Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: mroyer
By all means! I once shared a hotel room with Rich at Origins, many years ago. I haven't heard from Rick in a decade (or two?) - wonder how he's doing.

Very cool! Yeah I do wonder whatever happened not only to Rick but to all the others from those days. I know Winston passed away, but I have lost contact with everyone that I ever knew that played Europa. I met a few folks in IL that went on to play OCS from the Gamers (I never met them in the older Europa days, but they said the played it).

ORIGINAL: mroyer
Wow... WAA! I forgot you were part of the World at Arms thingy. I worked endlessly on that game and in the end the naval system ultimately broke my back and I never completed it. It's unbelievably difficult to get those large, theater/global strategy games to work right - everything from game mechanics to game balance has to be fine tuned and I could never get the naval system right. (Fortunately, the war in China didn't need much naval stuff so War of Resistance got published [:)] )

That's why I have the utmost respect for Alvaro and what he's done with WarPlan!

-Mark R.

Totally hear you, and yes Alvaro has here a classic in my book.

ORIGINAL: mroyer
...how are you guys getting those giant images to load? I can't get it to load any file greater than 200KB which excludes any large image.

Mark, I don't ever get bothered by Matrix's limit on any graphic images, primarily because I bypass them.

So how to do this you may ask. Well here is how I do that.

1. I created a free account with Imgur (https://imgur.com/)
2 Once I log in I go to my Images page (using the hamburger menu on the upper right, see screenshot #1)
3. Then I drag any images that I want to display in the forums into my my images folder. (no screenshot should be self evident)
4. Then I click on the image I want to use for my forum post (see screenshot #2)
5. then I select the second to last html code (see screenshot #3)
6. I then past this into my forum message as html text (see screenshot #4)
7. Then I marvel at how awesome I am, lol, just kidding just a older man that learned a few tricks in life...lol)

Screenshot #1


Screenshot #2


Screenshot #3


Screenshot #4

Oh, my screenshots now are quite a bit bigger, because I have been using a 4k monitor for the last month on my iMac and I reduced my screen resolution to 3840x2400 (WarPlan, Steel Panthers and WitE) to play most games and 2880 x 1800 for other games (TOAW IV).

[:)] I see! Nice stuff. I was trying to link screen shot urls from dropbox, and that didn't work either.

Some Europa guys I still know about.

John Astell is living in Worcester MA (about an hour from me). I don't think he's very active anymore, but he does keep a "classic Europa" website going.

Arthur Goodwin, last I knew, was still trying to publish "Total War" from GRD/HMS out in Colorado. I think he's been having health problems getting in his way. I had a brief conversation with him a few months ago and he seemed to still be plodding endlessly forward.

I have LinkedIn/FB connections with a few others (Frank Watson comes to mind) - but I don't think they are playing much any more.

Flavio Carrillo (if you remember him - he published "Combined Arms", a fanzine on Europa) I notice is kicking around here as Flaviousx. He has a nice after-action report going for WarPlan.

Gary Stagliano passed away a LONG time ago.

Jeff Millifoglie also passed away. After that I lost touch with the San Francisco crowd (John Gee, etc...)

I still miss talking with Winston - he use to call me about once a month to yack and prod me along on the second China game - I think we can mark his passing as the true end of Europa.

But, otherwise, yeah - I've lost touch with 90+% of that crowd.


-Mark R.

Question about your weather mod. I can't seem to notice a difference between the one drop and two drop rain, am I just missing it.

The intent is that the two-drop rain (heavy rain I assume) is suppose to be a heavier, grayer rain streaking. I can see the effect on my monitor, but it's too subtle at the moment - I need to make it clearer. I did the same thing for snow/heavy snow, but that seems more pronounced and is probably okay(?).

Below is the images against a dark gray background, with the original icon weather images overlaid.



I need to do more work on the weather, I think. Not sure how to show 'cold' - that's a tricky one [:)]. I may just leave it as per the original in the game.

-Mark R.

Notice on a white background the difference between rain and heavy rain is clearer. The backgrounds can make a big difference (which is probably why Alvaro opted for the simple, clean, clear icon in the upper right of the hex.

-Mark R.

ORIGINAL: mroyer

...

Some Europa guys I still know about.

John Astell is living in Worcester MA (about an hour from me). I don't think he's very active anymore, but he does keep a "classic Europa" website going.

...

-Mark R.

Interesting. I'm not too far from Worcester. Small world.

Interesting. I'm not too far from Worcester. Small world.

