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Post by danzig70 on Aug 16, 2019 6:19:58 GMT 1
 there's nothing wrong with drinking good wine and daydreaming. But seriously I found/find your idea of a global campaign very interesting. It's a pity that a lot of links in the first pages of this thread are dead. I have not forgotten about this project and will work on it further. Basically, it consists of shortcuts to specific maps instead of going through the campaign menu in the game. I just have to modify the campaign.xml file to reflect these changes. I realize it has been 9+ years since I started the project  |
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Mat
General
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Post by Mat on Aug 16, 2019 6:38:53 GMT 1
Great!! i thought this Project is already dead |
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Post by Quintaxel on Aug 16, 2019 9:49:37 GMT 1
there's nothing wrong with drinking good wine and daydreaming. But seriously I found/find your idea of a global campaign very interesting. It's a pity that a lot of links in the first pages of this thread are dead. I have not forgotten about this project and will work on it further. Basically, it consists of shortcuts to specific maps instead of going through the campaign menu in the game. I just have to modify the campaign.xml file to reflect these changes. I realize it has been 9+ years since I started the project This is good new danzig70. So if I understand correctly you are thinking of something similar to the campaign screen of the classic 'Command and Conquer' series. Do I understand you correctly ? In it's simplest form the player could choose the maps he want to play. This choice is independent of previous choices or results. If a campaign has let's day 10 missions the the player could choose to play these missions in any order he desires. or something more complicated. The possible choices the player has depend on previous choices and or results. So again when a campaign has 10 missions then for the first map the player could make a choice between maps 1,2 and 3. When the player chooses map 1 then the choice for the next map will depend on the fact if he wins or looses the battle in map 1. so as an example Player wins: The second map in the campaign could be 2,4 or 6 Players loses: The second map in the campaign could be 2,3 or 5 Is this like what yo have in mind ? You have my full attention. Please keep us posted. |
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Post by danzig70 on Sept 17, 2019 5:39:58 GMT 1
Hello Quintaxel, using the lua scripting, I think I can specify the next map. So if you exit a map to the north it would lead to one map or east would lead to another map. (both already created). Editing the campaign.xml files is neccessary but not too complicated. Each map checks the campaign.xml files upon load so it knows what reinforcements to load and and what objectives have been achieved towards campaign objectives. It has been so long, I can't remember files names or file structures anymore. Each map needs possible reinforcments from each direction. It is not possible as of yet, to transfer the condition from a squad from its former condition to the next map. So, repair and reinforcements would be neccessary upon success of each map before proceeding to the next. It was a topic of long conversation in the earlier parts of the thread. Damn, I miss Major Pain! I had a mapping program (worldwind) that had areas of interest (AOI) of 1 degree x 1 degree divided into 6x6 chapters and then 6x6 maps/chapter. I can only create xml or lua (text) files from C# or possibly c++ at this time. My past infrastructure (worldwind) is now basically obsolete. Everything but the elevation data are still operational though.
