PDT Files

[pburton2000]

Hello,

Great game- purchased it yesterday.

What is the best tool/app for modifying the PDT files found in the DATA Directory ?

Cheers
ColonelFlag

[Jason Petho]

Thank you so much! It is appreciated!

Any text editor will work.

Notepad, Notepad++, WordPad, JEdit, etc.

[pburton2000]

Ok cool thanks Jason so where can I get info on what the numbers mean- opening the MOVEMENT .PDT for example I see this ->

"200 0 8000 0 200 220 175 400 250 1200 300 0 300 200 175 0 375 220 300 220 400 220 300 0 230 8000 0 200 0 300 0 300 0 300 0 300 400 "

and similar lines.

Cheers

[Rosseau]

I also would very much like to experiment a bit with the PDT parameters. It's something that the old John Tiller games even had a PDT "editor" for.

Anyway, thanks for asking pburton2000, and looking forward to some guidance on this.

Best wishes!

[Jason Petho]

Ah, the movement file. Soooo complicated. *laughs*

Each of the columns pertain to a terrain type.

In short, they take each units speed parameter, let's use Infantry with a speed of 10 km/h.

That translates to 4 hexes per turn on the paved road. That's 100 Action Points / 4 hexes = 25 Action Points. That's what the Unit Handbook says for this particular platoon.

In the movement.pdt for paved road has a modifier of 100 or 1.00, so no change.

For Clear Terrain, the modifier is 120, or 1.20. A quick calculation shows that 1.20 * 25 Action Points = 30 Action Points - which is what the Unit Handbook says.

Further down the list we have forests that have a of 260 or 2.60. A quick calculation shows that 2.60 * 25 Action Points = 65 Action Points - which is what the Unit Handbook says.

Tedious indeed.

Something to note is that watercraft have a modifier that reduces their values by 5 for boats, 6 for rafts and 4 for ships.

[pburton2000]

Ok thanks for the explanation Jason.

Now i'll try some tentative modding.

[Jason Petho]

You're most welcome!

Positive vibes, of course!

[Rosseau]

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll let sleeping dogs lie regarding the PDTs. I have no business modding them, anyway!

Better to leave that to the experts, who are trying to achieve a very specific historical condition that is needed for a special scenario.

[pburton2000]

@Jason Petho- regarding your previous post around speed data ->

"In short, they take each units speed parameter, let's use Infantry with a speed of 10 km/h.

That translates to 4 hexes per turn on the paved road. That's 100 Action Points / 4 hexes = 25 Action Points. That's what the Unit Handbook says for this particular platoon"

Does that mean that each turn in the game is 6 minutes ??
( Given 4 hexes is 1km which is 1/10 of the speed the unit could move in an hour which = 6 minutes).

Cheers

[Jason Petho]

That's how the engine codes calculates movement, based on 6 minutes, although every scenario will vary in the time that each turn represents.