Headquarter reinforced fog of war mod

[welk]

The cumfortable war has ended in your human headquarter...

Now, you will experiment the hard reality of war vs AI : you are not in a game, but in a real kriegspiel made by Herr General Huppert Von Kater and his humble assistant, the sergeant Welk

=> Less informations about ennemy dispositif, just the "front line" (the cumfortable "omniscient/global view is no more possible)

=> Less informations about your own units : and sometimes, you will forget some importants actions (like reinforcement, etc).

All explanations for installation are in the readme
Link to download : New link coming soon (mod will be completed by other needed files)

[welk]

Question for devs : It seems that little "activation symbols" and little "units experience symbols" are contained in the same file, and that same graphs are used for the two usages.

I noticed that : to erase units activations sprites does also erase experience symbol units in game.

Do you confirm this situation ?

My modding goal would be :
1/ to erase units activation sprites (to set ennemy units "invisibles" = reinforced fog of war, with creation of two different files (depending of what side human player want to conduct)
2/ to maintain units experience symbols for the side conducted by human player (by same way : creation of 2 different files, depending of what side human player want to conduct

But it seems it's impossible to do if units activation sprites and units experience symbols use same graphs. And same if each country has his own symbols, because at start of game, it's impossible to know exactly the side (Axis or Allied) where will go some countries.

Too bad, because in game, to play with just the ennemy front line visible is more challenging (and then more interessant) for human player vs AI.

Second question : A file named "units activation sprites" is contained in the bitmaps directory of game, and another copy of this file is also in the interface directory of the game. Is there a specific reason for that ?

EDIT: In addition : founded the way to do what I planed for this mod :

In "advanced options", I have to do that:
- to set "off" units experience medals => Experience of units will be showed by text and not by graph symbols (in "units property screen)
- to set unit strengh "off"
- to set ressources strengh "off"

I have also to erase the content of the file named "units box sprites", and also to erase content of "units sprites activation" and content of "units strengh value sprites".

And to erase units nato counters files for ennemy side (depending of what side human player want to conduct)

=> In consequence of these modding actions, all ennemy units will become invisible except if you move mouse curser on them and except if you have aircraft units in range to fire them : very interessant way to block for human player the irrealistic effect "immediate global strategic view without any headquarter hard work".

And human units will become less easy to manage (no strengh force, player needs to consult property of each unit to see experience, etc, and he can sometimes do mistakes, or forget to do some needed actions, etc : introduce possibility of lot human errors in "HQ work" is an interessant way to have a more difficul game in human vs AI campaingns).

[welk]

Link to download the mod.
https://static.blog4ever.com/2022/02/86 ... ER_MOD.rar

Before to use, save first your original files

At this time, only the first module is awailable (Human Axis vs Allied AI), the second module will coming soon (Human Allied vs Axis AI)

A readme is included (pdf file)

Extract :

This mod reinforces heavily difficulty of the game for human player : playing with is very destabilizing in campaigns human vs AI, and you will full experiment the "blind war mess" => You have take your decisions with a real fog of war, without any artificial and irrealistic "quick cumfortable global strategic view". To fight – and to win – vs AI will certainly not be so easy than in vanilla game…

It's only a graph mod (no other parameter or element were modified)

Concerning the aspect "REINFORCED FOG OF WAR" : the mod allows you to play campaigns with a ultra high level of Fow : you only see the front line and you do never see ennemy counters, their presence is revealed only by your "military intelligence service" when you place the mouse curser on each hex map to verify what it contains (but you will never do that each time and sometimes you will forget to examine the map situation in details...^^).

Concerning the aspect "HEADQUARTER" : You have no any direct and visual global information about strength, experience or level of your own units : each time, you have to verify these elements in the infos screen (interface) or in the "property screen". And perhaps, sometime you will forget to verify, or you will do mistakes and bad "HQ work" because you will forget some important adjustements (i.e : you will forget to do needed reinforcement in some units, etc)
=> These 2 aspects will cause "human errors" during the campaign and it's exactly the goal of this mod : to introduce possibility of lot human errors in "HQ work" is an interessant way to have a more difficul game in human vs AI campaigns).



OPTIONS & ADVANCED OPTIONS => The mod will work properly only If you choice the following options and advanced options in game :
3D units = "off" (=> Nato counter will be used)
Fog of war = "on"
Units experience medals = "off"
Units strengh value = "off"
Ressources strength value = "off"
Enemy target highlight = "off"
Estimated loss highlight = "off"
Units/resources research level = "off"

[Hubert Cater]

Question for devs : It seems that little "activation symbols" and little "units experience symbols" are contained in the same file, and that same graphs are used for the two usages.

I noticed that : to erase units activations sprites does also erase experience symbol units in game.

Do you confirm this situation ?

My modding goal would be :
1/ to erase units activation sprites (to set ennemy units "invisibles" = reinforced fog of war, with creation of two different files (depending of what side human player want to conduct)
2/ to maintain units experience symbols for the side conducted by human player (by same way : creation of 2 different files, depending of what side human player want to conduct

But it seems it's impossible to do if units activation sprites and units experience symbols use same graphs. And same if each country has his own symbols, because at start of game, it's impossible to know exactly the side (Axis or Allied) where will go some countries.

Too bad, because in game, to play with just the ennemy front line visible is more challenging (and then more interessant) for human player vs AI.

Second question : A file named "units activation sprites" is contained in the bitmaps directory of game, and another copy of this file is also in the interface directory of the game. Is there a specific reason for that ?

EDIT: In addition : founded the way to do what I planed for this mod :

In "advanced options", I have to do that:
- to set "off" units experience medals => Experience of units will be showed by text and not by graph symbols (in "units property screen)
- to set unit strengh "off"
- to set ressources strengh "off"

I have also to erase the content of the file named "units box sprites", and also to erase content of "units sprites activation" and content of "units strengh value sprites".

And to erase units nato counters files for ennemy side (depending of what side human player want to conduct)

=> In consequence of these modding actions, all ennemy units will become invisible except if you move mouse curser on them and except if you have aircraft units in range to fire them : very interessant way to block for human player the irrealistic effect "immediate global strategic view without any headquarter hard work".

And human units will become less easy to manage (no strengh force, player needs to consult property of each unit to see experience, etc, and he can sometimes do mistakes, or forget to do some needed actions, etc : introduce possibility of lot human errors in "HQ work" is an interessant way to have a more difficul game in human vs AI campaingns).

The second copy of the unit activation sprites in the Interface folder is not actually used, but a legacy from an earlier build. The newer games, like War in the Pacific, do not have this file in the Interface folder.

And yes, the activation sprites are also used, some rows, for the unit experience medals as well.

[welk]

Ok, thanks for precisions, Hubert.

Finally, I obtained the result I wanted with the game, a complete fog of war, and it's very interessant to play vs AI by this way : things are not so easy than in vanilla, because each time you take a decision, you are more blind, without any "complete vision"