Panzer campaigns modding basics

[vakarr]

Hi, I would like to modify the Panzer Campaigns Sealion game but can't find some things in the documentation.  I emailed HPS and they sent me here.

1. a description of the columns in the .dat file.  I worked out what most of the columns are except for three columns.  Two of the columns seem to contain all zeros so I guess that's not a problem, but the last column is mostly zeros except for a few units - what is that last column for?

2. I would like to add some aspects of the Plan Z, alternative scenarios, and the maps mods but these don't seem to use .dat files.  How do I find out what the stats are for the units?  

3.  Is is possible to allow the British troops to  make gas attacks somehow?

4.  The Kriegsmarine had two battalions of marines and I figure these would have been used to attack ports like Folkestone and Dover.  It looks to me like they can't land at those ports because of the cliffs behind/beside them, how do I get around that?  Probably if I can work out the marine stats for the Plan Z mod that will answer this question, but there's no dat file for them.

5.  I'd like to give the mountain troops the ability to climb the (impassible) cliffs, how do I do that?  There are mountain troops in those mods I know, but I haven't found out how they did it.

6.  I'd like to add some shots from the cross-channel artillery.  Can I add off-map artillery somehow?

7.  Why do the Kriegsmarine troops get added via a new nation "East Germany" in the mods?

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[Ricky B]

Hi, I would like to modify the Panzer Campaigns Sealion game but can't find some things in the documentation.  I emailed HPS and they sent me here.

1. a description of the columns in the .dat file.  I worked out what most of the columns are except for three columns.  Two of the columns seem to contain all zeros so I guess that's not a problem, but the last column is mostly zeros except for a few units - what is that last column for?

What .dat file do you mean? Please give an example. The only .dat files I am aware of are units.dat and weather.dat, and none of them end with a column of mostly 0s?

2. I would like to add some aspects of the Plan Z, alternative scenarios, and the maps mods but these don't seem to use .dat files.  How do I find out what the stats are for the units?  

Units.dat for each nation gives the unit types and stats. Alternatively, use the OOB editor, you can view all the current units there and create new ones.

3.  Is is possible to allow the British troops to  make gas attacks somehow?

Not directly. But you could create new units in the OOB editor, I would suggest one time use only that come on at various times, that have IF capability of whatever range, and high SA values. Figuring out where to place them would depend on the range and their planned usage.

4.  The Kriegsmarine had two battalions of marines and I figure these would have been used to attack ports like Folkestone and Dover.  It looks to me like they can't land at those ports because of the cliffs behind/beside them, how do I get around that?  Probably if I can work out the marine stats for the Plan Z mod that will answer this question, but there's no dat file for them.

5.  I'd like to give the mountain troops the ability to climb the (impassible) cliffs, how do I do that?  There are mountain troops in those mods I know, but I haven't found out how they did it.

Try the flag for Assault Inf in the OOB editor. I am not positive that will work but you can try - Rangers in Normandy can climb cliffs, from what I recall, and the only special thing for them is the assault inf setting. Try it and see.

6.  I'd like to add some shots from the cross-channel artillery.  Can I add off-map artillery somehow?

No way I am aware of. They fired such small shells their value would be fairly small I would think, but nice chrome if you could do it.

7.  Why do the Kriegsmarine troops get added via a new nation "East Germany" in the mods?

Various nation types are hard coded in the .exe, for the side they are considered a part of. So people use a nationality that is available in the code, used in a different game. So someone uses East Germany in whatever mod you are looking at, and uses images for the Kriegsmarine. Anyway, you can't add nations, so this is the workaround. If I recall, having done something similar in Kharkov 43 about 12 years ago, I had to use Notepad to change the nationality directly in the OOB, at least to start. But I think if the nationality folder gets added to the game structure, you should be good to use the editor for this part.

www.facebook.com/sealion1940

[vakarr]

Hi, I would like to modify the Panzer Campaigns Sealion game but can't find some things in the documentation.  I emailed HPS and they sent me here.

1. a description of the columns in the .dat file.  I worked out what most of the columns are except for three columns.  Two of the columns seem to contain all zeros so I guess that's not a problem, but the last column is mostly zeros except for a few units - what is that last column for?

What .dat file do you mean? Please give an example. The only .dat files I am aware of are units.dat and weather.dat, and none of them end with a column of mostly 0s?

2. I would like to add some aspects of the Plan Z, alternative scenarios, and the maps mods but these don't seem to use .dat files.  How do I find out what the stats are for the units?  

Units.dat for each nation gives the unit types and stats. Alternatively, use the OOB editor, you can view all the current units there and create new ones.

