Global Campaign

[Xmen]

In 1940 the French generals did not understand modern warfare, they still believed in 1914 .... The tanks and planes were good but not in sufficient numbers....
So what Troups can do with an old weapons against Panzer, they have taken on the chin.
In addition to Marshal Petain, the hero of 1918, aged 84 in 1940 down his pants in front of the Germans.

Finally you do not entirely wrong because the Germans have recovered all the material French, that's how you can see tanks SOMUA during the campaign on Russia.

[Jagged Steel]

Jul 14, 2011 18:32:37 GMT 1 Xmen said:

In 1940 the French generals did not understand modern warfare, they still believed in 1914 .... The tanks and planes were good but not in sufficient numbers....
So what Troups can do with an old weapons against Panzer, they have taken on the chin.
In addition to Marshal Petain, the hero of 1918, aged 84 in 1940 down his pants in front of the Germans.

Finally you do not entirely wrong because the Germans have recovered all the material French, that's how you can see tanks SOMUA during the campaign on Russia.

I understand what you are saying Xmen, and I really was not trying to be a France basher, I was just repeating a bad (if fairly humorous) French stereotype. The same goes for the WC quote about Italy. I also agree that the French equipment was for the most part excellent. If they had grouped their armor into strong mobile units, installed radios in every tank, and used proper tactics, then things would have gone a lot differently when Germany attacked.

[LouisXIV]

It was a matter of German intelligence and perhaps some luck, that they managed to put their best troops up against the worst the French had. The French infantry were third string, and they had no AT or AA guns to speak of. The fact that the French mobile reserves had been moved up north earlier and committed to a drive into the Netherlands helped as well. Perhaps most significantly, the French had their tanks spread out over the whole front, while the Germans had theirs concentrated for the main blow.

Had the Germans stuck to their original plan of a modified Schleiffen swing through the low countries, I think they would have been just as successful in the long run. After all, the second-string troops the Germans had there managed to drive the best troops the British and French had back from one defensive line to the next, even before the Allies knew that their southern flank had been compromised. What would they have done with another 7 armoured divisions to drive a hole?

[Xmen]

@ SJ
At that time the French and English were at the same place as "Zuydcoote".(Do you know this historical movie?Weekend at Dunkirk for French: Week-end à Zuydcoote is a 1964 drama film directed by Henri Verneuil and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.)
So "I think" that the English guns "never used, Dropped once" too..................

[Major Pain]

Jul 15, 2011 16:46:54 GMT 1 Xmen said:

@ SJ
At that time the French and English were at the same place as "Zuydcoote".(Do you know this historical movie?Weekend at Dunkirk for French: Week-end à Zuydcoote is a 1964 drama film directed by Henri Verneuil and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.)
So "I think" that the English guns "never used, Dropped once" too..................

Ooooooh....


SCORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE!

[Xmen]

Thank you SJ for your unexpected support . ;D

[danzig70]

I've got the template files and will start working on the first test map. (Thanks Xmen) I am planning on the location being Saarbrucken unless someone has another location they would like to see. Anywhere is fine but somewhere in Germany, France, Poland, Soviet Union, Italy or China would be best as they have the best chances for aerial images and topo maps.

[Xmen]

If you need a hand to test, I'm here.

[danzig70]

I think for the first one Im going to make the program just create a file with all the Altitudes items (found under Terrain) and then I'll manually copy/paste into the template file. Hopefully I can get it to you sooner that way.

Baby steps and all that. ;D

[danzig70]

Well I just discovered that my previous calculation for the rows and columns of data for a BK map was wrong. I really dont know why I didnt see it before after spending so much time with it.

Still plugging away though!

EDIT:
The obvious answer was, of course, staring at me. As they say out here in the desert, "If it was a snake it would have bit me."









