Various questions for custom random game

[Darthrafael]

So I'm trying to make a slight modification of the 'Phoenix Random Game' setup for me and a friend to play with, but I'm running into several issues that I'm struggling to figure out, of which all but one are graphical.

The non-graphical issue is a minor one; At one point in the past I remember modifying the random game setup to make it so that every regime that spawned was a german one, and they all had access to several of the unique tech options (because I wanted to make it so that you could produce from any city), but I cannot figure out how I did that. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

As for the graphical issues, there are two. I'm using sprites that are from/based on Advance Wars to replace the unit pictures, and they mostly work fine, except for these two issues:

One; despite using the same shades of grey in their 'base' image, Rifle/SMG units end up with different colours to say, MGs and Tanks. Similarly, if I want to turn the 'horse' unit (that normaly only has an overlay image) into something that is supposed to recolour too, it refuses to work and just stays grey. Resolved!

issue1.png (27.12 KiB) Viewed 1119 times

Secondly, the game doesn't entirely seem to properly recognize my overlay sprites for the model editor. As you can see, it displays the Standard Light Tank properly in the above image, but if I go to the model editor, it's partially broken (it doesn't display the 'overlay' image), though it works if I click 'info'. However, any new model I make will also not display the overlay image, even outside of the model editor tab. Resolved!

issue2.png (28.46 KiB) Viewed 1119 times

I suspect that my graphical issues might have something to do with how I save my images, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it might be. I can supply the images I'm using if people want to take a look at them.

Any help would be appreciated!

[ernieschwitz]

Actually your graphics issues may be more due to the BaseColMod choice for the SFT, than any mistake you are making in saving the graphics. You can correct, or experiment with it here:

Base Color Mod.jpg (81.71 KiB) Viewed 1074 times

I hope this solves some of the problems.

Oh and remember to save your modifications, somewhere else too. Whenever an update comes out, it could and probably will overwrite the changes you made in the Scenario file, and might overwrite graphics if you called them the same.

[ernieschwitz]

Oh, forgot the mouse over tip.

Mouse over tool tip.jpg (13.03 KiB) Viewed 1070 times

0 = don't use any color morph
1 = use regime color as morph
2 = use regime pen color as morph
3 = use color regime bank1
4 = use color regime bank2
5 = use metallic variant of regime color
6 = use green var of regime color

My guess would be you just need to make all of yours 0.

[Darthrafael]

Actually your graphics issues may be more due to the BaseColMod choice for the SFT, than any mistake you are making in saving the graphics. You can correct, or experiment with it here:

---

Yup! You are entirely correct about that! I'm surprised I missed that button; I thought I'd checked everything. That just leaves the weirdness with the Model Designer to resolve, thanks!

[ernieschwitz]

Making all special researches available for all players should be simple. Just set the researches needed to have them to having been learned, by each regime. This is done in the Reg part of the editor, under each regime, you'll have the researches.... set them as shown here:

Regime Researches.jpg (82.91 KiB) Viewed 1040 times

They might be reset by code. I'll check that later, and if they are, I'll see where to disable that.

[ernieschwitz]

Ok, I did it just now, checked that is:

They are indeed reset by the code. Just change the event nr. 5's execution time to NO CHECK, and it won't run. You do that by clicking on the text in the code (to activate selecting the event), and then pressing the button where it says round event, until it says no check. (6 times).

NoCheck.jpg (180.01 KiB) Viewed 1037 times

[Darthrafael]

Making all special researches available for all players should be simple. Just set the researches needed to have them to having been learned, by each regime. This is done in the Reg part of the editor, under each regime, you'll have the researches.... set them as shown here:

They might be reset by code. I'll check that later, and if they are, I'll see where to disable that.

Though this didn't work - I know it works if I do it before game start but I can't get it to work if I edit the .at2 file, I did figure out how to use the events page to give each faction all the theory techs instead, so I worked that out in the end!

That just leaves my issue with the model graphics. I initally thought it was because my files were saved with a bit depth of 8 first, but after saving with Bit Depth of 32 that doesn't work either, so I'm now at a complete loss as to why they're not working.

Attached below are the images in question. The 'a' sprites load flawlessly, but the 'b' sprites do not. Similarly, the Light Tank's base sprite works flawlessly, but the overlay sprite doesn't show in the Model Designer, only when I click on 'Info'.

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated; I really want to get this working too because without it I might as well turn off the model editor since it just looks broken.

Fail to Work.zip

(17.65 KiB) Downloaded 15 times

[ernieschwitz]

While I don't know what to do, I may know someone who does. Hold on to your horses, cavalry is on it's way

[Ormand]

Sorry, I am out of commission today, maybe tomorrow.

