Red Front 1.4 is here!

[Captain Nemo]

Yes, it's tougher... And the Germans continue to fight all the way to the end while their military equipment improves!
The endplay isn't that easy either, but you'll still win if you stick to the basic strategy of version 1.3
[This message has been edited by Captain Nemo (edited March 21, 2000).]

[Sten Sture]

The season *.bat files won't care if I run this in the Program files/MicroProse/blah blah blah MGE/Scenario path vs the old Civ FW paths, will they? I looked at them and it didn't seem like it would make any difference, but I thought I would ask...


(I really like the mine/factory production bonus with a long build out features - I think that is a great idea!)

[Captain Nemo]

No it shouldn't matter where the files are located as long as the .bat is in the same directory as the files it accesses and that the sound directory is a subdirectory of that directory.

Here is the next step: Event triggered reloads.

For example: On capture of town X behind German lines "Town X captured, German 6th Army is encircled in Stalingrad, supply route to... is cut off. Panzers are running out of fuel & the Wehrmacht is starving. Save game now and run Redfront.bat and execute option 18"

Option 18 loads a new rules.txt file where the Panzer movement is 0 and the Wehrmacht is a air unit with a move of 1 and 3 turns airborne (They will "crash" if they don't reach safety within 3 turns)

[Kull]

Now you've done it Nemo! That idea effectively eliminates the Events file size limit! Plus, it theoretically allows you to construct a "Branching Tree" of events to allow for and respond to almost any occurrence in a scenario. God help us all.

I'm going to have to noodle on this one for a while. Of one thing i'm fairly certain.....Scenario creators everywhere are probably torn between offering congratulations or hurling invective!

[klesh]

Ahhh Nemo,

May I suggest the afore-mentioned subject of changing Hitler's name for the Germans after the fall of Berlin to Grand Admiral Doenitz. Add a few other things to that event, and it would certainly be worth reloading... Plus your new menu version of loading the .bat files would make this really easy to use.

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I am the Ukrainian Anti-Pope!

[Captain Nemo]

Field Marshal Klesh:

Unfortunately the leader name change isn't as easy as 1-2-3... It' not in the rules.txt file, it's in the .sav file. And of course you can't just replace that file without reloading all the rest of the game, like unit positions, terrain and city improvements, tech advances, city sizes etc.

My thought goes far beyond this: I need to find a compiler that allows me to create an exe file that "manipulates" the .sav files.
I would now "read" unit positions, improvements and technology advances etc... and edit them into another file: This would allow a game where campaigns are played on small scale detailed maps on a day to day or hour to hour basis and then "imported" into the global map.
Here is an example: You could play Normandy with an hour-by-hour first day with the map being just the beaches and immediate surroundings then switch to a "France" map where the goals are to get to the Rhine in weekly turns. The key is to transfer the units and captured cities from the small map to the larger one. I can easily do it with the Hex editor BUT it needs to be automatic, hence a batch executable hex editing program...

Any suggestions on what programming language would be the best suited?

[Captain Nemo]

I looked at C++ and Visual Basic compilers today... Of course they are geared towards building slick Windows applications not auto-editing Hexfiles and the boxes don't talk much about what hex-editing commands are included...

I don't know much about these new types of Compilers and the "Visual" environment. I have written quite a few programs in the old MS pro-basic and QBX as well as C but that was in the DOS days... how do these newer compilers work, do they have micro-programming tools like the old ones did?
Anyone that has experience with this type of work is urged to answer...Thanks

[klesh]

Nemo,
I wish I was able to offer good technical advice, alas I'm not very computer savy. The extent of my suggestions has to be only theorhetical.

That quick liitle idea you just said is perfect. That's the kind of forward thinking that I've come to love from playing your scenarios...

That idea seems like a perfect way for a large invasion to locigally progress. Keep up that technical work, whilst I'll keep on daydreaming about cool stuff to add. Hopefully I could think up somethin good for ya.

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I am the Ukrainian Anti-Pope!
[This message has been edited by Field Marshal Klesh (edited March 25, 2000).]

[Sten Sture]

Oh Captain, my Captain -

Abolutely astounding production! I bow in your direction.

Q's regarding RFv1.4 in Deity using MGE.

When I ran the initial #1 .bat file to set the game, I got an error messege saying that the RedFront.sav file was not found. I don't remember if there was a .sav file included in the original download, but I had not started the game yet, so I know I didn't create one. This may not matter, but it was a little unsettling.

