18th Century Age of Reason Expanded

[Athos1660]

Just for information, besides the 2 files mentioned by Cronos above, now this mod also has an issue with some 3D models/textures/coordinates

At the moment this mod has a problem with its unit models - e.g. pruss_dragoon_0.s3f
Some of the units have a proper model .s4f. You can find a suitable unit models (e.g.brits_cav_chev_0.s4f), copy it and its TXT files, rename them. Then change the texture name in this new .s4f file, not exceeding the length of an already existing name there, and correct the texture name. And you still need to adjust UnitScaling in Squads.csv. Probably, some desired textures also need to be reformatted.

Thanks a lot, Cronos !

I may look into this in a near future. The period has some appeal. Unfortunately, I lack historical knowledge (not to mention modding skills) and such a mod would need some specific rules of fighting.

Do you make progress with your P&S modding for the 7YW ?

btw the texture issue may only concern the units added into the original mod, as it is currently the Expanded version.

[Cronos09]

Thanks a lot, Cronos !
I may look into this in a near future. The period has some appeal. Unfortunately, I lack historical knowledge (not to mention modding skills) and such a mod would need some specific rules of fighting.
Do you make progress with your P&S modding for the 7YW ?
btw the texture issue may only concern the units added into the original mod, as it is currently the Expanded version.

Not at all.
The original has such problem. I'll try to fix it and to add muskets from P&S.
I'll send you something interesting I hope

[Paul59]

Thanks a lot, Cronos !
I may look into this in a near future. The period has some appeal. Unfortunately, I lack historical knowledge (not to mention modding skills) and such a mod would need some specific rules of fighting.
Do you make progress with your P&S modding for the 7YW ?
btw the texture issue may only concern the units added into the original mod, as it is currently the Expanded version.

Not at all.
The original has such problem. I'll try to fix it and to add muskets from P&S.
I'll send you something interesting I hope

I wonder what has happened to these models? I was doing a lot of work on this mod about 15 months ago, and all of the models worked perfectly. Something must have changed in FOG2 to cause this.

[Cronos09]

I wonder what has happened to these models? I was doing a lot of work on this mod about 15 months ago, and all of the models worked perfectly. Something must have changed in FOG2 to cause this.

I can guess there is a limit on the size of .s3f units at the moment. Texture of these units less 1Mb are displayed correctly. I was wrong with the Prussian dragoon unit. I can't to find a suitable unit for it. Its texture must be generated again to be displayed properly.
Paul, can you generate this texture in .s4f format?

[Paul59]

I wonder what has happened to these models? I was doing a lot of work on this mod about 15 months ago, and all of the models worked perfectly. Something must have changed in FOG2 to cause this.

I can guess there is a limit on the size of .s3f units at the moment. Texture of these units less 1Mb are displayed correctly. I was wrong with the Prussian dragoon unit. I can't to find a suitable unit for it. Its texture must be generated again to be displayed properly.
Paul, can you generate this texture in .s4f format?

I don't understand what you mean. The Prussian Dragoons texture is prussian_late_dragoon3X.tga.dds.

.s4f is the encrypted model file, it isn't a texture file. The texture files are .dds. The models are created as .s3f files, and then they should be automatically converted when they are first loaded in the game into a .s4f file. The game then uses the .s4f file, and the .s3f is redundant and can be deleted from the games folders.

I thought that maybe the game can no longer read the unencrypted .s3f models. Why they have not been converted automatically by the game into .s4f files I don't know. So I tried opening the Prussian Dragoon .s3f file in my Archon Tool, and I saved it again. When I tried to load the new model in the Editor it crashed the game!

Another possibility is that the game can no longer use the weird texture naming format that James Manhattan used, ie; .tga.dds. But some textures named like this do work okay. In any case I am 99% certain this is a model problem, and nothing to do with the texture files.

[Cronos09]

I don't understand what you mean. The Prussian Dragoons texture is prussian_late_dragoon3X.tga.dds.

Sorry, I ment to generate .s4f unit model. And what could be a way out? I

[Paul59]

I don't understand what you mean. The Prussian Dragoons texture is prussian_late_dragoon3X.tga.dds.

