Slitherine

How about Endsieg. No homemade fix necessary to play the campaign since 7.1.6? I already fixed these date issues of units and specs last year, but nothing scenario-wise.
I still won't start playing Sandstorm without the disabled-unit fix, but Endsieg is an idea for the next time.

Horst wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 5:01 pm How about Endsieg. No homemade fix necessary to play the campaign since 7.1.6? I already fixed these date issues of units and specs last year, but nothing scenario-wise.
I still won't start playing Sandstorm without the disabled-unit fix, but Endsieg is an idea for the next time.

There's still the Maus/E-100 issue in there, but that's an easy fix (if you haven't refered to this as the "date issue").
Far worse would be the core-import-Waffen-SS-issue:

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 41&t=90436
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 41&t=90451

No other scenario related problems I'm aware of at the moment.

Good, let's see much later how my changes work in the end.
My E-Series spec is set to 1/2/1945, Antwerp, so it should be purchasable before starting Calais 45, together with the E-100 available on 1/5/1945.
My Maus is available on 29/4/1945, therefore also available for Calais without any spec-req.
I can't remember anymore what I have fixed via campaign-editor on the later scenario dates.
Yeah, there is a lot of prototype/wannahave stuff cramped in the end of Endsieg like the nuclear bomber. Let's see how it works with my mod.

Double RP can't hurt for my rubbish playstyle. I already didn't like it in Panzerkrieg that I have to wait forever for my core units to return to combat thanks to the meager number of RPs you earn.

Yo, if you got the time and ambition, can you do a French 155mm_mle1917_m36 in US colors, please?
I've recently added improvised 155mm howitzer for US for 3cp (M1917A1 & M1) while the 155mm Long Tom gun as Corps arty later costs 4 cp then. I'm currently rather only interested in the unit-picture, but who knows if the 3d-model with texture becomes useful too if the Allied DLC won't introduce these howitzers later.

Hi GabeKnight,

I have an idea for a new unit for my mod that could be useful.
Maybe it’s not too hard to do ? (I don’t know much about 3D ).

This new unit would be a "Small Population Center" with only a house :


If it is not possible or if it is too difficult it is not important.

OK, guys, I'll look into it on the weekend.

GabeKnight wrote: ↑Tue May 07, 2019 7:29 pm OK, guys, I'll look into it on the weekend.

My request for the "Small Population Center" is mainly "cosmetic". I just had an idea: reducing the strength by half could also be enough (noRepair).
If this is not too difficult , you could make two models of "Small Population Center" with a different house since there are two different houses in the original model (?)

terminator wrote: ↑Tue May 07, 2019 6:47 am This new unit would be a "Small Population Center" with only a house :
If it is not possible or if it is too difficult it is not important.

Normally, this shouldn't be too hard, but in this case, you've picked a model from the BoB-mod rather than the stock game. There are only MDB files of the additional models there. Sorry, but I don't know how to access those files.

terminator wrote: ↑Tue May 07, 2019 6:47 am Maybe it’s not too hard to do ? (I don’t know much about 3D ).

Regrettably, the same goes for me.

I may try to cut out a house from the city/town models and enlarge it, but not today.

terminator wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 7:37 am My request for the "Small Population Center" is mainly "cosmetic". I just had an idea: reducing the strength by half could also be enough (noRepair).
If this is not too difficult , you could make two models of "Small Population Center" with a different house since there are two different houses in the original model (?)

As an ad-hoc solution you could try to swap parts of the texture (like the roof) to create small "aberrations"...

GabeKnight wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 6:36 pm US Pacific - Girbert/Marshall Island (Adm. Clark) - add an "early victory" if all sec. obj. completed
US Pacific - Coral Sea - add an "early victory", if all sec. obj. achieved and inv. forces destroyed (or enough attacking ships sunk/damaged)
Us Pacific - Midway - "no damage to carrier" sec. obj. didn't check "complete"
US Pacific - Gundalcanal - shoot 5 aircraft down is missing "complete" check, commander OK
US Pacific - Gundalcanal - Popup "Zero unraveled", turn 23, 21.Sept.1942 -> US Zero reward unit?

