How to use special counter art for Call to Arms 1775?

[srd5090]

So I bought and installed TOAWIV and of course needed to be a goofball and try the Call to Arms 1775 scenario. The documentation included (word file) indicates the scenario has custom counter art with tricorne hats, etc.

For the life of me I can't figure out how to use that art instead of the base game stuff (nato symbols, etc.).

Any help here?

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: srd5090

So I bought and installed TOAWIV and of course needed to be a goofball and try the Call to Arms 1775 scenario. The documentation included (word file) indicates the scenario has custom counter art with tricorne hats, etc.

For the life of me I can't figure out how to use that art instead of the base game stuff (nato symbols, etc.).

Any help here?

Curt hasn't gotten that figured out yet, either. (Counter graphics changed in TOAW IV). I think he's working on it, though (or plans to work on it).

[larryfulkerson]

In your GraphicsOverride folder there's a folder called "Call to Arms" and it contains the graphics and equipment file
etc for your game so there's nothing to do except start up the game.

[srd5090]

Larry compare the below:

Militia in-game versus documentation militia

[ralphtricky]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

In your GraphicsOverride folder there's a folder called "Call to Arms" and it contains the graphics and equipment file
etc for your game so there's nothing to do except start up the game.

Larry,
The problem is that I redid all the counter art so that instead of almost 200 countersets, one for each inner and outer color, there are now only 4. Unfortunately, they aren't compatible with the old sets. The bonus is that you can color them anything you want now. The downside is that the old ones will need to be converted.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: ralphtrick

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
In your GraphicsOverride folder there's a folder called "Call to Arms" and it contains the graphics and equipment file
etc for your game so there's nothing to do except start up the game.

Larry,
The problem is that I redid all the counter art so that instead of almost 200 countersets, one for each inner and outer color, there are now only 4. Unfortunately, they aren't compatible with the old sets. The bonus is that you can color them anything you want now. The downside is that the old ones will need to be converted.

That sounds awfully expensive.Good luck.

[Raindem]

As Bob said I do plan to fix the icons for this scenario. But I can't promise a timeline. It generally takes me a while to get up to speed when modifying graphics. The good news is that the functionality of the scenario is not affected. It will just be missing that colonial ambience in the meantime.

Curt

[srd5090]

ORIGINAL: Raindem

As Bob said I do plan to fix the icons for this scenario. But I can't promise a timeline. It generally takes me a while to get up to speed when modifying graphics. The good news is that the functionality of the scenario is not affected. It will just be missing that colonial ambience in the meantime.

Curt

Curt, I appreciate you eventually looking into it. I'm glad it doesn't effect the functionality of the scenario and it is still able to be enjoyed. Thank you for answering! [:)]

[sPzAbt653]

The problem is that I redid all the counter art so that instead of almost 200 countersets, one for each inner and outer color, there are now only 4. Unfortunately, they aren't compatible with the old sets. The bonus is that you can color them anything you want now. The downside is that the old ones will need to be converted.

If we can set different colors for a countersheet, why can't we set different icons? I mean, if something is telling it to use a different color, why doesn't it tell it to use a different countersheet ?

There is no bonus to coloring them anything we wanted, we could always do that [and it was much easier than fussing with hexadecimal conversion programs].

The downside is all bad, this was a well intentioned idea that doesn't work in practice. Please return it to the way it was. Ok, that is probably not possible, but I will cry about it until we can make custom icons again, and not just for one sheet.

[ralphtricky]

I took another look at the counter graphics, they are very moddable and (I hope) easy for someone who knows what they are doing. THere is actually only one set (small, medium, huge) set of files that needs to be modded, that's the CounterUnits file. It has a set of stencils that are overlaid on the blank counter graphic. Like any of the graphics files, they can be put into the Graphics Override folder for that scenario. If desired, I can allow a set of BMPs which are in black and white which would eliminate the need for a paint program that does alpha channel.

[sPzAbt653]

I understand that we have to edit the xml file in order to get the unit colors to the proper set, but how does the program know for which units to use which sets ? Would we have to give them a unique name or something ?

I have already modded the CounterUnit file, there is no issue with that. The issue is that all units use the same file. Therefore, If we modify the Fighter Icon to show an Me-109 for the Germans, the Russians will use the same icon. We can't give the Russians a YaK-7 icon of their own. And before Bob chimes in again that we can use other icons on that one sheet for this purpose, that is not a good solution as some different icons have different properties and this is not documented, therefore we spend time trying out different slots to see if they might work. Nobody in the history of TOAW has ever complained about having too many counter sheets!

I don't know how a black and white set of bmp's would help. I don't see a problem with modding the stencils.

[ralphtricky]

It's on my list of things to do to expand the list to more than the current number of icons, up to 255 is simple, more than that requires more work since the save file only allows for 255. I can document which icons have which properties if you want.

[sPzAbt653]

I can't imagine needing more than 255, or even that many. Maybe if I explain a little better it will help. Attached is an example of a few of the original sheets that have been modified. We can pick which icons we want to modify and modify them for each counter sheet. This means that if we have England, Spain and Portugal in the game, we can create specific icons for each of them [up to 105 if we wanted to!]. Since we don't know the exact properties of each icon [or if there are any], we can only guess and say if we want to make a leader icon, we can use the original HQ icon, or if we want to make a ship, we can use a naval icon. That is all pretty obvious, but some are not so obvious. However, that really isn't a huge issue as there are 128 to choose from and generally only a few would be done.

[sPzAbt653]

Here is another example. We have created plane icons for the Soviet side using all of the original air unit icons. We also did the same for the German side [not pictured] by using the same original icons on a different sheet. We can't do this anymore, unless we try to use non-air unit icons, and we don't know what affect that will have until we test it. Doing that is a huge pain.
I don't know how adding more icons to the sheet would work, but maybe these files and explanations will help you figure it out. I'll do whatever I can to help get the original flexibility back [:)]

[sPzAbt653]

Here is another example, from the subject of this topic. The designer created date markers to be displayed on the map [mostly not necessary now that time intervals have been expanded, but serves as a good example]. By assigning different sheets to different formations, this is easy to do. However, those same slots are used for other custom icons [HQ's, Inf, etc.], and with only one sheet, this type of modification is no longer possible.
Again, just trying to help with real examples.

[ralphtricky]

Thanks, that helps explain why you want them. Once I've got the fires put out, I'll put some more thought into it.