SPCW Main Menu Screen Screenshot

SPWaW is a tactical squad-level World War II game on single platoon or up to an entire battalion through Europe and the Pacific (1939 to 1945).

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David boutwell
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SPCW Main Menu Screen Screenshot

Post by David boutwell »

Civil War fans,

Just a little taste.....

Here is the new Main menu screen for Steel Panthers Civil War mod.. Lots of progress has been made on this mod over the last few months, including:

1. All new menu and editor screens
2. All new sound files (more than I have units for at this moment). The fife and drum music that accompanies the menu screens is awesome, and the Main menu screen music is a secret, but all are welcome to guess what it is.
3. Lots of LBM files (more than I have use for at this moment)
4. Many of the shp icons have been redone (have post and rail fences, rock walls with wooden support frames, new orchards, new boulder icons, new crops, new trees, new cobble streets and brick sidewalks, and new building icons that are more characteristic of 18th and 19th-century architecture, and new weapon and troop icons-much work to be done on these, though)
5. Initial OOB work started (enough to have some very fun battles!!). Suggestions on units that should be included are welcome.

Let's see what else.... I think that's about the whole game! You'll recognize the Steel Panthers "skeletal structure", but everything that could be changed, down to the menu screen buttons, has been changed to "Civil War". I don't have a time table for when this project will be completed, but when it is, you'll be notified right here.

Regards,

David Boutwell
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chief
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Yeah sure

Post by chief »

David: That cover is beautiful to say the least. But I noticed you kept the buttons secessionist gray............I like it. :D :D :) :) :cool:
"God Bless America and All the Young men and women who give their all to protect Her"....chief
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Post by Les_the_Sarge_9_1 »

Impressive. Is there a location where these files can be obtained, or is it not ready for public access yet?
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Post by m10bob »

Very nice!!!.(I got dibs on the 19th Indiana/"Iron Brigade"......)If you go commercial,I'll buy it..... ;)
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Post by pops »

Wow!!
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Post by David boutwell »

Chief, some aspects of the game, such as some of the menu buttons have no "period" counterpart, so I didn't bother changing them. But, now that you mention it, I'm glad that those buttons are grey! Les, when I am done with the whole thing, I'll put the whole mod. into a nice, neat package, and post them at a website from which they can be downloaded.

M10, did you notice that the Union regimental flag is 6th Wisconsin, as is the "black hat" at the bottom? :) I have been a big fan of those guys since I did a 30 page research paper on the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg on July 1, back in college. Granted, I am a true "Southern boy" by heritage (1620-Henrico County, Virginia is my direct lineage. My Great-Great? Grandfather was in the 6th Alabama in O'Neal's attack on Baxter, on Oak Ridge at Gettysburg, and in the Sunken Road at Antietam, to name a few engagements he was in, along with his brothers and other relatives, 46 in all.), but, I have recently discovered that I had an equal number of more distant relatives in New Hampshire and Vermont during the war. I always did like those folks up there! Hard-working rural folks, just like those Iron Brigade boys.

But, I'm sorry to say that the mod. won't go commercial. You'll have to get it for free.

I can't wait to start working on the maps for some of the Civil War battlefields. In contrast to trying to obtain adequate topographical info., etc., for SPWAW, obtaining the needed material for these maps will be a breeze! But I won't even think about doing that until everything else is done.

Regards,

David Boutwell
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Post by chief »

Rebelbug I have only one thing to say........YEEEHAAAW !
"God Bless America and All the Young men and women who give their all to protect Her"....chief
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robot
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love is civil war

Post by robot »

Thank you so much. I love the civil war battles. Have been to most of the battle fields so far. Cant wait to see this. Are you going to have campaigns are just scenerios. Will the battles be fought like in steel panthers. How bout the ranges on the muskets in comparison to the rifles. Are you going to have siege mortors too. And what bout the ranges for the cannon such as the smoothbore and the rifled.
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Post by sztartur2 »

Looks good.
Can you show some in-game screen shots?

Artur.
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David boutwell
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Post by David boutwell »

"Thank you so much. I love the civil war battles. Have been to most of the battle fields so far. Cant wait to see this.Are you going to have campaigns are just scenerios. Will the battles be fought like in steel panthers. How bout the ranges on the muskets in comparison to the rifles. Are you going to have siege mortors too. And what bout the
ranges for the cannon such as the smoothbore and the rifled."

