It can't be that easy

[TAIL GUNNER]

I just added a Char B1 to the German platoon file in West Front by copying the Char's data from the French platoon file to the German platoon file....

The French tank now appears in German list in the Unit Viewer, with weapon values and everything...

Is it really that easy?[X(]

[cw58]

ORIGINAL: Juggalo

I just added a Char B1 to the German platoon file in West Front by copying the Char's data from the French platoon file to the German platoon file....

The French tank now appears in German list in the Unit Viewer, with weapon values and everything...

Is it really that easy?[X(]

No, not really. [;)] I believe Arkady's Unit Viewer now uses the platoon.obo & weapon.pdt files to read the information. The game uses the platoon.obx & weapon.pdx files for the information. So if you just copied from the French .obo file to the German .obo file, then it won't work; that changes nothing 'in game'.

You would need to copy from the French .obx file to the German .obx file. Those are the encrypted files and look like they're written in Greek.[:D] Even then, I don't know if the game would recognize the 'new' unit. I've never tried it that way.

[TAIL GUNNER]

Ah yes, I forgot that Arkady had to change the way his reader gets its info....


My first baby-steps into the exciting world of modding....can you tell?[:D]

[dgk196]

"Is it really that easy? "

Isn't that what Dillon said?

Dennis [;)]

[TAIL GUNNER]

So is it possible to copy one unit from one nationality to the other?

Say I wanted to copy French unit P08113 "mle 13 S 105mm Field Gun" to the German file and name it "K 331(f) 105mm Guns".

It sounds impossible with 1.03.....but with 1.02?
ChadG

[baltjes]

Hello Juggalo,

I am not a 'modder', so I am not familiair with manipulating obx, obb, pdx etc. files, but if it is your intention to implement a French Char B1 tank in your German Order of Battle, you might know it is present in the new OOB editor as a german platoon.

Are you aware of the possibilities to slot ANY unit of the OOB editor into your 'home made' OOB, provided they fought at the same side (axis or allies) during the war (and even beyound that as will be explained later).

So it is e.g. possible to use Vichy French units (of say 1942) in your German OOB of a (say) 1944 scenario. Suppose you are creating an OOB file for the Germans (Axis) in a 1944 scenario and you want to include an obsolete French R35 tank into a German police battalion. Just switch to 1942, take your unit, put it into your OOB and switch back to 1944. (This all happens in the OOB editor!).

In the same way, it is possible to use 'outdated' material from your 'own country', e.g. some obsolete tanks in a 'Panzerschule' (Tank training school) (e.g. Mielkes Tank company in Market-Garden). Just go to an earlier year and pick the Pz II, PzIII and early Pz IV's you want.

In this way I often used 'captured' or 'lend' materials in my scenario's. With the present 1.03 addition of the JTCS this feature seems less needed (since the new OOB's contain just quite a lot of captured units, at least at the German side), nevertheless it might be useful to keep these possibilities in mind.

At present (that is from last winter on), I am working on a real massive 'What if' Market Garden scenario (mapwidth 500 X 620; number of unit: about 20.000!) in which I use 'alien' units abundantly. Since the Germans are considdered to be short of transport, they are quite well supplied with 'alien' trucks (Italian, Croatian, Nat.Spanish, Sovjet!). Here I have to tell you that at he time of OOB building , I used the 1.02B patch, in which Sovjet units became available beside Russian units. (The Russians are considered as Allied forces, the Sovjets as Axis). So, it became possible to use captured T34 tanks at the German side; just borrow one from your 'Sovjet-Ally'.

For an eventual river crossing (and I mean crossing a full hex river), I use Sovjet Bridging battalions (with pontoon ferries and bridging engineers) for the German side and Russian Bridging battalions for the Allies. (I deleted the 'crewed boat' units; they appear to be rather useless). A collateral advantage is that Russian/Sovjet (engineer)trucks have fewer movement points than Allied/Germans, thus better simulating the heavy transport.