I'm currently looking at Marshalls-Gilberts Raid:
The objective is to cause damage on the facilities and ships in the area, so it's more desirable to last this scenario as long as possible. The scenario is also meant to give your units more experience, so I think it's fine if you exceed the required expectations. In my modification, I've exchanged the planes to weaker historical units but also removed all the low-strength trigger-mods, so the combat lasts longer.

PS: similar with Coral Sea where I had no time left to destroy everything either. Sure, one popup tells the player to stay away from the North, so I guess protecting Port Moresby is more desireable or only important, and going nuts on everything there is not really your objective. The scenario is rather meant to train the player how to mainly use planes to engage more or less strong fleets, in particular only enemy carriers like in Midway later.
Do or do not end early. That's the question!

I'm sure I wrote those notes down while playing those missions. And that means that I must have ended the scens early enough to get annoyed to have to wait with nothing to do.

Missing "early condition" triggers are not something I would consider a bug per se. Sometimes they're just for the impatient.
(It may have been my fault for posting my "to-do-list" in tech support)

It's also most likely that I wrote the notes while playtesting my mod. And as many ships have increased speed compared to vanilla, it could've led to a shorter mission time, I guess...

Gilbert can possibly be finished around half the turn limit, hence I removed/disabled the low-strength triggers, but you still train your units on the spawned AA guns which are better first surpressed by ranged naval attacks before own planes might "train" on these too.
I only added now an early victory requirement for Coral Sea:
- Hex Ownership Port Moresby
- Destroy a Japanese Carrier
- Destroy the Tulagi Invasion Force
- Destroy enemy Fleet Carriers
- Destroy all enemy aircraft
"Do not lose" objectives shouldn't be that important.

There is a flaw in this scenario which I have also corrected: all these enemy oil tankers and nearby combat ships seem to be idle all the time, not even firing back. That's lame and had to be fixed. I let the oil tankers escort each carrier (team 5 and 7) while the combat ships are put to the "Cruiser Reserve" (team 2) that does mainly area defense.

By the way, what I have also added to Gilbert is that the suprise is over when player naval and air units are visible by AI land and air units. I didn't include AI naval units, as you possibly fly over some at beginning. Normally, it takes 5 turns until the surprise is over what is way too long and implausible by all the destruction the Allied player does meanwhile. The best approach/strategy should be to simultanously attack the hangers at same time with planes and naval units. Rushing only with planes should be penalized.

Did you report that Guadalcanal (not Gundalcanal, but I can rarely write it correctly either ) issue with the aircraft complete check?
That's not that important than the missing 100 RP from keeping your carriers alive in Midway, but not completing objectives and missing event pictures are always a nuisance.
This "Zero unraveled" is truely a historical event what should still be changed in the editor from Special to Historical Event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akutan_Zero
Okay, thanks! At least I can play this scenario in a more solid state, but I still have to do some additional mods like supply points and removing annoying jungle tiles on roads. Jungle+Roads = No-Go for me = system failure!

I've been using this mod for several weeks through a '41-'42 Eastern front campaign and I'm really enjoying it. I especially like the AA-AT switch and the Stug progression changes. There are a few things I think could be tweaked, some mod related and some base game that should be modded.
1) KV-2 artillery mode is crazy OP. I can't find any sources that say KV-2 was used as field artillery instead it was designed as fortification buster similar to Stug development. Most accounts detail KV-2s rampaging through German columns until heavy 8.8cm flak could be brought forward to engage. It's range in artillery mode I think should be same as StuG, it was not 1941 M109 Paladin.
2) Katyusha range seems excessive in comparison to similar equipment (i.e. Wuhrframmen).
3) 2cm AA is too good vs mechanized targets in AT mode. It should be better against soft targets then mechanized.
4) I see texture for self propelled sIG 33 but I can't seem to find when it is available.
5) I've noticed some inconsistent unit names. Some units in mod have full names while almost everything else is abbreviated. (ex. Fw 190 & Ju 87)

6) Marder series AT not available. In units file I see available date of 9/6/1942 but not seeing it in game. Is this tied to Baukommando_Becker spec? Can the spec available date be modded?

