User's Game Improvement Project

[Dgold]

I would be interested in sharing my ideas and work on improving this great game.

I have been in touch with a few users so far.

Anyone else interested?

[gwgardner]

A year ago Lez at Wastelands agreed to let me have the code, to fix the bugs, but I decided not to follow through because 1) the development code would have to be obtained (compiler, correct version of libraries), 2) the game code would be heavily in Polish.

Perhaps someone who sees your post, or you yourself, would be interested in contacting Lez again concerning that project. And while you're at it, fix Storm over the Pacific too!!

[Rasputitsa]

Would like to see this game improved and would help where possible, with limited skill, but great hopes.[:)]

[Alan Sharif]

There is a new patch on steam for this title, and the Pacific one. Perhaps they have resolved some of the bugs? Update, looks like a false alarm. Loads of my games are getting updates. I suspect this is a steam thing.

[Rasputitsa]

Problem with the Steam issue of ToF is that if there ever was an update, automatically applied, it might wipe out any mods and bug fixes you had applied.

I am staying with v1.05, as I think I need to keep control of the game, as the only way to keep it running. I have so many GUI changes, consts.ini file data adjustments and mods applied, that I could not risk any of the data being changed in an unexpected update.

However I would think that another update is very unlikely. [:(]

[akos01]

ORIGINAL: gwgardner

A year ago Lez at Wastelands agreed to let me have the code, to fix the bugs, but I decided not to follow through because 1) the development code would have to be obtained (compiler, correct version of libraries), 2) the game code would be heavily in Polish.

Perhaps someone who sees your post, or you yourself, would be interested in contacting Lez again concerning that project. And while you're at it, fix Storm over the Pacific too!!

Excellent idea!

Provided you obtained the source code (as I read somewhere else in the forum), I'm willing to help you out with the Polish translation, if this moves forward the project.

Best,

[Rasputitsa]

This game had the potential to be one of the best strategic WW2 games ever, except for the bugs, instability and scenario inconsistencies.

Anything that can be done to salvage the game would be well worth the effort.

[akos01]

Agree. This game very well worth developing and bug-fixing.

I'll participate if there is somebody who are willing to manage the project.

[akos01]

Somewhere here in the forum I found an excellent spreadsheet computing the actual figures of the nations' armies.

It's useful to see what your, your allies'and enemies' numbers and are, esp. compared to each other.

I have upgraded it to become more detailed.

If anyone is interested I send the .xls file to him/her in pm.

[akos01]

Also, for fun I have adjusted the list of the British commanders to be more realistic historically.

I have deleted the ones was at the high command or reserves, or who served in the Middle-Eastern and Far-Eastern theater for most of the war. They constituted half of the list. In their places I put historical army group, army commanders who served as field commanders throughout the war. Thus their list shortened to a more proportional number compared to the size of the German, USSR and USA armies.

For the sake of historicity I take commanders from the larger Commonwealth nations, which means Canada actually, for South Afrika and New-Zealand gave corps level commanders only, while the Australian forces and general officers, after fighting in the Mediterranean and Afrika, went to the Pacific theater for the rest of the war when Japan entered the war .)

For this renewed cadre I redistributed the skill points from 7 to 3. The original rating itself was unrealistic in virtue of the roles, accomplishments, capability of the real-life field commanders. (According to my main source, Wikipedia [;)] )

If anyone is interested I send the .xls file to him/her in pm.

NB: Also, the list of the German, American, and Soviet commanders could do with some adjustment in terms of skills (Zhukov-3 when Vorosilov-5? Kesserling-4 - come on!) or being on list (MacArthur in Europe?, non-field commanders). This work is in progress.

[Rasputitsa]

I was working on giving each nation it's own attributes in the individual consts_countries_ini files, mainly based on command capability and maybe using separate HQ units for actual commanders.

I have a selection of units_images for HQ units, here are some examples.





This is just for demonstration, the actual images are 256x128 .png images

[Rasputitsa]

This is how it looks in the game:






You can use any unit name you want, just name the particular commanders' image in the units_images file with whatever name you want to appear in the game. When you type that name in the onscreen unit info box, that is the image you get.