I created a "Hercule Poirot" character animation and I was going to add a "Captain Hastings" (GB Officer) both with modified speech. My job has been slow lately so I hope to create a test campaign titled "Hercule Poirot: Night of the Generals" based on the movie (night of the generals) so you could play either as Hercule Poirot (allies) or Major Grau (german) or Inspector Liesowski (polish) to try and solve the mystery taking place in the City of Danzig before the war to showcase the concept. I moved on from BK to Silent Hunter 3, to Steel Fury, but nothing provides the playability and customization of Blitzkrieg! Hence, my return I suppose. I have been trying to develop a wargame simulator like the moivie (wargames, 1983) and this recent article www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1253.html |
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Post by danzig70 on Oct 4, 2019 3:24:28 GMT 1
I have started painting the Poirot character based on the German Officer resource unit. There will just be summer (copied to spring and winter) and africa skins because there are just so many animations to paint. I had forgotten how time-consuming it is painting one pixel at a time! Luckily I can use the GB Officer unit for Captain Hastings, both with custom speech. If all goes well I think you will find the audio clips a bit humorous. I have also looked into the campaign xml files for the campaign and chapters. I am basically starting from scratch because I have forgotten so much over the past NINE years. |
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Post by Quintaxel on Oct 7, 2019 11:47:04 GMT 1
Hello Quintaxel, using the lua scripting, I think I can specify the next map. So if you exit a map to the north it would lead to one map or east would lead to another map. (both already created). Editing the campaign.xml files is neccessary but not too complicated. Each map checks the campaign.xml files upon load so it knows what reinforcements to load and and what objectives have been achieved towards campaign objectives. It has been so long, I can't remember files names or file structures anymore. Each map needs possible reinforcments from each direction. It is not possible as of yet, to transfer the condition from a squad from its former condition to the next map. So, repair and reinforcements would be neccessary upon success of each map before proceeding to the next. It was a topic of long conversation in the earlier parts of the thread. Damn, I miss Major Pain! I had a mapping program (worldwind) that had areas of interest (AOI) of 1 degree x 1 degree divided into 6x6 chapters and then 6x6 maps/chapter. I can only create xml or lua (text) files from C# or possibly c++ at this time. My past infrastructure (worldwind) is now basically obsolete. Everything but the elevation data are still operational though.
.... Hi danzig70, I have taken a quick look at the Lua script for chapter and I agree it should be possible to select the next map. Question is, based upon which variable(s) would you make this decision. If you exit the map to the east the you would have to create a global variable that can be used is the Lua script for selecting the next mission, right ? Would it not be simpler to select the next map based upon the result of the previous map ? After each mission a score is calculated and stored in a global variable ? Interesting. |
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Post by danzig70 on Oct 16, 2019 23:56:39 GMT 1
I basically based everything on a 1 degree x 1 degree area of interest (campaign) divided into 6x6 chapters per campaign, divided into 6x6 maps per chapter. This was originally because my elevation data was 3600x3600 cells of data. With these grids I hoped to create virtual tables of available maps so that the script files could calculate the next map (NSEW).
I also found that you could specify which map and mods to load via the command line parameters in the shortcut.lnk files. This way if a player had a map of the world, europe or asia they could download any maps/mods available or locally run a specific map/mod.
Now that I am getting back into it, I am remembering all the obstacles that are in the way. I am concentrating now on a simple chapter to show dynamic movement between maps. Since there is no way to transfer unit health between maps, repair units have to appear at the end of each successful battle before entering the next battle. It's just one hurdle after another, but I welcome any help you can provide.
Thanks
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Post by danzig70 on Oct 17, 2019 3:15:10 GMT 1
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Post by danzig70 on Oct 17, 2019 3:18:40 GMT 1
Hello SJ, I think we tried that and it didn't work, but I will give it another shot.
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Post by Quintaxel on Oct 17, 2019 12:07:03 GMT 1
Now that I am getting back into it, I am remembering all the obstacles that are in the way. I am concentrating now on a simple chapter to show dynamic movement between maps. Since there is no way to transfer unit health between maps, repair units have to appear at the end of each successful battle before entering the next battle. It's just one hurdle after another, but I welcome any help you can provide. Thanks Couldn't you use an LUA script to find the health of each core unit at the end of the map, store it as a global variable, then apply damage equal to the "missing health" at the beginning of the next map via script? SJ's idea would work if there was a BK function to find out the health level of units. Repairing units at the end of each map would be a work around, but this is a detail IMO. |
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Post by Stanenberg on Oct 17, 2019 13:40:33 GMT 1
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Post by danzig70 on Oct 20, 2019 17:53:43 GMT 1
There is the DamageObject (iScriptID, fDamage); function so if a unit is damaged in a previous mission, it can be reflected in the new mission after reinforcements are landed. The GetObjectHPs (iScriptID)does not work for units according to the help file. Which is unfortunate because you can get the amount of ammo a unit has. It is possible to determine if a specific unit exists (hasn't been destroyed) which could be useful when landing reinforcements for the next map. I think we were also looking into creating custom commands using lua and a modified library file or .dll but that would be pretty extensive. I remember going through the UI folder looking for how a unit's health was displayed but nothing came of it. I seem to recall that Cuban Missile Crisis tracked fuel usage. Perhaps there are commands for health in that game. I swear I bought it at one point but can't find it. There's also the ailogic file from another game (Stalingrad?) that can be used in BK so units can't shoot through buildings. Perhaps that's the file to look at. Thanks Stanenberg! I will check those out. Here's an image of the method I use to create a table of maps. Campaign (red), Chapter (blue), and map (green).
