The Groups Sharing Corner

[Thad]

Salutations,

 

I do hope the developers will include these great updates.

[Hamaha15]

More map updates - WIP pictures

 

 

Forests, woods and roads at Baraque de Fraiture crossroads, better known as 'Parker's Corner', reviewed according to historical topographic maps and contemporary postcards.

 

 

That's what historical Autobahnen can look like: weird alley trees removed from the centerline, woods added in parallel instead. This design may not be accurate in all places but it is a plausibel proposal at least for the German motorways to make them plainly visible from a distance. Picture showing the stretch of Autobahn between Aachen and Eschweiler (right).

Edited February 3, 2023 by Hamaha15

[Hamaha15]

Bastogne revisited - WIP

 

 

The city of Bastogne is getting a new shape closer to the prototype. The faded footprint of the stock game version allows for a before-after comparison. The only element retained from the stock game at the moment is the (not accurate) village block at the far end of the town.

 

Looks like building a scale model railway layout. The only difference being a tidy workbench: no bottle of white glue, no cutter, paint, wires, soldering iron etc...

 

Cheers

[Hamaha15]

La guerre des châteaux - Bastogne Castles

 

updating the Bastogne area makes steady progress. Some effort went into detailing the numerous castles and manors around the town of Bastogne. Here come some prominent examples - (there a few more):

 

 

left: 'Nuts Castle' Château d'Isle-la-Hesse, right: Château de Renval

 

 

left: Château de Rolley, right: Château de Recogne

 

 

left: Château de Losange, right: Château de Gérimont and Couvent de Beauplateau convent

 

Cheers

 

 

Edited March 11, 2023 by Hamaha15

[Picchio]

@Hamaha15 How's it going? Have you got any news to rekindle our hopes?

[Hamaha15]

Hi, progress is steady - but slow.

 

Detailing the Bastogne area including a completely new accurate Bastogne city is ready except for a couple of creeks that are needed imho for better understanding of the tactical situation. The detailed area has been extended into Luxemburg along the Northeastern approaches to Bastogne just short of Clervaux/Clerf (the latter omitted because of the lack of a suitable castle model)

 

 

Bastogne, Petit-Moulin, seen from Northeast approxly. where the war memorial is located today

 

I added the Western branch of the River Ourthe and extended the River Salm down to the horseshoe-shaped reservoir in sector 2717. The difficulty in adding rivers is to prevent the water from leaning against the slopes in bends because the landscape profile hasn't been designed for riverbeds in those areas. Again, compromises must be made...

 

 

At the very moment I'm digging the bed of the River Rur (or Roer) from Monschau to the Rur Valley Reservoir in sectors 2519 and 2520. Yesterday I closed the gap between the large Rur reservoir and the smaller one in sectors 2421 and 2321. The Northern portion of the Rur between Düren and Jülich (sectors 2321 through 2120) will follow immediately.

 

Cheers

Edited May 7, 2023 by Hamaha15

[Hamaha15]

Entering Germany - the River Rur

 

At the end of the day, the River Rur winds through the Northwestern part of the Eifel mountains past the small town of Monschau in sector 2519. The river banks will be smoothed out a little better and the woods will receive a few minor touches but the bulk of the water engineering has been done.

 

[Deacon352nd]

Looks spectacular. Can’t wait to try it. 

[Hamaha15]

The River Rur completed, all gaps closed. The River Ahr is next - from Remagen deep into the Eifel mountains (from 2625 through 2723).

 

Cheers

 

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Hamaha15

[=SqSq=Civilprotection]

I don't know if anyone has posted random event generators on this thread before, but I thought I would share mine.

 

I use two different types of generators (single use & reusable)

 

This^ is an example of a single use five-way random switch. The whole assembly is triggered by the mission start (though any trigger can be substituted) and the generator will produce one of five outcomes.

For ease of use, the module is grouped so that it appears like the following:

No need to have the visual clutter of the internal systems when all that matters are the final five outputs.

I tend to use the single-use switches to trigger random events at the beginning of a mission so that a single mission file can have unique combinations of objectives and starting conditions over multiple replays.

 

Next are the reusable switches. These are the same in concept as the single-use switches. The only difference is that they can be used multiple times over the course of a mission.

