[Rel}New Map/Scenario - Mcensk Recon

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:00 am

This is a new map for the first scenario of the Mcensk Campaign. It is the actual area where the battle was fought made from Google Earth. It is suppose to look like it would of in early October of that year.
There is a new scenario too.
This is not yet part of the original campaign. That will have to wait until more maps are made.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:07 am

Not exactly the bright sunny days of Kharkov.

Mraah · Post by **Mraah** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:19 am

Thank you Mobius ... yet another good looking realistic map!

petrus58 · Post by **petrus58** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 5:05 pm

Hi Mobius, Thanks - this looks an excellent map. I do have a problem in that I get a ctd immediately on the start of loading. I checked the log and it says: attribute: year, value = 2/42. This is way beyond my skills, but is there a simple fix?
Thanks. 

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:35 pm

ORIGINAL: Petrus58
Hi Mobius, Thanks - this looks an excellent map. I do have a problem in that I get a ctd immediately on the start of loading. I checked the log and it says: attribute: year, value = 2/42. This is way beyond my skills, but is there a simple fix?
Thanks.

I think the year problem comes form another map.
Check the log for some problem regarding label.x or empty.x. You may not have copied those files to the Editor folder. Make sure you have the latest update of PCK as the scenario may include the latest mods of some vehicles.

Check to make sure the map is in the Media folder. An easy way to do that is to go into Scenario editor and at the Map: panel see if Mcensk_1 is on the list of maps and select it.
If it shows up it is in the right place.

rickier65 · Post by **rickier65** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:52 pm

Mobius,

I installed per instructions in readme and also had a crash to desktop as soon as i pressed next after purchasing my units.

I haven't looked at the log file yet.

EDIT:
I loaded into the scenario editor, and things looked ok, then I went ahead and saved to see if it would find any problems with database. (nice error checking there).

It said it couldn't find a model in the database. The model it seemed to not find was the KV-1 Model 1939.

I thought I was up to date (I think version shows 1.0.1(2955++++) not sure the rest of the number in parens.

EDIT #2:

I reinstalled 1.01h beta and still didn't have the 1939 KV1.

I then found your KV 1 vehicle mod here: tm.asp?m=1819478. POST number 11 for JGSME zip

Once I installed this mod, your scenario loaded fine. I'll be playing it tommorrow! Maps looks great (Labels and all!).

Thanks!

Rick

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:51 am

ORIGINAL: Rick
It said it couldn't find a model in the database. The model it seemed to not find was the KV-1 Model 1939.

Oops sorry about that. [:o]
I guess I got ahead of myself on models releases. I usually check to see if the model works on my standard unmodded game system before I release it.
I guess its been some time since Erik had an update.

Some people were having a tough time with this scenario. Especially with the KVs. So I cut them down to the lowest member with their puny 76mm gun. But you won't encounter them unless you dilly-dally.

petrus58 · Post by **petrus58** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:56 pm

Mobius, Got it work as well. I think it was the KV 1939, or rather the absence of! A great map and scenario. I'm quite excited about the future of PC. Many thanks.

rickier65 · Post by **rickier65** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:13 pm

Mobius,

Thanks for the Recon2 scenario! I've finally tore myself away from working on Piepsk to start playing it!

If I can make a suggestion, for your minimap, You might want to change the color of orange to something else. I think it's showing orange dots for all of your structures(impassible terrain). But on the minimap, it makes it look like observed Russain units (they also show up as orange dots on the minimap when sighted.

Just a suggestion.

Thanks again

Rick

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 11:57 pm

Yeah, that's a result of the limited pallet of the minimap from where I copied it. I didn't spend much time changing it. I'll eventually get a standard pallet for all the minimaps in the series.

rickier65 · Post by **rickier65** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:02 am

I just ended up going to Paint.net and swapping colors their for the minimap in Piepsk. I was actually able to do two or three options in pretty short order (5 min. or less) then I just picked the one I though looked best.

Rick

Mraah · Post by **Mraah** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 2:29 am

Mobius,

I noticed that you included some AT gun pits (vehicle pits).

I haven't checked your map but you may want to look into applying the "hasheight" to the pits so it can provide some hull down cover. This will obviously need testing but I thought I'd mention it to you in case you want to try it. I don't know if the vanilla Pck maps label them as having height.

I'm going to include some gun pits in my map and I might even go a step beyond and make a new vehicle pit that provides very good front/side hull down protection.

