The Spanish Civil War v4 for ToT + ToTPP + Lua - Development Thread [ON HOLD]

[Pablostuka]

Naval combat event texts will show the actual ship names, types and classes:

Just a couple more days of finishing touches and I'll consider the combat module completed.

 

[Pablostuka]

I have completed the "surrender" (psychological warfare) functionality during ground combat which is driven by both a specific combat event (boosted by certain commanders) and also by a small chance to occur in combat under various circumstances.

Usually units surrendering will just dissapear, but some units can have their equipment and vehicles captured. See example against a Republican T-26 tank:

The captured unit is created in the attacker's location, inherits the original hit points and is of the same (or equivalent) type. They cannot move during the current turn to represent repairs and the need to assign personnel to use them:

Some nice functionality is that I use the traits module to drive which unit gets created on capture, depending on the attacker traits

If in the above example the attacker was not a militia unit, a regular motorised unit would have been created instead.

I might enhance this functionality even further, but so far the core of it works fine.

Pablo

 

[Pablostuka]

The position of the unit shields and the static TOT health bar & shield has always been bothering me (back in the MGE days one could position it where it suited the most). In the end I've drawn my own "minimalistic" health bar and set all drawn shields in the top left/top right corner of each unit slot and I have somewhat managed to reach a point where the health bar annoys me the least. The unit action letter (f, g, s, etc) will have no tribe specific background but will be transparent to avoid more clutter as per screenshot below (please don't mind the £ shield on the freighter, it's temporary)

What do you think? Do you like it like this or would you prefer the classic style with tribe-specific color background shield? (see previous post for a sample)

Thanks,

Pablo

 

[JPetroski]

What do you think? Do you like it like this or would you prefer the classic style with tribe-specific color background shield? (see previous post for a sample)

Can you still tell which civ has each unit at a glance with your new system? Sorry but this sentence confused me on that point.

 

[Dadais]

What do you think? Do you like it like this or would you prefer the classic style with tribe-specific color background shield? (see previous post for a sample)

That design looks refreshing to me !

 

[Pablostuka]

Can you still tell which civ has each unit at a glance with your new system? Sorry but this sentence confused me on that point.

Yes, the small square "behind" the health bar shows the tribe specific colour. In the screenshot below, red and yellow:

Is it too small for you? It's a pity I can't reposition it to be aligned with the unit specific shield...
Before it was like this (classic style):

 

[Dadais]

Is it too small for you? It's a pity I can't reposition it to be aligned with the unit specific shield...

Can't you align unit specific shields to it ?

Edith: Thinking about that, there's might be an issue with unit changing sides ?

 

[Pablostuka]

Can't you align unit specific shields to it ?

Edith: Thinking about that, there's might be an issue with unit changing sides ?

Nope, the health bar is static and can't be horizontally and vertically positioned inside the unit tile. You can play around with specific pixels around it but that's all. And the unit shields are all bigger than the space reserved for the health bar so can't horizontally align them either.

I spent several hours last night trying multiple approaches and this is the best I came up with trying to remove as much clutter as I could. Other styles of health bar/tribe shield are much more intrussive and take up extra space on top of the unit.

 

[Pablostuka]

And no, when the unit changes orientation, the health bar/tribe shield is static.

 

[Pablostuka]

BTW I'm giving myself a small break from programming (with work and then this it's too much!) so I'm giving the Units.bmp file the finishing touches moving shields around and recoloring some stuff. Thanks to Lua I was able to save another extra unit slot, so I'm including one of these guys:

 

[JPetroski]

Is it too small for you? It's a pity I can't reposition it to be aligned with the unit specific shield...
Before it was like this (classic style):

No it's fine - I just wasn't sure what you meant by the other post I quoted. As long as I can still see who owns what at a glance, it works for me! Also it's neat that you figured out that's possible (I don't think I've ever seen it done). I know I've had a few units have some stuff covered up by the shield before and it's good to know it can be moved (though it's too bad we can't move the static bar and only have the option of either having it or losing it).

