Newbie questions on editing and modding.

[nathangun]

Hello fellow gamers.

I'm editing a Random Phoenix game. My plan is to fight the tactical battles in Combat Mission Fortress Italy (CMFI) with day turns and 1km hexes.
I figured out how to edit the date etc.. but how do I set hex sizes in km's?

I've done the remove master-file thing and made the sceanario 'loadable', should I remove the rule-set as well?

I'm adding in SFT's that has equipment in CMFI.
Regarding STF's, I added a copy of a halftrack to the list and renamed it 'bren carrier' and replaced the graphic do I have make a smaller version of the same graphic?
How do add equipment to the production/research list and how to do I save the changes to the STF file (and productio/research parameters) so I can use it in another scenario?

oh while we're here, I better ask and make sure that having the scenario 'loadable' does enable to edit a saved game?
I know it resets the date but does it reset the production que in factories? or reset the amount of oil/ore stock piles?

I edited the production points in locations, how do I save that for future scenarios?

Finally, how do I add Italians into the game?

Thanking you all in advance.

P.S. Merry Christmas.

[ernieschwitz]

This would be a very long novel of a post if I answered all you asked. In fact I got a sinking feeling in my stomach just thinking about it. I spoke to someone else, and he had the same response as me. It is good you found out how to remove the masterfile, it is also a nice thing that you made the scenario "loadable" if there turns out to be a need to load a saved game to make a new scenario from.

Ok, the date is the easy part to make. You just find the place, type in the length of a turn (in days) and then what that date is going to be. Note turn length is at minimum a day. That means if you want to set the scale at 1 km per hex, you are asking for some trouble. Let's say that infantry can move 8 kms on a road per day. That means 8 hexes. Now maps that are reasonably easy to make are around 4800 hexes big, or 60x80 hexes. That means that a unit of infantry can move to the edges of the map in just 6 turns and 8 turns. I'll let you imagine how far a tank could go, and a plane would probably be able to cover everything.

ATG in general does not have this problem, because it is "scaleless". Planes fly 10 hexes, infantry moves 3, artillery has a range of 1-2. I know of no real world situation, where an artillery piece can fire 10% or 20% of an aircrafts range! So to make all units have reasonable speeds (whatever your choice may be for a scale, and time frame) you more or less have to deal with this problem. That is right, you need to go in and edit ALL the movement types in the game. There is no simple switch that says, hey, this is the scale.

Ok, now that was some bad news.

Making a formation in ATG revolves around 2 concepts. The SFT (which is the single element of a unit) and the Item, which is the cost/research and other requirements for to be built. So in order to make it appear in the Items screen, you need to add a new item, make it buildable in one of the categories that is able to be chosen (say Vehicles) and then fill out the rest, including things like production cost, research needed, and of course, to link it up with the SFT.

There is no SFT file. Everything is inside the file you edit. To get the information out of the file, there are two options. Make the one you've been working on the masterfile. That's right, make it point to itself. Then the next time you load up the editor, go in and set the masterfile to the one you have been working on. The other option is to go into the Imports part of the setng's and then import the different parts that you want, and in some cases this may cause you to have to import things twice in a not so apparent order. Better to stick with the masterfile idea.

I am not sure what is reset when a saved game is loaded into the editor. It might be that rounding of items might disappear in the factory queue. I don't think it resets oil and ore. However the load scenario feature is there to allow designers to make new scenarios out of existing games, not to edit a save game. This is so that nobody can cheat that way.

To add Italians to the game, is not something you can do easily. The graphics for one thing need to be constructed from scratch. Since they are layered graphics this is very tough. First you need to make a graphic, of course, then you need to separate it into different files. One that can change with the color set by you in game for the uniform (usually a greenish version of the regime color), that is a grey part of the picture, then you have to make the rest of the image colorized, and that usually applies to skincolor. And of course you need to have the dimensions the same as existing graphics (or it will be stretched), and what is not supposed to be colored or show in the real colors to be see-through. There is another option of course, that is to redo ALL the graphics, to be just the top layer showing. Then you won't be able to see the terrain they are on, on the illustration, but it might be easier.

To add those Italians you also need to add the people group and the people type. The easiest way (that won't require many more edits) is to choose a people type you won't be using, that does not have a special research connected to it, and then just rename those two. I don't recall what people that leaves you with. However should none of those be available for you, than you could take one that does have special researches connected to it, and disable those researches. This is done in the Res menu of the editor. There you find the special research, and people that has it, and then give it the value -1 or 9999. I prefer -1, since you never know if someone is going to mass edit the research costs, and having it at -1 assures it won't get a value that can make it producible.

