Spanish Civil War Mod & Campaign (v0.90)

[best75]

Hi
I started and played a few scenarios. I want to say good work, there is a good detail from the events and I particularly like the detail in the 2nd scenario where some of the republican units are not under your control for the initial part of the scenario.

[LNDavoust]

Well, Bru, I don't have all the clues about the eeuu politics, but i honestly don't think you're even near the extremely polarized situation of the spanish 30s. Even more important, the american institutions are not the fragile things that the republican spanish ones were in the 30s (the spanish republic was an infant when the war broke, just 5 years old...). Said that, I don't envy eeuu (in that regard).

Hi
I started and played a few scenarios. I want to say good work, there is a good detail from the events and I particularly like the detail in the 2nd scenario where some of the republican units are not under your control for the initial part of the scenario.

Hi best!

Quite happy you liked the first scens There are several republican factions, both under your control and not, in the mod. I wanted to transmit to the player the absolute mess that the chain of command of the republic was, especially in the first months of the war

Please, let me know what you think about the next missions if you go on playing

---

Guys, one question. I have been designing a total air scen during these last months, and I think i'm near of losing it... It is a 120x120 hex with near 500 triggers that takes more that 2 minutes to load, and i have nightmares each night thinking that soon i will reach a technical limit when the game will break. Before throwing more time to it, i would like to get some feedback from any of you who wanted to try it. Any kind of feedback is welcomed, but I'm specially interested in making sure the scen is technically playable in different computers (just playing a few turns would be enough, but it should also allow you to play it until the end, not exactly bug-free). If any of you is interested, let me know and i will send you a link through PM.

[bru888]

...It is a 120x120 hex with near 500 triggers that takes more that 2 minutes to load...

Is this literal or an exaggeration? Because if you literally have 500 triggers, then I don't think anybody needs to play test it. That's way too much, more than the designers ever intended, and forget about how much time it takes to load the scenario; it's going to bog down during gameplay. Each time anything happens in the game; turn start, move, combat, etc.; the program has to go through every one of those triggers to see if that event should cause them to activate. Plus it must examine each hex, I believe, to evaluate what to do next. These things take up processing time and I can tell you from experience that too large a map (yours is at maximum), too many units, and too many triggers is going to make this scenario move very slowly on even high-powered computers and very, very, very slowly on older computers, if at all.

[LNDavoust]

...It is a 120x120 hex with near 500 triggers that takes more that 2 minutes to load...

Is this literal or an exaggeration? Because if you literally have 500 triggers, then I don't think anybody needs to play test it. That's way too much, more than the designers ever intended, and forget about how much time it takes to load the scenario; it's going to bog down during gameplay. Each time anything happens in the game; turn start, move, combat, etc.; the program has to go through every one of those triggers to see if that event should cause them to activate. Plus it must examine each hex, I believe, to evaluate what to do next. These things take up processing time and I can tell you from experience that too large a map (yours is at maximum), too many units, and too many triggers is going to make this scenario move very slowly on even high-powered computers and very, very, very slowly on older computers, if at all.

:/

It is very literal, I'm afraid. The actual number could be around 400, although when (if) i finish it, yeah, should be around 500, yeah.

In its current state the scen is playable in my computer, although it indeed slows down at some points (not much worse than in the worse official scen, i would think), but i figured out that maybe others computers could have problems running it. The only moment the scene behaves much worse is in the initial loading time, which takes around 2 or 3 minutes. After that, everything seems correct.

I have (had?) thought that the low number of units (as i said, is an air scen) and the low number of IA teams (under 25 in the current version, i think) could somehow compensate the size and the number of triggers, but now you just got me terrible worried, Bru :/

As I said, anyone who want to try it is mostly welcomed, even if you only want to try to load the scen and play a couple of turns :/
(you should also need the TSP mod, as out of it the scen won't properly load)

[Zekedia222]

I can tell you with near absolute certainty, that scenario will not run on my computer. If you do add it, without trimming it down, please make it part of an option where you can choose one or the other.
25 AI teams will also bog it down. How many units are on each? 5? 10?
And Davoust, you’d be surprised how polarized things are in the US, though you are correct; it is certainly not on the same level as Republican Spain. I do fear that sometimes we near a bursting point, but everyone is too blind to realize it...

[LNDavoust]

From 3 to 8 units per team, i would say, zekadia, but not at the same time.

