender sides are reversed.

Thx

dragos · Post by **dragos** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 5:58 pm

Hi bebro and thanks for your work.

I have altered your tactical map icons, I hope you don't mind. First I changed the tint to be the same with the rest of the German tanks, and then resized to make it a bit smaller and then applied some filters. It's still not perfect, the turret should be bigger and so the exhaust pipe.

Here are the differences, top your original icon, bottom my changes.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I set this stats:

Code: Select all

                 Cost      Fuel      Initiative        SA        HA       GD      AD      CD

Panzer IIC       192        50           4             2         4        6       7       1

Panzer 35(t)     215        40           5             4         5        6       7       2

Panzer 38(t)A    238        58           5             4         6        6       7       2

The rest of the stats are identical to 38(t)

The differences are based on:
Fuel: Pz 35(t) - 153 litres, Pz 38(t) - 220 litres
HA: Pz 35(t) - 37mm L/40 MV:675m/s , Pz 38(t) - 37mm L/47.8 MV:762m/s

The cost I set to be in the middle between PzII and Pz38, but I am inclined to increase it a bit towards Pz38 given both the increase in attack values and close defense from PzII. However the low fuel might be an important handicap. I'd set it to 220 or even 225. What do you think?

bebro · Post by **bebro** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 6:05 pm

Hey, nice work. I have no prob with it, it was my first unit for PzC and primarily done to get routine with unit creation for this game, so I'm aware that there's certainly room for improvement

Stats look good to me as well, cost of either 220 or 225 should be ok, as it is only a minor difference.

Edit: fuel/litres, but IMO that would be fine aswell

Mark50 · Post by **Mark50** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:44 pm

@dragos - could you make your version available too? I like those adjusted color shades.

@bebro - really nice initiative(it was one of the first things I`ve noticed missing in PzC)! and good gfx skills! If I understand correctly you`re making these in 3d first and it`s showing.

bebro · Post by **bebro** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 1:51 pm

Mark50 wrote: @bebro - really nice initiative(it was one of the first things I`ve noticed missing in PzC)! and good gfx skills! If I understand correctly you`re making these in 3d first and it`s showing.

Thanks - and yes, that's it how they're done

dragos · Post by **dragos** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 3:47 pm

Mark50 wrote:@dragos - could you make your version available too? I like those adjusted color shades.

Sure, here it is:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/844/panzer35t.png/

Mark50 · Post by **Mark50** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 6:03 pm

Thank you!

Thanks - and yes, that's it how they're done

I`ve just discovered your other thread too.

I hope you`ll continue to produce such great units.

bebro · Post by **bebro** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 6:54 pm

Oh yes, I'll certainly make more units, though at the moment I'm focussed on getting my USMC campaign release-ready. Otoh there will be quite a number of new units in there as well, and esp. some for the US may be useful for players who want to spice up the allied arsenal of the main PzC game as well...

Mark50 · Post by **Mark50** » Tue Jan 03, 2012 9:08 pm

Good news then! Yes, I was thinking at just that. Compiling a unit add-on that adds the equipment that is currently missing, even though it was historically used. I`was kinda disappointed that some of it is not in tbh. Especially the non german axis powers seem way too neglected. Which for me at least wasn`t easy to swallow because I`m still thinking at the treasure of rosters these countries had in Panzer General 2. Maybe you could touch on that too when you`re done with your ongoing project.

El_Condoro · Post by **El_Condoro** » Wed Jan 04, 2012 3:15 am

@bebro if it's not too much work would you mind writing a tutorial on making the big unit isometric images, please? Again, only if it's not too much trouble. Thanks.