Panzer Corps East - The struggle for Russia "Grand Strategy"

[VPaulus]

Vanilla icons.

[nikivdd]

For new units in the database, i use b/w pictures.

[Chris10]

Well...vanilla Big Units it will be
everything else looks inconsistent or would be far to much work in order to make it look consistent

[airbornemongo101]

Well...vanilla Big Units it will be
everything else looks inconsistent or would be far to much work in order to make it look consistent

Yep

[Chris10]

Countdown PzC East

Towards the end things might accelerate a bit as the big bites were the map,the research and the unit rosters...



Research and Math........................Done
Map...........................................Done
Unneccessary game files removed.....Done
UI amended.................................Done
On-Topic Intro.............................Done
German Unique Units.....................Done
German Unit Roster.......................Done
Axis Minors Units Rosters...............Done
Soviet Unit Roster.........................Done
Equipment file build......................Done
Equipment Stats amended..............Done
BigUnits folder build......................Done
Efx file build................................Pending
Start Positions Wehrmacht..............Pending
Start Positions Red Army................Pending
Start Positions Axis Minors..............Pending
German Reinforcements Script.........Pending
Russian Counteroffenses Script........Pending
Russian Reinforcements Script.........Pending
Axis Minor Script...........................Pending
Manual Writing.............................Pending
Library build................................Pending

[naturesheva]

Great! Chris!!

After viewing your progress list. I guess at least 70% of the work has been down. Really cannot wait to play the "Grand Strategy"!

[RobertCL]

Excellent work!!!

I shall be more than happy to play(test) this mod and to discover a brand new way to play Panzer Corps game!

[El_Condoro]

Chris, I just revisited the OP and the project is looking fantastic. A huge amount of effort and an exciting result. There is still a long way to go, of course, especially in the testing, which I find is the hardest - getting balance - but I am wondering what solutions you have come up with for the weather being the same across this huge map. Will you be dividing the map for a series of scenarios, which kind of 'defeats' the Grand Strategy aspect a bit, or something else? Keep up the great work on this huuuuge project!

[Chris10]

Chris, I just revisited the OP and the project is looking fantastic. A huge amount of effort and an exciting result. There is still a long way to go, of course, especially in the testing, which I find is the hardest - getting balance - but I am wondering what solutions you have come up with for the weather being the same across this huge map. Will you be dividing the map for a series of scenarios, which kind of 'defeats' the Grand Strategy aspect a bit, or something else? Keep up the great work on this huuuuge project!

thnx for approval Condo...you are very kind
and......No breaking up of the map !
I asked for different weather zones before and during AK beta but since it hasnt found its way into the engine it simply is as it is...one map>same weather...nothing gamebreaking but simply an engine limitation which has to be accepted and dealt with...
I have the complete weather records from 1941-1945 and these winters have been extraordinary severe...I will set up and average setting in order to treat the weather issue...
About the balance...this is a higly relative issue.
There is no existing balance to fit everybodys skills...what one finds easy another may find impossible so I limit myself to set things into relation and historical context and make sure the german side gets into disadvantage over time by making sure the player can NOT have an all Tiger,all Panther,all FW-190 D-9 core...the rest is really up to each player...maybe it turns out unbeatable for most people but thats part of the challenge...some will beat it and thats what differs great generals from recruits.
The filosofy behing this is: Given the odds, could the german Wehrmacht pull it off with what they had using it differently ?
I want everybody to be able to find its own answer to that... its not my intention to make sure everybody can beat the campaign...that would render all research and math regarding army strenghts/production numbers and unit scaling worthless

Great! Chris!!
After viewing your progress list. I guess at least 70% of the work has been down. Really cannot wait to play the "Grand Strategy"!

