Matrix Games Forums

Hi !

Yes, I know, strange title for a mod ! [:)]

Yes, I know, strange title and not necessarily attractive for a mod! Anyway, it is true that the mod in question is quite loaded and therefore not for all players. Swapping of units is now a crucial action.

I'm trying to find a (difficult) balance between scale of the map, scale of the game/units and historicity (all relative) of the orders of battle.

Amost finished : I have to rework USSR, USA and some minor, to add some goodies for flavor and it will be ready as a beta mod for testing. I will upload it for those interested.

That said, as I'm finishing work on Free French/French army reunited in Algeria, I tried to integrate some events. But I am sometimes a little lost. For example, about the French army reunited under De Gaulle's politico-military authority (for the sake of simplification, I ignored the De Gaulle-Giraud rivalry).
If I understood everything, when Algiers passes under allied control, France (France=40) has again a capital even if Algeria was previously under control of Vichy (Vichy Algeria=4).

From there, I created an event to trigger US aid to the reconstruction of the French Liberation Army (later to become the 1st [big] French Army with 12 divisions including 3 armored and units for a fourth never created). That's how I built the event in question :

{
#NAME= DE 853 - USA: Equip Reunited French Army in Algeria? (AI - 100% Yes)
#POPUP=
#MESSAGE=
#IMAGE=
#SOUND= teletype_1.ogg, teletype_2.ogg
#FLAG= 1
#TYPE= 1
#AI= 0
#LEVEL= 0
; Set global variable condition to always trigger (dummy value)
#GV= 1[1,100]
#LINK= 0[0]
#COUNTRY_ID= 115
#TRIGGER= 100
#DISPLAY_ORDER= 0
; Set decision value
#DECISION= 853
#MPP_UPDOWN= -100
#MPP_TURNS= 4
#MPP_TEXT=
#NOTES=
#NOTES_POSITION=
; Set AI acceptance % (AI will accept 100% of the time)
#AI_RESPONSE= 100
#AI_RESPONSE_POPUP=
#DATE= 1943/04/01
#TEXT_RGB= 0,0,0
#SHADOW_RGB= 228,221,198
; Algiers is in Allied hands
#ALIGNMENT_POSITION= 92,62 [2]
;Set National Morale Trigger (dummy value)
#NATIONAL_MORALE_TRIGGER= 0 [0]
; Set variable conditions:
; 1st Line - UK politically aligned with Allies and not surrendered AND
; 2nd Line - USA politically aligned with Allies and not surrendered AND
; 3rd Line - France politically aligned with Allies and not surrendered
; No Axis units within 5 hexes of Algiers
#VARIABLE_CONDITION= 112 [2] [100] [0]
#VARIABLE_CONDITION= 115 [2] [100] [0]
#VARIABLE_CONDITION= 40 [2] [100] [0]
#CONDITION_POSITION= 92,62 [2,2] [0,0] [1] [0]

This event is intended to trigger two other events (Units) :

{
#NAME= DE 853 – French Reunited Army
#POPUP=
#IMAGE=
#SOUND=
#FLAG= 1
#TYPE= 1
#AI= 0
#LEVEL= 0
#GV= 1[1,100]
#LINK= 853[1]
#COUNTRY_ID= 40
#TRIGGER= 100
#PRIVATE= 0
#DISPLAY_TURN= 0
#FULL_RESEARCH= 1
#DATE= 1943/04/01
#FAILSAFE_DATE= 1948/01/01
#DESTINATION_RESOURCE= 92,62
#DESTINATION_RESOURCE= 94,63
; USA politically aligned with Allies and not surrendered
#VARIABLE_CONDITION= 115 [2] [100] [0]
; France politically aligned with Allies and not surrendered
#VARIABLE_CONDITION= 40 [2] [100] [0]
; Dummy condition position (always satisfied)
#CONDITION_POSITION= 0,0 [0,0] [0,0] [0] [0]
#UNIT= 7 [5] [1,0] [Commandos/Choc]
#UNIT= 26 [2] [0,3] [1re & 5e DB]
#UNIT= 26 [2] [0,5] [2eDB + Various Units]
#UNIT= 6 [3] [0,3] [I Corps (France Libre)]
#UNIT= 4 [5] [0,3] [II (France Libre)]
#UNIT= 24 [4] [0,3] [Various Units]
#UNIT= 29 [1] [0,3] [Groupes de Chasse]
#UNIT= 31 [1] [0,3] [Groupes de Bmb]
#UNIT= 30 [1] [0,3] [Groupes d'Attaque]
}

{
#NAME= DE 853 – Armee B with De Lattre
#POPUP=
#IMAGE=
#SOUND=
#FLAG= 1
#TYPE= 1
#AI= 0
#LEVEL= 0
#GV= 1[1,100]
#LINK= 853[1]
#COUNTRY_ID= 40
#TRIGGER= 100
#PRIVATE= 0
#DISPLAY_TURN= 0
#FULL_RESEARCH= 1
#DATE= 1944/07/01
#FAILSAFE_DATE= 1948/01/01
#DESTINATION_RESOURCE= 92,62
; USA politically aligned with Allies and not surrendered
#VARIABLE_CONDITION= 115 [2] [100] [0]
; France politically aligned with Allies and not surrendered
#VARIABLE_CONDITION= 40 [2] [100] [0]
; Dummy condition position (always satisfied)
#CONDITION_POSITION= 0,0 [0,0] [0,0] [0] [0]
#UNIT= 0 [5] [1,0] [De Lattre]
}

Of course, I created units needed in these two (Units) events, with France (40).