With the 1.02 patch, river crossing by 'bridging' was not yet possible at least in West front scenario's. So I was anxiously waiting for the 1.03 patch, which was - as we all know - repeatedly postponed. Now it has come available, I am somewhat dissappointed in this respect; bridge building is just possible now over hexSIDE rivers (where I wanted to use it for FULLHEX rivers!) and it is only building foot- and light vehicle bridges. So heavy tanks can not pass.

This means that crossing full hex rivers still have to be done by the means of pontoon ferries. The fact that in West Front now (with the 1.03 patch), the Germans and Americans (not the British!) have pontoon ferries and Bridging engineers, is in this respect not an essential improvement of the new patch.

(If you ever intend to create scenario's with river crossing by pontoon ferries, you have to keep in mind that these units can do their job only when the units to be ferried are picked up and delivered on shallow water hexes! This makes the use of that strategy - lets say - less unpredictable.)

Well, it has become quite a long message. I just wanted to let you know that there are more possibilities to create your tailor made OOB's than dragging around with pdx, obx files or whatever.

Sincerely yours,


Hajo Baltjes

[TAIL GUNNER]

Hello Juggalo,

I am not a 'modder', so I am not familiair with manipulating obx, obb, pdx etc. files, but if it is your intention to implement a French Char B1 tank in your German Order of Battle, you might know it is present in the new OOB editor as a german platoon.

Unfortunately only the Flame version.....I need the original version.

Are you aware of the possibilities to slot ANY unit of the OOB editor into your 'home made' OOB, provided they fought at the same side (axis or allies) during the war (and even beyound that as will be explained later).
So it is e.g. possible to use Vichy French units (of say 1942) in your German OOB of a (say) 1944 scenario. Suppose you are creating an OOB file for the Germans (Axis) in a 1944 scenario and you want to include an obsolete French R35 tank into a German police battalion. Just switch to 1942, take your unit, put it into your OOB and switch back to 1944. (This all happens in the OOB editor!).

The tanks I need are not in the Vichy France oob either...

In the same way, it is possible to use 'outdated' material from your 'own country', e.g. some obsolete tanks in a 'Panzerschule' (Tank training school) (e.g. Mielkes Tank company in Market-Garden). Just go to an earlier year and pick the Pz II, PzIII and early Pz IV's you want.

I was not sure if that would work...thanks for confirming it.

In this way I often used 'captured' or 'lend' materials in my scenario's. With the present 1.03 addition of the JTCS this feature seems less needed (since the new OOB's contain just quite a lot of captured units, at least at the German side), nevertheless it might be useful to keep these possibilities in mind.

Much of the German captured weapons are labeled wrong and using incorrect data....I wish to fix this and add more.

At present (that is from last winter on), I am working on a real massive 'What if' Market Garden scenario (mapwidth 500 X 620; number of unit: about 20.000!) in which I use 'alien' units abundantly. Since the Germans are considdered to be short of transport, they are quite well supplied with 'alien' trucks (Italian, Croatian, Nat.Spanish, Sovjet!). Here I have to tell you that at he time of OOB building , I used the 1.02B patch, in which Sovjet units became available beside Russian units. (The Russians are considered as Allied forces, the Sovjets as Axis). So, it became possible to use captured T34 tanks at the German side; just borrow one from your 'Sovjet-Ally'.

For an eventual river crossing (and I mean crossing a full hex river), I use Sovjet Bridging battalions (with pontoon ferries and bridging engineers) for the German side and Russian Bridging battalions for the Allies. (I deleted the 'crewed boat' units; they appear to be rather useless). A collateral advantage is that Russian/Sovjet (engineer)trucks have fewer movement points than Allied/Germans, thus better simulating the heavy transport.

