Development Thread #07 - Platoon##.OOB files explained

[Crossroads]

Development Thread #07 - Platoon##.oob files explained

There's already a lot of questions regarding the platoon data, so better get this one started too. As always, any questions just ask!

Why is this important? The game ships with a NoEncryption option (-X launch command for me.exe), so it is perfectly possible to modify the values and then enjoy the game play (vs. AI only).

[*] Related reading: A Dev Diary written for JTCS2.0 on adding units with -X option is available HERE

Note: Unit Viewer reads the unencrypted OOB files from /OOBs folder, and not the encrypted OBX files. It is your best friend when modifying platoon data.
Note: Use JSGME! The game is very delicate to erroneous data. You have been warned.

So here goes. First, a set of Egyptian units as they appear in the Unit Viewer, with SA-6 SAM selected:



Here's the snippet of Platoon23.oob file as visible in the Unit Viewer listbox, with the SA-6 SAM selected in bold font:

[font="Courier New"]P238037 2 4 2 33 0 0 75 22 4 2 3 3 14 18 0 1 11 96 P238036 4 48 0 8195 72 24 48 1 56 12 0 0 0 Truck w/20mm AA Gun , Truck SPAAG Gun , 20mm SPAA Gun
P238001 4 4 2 33 0 0 80 45 5 2 3 3 18 19 0 1 284 97 P238001 4 48 0 8195 72 24 52 1 85 12 2 1 1 BTR 40A w/14.5mm AAMG , BTR-40A SPAAMG , 14.5mm SPAAMG
P238002 2 4 2 33 0 0 80 45 5 2 3 3 18 19 0 1 284 97 P238001 4 48 0 8195 72 24 52 1 85 12 2 1 1 BTR 40A w/14.5mm AAMG , BTR-40A SPAAMG , 14.5mm SPAAMG
P238003 4 4 2 33 0 0 75 22 4 2 3 3 18 18 0 1 11 185 P238003 4 48 0 8195 72 24 61 1 85 12 0 0 0 GAZ-66 w/ZU-23-2 23mm AA Gun , GAZ-66 SPAA Gun , 23mm SPAA Gun
P238004 2 4 2 33 0 0 75 22 4 2 3 3 18 18 0 1 11 185 P238003 4 48 0 8195 72 24 61 1 85 12 0 0 0 GAZ-66 w/ZU-23-2 23mm AA Gun , GAZ-66 SPAA Gun , 23mm SPAA Gun
P238005 4 3 3 33 0 0 50 30 18 1 4 1 32 20 0 0 13 9 P238005 5 33 0 8195 8 24 71 1 85 12 3 1 1 ZSU-23-4 23mm SPAA Gun , ZSU-23-4 , Shilka
P238006 2 3 3 33 0 0 50 30 18 1 4 1 32 20 0 0 13 9 P238005 5 33 0 8195 8 24 71 1 85 12 3 1 1 ZSU-23-4 23mm SPAA Gun , ZSU-23-4 , Shilka
P238007 4 3 2 35 0 0 50 30 28 1 4 1 15 20 0 1 13 8 P238007 5 33 0 8195 8 24 61 1 85 12 3 2 2 ZSU-57-2 57mm SPAA Gun , ZSU-57-2 ,
P238008 5 3 2 35 0 0 50 30 28 1 4 1 15 20 0 1 13 8 P238007 5 33 0 8195 8 24 61 1 85 12 3 2 2 ZSU-57-2 57mm SPAA Gun , ZSU-57-2 ,
P238009 4 0 3 100 0 0 44 22 14 1 4 1 31 21 0 0 329 36 P238009 4 33 16 8323 0 1048592 71 1 85 12 3 1 1 SA-6 Gainful SAM , SA-6 ,
P238010 2 0 3 100 0 0 44 22 14 1 4 1 31 21 0 0 329 36 P238009 4 33 16 8323 0 1048592 71 1 85 12 3 1 1 SA-6 Gainful SAM , SA-6 ,
P236001 3 2 2 40 0 0 80 37 6 3 3 3 29 6 0 0 53 98 P236001 2 40 0 3 88 4194825 48 1 65 12 2 1 1 Marmon-Herrington Mk III Armoured Car , Marmon-Herrington ,
P236002 3 2 2 40 0 0 73 37 6 3 3 3 29 6 0 0 171 99 P236002 3 40 0 3 88 4194825 48 1 65 12 2 1 1 Marmon-Herrington Mk IV Armoured Car , Marmon-Herrington ,
P236003 2 3 2 40 0 0 72 24 7 2 3 3 29 6 0 1 171 100 P236003 4 40 0 1 88 2097167 48 1 65 12 2 1 1 Humber IV Armoured Car , Humber IV ,
P236004 2 3 4 35 0 0 88 56 14 2 4 3 29 6 0 1 278 101 P236004 4 40 0 3 88 4194825 48 1 65 12 5 3 2 Staghound I Armoured Car , Staghound I ,
P236005 6 2 2 40 0 0 80 50 6 3 3 3 4 6 0 0 335 16 P236005 3 168 0 3 88 4194825 61 1 85 12 3 1 1 BRDM-1 , BRDM-1 ,
P236006 4 2 2 40 0 0 80 50 6 3 3 3 4 6 0 0 335 16 P236005 3 168 0 3 88 4194825 61 1 85 12 3 1 1 BRDM-1 , BRDM-1 , [/font]

