Uxbridge Mod Pacific
Moderator: AlvaroSousa
Uxbridge Mod Pacific
This is the set of modded graphics I currently use for WarPlan, in this case the Pacific version. They were made for my own benefit, but have reached such a developed state, that I feel confident to post them here as a proper mod. Either you like it or not. If it’s the latter, just remove the offending files from your campaign folder.
The five files changed, which can be used in combination or any set-up desired, are: Logistics, Resource, Terrain, Units and Weather.
Logistics:
This was the last file I corrected, and the one that I have been at odds with the longest. The original rail line was quite sufferable, but the convoy ships just looked odd and the roads scratched the map as inadvertent strokes with a watercolour brush. I do, however, sympathise fully with the work of the original graphics designer; the roads and rails are extremely difficult to get good. They live in a layer above the terrain features, and must by this be visible over a variety of changing background tones. At the same time, they need to be distinguishable and harmonize with the overall map layout. Not an easy task, I can asure you, and one that I will never claim to have mastered. What you get is my compromise. The convoys are mere dots–the magic ”Y” key will now light them up if covered in bad weather–and the land communications is made by a double light tone that, for most cases, can be easily spotted while it still blends into the map without causing annoyingly strong lines. Sometimes, in some regions, you will have to turn the units off and look carefully–the price to pay for a non-intrusive logistics design.
Resource:
Resources was one of the things I changed almost as soon as I got my hands on the game, even long before actually playing a campaign. Granted, the symbols for populated areas and resources are nicely made, very much so, but I had grave problems telling them apart, and also thought that they resembled something from a Civilization-type game rather than a hardcore war game. They had to go. The simple symbols I turned to are like those seen in GMT boardgames. Booring, but easily spotted.
Terrain:
I haven’t done much to the terrain, truly, it has been so minimal, and so gradual over time, that I can’t even remember. The foilage of woods and jungles have a higher saturation, I think, and the swamps have gone the other way. There may also be some increase in contrast on hills and montains, mainly on the Pacific map, but that should be all.
Units:
The units is something that I have changed gradually from the first time I played WarPlan some 18 months ago, up till now, with the sister game Pacific as it’s companion. Therefore, the alteration from the vanilla set-up, to the present look of the units, wasn’t as much a choice of design, rather a slow evolution in my mind as me and my PBEM-opponent spent the last year in daily competition. I have made a somewhat drastic change the last months, however. While making units for Pacific, I thought of doing something extra for the otherwise rather dull hidden-unit counters, adding a short descriptive note on them. The same was done for the garrison graphic. They were also blessed with the silhuette of a soldier. While adding nothing in particular as regards information, this minor change gave the units a certain detailed ”look” that surprised me. In fact, these units now had a more pleasant appearance than the more important frontline units. Capitalizing on this, I made the decision to add text to all units in the set-up, the result that is now included in this mod.
There is one additional change with the conters worthy of note: some of the majors air units have their basic counter colour blue instead of the normal national colour. This is to better tell them from ground units on crowded fronts. I know this won’t be to everyone’s taste, as clarity in one field sometimes leads to confusion in another. But this is how I prefer it best myself, and if you’re likewise minded, you probably like them.
Lastly, I made a radical change in the colour codes of the air units too. Earlier they were red, green, blue and some last, rearranging colour for strategic bomb units. This has now changed to: Blue=fighter, Green=support, Grey=level bomber and No-background=strategic bomber. Main reason for the change is that it’s so hard to get the red colour right. Either it screams like someone drowning, being to bright, or blend inte text and lines on the counter if made too dark. The removal lessened the number of colours to use, but I feel it did the appearance of the mod a favor.
Weather:
Weather graphics is difficult to get good. Informatively, the vanilla symbols does the job. I always want something extra. When the rainy season starts, I like to feel the want of an umbrella, and when winter comes, it should race across the map as the breath of the Grim Reaper. If you use my weather graphics, expect weather, not a soft drizzle or something from a Christmas carrol. It covers everything, and at times you may sense the need to turn it off, cause the brain can be confused by the weather patterns, making reading the units difficult even thought these are located above the thunderstorms and blizzards. Or use the vanilla version.
The graphics for Pacific can be located here. It’s a link to dropbox and the files there will always be the most updated ones:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qyybstj266z5 ... rM4la?dl=0
The graphics for Europe, and a copy of the text above, is located at the Europe forum:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... ey=�
To use the graphics, merely place the files in the campaign folder of the scenario being played.
Not to confuse anyone, I decided to make one post on each forum. By this I will also reach users that may only own one version of the WarPlan game. Any comments on the mod, as regards something particular to either WP Europe or WP Pacific, better be placed in the proper forum, lest I may be confused which one is refered to.
Hope you like the mod.
The five files changed, which can be used in combination or any set-up desired, are: Logistics, Resource, Terrain, Units and Weather.