Yeah, I have already think about adding a bypass for the scen in case it gave problems to SOME cumputers. But now that I even doubt it will work in MOST computers... the scen won't do it in the final version of the game if that's the case.

If you think the scen wont load in you computer (low specs?), zeke, i would thank you if you could try it anyway to confirm our worst suspects. Maybe this weekend i will be able to link a working version of it, if you like. As i said, just loading (if possible) the scen and running a couple of turns would give me valuable info.

[bru888]

Zeke, I don't know where you are on the political spectrum, and I don't want to know. It is nice to know, though, that another American here shares my thoughts.

For, whether we are red, blue, or purple, we are all Americans. So, while we will avoid any further political commentary here (please post nothing about anybody whose last names start with "T" or "B" or "S" . . . or "G, W, K" - I cannot leave them out even in passing or risk being pilloried! ), let's continue to hope for the best.

LNDavoust, continue along the lines you are going. I know from experience how difficult it is to abandon, or radically change, something that you have been working on so diligently. I will just nudge you in one direction: This scenario may work fine on your computer, if you have a really powerful one (although, a two-minute load up time is somewhat excessive and is an indicator that, several turns into this scenario, you yourself may not be happy with it).

However, and I am not saying you necessarily have to agree with this and follow it, I feel a responsibility to make sure that my scenarios work flawlessly on my laptop, which, being two years old, is now fair to middling. That way, I can be assured that players with computers like mine, down to low-end, can also enjoy my work. After all, I would like the most amount of people to benefit from all this work, or what is it for?

If you are micro-managing the movements of AI teams with those hundreds of triggers, consider this: OOB AI often does what it wants, not what you want, for various reasons. You may be able to get away with much less triggers and still accomplish your ends. Also, for the same reasoning, you could have less AI teams and more units in each, up to a point. 10- 15 maximum, say? Less would be better.

Again, you do what you want. I will say no more.

[GabeKnight]

Guys, one question. I have been designing a total air scen during these last months, and I think i'm near of losing it... It is a 120x120 hex with near 500 triggers that takes more that 2 minutes to load, and i have nightmares each night thinking that soon i will reach a technical limit when the game will break. Before throwing more time to it, i would like to get some feedback from any of you who wanted to try it. Any kind of feedback is welcomed, but I'm specially interested in making sure the scen is technically playable in different computers (just playing a few turns would be enough, but it should also allow you to play it until the end, not exactly bug-free). If any of you is interested, let me know and i will send you a link through PM.

It may sound much, but really, what are 500 operations/iterations for a modern computer? Nothing. (Sure I know it's not really that simple...)

Don't give into the hype, LND, let's test this baby first, and decide what to do with it later. The OoB engine may surprise us all...

Sure, gimme, I'll give it a try. Can't promise you a full playthrough, though, but I'll give it a go for a few turns.

[Zekedia222]

I would also be willing to test it, through I will admit that my computer is certainly lower end... and ancient.

[LNDavoust]

I will be (almost) out for a couple of days, but i can leave this here:

https://mega.nz/#!GZl1jB5J!gakq6TzEmg62 ... 9C2s5ZpLC4

There is at least one major unresolved problem with the attack raids: you can not launch a second raid to a location if there is still one running in that same area. Besides that (and a lot of balancing, and polishing, and marking scortched hexes as forbidden, and...) the scen should be playable until the last turn...

... that is, if it runs at all

Thanks who anyone who try it (zekedia, feedback for lower end computer are specially interesting since is where problems can arise more easily)

[GabeKnight]

TSP v0.7

There is at least one major unresolved problem with the attack raids: you can not launch a second raid to a location if there is still one running in that same area. Besides that (and a lot of balancing, and polishing, and marking scortched hexes as forbidden, and...) the scen should be playable until the last turn...

... that is, if it runs at all

It does. Yeah, the scen loads for quite the while when starting up, but after that: no problems whatsoever. Actually it played faster than most stock scens, because of the rather low overall unit count. And everything seemed to work okay, as far as I could tell (popups, raids, enemy reaction, one sec. obj. raid checked complete)

Holy shit...I've played about 19 turns...and...you're a genius.
I hope I live to see this mod polished and finished...

some observations/suggestions:

- the new menu.ogg was neat. I liked it
- the new plane textures look really superb
- I see you found some "invisible" units for your town-proxies. Cool for one, but not without problems: enemy ships can fire at them and destroy them, too, and my units (AA) can not enter those already occupied hexes
- you should recheck some of the player's air exit hexes (e.g. Grenada panel, east side), as those don't work.
- balancing: the map is huge and the player can not move the air units from one battle to the next (as reaction to the enemy), but has to stick inside the panel he chose to deploy. And the initial unit deployment is also quite difficult, especially after the briefing with the rather confusing/unfamiliar setting of the scen. (! but only at first - one gets the hang of it soon. Very clever solution and scen design!)
- you have to rebalance some units, for example the range of the bombers (with fuel=8 they can not even reach Palma ).
- what are those "attainments" objectives and how do I get them? I did not understand the concept, sorry
- keeping track of the enemy planes is quite difficult. Maybe you could add some radar stations on the mainland or give a "radar" setting (units.csv) to some of your "invisible" units or some structures
- Keep up the great work!

PS: And LND, please be aware that you scens/campaign is hard as hell at the moment (not just this scen). It's quite doable, sure, but with - to be honest - practically no room for error on the player's side. You should consider some more RP/turn or damp the enemy units a bit or something similar.

[Zekedia222]

PS: And LND, please be aware that you scens/campaign is hard as hell at the moment (not just this scen). It's quite doable, sure, but with - to be honest - practically no room for error on the player's side. You should consider some more RP/turn or damp the enemy units a bit or something similar.

I would certainly agree with this statement. At least for me, the disconnect between the Nationalist and Republican forces in fire power very great, and the RP income is unforgiving. I wonder what the Nationalist income in the scenarios are, and how they can compare.

I’ve been promoted once again!

[Zekedia222]

Yes, this scenario is too big. I knew once you said it was 120x120 it would struggle. The units themselves aren’t the issue, its the map size, at least for me. Took about 5 or 6 minutes to load, then it began freezing and unfreezing. It hasn’t crashed yet, but its probably close.

Update: I take that back. It did crash the first time, but upon loading it up a second time, it worked.

It seems there is a bomber unaccounted for. The Ju-52 appeared in the north of the Barcelona panel, despite a raid only being launched in Madrid. Similarly, 2 Italian bombers raided me with no warning. Perhaps I misread?
This scenario, as GK pointed out, is quite difficult. All of your forces are spread thin, too thin, I would say. I wouldn’t say its not enjoyable, but it can be a little frustrating. I would recommend maybe 1 more auxiliary fighter. Perhaps you anticipated people to juggle their fighters between the different panels when a raid was announced (Looking back, you probably did). Fuel is also a concern. I suppose it is accurate for the fighters to have lower fuel, what with fuel shortages, and overall likely smaller fuel tanks, it is somewhat annoying to me. I guess that could be attributed to me just being used to having higher fuel limits.

Note: Several roads crossing rivers, notably the one in Palma city do not work properly.

[bru888]

Yes, the promotions come hot and heavy for a while. Then somebody comes along and makes you an offer you can't refuse and you're stuck with
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< this the rest of your forum life.

I’ve been promoted once again!

[weta_nz]

Thanks to LNDavoust for an excellent campaign. I enjoyed every scenario and will probably play it again some time at the higher Corporal difficulty as I played it on level Captain difficulty. Cheers!

[Mascarenhas]

How can I install this mod/campaign? Usual procedures not working.
Regards

[weta_nz]

I saved the downloaded files into the following:

C:\Users\xxx\Documents\My Games\Order of Battle - WW2\Mods\The Spanish Prelude 0.45a

[GabeKnight]

How can I install this mod/campaign? Usual procedures not working.

I saved the downloaded files into the following:

C:\Users\xxx\Documents\My Games\Order of Battle - WW2\Mods\The Spanish Prelude 0.45a

Yeah, there was nothing special about the installation itself. Does the mod start at least or is it even missing in the mod launcher?

[Mascarenhas]

How can I install this mod/campaign? Usual procedures not working.

I saved the downloaded files into the following:

C:\Users\xxx\Documents\My Games\Order of Battle - WW2\Mods\The Spanish Prelude 0.45a

Yeah, there was nothing special about the installation itself. Does the mod start at least or is it even missing in the mod launcher?

Yes, it is missing in the mod launcher,

[GabeKnight]

Yes, it is missing in the mod launcher,

You sure it's not an extraction problem (like another folder inside the mod folder)?

Make sure the "mod.txt" file is in the "My Games\Order of Battle - WW2\Mods\The Spanish Prelude 0.45a" folder and not somewhere else in the hierarchy.