Parameters Available

#1 : platoon id <- Platoon ID: P + Nation ID + four digit identifier
#2 : strength <- Strength, typically from 1 to 6, no of vehicles or guns, or for infantry 1 SP = half-a-squad
#3 : assault <- Assault factor
#4 : defend <- Defence factor
#5 : firingcost <- Firing cost in action points, of 100 available in the beginning of turn
#6 : loadingcost <- Loading cost in action points
#7 : unloadingcost <- Unloading cost in action points
#8 : speed <- Road / max. speed
#9 : xcspeed <- Cross-country speed
#10 : weight <- Weight in tons
#11 : pressure <- Ground pressure
#12 : concealment <- Concealment factor
#13 : movesound <- Pointer to movement OGG file when sounds enabled
#14 : firesound <- Pointer to weapon + explosion sounds
#15 : countercell2d <- Pointer to 2D counter used for this particular unit
#16 : basecell3d <- Pointer to 3D unit base used for this particular unit
#17 : animate <- Animation available
#18 : type1d <- Pointer to NATO icon (generic sheet for all nations)
#19 : type2d <- Pointer to 2D unit icon (nation specific sheet)
#20 : bitmap3d <- Pointer to 3D sheet containing the six facings
#21 : points <- Victory Points available per each Strength point
#22 : moveflags <- Flag indicating movement capabilities of the particular unit type
#23 : carryflags <- Flag indicating carrying capabilities
#24 : fireflags <- Flag indicating targeting capabilities
#25 : otherflags <- Flag (tbc)
#26 : moreflags <- Flag (tbc)
#27 : startyear <- First year unit available
#28 : startmonth <- Month per above
#29 : stopyear <- Last year unit available
#30 : stopmonth <- Month per above
#31 : frontmod <- AFV front armor, when Armored Facing option = ON
#32 : sidemod <- AFV side armor
#33 : rearmod <- AFV rear armor
#34 : name <- Long unit name
#35 : short <- Short unit name
#36 : nick <- Nick name, often not used

[Crossroads]

Platoon ID (Parameter #1)

PLATOON CODES
Jason Petho – November 5, 2014

PXX0001 – PXX0999 Tanks, Light Tanks, Self-propelled Gun (as SU-100)
PXX1001 – PXX1999 Artillery (Self-propelled and towed)
PXX2001 – PXX2999 Infantry (All types)
PXX3001 – PXX3999 Headquarters (All types)
PXX4001 – PXX4999 Leaders (All types)
PXX5001 – PXX5999 Off-map Airplanes (All types)
PXX6001 – PXX6499 Reconnaissance Vehicles (Armoured Cars, Recce Jeeps, etc)
PXX6500 – PXX6799 Helicopters and ON MAP aircraft (All types)
PXX6800 – PXX6999 Naval Units (Boats, Landing Craft, etc)
PXX7001 – PXX7999 Transport units (All types of Trucks, APC’s, IFV’s, etc)
PXX8001 – PXX8499 Antiaircraft (Self-propelled, towed, man portable)
PXX8500 – PXX8799 Spare
PXX8800 – PXX8999 Misc Buildings, special units (Factories, News Crews, etc)
PXX9001 – PXX9499 Antitank (Self-propelled, towed, man portable)
PXX9500 – PXX9999 Spare

XX code? Nation ID.

