Vietnam Combat Operations update

[BigDuke66]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Nothing restores the originals with the different way of handling them in TOAWIV, but a bigger sheet with empty slots would give the designers a chance to fix them.

There are few if any scenario designers hanging around waiting for some 'fix' to the issue. The only way to correct it is to correct it. We shouldn't have to settle for half measures, this is TOAW.

Well all that has to be done is to restore the way icons worked like it was in TOAWIII, afaik this is impossible with the way the game works now. So there is nothing else to do as to wait and hope for improvements.
Maybe it's still TOAW but it's more TOAWIII then anything else, that means problems here & there and fixes for them not even on the horizon(good example is the bugged interdiction).

[Hellen_slith]

For me who am not as savvy about the inner workings of this series, can y'all explain "like I'm five" the ramifications of the graphics at issue?

The reason I ask is, that I have tried to play some of the first scene in the series ... through trial and error I managed to get it working, and even that one unit that seems to be at issue showed up on my screen as MCAV (I think that is what it was called.)

I am getting a "not using correct equipment file" message though, and it is confusing to me whether it is working as intended. I have never played this before, but it looks like it would be a lot of fun. The manuals alone are simply amazing.

Thank you for your kind help.

[sPzAbt653]

Is there an archive of older TOAW III installers?

It's the new era of TOAW, whether you like it or not.

[r6kunz]

ORIGINAL: Zovs

ORIGINAL: r6kunz

I created a Scenario folder, Vietnam Combat Operations, in C:/ Program Files(x86)---> Matrix Games ---> Operational Art of War IV---> Scenarios ---> Vietnam Combat Operations.

I then went to Stéphane MOUTIN LUYAT aka Boonierat website:

https://sites.google.com/site/vietnamco ... tions/Home

Then download the scenario(s) you want (the small blue down arrow on the bottom right), and unzipped the scenario into your new VCO folder. Open and save (to convert to TOAW IV.

It has been some time since I did this, but I believe all of the components of the scenario will be in that folder. Any problems, I bet '66 can help us out.

This will need to be done for each of the fourteen scenarios. I will see if Larry Fulkerson can put this folder into one download. I will also see if Bob Cross can incorporate this folder in the next TOAW update now Stéphane has released it. (thanks again, Stéphane, if you are out there.)

I understand Stéphane does not plan any additional scenario past fourteen July 1970.

Seems you have to have permission to download these scenarios. I sent a request but have not heard back.

Yes, we have permission from Stéphane to use his Vietnam Combat Operations scenarios. His response to my request:

Stéphane Moutin-Luyat <smoutin@hotmail.fr>
Fri, Feb 15, 11:32 PM
to me
Hello Robert,

Tried to send you a reply on my other mail address but it bounced back. You have my permission to reuse and alter the vco scenarios of course.

Sent from my iPad

[r6kunz]

Some of the graphic issues with TOAWIV were brought up (but not solved) by Stéphane in the first dozen or so posts in this thread.

Has anyone had a problem with playing the game itself? In my ignorance, I had played through the first two scenarios to completion using the missions in Stéphane's manual with no show-stopping problems...a draw and a marginal.

RAK

[comte]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Is there an archive of older TOAW III installers?

It's the new era of TOAW, whether you like it or not.

Good thing I have this buddy

[comte]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Is there an archive of older TOAW III installers?

It's the new era of TOAW, whether you like it or not.

[comte]

Anyway anybody interested in getting the pure experience can also download the 3.2.29.27 patch for TOAW III from MODDB website. They have an archive of all the TOAW III patches. These scenarios were made for this version of TOAW III. So I will archive a copy of 3 and all the scenarios for future use. Also TOAW III works great on windows 10 just set it to Windows XP compatibility mode. I will also continue to play TOAW IV this is not meant as a knock on TOAW IV but some of these classic scenarios just work better on 3. Here is a screen of the MACV Icon also you can see the SVN Rangers the BDQ units also a custom icon.

[larryfulkerson]

which version of TOAW III would you like?

[comte]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

which version of TOAW III would you like?

Thanks Larry this is awesome [8D]

I used my physical disk and found the patch I wanted. Happy to see someone out there archiving the different
versions though [:)]

[sPzAbt653]

I believe that Opart 3.4.1.9 is the best version, and I think that the older scenarios will work wonderfully with it.

[r6kunz]

Greetings all who have looked at the graphics problem in Vietnam Combat Operations.

Question: why do the icon mods in Call to Arms work? I am not sure where they are stored but they work in the game. Ideas?

[cathar1244]

ORIGINAL: r6kunz

Greetings all who have looked at the graphics problem in Vietnam Combat Operations.

Question: why do the icon mods in Call to Arms work? I am not sure where they are stored but they work in the game. Ideas?

They appear to be stored in ... \My Games\The Operational Art of War IV\Graphics Override\Call to Arms 1775

Would guess the VCO icon mods should be stored in the same folder structure, but in a folder with the appropriate scenario name.

Cheers

[sPzAbt653]

Hi Rob, Call to Arms custom graphics [and a few others] work because the scenario designer redid them for TOAW IV. He did it because it was possible, for some scenarios it is not possible.

[r6kunz]

Thanks for your reply, Steve,
I must confess my ignorance here. If it can be done for Call to Arms, why can it not be done for Vietnam Combat Operations?
Thanks for your patience.
Rob

[sPzAbt653]

I haven't looked at VCO so I don't know if it can or can't be done. If the original design uses more than one of the original pre-IV counter sheets, then it may be difficult or impossible to make the same graphics modifications fit onto the limiting one counter sheet that we are given with IV.

[r6kunz]

Steve, here is a counter sheet from VCO. To my eye it is the same size as the standard TOAW IV counter sheet. Each 8x16.

As an aside, some time ago in TOAWIV when Tomas et al were debating about where to download TOAW (Program file or documents file I believe), I could swear I saw the Stéphane counters in the games I was testing. Now I have tried all the permutations of placing the graphics and I do not see them in the game. Or did I just imagine them?

Where should the counters be loaded in TOAWIV? My thought is with Call to Arm but I have not been able to find where it is located on my system.
Thanks
RAK

[sPzAbt653]

Rob, the thing is that those counter sheets will not be used in TOAW IV no matter where you put them. TOAW IV uses a different sheet, just one, and it is called Counter_Units. You can modify that one all you like, but you can only use that one sheet. If Stéphane used more than one in his scenarios, then you will have to try and noodle thru them to see what changes were made, and if it is possible to transfer them to the 'new' Counter_Units. If he only used one sheet, then we can easily transfer his graphics to IV.

[sPzAbt653]

Call to Arms is here, but I don't know if it is the latest:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4384854

EDIT: If you had access to the original Call to Arms, you would see that he used about 20 counter sheets. For IV, he combined all of those changes into the one CounterUnits sheet that IV uses. This is what any of us would have to try to do if the pre-IV target scenario used more than one sheet.

[Zovs]

I briefly looked at the three of the counter-sheets that Stéphane used and they are NOT compatible with the way TOAW IV handles things. So they won't show up at all in their current state (see my post # 69 above). To create a new set of icons you'd have to use only specific slots, and Stéphane did do that on the various sheets on some he used one spot and on others a different slot but there are conflicts from what I could tell (i.e., two different sheets uses the same icon slot but for a different graphic so it won't work like that).