Balta Scenario ------ finished !

[rickier65]

After a few false starts, and just plain screw-ups, I've finished modying the Kharkov L5 map for use with the the Capture of Balta scenario.

The map has the same topography as source, but I've adjusting the road placement, buildings, and some woods.

One are I'm uncertain of are trenches. I placed about a half dozen trenches on map, but when I look at them in game, I see trench outlines, but the "floor" of the trench appears like terrain surrounding trench.

Also, some of the trenches "fade" into ground. I tried adjusting "pitch" I think it is in the orientation, that helped on some but not all

I used "g" to place them initially, then went in adjusted orientation. then pressed g again when it was oriented the way I wnated.

But I dont think I've done the trenches correctly, so I think I'll work on OOB for a while.

Maybe someone can either point me in right direction, or maybe if I knew an existing map with trenches I could sort out how they are done?

Thanks
Rick

[Mraah]

I think the trenches need to be defined in the mesh, in the terrainBase X file.
Open up the Kharkov_L7B terrainBase X file with MS3D. You'll see what I mean.
Also, you can use Scene Edit to view the mesh too.

I haven't messed this with type of problem yet ... although I do have a road mesh in the level 8 map, hence my problem adding roads.

Perhaps simply making a new mask PNG to lay on top of the base terrain ... like how the road covers the base terrain. In this case you're defining that the trench will be on top. Try that.

EDIT NOTE : Sometimes the ordering of the masks in the XML creates the layer order.
By the way ... is there a Trench Floor that needs to be placed underneath? Like a building base, or rubble base.

Rob

[rickier65]

Building base and rubble base? Is there something other than the "red" color needed underneath buildings?

For trenches there is a different LOS-AI color that's used, if this is what you mean.

After looking at this and the force pool some more, I think I may replace the trecches with foxholes and carry on from there. I think right now, anything that needs "meshes" is beyond my skills. (at least for now).

Thanks!
Rick

[Mraah]

ORIGINAL: Rick
Building base and rubble base? Is there something other than the "red" color needed underneath buildings?

For trenches there is a different LOS-AI color that's used, if this is what you mean.

After looking at this and the force pool some more, I think I may replace the trecches with foxholes and carry on from there. I think right now, anything that needs "meshes" is beyond my skills. (at least for now).

A base ... another object actually ... like the rubble floor underneath the ruined building.

The Kharkov_L7B XML might show you how they defeined the trench ... the properties. See if their trench properties differ from your's. Maybe you need to use the DDS instead of the BMP ... I'm grabbing at thin air now [:(] [&:].

Rob

[rickier65]

Thanks I"ll check that out. For buildings, All ive done is lay down the red filter then placed my house on that. I didn't lay any other foundation. Other than gravity and sometime adjusting yaw.

I"m moving ahead with foxholes for the time being, Though there are a couple of places where I might still want to have a trench, I'll check it out

You and benpark are really going to town with the 3D stuff - I just read through Stridors Tutorial, and after I recover from this I maight have to take a look. I'd always wanted to do some maps for TC2M but the 3D stuff looked way beyond me, but maybe I can eventually figure it out.


Thanks,
Rick

[Erik Rutins]

You do need to actually put trenches in the map mesh to add them in. My suggestion if you don't want to do that is to use some foxholes instead, which do not require mesh changes.

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

You do need to actually put trenches in the map mesh to add them in. My suggestion if you don't want to do that is to use some foxholes instead, which do not require mesh changes.

No trenches for this map - foxholes will do -

Thanks,
Rick

And Map is done!
(well - assuming I haven't left some building or tree hanging in the air, or half buried I think I used the g to anchor them down, but well - we'll see).


One more question, I assume there was a template set up for the Kharkov L5 map (for random battles). Can I find that template and copy it to this map, maybe then go in and adjust for changes I did?

Thanks!

Rick

[Mraah]

ORIGINAL: Rick
One more question, I assume there was a template set up for the Kharkov L5 map (for random battles). Can I find that template and copy it to this map, maybe then go in and adjust for changes I did?

Look in the Templates Folder for the kharkov_L5a or b XML, whichever one you redid. You'll need to copy it, and rename it to your new map name. Then, in the XML in the map folder you need to change the link to read that new template.

Load the template into the Template editor (scenario editor, "T" button,top left, should be S I think. Then make the changes and save it.

Rob

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Mraah

ORIGINAL: Rick
One more question, I assume there was a template set up for the Kharkov L5 map (for random battles). Can I find that template and copy it to this map, maybe then go in and adjust for changes I did?

Look in the Templates Folder for the kharkov_L5a or b XML, whichever one you redid. You'll need to copy it, and rename it to your new map name. Then, in the XML in the map folder you need to change the link to read that new template.

Load the template into the Template editor (scenario editor, "T" button,top left, should be S I think. Then make the changes and save it.

Rob

Thanks Rob. Almost finished with the German OOB. Have the briefing completed.

[Stridor]

Rick,

Good work.

For the trenches, I haven't tried it but you should be able to draw an alpha texture over the ground mesh to get them to be shown.

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Stridor

Rick,

Good work.

