Development Thread #02 - Inside look at counter art

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: berto
We have added proper shorelines since that screenshot was taken.

My first pig re. French counter mod was from January, so we have been indeed crossing a lot of t's and dotting some i's during the previous months. Still, some of the gprahics you will see here is subject to further updates.

Anyhow, here's the French Mod now in Op. Musketeer'56, making their way north by the Suez canal. They've just chuted down, it is a tad crowded, yet you can prpbably observe one Para Coy taking a shore leave to wash their gear from the desert dust [:)]

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

COUNTERS7D##.BMP - 2D UNIT COUNTER STD AND ALT SETS

All the counters visible in the map are drawn in two phases, first the counters themselves, then the content within the counters.

Let us look at the Counters7d30.bmp, the counter set for Algeria.

[*] Included in the file are both the Standard and Alternate sets of counters.
[*] The standard file format is four rows of twelve counters for both Std and Alt variants, resulting in a total of 48 individual counters per set.
[*] Each counter off-set (position in the set) is then referred by each unit in their unit parameters.

So here's the Algerian counters as they currently are. As you can see, we've kept the design really nice and simple. You want to see gloss, 3D forms, symbols, this would be the place to mod the counter art.

Why that many counter cells, then? It seems not even half of them are really used yet?

Answer: the format works also as a placeholder for things to come.

What you see here is two Counters7d## files combined into the one picture below. The first six columns from one file, the next six columns from another.

First six columns: all the army branches for a nation, with their own counter schema. WW II example, obviously, as at least at the time of writing this there's no army branches nor unit insignias implemented for any of the ME nations. Here they are to give an idea though:

[*] Wehrmacht,
[*] Afrika Korps,
[*] Fallschirmjäger,
[*] SS.

There could be more, we are not limited with four rows. Kriegsmarine, what have you, just add new rows. And as pictured, each set can have a very individual look. Neat, eh.

The next six columns: unit insignia, such as in this example:

[*] 101st 'Screaming Eagles' WW II era US Division, or
[*] The 2nd Armored 'Hell on Wheels' WW II era US Division.

[Crossroads]

Finally, the colored bars that mark the unit type, especially helpful with stacked counters to find out who's who;

From left to right (as they are at the time of writing this):

[*] Armor
[*] Artillery, including Self Propelled Artillery and Assault Guns
[*] Infantry
[*] Anti-Tank, including Tank Destroyers, anti-tank missile teams, etc
[*] Miscellaneous, including Supplies, factories, what have you
[*] Engineers and Infantry Support, including LMG, HMG, RCLR, RPG squads and platoons
[*] Recce
[*] Helicopters, including other on-map aircraft too, for instance spotter airplanes
[*] Anti-Aircraft, including for instance MANPAD armed squads and platoons
[*] Transports
[*] Commanders
[*] Headquarters

Again, something that can be easily modified to meet ones ideas.

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: Crossroads
Again, something that can be easily modified to meet ones ideas.

This concludes the Counters thread for now. I won't go into other zoom levels and how they play out within the file organization at this stage. For screen captures of those views, there's quite many of them available in the Cool Screenshots thread so that will do for now I think.

My next Development Thread: A Detailed Look at Unit Parameters.

There's a lot of data and references into various capabilities and graphics within the game's platoon database. And since those too are moddable, (against AI only, PBEM games remain encryption only!), I think it pays to have a closer look at them as well.

I'll get it started in a week or two.

Meanwhile, any questions let me know!