With the 1.02 patch, river crossing by 'bridging' was not yet possible at least in West front scenario's. So I was anxiously waiting for the 1.03 patch, which was - as we all know - repeatedly postponed. Now it has come available, I am somewhat dissappointed in this respect; bridge building is just possible now over hexSIDE rivers (where I wanted to use it for FULLHEX rivers!) and it is only building foot- and light vehicle bridges. So heavy tanks can not pass.

This means that crossing full hex rivers still have to be done by the means of pontoon ferries. The fact that in West Front now (with the 1.03 patch), the Germans and Americans (not the British!) have pontoon ferries and Bridging engineers, is in this respect not an essential improvement of the new patch.

(If you ever intend to create scenario's with river crossing by pontoon ferries, you have to keep in mind that these units can do their job only when the units to be ferried are picked up and delivered on shallow water hexes! This makes the use of that strategy - lets say - less unpredictable.)

Well, it has become quite a long message. I just wanted to let you know that there are more possibilities to create your tailor made OOB's than dragging around with pdx, obx files or whatever.
Sincerely yours,


Hajo Baltjes

Sounds impressive!
Let us know when you are finished!

Also, I am a fan of your Overlord scenario, and my desire is to upgrade the German OOBs with the correct weapons.....much of which was captured stock.

Thanks for your reply,
ChadG

[cw58]

ORIGINAL: Juggalo

So is it possible to copy one unit from one nationality to the other?

Say I wanted to copy French unit P08113 "mle 13 S 105mm Field Gun" to the German file and name it "K 331(f) 105mm Guns".

It sounds impossible with 1.03.....but with 1.02?
ChadG

First, let me say that Baltjes has some very good ideas and all his suggestions are do-able. But to answer your question, yes you can copy one unit from one nation to another in 1.02. It's fairly easy if you have the old encryption program and know how to use it. You can also do it in 1.03 but then you would need to send the file to Jason for encryption.

Both alternatives start the same way; we'll use your example. Make copies of your original files before you start 'tinkering' with them. Copy this line from the French platoon08.obo:

P08113 4 0 4 40 50 50 0 0 0 0 3 0 8 0 1 20 38 P08113 4 0 4 8 8 8 37 1 40 6 0 0 0 mle 13 S 105mm Field Guns , 105mm Fld Guns , L 13 S

Then paste it into the German platoon01.obo. You can put it on any line, but that's the order it will show up in the OOB editor. Then you need to change the unit number (P08113 at the beginning of the line) to something like P01200. It doesn't matter as long as it's unique and begins with P01xxx. Then change the name to whatever you want.

The 2nd P08113 on this line is the 3d graphic to be used. You can leave it if you don't mind Frenchmen fighting in your German army [8|] or change it to match it an existing Up file that you want to use. Also note the numbers 20 & 38 in the middle, these are the nato and 2d images. You might need to change those values to get proper images for those. Also note the dates (37 1 40 6), adjust if desired.

Step 2: In the weapon.pdt file, find the line P08113 (use CTRL-F); copy that line and the line immediately below it (hard & soft attack values). Then paste both lines at the bottom of the file. Rename P08113 to whatever you chose (e.g., P01200).

You can check it using Arkady's Unit Viewer. Check the graphic, 2d, nato, weapon values. If all looks good, you're ready for the final step.

The final step: if you're using 1.03, then you would need to send your altered platoon01.obo & weapon.pdt files to Jason for encryption. If using 1.02, then you can encrypt them yourself using the old encryption program (assuming you have it). (Encryption changes the files to .obx & .pdx files.) Then replace the old files with the new ones.

Sounds a lot more complicated written out like this. It really is pretty easy. If you have questions or there's something I didn't explain well, let me know. (I'm sure I'm forgetting something.) [&:] And watch out for patches; anything you do will be overwritten by a new patch. I always have at least 2 installations of the game, one stock and one to mod. That way I always have a backup if I screw up a file. [:D]

[TAIL GUNNER]

cw58, many thanks for the lengthy and detailed reply.


If you're ever here on the Central Coast, the Coronas are on me!

