Slitherine

In OOB it is interesting to assign a commander to units (land / air / naval) in various scenarios. With this commander you can assign certain bonus combat values ​​to the unit. How do you assign a new commander? As a little guide for me and also as a supplement for the modding guide, I have made a small explanation.
For this I have chosen a famous Japanese General who has a picture on the web that can be transformed into an avatar. As an exampel this is General Todamichi Koribayashi, the defender of the battle Iwo Jima 1945. Since it is customary not to use original names, I have renamed the commander to Taro Kuribashi. For the correct display of the new commander, a picture for commander and a picture for the avatar with the dimensions 256x256 px must be made (Image 1). For the picture that can be seen in the lower unit window after assignment, a picture with the dimensions 256x162 px must be made (Image 2). The images can be created in a drawing program such as Photoshop or GIMP.


The images are named as follows:

[1] commander_200.png (256x256 px)
[2] commander_200_unit.png (256x162 px)
[1] avatar_200.png. (256x256 px, identical to commander_200 image)

The top two images are putting in the directory:

... / Order of Battle Pacific / Order of Battle - WWII_Data / Content / Graphics / Commander.

The image of the avatar is to put in the directory:

... / Order of Battle Pacific / Order of Battle - WWII_Data / Content / Graphics / Avatars.

Further additions are now required in the system files to identify and name the new commander.
In the directory ...:

... / Order of Battle Pacific / Order of Battle - WWII_Data / Content / Data

... an entry must be made in the commanders.txt file to identify the new commander, which should be based on the consecutive id number of all commanders. The new bonus combat values ​​are then entered here. The bonus combat values ​​refer, for example, to attack for infantry and vehicles. You can also assign bonus values ​​for defense. The nation must also be entered here, as an example it looks like this:

[TARO_KURIBASHI]
id = 200
category = land
faction = japan, ijn
range = 2
weapon = vehicle_attack, 2
defense = vehicle_defense, 1

Next step...

In the same directory in the avatars.txt file, a further entry must be made to identify the new commander as an avatar, which should be based on the consecutive id number of all commanders.

[TARO_KURIBASHI]
id = 200
category = land
faction = japan, ijn

Next, in the directory ...:

... / Order of Battle Pacific / Order of Battle - WWII_Data / Content / Language

... in the file english_16.txt (or german_16.txt or whatever is the right language for you) the new commander name is entered:

commander_200 = Taro Kuribashi

Now start the game and open the editor. The corresponding scenario, where the new commander is to be deployed, must be provided with a corresponding trigger. For this purpose, the scenario to be adjusted is copied into the directory:

... Documents / My Games / Order of Battle Pacific / Order of Battle - WWII / Scenario

If you have opened the scenario in the editor, go to the "Trigger" area. Here you can add a new trigger name in the left area. In this case I use "Deploy Commander" and define that the new commander should be available at the start of the round: "Turn Start".
You can now select the activity on the right-hand side, here I choose "Unlock Commander".
With the possible commanders, I click through the list until the desired commander appears (see all steps in the next picture).


The modified scenario is to be saved and copied to the directory of the main game. Since I want to test it for the "Java" scenario of the "Rising Sun" campaign, I put the scenario in the directory:

... / Order of Battle Pacific / Order of Battle - WWII_Data / Content / Campaigns / 1Japan1941 / Scenarios.


Now you can start the scenario and assign the new commander to the unit you want.

Comments and tips are welcome!


Wish: It would be interesting, if some modders give feedback to the (right) numbers of the "range= …" , "weapon= … , …" and "defense= ..., ..." values.

Your guide sounds good to me, thanks for posting!

But I think the pic resolutions do not matter as much as aspect.

asuser wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 6:24 am Wish: It would be interesting, if some modders give feedback to the (right) numbers of the "range= …" , "weapon= … , …" and "defense= ..., ..." values.

What...?
"Right" numbers? It's your commander, do whatever you want with him!

You may find real-life commander's stats in other games. This could serve as a rough guide even if the stats may not be exactly the same.
Gary Grigsby games like War in the West/East include dozens of historically rated commanders.

A few days ago I made a picture for a new commander.

Upon completion, I noticed that the original pictures in the game always look a bit grainy. How is this effect achieved? Since I use the graphics program GIMP, I tried something. In the GIMP there are the functions "Cartoon", "Soft focus" and "Transparency".

First, the original picture has to be doubled, the copy comes over the original image, and the “Cartoon” function is used on it:

This picture is then changed with the “Transparency” function to 25% and finally the “Soft focus” is applied over it. In the end, both images are merged.
How it is look like:

Has anyone tried other effects?

Cool. Again, thanks for posting this.

Currently I'm using the "paint.net" software, which is a great/simple tool for pic editing, but lacks filters. I might reinstall my old PSP version, cause they had a ton of those tools for pic manipulation and adding effects.