Will There Be?

[hmssws]

A scenario editor? Or an abilty to make ones own OObs?

[hmssws]

Aslso, any chance that ya'll may eventually combine this tactical system, with actual maps to your strategic game and allow the entire war to be fought ......That would be a big game but it would be awesome.....

[Gil R.]

Re: scenario editor.
Unknown. It can all be done by data files in Excel (or a similar program), but a scenario editor would help with unit placement.

Re: OOB's
Very easy to make them, using Excel. Well, it's complicated, but technically easy. You just have to know what you're doing. (We'll release a modder's guide, as we did for "Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition," at some point.)

Re: Combining these maps with a strategic game
If/when we do a "Forge of Freedom" 2 it's something we might be able to do, though it might be difficult to implement in some ways. The main problem, though, is that these maps are drawn for use at a 75-yard scale and FOF is at 150, and therefore the maps couldn't be used for brigade-level combat (which is what FOF has). If we gave players the option of regimental vs. brigade, as we do in COG:EE, it might work, though. (Also, the BAB series, depending on how many releases there are, will have 20-30 battles, so a FOF2 would still have to have a lot of random battlefields.

[hmssws]

I think I'm a rather advanced Excel user, so I doubt I'll have an issue there.....I've made a lot of tactical maps for another game out there thatmay be able to be used as a quide for making some maps if you ever do FOF2.....

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: hmssws

I think I'm a rather advanced Excel user, so I doubt I'll have an issue there.....I've made a lot of tactical maps for another game out there thatmay be able to be used as a quide for making some maps if you ever do FOF2.....

It's not your (or anyone's) Excel skills I'm worried about, but rather the ability to follow our system 100% accurately, since otherwise there will be crashes and weird glitches.

Since making new maps is an ENORMOUS amount of work, if we do a FOF2 and add historical maps I'm not sure we would create any besides the ones in BAB. However, if a modding community arises and creates maps those could be incorporated. Sounds like your previous research could be quite valuable for creating mods. (As I wrote in another thread, we will not be releasing a map-editor anytime soon, BUT I have offered to map-edit any battlefield maps modders create if they meet a certain standard, and if they are not for a battle that we definitely intend to cover with BAB, e.g., Gettysburg.)

[hmssws]

I have quite a few maps for sure.....What I have done with Excel is to design a strtegic recruiting engine (Based on the 1860 census) that determines whether units are formed (Regimental Scale), the number of men in the unit, names the units, and assigns leaders to the units (Corp, Division and brigade levels there).......I also am developing a player interface for the player to assign weapons, and reinforcements to units.....I have been developing this to interact with John Tiller's games thus far.....But I might just like your tactical engine better....I have wanted a simultaneous resolution turn based War for Southern Independence game for a long time......To give you an idea where I have been in Excel, below is one of the array formulas used....It chooes a unique name from a list if men are recruited for the unit.....Anyway, I'm looking forward to this.....

=IF(F97>0,IF(COUNT(MATCH(Al_I,$L$14:L96,0))<COUNT(1/(Al_I<>"")),INDEX(Al_I,MATCH(0,(Al_I<>"")-ISNA(MATCH(Al_I,$L$14:L96,0)),0)),""))

[Gil R.]

That's quite impressive. But it seems that, at first at least, you'd be stuck with just five battlefields -- Manassas (or Manassas going as far west as Chinn Ridge), Wilson's Creek, Williamsburg and Mill Springs (two maps) -- so you'd be limited to fighting on those. Over time, of course, that number would grow.

[hmssws]

I figure it would be a long time.....But my system could likely be adopted to about any tactical game.....Having said that....IF you put out an updated FOF done on regimental scale with plenty of maps, it might make my system obsolete....lol....feel free....