Matrix Games Forums

Hi guys!

I'm been playing with .ged and .tpj files to try if i can edit by patching these archives with an hex editor, and then making a utility to create an easy OOB to load.

Results are very promising! I'm testing.

I have edited .ged I have achieved:
- Correct corp image (tried with inf, cav, hv fleet, lg flt, transport). No red dot.
- Correct leader (with rank and cavalry) and a specific pic
- Correct add/drop of depots.

Things i'm trying and i think it will be possible
- Add new naval leaders.
- Minor Country leaders.
- Change money and manpower of provinces.
- Change morale, vp, etc. of countries
- Date of arriving units.

Things it wouldn't do the editor at this stage.
- This editor wouldn't change the startup (alliances-> perhaps in future), corp initial positions -> Sure notm it would need to be done by normal edition).
- Multi district countries (like kingdom of two sicilies). I think that it could be possible to edit (i have found some data).

Some limitations i think it would have:
- I think i wouldn't be able to add more than 300 new corps/leaders (looking at the structure)
- I think it wouldn't be possible an ending date for a unit (to disband it).

The philosophy i'm trying with this editor it to use as a loader that using a text file, it will create a .ged and .tpj file. It would take me weeks (i'm married with two little children and in hard bussines) and i'm doing reverse engineering of the data files.

What would i love to get from you? PICS!. I would need:
For major countries:
- Leaders (naval included) pics. Any stats of Leaders you would like to include and i would test and even corps to try to get a Specific corp with specific pic.

For minors:
- Guard neutral pic.
- Minor neutral leader (i don't know how it will be managed by the exe).

To Marshall Ellis or Staff:
I saw in files many ideas not implemented, like Eih Combat (with envelope, and naval chit combat) that i do not see if it can be easy triggered. I have not found more kingdom implementation, and i do not know if above i will be able to do all or if the data format will be changed and this work i'm trying will be ruined by a future version. Could you help me in this point?

Thx to all.

Excellent! This is very encouraging development and could help re-energize the community. If we could get on with custom scenario development with some modest enhancements via a new editor, that's a plus. We just need to ensure the .ged and .tpj files both work ok. If the pbem admin menu/editor could also be enhanced, that's also a plus.

Some additional items for consideration (others please feel free to add to the list):

- Updating the campaign date shifts the default leader arrival dates accordingly and there is no way to set/reset leader dates. Recommend default leader availability dates NOT get changed if campaign start date changes. Also, availability dates for freikorps and other units get shifted, so recommend all availability dates be editable and NOT get changed if campaign start date chages.

- The game does not appear to recognize starting VPs from the scenario editor for AI players. [May be a game issue and not a scenario editor issue.]

- Per discussions, also need to consider leader ratings, leader type (land or naval), cav bonus, etc. to editor parameters for creating new leaders. [Sounds like this is fixed.]

- Current PBEM admin menu only allows diplomacy settings of Neutral, Allied or War for Major Powers selected. Diplomacy editor should also provide settings of Neutral, Conquered or Free State for minors selected, so Admins can change these also.

- Prisoners cannot be set when creating a new scenario. For example, in the 1812-1815 Campaign Game, the French player holds captive the Spanish BLAKE leader and 4 Spanish I, and the British player holds captive 3 French I.

- Peace conditions B.4 (Royal Marriage), B.5 (No Trading) and C.7 (Half Trade) cannot be set when creating a new scenario. For example, France and Austria should have a royal marriage (peace condition B.4) at start of 1812-1815 campaign game scenarios.

- Unable to create new cavalry corps or heavy fleet. However, it is possible to create a new corps or light fleet, name it as a C corps or Hvy flt respectively, and set appropriate factors. Why not just have create a generic corps or generic fleet, and then name it appropriately and set respective factors? [Sounds like this is fixed.]

- Austria has 9 depots in EiA but only 7 in EiANW and this cannot be changed in the game editor. Russian depots could be increased from 7 to 8, but there is a problem with Austria. [Sounds like this is fixed.]

- As reported on the forum, the in game editor does not allow leaders to be uncoupled from corps and removed.

- Editor changes to minor country unit morale do not seem to save?

- A possible arrival date for Bernadotte as a Swedish leader? [- I think it wouldn't be possible an ending date for a unit (to disband it). -- We could always have a house rule to disband him as a French leader at some point.]

i do not know if above i will be able to do all or if the data format will be changed and this work i'm trying will be ruined by a future version. Could you help me in this point?

For now, assume no changes to the data formats? Maybe we can finally get an official release of v1.20 and possibly the v1.21 version Marshall was last working on and is stable enough. I will try to make some inquiries to Matrix.

Well, more tweaking.

