Almost in time for St Pats!

Your place to ask and discuss scenario design or modding questions.

Moderator: Arjuna

Post Reply
RicSolis01
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:11 am

Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by RicSolis01 »

I've been working on a scenario on the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and I was wondering if anyone still plays HTTR and would like to try it out. Its still a WiP but the map of Dublin's done (would appreciate feedback) and I'm about a quarter way into the scenario. Will post it here if anyone's interested =)

Thanks,
Ric
User avatar
Arjuna
Posts: 17768
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 11:18 am
Location: Canberra, Australia
Contact:

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by Arjuna »

I'd like to see your map![:)]
Dave "Arjuna" O'Connor
www.panthergames.com
RicSolis01
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:11 am

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by RicSolis01 »

I don't believe this!! [:@]

I was already about 60% done with the scenario, worked out the victory conditions, reinforcements, etc. The Irish Volunteer side was done already and I was just finishing the British side. Then I saved it and went to mapmaker quickly to tweak something. But when I tried opening up Scenario Maker again it gave me an error message! It's like 3 weeks work down the drain and since I'll be out of town for a month or so I don't know when I can get back to it. I'll also need to drown my sorrows in a pint of guinness after this. It just won't function and it won't play either if you select it.

Well... I don't know if you guys can figure it out - I know that everything was working just fine so if there was an error maybe it was in the saving. The Dublin map seems to work fine.

Sigh... I'm just so disappointed.

Here's the file that doesn't want to work... don't know if you guys can somehow reverse engineer it and tell me what's wrong. I know it was working a hundred times before. I had units on the map, timings were fine, goals were squared away.

http://rapidshare.com/files/367259850/D_Rising16.AAS

And here's the map which DOES work...

http://rapidshare.com/files/367261869/DublinA.aam.zip

Sigh... I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it work guys.


User avatar
Arjuna
Posts: 17768
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 11:18 am
Location: Canberra, Australia
Contact:

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by Arjuna »

Ric,

I'll try and take a look at this next week.
Dave "Arjuna" O'Connor
www.panthergames.com
RicSolis01
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:11 am

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by RicSolis01 »

Many, many thanks Arjuna. I swear it was working fine, then I saved it and then it wouldn't load up anymore. I can't imagine what I did wrong. I was able to get it 60% done over the course of three weeks and that was a LOT of loading and saving.

Hope you can let me know how to fix it! [&:]

RicSolis01
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:11 am

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by RicSolis01 »

If I can get Easter Rising to work, I've got an additional Battle of Dublin 1922 scenario plus a more accurate to the game Battle of Dublin 1944 (IRA and German special forces vs British and Irish garrison) for this map...

... and I was in the process of working on a mega map project - Warsaw Rising 1944 - when I got thus discouraged by todays events.

Hope this will all work out!

User avatar
simovitch
Posts: 5757
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:01 pm

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by simovitch »

The scenario is indeed buggered, but I found something interesting. You can find out some stuff by opening the scenario file with notepad or some text editor (yes, I've buggered my share of scenarios myself[:(]) but try not to lose faith.

Anyway, your scenario looks like it's melded together some bits of other files, like, it should be looking for the file MGEstab.aae but yours is looking for 3 seperate estab files including something called MGEstab.AK. Also it seems to remember a map called Dublin1916...?

None of this looks very hopeful to me, but does this shed any light?
simovitch

RicSolis01
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:11 am

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by RicSolis01 »

ARRGGG!! Nooooo... [:@]

I think what must have happened is I was loading and saving so quickly - like I'd be doing Scenario Maker but then noticed some glitch in the map and then I'd quickly shut down SM and go to MapMaker... sigh. It must have saved it wrong.

I suppose the good thing is the histories I wrote for the various units are still there? If I can open it in a text editor I should at least be able to copy those bits down. It'll take maybe 2 weeks or so to reconstruct but I could do it... though not right now.

Did you try the map out though? I hope the map at least is working [&:]

Well, it might be a sort of blessing in a kind of disguise... usually when I work on a scenario for any game the first run is total trial and error. At least I've got the ideas crystalized in my head now. My problem now though will be remembering which units I used to substitute for which Easter Rising organizations - like I remember the Dutch SS were the HQ battalion (though they probably would look better as Black and Tans now that I think of it!) the Marine Infantry were the Irish Citizen's Army... and which estabs I used for each one... I think most of the Irish Volunteer battalion companies were RAD Companies. I needed to use the ones with the fewest smgs/lmgs/mmgs/hmgs to try and approximate 1916 tech.