France (08)
UK (09)
Pro-West (14)
Israel (22)
Egypt (23)
Iraq (24)
Jordan (25)
Syria (26)
Lebanon (27)
Pro-East (28)
Libya (29)
Algeria (30)

[Crossroads]

Here, then are the Movement and Weapon parameters:

---

Movement Categories (parameter #13)

0movement* - Foot infantry
1movement* - Fully tracked vehicles
2movement* - Horse-drawn vehicles
3movement* - Medium and heavy trucks
4movement* - Cars, ligth armored cars and light trucks
5movement* - Horses (mounted units)
6movement* - Motorcycles
7movement* - Half-tracks
8movement* - Motorboats
9movement* - Paddled boats
10movement* - Ski units
11movement* - Bicycles
12movement* - Propeller-driven aircraft
13movement* - Ships, ferries, landing barges
14movement* - Jet aircraft
15movement* - Trains and rail units
16movement* - Canine (Scout dogs, mine dogs)
17movement* - Helicopter, single rotor two blades
18movement* - Helicopter, single rotor three or more blades
19movement* - Helicopter, single rotor piston engine
20movement* - Helicopter, tandem rotor
21movement* - Aerosans

Note: * refers to a running number, from 0 up to what ever the variety of sound files present. For instance: 0movement0.ogg, 0movement1.ogg, 0movement2.ogg, and so forth.

---

Weapon Categories (parameter #14)
Note: a corresponding *explosion*.ogg must be available as well

Infantry
-------------------------------------------------
27weapon* - Bolt action rifles
0weapon* - Selected-fire and automatic fire rifles
1weapon* - Submachine guns
2weapon* - High rate of fire medium machine guns
3weapon* - Light and medium machine guns
4weapon* - Heavy machine guns
13weapon* - Anti-tank rifles
28weapon* - Flame throwing equipment
33weapon* - Snipers

Mortars
-------------------------------------------------
5weapon* - Light and medium mortars (-90mm)
6weapon* - Heavy mortars (90mm+)

Rockets and missiles
-------------------------------------------------
16weapon* - Rocket artillery incl. multiple rocket launchers
25weapon* - Man-portable recoilless rocket launchers
30weapon* - Man-portable recoilless guns and rifles
31weapon* - Missiles, incl. anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles

Artillery
-------------------------------------------------
7weapon* - Light artillery (-75mm)
8weapon* - Medium artillery (75mm to 120mm)
9weapon* - Heavy artillery (120mm+)

Note: Includes self-propelled artillery

Tank main guns and anti-tank guns
-------------------------------------------------
29weapon* - Light anti-tank guns, tank main guns (-40mm)
10weapon* - Medium anti-tank guns, tank main guns (40mm to 75mm)
11weapon* - Medium anti-tank guns, tank main guns (76mm to 105mm)
12weapon* - Heavy anti-tank guns, tank main guns (105mm+)
17weapon* - Special purpose or very heavy anti-tank guns, tank main guns (AVRE, Sturmmörser, etc)

Anti-aircraft weapons
-------------------------------------------------
14weapon* - Light anti-aircraft guns (-40mm)
15weapon* - Medium anti-aircraft guns (40mm+)
18weapon* - Twin/triple/quad anti-aircraft guns
32weapon* - Minigun machine guns and rotary cannons

Note: Heavy anti-aircraft guns used in anti-tank role should use a respective anti-tank gun category.


Airstrike Weapon Categories
Note: an Airstrike Weapon sound effect consist of first an engine sound then a weapons-firing sound in same sound file.
A matching *explosion* sound required as well for the resulting explosions.

19weapon* - Fighter aircraft (propeller driven)
20weapon* - Ground attack aircraft (propeller driven)
21weapon* - Dive bombers (propeller driven)
22weapon* - Anti-tank aircraft (propeller driven)
23weapon* - Biplanes, arty spotters (propeller driven)
24weapon* - Medium and heavy bombers (propeller driven)
26weapon* - Jet aircraft

Note: On-map aircraft should use Movement + Weapon sound combinations.

