Other doubts about parameters in data files

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Kanov
Posts: 344
Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: México

Other doubts about parameters in data files

Post by Kanov »

I've been mostly looking at and messing with the files lately, it's weird but editing the files is almost as fun as playing the game, I'm sure many will agree.

Anyways, browsing through the files there's still some fields I'm not completely sure how they work or what they do (not just from now but from way back some since cc3 I guess), I will list them here to hopefully have an explanation:

-Unitstructure: what do ECHELON,TYPE,SPEED, actually do? It seems Type affects how the platoon is requisitioned, if it is available on the two "frontline" platoons or on the support platoon. Echelon I don't know what it does, and Speed I guess is used in the strat map to see if one Battlegroup can give chase to another trying to escape or move to the same location and see who arrives first.

-Forcepool: RESERVED FIELD, what was intended for? and how does the Battlegroup's Inf Strength% and armor strength% correlate with the difficulty modifiers and global vehicle% and troop% replacement rate?

-Battlegroup: Why is the commander name not shown? can this be enabled somehow? There's plenty space at the requisition screen to put the name in. It will add to roleplaying.

-XXXTEAMS: I like the fields for possible vehicles so they are somewhat random they add variety to the game. Could this be expanded further and work for infantry teams? like there's a condition, is X team type infantry or vehicle? if infantry (all types) the values on these fields are taken from the same XXXteams file, if it's a vehicle from the vehicle file (like it is now). I don't know if a loop error could occur, if the class value on any of those "Possible team class" is equal to the class value of the team to which these fields belong, then the Game could crash with an error stating recursive statement or something. Or maybe it will not necessarily be a loop since the team itself will contain data.

-Vehicles: HAS GYRO, HAS SCHURZEN, What are the real in-game effects of these two variables?

-Soldiers: This file is pretty straightforward actually.

-Weapons: COOL RATE, HEAT RATE, BAYONET, BACKBLAST, RIFLE GRENADES. What are their actual effects in game? not just what they mean but if it is possible an example on how it works. Specially Cool rate, heat rate and Bayonet.

-Elements: Can we have a fix to the "CRUSH TO" attribute? to have crushable elements be represented graphically. Please? included in a last patch.

-Nations: I didn't understand these attributes: Div Name Rgt Name Bn Name Ind. Bn Name Company Name Ind. Coy Name Platoon Name Ind. Platoon Name

Neither this "convention (0 = index in parent, 1 = special case British numbering for GtC)"

-Uniforms: An easy way to modify this file and see the results?

-Campaign and GUI seem straightforward too.



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SteveMcClaire
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RE: Other doubts about parameters in data files

Post by SteveMcClaire »

Kanov,

New features are unlikely to be added to the game well after release, though I will record your ideas as suggestions for future games. To answer your data related questions:


Unit structure:

'Echelon' is the 'size' of the unit. Company and platoon (values of 3 and 2 respectively) are the only significant things you can work with from a mod standpoint. Main combat units (that you can select on the BG screen) need to be 'company' size, and best platoon(s) will be selected when you choose a company. Support units in the force pool are also broken down by company, though since you choose individual units this is a purely organizational effect.

'Type' plays a role in determining if a sub-unit is a main combat unit or a support unit in the parent BG. The default is that only infantry type companies can be chosen as main combat units on the BG screen. For Armored BGs you can choose infantry or armor unit types. For recon BGs it can be infantry or recon. For Engineer BGs infantry or engineer.

'Speed' is used to calculate the parent BGs speed, which is an average of all the sub unit's 'speed' values. The BGs overall speed influences who moves first when two BGs are meeting head-on on the strategic map.


Force Pool:

The reserved field is simply a placeholder for possible future versions, so that new data could be added to the forcepool file without making the old file format invalid. The relationship between the various strength multipliers in PitF and GtC is roughly the same as discussed in this thread: tm.asp?m=3926598


BGROUPS:

The commander's name field was kept in the data files as data was done before the UI was finalized. There is no way to display the field in PitF or GtC.

Vehicles with gyro stabilization have a smaller penalty when firing on the move. Vehicles with schurzen greatly reduce the penetration of HEAT ammo when hit from the side.


Weapons:

'Heat rate' is added to the weapon's heat value every time it fires. It's 'cool rate' reduces heat every tick of the game sim. The heat value is a negative modifier to the weapon's quality (called 'No Jam or Break Quality' in the data file column header.) So the more heat you build up the more likely the weapon is to jam or malfunction.

'Rifle grenades' is a flag that allows for special case handling of HE or HEAT ammo in the weapon. If it is set then HE and HEAT ammo types ignore the clip size for the weapon and are fired individually (as if the clip size were 1.)

Weapons with a bayonet gain a bonus in hand to hand combat.


Nations:

'Div Name' through 'Ind. Platoon Name' fields are unused. They were originally intended to allow for automatic naming of sub-units within a force pool (i.e. if you list a regiment in a force pool, it would automatically create the proper names for '1st Battalion' or 'C Company' or what have you.) This was unnecessary after we decided to focus on company-sized combat units, so only the platoon level naming/numbering convention (listed lower in the file) was used. British special case handling was added in GtC so that the platoon numbers would come out historically correct for British infantry battalions, where there platoons were numbered (No. 1 to 16 as I recall) throughout the whole battalion.

Steve










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Kanov
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Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: México

RE: Other doubts about parameters in data files

Post by Kanov »

Thanks for the answers.
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