Dev Knowledge Quest

[Davidovich Trotsky]

I am sort of new to Modding this game so if any one has any guides, it would be helpful!

Anyway, just a few things I wanted to know

- Is it possible to add more then 5 sides?
- Is it possible to make neutral countries indepent for example build their own men/aircraft/tanks and will not join sides when attacked.
- Is it possible to seperate the whole Russia/China/Allies versus Nazis/Japanese
- How do you go about modding the map etc?
- Is it possible to move troops in allies terrority to help cross land into areas you normally can't go.

[Davidovich Trotsky]

That was a useful endeavour, not even anyone saying "that is impossible" for any points or providing anytype of assistance of any kind.

Any chance of helping decode some of the logs or printing some of the unit names in their codename for example Tanks is Mechanized and such likes.

For example, if I wanted China's colour to be Blue, how do I make their land terrorities blue? Icons are rather simple in colouring them blue, but I can't see any files for the land mass colour.

[Davidovich Trotsky]

Another thing is adding units to map to right locations along with factories/resources/population and the likes.

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: Davidovich Trotsky

I am sort of new to Modding this game so if any one has any guides, it would be helpful!

Anyway, just a few things I wanted to know

- Is it possible to add more then 5 sides?

I don't think this is possible.

- Is it possible to make neutral countries indepent for example build their own men/aircraft/tanks and will not join sides when attacked.

Again, I don't think so, but I'm not 100% sure. I think I saw someone say that Neutrals could be made to remain neutral if attacked. No way to get them to build.

- Is it possible to seperate the whole Russia/China/Allies versus Nazis/Japanese

Not easily, or not without problems. We hope to do a follow on game that has each player independent, but that's another game.

- How do you go about modding the map etc?

Lebatron is the one that figured out how to modify the map, so you should ask him.

- Is it possible to move troops in allies terrority to help cross land into areas you normally can't go.

I don't understand this question.

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: Davidovich Trotsky


For example, if I wanted China's colour to be Blue, how do I make their land terrorities blue? Icons are rather simple in colouring them blue, but I can't see any files for the land mass colour.

Look in art.txt at the end of the file for country colors.

[Joel Billings]

Starting items are all in the region##.txt files.

[JanSorensen]

ORIGINAL: Davidovich Trotsky
1 How do you go about modding the map etc?
2 Is it possible to move troops in allies terrority to help cross land into areas you normally can't go.

1: It depends what you want to mod. The graphics? The content of each territory? The number of territories? You will probably need to be a bit more specific on this one. Exactly what did you have in mind?
2: Only supply can move into territory controlled by an ally - so the answer is no. Aircraft can fly over but not land in such territory though.

[Lebatron]

ORIGINAL: Davidovich Trotsky

For example, if I wanted China's colour to be Blue, how do I make their land terrorities blue? Icons are rather simple in colouring them blue, but I can't see any files for the land mass colour.

From the art.txt file
PLAYER_COLOR,0,ffffffff,ffffffff
PLAYER_COLOR,GER,ff979797,ffacacac
PLAYER_COLOR,JAP,ffCE4424,ffc0573f
PLAYER_COLOR,SOV,ffCE7E38,ffD89860
PLAYER_COLOR,UN,ff8F9F37,ffA5B25F,0
PLAYER_COLOR,UN,ffECD29F,ffEEDBB5,1
PLAYER_COLOR,CHI,ffecc04b,ffefc866
PLAYER_COLOR,NEU,fffbf4cd,fffbf4cd

These are hex colors. Do a web search and you should find a chart that will give you colors and the coresponding hex number. If I recall the first set of numbers is the regular color the second number is the frozen version. I messed around with this a long time ago to get an easier frozen german color to stand out. The stock color differences for Germany are hard for my eyes to make out. So I found a darker gray for Germany. Oh when I used to play with separate colors for the UK and US I found the UK color to be to close to the neutral color. I changed that too. But I just use the green now.

Oh if you ever fiqure out how to make the frozen ocean color stand out more from the others let us know.

Well I guess most of your questions have been answered. Except how to mod the map. God that was so much work. Way to complicated to explain all the trial and error and such that was involved. I'm not even going there.

[JanSorensen]

I havent modded anything at all - but it only took me around 45 mins to guess how to mod the map just looking at the original game files so it does not seem too terribly hard if you have a little programming experience.

Its possible I missed something - but here is what I found would technically let you add a new territory. Making it look pretty is another matter - but thats not what you are asking about I trust.