I have been working on .tpj file. I lost a lot of time until i discover a buggy truth. For many variables, the editor uses the eianw001.tpj file, not the other for many variables. With this in mind, i got:
- Minor country morale changed. It's strange that many variables like VP, starting money are in .ged, but this it's on .tpj
- Major country morale changed.
- The morale values are for country and are for guard, infantry, militia, cavalry, artillery, feudal infantry, feudal cavalry. It's possible that an artillery corp have different morale that an infantry one, but no two infantry corps of the same country have different morale. Each corp in .ged have his own movement, SR, and TD, but inherits the morale value of his country (well i would like that this were a per-corp value, but this is not the case).


And seems posible:
- Morale bonus if somer major controls some minor (for example it ottoman is turkey conquered it has a morale bonus). Perhaps it's possible for other combinations (example: hannover and England). -> Testing...
- Starting alliances bonus (relations between minors and majors modifiers change and between majors)
- Editing Economic manipulation table for each country (the table)
- Change The table of spanish gold
- Change The units costs in money, manpower and time to arrival (This is very interesting ) )
- Editing combat resolution tables (at least the table, doesn't seem possible for number of options, but data shows that a future implementation of EiH combat chits are in tables? -> Were these used in some version?).

Still working....

More work in progress

Seems possible:

- Change the Guard Commitement option for each country (so if it can, if it can by +2 or not) -> To check if it works...

- Change if a country can build some special units (like freikorps, insurrection, guerrilla, cossacks) -> But i think if it's activated it would be a trouble to show these units and severe tweaking on province data (no pics, and i expect weird playing)

- Change country navalbonus.

do you know this page. It´s an very old one but could help here and there.
Andreas

http://www.boardgaming.info/EIA-archive/scenarios.php

I didn't know... downloading

VERY Impressive damieiro! You probably know the file formats better than I at this point LOL! WOW!

HAHAHA! Thanks Marshall Ellis. The data isn't easy to examine, and i have a lot of questions. With the "preliminar" data i have, could you ask me that question?

- I have found that units has a "starting" point (the unit arrives later). It seems that is a summatory and not a final date. But, is implemented the "final data" of a unit (a disband)?. The current units didn't have that data, and i cannot guess it.

And i have sent a pm Thanks in advance

More things:

Seems possible These Weird Things, that could useful. I do not know how the engine would handle it..

1.- Use freikorps and cossacks in *Any* country, even minors (PIC required) (and change their starting date). Same for insurrection, guerrilla (provinces could be tweaked) and "tyrol type" units.
2.- Same for feudal. Turkey can have more countries to get Feudal units And seems that any country could have feudals and even minors could use feudals... Reverse is posible (turkey didn't have feudals and play as a ordinary country, but their provinces should be tweaked to get enought money/manpower)
3.- Tweaked correctly the starting date of a unit... But failed miserably in guessing the end date of a unit (Marshall, is it implemented?)

Well, i have ending a preliminary .ged Analisys. I have to work on on .tpj.

List of conclusions i have noted and some questions.

The .ged archive contains information about countries, provinces, areas and units. It has a big zone that i cannot understand between offset 4598544 and 8336784

The data in big terms is:

About countries:
It has space to save 100 countries (impossible no more, used 79). Each country has a lot of data. There is mainly 3 types: minor, major (playable) and kingdoms. It seems posible to make new kingdoms, but i haven't tried (i will try with two sicilies or big sweden, then go for italy)... there is only 21 empty slots.
Most relevant info of a country found in data:
- area of capital,
- starting PS, MP, VP needed, units..., -> Morale is in .tpj -> MARSHALL it would be amazing it would be here or per unit the morale
- country builds/limitations (if can build guard and how commits, and what can use in levy: feudals, freikorps, guerrillas, cossacks, insurrection, can pay tribute...) Yeah russia could build feudals attending to data if not hardcoded...
- components of a kingdom, who can build it, minimun provinces needed (as flags).., country bonus (if a major owns a minor, its morales bonus..). I do not know how engine would handle a new kingdom in data. I wonder i can add a kingdom and engine could do it .
- In study: Seems to have a list of "home areas" where you can have forage bonus or things like that

Provinces:
- There is data for 145 Provinces.
- Each province data can be changed: money, manpower, guerrilla factor and Area of capital. And More interesting, at which country owns and at which country controls So seems posible to tweak province values to creat multi-district countries (like Sweden and finland or norway and denmark). And it seems possible to create guerrillas on more zones (perhaps ireland and/or Portugal?).