Sorry, I ment to generate .s4f unit model. And what could be a way out? I

I haven't got any time to look at this problem in depth at the moment. But I fear that this is beyond my powers to solve anyway.

I would guess that some changes have been made to the FOG2 engine during the last year, and some of the models that James Manhattan made are no longer compatible with it. I tried to resave the Prussian Dragoon model in the Archon tool, but that did not work. So I think we would need someone with 3d modeling skills to solve this problem. Unfortunately I am not a 3d modeller.

[Athos1660]

How about deleting the screwed-up 3D models, keep only the good ones and roughly re-texture some from other armies to fill the gaps ? I haven't looked at which units are still intact though to know if it is possible...

[pipfromslitherine]

FoG2 has never (to my knowledge) used S3F files - they were deprecated a long while back. It's likely the code still loads them, but I wouldn't rely on it saving them out again correctly.

I'm not entirely clear what the issue is here, can someone reclarify it.

Cheers

Pip

[Athos1660]

FoG2 has never (to my knowledge) used S3F files - they were deprecated a long while back. It's likely the code still loads them, but I wouldn't rely on it saving them out again correctly.

I'm not entirely clear what the issue is here, can someone reclarify it.

Cheers

Pip

Thank you for taking interest in this issue.

Many months ago (years ?), this mod worked fine.

Now, some units look as if they are kind of exploded, as if the 3D coordinates of some vertices of these models went wrong while other units are 100% fine. So those vertices seem to have gone away far from the rest of the 3D model and the texture followed.

However, one can still move the units, shoot... The game mechanics still works.

This is something I think I came across when I did some 3d modelling/texturing as a hobby during a few months many, many years ago but I can't recall what the issue and the solution were (if I ever knew).

[Paul59]

This is not a simple case of all the .s4f files working, and the .s3f files not.

Some of the .s3f files do still work, see the Hungarian Musketeers (.s3f) here:

[pipfromslitherine]

I will take a look. Where is the best place to download it from, and can you give me a specific battle to look at (or should I just drop the units into the editor)?

Cheers

Pip

[Athos1660]

Thanks !

Here is a version whose modded scripts work : http://www.mediafire.com/file/o8k00exqn ... d.rar/file

You can look at any Epic battles, for example the first one : Mollwitz (1741).

[pipfromslitherine]

So an optimisation which went in a long time back did indeed break mesh animations (partly because they were at the time no longer supported, but then I added them back in to try and be helpful, but no good deed etc ).

I have fixed it in the game EXE and so it should show up at some point in the future once it gets through into an update. I will also update the tool to correctly import S3Fs so we can be done with them entirely

Does the issue only happen for S3F files? If so you can work around it by opening the s3f file in a text editor and commenting out any MESHANIM tags, that is finding any lines

MESHANIM

and either deleting them, or replacing with

//MESHANIM

That will simply strip the offending animations.

Cheers

Pip

[Athos1660]

@Pip : Thank you !

Does the issue only happen for S3F files? If so you can work around it by opening the s3f file in a text editor and commenting out any MESHANIM tags, that is finding any lines

MESHANIM

and either deleting them, or replacing with

//MESHANIM

That will simply strip the offending animations.

Cheers

Pip

I did a test with the Prussian Army. Concerning this army, the issue does only happen for S3F files and your workaround works perfectly (of course) :



Interestingly, there is a 'scenario' in the mod called "MODELSHOWCASE" that... shows all the models. So it'll be quite easy to detect which models went wrong, whether or not they are all S3F files and fix them if possible.

I'll try to (...) to add muskets from P&S.

In this mod, the sound of the Flintlock musket seems to come way after the smoke. Is it what you mean ?

[Cronos09]

In this mod, the sound of the Flintlock musket seems to come way after the smoke. Is it what you mean ?

I planned to add P&S Musket script, which is absent in FoG2. Visual/sound effects need to be dealt with separately.