1) Make a copy of your WaW folder and only work on the copy (just in case).
2) In the coordinates.txt file add the following line
map_region,365,1020,230
3) In the mapregionsloc.txt file add the following lines
region_id 365 0 1168 284
portloc 365 1148 294
4) In the regions40.txt file change the following lines
From:
REGION,18,Iceland,PLAYER_NEU,Denmark,TER_RCOLD
MOVECOST,1
POP,0
FORT,0
CONNECT,17,19
SIDE,4,4
To
REGION,18,Iceland,PLAYER_NEU,Denmark,TER_RCOLD
MOVECOST,1
POP,0
FORT,0
CONNECT,17,19,365
SIDE,4,4,6
and add the following lines
REGION,365,Iceland2,PLAYER_NEU,Denmark,TER_RCOLD
MOVECOST,1
POP,0
FORT,0
CONNECT,18
SIDE,6
5) In the Dat/Art/Map folder make a copy of cold18.tga and rename it to cold365.tga and make a copy of region18.tga and rename that to region365.tga.

Voila, you now have a new territory on your map. Its called Iceland2 and looks exactly like Iceland and its placed in the middle of nowhere. Its only connection is to the normal Iceland. So, to test that its working have Germany take Denmark, then land a WA unit on Iceland and on the next turn move that unit to Iceland2.

There you go. I am probably missing some details but it should be a start to let you begin modding the map if you wish. With respect to the various numbers - guess. With respect to editing the graphics to fit any change - experiment. But now atleast you know that its not really hard to mod the map

[aletoledo]

I havent modded anything at all - but it only took me around 45 mins to guess how to mod the map just looking at the original game files so it does not seem too terribly hard if you have a little programming experience.

well there you go Joel, Jan just said that even a monkey could code this game!! [:D]

actually I think its a testiment of good programming practices that it is so easy to mod. I think the same could be said of WitP.

[Lebatron]

Yes it appears so much easier to do when one examines what I did. It was no 45 minute job for me and I'm no dummy. Now that I pioneered it and everyone can see what I did to the game files it all appears so self evident and easy now. Don't discount the time and thought that went into discovering how it can be done.

Once v2.0 was posted I knew it wouldn't be long before what I did was closely examined. Since Jan understands what I did, its a testament to his IQ. Others may not have seen and understood my changes as clearly as he has.

[JanSorensen]

Lebatron, please....

I didn't take a single look at your files. I opened up the normal game files - and it was right there in plain view. Ofcourse I didn't have to worry about making it look pretty by editing the tga files or make it fit perfectly by getting the numbers right. If I had to do that it would likely take me days as I am horrible with graphics. But the actual coding of an extra territory is simply not hard by any means. The design of the files practically tells the story to anyone used to any sort of programming.

I definitely applaud you for getting the idea thats half the work - and I certainly applaud you for making it work if you have no prior experience with programming - but please dont pretend that figuing out how to modify these simple changes was anything special because its actually very straight forward just by looking at the files the ship with the game and fiddling a little with the numbers.

The simple fact is that I was intrigued when you posted it was too hard to explain in the post above - so I decided to see for myself how hard it would be to figure out. So I did and posted the details - which wasnt hard to explain despite your claim to the contrary. As I said above - I am sure I am missing some details still but the framework is there.

Anyhow, I am still puzzled by the movearrow.txt file - for a moment I figured that would need a change too to show the green/blue movement arrows - but it didnt seemed needed for some reason. I also have no clue what the SIDES numbers mean - I just added a 6 as that seemed appropriate from the rest of the files. So, by no means do I pretend to know all exactly what I am doing

[Davidovich Trotsky]

First of all, big thanks for the help/advice/method for doing most of the things

I will respond below if i got any additions/explaining and such likes.

[Davidovich Trotsky]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings
Not easily, or not without problems. We hope to do a follow on game that has each player independent, but that's another game.

- How do you go about modding the map etc?

Lebatron is the one that figured out how to modify the map, so you should ask him.

- Is it possible to move troops in allies terrority to help cross land into areas you normally can't go.

I don't understand this question.

Ah, I was wondering how to make them independent for more interesting scens and styles and maybe Neutrals putting up abit more of a fight/action then just sitting there like wet dummies.

For the question you don't understand let me try and explain this way.

You are Japan and lets say you and germany own each side of the euro-asia land mass.

Greece is neutral but surrounded by German owned terrority and Germany lets japan have greece to expand their sea trade into the med.

Is it possible to get it to work so Japan can move the troops through the German terrority or even stay in the terrority as well if they wanted instead of having to sail around the world and get greece the long way round.

[Davidovich Trotsky]

ORIGINAL: JanSorensen

ORIGINAL: Davidovich Trotsky
1 How do you go about modding the map etc?
2 Is it possible to move troops in allies terrority to help cross land into areas you normally can't go.

1: It depends what you want to mod. The graphics? The content of each territory? The number of territories? You will probably need to be a bit more specific on this one. Exactly what did you have in mind?
2: Only supply can move into territory controlled by an ally - so the answer is no. Aircraft can fly over but not land in such territory though.