3.  Is is possible to allow the British troops to  make gas attacks somehow?

Not directly. But you could create new units in the OOB editor, I would suggest one time use only that come on at various times, that have IF capability of whatever range, and high SA values. Figuring out where to place them would depend on the range and their planned usage.

4.  The Kriegsmarine had two battalions of marines and I figure these would have been used to attack ports like Folkestone and Dover.  It looks to me like they can't land at those ports because of the cliffs behind/beside them, how do I get around that?  Probably if I can work out the marine stats for the Plan Z mod that will answer this question, but there's no dat file for them.

5.  I'd like to give the mountain troops the ability to climb the (impassible) cliffs, how do I do that?  There are mountain troops in those mods I know, but I haven't found out how they did it.

Try the flag for Assault Inf in the OOB editor. I am not positive that will work but you can try - Rangers in Normandy can climb cliffs, from what I recall, and the only special thing for them is the assault inf setting. Try it and see.

6.  I'd like to add some shots from the cross-channel artillery.  Can I add off-map artillery somehow?

No way I am aware of. They fired such small shells their value would be fairly small I would think, but nice chrome if you could do it.

7.  Why do the Kriegsmarine troops get added via a new nation "East Germany" in the mods?

Various nation types are hard coded in the .exe, for the side they are considered a part of. So people use a nationality that is available in the code, used in a different game. So someone uses East Germany in whatever mod you are looking at, and uses images for the Kriegsmarine. Anyway, you can't add nations, so this is the workaround. If I recall, having done something similar in Kharkov 43 about 12 years ago, I had to use Notepad to change the nationality directly in the OOB, at least to start. But I think if the nationality folder gets added to the game structure, you should be good to use the editor for this part.

www.facebook.com/sealion1940

[vakarr]

Ricky B, thankyou very much for your answer!

1. When I look at the German units.dat file, I see this for instance:

AA AC 12 4 1 0 11 1 0 8 2 0 13 2 12 0 Sdkfz10-4

So the 4th, and 7th numbers are all zeros, while the 14th/last number can have a variety of values, but is mostly zeros except for artillery and pioneers

2. So far I've only been able to create units in the OOB editor by copying, pasting, and modifying units, but you can add completely new units there? I shall have to look harder. Supplementary question: Some German units were army level units (e.g. Artillerie Kommand 106 and the Nebelwerfer regiment). If I put them under the Army HQ does that mean that lots of things won't work, or just that they will be out of command range most of the time?

6. Oh well I suppose I could add the Channel guns as unsinkable ships or a strange sort of aircraft. The Germans marked areas on their invasion plans as "no go" areas for their troops as they were due to be bombarded by the channel guns (often in the wrong place, without military targets). So you are saying they had huge calibres (e.g. 28cm) but small shells. Although most of the 100 channel guns could not reach across the channel, many could, and this is the first I've read that such large guns fired such small shells. I would only allow them to fire once per turn due to their slow rate of fire and only have a few batteries available.

An area covered with mustard gas would be impassible for a week without casualties, but actually killed only a small proportion of its victims (though the rest might be horribly incapacitated). I was thinking I might represent a gassed area as one that is mined.

[Ricky B]

Ah, so the unit.dat - I was looking at the last set of data being all text, rather than the last column of numbers. I will have to research that to see if I can figure that out, I don't have any idea off the top of my head, but I have some notes from many years ago, on what I found when creating new OOBs, etc.

If you strictly want to create new units of existing types (components), then that is straightforward, just go to the formation (not a unit) where you want to add the unit and right click, choose Add. To create new unit types, you can either add new rows to units.dat, or to see where the values fit, then in the Add (or Edit) unit dialog, you would setup your unit type values and type in a new component name. Be sure to click save while on that new unit, at the bottom of the Org/Unit Dialog box. I like to pick a current component close to what I want and change from there to start. Then this new component can be used for new/existing units, or new units of its type copied and pasted.

I guess I overstated the smallness of the shells, that was more for the smaller guns, so they could reach across. But even for most of the bigger guns, many fired shells only about 60-70% of the normal shell size to get their extended range. For example, the 40.6 cm guns in Battery Lindemann fired 600 kg shells for land targets, versus 1030 kg shells normally. So still big, but much smaller than normal. Smaller guns had bigger trade offs in shell size.

Rick

[Ricky B]

Okay, that final numeric is a value that defines any of the special attributes that are checkboxes at the bottom of the Org/Unit Dialog. They include Indirect Fire (1), Mine (2), Bridge (16). This is based on looking at artillery, which has 1, and some engineer types, where only Mine has 2, and a Mine/Bridge combo has 18. So it uses the values 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32... to represent each of the possible values, and then can start pulling out these values, starting the with the biggest, to determine what attributes the unit has. A value of 3 would be an Indirect Fire, Mine ability unit, which I wouldn't expect to see in a game.