World War 2: European Front MOD

[CellKu]

Paasky, take your time. It is a lot to do and it shouldn't drive you crazy.

Btw, have you placed some of the units already on the map? If not, make sure to get rid of thhose units like spearman, archer etc. It's only ballast for the game (might slow it down) and confuses players who look into the civilopedia. However, if you have placed some of the units on the map already and you think it is too much to redo all that, then don't delete these old units, as that will lead to a change of the units already in place (the CIV-editor is not dynamic in this respect).

Finally, great to hear that you have taken care of the early war vs. late war units "relationship".

Keep up your good work!

 

[Paasky]

I deleted the ancient units before adding any on the map. I also deleted all unneccesary civilopedia & pediaicons texts.

ps. All units have now been added on the map.

I tested the map a little while ago, with the soe rules, without any units on the map, and it loaded insantly! That is exactly what I'm aiming for: fast playability.

 

[Paasky]

I compressed the entire WWII Europe folder + the scenario, and it was ~64 megs with WinRar, with Best compression. Not too big when compared with SOE... I can even divide it into 2x25mb + 1x14mb parts.

Your tester #3, LOVE_Magiska.

Its now up to only checking that pediaicons & filenames match.

 

[CellKu]

I deleted the ancient units before adding any on the map. I also deleted all unneccesary civilopedia & pediaicons texts.

ps. All units have now been added on the map.

I tested the map a little while ago, with the soe rules, without any units on the map, and it loaded insantly! That is exactly what I'm aiming for: fast playability.

That is very good news!! Good work!
Btw, many scenarios are critized because they are not fast enough.

 

[Paasky]

I was also thinking of making a multiplayer version of this map. Now, there are 25 different civs, but in MP, the max is 8. It should start in 1940 though. I was thinking of something like this:

1) Allies (Britain, Ireland, Greece)
2) France
3) Axis (Germany, Italy, Finland, Poland)
4) USSR (USSR, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
5) Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark)
6) Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg)
7) Neutrals (Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden, Turkey)
8) Spain (Spain, Portugal)

This wouldn't be too difficult to do, just renaming & reassigning. It wouldn't be done but after the beta, to reduse the work amount.

 

[Paasky]

I am pleased to say that: IT WORKETH!!! After two hours of starting a test scenario (with all units on the map), I finally got all units to work. After trying to play it, I noticed that I took Poland in 1 turn, and still had half of my army unused! I'm now taking some of Germany's army away, so the Soviets can have some piece of the Batlic too. I also noticed that when going downward on the tech tree, the game crashed because it couldn't find small pictures. So, should I release this alpha, or tweak it a bit?

 

[CellKu]

Wow, you are finished!? I thought you wanted to have some time for doing something else.
About the release: I think you should tweak it a bit before releasing it - I wouldn't like it if the game crashes when searching for small tech icons.
About the time it took you to conquer Poland: If the turns are measured in weeks, it should take about 3-4 turns to conquer Poland to reflect history a bit. Btw, how many units did you give Germany?

I hope you will release the beta before next weekend, as I will have some time to play then. In June my time will be rather limited.

 

[CellKu]

Oh, I forgot about the MP. The idea is good. However, I would divide the nations differently. As Germany is quite powerful for itself, I would make it one player (incl. what it had conquered in Poland) and separate it from the rest of the Axis. You should add Bulgaria and Romania to the Axis. They weren't neutral. Moreover, don't forget Hungary.
As France wasn't that powerful in 1940, I would merge it with the Low Countries. If their power is reflected in the game, it wouldn't be much fun to play the Low Countries separately. Thus, I think merging them would better balance the game for MP.

Btw, you haven't included Switzerland? Even though they were not directly involved in the war, it would be worth adding them to the Neutrals.

 

[Sarevok]

interesting... Is this a scenario or a mod graphics project?

 

[Paasky]

Wow, you are finished!? I thought you wanted to have some time for doing something else.
About the release: I think you should tweak it a bit before releasing it - I wouldn't like it if the game crashes when searching for small tech icons.

The crashing is caused because there are no icons. I'll have to try to remove the text's from Pediaicons, if it works.

About the time it took you to conquer Poland: If the turns are measured in weeks, it should take about 3-4 turns to conquer Poland to reflect history a bit. Btw, how many units did you give Germany?

The problem is that Germany has Panzer II's & Infantry (in Opel Blitzes). The Panzer has a movement of 3, and Opel Blitz moves 4 squares. As there are roads in Poland, and the country is only ~10 squares wide, its too fast. I'll remove some of the Panzers and strengthen the Polish defenses.

I hope you will release the beta before next weekend, as I will have some time to play then. In June my time will be rather limited.

The tweaking is just to make the damn icons work (either make them or remove them from pediaicons).