Robot, I'm going to start out with scenarios depicting as many parts of the Antietam and Gettysburg battles as possible. This game will have a scale of 1 hex equals 25 yards, so that might dictate that the focus of a scenario is on specific locations (ie McPherson's Ridge, the Wheatfield, Marye's Heights, etc.). However, with each unit equaling a company, I have calculated that at most, you'll be able to field a few brigades and supporting artillery, etc., so the smaller battlefield will be fine, I think.

As the game engine is "Steel Panthers", the battles will be fought like that game, without the modern warfare related stuff.

I was concerned about the inability of units to change formation from column to battleline, etc., based on the inability of SP to model this. However, I loaded up a few regiments on a blank field the other day, and realized that, although you can't change the formation of a company, the challenge of moving a regiment in battle is still there. One of my Confederate regiments got caught trying to wheel a regimental front to face an oncoming Union attack, and got popped right in the middle of the wheel. Broke the whole formation all to hell, and smashed the center companies. And when I say smashed, I'm talking about 40+ man companies DONE! And don't think that didn't happen. Read Antietam: The Soldier's Battle, by Priest. But most of the time, a fresh company may cause one or two casualties per shot at 100 yards. But don't step up to a fresh company with no suppression at 25 yards! As the enemy becomes suppressed, an unsuppressed can close to within one hex and use the "threat of the bayonet", I like to call it to break the enemy company. hand to hand combat at one hex does not tend to cause high casualties. However, with a 40 to 50 man company the company can make about 5 bayonet attacks, usually resulting in the suppressed enemy bailing. It is very cool to play, and I play it over and over!

On weapon ranges....Here is what a few of the "experts" have told me (Joseph Bilby and the curator of the Manassas Battlefield Museum). Although the range of rifle muskets of the time were 5-6 hundred yards, easy, you had three problems. 1. A lot of soldiers, particularly in the urban North, had never fired a rifle before. 2. Units rarely, if ever, had target practice, so most men went into battle not knowing the potential of their weapon, or how to make use of that potential. 3. Many officers had no concept of the potential of the the weapons of their men, or how to make tactical use of these weapns. Plu, they had no confidence in their soldiers' ability to hit anything. So...they waited until about 100 yards to commence firing, which put troops with rifle muskets within the range of smoothbore muskets (who were firing buck and ball). Thus, units with smoothbores were not really at a disadvantage.

But to answer your question, rifled muskets will have a range of around 200 yards and smoothbores will have a range of 100 yards, with some variation to represent second-rate European import rifle muskets. pistols will be 50 yards.

Ranges for artillery will be what the plentiful historical records say they are.

Movement will be compatible, if somewhat slower that SPWAW, in consideration of the fact that you can move a lot faster in an open squad than in a company battle line.

Artur, I will get those up ASAP. For some reason, every time I click "add this file" I get much too long a delay. I try again later.

Regards,

David Boutwell
David boutwell
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Post by David boutwell »

"Thank you so much. I love the civil war battles. Have been to most of the battle fields so far. Cant wait to see this.Are you going to have campaigns are just scenerios. Will the battles be fought like in steel panthers. How bout the ranges on the muskets in comparison to the rifles. Are you going to have siege mortors too. And what bout the
ranges for the cannon such as the smoothbore and the rifled."

Robot, I'm going to start out with scenarios depicting as many parts of the Antietam and Gettysburg battles as possible. This game will have a scale of 1 hex equals 25 yards, so that might dictate that the focus of a scenario is on specific locations (ie McPherson's Ridge, the Wheatfield, Marye's Heights, etc.). However, with each unit equaling a company, I have calculated that at most, you'll be able to field a few brigades and supporting artillery, etc., so the smaller battlefield will be fine, I think.

As the game engine is "Steel Panthers", the battles will be fought like that game, without the modern warfare related stuff.