Units:
- There is room for 550 (326 used) units and data for 300 "unit type" -> with their pics.
- The data for each unit includes max size of factor type (guards, infantry, cavalry...), SR, TR, movement if marine or terrestrial unit..
- For leaders, can be changed SR, TR, TMR, seniority and if a cav leader and if a "major leader" (napo and nelson)
- The units had its starting date, i have not found the final date.
- The morale of the units are in .tpj and is in a country basis (a country has a base moral for their units with a bonus if a major controls this country ->Like ottoman empire controlled by turkey)

Areas:
- It has room for 800 map areas. Data i have decipher is their data code, name of area, type of area and movement costs. It hardcodes to map to show.
- Each area info has its own "city" info. It can be changed for a city if it's a harbor or nor, their size, their fort bonus and their trade values and canions if a port.


And with this preliminary analisis on .ged Editor, my questions to Marshall that i think i cannot solve tweaking data (would need coding):

1.- Could be a "disband" date for a unit implemented?. If it is yes, i think the space for Units (and perhaps pic units)should be increased for the units that replace old ones. And it would need coding in the "transform unit" -> A new unit should inherit an old one to avoid weird data and/or differente factors will be used in reinforcements (in other words, the old one should point to the new one when it dissapears if apropiate (generals shouldn't, but regular infantry that increase size, yes, the problem if the unit shrinks or dissapears-> infantry lost or to reinforce next phase) If this is ok, it would have the basis to create the 1792 campaing.

2.- Is there any way to implement "dominant" status for a country?. Is it coded?. I think a country can have three status (playable or not): Minor, major, dominant (infantry bonus). But it would need coding.

3.- Not sure about how to create a new kingdom in coding is used. Actually "create a kingdom" would draw all provinces avaible for it (like poland). Perhaps it would be better that a major power should choose to include/exclude provinces at will if minimal requeriments are chosen (example: create poland with 2-3 provinces, for example)and a kingdom could be "reconfigured" in economic phase (moving a kingdom province to conquest status). Other options (i have to test the "kingdom data" if i could add one) would be having two construction kingdoms (for example duchy of varsaw if 2-3 provinces, or Greater Poland if 4 or more provinces with more units ). I have to crush my mind in testing with "new" kingdoms and see if that works or if there is a hardcode limitation.

4.- Could be possible that a "regular" corp avaiability (not a levy one) were tied to control some province (i have not tested it). It would help (again) to multidistrict countries... (Example if bigger sweden has finland, that a "finland corp" were avaiable if that province owned -> Perhaps works actually)


Note: Many of the above things still needs testing on game.

I know there are many scenarios and house rules out there. I found some stuff on board game geek.
Getting the leaders for the 1792 and 1796 scenarios would be great, but I don't know how you would handle Napoleons promotions.

Hi Edfactor!

Actually, unless Marshall will do some coding, i saw these limits:
a) -550 units. (actually are about 300 chits avaiable, a limit that can be touched)
b) -No dismiss option. (you can put a initial date of a corp, but not a dismiss one).
c) -No evolve option (necesary also)

This causes a lot of trouble yf one wants to play a 1792 scenary that would link with Grand Campaing, these features are neccesary.

Case A: A leader dead. A leader cannot dead (because *b*, there is no dismiss option). You can manage or edit when a unit arrives, but not when it leaves. For example, Bernadotte is forever in this computer game and doesn't go to Sweden.
Case B: Unit evolution. If you want that a leader (like Nappy 553C go 554B or 556A, but aplies to corps too that grow in size), the dismiss date is required, and a Evolve Data needed (you can see: Nappy deads, and then another Nappy is avaiable and the reinforcement move is done like a visit to paris, but for a corp, you cannot destroy a old corp with their infantry and then wait for reinforcement). With EIA actually developed, you will have a copy of Nappy 553, 554, 556 and same for corps. And none died, and probably all counting as corps (there can be only 550).

For that reason, the only viable way i think it's possible to manage a 1792 scenary is to add leaders in time and corps. So corps do not grow in size, but in number. And give some suplementary leaders to manage these corps... There can't be a removal with current development. But this distorts a lot. Suvarov in later game changes a lot the way russia can be played, for example.

On the other hand, rules for scenaries like Viva la revolution with their stages and thinks like that would need Specific coding. Same as advanced naval combat... I'm working in a editor (i will took me more than i think, but i'm still developing it) but it can't go further of which it's coded actually.

What's new in the screenshot? Austria now has 9 depots like they should. Building upon damieiro's idea, but not to the extent that he did, I'm figuring out how to make some relatively simple edits. I hope to update my old 1805 Custom Campaign with correct numbers of depots for Spain(8), Russia (8) and Austria (9). I now have these working. I next want to update the minor country morale values and some leader ratings. So maybe soon I will have all this done and will post an update of my 1805 mod.