 

[Pablostuka]

Also it's neat that you figured out that's possible (I don't think I've ever seen it done). I know I've had a few units have some stuff covered up by the shield before and it's good to know it can be moved (though it's too bad we can't move the static bar and only have the option of either having it or losing it).

Others before me did some digging on the shield colours and the health bar position, have a look at this thread: https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...our-is-it-possible-to-avoid-darkening.412184/

I only spent many hours tweaking the area reserved for the tribe shield/orders and health bar and finding something less invasive. The health bar is static and takes a specific position and pixels. What you can play around inside that rectangle on the top right corner of the Units.bmp file is with the pink colours, which will be converted into the tribe specific colours, and the greyish purple will be transparent.

This is what I came up with. On the left area it's where the order letter (-,s,f,g) would appear. In my case I decided to give it transparency to reduce clutter over the unit graphic.

This is the default vanilla ToT, which shows what the Microprose designers envisioned...:

Other scenario designers have come up with other solutions (the first one below is the one I was using previously, I don't know the author unfortunately):

This one from @CurtSibling is an improvement over the base ToT style:

Others are nice too but IMHO very invasive as use pretty much the entire area reserved within the unit tile box. I don't know the authors as these have been used in multiple scenarios.

Hope this helps

 

[JPetroski]

Well I'll be the latest to say it (and it's said a lot) it's amazing that after over 20 years you can still learn something new about this game - but here we are! Thanks!

 

[Pablostuka]

So thanks to @Tehulotl , I've realised my square "shield" behind the health bar solution looked like a "hot dog" I've used his own suggestion, and I really like how it looks in-game. It's not invasive at all and players have visibility of the tribe colour in a bar similar to the health bar:

Unit orders are still transparent, and I believe they can be easily seen anyway.

Pablo

 

[Dadais]

So thanks to @Tehulotl , I've realised my square "shield" behind the health bar solution looked like a "hot dog" I've used his own suggestion, and I really like how it looks in-game. It's not invasive at all and players have visibility of the tribe colour in a bar similar to the health bar:

View attachment 641167
Unit orders are still transparent, and I believe they can be easily seen anyway.

Pablo

I didn't realise the order letter issue !
I do prefer the first proposition (square in the middle of health bar), yet others will prefer this one indeed. That's your choice.

The research you did then shared above is truly great !

 

[Pablostuka]

Haha let's take this as poll using the forum reactions:

A) Please react to this post with a laughing face if you prefer this health bar & tribe color indicator:

B) Please react with a surprised face if you prefer this health bar & tribe color indicator:

Thanks!

 

[Dadais]

Hooo sorry, I didn't meant that !

You could use your favorite one and propose the other great alternative you found few pixels under in the same file ?
Many players aren't that active on the forum after all.

 

[Pablostuka]

Hooo sorry, I didn't meant that !

You could use your favorite one and propose the other great alternative you found few pixels under in the same file ?
Many players aren't that active on the forum after all.

Do not feel bad, I'd like to know what the community prefers!

I will include both as you suggested anyway, but whichever wins the poll by tomorrow will be the main default option.

BTW, expect the final Units.bmp file to be released soon (this weekend). Usually it's the first thing designers show to the community but in my case, because I've been changing units so many times while programming Lua, I was not in a position to show you anything except these ships and artillery units I posted in the first posts. You'll see several surprises in the Units file...

 

[Pablostuka]

I found this amazing resource written by Manuel Conde which clarifies something I was always struggling to understand...the camo markings of the Heinkel He-112 in Spain. All units fighting in the SCW were painted in light grey RLM63 (except the V3 prototype, in bare metal) and only received the three-tone camo pattern in mid-1940. So I've adjusted my Units.bmp file accordingly and saved this nice guy (with the right emblems and without the white wing tips) for future use:

Source: https://manupedia.com.es/2017/05/01/heinkel-he-112-en-espana-camuflages-y-marcas/

 

[Pablostuka]

B) Please react with a surprised face if you prefer this health bar & tribe color indicator:
View attachment 641179
Thanks!

I'll use by default the 2nd style (double bar) as per "poll" results

I'm a bit delayed with the final Units file, but will post it soon