For the trenches, I haven't tried it but you should be able to draw an alpha texture over the ground mesh to get them to be shown.

Thanks Stridor, I may experiment with that, aftert I've finsihed the OOB and started playtesing it. - not sure how I'd go about doing.


BenPark and Mraah sure keep you on your toes trying to feed the hungry lions!

Thanks,
Rick

[rickier65]

I'm in process of playing through my first playtest of the Balta scenario.

I think I'll need to tweak it some for balance.

I don't really have a feel for victory conditions, and victory points - maybe I better read up a little on those.

So far, Germans are advancing slower than I expected (I'm playing German vs Russia AI). I may have to lengthen the game out some, I set it for Defender bonus after 15 turns, but I many lengthen that out. The original SL battle was only 10 turns. (around 20 min if I recall the time scaling).

Rick

[Erik Rutins]

I'll be very excited to give this a try - I pulled out my original scenario card for the Capture of Balta to prepare. [:)]

[rickier65]

Finished my first play as German agains Russian AI - I suffered a legendary loss. Had a few issues so will follow this msg with a few questions.

Thanks,
Rick

[rickier65]

Some questions --

1) I can't get some of the Soviet units to enter the foxholes. Can foxholes be placed in light wood terrain and still be entered.

(I was able to enter some foxholes, hmmm I wonder if it only entered foxholes that were alread on the map and it cant enter foxholes I put on map)

Anything special about putting foxholes on the map?

2) I have about four bldgs that I'm unable to mount. At least two of them have units located at start in buldg, but it doesnt show hard cover icon, and if I move them away in setup and try to move them back, I cant. Any ideas on what I should look for that might be casuing this?

3). Based on first run through, I've lengthened the game turn to 25 before Russia starts getting bonus points.

4) I have this set up with revised map, and with a template to use for random battles for the map. Then template is virtually the same as the existing template, but the briefing for the template changed to reflect some changes on the map.

But are there ary thing I need to know about zipping this package up? should I make it to unzip from the main PCK folder and put the files in the correct sub directorys? using the mod manager I can set those up I think.

Sorry for all the simplistic questions -- I know those folks already doing meshes find these question pretty basic.

Thanks
Rick

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Rick
1) I can't get some of the Soviet units to enter the foxholes. Can foxholes be placed in light wood terrain and still be entered.
(I was able to enter some foxholes, hmmm I wonder if it only entered foxholes that were alread on the map and it cant enter foxholes I put on map)
Anything special about putting foxholes on the map?

Yes, you can enter foxholes on any terrain as long as you place them and painted the terrain map under them properly, as far as I know. Stridor may be able to give some pointers on this too.

2) I have about four bldgs that I'm unable to mount. At least two of them have units located at start in buldg, but it doesnt show hard cover icon, and if I move them away in setup and try to move them back, I cant. Any ideas on what I should look for that might be casuing this?

Did you set the terrain map under the buildings (assuming you moved or added them)?

But are there ary thing I need to know about zipping this package up? should I make it to unzip from the main PCK folder and put the files in the correct sub directorys? using the mod manager I can set those up I think.

Yes, that would be the way, then post it here and we can make it compliant with the mod manager if necessary.

Regards,

- Erik

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Rick

Some questions --

1) I can't get some of the Soviet units to enter the foxholes. Can foxholes be placed in light wood terrain and still be entered.

(I was able to enter some foxholes, hmmm I wonder if it only entered foxholes that were alread on the map and it cant enter foxholes I put on map)

Anything special about putting foxholes on the map?

2) I have about four bldgs that I'm unable to mount. At least two of them have units located at start in buldg, but it doesnt show hard cover icon, and if I move them away in setup and try to move them back, I cant. Any ideas on what I should look for that might be casuing this?

Went back into Scene edit and did some looking at properties - The the problem I had with foxholes, is the same problem as I was having with buildings.

When you place a foxhole or building, apparently the default value for Bldg Type is none. For Buildings you need to enter 1 or 2 stroy and how many squads it can hold. And for foxholes you have to tell it that it is a building type foxhole.

-there some other choices there as well - so when you place objects make sure you look at this field and fill it in correctly.

Note that when I was doing this, tabbing to the field gave a drop down box to show choice list, BUT - once you leave that field and come back to it, the drop down box doesnt work anymore. So you have to close the properties box, then open it again (easiest way) or click around in the entry window and you can find the sweet spot to make it scroll down .

See pic below for the field you need to watch and fill in correctly:

Thanks!
Rick

[rickier65]

Hm,

What's the max file size for posting here? I went to upload the Capture of Balta Scenario and got FIle too large message.

The zipped file is around 4MB.

It includes a revised map, a scenario, and a template for RBG on revised map.

Is there anywhere else that hosts scenarios for PC;K yet?

Thanks
Rick

[runesson]

looking nice

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Rick
What's the max file size for posting here? I went to upload the Capture of Balta Scenario and got FIle too large message.
The zipped file is around 4MB.
It includes a revised map, a scenario, and a template for RBG on revised map.

I just upped the limit, please give it another try. Glad you got the foxhole issue figured out, I forgot about the type.