I was concerned about the inability of units to change formation from column to battleline, etc., based on the inability of SP to model this. However, I loaded up a few regiments on a blank field the other day, and realized that, although you can't change the formation of a company, the challenge of moving a regiment in battle is still there. One of my Confederate regiments got caught trying to wheel a regimental front to face an oncoming Union attack, and got popped right in the middle of the wheel. Broke the whole formation all to hell, and smashed the center companies. And when I say smashed, I'm talking about 40+ man companies DONE! And don't think that didn't happen. Read Antietam: The Soldier's Battle, by Priest. But most of the time, a fresh company may cause one or two casualties per shot at 100 yards. But don't step up to a fresh company with no suppression at 25 yards! As the enemy becomes suppressed, an unsuppressed can close to within one hex and use the "threat of the bayonet", I like to call it to break the enemy company. hand to hand combat at one hex does not tend to cause high casualties. However, with a 40 to 50 man company the company can make about 5 bayonet attacks, usually resulting in the suppressed enemy bailing. It is very cool to play, and I play it over and over!

On weapon ranges....Here is what a few of the "experts" have told me (Joseph Bilby and the curator of the Manassas Battlefield Museum). Although the range of rifle muskets of the time were 5-6 hundred yards, easy, you had three problems. 1. A lot of soldiers, particularly in the urban North, had never fired a rifle before. 2. Units rarely, if ever, had target practice, so most men went into battle not knowing the potential of their weapon, or how to make use of that potential. 3. Many officers had no concept of the potential of the the weapons of their men, or how to make tactical use of these weapns. Plu, they had no confidence in their soldiers' ability to hit anything. So...they waited until about 100 yards to commence firing, which put troops with rifle muskets within the range of smoothbore muskets (who were firing buck and ball). Thus, units with smoothbores were not really at a disadvantage.

But to answer your question, rifled muskets will have a range of around 200 yards and smoothbores will have a range of 100 yards, with some variation to represent second-rate European import rifle muskets. pistols will be 50 yards.

Ranges for artillery will be what the plentiful historical records say they are.

Movement will be compatible, if somewhat slower that SPWAW, in consideration of the fact that you can move a lot faster in an open squad than in a company battle line.

Artur, I will get those up ASAP. For some reason, every time I click "add this file" I get much too long a delay. I try again later.

Regards,

David Boutwell

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Post by Warrior »

As an former Civil War history buff and member of the 44th NY Volunteers of the North/South Skirmish Association (I had the pleasure of being in the very first reenactment of the first battle of Manassas back in the early 60's - and I looked awfully sharp with my uniform and musket, I might add :D ), I'm definately looking forward to the Civil War mod. And knowing David as I do, I know it will be as historically accurate as possible.
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David boutwell
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Post by David boutwell »

REMF wrote:As an former Civil War history buff and member of the 44th NY Volunteers of the North/South Skirmish Association (I had the pleasure of being in the very first reenactment of the first battle of Manassas back in the early 60's - and I looked awfully sharp with my uniform and musket, I might add :D ), I'm definately looking forward to the Civil War mod. And knowing David as I do, I know it will be as historically accurate as possible.
REMF,

Thanks for the vote of confidence. You see, that attention to the details will pay off in the end for everyone after all, won't it? :)

I am doing my best to put something out there that is worthy of its name. The two barriers to maximum historical accuracy are 1. the limited number of infantry icons (it would be great if you could change infantry icons for this game like you can change vehicle icons in SPWAW. That way, you could have different uniforms, etc!) You are limited to those in whatever file that is for each nation. 2. You can't change formations. That would allow companies to deploy as skirmishers and to change between column and line of battle, etc. At this time, I can't change those things, but I bet someone with computer programming skills could!

It is a "tall order to fry" to create a whole mod. that is practically (except fot the programming, which I don't know how to do) a new game. But, I am having a blast and learning a heck of a lot as I go.

I never thought that I'd ever be able to manipulate the look of the menu screens,etc. I had opened up those shp icon files with ShpEdit, and saw those big images split in half, and chalked it up that I'd never be able to access those screens. Thanks to Mike Amos, who gave me a tutorial on UNSHP, MAKSHP and HDSHP, I totally changed the look of the screens. I was able to get rid of all of the riveted steel, and replace it with a wood texture that looks much better, in my opinion, than that of the Battleground series.

I even got rid of all of the WWII flags in the menu screens, as having those there just screamed "half-baked mod.". And the "change command unit button" showing the WWII figure saluting...That guy is now a Confederate soldier, complete with infantry uniform trim and a (what I was always taught to b correct in my reenactment days) correct open palmed salute. Hows that for attention to historical detail, REMF?:) That's just one of the changes I made to the menu icon buttons.