[akos01]

ORIGINAL: Rasputitsa

I was working on giving each nation it's own attributes in the individual consts_countries_ini files, mainly based on command capability and maybe using separate HQ units for actual commanders.

What's your concept for this?

It's a pity that air force and navy commanders hasn't got experience points and the same modifier impact as the land force commanders, and navy units experience is nonexistent, too. Can these be tinkered in the .ini files?

Great images!

[akos01]

In your Rundstedt HQ picture the unit type is "Division".

I'm playing with the 1.06v (it's good for me, I can live with the glitches), where there are army and corps denominations. Is there any tweak I can get back the original div.-corps denominations, or they are coded in the game-engine?

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: akos01

In your Rundstedt HQ picture the unit type is "Division".

I'm playing with the 1.06v (it's good for me, I can live with the glitches), where there are army and corps denominations. Is there any tweak I can get back the original div.-corps denominations, or they are coded in the game-engine?

I am using v1.05, which came out as a self install update, issued directly from Wastelands, without a Matrix updater. I have a copy if you want it. I don't know how to fix the div-corps problem, which is why I stayed with v1.05, also I did not know what else was broken in v1.06, knowing that the 'Armor in City' combat modifier was one bug.

All versions since v1.01 have had problems, as every attempt to fix the game brought in more bugs. The main fault is that the 'Terrain Combat Modifiers' are only being applied to Poland, nation #01 in the countries list.

The fix for this is to take the 'Terrain Combat Modifier' text which appears in each scenario consts.ini. file and place it into all the countries consts_xxxxxxxx_ini files. Some countries in the scenarios do not have separate consts_ini files so you just create them and place the Terrain Combat Modifier text there.

Now you have individual national consts_xxxxxxxx_ini files for all nations in the scenario you can think about giving them different attributes, so that Switzerland can be given a terrain combat modifier advantage in mountains, rather than all nations having to have the same factors applied.

This can be extended to all the other modifiers in the scenario main consts.ini. file, these can be altered in each nations' consts_xxxxxxxx_ini files for different attributes in land, air, or sea combat, unit build times and command performance.

You can give each nation a different command performance by amending the text in each nations' consts_xxxxxxxx_ini and by varying the text, as the game progresses, different nations can improve, or deteriorate in command performance as the game progresses.

This process of editing the consts.ini files before, or during a game gives you great flexibility and opens up huge opportunities to manage the game. It is time consuming, but it can be rewarding. This flexibility and open architecture in the game is a huge bonus, but also the reason for the game's limitation, as it is practically useless for PBEM, because you would never know what your opponent was editing in the background. However for solo play against the AI it is great.

The concept for command and control is twofold, first to give different countries different command capabilities, second to modify the way command effects operate to spread command from separate HQ units, rather than just add a command bonus to any particular unit.

National command performance covers the problems on the Eastern Front where historically Soviet command and control completely broke down, but if you give the Soviets the historical OOB and any operating command and control they are unbeatable. So you set the Soviets to surrender quickly when isolated, cities have a reduced defence bonus, through 1941, but then you edit the Soviets to be tougher into 1942 and cities get a better defence modifier, so you replicate Leningrad and Stalingrad.

Other counties can be handled differently to get a more varied and historical effect, rather than the one-size-fits-all of the single scenario consts.ini file applying modifiers to all countries equally.

The other aspect of command and control is the effect beyond the unit that the commander is assigned to, expecting to enhance that effect to have HQ units (divisions) projecting the command bonus to nearby units, rather than just the unit with the commander. Here again, once you have all nations with their own data in individual national consts_xxxxxxxx_ini, then these effects can be varied.

The commander images are for separate HQ units, using 'division' size units, but getting the balance between the command effect for the unit with the commander attached and the effect on nearby units, including the range of the command effect, is more difficult.

Basic concepts are that the scenario consts_ini. file carries the default data for all nations that do not have their own consts_xxxxxxxx_ini data. The main scenario consts_ini. is fixed (unless you edit), but the individual national consts_xxxxxxxx_ini are saved with each game save, because data changes during the game. This means that to change data in a running game you need to go to the game save, but it will not change anything for a new, game, that has to be done in the scenario file before you start. The advantage is that you can change modifiers as you play, but some of the data does not save, don't know why, it's not a big issue, it just certain data lines which do not save into the next turn.