Thanks for your hard work!

Theoretically, every projectile weapon can be fire indirectly with enough degree of elevation. Even HMGs are sometimes used to rain down bullets, while not as effectively deadly it can still suppress and injure to an acceptable degree by the high fire rate. Guns of calibre 20mm and above should be able to fire beyond the visible horizon or simply above an obstacle like a small hill or village.
In the example of the KV-2, its gun max elevation is about 18° what is rather below the typical SPGs of 20-75°. A Panther and Tiger tank also got 18°, Tiger II only 15°.
The KV-2 was definitely mainly an assault tank designed to defeat strongholds in direct-fire like fortifications along the Finnish Mannerheim line. It’s well-armored and roomy turret was also its weakness, as even a slight ground elevation could make the unbalanced turret impossible to be traversed. Firing full-charge shells was strictly forbidden due possibility of damaging the chassis or turret either what disqualifies for long-range firing.
The KV-2 had two gun sights, a telescopic one for direct fire and a periscope for firing from closed positions, therefore, theoretically, it could fire beyond obstacles. The KV series was also one of the few Soviet tank types which came with radio equipment, what could help with indirect fire by forward observers.
The Germans used captured ones sometimes as artillery observation platform due to its turret height of 3.3m.
I haven’t really found examples where it is mentioned that the KV-2 was used for indirect firing, but given the same elevation like most other tanks, I’d rather keep stick to tank-mode in the game. The AI isn’t always the champ in selecting the most appropriate mode for units, hence better stick to the most suitable one.

Wurfrahmen, 28cm WK Spr: 1925m, 30cm WK Flam: 2200m, game range: 2 (okay)
Katyusha early RS-132 rocket: 7100m, later improved M-13 rocket: 8740m, game range: 2 (3 is better and similar like many infantry-gun ranges)

20mm_FlaK_38_AT: should have the same veh-att like the JP 20mm one although you could further argue about ROF: 4
Yeah, it’s tricky with multi-barreled guns:
According to my calculation the JP 25mm gun can penetrate about 20mm steel more than the 20mm JP gun. Type96_25mm_AT is a twin-gun mount though what makes the veh-att value of 4-5 rather too weak. I’d rather give it 6-8 similar like the 25mm_Hotchkiss as armor-piercing rounds were available. The triple-gun mount could have 7-9 then. At close distant in cities, each barrel should be able to hit the same target.
20mm_FlaK_38_AT: 4
Wirbelwind_AT and SdKfz_7_1_AT: 6-7. +1 for each additional barrel at city-distance, but halved at open ground distance.
Gosh, I guess I could go on with hundreds of other weapon systems this way...

Not sure about this sig33 SPG texture, but it rather looks the same like the Sturmpanzer_I one?
By the way, the availability date of 20/3/1943 is plain wrong for the Sturmpanzer I. It was available for Battle of France on 10/5/1940, but rather became obsolete afterwards, especially with the Wurfrahmen on 14/11/1940. If you like to make units available as long as historic notes mention them then make it vanish after Battle of Kursk on 23/8/1943.
I’d also give it the SlowRepair trait as only 38 were converted. That’s not enough for constant replacements of these rather vulnerable vehicles.

I agree about shorting the unit names to rather stick to e.g. Ju 87 instead of Junkers Ju-87.
I’ve merged all unit names into the single english.txt file and sorted them all by the order of the units.csv file. It took a long while but it was definitely worth it to easily find every unit later much faster. As mod file, you could do the same in English_mod.txt by overwriting all vanilla names.

I’ve already answered the Marder question in that other topic that Baukommando becomes available on 8/1942.

PS: I think I'd die of old age if I had to correct all vanilla flaws.

That early victory in GuadalcanalUSA in Victory: Capture All Secondary VP sucks if you are still so eager to destroy all battleships. I usually reach the last VP with only few turns turns, while there is still more exciting naval combat going on.
I recommend to remove the Henderson field objective state there. There is still Victory: Hold Airfield to finish the scenario. It shouldn't be necessary to add an extra all-secondaries-done early-victory trigger, but I don't know how quickly vanilla players accomplish everything there.