[ernieschwitz]

I had a look today into the models thing.

It seems to be complex, but the gist of it is that in an event, the path to the graphics is assigned. In stringlists the file names for the graphics are stored. So you need to look elsewhere than the model editor to change these... I don't know what you've done so far. Models is far from my speciality.

I hope that Ormand will drop in some time soon.

[ernieschwitz]

This is what I found:

In the event code, event 96, you'll see the following:

Event code 96.jpg (205.23 KiB) Viewed 906 times

The Yellow box around lines 107-121 are the ones that are relevant. Especially lines 115 and 116.

[ernieschwitz]

Stringlists 90 to 94 looks similar.

stringlist medium tank.jpg (101.74 KiB) Viewed 905 times

They all have the graphics name, of the two relevant types.

Changing the path, in the event, and the graphics names here, should do the trick... I hope.

[Darthrafael]

Stringlists 90 to 94 looks similar.

They all have the graphics name, of the two relevant types.

Changing the path, in the event, and the graphics names here, should do the trick... I hope.

That's the weird issue; I'd found the Stringlists before (but not the events), but I know the issue does not lay there. By default, there are some images there. If I override those images (so keeping the name and location, just changing the actual image)... then they break. It's got to be something weird with the images, but I can't pinpoint exactly what I'm doing wrong.

Either way, there at least isn't any rush; I'm having fun messing about with other things in the meantime and playtesting what I can get to work. All the help so far is definitely greatly appreciated, however!

[ernieschwitz]

Glad to hear that my efforts at helping you, are being appreciated. Also very happy you are enjoying modding! it is really fun making a computer do as you please

I am not sure what I missed with the Models. But like I said, I am no expert in them.

[Ormand]

For model graphics,which are done in the event, are you using "ExecSFTGraphics {deprecated]"? If so, can you try the other one, "ExecSFTGraphics" instead? The deprecated one shouldn't really be used. It has been a while since I looked at these events, but I think that I did try the no deprecated one with two graphics before, and I think it works. The other one, says not to use it, but I didn't remove it because it is might be used here and there, and it would break the scenarios. Better to have them not work as they should than not at all. Let me know if this solves your problem. If not, give me a rather in depth description of what you want to do, and I will try to look into it deeper. But, the bad news is that LIFE has intervened a bit and I won't have that much time until next week.

If you want to look at how to use models look at both PhoenixGame (ANewDawn3) and Four Seasons. Four Seasons has a more involved model system and slightly different. I am supposed to write up something, at some point, to describe how to use them. Probably Vic and I are the ones who have "cracked" the "code" (not literally the code, but the cypher) how to use them. It took me probably a month about 8 years ago and at the time some things that I wanted to do didn't work (which I fixed when I got my hands on the ATG code).

[Darthrafael]

For model graphics,which are done in the event, are you using "ExecSFTGraphics {deprecated]"? If so, can you try the other one, "ExecSFTGraphics" instead? The deprecated one shouldn't really be used. It has been a while since I looked at these events, but I think that I did try the no deprecated one with two graphics before, and I think it works. The other one, says not to use it, but I didn't remove it because it is might be used here and there, and it would break the scenarios. Better to have them not work as they should than not at all. Let me know if this solves your problem. If not, give me a rather in depth description of what you want to do, and I will try to look into it deeper. But, the bad news is that LIFE has intervened a bit and I won't have that much time until next week.

Yup! This was it! It still has the weird issue of not properly showing it in the Subformationtype Model Designer screen unless you click on 'info', but outside of that it now works flawlessly!

working.png (148.55 KiB) Viewed 870 times

If you want to look at how to use models look at both PhoenixGame (ANewDawn3) and Four Seasons. Four Seasons has a more involved model system and slightly different. I am supposed to write up something, at some point, to describe how to use them. Probably Vic and I are the ones who have "cracked" the "code" (not literally the code, but the cypher) how to use them. It took me probably a month about 8 years ago and at the time some things that I wanted to do didn't work (which I fixed when I got my hands on the ATG code).

I'm using PhoenixGame as basis for what I'm doing (made a copy, then started editing it), so I already intend to look through how it does things exactly for some info on how I might make more units model-able, but I'll take a look at four seasons too. I'm wanting to make the Armoured Car unit model-able, as well as the SPFlak and SPArtillery units I took from European Diplomacy Remastered, and the Heavy Artillery; I've got quite a collection of sprites, after all; the Advance Wars community has drawn some very fancy stuff after all.

Thank you both so much for the help! Modding is always a fantastic way to spend time; it's what got me into programming, for one.

[Ormand]

Glad that worked. I suppose that I will have to edit those events to get it right for everyone in the future.