Matrix Games Forums

Hi, I'm kind of new to the whole modding thing. I've created a simple scenario - not a whole campaign, just a 30-turn single battle. This is a Napoleonic era battle, the Battle of Dresden, and I've almost got it ready to go. There's a couple of things I'd still like to modify. I see plenty of examples here but no central resource for "how to do" certain things:

1) It looks like its possible to change the graphics for the counters. What's the trick to make this happen?

2) This is probably a similar thing: I'd like to change the graphics for the national flags to reflect their actual designs of the period - how do you change those graphics?

3) I've been able to get sound clips of Napoleonic artillery, guns, horses, and I'd like to see if there's a way to replace the default sounds with these (the sound of tanks rolling through the streets of Dresden in 1813 seems a little weird...)

4) Once I have the scenario ready, how do I make it available for everyone? I have a Dropbox account and can just post the download link in this forum unless there's a better way.

I'm seeing this as a stepping stone to more scenarios. I've play tested my Dresden scenario a bunch and I like how I've been able to adapt the game for Napoleonic warfare...perhaps even a full campaign is on the horizon?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Hi papayeti

This sounds like an interesting scenario, and what I'd recommend doing first is taking a look at Part 2 of the Manual on Designing your own Campaigns, particularly 3.3.2. Customize Your Campaign on pages 271-274.

Hopefully that will help you get started on transforming the scenario into looking and sounding like a Napoleonic battle, and of course if you are still stuck on anything do post here.

Hi Bill - I've finally continued with this project and it's really coming along nicely. A 30 turn scenario you can play in about an hour. I've got lots more play testing and AI to program yet, but mostly done.

One thing I was not able to get any viable solution for, is that I'd like a popup event when certain hexes change hands during the game, but it seems to be an all-or-nothing approach - using the #TYPE options I can get a popup when it switches from French ('Axis" in my scenario) to Allied control, but not if the French recapture it. Or it pops up that the French/Allies are in control of it every turn, which is good info but a little annoying. I tried to find some kind of #FLAG variable in the scripts that would accomplish this, or some kind of if-then-else structure (If in French control, use this popup, else use the other popup). Tried getting creative with "ghost" nations I'm not using as some sort of flag but that was a dead end.

Another question: is there a way to "delete" all the countries that are not needed for a scenario, so that they don't appear in the editor list boxes? I thought there might be some way to do it through the custom scenario Localization file, but nothing I experimented with did the trick. More of a cosmetic thing than a functional one, its just one thing that might make working with the editor easier, especially when the scenario is limited to just a few countries (mine uses 4). If that's possible, I wonder if it could also be applied to the unit type selections as well, all though that can be done to a certain extent just by setting the quantity values to zero? In this scenario, I'm using just infantry, cavalry, HQ, field artillery, and with "heavy artillery" edited to have weaker values and better movement as "horse artillery". It sometimes just takes a while to scroll through all those choices in the list boxes to get to the ones I'm using.

I'm thinking something similar to the place in the Options menu where you can turn certain mods on/off, it would be awesome to be able to turn certain countries and units on/off as needed in the editor. Perhaps a future update?

I must say it's a very fun sandbox to play in though! I think its one of the most diverse and intuitive editors out there. Just the fact that I was able to tweak it into a Napoleonic game with a much smaller region to map was a pleasant surprise.

Once I have this first scenario ready to go, is there some common area in the Forum that exists to share these with others? I've got a bunch more ideas that will use this scenario as a "template".

Thanks again!

BillRunacre wrote: Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:20 am Hi papayeti

This sounds like an interesting scenario, and what I'd recommend doing first is taking a look at Part 2 of the Manual on Designing your own Campaigns, particularly 3.3.2. Customize Your Campaign on pages 271-274.

Hopefully that will help you get started on transforming the scenario into looking and sounding like a Napoleonic battle, and of course if you are still stuck on anything do post here.

Sounds great!

When it's ready I would post it in this area of the forum, though there's nothing stopping you from making an introductory post with a link to it in the main forum in order to generate interest.


I'm afraid that you're right, we don't have a way to flag something every time a place changes hands, well that said there is a way but it's a lot of work, so it really depends whether you would want to do it.

This would be to use dummy Decision Events to trigger Pop Up scripts, with each subsequent dummy Decision Event being triggered by the same conditions PLUS being linked to the previous. Alternate between an Allied and Axis Decision Events too, as this is what will make them fire on alternate turns (otherwise all could fire on turn one!).

Each will need its own unique Pop Up event, though the contents can be the same for all of them, just change the link number to match the Decision that fires it.

I hope this makes sense?

Although it is a lot of work, it is mainly copying and pasting the same scripts and just amending the link numbers, so it probably wouldn't take as long as it sounds - and getting the first set up and working (test them out in Hotseat mode before continuing too far) will probably be the most work.


As to hiding countries in the Editor, I'm afraid not, but if the few countries you are using will all be Majors then they should appear at the top.

I'm looking forward to seeing this.