I had 3600 x 3600 rows and columns of data for a 1deg x 1deg
lat x long area. Now they are divided in 6 rows and 6 columns intead of 10 rows and 6 columns. Then each of those cells is divided into 6 rows and 6 columns for each 1' x 1' lat/long BK map. This gives a nice round 100 tiles x 100 tiles for each BK map. Which, sorry Xmen, means that the BK maps will be 25 x25 (400 tiles x 400 tiles). It is very easy to translate 1 point into 4 tiles. I still am using the 20x20 maps for testing.

The next problem is the hill shading. I was stuck at this point about 6 months ago. Each tile is assigned an elevation and also a shade value. For example, create a hill in a BK map and the backside of the hill is shaded and the front side "illuminated" depending (I think) on how steep it is. So, I can add all the elevations I want but it would not look right or might crash the editor if there is no shading. I am hoping that the Update Map command will correct the shading. That will be the first test.

I really have great respect for the programmer who made the map editor. It is a great tool. Next time, I think I will just stick with making maps.

[danzig70]

Made alot of progress this weekend. I understand some basics of c++ when it comes to manipulating files now. The program does basically three things now. It reads the header rows, counts the rows, and creates a test file. Nothing too complicated yet. Here are some screen shots.

First it reads the header rows. Next it reads a row of data from the file and outputs data to the screen



Here it outputs to a file.


The output the data to an xml file with all the xml tags so I can see at once if there are any formating errors. I have found none. So far. The program only outputs the Altitudes element of a bkmap.xml file. So I just opened it, copied the Altitudes element, and then pasted it into the template file.

So I have the first test files available. The first thing I want to test is what the heights look like. This test file includes heights over 500 (meters I presume). The next thing I want to test is the shade. Which is a bitch. When a hill is made in BK the tiles the tiles are shaded. Like shadows (I think) it depends on height and placement of the light source. I didnt edit the shade value.

Here is the file
www.sendspace.com/file/hc985m

The last thing I want to test is if the map editor can fix the shade values. There is an update map button/command. Im hoping that works. I also added a second file so there is a 20x20 map and a 25x25 map.

I still have a long way to go but it looks promising.

[Folgore]

Very promising.
I admire the fact that you are learning a programming language. I don't know if I would have been able to walk this way.
(maybe I'm a bit lazy? ;D )

[danzig70]

Thanks Folgore! It wasnt too bad. I found some good tutorials at learncpp.com. I liked Lua scripting and its kind of the same.

I have had some experience with apple basic in the late 70s to early 80s. All that p$ crap didnt interest me. I was only 10 or so.

I worked for a software company for a while (in the mailroom). But eventually ended up doing technical support and doing file maintenance in unix and dbc.

I have always hated school so sitting down and going through the tutorials, especially in the beginning, was a bit tough. Music, cigarettes and coffee/beer helps though

I do enjoy learning though so just keep your eyes on the prize as they say.

[Folgore]

Aug 1, 2011 19:06:00 GMT 1 danzig70 said:

...I have always hated school so sitting down and going through the tutorials, especially in the beginning, was a bit tough. Music, cigarettes and coffee/beer helps though

I do enjoy learning though so just keep your eyes on the prize as they say.

Then we have something else in common besides BK!
It wasn't matter of sitting and listening, things could be very interesting, the fact is that some teachers were quite politically oriented and I wasn't on the right side.
I did an high school based mainly on classical studies (the so called "Liceo classico") such as greek, latin, history and so on. So no much applied science there around ;D
Take into account that you have to choose the high school at fourteen. (One day, after summer holidays, my mother says: "Well, you have to go at that school. I have always enrolled you". That was my full right of choose... ;D )
Eventually I get out of that school with a mark slightly upper the minimum required.
Anyway those years taught me something useful:
1) Confronting with somebody more powerful than you that isn't your parent or relative;
2) Gathering sound informations before confrontation;
3) Finding what I need, or I want to know, by myself.

[danzig70]

I just purchased my last computer parts and should have the system up and running soon.