If all this works, I will try to update the 1812 campaign later.

I haven't checked. In the regular EiA game does Bernadotte ever become a Swedish leader?

In the regular EiA 1812 scenario, Great Britain controls Sweden and gets the Swedish Bernadotte leader. Unfortunately there is no means in EIANW to remove a leader on a given date or bring on a minor country leader.

I have managed to add depots, change leader ratings, and correct the arrival date for Yorck in the 1812 scenario. I have not managed to figure out how to change minor country unit morale values, or correct the starting victory points and political status values in the 1812 scenario. I will spend a little more time this week trying to make these changes if possible; maybe damieiro could confirm or deny some of this. Otherwise I will post what I've got once I verify all is in order. Besides updating my custom EIA/EIH campaign, I've also updated the default 1805 and 1812 files for depots and Yorck's arrival. I think players could start an 1812 pbem game and then the host could use the admin menu to adjust victory points and political status? It's not much, I know, but perhaps some players will appreciate the updates.

Hi pzgndr!.

Now i'm in the *Real* testing and then coding.

About your doubts.
- Change minor morale: It is not coded by country except the 7 Major Ones and a Generic for minors. Then, there is space for specific morale for 40 countries (minors and kingdoms) that can be marked for different morale bonus.

These countries are actually: Algeria,Baden Cyrenaica, Egypt, Hesse, Lombardy, Morocco, Naples, Piedmont, Poland*, Portugal, Saxony, Sweden, Syria, Tripolitania, Tunisia, Venetia, Wurttemburg, Ottoman Empire**, Conf of the Rhine*.

- Additionally, a morale bonus for exclusively ONE owner can be added to these list. It's only used for Ottoman and Turkey, but it should be possible to do in Hannover for England, for example.

- Victory Points are codeable. Status i think it's possible but i haven't tried.

- I think it's possible to ADD a Leader for a minor country or kingdom, this is my main test just now. I don't know if AI would use it (i think it wouldn't). In the case of Sweden i want to try a Bernadotte arriving in 1812 a bit inflated (like a 323A) and (because it's not possible a french removal), give a 2-2-2 marshal to france. Really i'm working in a variant with a lot of marshalls

- Other thing it can be given to countries it's artillery and guard. It's not used, but it's possible.

- And a very poweful tool is that province money and manpower are fully editable (it has special sense in Persia, but it can be used in any province)
And Unit cost (in Money and manpower) is fully editable too. It's possible that infantry could cost $2/M2 Instead of $3/M2 or other values.

I did post an update to my 1805 Custom Campaign a few weeks ago in the Mods section.

For 1812, we can edit the VPs and PSAs and these seem to work ok for mp games, but the problem is these edits do not hold for the AI players. So that is probably a game issue and not an editor issue. Also another problem was setting up Conf of Rhein minors in Poland, which really hurts the French setup. Again, not an editor issue so not much can be done with the 1812 scenario unless Marshall fixes things someday.

Well i have upload the Bernadotte test patch for .ged in mods/scenarios. It's a little test to try leaders on minors. I would need some playtesting. I would aprreciate comments In the post are the instructions .)

about the Bernadotte Test Mod. in mods/scenearios.

1.- Bernadotte is now a Sweden leader avaiable at start (for easyness on the test) and it's removed from France. Bernadotte is avaiable for the major when Sweden is a free country like a sweden unit (it can be picked in the sweden). It's tweaked as a 323A leader (not 222B).
2.- Bernadotte (it's hardcoded) can be used on ANY CORP of the power controlling Sweden (i would like that only for sweden corps, but this can't be changed, but it doesn't seem a problem)
3.- I do not know if AI uses Bernadotte when defending Sweden. In my test, AI didn't use the leader.
4.- I do not know if a player that Controls Sweden by minor control (not by conquest and free) can use Bernadotte. I think it would, but i didn't test yet. I think that weird things are possible like using bernadote in other of the controllers' units not used for the minor defence.. On the other hand, it will give a Sweden a Valid leader when defending in this case,
5.- Bernadotte in the map pic it's using his bleu counter. I would need "grey" pics for minor leaders or country-flavor ones. Also is added a pic for the face display (same as french one).

Other thing that i would test After this is Depot for minors. I want to explore the idea that some minors could give an extra depot for major controling it... . Sweden will be my main test

Future test for swedens' zone.
1.- Test of Depot
2.- Test of Transport (a minor with Transpor Fleet)
3.- Test of Naval leader (a minor with Naval Leader)
4.- Kingdom of Sweden: Including Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Karelia and S. Pommerania... Perhaps a minor kingdom and a Major Kingdom.
5.- Test of Artillery and Guard corp on Sweden...