Excellent work!!!
I shall be more than happy to play(test) this mod and to discover a brand new way to play Panzer Corps game!

thnx guys..very kind iof you
Iam making relative good progress but I run a lot of tests for units,sounds,animations to iron out maximum bugs and oversights in the process while building the game up...this takes longer and is quite time consuming but it assures a higher quality from the beginning

[Chris10]

After lots of trial and error it seems that I finally will be able to assign a consistent unit naming scheme for the unique Wehrmacht units with their corresponding divisional/brigade/regiment names on top, equipment type underneath ...have enough space to display it, and maintain it throughout their upgrades while the equipment type changes...of course same holds true for all other Wehrmacht units
oh boy...that was a hard nut to crack and everybody who tried to assign unit names found that the engine has some serious limitations due to the way it places the short name both on top and underneath while only adding a number to the top entry...whereas the long name only serves for the upgrade window and has no influence...
anyway..I had to rework the UI and the way it diplays info too...
I removed the strength tooltip from the stats plate and increased the space available for displaying a second line on the bottom display...
so now the stats panel only displays fuel,ammo and entrenchment...more than enough since the strength is shown on the str plates

Anyway this mode is a lot more work since it requires editing of each unit placed on the map and re-editing of the equipment file after placing units but for this particular purpose and Mod I think its worth the effort...

Screen1
Division Name and Number on top
Unit type and equipment underneath
In this case its:
9. SS Hohenstaufen
Panzer Artillery Brigade on Panzerhaubitze Wespe


Screen2
After upgrade
Division Name and Number on top stay the same
Unit type and equipment underneath changed to: Panzer Artillery Brigade on Panzerhaubitze Hummel


Screen 3
9 SS Hohenstaufen
Panzer Regiment on Panzer IV Type G


Screen 4
In order to identify the right upgrade the divisional naming will be displayed on the long name too
All divisional upgrades always only worth 80 ...any other price means its the wrong upgrade...there is no other way cause
the engine does not allow to specify and display specific upgrades and all unique units have their onw bonus upgrade window...once reaching the final upgrade no others are displayed anymore cause the last upgrade is always flagged noupgrade
In this case its the upgrade for the Pz 4 of the 9. SS Division


Screen 5
After upgrade to Panther A the upgrade button is greyed out cause its the last equipment change for the tank regiment of the 9.SS...you have to cope with it until the end ...

[naughtybalrog]

Totally fantastic Chris!
I am so thankful for your efforts.
If you are able to modify the UI, does that mean the developers could do it to provide room to show Hero info?

Do you ever wonder what your ancestors, who fought on the Eastern Front, would think about your mod? Man, I would be interested to hear their stories ~ if they were still with us. One of my friends is 92 and fought from N. Africam thru Italy to France and on ending up liberating a camp. He said that Bastongne was the hardest of all. His stories are fascinating.

[4kEY]

Since I have to rebuild the BIG_UNIT folder from scratch too Iam unsure what to do about the unique german units
like SS, Heavy Tank Regiments and Air Wings...
Should I use their divisional (SS), Rgmt (Heavy Tank) and Wing (air) insignias as Big Units or should I use generic vanilla Icons ?
What do you think or prefer guys ?
I go play a shooter while this is discussed...need to relax a bit

I'm surprised this is not more popular...what's the motive here?

[Chris10]

Totally fantastic Chris!
I am so thankful for your efforts.

very kind..thnk you

Do you ever wonder what your ancestors, who fought on the Eastern Front, would think about your mod? Man, I would be interested to hear their stories ~ if they were still with us. One of my friends is 92 and fought from N. Africam thru Italy to France and on ending up liberating a camp. He said that Bastongne was the hardest of all. His stories are fascinating.

"The victory gone to the allies, the soldierly glory to the germans"
-Drew MIddleton, American Military Journalist-

If you are able to modify the UI, does that mean the developers could do it to provide room to show Hero info?

sure..you can do anything if you have access to the source programm..its a matter of implementing the function
what I dont understand though why would you have hero info in the main UI...you get that info anyway when you click on the battle history of the unit..
as for modifying the UI..yeah...its no magic but only things who are already there can be modified or rearranged...

[VPaulus]

I'm surprised this is not more popular...what's the motive here?

Well...vanilla Big Units it will be
everything else looks inconsistent or would be far to much work in order to make it look consistent

IMO, it's here where we begun to separate a professional job from an amateur.

[naughtybalrog]

what I dont understand though why would you have hero info in the main UI...you get that info anyway when you click on the battle history of the unit..

When in the middle of a scenario, with many units yet to move, it is more efficient to be able to quickly see, on the fly, which hero abilities are embedded in each unit without having to go:
right click on a unit,
click on Battle History, and
hover over each Hero or click on them.
If you have to do 3 mouse clicks for all unmoved units that have a Hero, it becomes time consuming. Some players are renaming units with Hero abilites (i.e. A2,S1, D1) to achieve this "quick view." Far better to have Hero data viewable on the UI with just a quick mouse over function.

Making the 9 Unit Order Buttons smaller, similar to the row of 6 (Previous Unit, Next Unit, etc.) would provide more space to display Hero abilities (I have read that some players have smaller format screens and cannot see all the UI info, were it expanded). I agree that the strength info, in the Unit Info Box, is redundant for it is already displayed below the unit on the map.

[4kEY]

I'm surprised this is not more popular...what's the motive here?

Well...vanilla Big Units it will be
everything else looks inconsistent or would be far to much work in order to make it look consistent

IMO, it's here where we begun to separate a professional job from an amateur.

About the only reason I can see for being shy around SS insignias is politcal correctness but, then again, symbols of evil abound elsewhere in chris' mod.

I don't suppose it matters. I can look at my own SS bigunit insignias in my own UI

[Chris10]

About the only reason I can see for being shy around SS insignias is politcal correctness.

Iam the last person to worry about political correctness ...but since I dont have the corresponding big camo units for the unique units I feel that using big units here and insignias there is indeed interrupting the consistent look when opening the units panel...and inconsistency is something which is plaguing a lot of, even great, mods.
Every bit of incosistency is adding to the overall impression of "thrown" or "patched" -together...this is this vague feeling of a "makeshift solution" a lot of people get when they start playing mods (of whatever game or kind)..I try to avoid that as much as I can

[airbornemongo101]

About the only reason I can see for being shy around SS insignias is politcal correctness.

Iam the last person to worry about political correctness ...but since I dont have the corresponding big camo units for the unique units I feel that using big units here and insignias there is indeed interrupting the consistent look when opening the units panel...and inconsistency is something which is plaguing a lot of, even great, mods.
Every bit of incosistency is adding to the overall impression of "thrown" or "patched" -together...this is this vague feeling of a "makeshift solution" a lot of people get when they start playing mods (of whatever game or kind)..I try to avoid that as much as I can

Yeah...my big units don't look so good because I have a "hodegepodge" of camo'd and vanilla big units (when I re-do the SS and Heer skins I plan on making them all vanilla),but hey there's a bright spot..at least I remembered to add them in this time in the uploaded zip file:oops:

[VPaulus]

About the only reason I can see for being shy around SS insignias is politcal correctness.

Not every thing has to be political. In this case, it would only make sense to use divisional insignias if all the other units would also use them. That's what it's a consistent look.

Iam the last person to worry about political correctness ...but since I dont have the corresponding big camo units for the unique units I feel that using big units here and insignias there is indeed interrupting the consistent look when opening the units panel...and inconsistency is something which is plaguing a lot of, even great, mods.
Every bit of incosistency is adding to the overall impression of "thrown" or "patched" -together...this is this vague feeling of a "makeshift solution" a lot of people get when they start playing mods (of whatever game or kind)..I try to avoid that as much as I can

+1000000

[flakfernrohr]

Leonardo DaVinci is here working on his mod. Glad to see this coming together. It makes my head ache with a sledgehammer on each side to try to think about how much mental work this took.