Logistics:
This was the last file I corrected, and the one that I have been at odds with the longest. The original rail line was quite sufferable, but the convoy ships just looked odd and the roads scratched the map as inadvertent strokes with a watercolour brush. I do, however, sympathise fully with the work of the original graphics designer; the roads and rails are extremely difficult to get good. They live in a layer above the terrain features, and must by this be visible over a variety of changing background tones. At the same time, they need to be distinguishable and harmonize with the overall map layout. Not an easy task, I can asure you, and one that I will never claim to have mastered. What you get is my compromise. The convoys are mere dots–the magic ”Y” key will now light them up if covered in bad weather–and the land communications is made by a double light tone that, for most cases, can be easily spotted while it still blends into the map without causing annoyingly strong lines. Sometimes, in some regions, you will have to turn the units off and look carefully–the price to pay for a non-intrusive logistics design.
Resource:
Resources was one of the things I changed almost as soon as I got my hands on the game, even long before actually playing a campaign. Granted, the symbols for populated areas and resources are nicely made, very much so, but I had grave problems telling them apart, and also thought that they resembled something from a Civilization-type game rather than a hardcore war game. They had to go. The simple symbols I turned to are like those seen in GMT boardgames. Booring, but easily spotted.
Terrain:
I haven’t done much to the terrain, truly, it has been so minimal, and so gradual over time, that I can’t even remember. The foilage of woods and jungles have a higher saturation, I think, and the swamps have gone the other way. There may also be some increase in contrast on hills and montains, mainly on the Pacific map, but that should be all.
Units:
The units is something that I have changed gradually from the first time I played WarPlan some 18 months ago, up till now, with the sister game Pacific as it’s companion. Therefore, the alteration from the vanilla set-up, to the present look of the units, wasn’t as much a choice of design, rather a slow evolution in my mind as me and my PBEM-opponent spent the last year in daily competition. I have made a somewhat drastic change the last months, however. While making units for Pacific, I thought of doing something extra for the otherwise rather dull hidden-unit counters, adding a short descriptive note on them. The same was done for the garrison graphic. They were also blessed with the silhuette of a soldier. While adding nothing in particular as regards information, this minor change gave the units a certain detailed ”look” that surprised me. In fact, these units now had a more pleasant appearance than the more important frontline units. Capitalizing on this, I made the decision to add text to all units in the set-up, the result that is now included in this mod.
There is one additional change with the conters worthy of note: some of the majors air units have their basic counter colour blue instead of the normal national colour. This is to better tell them from ground units on crowded fronts. I know this won’t be to everyone’s taste, as clarity in one field sometimes leads to confusion in another. But this is how I prefer it best myself, and if you’re likewise minded, you probably like them.
Lastly, I made a radical change in the colour codes of the air units too. Earlier they were red, green, blue and some last, rearranging colour for strategic bomb units. This has now changed to: Blue=fighter, Green=support, Grey=level bomber and No-background=strategic bomber. Main reason for the change is that it’s so hard to get the red colour right. Either it screams like someone drowning, being to bright, or blend inte text and lines on the counter if made too dark. The removal lessened the number of colours to use, but I feel it did the appearance of the mod a favor.
Weather:
Weather graphics is difficult to get good. Informatively, the vanilla symbols does the job. I always want something extra. When the rainy season starts, I like to feel the want of an umbrella, and when winter comes, it should race across the map as the breath of the Grim Reaper. If you use my weather graphics, expect weather, not a soft drizzle or something from a Christmas carrol. It covers everything, and at times you may sense the need to turn it off, cause the brain can be confused by the weather patterns, making reading the units difficult even thought these are located above the thunderstorms and blizzards. Or use the vanilla version.
The graphics for Pacific can be located here. It’s a link to dropbox and the files there will always be the most updated ones:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qyybstj266z5 ... rM4la?dl=0
The graphics for Europe, and a copy of the text above, is located at the Europe forum:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... ey=�
To use the graphics, merely place the files in the campaign folder of the scenario being played.
Not to confuse anyone, I decided to make one post on each forum. By this I will also reach users that may only own one version of the WarPlan game. Any comments on the mod, as regards something particular to either WP Europe or WP Pacific, better be placed in the proper forum, lest I may be confused which one is refered to.
Hope you like the mod.
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- P1.jpg (126.53 KiB) Viewed 2124 times
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
Good job here Uxbridge.
Fully agree with your assessment over the dilemmas regarding graphic selection and image balance.
(I think CEAW is a game worthy of review for the graphic styling for the resources.png)
I combined your downloads with my tiles and sea hex graphics, and the results were good.
Thanks for the hard work.
(I know how long it can take).
Fully agree with your assessment over the dilemmas regarding graphic selection and image balance.
(I think CEAW is a game worthy of review for the graphic styling for the resources.png)
I combined your downloads with my tiles and sea hex graphics, and the results were good.
