Non-graphics mods for TOT Red Front Redux

[klesh]

AGRICOLA and I are 2 steps ahead of you.

He has my file and is doing the necissary changes.

I actually am leaving the German rear echelon troops in there to see if we get the 'too many units' in TOT. I suspect we may not.

[klesh]

Originally posted by curtsibling
We could package Catfish's SPR.file fixer files with the scen?

Well I got this going:

[Mercator]

Originally posted by curtsibling
We could package Catfish's SPR.file fixer files with the scen?

Well, if William Keenan's hex editing thing works (which I'm sure it does, I just haven't tried it myself yet), that'd be much better.

Edit: I actually read that screenshot now... Why does any file need to be replaced? If you want to use a Static.spr file, you can simply put it in the scenario folder.

[klesh]

Originally posted by Mercator


Well, if William Keenan's hex editing thing works (which I'm sure it does, I just haven't tried it myself yet), that'd be much better.

What? The 'Hex editing thing' would be better than catfish's way or the batch way?

[Mercator]

(cross-post galore )

Better than using Catfish's dummy files. I'm not sure why you even need to use a batch file for this (see the edit in my previous post).

[klesh]

Originally posted by Mercator
(cross-post galore )

Better than using Catfish's dummy files. I'm not sure why you even need to use a batch file for this (see the edit in my previous post).

Edit: I actually read that screenshot now... Why does any file need to be replaced? If you want to use a Static.spr file, you can simply put it in the scenario folder.

Hmm, well again I know nothing about ToT, their .spr files or anything like that. That batch function was already in the RF1.4 ToT conversion zip. I have added to the batchfile itself, but since that was in there and I dont know anybetter... I left in it. Theres actually something else I end up doing with the batch thats slightly unneeded too, but its cool.

[fairline]

Originally posted by Field Marshal Klesh
I actually am leaving the German rear echelon troops in there to see if we get the 'too many units' in TOT. I suspect we may not.

We do I'm replaying currently and it happened Oct 41 IIRC

[klesh]

bah.


AGRICOLA, will the need for me to futher delete German units affect your progress? Can anything be changed after whatever you are doing is complete?

[CapTVK]

Well, my ToT has been reinstalled, patched up and ready to go! Only thing still missing is Catfish's Civ2 UI/Graphic mod.


Where do I sign up?

[AGRICOLA]

Originally posted by Field Marshal Klesh
AGRICOLA, will the need for me to futher delete German units affect your progress? Can anything be changed after whatever you are doing is complete?

Check the new ghost turn thread. I managed to remove the bug without altering anything significant except that one German city loses an improvement when RF 1.4 or Redux are started up as Germany.

As far as I can tell, you can make all the mods that you want to your development file and remove the bug afterwards. I don't know if the bug will stay fixed if you remove the bug now but continue to modify the file. That shouldn't be hard to test.

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Field Marshal Klesh
Hmm, well again I know nothing about ToT, their .spr files or anything like that. (...)

Well, I don't know anything about RF, so nevermind. I'm sure there will be plenty of people to make sure everything's correct when this thing gets released.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by Mercator
Why does any file need to be replaced? If you want to use a Static.spr file, you can simply put it in the scenario folder.

Originally posted by Mercator
Better than using Catfish's dummy files. I'm not sure why you even need to use a batch file for this (see the edit in my previous post).

I thought all of this was straightforward. There is only one dummy file. That is resource.spr. It serves 2 purposes:

1. When animated terrain is turned off, a frame from the oil resource (desert terrain) is still visible. It's a bug. The file circumvents this bug.
2. It avoids the user having to toggle animated terrain on and off all of the time if they're using it for the Original game (like me).

That paragraph in the batch file screenshot was written by me. It has nothing to do with animated unit lockout. It has everything to do with hiding the health bar for several units. The units in question change 4 times during the scenario - hence there are 5 static.spr files. The message is there because sprites will not be "refreshed" until the user quits to the main menu. They are not dummy files. The source bitmaps for these files have been downloaded 28 times to date. Do people not know what they are downloading?

Originally posted by Mercator
Well, if William Keenan's hex editing thing works (which I'm sure it does, I just haven't tried it myself yet), that'd be much better.

Those offsets that William provided are not constants. They appear (if at all) at least after the first map data block and therefore are only valid for the saved game on which he conducted his tests. I couldn't get his starting-from-scratch procedure (which I'm sure I've done in the past) to work either. Maybe he already had animated sprites turned off (like you did).

Therefore, unless someone can get WK's procedure (or similar) to work, all ToT designers should be advised not to enable the two animation lockout options under the Scenario Parameters menu – I already disabled them for the RF 1.4 (FW) conversion because CivConverter enables them.

In the converted scenario the only procedure required of the user (as stated previously in the other RF thread) is to turn off Animated Units under Graphics Options. Because I set the individual unit SPR overrides (rules.txt) to 1 for all units except those with hidden health bars, even if you did in fact have animated units turned on, the most you would see of the animated sprites would be a brief flash whenever you tried to select a unit with a hidden health bar (they're all movement 0).

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Catfish
It has nothing to do with animated unit lockout.

I knew that. I just didn't quite realise it had to do with switching the unit graphics. I've never played RF.

Do people not know what they are downloading?

Not if they don't download it.

Those offsets that William provided are not constants. They appear (if at all) at least after the first map data block and therefore are only valid for the saved game on which he conducted his tests.

I was afraid of that. I'll see if I can figure it out.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by Field Marshal Klesh
I could changeterrain (wouldn't that kill any Yugoslav units?)

Yes, Barbarian units definitely don't like changeterrain events! Some of them survive them (if there is at least a Barb city on the map, and some just can't!

So if you want to be sure the Barb Partizans survive, I wouldn't use a changeterrain!

[CapTVK]

Does that mean you can't use barbarians at all if you use changeterrain? Or should you simply be careful about letting barbarians near a change terrain field?