At the start of the first turn several of the production boxes were overflowing without producing the unit in question and the only units that could be moved in that turn were some (20%) ground units that had previously been fortified. I can assume this is by design for game balance, but after the .bat file error message I was concerned.

[Captain Nemo]

Absolutely right...
The first time you run the bat file it "tries" to delete the events out of the non existent rf.sav and gives you an error... I could simply omit the delevents command in the first load, but I used it anytime I was testing changes to the events file during 1941 (If you run the bat file in August, for example, after saving rf.sav, it deletes the events and loads any new event file with the name events1.txt) I left it in for that purpose.

Yes, the first turn is June 1941 which was only 1 week (The attack was the 22nd) so I thought it appropriate that the Germans would be the only ones to move in that Month... A few Soviet units can also be moved by a quirk in Civ2 since technically the Soviet player has not had his turn in June. Any event created units will definitely be allowed to move (Partisans)

[Sten Sture]

Thanks! That solves that issue. Therefore, I would presume that taking advantage of the "unfortifying" quirk and moving units would be outside your intended parameters. Oops! A brief note with this explanation in the Readme might be helpful.

I was planning on replaying the June41 turn anyway. Looks great!
[This message has been edited by Sten Sture (edited March 29, 2000).]

[Captain Nemo]

If you can accomplish something by unfortifying the units in June and moving them, do it! There is NOTHING you can do in the summer of 1941 that will significantly change the outcome of the war for the better... There are lots of things you can do (And not do) that will make it significantly worse (Like letting your refugees die).

[Scott F]

Captain Nemo:
I have a couple of suggestions for any future version of Red Front (though 1.4 is pretty much perfect, I think).

• Add camoflauge schemes to German tanks. After the winter of 1941, the Germans learned their lesson and painted their tanks in winter camoflauge schemes, just like your Russian tanks are painted. It would be nice to see camofluage like that on the kV-1 tanks on German Tigers and Panthers later in the war too.
• After the winter of 42-43, the Germans started to apply stuff called Zimmerit to the outsides of their tanks that pretty much nullified magnetic mines. Maybe in the summer of '43, the minefield terrain could have a lower movement factor to represent this. After the summer of 43, if the human player isn't ready to start to drive back the Russians, this will make things hard for him.

[Captain Nemo]

Good suggestion on the German tanks... Of course I did it to give the entire German motorized forces a real unitized look. I have made at least 10-12 more German units since Red Front so if there is a version 1.941 it will be expanded. Painting units is the most time consuming part of building a scenario (By far). For Red Front I designed the equivalent of 3 full games worth of units! By the end I was burned out...So the Germans never got winter armor. Their summer camo patterns are more difficult to do. They are not like the typical russian or Allied tank and the color palette in Civ2 is missing some blue-greens and Grey-greens I would need.

Regarding the Zimmerit coating it was of no use in minefields. It was applied to prevent the hand-carried magnetic mines from sticking to the tanks. Russian pioneer and anti-tank squads had become deadly and daring at running up to a tank and sticking a magnetic mine to the hull. In street fighting it was even worse because the tanks passed so close to houses that provided cover for the anti-tank squads.

But lowering the Minefields movecost to 2 or 3 would make it very interesting: Tanks could pass through a single depth field in one turn but not through a double wide... A bit more strategy involved here...
Currently I am working with John Petroski on Austieg... I am churning out units for the Allies and minor Nations... Some of my best work yet.

What will follow? I don't know yet but here are the suggestions:
- Harlan suggests that I improve the map for RedFront. He has even offered to make a 100% accurate map for me. I would "Just" have to replace the cities, units, improvements and edit the rules so the move unit coordinates are correct.
- He also has suggested that I make a ToT version of the game considering that ToT has much more powerful events and 18 additional unit slots.
My own ideas which I have played with for a while
-Normandy 1944, short scenario played in days not weeks or months. Large scale map 100% tactical, no development or economics
-Stalingrad 1942-1943. Super large scale with only the city and immediate surroundings
-Afrika 1940-1943... Not fully thought through yet, but I like the idea of desert warfare, the Mediterranean air and sea battles and the nice graphics that could come from this...

Well what do you think?

[Xin Yu]

Captain Nemo: When you update Redfront, please change certain 0-attack units' attack to 1. Those apply to the 'hedgedog', 'fortified artillary', and 'panton bridge'. Partisans can kill 0-attack units easily.