Then I zoom in to the map I want to create, make a screenshot, and overwrite the map.tga file. Since roads, rivers and rail don't show up on the game map, I use trees plot them. Buildings are much easier because they do show up on the minimap. You have a save a copy of the modified tga file because everytime you click on create map, it is overwritten.
The problem with making maps this way as they don't conform to the isometric alignment of buildings, fences, and bridges.
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Post by danzig70 on Oct 21, 2019 2:10:21 GMT 1
The process is working pretty well and I have mapped major roads and waterways. Then I use the topo map to place landmarks such as churches, rail stations, hospitals, etc. Then I go to Danzig Online to look up individual streets or landmarks to get a feel of what they looked like (churches, cafes, hotels, industrial, residential, townhouse, single-family, etc). My work-around for bridges was to terminate rivers on either side of roadways/railways. It doesn't look too bad. I will likely have to alter side roads to conform to isometric view and alter some major roads for major bridges. I hope the citizens of Gdansk will understand.
I had already bought BK Total Challenge 1, 4, 5 which add a little more variety of buildings for a large urban map. I noticed that BK does not let you have more than one mod enabled at a time. My solution for this was to use the JSGME program from the Silent Hunter 3 community to enable mods. I think I mentioned it earlier in the thread. It works with any game that has a data folder/mod folder architecture and warns of conflicts when mods have duplicate files. Sometimes the order mods are loaded for the desired files to be active, is important. I loaded TC 1,4 mods using this method and it seems to work ok for now. The program can be downloaded here and just needs to be placed in the run directory for your BK version and then run (double click). You can cancel or disable specific mods if problems arise.
My question is how many people have the Total Challenge series installed? What is the proper etiquette/legal ramifications for when a game publisher is now defunct or a mod creator has left the community? I don't mind providing links to where games can be purchased, properly attributing the creator of community mods prominently, and to ask for permission when at all possible to individual creators of mods. Personally, I think that since it is for personal use and I am not making money from it, it should be alright.
BTW, I just played a mission from TC5 Modern Warfare and it was a blast. I am glad I reinstalled the games and forgot what fun it was. My troops were not so pleased.
EDIT: Although loading TC 1 and 4 worked fine, I did find that among the files that conflicts is the modobjects.xml file. This could pose a problem down the road with other mods. I found and installed CMC and CMC: Ice Brigade. In order to use buildings and units from these games in the past, I unzipped the data.pak and textures.pak into a new mod folder. Then I appended the current modobjects.xml file with the entries from the new mods. Anyways, with just TC 1,4 loaded I have a few new buildings, new trains and even two trolley cars to add to the map |
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atlas555
General
I know not what course others may take. As for me, give me liberty or give me death.
Posts: 1,072
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Post by atlas555 on Oct 21, 2019 12:09:33 GMT 1
danzig70-funny to see the reference to one of my favorites-SHIII with GWX and JSGME.
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Post by danzig70 on Oct 21, 2019 23:14:34 GMT 1
Atlas: It's a great game. I run it on my game computer while I am working and then leap into action when a ship is spotted. SJ: Thanks. I get too bogged down with wish lists that detract me from my primary objectives. Paralysis by analysis I think they call it. I'll try just using Heimatfront and go from there. Wow! You're right, there are alot of good buildings in the mod.
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there's nothing wrong with drinking good wine and daydreaming. But seriously I found/find your idea of a global campaign very interesting. It's a pity that a lot of links in the first pages of this thread are dead.