ChadG

[TAIL GUNNER]

How freaking cool is that!!!![:D][:D][:D][:D]

Thanks again cw58!

[cw58]

Congratulations! Glad it worked (I never doubted it)[:D]

[TAIL GUNNER]

One last question though...

With the addition of the new Char, when I open the org editor in West Front, I get an "File company01.oob: line 233: invalid unit reference number:1069"...

Does this mean I used an existing "P01xxx" number for that file?

I searched the german company.oob file for matching numbers but there were none....
Funny thing is that line 233 is blank?[&:]
Thanks again,
ChadG

[Warhorse]

1069 is the Kubelwagen in WF German platoon file. Is that the number you used for the Char?

Mike

[TAIL GUNNER]

ORIGINAL: Warhorse

1069 is the Kubelwagen in WF German platoon file. Is that the number you used for the Char?

Mike

No, I used P01900....and made sure no other number matched in the platoon file.

[cw58]

Yeah, that's a problem. I'm guessing you lost all your higher level OOB (everything above company level and most of those too) in the OOB editor?

Ok, I'm assuming you're in WF 1.02. In my company01.obo file, I've got this on line 233:

43 01 45 05 (50) P01069 (50) P01199 Scout Platoon

So my question would be what number did you use for your tank? P01069 is the Kfz 1 Kubelwagen. If that's the number you used, then it's creating some kind of conflict and you need to change it. I have added units without effecting company OOBs, so I know it can be done.[:)]

I just noticed the error message in your post says "invalid unit reference number:1069".
Is that correct? I'm a little confused because the correct number would be P01069. So I'm not sure if the error is from the platoon file or in the company file. Any extra details would be appreciated.

Sorry, I missed the last 2 posts while I was typing this. I'm just too slow.[:(]

Ok, that's bizarre! You guys posted almost 3 hours ago but they weren't there when I started. I don't type that slow[8|]

[cw58]

[8|]Forget everything I said in the last post. Except for the line 233 part. Check your company01.obo and see if your line 233 matches the one in my last post. If it does, then check your platoon.obx and see if the Kfz 1 is still there and that it has the correct number of characters in the line. (Assuming you used the encryption program and you can read it, [:D]. Not that you can't read, but I mean that it's in English.)

You probably know this, but the old encryption program adds an exact amount of spaces to the lines so that they show up in English. If you happened to erase or add a space accidentally, the game would no longer recognize that line of the file. Which makes me think of another question, is the Kfz 1 available in the OOB editor?

[TAIL GUNNER]

ORIGINAL: cw58

[8|]Forget everything I said in the last post. Except for the line 233 part. Check your company01.obo and see if your line 233 matches the one in my last post. If it does, then check your platoon.obx and see if the Kfz 1 is still there and that it has the correct number of characters in the line. (Assuming you used the encryption program and you can read it, [:D]. Not that you can't read, but I mean that it's in English.)

You probably know this, but the old encryption program adds an exact amount of spaces to the lines so that they show up in English. If you happened to erase or add a space accidentally, the game would no longer recognize that line of the file. Which makes me think of another question, is the Kfz 1 available in the OOB editor?

hmmm...just tried multiple times from fresh installs of 1.02B...
No matter what Pnumber I give the Char tank, I get the same error in the OOB editor and you're right, most everything goes poof!

The Kfz 1 also disappears from the Platoon listing in the OOB editor.....[&:][&:]

Am I using the right program?
The one I found on the Blitz is called Encrypv1

Thanks for your patience,
ChadG

[TAIL GUNNER]

SUCCESS!

I guess I was using the wrong program[8|]....the other, Windows based version worked!


I'm tired now....[:o]


thanks again cw58,
ChadG

[R.E.LEE]

How did you get the unit info box in the middle of the map?

ORIGINAL: Juggalo

How freaking cool is that!!!![:D][:D][:D][:D]

Thanks again cw58!

[cw58]

R.E.Lee,

You just left-click on it and drag it where you want.