Horst wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 7:18 pm I'm currently looking at Marshalls-Gilberts Raid:
The objective is to cause damage on the facilities and ships in the area, so it's more desirable to last this scenario as long as possible. The scenario is also meant to give your units more experience, so I think it's fine if you exceed the required expectations. In my modification, I've exchanged the planes to weaker historical units but also removed all the low-strength trigger-mods, so the combat lasts longer.

[...]
Do or do not end early. That's the question!

I've added an early victory condition depending on the sec. objectives and also removed the strength-reducing setup triggers. The rest I'm keeping as is - you know I like to keep stuff close to vanilla.
Testing it right now to see how it plays.

EDIT: Works okay, I'm keeping it.

prattaa wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 11:53 pm 1) KV-2 artillery mode is crazy OP. I can't find any sources that say KV-2 was used as field artillery instead it was designed as fortification buster similar to Stug development. Most accounts detail KV-2s rampaging through German columns until heavy 8.8cm flak could be brought forward to engage. It's range in artillery mode I think should be same as StuG, it was not 1941 M109 Paladin.
2) Katyusha range seems excessive in comparison to similar equipment (i.e. Wuhrframmen).
3) 2cm AA is too good vs mechanized targets in AT mode. It should be better against soft targets then mechanized.
4) I see texture for self propelled sIG 33 but I can't seem to find when it is available.
5) I've noticed some inconsistent unit names. Some units in mod have full names while almost everything else is abbreviated. (ex. Fw 190 & Ju 87)
6) Marder series AT not available. In units file I see available date of 9/6/1942 but not seeing it in game. Is this tied to Baukommando_Becker spec? Can the spec available date be modded?

Thanks for the feedback, prattaa.

1) Agree basically, but the KV-2 takes up seven CP, is expensive and moves at snail's pace. Can't even be considered "mobile arty" with such slow speeds. An oversized roadblock, that what this is...
What I want to say is, that with some changes I've only tried to keep some core units interesting and balanced them for longer "usefulness".....And on the other hand I had the model ready and wanted to make use of it
2) Yeah, I've had this discussion once already: It would be too strong for human players like this, but the AI needs some range to make use of its destructive power IMO. Once the Soviet DLC comes out, this unit has to be rebalanced for sure. For now, I'm keeping this unit in mind and may reduce the range after some more playtests.
3) I did not rebalance the unit stats! Yeah, okay, I did some changes, but tried to stick to vanilla stats basically. Also I've balanced my new units around the existing unit roster - not the other way around. And the 2cm FlaK AT is an unchanged stock unit, BTW.
4) There's no "self propelled sIG 33" unit. It's a reused texture for the towed 15cm sIG33.
5) I've added even some more that aren't included in the current build. But yeah, I've added them as I found them and mostly more or less arbitrarily. I like them longer names better.
6) Yes, you need the spec for the Marders. And nothing was changed related to those units in my mod. The specs can be modded inside the "specialisations.csv" file.

And thanks, Horst, for your input about those questions, too.

BTW prattaa, feel free to change the units inside my mod to your liking, e.g. using terminator's excellent Unit Editor Tool.

prattaa wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 11:53 pm 1) KV-2 artillery mode is crazy OP. I can't find any sources that say KV-2 was used as field artillery instead it was designed as fortification buster similar to Stug development. Most accounts detail KV-2s rampaging through German columns until heavy 8.8cm flak could be brought forward to engage. It's range in artillery mode I think should be same as StuG, it was not 1941 M109 Paladin.

The KV-2 Artillery version in PanzerCorps :

Horst wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 8:17 pm I only added now an early victory requirement for Coral Sea:
- Hex Ownership Port Moresby
- Destroy a Japanese Carrier
- Destroy the Tulagi Invasion Force
- Destroy enemy Fleet Carriers
- Destroy all enemy aircraft
"Do not lose" objectives shouldn't be that important.

Agree. Testing now.