Thanks for the hard work.
(I know how long it can take).
"I don't believe in reincarnation because I refuse to come back as a bug or as a rabbit".
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
Had to check what CEAW was, but seeing some screenshots I remember. Think it was released at a time when there wasn't that many full European WWII games around, only games concentrating on certain campaigns. If I'm not totally mistaken, I was muddling with that game's graphics too.
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
Sorry but I have a bit of a strange question. I can not manage to install any mod.
As described above, I copied the png files into the appropriate Campaigns directory but when I start the campaign, I always have the default graphics.
Then I noticed that my warplan pacific folder is located at C:\Users\gaming\OneDrive\Documents\My Games\WarPlan Pacific\Campaigns\Pacific 1941.
note the **OneDrive** ...
Can someone maybe tell me where exactly I need to copy the files? Thanks in advance!
As described above, I copied the png files into the appropriate Campaigns directory but when I start the campaign, I always have the default graphics.
Then I noticed that my warplan pacific folder is located at C:\Users\gaming\OneDrive\Documents\My Games\WarPlan Pacific\Campaigns\Pacific 1941.
note the **OneDrive** ...
Can someone maybe tell me where exactly I need to copy the files? Thanks in advance!
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
What you are saying seems to tell that the scenarios are not on your hard drive, but out in OneDrive on the internet. This may be the reason why you can't use the mod files, but if so, I can't tell why you can use the scenarios at all. You do have the mod files in the actual scenario folder, not in the general scenarios folder? They must be in the last folder you can reach.
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
I really like this mod. I do hope you will change the airplanes counters to the previous one with the stripe. It looked really good [:)]
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
We'll see. The problem was that the lesser area taken up by the stripe made it often blend into the colour of the counter. That and the problem with red with this low resolution makes cramming everything into such a restricted space difficult. But I will never really be satisfied, so new changes is to be expected.
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
As with the European graphics, the Pacific has now been updated with new Oil and Resource symbols.
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RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
[&o]thanks a lot, Sir. Your mod is so good that it should be implemented in the original game as an option .
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
You're welcome. It has now reached a level where I'm beginning to feel quite satisfied myself. [:)]
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
Nice work Uxbridge, I had similar for my Euro mod, but actually prefer your previous set as it feels more map-like.
You mentioned you added in additional placenames on your map, are they erased when a new scenario update is released?
You mentioned you added in additional placenames on your map, are they erased when a new scenario update is released?
"I don't believe in reincarnation because I refuse to come back as a bug or as a rabbit".
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
I have those in a scenario of my own, and don't think they will be erased, but they would in the original vanilla. If you haven't done it already, you can see them in my Europe thread.
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
Love the mod looks much better. Although I prefer the city graphics over dots. Any chance of a city graphic version?
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
Regrettably, the way I alter the graphics, I have to completely remove the old file once I'm done with the new layer, lest the two would blend into each other. There are, of course, ways around that, but would take many hours of work, maybe even days since I'm not that good with the application I use. You could try removing only the Resource file from the folder. That will see a return of the cities and other resource items, but retain the terrain and unit graphics.
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
ORIGINAL: Uxbridge
Regrettably, the way I alter the graphics, I have to completely remove the old file once I'm done with the new layer, lest the two would blend into each other. There are, of course, ways around that, but would take many hours of work, maybe even days since I'm not that good with the application I use. You could try removing only the Resource file from the folder. That will see a return of the cities and other resource items, but retain the terrain and unit graphics.
Yes that is what I ended up doing is removing it. I also wanted to use your logistics but I really like the look of the railroads in this game over WarPlan. But I am using your weather and terrain files. Very nice. I even ported your weather and terrain back to WarPlan and it looks so much better! Posted about it on the forum. Maybe you can answer my question there? Thanks for considering though!
RE: Uxbridge Mod Pacific
Done.
Using my Pacific graphics in Europe was interesting. Must try that myself.
Using my Pacific graphics in Europe was interesting. Must try that myself.
(sorry, a little off-topic)
The terrain and logistics image files transfer quite well back into Warplan E.
I've been mixing and matching quite a few of the .png's.
Happily now, just sitting back and playing.
I even tried making an ULTRA retro map board Circa 1977 A.H. D.Day, but takes MUCH getting used to it.
I've been mixing and matching quite a few of the .png's.
Happily now, just sitting back and playing.
I even tried making an ULTRA retro map board Circa 1977 A.H. D.Day, but takes MUCH getting used to it.
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"I don't believe in reincarnation because I refuse to come back as a bug or as a rabbit".
RE: (sorry, a little off-topic)
Looks really vintage, magpius; from a period even before I started playing.
We're going in the opposite direction. The games we play now have a lot of added placenames and small cities to enhance the feeling of detail.
We're going in the opposite direction. The games we play now have a lot of added placenames and small cities to enhance the feeling of detail.
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