---

Sounds.DAT

These parameters work hand in hand with the Sounds.DAT file, at /data subfolder. Here's the first five rows of the said file:

[font="Courier New"]5 4 5 5 5 3 2 2 3 2 2 3 5 1 2 3 3 3 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 5 1 2 1 1 3 1 0
5 4 2 2 1 2 1 5 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 1 1
3 5 7 6
0 0 0 0[/font]

[*] The first row are the Weapon sounds and how many the game takes into account. The first value is "5", so the game will rotate between 0Weapon[0-4].OGG, and so forth.
[*] Second Row: Movement sounds. The second value on second row is "4", so the game will rotate betwenn 1Movement[0-3].OGG, and so forth.

[*] Note there are more OGG files for each category than specified in the Sounds.DAT. This is done on purpose, so you can alter the sounds if you so choose, by manipulating either the file names or Sounds.DAT to allow for more tunes per value.

[Crossroads]

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[Crossroads]

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[TAIL_GUNNER]

#25 : otherflags <- Flag (tbc)
#26 : moreflags <- Flag (tbc)

Can you tell us more about these flags and what they do?

[Jason Petho]

They are flags where one codes special abilities, like AAA firing, or engineering tasks, etc.

[LittleBen]

Yes and it seems to be based on the power of 2, or binary concept, but we should know a little more to create correct new units...

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: LittleBen

Yes and it seems to be based on the power of 2, or binary concept, but we should know a little more to create correct new units...

I'd recommend to select the values from a unit already existing that is similar in its capabilities to what you are adding. The flag setup is quite complex as it is. So that'd be the easiest way to do this.

[LittleBen]

Yes, I'm not stupid...the fact is that I want to take the platoons of West Front and to put them into CSME, because I really like West Front, but I really like what you have done with ME. I have read all I have found on this forum, and I must say you really explained well the things. I think I may do it even if it's quite a job, but in fact the most part is to change the platoon numberings...nevertheless as they are Panther V in ME too, I have seen that some values changed. The load and unload cost, easy it's just that in WF, we couldn't load a Panther, the years and months, obviously with the date….The NATO and Icons number, easy too, it's just that you have put an enormous number of new NATO symbols… Remains the digging and targetting, number 25 and 26, they are more complex ones...But effectively I may put the same number of something which looks like the same..

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: LittleBen

Yes, I'm not stupid...the fact is that I want to take the platoons of West Front and to put them into CSME, because I really like West Front, but I really like what you have done with ME. I have read all I have found on this forum, and I must say you really explained well the things. I think I may do it even if it's quite a job, but in fact the most part is to change the platoon numberings...nevertheless as they are Panther V in ME too, I have seen that some values changed. The load and unload cost, easy it's just that in WF, we couldn't load a Panther, the years and months, obviously with the date….The NATO and Icons number, easy too, it's just that you have put an enormous number of new NATO symbols… Remains the digging and targetting, number 25 and 26, they are more complex ones...But effectively I may put the same number of something which looks like the same..

LittleBen, I was referring to flag values when recommending copying them over, they have also not changed from JTCS as such, while new flags have been added. The Panther flag values hence should work. The flag system is way complicated was all I was saying.

As for the new NATO icon etc values, there are Panthers in French CSME OOB iirc, so you could copy the values from there. Also, on your manuals folder, there's a pdf listing and explaining all NATO symbols.

Hope this helps.

Edit: here they are: ...\Campaign Series Middle East\manual\NATO Symbols Explained. There's a BMP with NATO icons numbered, and then the PDF explaining each one.

[LittleBen]

Yes I have seen all that, since 2 weeks I read all you have published since...many many years… I didn't know all that, I used to play this game in the 20th century

But thanks a lot for all you have done !!!

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: LittleBen

Yes I have seen all that, since 2 weeks I read all you have published since...many many years… I didn't know all that, I used to play this game in the 20th century

But thanks a lot for all you have done !!!

You're quite welcome! And keep those questions coming, we are all happy to answer them [:)]

[LittleBen]

I spent some hours dealing with those #22 #23 #24 #25 and #26...yes I though at first some of them were really simple, but in fact they follow the same pattern. In fact I didn't know they were so many special abilities. You're really driving this game in the outer space. Until two hours I never heard "Daisy Cutter" !!! I think it's really time for me to read the manual carefully !!!