Gloo,
You are right about the inability to give individual farm houses that occupy single hexes things such as ponds. That often forces me to use multiple hexes to add features such as ponds to a particular farm, for example, that realistically only took up one hex. But I REALLY don't see how you could be more detailed than that with the Battleground series.
I wasn't suggesting that you do a Hill 112 scenario. In fact, I'm already working on those. I was simply stating that I have a copy of the Series Blue map for that area, really for no other reason than to say that I had a map from that series, and that they are very detailed and useful.
quote from me: "...Every aspect of the game can be edited!!"
your quote: "Are you kidding?! Maybe you're only talking about map editing? Trying to modify OoBs (specially the formations... ) or in game images is nearly impossible for someone who's not a wizzard! Try to create even a new unit encyclopedia text or a sprite for WaW and try the same thing for EF2 and come to me saying WaW is easier to enhance and modify... . As a simple comparison, EF2 uses standart file extensions (WAV, BMP, TXT) to define almost everything in the
game. What about WaW... ?
I'd love for people like Rockin Harry and Mike Amos to weigh in on this issue, but I think I can defend the SP editors adequately enough. No I'm not kidding. I don't have any Gandalf hats (wizard reference, since we are apparently both LOR fans) and there are few things I cannot modify. However, I've been playing this game and messing with the editors since 1995!
I'll start with editing the OoB's. What part of the formation editing process do you not understand? Have you read page 105 in the manual yet? I will take it upon myself to teach you anything you want to know if you'd like. I can also send you a tutorial if you'd like. It can be complicated, but if you love the game like I do, eventually, you'll want to improve your France OoB, and it will be worth your time to learn.
Unit encyclopedia text files are simple. Go into your SPWAW folder and find your ENC subfolder. Inside, you'll find the unit encyclopedia text files in TXT format. If you want to create a new one, you could simply copy an existing one, erase everything in it and renumber it. Then, when you are creating a new unit in your OoB editor that you are going to learn to use, you simply refernce your new ENC file in the text section of the editor. Not wizardry, my friend!
If you want to edit images. You just need an image editor (I use Paintshop Pro, which can be downloaded as freeware) that deals with LBM files, and I can walk you through the process. It's very easy, especially if someone whose done thousands (and yes, I have 500 French ones, because I checked. Granted some/many may be repeats with different names, and others are from old versions of the game.) Battleground uses BMPs-SPWAW uses LBM's. The difference is basically nothing.
The sound files for SPWAW are WAV files. You can assign any sound file to any weapon. If you want your Auto-Mitrailleuse to sound like Star Wars blasters, you can do it!
"As a simple comparison, EF2 uses standart file extensions (WAV, BMP, TXT) to define almost everything in thegame. What about WaW... ?"
How long have you been playing SPWAW? It appears that some of your trouble stems from lack of familiarity with all of the bells and whistles. That's not a crime, though, but you can't be too quick to pass judgement.
I'll give you an example of a Battlegound thing that made me want to through the disk out the window. That is trying to figure out how in the Heck to add the Dutch and French to "Rising Sun"! That is **** near impossible to figure out, but I'd bet that since you like the series, you took the time to figure it out. Correct? But, I'm open to any tutoring that you could provide!
"Well, may I help you here? There's a french editor who sells some of it's publications translated in english. This editor is named: "Histoire et Collections" and I can send you its color catalog if you give me your postal adress.
I'll take you up on that! I actually have several of their books (Spearheading D-Day and Tanks of WWII). I am very impressed with the quality of their books. I'd actually like to have some of their books with French Text (specifically, those on weapons and equipment of the French Army in 1940). The France 1940 and the French Armor websites have some great color images from a HC book that I don't have the name of right now. I'd love to have that book though, specifically to scan the pictures from it to make LBM files for my French OoB! I'll drop you a persanal email with my address.
"Maybe you should try something like Windows Commander? That's what I'm using instead of Windows Explorer and it's a good tool. Maybe you can create a CRC list with something like Winzip? That's what I did and it works pretty well, you just need to change the SFV extension for something with TXT"
I'm just going to send you what I think you'd be interested in, and you can keep what you want and trash the rest. That will solve that particular deal.
my quote: "...How often do you find an American gamer who is interested in pre-1940/1940 French equipment????"
your quote: "Well, are you huffy? If you are, I don't understand why but I'd like to know."
Not in the slightest! That was my way of begging! If I wanted to beg someone for a bite of their soup, for example, without flat-out begging, I might say, "Boy, that soup smell great!". I'd love to see your French stuff, so without begging, I take the approach of asking how often you find an American who is interested in that part of the war, hoping you'd take the approach of, "Well, if you are so interested, let me show you my stuff. But you called me on it...
"I understand but in fact, that's exactly what you said"
In fact, as I stated in an earlier post, I stand by my claim. Did you read my most recent post before this one, by the way?
" How often do you find a french gamer who is posting in a US WaW forum..."
Not near enough, my friend! However, I have to say that there is apparently a French group (maybe you are part of it) that has created a series of sceanrios that are in French. I'd love to find sceanrios from French gamers who have done good research on their work.
Hey, don't take so darn long to respond this time!!:D I get tired of checking my email, looking for your response, only to find unsolicited junk email for credit cards and porn sites!
In other words, just so our language diffrence doesn't lead to any misinterpretations, I enjoy our "debates". Keep it coming.....
Regards,
David Boutwell
"Out of Ammunition. God Save the King."
Strange, isn't it?! But I'm just beginning my search and still hope the best is coming from where it's not expected. Regarding the book you're talking about, I'd say by the author's name (think I already heard of him) that it's a french one? I don't know "RZM imports.com", is it the correct url?