Thanks for a great game!

[Peter Fisla]

Hi All,

I wanted to say thanks to publisher Matrix Games, to the developers, researchers as well as testers. I spent the whole evening today playing TLD and I have to say I like it a lot! The maps are amazing, this was my vision during the CC2 days when I was doing testing for Atomic Games. The CC2 maps were so small compared the ones we have today! I have checked the manual as well and it's really well done, great stuff!!! I even like the night battles with illumination rounds...I think step in the right direction! I have been there since the beginning....from 1995 and here I am 14 years later still having blast with Close Combat, one of the greatest computer wargames of all time!

Question: I noticed that there is quite a nice list of vehicles in the vehicles file...some of them are marked as "(unused)". What do I have to do to make these part of my custom scenario?

To me CC3 didn't really do the justice to Eastern Front, what I think we need is CC5 engine with strategic layer adopted for Eastern Front....Stalingrad would be incredible!!!!! Hopefully, I will keep my fingers crossed, perhaps one day? I guess I can dream, can't I?!

[RD Oddball]

Very cool Peter!  Thank you!
 
RE: utilizing the unused vehicles data -   I'd suggest using the TLD workbook as it has explanations of all the data columns and lots of other data editing support materials.
 
The nutshell answer without going into details is adding it to the *teams.txt file for the given nationality, adding that to the Fpools and reflecting that change in the BGroups.txt file.  If you want the details of it we can walk you through it.  It's not super complicated.

[dodger bullet]

just played night battle as the brits for the first time. hehe their voice reminds me a bit of cc2... anyways it was nuts.

the first map, 6 of my men were out of commission with them mines so i had them all acrawling for the first 20 minutes. it was in windowed mode so i browsed the internet while waiting to reach their destination. regardless it created tension as i didn't know where the gerries were, it seemed like i had to restart because i was getting shot at out of nowheres. but through will, and not wanting to replay the map again, i mettled out the foes with the effecient killing of my men. it felt like cc2 all over again yo. good, fun game. a.i. makes it so.

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: RD_Oddball

Very cool Peter!  Thank you!

RE: utilizing the unused vehicles data -   I'd suggest using the TLD workbook as it has explanations of all the data columns and lots of other data editing support materials.

The nutshell answer without going into details is adding it to the *teams.txt file for the given nationality, adding that to the Fpools and reflecting that change in the BGroups.txt file.  If you want the details of it we can walk you through it.  It's not super complicated.

A quick example would be cool Lets say I want to add a Tiger into the Normandy Campaign. I just downloaded the warbook as I'm at work and don't have access to the data files right now. So looking under the *.teams tab Tiger I is already there. The fpools would have to be modified, so for example I would like to assign few Tigers to 12 SS Pz Division or Panzer Lehr. Not sure about Bgroups...anyways I probably don't need micro details but I would appreciate some info about each file that I need to modify.

Thanks!

[RD Oddball]

Gotta step out for a bit now but will get more detailed later on.
 
The only thing about teams you'd need to make sure of is that the AxsTeams.txt line for the Tiger would reference  the vehciles.txt in the class value in column AK of the AxsTeam.txt.  i.e. your teams file is saying "use this vehicle data".  Make sure the number of soldier entries matches the total number in the teams file.  I forget which column that is.  It should already match but good to check since that's often a point of errors.
 
Forcepools - just add the teams.txt class number in either an empty column or replace an existing one.  You must add it for every day (this is the four entries 0-3) and each difficulty level (0-4).  I forget what the class column in the FPools.txt references in the BGroups.txt.  I think that's just telling the AI what battlegroup type it is so the AI can do it's planning.  That's part of the detail I'll verify later.
 
Pending what I find about the BGroups.txt that should be all you need to do.  Well you'd need to create a scenario using that BG but you probably knew that.
 
Obviously you'd be using the existing artwork, maps etc..  That could be modded too but it doesn't sound like you want to get that involved in it.

[JudgeDredd]

I wanted to add to this...really good game. Looks great, plays great. AI I think is good (although I am still kicking it's arse). And looking forward to seeing the effects of the grand campaign as I go through it.

Saw some Axis flanking and another time, trying to get behind me to take back a victory location (or at least I think they were...they could've just been running round like headless chickens!)

Well done and thx for helping me enjoy this series again. [&o]

[GoodGuy]

Judge, shouldn't you be saving greenbacks for BFTB? [;)]

[RD Oddball]

Thanks JD.  Awesome to hear such great feed back!  Feel free to ignore GoodGuy btw.[:D][;)]

[Korzun]

Yes I agree with the other guys. Great game!!! Though I must say that I've always enjoyed the CC series despite the issues with WaR (coding etc.) which I hope you will resolve. [:)]

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: Korsun

Yes I agree with the other guys. Great game!!! Though I must say that I've always enjoyed the CC series despite the issues with WaR (coding etc.) which I hope you will resolve. [:)]

Hmmm...what coding issues are there with WaR? I'm not aware of anything...

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: GoodGuy
Judge, shouldn't you be saving greenbacks for BFTB? [;)]

Don't you worry, money is put away for it.

Panther Games are day one purchases for me.

[Q.M]

ORIGINAL: Peter Fisla


I wanted to say thanks to publisher Matrix Games, to the developers, researchers as well as testers.

Peter, thats the first time I have ever seen thanks to the volunteer testers. Thank you Sir.

[RD Oddball]

ORIGINAL: Q.M

ORIGINAL: Peter Fisla


I wanted to say thanks to publisher Matrix Games, to the developers, researchers as well as testers.

Peter, thats the first time I have ever seen thanks to the volunteer testers. Thank you Sir.

That's because he knows from firsthand experience what goes into it. Well deserved praise.

[EagleMountainDK]

I will add me to the list of happy customers, this is surely a great game. And for me a great way to get started playing CC again.

Thanks Matrix, Dev's and testers!

Cheers
Mark

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: RD_Oddball

ORIGINAL: Q.M

ORIGINAL: Peter Fisla


I wanted to say thanks to publisher Matrix Games, to the developers, researchers as well as testers.

Peter, thats the first time I have ever seen thanks to the volunteer testers. Thank you Sir.

That's because he knows from firsthand experience what goes into it. Well deserved praise.

Design and programming is one thing, hunting down bugs and looking for make sure everything is well implemented is something else. Both parts are very important to deliver a quality product...good quality testers that can test things over and over..the find another bug and test it all over again are really hard to come by.

[sabre100]

Same here very happy customer thanks to all involved.  Can't wait for the old mods to be ported to this new version, at least I hope they will [:D] 

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

I wanted to add to this...really good game. Looks great, plays great. AI I think is good (although I am still kicking it's arse). And looking forward to seeing the effects of the grand campaign as I go through it.

Saw some Axis flanking and another time, trying to get behind me to take back a victory location (or at least I think they were...they could've just been running round like headless chickens!)

Well done and thx for helping me enjoy this series again. [&o]

Just wanted to say...me and my big mouth. I've lost two battles on the trot decisively! Pegasus Bridge was one of them [:(]

And the little buggers keep trying to take back VPs...so you can't leave them alone...u have to leave someone there.

[Barthheart]

Man... you guys are making it really hard not to buy this.......

[oldspec4]

ORIGINAL: Barthheart

Man... you guys are making it really hard not to buy this.......

Same for me. Really didn't think I'd be interested after playing the original Close Combat games years ago. But the posts here are starting to pull me over. This might be my WW2 fix until BFTB is released.