It would have been an interesting play though... The Irish get their battalions but the most important aspect would be the various leaders. I found that the game's habit of disbanding low strength units and sending their men to reinforce other battalions is a great way to simulate the arrival of more volunteers - is there a way to 'control' that better though? Like if I have a 50 man high staff value, high organization unit and a 50 man low staff value, pandemonium type unit, which will join which or will they be independent until their strength falls below 25 or 10 men?

Another thing I wanted to simulate was the chance to 'blow up' objectives such as the Magazine Fort (which was blown up on Easter 1916), the Records Tower of Dublin Castle, the Four Courts and the Customs House. For this I used the Ferry Crossing w/c I renamed 'Key Offices' - the thing is, I can't seem to get the Paddy Daly Engineer unit (simulating Daly's squad assigned to take the arms and munitions from the fort then blow it up) to actually blow the thing up. Is there a way to force them to blow it up or trigger it? Usually he just takes the fort and since there are no enemy units nearby he just sits there.

Finally, I made the Dikes into thick walls to outline the various buildings in Dublin. I was actually working on this when it crashed. The idea is that they should be virtually impassible for all but foot movement and provide shelter, cover and protection from outside fire. This is very important considering that there are stories of 2 men holding off a battalion during the rising.

All of these I was hoping would work as a 'testbed' for a subsequent Warsaw Rising scenario. One thing I was wondering though... is there any way the game simulates DESTRUCTION of infrastructure thru artillery bombardment?

I'm hoping now that at least the map works for you guys as well - if worse comes to worse, hey you got a free map of Dublin [;)]

Slainte!
Mr.Ric
RicSolis01
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:11 am

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by RicSolis01 »

Another question... how does map maker know how to scale a map? Like the Dublin map I think was 1 pixel = 500 meters when I photoshopped it but my photoshop composite of Warsaw is 1 px = 1 meter and that comes down to a whopping MASSIVE map. I really want to make sure the map is scaled right.

A final question... is it possible to set ammunition and weapons amounts for the units? Like if I had an Irish Volunteer unit of 30 men - but I'd want only 20 to have rifles and have a single MP40 to represent men with pistols and only give them like 30 rounds per man... I tried doing it but everytime I'd open it, they'd have the full amount of weapons and ammo for their size and type again [:(]

I just bought the Osprey book on the Warsaw Rising and so I'm hoping to work on it during the summer. 
User avatar
simovitch
Posts: 5757
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:01 pm

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by simovitch »

Your map loaded fine, and it was very nice work!

Scale maps are created by setting the dimensions (KmxKm) of your new map in MapMajer and importing a topo bitmap background of the same dimensions (KmxKm) into the mapmaker. Thus your topo should have a grid on it, preferably 1 km X 1 Km so you can visually match that up with the grid in MapMaker before you start digitizing things.

Setting ammo and weapon amounts is a new feature with BFTB.[:)]
simovitch

RicSolis01
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:11 am

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by RicSolis01 »

I'm glad you liked the map [:)] Would BFTB be available at regular gaming outlets like Gamestop or stores like Walmart? I can't seem to find it.
User avatar
simovitch
Posts: 5757
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 7:01 pm

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by simovitch »

ORIGINAL: RicSolis01

I'm glad you liked the map [:)] Would BFTB be available at regular gaming outlets like Gamestop or stores like Walmart? I can't seem to find it.
Battles from the Bulge has not yet been released as of this writing. Check out the forum and follow it's progress here.

I don't think Matrix sells games directly at retail outlet?
simovitch

RicSolis01
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:11 am

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by RicSolis01 »

Awww... so that's why.

Anyways, I'll try and recreate the Easter Rising Scenario... hopefully in time for Easter!
RicSolis01
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 2:11 am

RE: Almost in time for St Pats!

Post by RicSolis01 »

Here's the updated map... I realized that it was not a good idea to leave out Portobello Barracks to the south so I lengthened the map southward. Additionally, I've added Sir Roger Casement's Irish Brigade both what was historically available and what he planned to have (an understrength battalion strength 'brigade' with German officers, organization and machineguns) for a what if. Hope to finish this by Easter at least the main scenario, though without any variants or history.

Here's the updated map.

http://rapidshare.com/files/371573014/D ... m.zip.html
Post Reply

Return to “Scenario Design & Modding [HTTR]”