So there is lot that you can do, it takes some work, but you can give yourself more control of the game, get more realism and more features.

Example, there are Italian islands in the Mediterranean, or long lengths of coastline with no ports, where you can get no supply, so I adapt the Mulberry harbour data for certain countries with a naval capacity, to be cheaper and appear quickly and drop in a harbour (Small Harbours Mod), this represents bringing an existing small harbour into use and makes these islands (Rhodes) viable as a base.

Or, adjust national unit build rates and get additional equipment, such as Italian aircraft carriers, on reduced build time and cost, simulate ships already under construction and completed, instead of cancelled, and much more.

Here is a small harbour placed on the site of the real harbour at Namos, Norway, to make operations on this coast viable.

[Rasputitsa]

This is what my game looks like, with an adapted 'Fall Gelb' scenario. where the Netherlands can be taken in a much more historical single turn, provided the weather is right.

This is to show what can be done with the game, as so much is adaptable, but it is a love-hate relationship, as many bugs are still there and whilst the editor is practically useless, modifying data files can accomplish a lot.

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: akos01

It's a pity that air force and navy commanders hasn't got experience points and the same modifier impact as the land force commanders, and navy units experience is nonexistent, too. Can these be tinkered in the .ini files?

The commanders details are in each scenario commanders.csv file and all commanders in the game start with 0% experience, which is wrong because many commanders had previous experience, so selected commanders can have experience levels raised in that file, by changing the data. This would include all commanders, Naval, Air, as well as Land commanders.

[akos01]

Thanks for sharing your ideas, they are quite useful!

I have downloaded the 1.05 mod, but if you happen to have the Storm over the Pacific installer... [:)]

[akos01]

My problem is not with the land force commanders (e.g. in the Clash of the Titans scenario I added every one of them some experience points for the same reason). A project of mine is to make their person, number and skills more realistic and historic. (As I have done this with the British)

My problem is that the naval and air force commanders don't acquire experience and don't project them to the nearby air and navy groups' effectiveness (if I adjust the points manually).

In fact the navy is a special issue, for the groups or individual ships have no experiment and effectiveness attributes what a navy commander could boost.

I didn't find the solution for these in the .ini or .csv files. Or am I missing something?

I acknowledge my navy issue is a complex one and I assume that there's no solution outside the game-engine.

But perhaps for the air force commanders experience issue?

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: akos01

My problem is not with the land force commanders (e.g. in the Clash of the Titans scenario I added every one of them some experience points for the same reason). A project of mine is to make their person, number and skills more realistic and historic. (As I have done this with the British)

My problem is that the naval and air force commanders don't acquire experience and don't project them to the nearby air and navy groups' effectiveness (if I adjust the points manually).

In fact the navy is a special issue, for the groups or individual ships have no experiment and effectiveness attributes what a navy commander could boost.

I didn't find the solution for these in the .ini or .csv files. Or am I missing something?

I acknowledge my navy issue is a complex one and I assume that there's no solution outside the game-engine.

But perhaps for the air force commanders experience issue?

Scenario consts_ini file

[Commander]
EffectivenessBonusForSkill = 2
InfluenceRange = 2
MaximumEffectivityForIndirect = 5
MaximumExperience = 20
EffectivenessBonusForEachExpPoint = 1
ChanceToGainExpWhenDefending = 30
ChanceToGainExpWhenAttacking = 15
AvoidingDamageInAirCombatForEachSkillPoint = 2
DoubleDamageToLandUnitForEachSkillPoint = 2
HittingShipBonusForEachSkillPoint = 5
AvoidingDamageInNavalCombatByGroupForEachSkillPoint = 5
DetectingConvoyBonusForEachSkillPoint = 5
DetectingEnemyShipsWhenEnterSeaZoneForEachSkillPoint = 5

This should be where naval commanders are adding to naval group performance, but as with all of ToF, there is no guarantee that it is WAD.

One aspect could be that there is very little naval action in ToF, whilst there is aircraft and subs against ships, shore bombardment, transport and convoys, you do not see much ship against ship action. Whether experience settings are not having much effect could be because there is little action for them to effect. I thought of trying to modify the text to get more ship to ship action, but then there wasn't much big gun action in Europe during WW2, so I left it.