You also need Italian officers, I am going to assume. That too requires pictures that are layered. Unless of course you go with just 1 layer, like before. See my "Simple leaders" thread on here. I think it is stickied. You will need changing the names available. This is done by going into the Strng menu. Here you will find a bunch of stringlists. Actually more like excel spreadsheets. Those can be edited there. You choose the first names for the people you chose, and edit those to some new ones. The same goes for the last names. Those components are used to generate the names of the leaders, when recruited. The easiest way to edit them is of course to just do it in the editor, but the smart way is to export the stringlist, and then edit it in another editor, whatever you choose. Load it as a csv (comma seperated) and then save it as a csv, and rename that to a txt file. That can then be imported into the stringlist in question.

That answers some of the biggest questions you have.

There are smaller ones. Yes, to add the new graphics to the halftrack graphics, you need both a big and small version, if you are using the layered graphics.

If you use the masterfile approach then the locations are the same, in the loaded masterfile. If you choose, you can import them too in the import section of the setng's.

All in all a lot of work! Almost so much work, that you might consider starting from scratch, and making a new scenario.

[nathangun]

Thanks for the speedy reply ernieschwitz. Look like I've given myself hell of a task by the sounds of it. I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

[GaryChildress]

Thanks for the speedy reply ernieschwitz. Look like I've given myself hell of a task by the sounds of it. I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

Good luck with your modding, Nathan! I was in your shoes a few years back when I first got into ATG. I'm no wizard at modding it but I've learned a few things in my spare time. It's a lot of fun. Enjoy modding the game!

[nathangun]

Thanks @Garychildress, if you don't mind, may I use a couple of your graphics mods?

[nathangun]

I started a new Phoenix Random game, once the scenario was created, I selected edit and began editing the Sub Formation files (STF's) and creating new ones.

So far this is the fruits of my labours.



In the screenie above there's a graphic for a German F.O. if anyone can get me one of an British/Commonwealth would be helpful.

Paratroopers:



Fighters: (not my graphics, credit to @Ormand).


Staff:


I began to build the TOE's straight out of CMFI, these will be the building blocks for any CM campaign.

In the ATG scenario editor, new units will be companys and HQ's will be Bn HQ's.

So I began with a British Reinforced Infantry Battalion (Brit R.I.B.)

3 x companies.
I've bungled all the squad and HQ teams as "rifles" so it easier to manage and easier to count the "Headcount" for CM scenarios.
There's enough slots to add LMG teams etc...


Inf Plt:


2 x Machinegun Plt:



Carrier Plt (recon)



2 x Anti tank plt:



Mortar Plt:



Poineer Plt:



There's a lot of work to get through still, each new weapon has to be given in game research data and production costs, which regime can/cannot research each weapon.
Then each tank type will also have to be done.

[GaryChildress]

Thanks @Garychildress, if you don't mind, may I use a couple of your graphics mods?

Absolutely!

[nathangun]

Thanks @Garychildress, if you don't mind, may I use a couple of your graphics mods?

Absolutely!

Thanks!

[ernieschwitz]

Nice to see some positive progress.

[nathangun]

Hey guys I ran into a problem, I tried to set the date to 09/07/1943 +1 (shown below) but when I start the scenario it says 1st of May 1933 or 1938 and it skips in months.

[ernieschwitz]

The Phoenix random game has a few lines of code that it runs to determine the date, year, etc. Anything can basically be changed in the code. You can access it too. I can't off hand remember what the event code number is. I'd have to do a bit of digging for that. (You could try, if you feel up to it). If not I can try and look, see what you need to delete.

[ernieschwitz]

I had a little time (commercial breaks inbetween the playoff game I was watching, NFL), and found it.

Where.jpg (133.39 KiB) Viewed 1097 times

Note to get here, you need to choose the Event button in the editor, and then select the 4th coded event. Shown with the red box I made on where you select. The 2nd red box I made are the lines of code you can safely remove, to prevent it from making a change in date.

[nathangun]

I had a little time (commercial breaks inbetween the playoff game I was watching, NFL), and found it.

Where.jpg

Note to get here, you need to choose the Event button in the editor, and then select the 4th coded event. Shown with the red box I made on where you select. The 2nd red box I made are the lines of code you can safely remove, to prevent it from making a change in date.

You sir are a prince amongst men, thank you.

[CSO_Talorgan]

My plan is to fight the tactical battles in Combat Mission Fortress Italy (CMFI) with day turns and 1km hexes

This sounds like a good idea. ATG is potentially an excellent campaign manager.

[CSO_Talorgan]

Dear Nathan,

Have just found your thread over at Battlefront.

https://community.battlefront.com/topic ... -campaign/

The two threads should really be linked but I can't post over there.

... and Cheers!

[nathangun]

Dear Nathan,

Have just found your thread over at Battlefront.

https://community.battlefront.com/topic ... -campaign/

The two threads should really be linked but I can't post over there.

... and Cheers!

Good idea, thanks.