West Front Night Scenario Conversion

[simovitch]

Having just recently discovered 'night' rules (I never owned RS until the Matrix version came out) I felt compelled to modify the stock West Front scenarios that occur at night to add this new feature to some old favorites.

I also added 'starshells' to each side based on the number of turns X AI agression setting(%), but never less than 50% of the number of turns. Remember - without a successful starshell your firepower is reduced so these scenarios will likely play out different from the way they were designed.

The following WF scenarios are modified to feature Night rules:
Under Cover of Darkness
Hold Until Relieved
"Shut Your Eyes and Go In!"
First Strike Towards Butgenbach
The Manor la Fiere
Pour l'Honneur
Skirmish at Mechili
Like Thieves in the Night
The Eagle's Talons
The Screaming Eagles in Normandy
A Hard Snow Falls
Ste. Mere-Eglise

The filenames have an "N" appended at the end, and the Scenario Description contains the word "NIGHT", so the original scenarios will not be overwritten and can be identified in the Scenario Menu.

I also took the liberty to fix the dates on those stock JTCS WF scenarios that did not have the correct date format, so now they will list in the correct chronological order. These will overwrite the old versions, but there are no other modifications done to them whatsoever.
download here and unzip into your 'West Front' folder:

WF night conversion

[junk2drive]

Thanks for the effort. Night battles are a different challenge.

[Jason Petho]

Excellent effort, simovitch!

Thank you muchly!

Jason Petho

[simovitch]

Thanks guys. Perhaps this thread should be moved to 'mods and scenarios' (where I thought I was posting it to[8|])

[asiaticus]

simovitch

Thanks for making these conversions. Would have liked to have done them for the game release so its great that you have done so.

[vadersson]

Will these modified scenarios replace the original ones in the 1.03 patch?  It would seem to make sense.

Thanks,
Duncan

[Jason Petho]

Yes, that would make sense indeed.

Consider it done.

Jason Petho

[vadersson]

Jason,

Thanks for the answer.  I will update my scenario spreadsheet to include the corrected designs.  Care to shoot me any data on other scenarios to be in 1.03 so I can update my spreadsheet?  I finally figured out how to get all the information and will have a major update ready in about a week.

Thanks,
Duncan

[Jason Petho]

ORIGINAL: vadersson

Jason,

Thanks for the answer.  I will update my scenario spreadsheet to include the corrected designs.  Care to shoot me any data on other scenarios to be in 1.03 so I can update my spreadsheet?  I finally figured out how to get all the information and will have a major update ready in about a week.

Thanks,
Duncan

I can't reveal the list yet, but I will mail you a listing of the new scenario briefings when the update is closer to release.

Jason Petho

[simovitch]

During a playtest of the Night Conversions, I discovered that the visibilities require adjustment for gunflash effects. I will need to adjust the visibilities to the historical weather patterns for each. Most of them are currently set at "1" (i.e. very dense fog; the old WF night scenario work-around).

The starshell formula needs some adjustment for force size as well, and the corresponding scenario bitmaps copied and renamed with the "-N".

Give me a day or so upload the new updates. The old upload is removed.

[Jason Petho]

Thanks Simovitch.

I will add your new update to the 1.03 update.

So no worries about adding the -N to the scenarios as they will replace the originals.

Jason Petho

[simovitch]

ORIGINAL: Jason Petho

So no worries about adding the -N to the scenarios as they will replace the originals.

roger that[:)]

EDIT: What about updating EF night scenarios? (dare I ask)

[Huib]

I would ask/show some of the designers first before implementing something that overwrites original files. Especially the scns of Don Fox (about the rest I don't mind). He may not want any starshells in his scns if use of them is not documented in historical sources. Besides that, night rules also affect movement points. This can have a serious effect on the desirable length of the scenarios.

just my 2 cents

Huib

[simovitch]

Huib, as a designer myself I agree with what you suggest.

To the authors I will say that I am basing my mod on generic standard issue terms, taking into account defensive/offensive stance, doctrine, and the size and objectives of the forces involved. Finally I referenced the RS/EFII Night scenarios to get an idea of how the developers intended to to utilize the starshell and night rules abstraction in a scenario.

Unless I sense a demand for these conversions I think I'm sticking with these West Front scenarios for now as I would need to research the East Front a bit to see what the standard issue and doctrine was with the Soviets and minor allies. Apparently there are only a few old EF scenarios that would apply anyway.

The modified scenarios that I post will retain the -N designation to prevent overwriting. It will be up to the JTCS team to implement them accordingly for the next patch.

[Huib]

Simovitch,
I think your idea of this conversion is a good one. I shall bring it under Don's attention that he might want to change his scns by himself. (some other modifications in First Strike at Butgenbach could then also be adressed as it contains some historical errors)
I know I changed some of my own scns as soon as the night rules became available. I went about so enthousiastically I even accidentally changed a scn to a night scenario were visibility was 1 because of the fog.... realised that before I saved it fortunately.[:)]

By the way, with great interest I look at the development of Battles From the Bulge. I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy that when it is released.

Huib

[MartNick]

With this great add-on, does it mean that you can now have night turns included in the larger scenarios? I'm thinking of the ones like Overlord and Arnhem, so you simulate day and night turns for the entire scenario?

Fabulous work and much appreciated.

[Huib]

ORIGINAL: MartNick

With this great add-on, does it mean that you can now have night turns included in the larger scenarios? I'm thinking of the ones like Overlord and Arnhem, so you simulate day and night turns for the entire scenario?

Fabulous work and much appreciated.

Yes, but you would still have to set the night turn flag manually in the scn file with a text editor after you finished the daylight turns. Very easy once you know how to do it. I think I've included a Word file how to do it with the " Dutch Verdun" scenario. Example:

Dynamic Visibilty instructions for Westfront scenario A Dutch Verdun


After the Dutch player has finished playing turn 10 (by pressing the end turn button). He should open the .bte file with Notepad
11 lines beneath the scenario title is this line with the following digits:
0 4 5 These should be changed into 1 4 5. The first digit in this line is the night indicator. So as the first night comes visibility changes to 1 hex (and night rules apply).
After the Dutch player has finished turn 15 the same line should be changed back to 0 4 5 as the sun rose on the 13th of May.

[MartNick]

Wow this certainly opens up a whole new dynamic for scenario designers.

[simovitch]

ORIGINAL: Huib

Simovitch,
I think your idea of this conversion is a good one. I shall bring it under Don's attention that he might want to change his scns by himself. (some other modifications in First Strike at Butgenbach could then also be adressed as it contains some historical errors)
I know I changed some of my own scns as soon as the night rules became available. I went about so enthousiastically I even accidentally changed a scn to a night scenario were visibility was 1 because of the fog.... realised that before I saved it fortunately.[:)]

By the way, with great interest I look at the development of Battles From the Bulge. I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy that when it is released.

Huib

Thanks Huib [:)] Yes, I would prefer that the original designers do the mod themselves to preserve the integrity of the design.

The modified scenarios are available again at the same link.

[MartNick]

Is there a download available for this add-on or do we wait for the 1.03 patch?
 
Will there be a tutorial or set of instructions for complete numpties like myself [:)]
 
Ta ver much
 
Martin