Please, could you take a look to see if anything is wrong, if I'm not missing something ? Of course, you can also comment if you wish! Thank you so much !

Best regards,
Laurent.

Two screenshots ; the first one, a part of Germany/Poland Theater. I redone all OOB starting from 1939 to 1945, as explained in the previous post, adapted to the game. So, if it's overcrowded, I did some small tests (the big one be when I will have finished, in two/three weeks) and it's very playable even if, as said in many posts in the forum, the map is rather small even for the general scale (armies/corps).

Well, I can't post the second screenshot and my comments. it's said : "You are not allowed to post links, emails or phone numbers for 7 days from the date of your tenth post." That's strange because there is nothing of this in the post... [&:]
[:(]

You are not allowed to post links, emails or phone numbers for 7 days from the date of your tenth post.

Ok, I searched in the forum and I understand... anti-spamming. I think it's fine and a good thing. So I'll post ten times and then, I'll wait seven days until posting screenshots of the mod... [:)]

A try only with the picture...

It works !

So, I'm confused about the anti-spamming system... I can't do anything in one post but it's ok with multiple ones... It's like fog of war : nothing works as expected !

I try with comment about China Theater in 1939...

So, now, Chinese have many weak units and not enough MPP to reinforce them quickly. On the other hand, Japanese have strong units but there aren't numerous, or they are garrison units, not very good in offensive stance. So, it's rather historical.

I use the very good mod made by Christophe - SIPRES for the screenshots.

Hi

I just want to check, are your French related scripts posted above working? Just wanted to check as I wasn't sure if you posted them for help/advice or simply to show what the mod will include. [:)]

Bill

Hi Bill,

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough ! [:)]

Yes, French related scripts posted above are for help/advice as I'm not sure they will work as they should... So a sharp look could correct mistakes.

The mod (I think it's rather a mod than a scenario, because there are many changes in OOB and in datas like ressources, etc.) will be ready for the test in two or three weeks, and it will be available from here. Pictures (I'll post more) are for showing what is done.

That said thank you very much for your attention.

Laurent.

Thanks for clarifying that Laurent, and the only issue I can see with the French related scripts is that if Vichy is formed then the territory in Algeria will be Algerian (country id 4) rather than French (40) so for as long as France has surrendered, these units won't deploy.

Perhaps changing them to being Algerian might be the easiest solution?

An alternative solution would be to run a Territory script before the Decision fires to transform an Allied-held Algeria into French territory, with its capital at Algiers, but that would mean that France would in game terms be liberated, which might not be ideal.

Hi Bill,

Thanks to you and for the time spent to check ! [:)]

About the problem Algeria/France, that's what I suspected and what you suggest is, you're right, probably the best way to do (and the easiest one). I'll do this.

Thanks again and have a nice week-end.

Best regards,
Laurent.

Hi Laurent,
You can give the Algerian units a bit of a French feel if you change the unit activation sprite (which by default is the Algerian national star and crescent moon) to a French or even Free French flag.
-Robert

Hi Robert,

It's a very good idea, I do this ! Thank you very much ! [:)]

All the more a good idea that, without wanting to enter a controversy, the use of the French flag for Algeria after Operation Torch (so, the fall of Vichy in North Africa) and until 1947 (end of the scenario) is not incongruous historically.

Best regards,
Laurent.

Watching

The problem is that everybody was using the French flag.

The flag that the vanilla game uses for Vichy was not the national flag of the Etat Francais. It was the personal flag of the head of state. It's a bit like the distinction between the seal of the President of the U.S. and the U.S. flag.

But I think using the tricolor of the Etat Francais would have been too confusing, because it would have been indistinguishable from the flag of the other French factions.

Algeria poses its own special problems. The flag that the game uses for Algeria was not in use until after the Algerian war of independence in the fifties.

My imperfect solution to the Algeria problem used to be to add a star and crescent that I found in a North African poster from the period to the French tricolor roundel. I'm no longer as comfortable with this solution as I used to be because I prefer having strictly historical flags in my mod. It's probably going to revert to a simple roundel in the next version of my mod.

I've been trying to mod the activation sprites for the next version of my historical flag mod, and I may have come up with a way to distinguish between French troops from Equatorial Africa and French troops from Algeria and Tunisia. The tentative solution would be to use a French flag roundel with the border trimmed off and shrunken down to activation sprite size. The only difference between the Algerian/Tunisian sprite and the Equatorial African sprite would be the shape (North Africa = round, everywhere else = square). The game's Tunisian flag, by the way, is the correct one.