Merging Icarus and Naval Mod

[zmcg]

Coming back to SC WWI after a few few years, and was really happy to find the Icarus mod and am interested in trying out its changes... but I cannot go back to playing without the Naval Mod. So with my very limited understanding of the editor and mods, I'm setting out to just take the relevant changes from the Naval Mod and make them in Icarus 6.4.

My primary question is, in the Naval Mod the names of unit types are changed - Pre-Dreadnaughts are renamed Battle Squadron/Division, Destroyers are renamed Destroyer Flotilla and the like. I cannot figure out how to edit that, however. Can anyone clue me in?


Also, I'm editing the Unit Build Data, Unit Cost Data, Production Delay Data, Combat Target Data, Strength/Reinforce/Reformation Data, and Movement Cost Data so the Icarus Mod will match the data from the naval units of the Naval Mod, and editing the starting units to match the fewer naval units present in the Naval Mod. I took some time comparing the changed AI scripts but didn't find any changes from the Naval Mod that looked critical, so I was planning on leaving the scripts, events, and text for the Icarus Mod unchanged. If anyone more familiar with these mods or modding in general knows of something else that should be edited to try to bring the Naval Mod to Icarus, please feel free to correct me.

[mdsmall]

Hi - I am the designer of the Icarus mod, so I'm intrigued by your plans to merge it with the Naval Mod. I have not looked into the Naval Mod, but am happy to give you a few pointers.

To change the names of unit types or technologies, you need to go into the localization file for the mod. You will find it by opening the folder for Icarus 6.4 (not the .cgn file where you will be making most of the other changes). The folder will be in your yellow Campaigns folder, where you mod files will be saved. Identify the number of the unit whose name you wish to change and write that line into the localization file for your mod. I did the same thing in Version 6.4 to designate German colonial corps units as stormtroopers. Be sure to back-up your work before making edits in the localization file.

You are right, I made very few changes to the AI settings in Icarus (really just enough that the AI would buy heavy artillery), so you can ignore them in the initial stages of building your mod. Once you have the other settings to your satisfaction, you can decide whether to spend the effort to adjust the AI settings as well.

Be sure to look at the Decision Event scripts, since quite a few of them involve building naval units, and you will probably want to ajust these as well for the Naval Mod. This is true for the U.K, Russia, Germany and the Ottoman Empire. Most other scripts that can be triggered by naval units do not specify the tupe of unit, and so should work for any haval unit on a coast or ocean hex. The only exception that I can think right now is the Decision Event for Ottomans which checks for the presence of Entente units in the Sea of Marmara.

I will be releasing a new version of Icarus - 6.7 - in a few days. But if you do the work now on the Icarus 6.4, it should be easy to adapt to version 6.7, if you decide to do so.

Good luck!

Michael

[zmcg]

Thanks for the pointers. Merging the mods seems straightforward enough, and I'm well into a campaign trying it out. Really like the changes you made with Icarus.

One question - in the notes on the Icarus mod, you indicated you gave subs a 50% chance of diving. I noticed subs in Icarus have a 50% chance of naval combat loss evasion. My layman's understanding was the loss evasion was distinct from the submarine diving function - in the Naval Mod, all ships have a loss evasion of 30+% and when that triggers, the unit simply doesn't take a hit. Curiously, in the Naval Mod, subs loss evasion was 0%, but they still had a chance to dive and disappear, and while doing so sometimes took damage, sometimes avoided it.

So in Icarus, is did you increase a sub's chance of diving and substantially increase its likelihood of avoiding damage? Or am I misunderstanding how it works and those two features are controlled by the same loss evasion statistic?

[mdsmall]

Hi - I am not sure where you noticed that I gave subs a 50% chance of naval combat evasion. Do let me know where that appears (perhaps in the Guide, rather than in the mod itself?) If so, it was unintentional! Their 50% chance of diving to escape combat should be more than sufficent. That factor is set in a different screen under Research than combat evasion percentages.

[zmcg]

Weird. I saw it in the combat target data when I was editing Icarus 6.4, but I just extracted a clean 6.4 and it isn't there, so must have been something I accidentally changed. Explains why the subs were giving me such a hard time in my current game. Sorry for the confusion!