I'm quite excited about hull down and how to incorporate into our maps ... The hasheight attribute is pretty cool.

Rob

EDIT NOTE : I wish they would have another "field" in Scene Editor whereas we can ID the object with an average location blockage value so we can (like in Panzer Wars) hard code the object as blocking specific location ranges ... ie, from 1 thru 7. I understand that diferent vehicles have different heights and/or locations so the only way to make it work is to apply the "size" value of the vehicle with a modifier to adjust the location damage. For example, a Hetzer may be totally blocked but a King Tiger would be able to have it's turret exposed.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 2:37 am

I think hasheight has more to do with how the meshes of figures and vehicles work together than any game play. If you give a pit hasheight all units crossing it will go up when it crosses the lip. I'm not sure if a tank rocking on a narrow lip is more realistic than just plowing through it. PKC standard is to even give foxholes hasheight. I don't do that any more.

I think game play goes by the color code. Doesn't matter what sprite you paste over it.

Mraah · Post by **Mraah** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 2:42 am

ORIGINAL: Mobius
I think game play goes by the color code. Doesn't matter what sprite you paste over it.

The color code would provide the accuracy/sighting modifier but the "lip" would provide the additional cover needed for hull down.

You can make the "lip" as a tank obstacle so it wouldn't teeter on top ... it would have to back out of the pit.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 2:51 am

I'm not sure what if providing the hulldown. Is it the trench color giving an absolute hulldown to any unit on it or is it the mesh of the lip stopping the lower sighting ray from reaching the lower part of the vehicle?

Mraah · Post by **Mraah** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 6:01 am

ORIGINAL: Mobius

I'm not sure what if providing the hulldown. Is it the trench color giving an absolute hulldown to any unit on it or is it the mesh of the lip stopping the lower sighting ray from reaching the lower part of the vehicle?

From my tests, it's the MESH acting as the ground when it tagged as "hasheight", which stops the low ray.

The trench color doesn't provide a "per hit" sighting ray block.

You really have to see it to believe it. I haven't tested the vehicle trench as to whether the lip is high enough to provide hull. I've only created blockage via my wall model set to block the low ray.

Rob

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 12:03 pm

ORIGINAL: Mraah
From my tests, it's the MESH acting as the ground when it tagged as "hasheight", which stops the low ray.

The trench color doesn't provide a "per hit" sighting ray block.

Have you tried testing the ray blocking if there is no 'hasheight' setting?

Mraah · Post by **Mraah** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 7:52 pm

ORIGINAL: Mobius
Have you tried testing the ray blocking if there is no 'hasheight' setting?

Yes. I just finished up retesting the "no hasheight" and it does not provide hulldown (on various terrain color).

Now, I don't know if the low ray needs to be blocked by so much garbage for it to provide hulldown (ie, the per-hit rule). Frankly, you'd have to have a pretty thick wall in this case and I've tried several walls side by side but no joy.

Ok ... So, I have a theory that the sighting modifier, with regards to the per-hit rules, only applies to spotting a unit, not providing hull down. I say this because when you tag an object as hasheight it will be displayed in the game (when you use the sighting tool) as being blocked by the ground. If the object didn't have the hasheight tag it will say it's blocked by an obstruction or whatever.

Basically the ground term provides hulldown ... IMHO.

Anyway, I checked the Vehicle_trench for hulldown ... If the trench is placed level to the ground it doesn't have enough height to provide hull down. You have to raise the trench up a bit ... in other words, like in the vanilla pck maps they "dug" them into the ground ... which requires us to have to build the mesh by hand around the trench. Alternately, if you make a new trench (like I did) you can slap it on the ground ... tag it "hasheight" and then viola! My wide, skinny screen shot shows the examples I mentioned.

Rob

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 8:22 pm

So it looks like the low ray is not flush with the ground but maybe 1m up. Which would make sense. The PCK low "curb high" dugout look to be only about half that.

Mraah · Post by **Mraah** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 3:39 am

Yeah ... 1 meter is about right. As a matter of fact, the walls in the background in the screen shot are the 1 meter height walls I gave Rick and these work beutifully.

Let me know if you want a set of those walls or the new vehicle trench. I'll be including them in my map anyhow. Since you have 3D Max I'm sure you can make your own if you really wanted to.

I'll probably make a new AT-gun trench ... WHich, by the way, would probably be needed for our new maps because it appears the hit locations are used for them too ... which might help it survive a bit longer than without.

Rob