Oh, I forgot about the MP. The idea is good. However, I would divide the nations differently. As Germany is quite powerful for itself, I would make it one player (incl. what it had conquered in Poland) and separate it from the rest of the Axis. You should add Bulgaria and Romania to the Axis. They weren't neutral. Moreover, don't forget Hungary.
As France wasn't that powerful in 1940, I would merge it with the Low Countries. If their power is reflected in the game, it wouldn't be much fun to play the Low Countries separately. Thus, I think merging them would better balance the game for MP.

I was thinking of the Civ2 WWII when summoning the ideas, but I'll going to check online maps of 1940, and see what I'll do about it.

Btw, you haven't included Switzerland? Even though they were not directly involved in the war, it would be worth adding them to the Neutrals.

No I haven't. First, I added it to Germany, but then removed it (1 city) alltogether, as Switzerland wasn't invaded because they were friendly to everyone. Creating this is impossible in Civ.

interesting... Is this a scenario or a mod graphics project?

I'd say mod. New units, new buildings, totally different tech tree, new civs, and new rules.

 

[CellKu]

But you have a map with cities and civs already on it - the player isn't starting with his civ from scratch -, so I would think it is more a scenario - even though you changed the rules quite a bit.

To the Panzers: why don't you give them a movement of 2 and 3 instead of 3 and 4? With a small map you might have to lower movement a bit.

 

[Paasky]

But you have a map with cities and civs already on it - the player isn't starting with his civ from scratch -, so I would think it is more a scenario - even though you changed the rules quite a bit.

To the Panzers: why don't you give them a movement of 2 and 3 instead of 3 and 4? With a small map you might have to lower movement a bit.

As you might know, the different vehicles have different speeds: Panzer II is faster than IV, which is faster than the Tiger, etc. Now, late tanks have a movement of 1 (ie. Maus), heavy & medium movement of 2 (Tiger & Panzer IV), and light tanks move 3 (Panzer II). But I think your right... Maus, Tiger & Panzer IV have a movement of 1, Panzer a movement of 2, and the Opel Blitz has a movement of 3. Also, I'll change the road movement to 3 or 2 (its 4 now). There are going to be some exceptions (Matilda moves 1, T-34 moves 2).

The full name will be: WWII: European Front Modded Scenario (?) maybe abbreviated into WWII: EF or something.

I'll hopefully upload it tomorrow. The rar size has gone up to 80 megs due to better graphic units.

 

[CellKu]

Well, I do know that the different vehicles had different speed. I just thought that reducing the speed of all units by one would help solving your problem.

I think the solution that you found is quite good.

With respect to the name of the scenario, I think you should keep it as short and informative as possible. Thus, I would suggest omitting "modded scenario". That does not add much information. On the other hand, I would point to the fact that your scenario is on small map and fast loading. That will enhance publicity, especially with respect to those people who will refrain from playing huge scenarios such as SOE.

I am looking forward to your release!!!

 

[LOVE_Magiska]

Aye, looking forward to spending the weekend conquering Europe

 

[Sarevok]

sigh... too bad I dont have time to do a WW2 europe...

 

[Paasky]

The full name will be as much a name monster as Tom Clancys: Rainbow Six Rogue Spear or something . As the name should have these parts: "WWII Europe", "100x100 map", "30 sec loading time", & "Modded Scenario". Whew!

WWII Europe Modded Scenario on a 100x100 map. 30 sec loading time!

is the future title, if I don't get better suggestions.

 

[CellKu]

What about "WWII Europe: Fast, small and beautiful"? It's a bit shorter and includes all "catch-eye" words that people are interested in (plus some "advertising"). For someone who briefly scans the scenario forum your header seems to be a bit big.
However, I would still present the details (like 100x100, 30 sec. etc.), but would bring them in the header of your first post where you present the download link.

 

[Paasky]

What about "WWII Europe: Fast, small and beautiful"? It's a bit shorter and includes all "catch-eye" words that people are interested in (plus some "advertising"). For someone who briefly scans the scenario forum your header seems to be a bit big.
However, I would still present the details (like 100x100, 30 sec. etc.), but would bring them in the header of your first post where you present the download link.

You da genious

I'm just downloading the Vietnam Scenario, and I looked on how to present a scenario from there...

If my !#%?/£$@£[}\)&/#%/&%?/)?!!!! pc could just work for one freakin' second, I could have this "complete" very soon... aargh...

 

[deo]

Only for c3c and PTW?
There are many new useful units for this mod in C3C
Why are you not making this mod also for C3C?

 

[Paasky]

Only for c3c and PTW?
There are many new useful units for this mod in C3C
Why are you not making this mod also for C3C?

This is for Civ3 Conquests ONLY.

I got the Civilopedia to work! Although there are no large pics for anything, it's playable (and browsable). Still the buildings & resources to the map and I'm ready to publish the beta! And 'only' 3 days late (better than HL2, aye?)

EDIT: OK, I'm ready now! If Thunderfall could just answer my PM...