[Athos1660]

Units cleaned up. That's much better :



Here is link if anyone is interested : http://www.mediafire.com/file/o8k00exqn ... d.rar/file
(Tell me if I missed anything. Warning : any modded script, such as CombatTools.BSF or Tools.BSF, that didn't work anymore was deleted so it is quite bare-bone)

[Athos1660]

To make this mod viable, there are several items missing or replaced in the Squads file of the FoG2 series compared to that of P&S which, I guess, need to be handled :
- No 'Musket' but 'Handgun' (with only 1 square range)
- No "HasLight" item for Regimental Guns
- No medium artillery
- No bayonet (or is it replaced with Defensive Spearmen ? Does it have the same effect ?)
- No Impact mounted, Melee Pistol, Impact Pistol, Shooting Pistol
- Some Types missing : Dragoons, Determined Horse
- ... ?

Example of the capabilities of a foot unit as in the original mod :

[Athos1660]

Some units ('Brigades') from Odenathus' P&S scenario, The battle of Blenheim (1704) as a starting point for the Squads and ArmyList files :
(A thought for this great fellow and modder)

"Bayonnet_RG" :
MF
cost = 63
AP = 10
Speed = 600
TotalMen and UnitSize < 1500
Experience = 100-175
Elan = 100-175
HasLight Guns
Musket
Bayonet

"Archers"
MF
cost = 30
AP = 10
Speed = 600
TotalMen and UnitSize = 1000
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Musket
Bayonet

"Bayonnet"
MF
cost = 54
AP = 10
Speed = 600
TotalMen and UnitSize < 1500
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Light Guns
Musket
Bayonet

"Arkebusiers"
Horse
cost = 40
AP = 16
Speed = 900
TotalMen and UnitSize < 500
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Shooting Pistol 50%
Melee Pistol 50%

"Arkebusiers Large"
Horse
cost = 60
AP = 16
Speed = 900
TotalMen and UnitSize < 1200
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Shooting Pistol 50%
Melee Pistol 50%

"U impact Horse"
Determined Horse
cost = 60
AP = 16
Speed = 900
TotalMen and UnitSize = 789
Experience = 150
Elan = 150
Impact Mounted
Swordsmen

"U impact Horse"
Determined Horse
cost = 60
AP = 16
Speed = 900
TotalMen and UnitSize = 800
Experience = 150
Elan = 150
Impact Mounted

"U impact Horse Vet"
Determined Horse
cost = 60
AP = 16
Speed = 900
TotalMen and UnitSize = 1000
Experience = 150
Elan = 150
Impact Mounted
Swordsmen

"Vet Determined Horse"
Determined Horse
cost = 60
AP = 16
Speed = 900
TotalMen and UnitSize = 750
Experience = 150
Elan = 150
Impact Mounted
Swordsmen

"Light Guns"
Light Artillery
cost = 24
AP = 10
Speed = 400
TotalMen = 100
UnitSize = 200
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Light Artillery

"Medium Guns"
Medium Artillery
cost = 40
AP = 0
Speed = 0
TotalMen = 100
UnitSize = 200
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Medium Artillery

"Heavy Guns"
Heavy Artillery
cost = 50
AP = 0
Speed = 0
TotalMen = 100
UnitSize = 200
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Heavy Artillery

"Limber"
Train
cost = 0
AP = 10
Speed = 300
TotalMen = 100
UnitSize = 200
Experience = 100
Elan = 100

"Baduqchis" (Allied side)
Warriors
cost = 42
AP = 12
Speed = 600
TotalMen = 500
UnitSize = 600
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Arquebus

"Musketeers"
MF
cost = 42
AP = 10
Speed = 600
TotalMen = 500
UnitSize = 600
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Musket

"Vet Musketeers"
MF
cost = 60
AP = 10
Speed = 600
TotalMen = 1400
UnitSize = 1400
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Musket
Bayonet

"Dragons" (French list)
Dragoons
cost = 24
AP = 16
Speed = 900
TotalMen = 1230
UnitSize = 1230
Experience = 100
Elan = 100
Arquebus
Swordsmen

"Azabs" (French list)
MF
cost = 30
AP = 2
Speed = 0
TotalMen = 1000
UnitSize = 1000
Experience = 125
Elan = 125
Musket
ImpactFoot
Bayonet


French Foot get ImpactFoot.