Actually all 3 for the first one. [:D] But I will have a look at what I can do with the advice that has been shared.

2: Damn, that's annoying

[Davidovich Trotsky]

ORIGINAL: JanSorensen

I havent modded anything at all - but it only took me around 45 mins to guess how to mod the map just looking at the original game files so it does not seem too terribly hard if you have a little programming experience.

Its possible I missed something - but here is what I found would technically let you add a new territory. Making it look pretty is another matter - but thats not what you are asking about I trust.

1) Make a copy of your WaW folder and only work on the copy (just in case).
2) In the coordinates.txt file add the following line
map_region,365,1020,230
3) In the mapregionsloc.txt file add the following lines
region_id 365 0 1168 284
portloc 365 1148 294
4) In the regions40.txt file change the following lines
From:
REGION,18,Iceland,PLAYER_NEU,Denmark,TER_RCOLD
MOVECOST,1
POP,0
FORT,0
CONNECT,17,19
SIDE,4,4
To
REGION,18,Iceland,PLAYER_NEU,Denmark,TER_RCOLD
MOVECOST,1
POP,0
FORT,0
CONNECT,17,19,365
SIDE,4,4,6
and add the following lines
REGION,365,Iceland2,PLAYER_NEU,Denmark,TER_RCOLD
MOVECOST,1
POP,0
FORT,0
CONNECT,18
SIDE,6
5) In the Dat/Art/Map folder make a copy of cold18.tga and rename it to cold365.tga and make a copy of region18.tga and rename that to region365.tga.

Voila, you now have a new territory on your map. Its called Iceland2 and looks exactly like Iceland and its placed in the middle of nowhere. Its only connection is to the normal Iceland. So, to test that its working have Germany take Denmark, then land a WA unit on Iceland and on the next turn move that unit to Iceland2.

There you go. I am probably missing some details but it should be a start to let you begin modding the map if you wish. With respect to the various numbers - guess. With respect to editing the graphics to fit any change - experiment. But now atleast you know that its not really hard to mod the map

Thanks, I will enjoy having a play at this.

[Davidovich Trotsky]

ORIGINAL: Lebatron

ORIGINAL: Davidovich Trotsky

For example, if I wanted China's colour to be Blue, how do I make their land terrorities blue? Icons are rather simple in colouring them blue, but I can't see any files for the land mass colour.

From the art.txt file
PLAYER_COLOR,0,ffffffff,ffffffff
PLAYER_COLOR,GER,ff979797,ffacacac
PLAYER_COLOR,JAP,ffCE4424,ffc0573f
PLAYER_COLOR,SOV,ffCE7E38,ffD89860
PLAYER_COLOR,UN,ff8F9F37,ffA5B25F,0
PLAYER_COLOR,UN,ffECD29F,ffEEDBB5,1
PLAYER_COLOR,CHI,ffecc04b,ffefc866
PLAYER_COLOR,NEU,fffbf4cd,fffbf4cd

These are hex colors. Do a web search and you should find a chart that will give you colors and the coresponding hex number. If I recall the first set of numbers is the regular color the second number is the frozen version. I messed around with this a long time ago to get an easier frozen german color to stand out. The stock color differences for Germany are hard for my eyes to make out. So I found a darker gray for Germany. Oh when I used to play with separate colors for the UK and US I found the UK color to be to close to the neutral color. I changed that too. But I just use the green now.

Oh if you ever fiqure out how to make the frozen ocean color stand out more from the others let us know.

Well I guess most of your questions have been answered. Except how to mod the map. God that was so much work. Way to complicated to explain all the trial and error and such that was involved. I'm not even going there.

Ah, I keep trying to look for graphic files!

[mdh1204]

I would like to see a mod that makes a separate production spiral for the different countries. For example: Italy was capable of building real infantry and aircraft - just much less of it (I think), as was Spain (I think). Although I wouldn't personally go into much detail, as I'm not a programmer, I would imagine that Germany's ability to produce a particular unit within a certain time frame differed than Italy's and Japan's and other allies, and vice-versa, etc. I wonder if Jan or Bill or Matrix has considered making allies (like Italy) have different looking and unique troops with varied and historical quality, and while giving each country its own separate production wheel?

[mdh1204]

Another thing I would REALLY like to see, is a large-hexed map overlay on the continents for structured movement. Keep the regional titles, just provide standardized movement, in terms of distance, with hexed and terrain measurements layed over the regions. Then, it would be perfect. This same defect, which possessed Axis and Allies as a Risk intrigue, is to the game's detriment.

[mdh1204]

Which reminds me, didn't Italy have paratroopers?