Indeed. I am in Billerica, just south of Lowell. Where are you at? My son is going to college at Worcester Polytechnic in Worcester.

-Mark R.

ORIGINAL: mroyer

Interesting. I'm not too far from Worcester. Small world.

Indeed. I am in Billerica, just south of Lowell. Where are you at? My son is going to college at Worcester Polytechnic in Worcester.

-Mark R.

I know Billerica. Used to work in Burlington. I'm in Marlborough and you have to spell it with the ugh at the end. [:D]

ORIGINAL: W8taminute
I know Billerica. Used to work in Burlington. I'm in Marlborough and you have to spell it with the ugh at the end. [:D]

I use to live in Marlborough - gee whiz.... back in about the 1983-4 time-frame
Go Shamrocks! (Do the Shamrocks, Marlborough's semi-pro football team, still exist?)

-Mark R.

ORIGINAL: mroyer

ORIGINAL: W8taminute
I know Billerica. Used to work in Burlington. I'm in Marlborough and you have to spell it with the ugh at the end. [:D]

I use to live in Marlborough - gee whiz.... back in about the 1983-4 time-frame
Go Shamrocks! (Do the Shamrocks, Marlborough's semi-pro football team, still exist?)

-Mark R.

Wow that's funny! What a coincidence. I'm sure a lot has changed though since the 80's.

I've not heard of the Shamrocks but the high school football team (The Panthers) is still playing.

Just tremendous work. Thanks so much for doing this.

Updated to version v2.0.
Download links in opening post.

=============================
v2.0
=============================
units.png - round air/rect navy
-----------------------------
Air unit category letters changed to FTMS (to match Hairog mod letters)
All minors have round air unit counters now
All European minors have with colorized air/naval silhouettes

-----------------------------
units.png - traditional all-square
-----------------------------
no changes

-----------------------------
weather.png
-----------------------------
Changed rain to more easily differentiate from heavy rain

-----------------------------
control.png (new)
-----------------------------
Darkens territorial control colors compared to the original
(purely a matter of taste, but on some monitors the darker colors is more easily seen)

Hi Mroyer,

I really appreciate the counters mod you did release for Warplan.

I also did one, http://www.puntadelanza.net/Foro/phpBB3 ... hp?t=20567.

Would you mind if I use some of your stuff for my mod improvement?

I will for sure refer to your mod and give credit to it and you.

Thank you in advance.

Regards

Can someone help a computer dummy learn how and where to download these counter mods so that they work? I've tried but without success. Thanks.

ORIGINAL: Rayfer

Can someone help a computer dummy learn how and where to download these counter mods so that they work? I've tried but without success. Thanks.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4711288

Thanks escorpion...finally got it to work.

I just downloaded the modded images. Fine work, I enjoy how it feels.
It reminds me of the good old times when I used to play around a table playing with friends.
I think some fine-tuning is required to find a proper color match on the counters.
Germans should be feld grau, but they look olive drab. I would prefer plain grey as they usually are.

ORIGINAL: escorpion
Hi Mroyer,
I really appreciate the counters mod you did release for Warplan.

Thanks for that!

ORIGINAL: escorpion
I also did one, http://www.puntadelanza.net/Foro/phpBB3 ... hp?t=20567.

I know! I've been following it - very nice. When I tire of mine, yours is one of several I will cycle through to keep the game aesthetically fresh and different

ORIGINAL: escorpion
Would you mind if I use some of your stuff for my mod improvement?

Of course you can. This is all just for fun - there's no money or other incentive which is the only legitimate reason to worry about copyrights and the like. We're all in this together to make Alvaro's great game just a touch more interesting.

If you want my GIMP (or Photoshop) source files, I'd be happy to give them to you.

ORIGINAL: escorpion
I will for sure refer to your mod and give credit to it and you.

No worries either way. Thanks for checking in, though - I do appreciate the consideration.

-Mark R.

I think some fine-tuning is required to find a proper color match on the counters.

I'm all ears - especially for good suggestions for the colors for minors. It gets surprisingly difficult to pick 50+ colors and keep them both relevant and distinct [:)]

Germans should be feld grau, but they look olive drab. I would prefer plain grey as they usually are.

Those are Feldgrau (RGB: 77,93,83) counters (in English it means field grey). That shade was the basic uniform color of the Wehrmacht from 1937 to 1945. I guess it's personal preference, but I prefer the Feldgrau to a pure grey.

-Mark R.