As you can see, this switch is a little more complicated. In all honesty, it might be a little overbuilt... But it does work. For ease of use, it is grouped to look like the following

The only things that really need to be accessible are the input that starts the whole system, and the five possible outputs. If anyone wants a detailed explanation of how either of the modules work, then just ask.

 

I'll also throw in an example mission that almost exclusively relies on reusable random switches. Said mission is a mission to practice player flack trucks in multiplayer. When a player spawns, a target plane also spawns at one of five random locations and then flies to a waypoint near to the player. Upon reaching the waypoint, the plane will redirect to one of five waypoints distributed evenly around the player spawn area. Every time the plane hits a waypoint, it is randomly redirected to one of the other four in the player area. This behavior continues in an endless loop, or until the plane is shot down. If shot down, there is a brief resting period before a new plane is spawned, and the whole process starts again.

 

As for the random switch modules, there are ten of them, five single-use and five reusable, covering two to six possible outcomes. Switches.zip

 

The example mission is in a multiplayer format (maybe ill revise it for singleplayer later), and can be played by hosting a custom server-- even if only for one person. Flak Practice.zip*The mission might need to be resaved via the editor before it will run.

 

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Happy flying!

[=SqSq=Civilprotection]

Here is an update to the respawning flak system I made a couple of years ago. Here is the link to the original post: 

These new modules are completely setup for WWII AA guns. You can just plonk them down as you please anywhere in a mission. Here are the files: ProxyAAA2.0(Allied).zipProxyFlak2.0(Axis).zip

 

If anyone has any questions about usage, just ask. Cheers!

[=SqSq=Civilprotection]

Alright, I've done a major rework of the moving frontline system I developed. You can read the original post here: 

While functional, the original version had some inconsistency in drawing the frontline-- particularly once zones had switched ownership three or more times. This rework is much more robust and, in private testing, seems to work indefinitely.

 

There are a bunch of major changes and minor tweaks, but here are the highlights:

1. The logic within the hexagon walls was completely reworked. On either side of any given wall, there is a zone. This zone can be controlled by either Germany or Russia. Therefore, there are four possible state combinations for the wall. Germany is on side A and Russia is on side B, Russia is on side A and Germany is on side B, Germany is on both side A and B, and Russia is on both side A and B. These four states are now dictated by the summation of two predefined values that produce a unique number. As an example, Germany on side A reports the value '3' to a counter that activates at a count of '10.' Simultaneously, Russia, controlling side B, reports a value of '7' to the same counter, producing a sum of 10 and triggering the counter. Alternatively the sides could be switched, and another counter used. This time the counter counts to '16.' Germany on side B reports a value of '5' to the counter, while Russia, on side A, reports a value of '11,' totaling up to '16' and triggering the counter. The whole system works similar to how Linux assigns file permissions. As a result, the whole system maximally robust and reliable.
2. The frontline is faster to respond on the map screen, no longer over-drawing and erasing redundancies as in the previous version.
3. In addition to tanks, now paratroopers can capture a hex. The default is eight successful landings in a particular zone.
4. Flags can now start as neutral without crashing the game. However, they should never become neutral, and they should be assigned as Axis or Allied at the beginning of a game.
5. The current version uses half the MCUs as that of the previous!
6. There are now two unique wall types that form the east and west bounds of a zone assembly. 

These are all the groups needed for building a moving frontline grid: Hex 2.1.zip I have also included some prebuilt grids for use and reference.

 

I'm hoping to playtest the system soon, and get it into multiplayer circulation.

 

As always, if there are any questions, just reach out. Cheers!

[Hamaha15]

More Ardennes updates and the V1 sites in the Eifel mountains - WIP

 

Vielsalm and surroundings almost finished as well as the parts of the German Eifel mountains where eleven V1 sites were operated against targets in Belgium between Oct '44 and Jan '45. That is to say buzzbombs flying overhead must have been the background noise of the battle of the Bulge.

 

I'm working to share the results of all updates by end of August: As/Ophoven, Florennes, Bastogne reworked and extended, St-Vith reworked, Vielsalm new, relevant parts of the Eifel mountains new, a number of railway lines, lakes and rivers added.

 

Cheers

 

 

Vielsam and Salmchâteau - still under construction.

 

 

A buzz bomb is being launched from one of the eleven sites in the Eifel mountains against a target in Belgium.

 

 

The robot gains height before levelling out and turning towards its target. The proximity to the a settlement nearby gives an indication why the V1 were given the nickname 'