Slitherine

I am wondering how to change the default units given to a player at the start of a single player game in scenarios of the original PzC game. For instance, Kursk. If I want to change some of the units so that others are in place than those of the default, how do I do this? How are these default units selected?

I know I can change units or buy some with cheat codes, but I would rather just start a new single player game without having to go through that exercise.

Open the individual scenario (that is the start of a campaign, such as Kursk) in the editor, and pick up and place units there. When starting a new campaign, you will see the units you placed, and they will, if marked as core, will be your core units that you carry on as you continue that campaign.

You can't change the units in a scenario without using the editor. Disbanding them won't give you their prestige back, although it will free up slots. When you buy new units they can only be placed in and around flags. Otherwise, it's as Kerensky said - use the editor, perhaps making a copy of the scenario and changing what you don't like.

Single scenarios don't offer the kind of flexibility you want: there your army has already been purchased and deployed for you.

Yes, this often means you're given a considerably weaker army than if you played through to that scenario within the campaign.

The unit mix in scenarios are, as far as I understand, chosen more for historic veracity than for "this is a reasonable army a player might end up with at this point in the campaign".

Since PC is a game, and more to the point a game that heavily favors quality over quantity, you usually end up with a significantly better equipped and more overall elite army when you get to make choices yourself.

The scenario unit mix often contains units that the historic Wehrmacht thought useful, but which are very poor in the context of the PC game.

In short, the unit mix doesn't take the game specifics into account. There are several pieces of equipment that are simply wasting a core slot, which would never have been chosen by someone acquainted with how the units perform in the game (and not on the historic battlefield). The best action for these units is sometimes even to drive them to the nearest town, to be upgraded into something truly useful! (That's a hint something is wrong with the unit!)

Whether this is a plus or a minus I leave up to you to decide. I am fully aware lots of players love the challenge of having to make do with the same sub-standard stuff real Wehrmacht commanders had to use. Personally, however, I would welcome a parallel set of stand-alone scenarios, where units have been chosen for their in-game performance rather than some historic veracity.

Call it a parallel universe where the Germans (but not their opponents) ceased to produce crap units and focused only on the good stuff!

The replacing of default units through the editor is easy to use I have found, BUT, in replacing some of the deployment units of the original deployment units of a scenario, the game would not load after I clicked on play. I guessed that the prestige and core units values were exceeded. So I went back to the editor again and found a number of the units I had replaced default units with were listed as "INVALID UNIT".

That being said, I know these units are on the equipment list are are not coded as non purchase units or SE units. They work when purchased in playing other scenarios and campaigns.

If I go to the scenario and adjust the prestige and core units upwards to make some allowance, of course this is a "saved game" in the computer and so when I go back to the editor, it will not pick up this game and allow me to adjust the default units according to the new prestige and core unit adjustments I made.

How do I get to the original scenario or campaign in the "NEW" section of the selection page and make these adjustments (assuming that is the real problem)?

changes don't take effect on saved games.

flakfernrohr wrote:The replacing of default units through the editor is easy to use I have found, BUT, in replacing some of the deployment units of the original deployment units of a scenario, the game would not load after I clicked on play. I guessed that the prestige and core units values were exceeded. So I went back to the editor again and found a number of the units I had replaced default units with were listed as "INVALID UNIT".

That being said, I know these units are on the equipment list are are not coded as non purchase units or SE units. They work when purchased in playing other scenarios and campaigns.

If I go to the scenario and adjust the prestige and core units upwards to make some allowance, of course this is a "saved game" in the computer and so when I go back to the editor, it will not pick up this game and allow me to adjust the default units according to the new prestige and core unit adjustments I made.

How do I get to the original scenario or campaign in the "NEW" section of the selection page and make these adjustments (assuming that is the real problem)?

I would make a copy of the the pzscn and pzloc files of the scenario you want to adjust and make it a "custom" scenario by pasting it to your Scenario folder (if you don't have one, create it in My Documents/My Games/Panzer Corps). Then, make changes to the pzscn file in the Editor and load the map as a custom scenario when finished: in game, go to the Scenario menu, scroll to the bottom and choose "custom" (a list of the custom maps will then pop up). If units are showing up as "Invalid", it may be due to the time period of the map. I believe that can be adjusted in the Editor to allow newer units.

flakfernrohr wrote:The replacing of default units through the editor is easy to use I have found, BUT, in replacing some of the deployment units of the original deployment units of a scenario, the game would not load after I clicked on play. I guessed that the prestige and core units values were exceeded. So I went back to the editor again and found a number of the units I had replaced default units with were listed as "INVALID UNIT".

That being said, I know these units are on the equipment list are are not coded as non purchase units or SE units. They work when purchased in playing other scenarios and campaigns.

If I go to the scenario and adjust the prestige and core units upwards to make some allowance, of course this is a "saved game" in the computer and so when I go back to the editor, it will not pick up this game and allow me to adjust the default units according to the new prestige and core unit adjustments I made.

How do I get to the original scenario or campaign in the "NEW" section of the selection page and make these adjustments (assuming that is the real problem)?

Not 100% sure I understand your question.

But if, say, you would like to start your new 1939 campaigns with different hardware, this is what you should do (I have done it myself, so I know it works okay):
1) go to the Data subdirectory and make a backup copy of the "Poland.pzscn" file. Just marking it and pressing first CTRL+C and then CTRL+V is good enough (creating a copy called "Poland - Copy.pzscn" or similar).
2) start the Scenario Editor (by going back to the main directory and starting the "ScenarioEditor" executable)
3) Here I'll assume you're not completely new to the scenario editor, so begin by noting (in ScenarioParams) you have 16 core slots. You will also note you have twelve units deployed, leading to the figure you get when starting a new campaign: four (4) open core slots.
4) This means that you can add lots of units on the map, as long as you mark them Auxiliary.
5) Of course, you can also change core units. For example, you could replace the PzI's with PzIII's if you like to start your campaign with the best hardware available in 1939 (assuming other parts of the army get the crappy PzI's, or indeed, that you control them but as auxiliary units instead of something you bring along to Norway and Low Countries)
You could also switch out a few infantry units for more air power. The possibilities are endless!
6) The thing to remember is to keep track of the number of deployed core units. What kinds of units, and where they start is not important. Only the number is. I kept to the original number (12) and had then no problems starting a new campaign!
7) Of course, keep the unit filter's "Show only units available in this scenario" checked. I never tried to start the war with Panthers, but I guess that would then lead to the "invalid unit" error somebody got above. By keeping the unit filter to what's available in 1939 I never encountered any problems.
8 ) Don't forget to save... (Click the small floppy disc icon; not "Save As". We want to overwrite the official "Poland.pzscn" file in the Data subdirectory and not create a user scenario elsewhere. Remember you made a backup if something goes wrong).
9) Also: I didn't change any other files. I didn't change any of the ScenarioParams. Just units on the map.
10) Now start a new 1939-1945 campaign (The game can be left running in the background the entire time; you do not need to quit the game in order to edit scenarios) and give your modified Poland scenario a test run!

Thanks so much for your instructions and response. I think maybe I can accomplish goal with your help. I really appreciate it.

I have always been meticulous about the units being balanced that I created with other similar units I cloned. In this particular incident the scenario was Kursk. I made sure every unit I attempted to replace default units with was "available" in the time frame for Kursk.

At least I do know that was not the conflict.

Alternatively you can download my Gleiwitz start from here: viewtopic.php?t=26991

This lets you customize the 1939 starting army however you see fit.

Thanks both of you.

Flakfernrohr, since I'm still a bit unsure exactly what you're trying to accomplish, let me instead tell you this:

Please go ahead and experiment, and if you have any further problems, please ask specific questions, and we'll see what we can do.

Okay?

What I was trying to do was change some of the default units at the start of a scenario or campaign. Not necessarily to put in Panthers at the beginning of Poland (although I have figured out how to do that too), but to just change some units to others that are probalby historically appropriate that I enjoy playing more.

You guys have shown me what to do, and it is working so far. I have also found in the Scenario Editor the other things that can make a scenario more interesting with little tweaks and not lose the "game" portion of playing. I have also found how easily the balance of the "game" can be upset.

A person can tweak the units and scenarios such that it is akin to firing a .50 caliber and getting "locked in" or hypnotized as you see it destroy whatever the target is. You tend to keep your fingers on the firing lever when the target is long since destroyed. In otherwords, overkill is fascinating.

So thanks again to you guys, I appreciate it. If I want to make a "steamroller" I know how to do it, if I want to balance something better between win/lose, I can do it.

Okay, great to hear. Good luck!

I guess it could be useful to add an explanation of how the game handles the fact that the same scenario works for both stand-alone use (play scenario) and as part of a campaign.

This because the above

Kerensky wrote:Open the individual scenario (that is the start of a campaign, such as Kursk) in the editor, and pick up and place units there. When starting a new campaign, you will see the units you placed, and they will, if marked as core, will be your core units that you carry on as you continue that campaign.

...is only true for a scenario that starts a campaign!

When you start a scenario (load up a map for a single non-campaign play) you get what you see (in the editor) - if you change around the units, that will affect what you start the scenario with. And this is equally true for a scenario that starts off a campaign too.

But when you play that scenario as part of an ongoing campaign (i.e. not the first scenario in that campaign), "getting what you see" is only true for auxiliary units, or more specifically units not placed in hexes marked as deployment hexes.

(The editor symbol for a "deployment hex" is a small green or grey tank or plane with an arrow pointing down underneath)

Meaning that any unit placed in a deployment hex will be removed when that scenario is played as a campaign. Instead that hex will be empty and available for deploying the core you've brought along from any previous campaign scenario(s).

This means:

To make meaningful changes to scenarios when played as part of a campaign, make sure the unit isn't placed in a deployment hex (or make sure you remove the deployment symbol for that hex).

You will find that most preplaced units in hexes designated as deployment hexes are marked as core units, and conversely, that most preplaced units in hexes outside the deployment hexes are marked as auxiliary units. Why? Because this is what makes basic sense - any preplaced core unit is generally supposed to vanish when you bring your own core along; and any preplaced auxilary unit is generally supposed to be present regardless of whether you're playing the scenario as a stand-alone or as part of a campaign.

Let me spell the four possibilities out in detail.

First the two most common cases:
Core Unit, Deployment Hex: Unit pre-chosen for you as a stand-alone scenario; unit not present in campaign play but hex available to deploy your own core.
Aux Unit, Not a deployment hex: Unit available for your use during this scenario only (regardless of whether it is played stand-alone or part of campaign)

Then the two uncommon (but perfectly legitimate) cases:
Core Unit, Not a deployment hex: Unit pre-chosen for you in all cases, and what's more: since it is a core unit, it will travel with you to the next scenario of a campaign (all core units are equal). Thus, you have just been gifted a unit for free! This is used by DLC campaigns to steer your selections in certain directions. For instance, there's a Afrika Korps scenario where you can gain Italian self-propelled artillery to your core. Thus, if you see a scenario and go "I would have wanted that unit to be given to me for the remainder of the campaign" you simply have to change it from Aux to Core in the editor (and make sure it isn't placed in a deployment hex).
Aux Unit, Deployment Hex: Unit available for your use as a stand-alone scenario only (during campaign play the hex will be emptied and available to deploy in). Why would you do this? I don't know, perhaps to give you reinforcements you only need when given crappy prechosen "historic" units for single-scenario play...

Hope this helps