If I could only change the movie in the beginning screen........

Seriously, if anyone has anything that you think might be of value in getting this thing together, be it weapons databases, or OOB suggestions, please speak up.

I intend to plow through this on my own, to insure that this mod. doesn't get bogged down and off-track because of too many different views of how it should be, the way the original version of SPCW did (I think that is the message that I got), but that doesn't mean that I won't listen to those of you have something to say about it.

Regards,

David Boutwell
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Post by David boutwell »

I'm not having any luck getting attached files to load. I'll keep trying, though.

David Boutwell
sami heimola
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WoW!!!

Post by sami heimola »

It's so nice to see that even somebody would improve that "alpha" version of SPCW which my team left some years ago. Great menu David:). Are you going to modify infantry/cavalry icons too? And how about OOBs? Are they just "generic" for whole CW era or meant just for some particular battle (Getty for example)? Some screenshots in future?

I wish good luck for your project,

Sami
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Post by David boutwell »

sami heimola wrote:It's so nice to see that even somebody would improve that "alpha" version of SPCW which my team left some years ago. Great menu David:). Are you going to modify infantry/cavalry icons too? And how about OOBs? Are they just "generic" for whole CW era or meant just for some particular battle (Getty for example)? Some screenshots in future?

I wish good luck for your project,

Sami

Hello Sami,

Yes, I have already modified the cavalry and infantry icons, and am in the process of creating unique icons for all artillery types.

The OOB's will be generic, just like SPWAW. I've been tryingto upload screenshots, but have not been successful. I will keep trying, though.

Regards,

David Boutwell
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Post by David boutwell »

For the moment, if anyone wants to see screenshots, let me know, and I'll send them to you. I can't get the upload to work.

David Boutwell
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Post by David boutwell »

Although I haven't yet been able to successfully upload any more SPCW screen shots, I did, in the interim learn how to edit the MECH.EXE file! What does that mean? It means that all of those 20th-Century anacronisms, and the text for those terrains whose icons can better be used for other things are going to go bye-bye. For example, vineyard now reads "corn", all references to "vehicles" now read "wagon", bocage reads "hedge", and hedge reads "fence" (because the icons for hedges and fences have taken the place of those two terrain features), US Marines reads "CS Army", the dates for the editor are now 1850-1869 (it remains to be seen whether or not I can change those dates in the MECH file. If I can't, the editor dates will, unfortunately have to go back.) I hope, I hope I can fix that! This was a MAJOR step in my efforts to create a mod. that, although it can never totally visually get away from its SPWAW roots, looks like an original Civil war game in every way that can possibly be modified within the limits of my capabilities.

This looks very cool. The problem is that I see it so often that I now take for granted all of the major changes that have been doone to this game. Several weeks ago, I would have fainted if I saw Confederate and Union troops slugging it out in the Miller "CORN" field, as opposed to the Miller "VINEYARD". Now, that's old news. So, if you like Civil War, you'd better get a defibrulator before you play this for the first time!

Regtards,

David Boutwell
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Matt R
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Post by Matt R »

Hi David -

It's a great thing to see someone pick this project up once again. I think that the original team could have made a tremendous game when Matrix actively supported us if we'd have quit lollygagging and pulled our stuff together. I probably shouldn't say it, but if you get 95% of the work done, somebody might be willing to do a little code work.

Are you still a member of the betaspcw group over at Yahoo? If so go to the files section and look up Code Changes.zip. Bob Wallace did a very comprehensive and impressive list of recommended changes. If implemented these will make an awesome game, and, which I'm positive of, a base to make a whole new series for SP.

Are you planning on doing seperate OOBs for the Navies? We were going to do battle-specific OOBs but it will take a long time. How about hypothetical intervention of foreign countries?

David, my thanks to you for picking this up. I'm sure Sami's glad of it too. By the way Sami, how are you buddy. It's been way too long since I've talked to you.

I'd like to see the screenshots, David, and the opening screen, since I can't get it to come up.

Email me at bubba808@worldnet.att.net

Thanks,
Matt.
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Post by Grimm »

Looks interesting! Keep us posted.

I'm not a programmer but here's a suggestion - on changing formations, could you do something similar to how helicopter altitude is handled in SP:MBT? Or maybe do something w/ the Advance/Defend settings in SPWaW? Just something to consider if you haven't already thought of it.
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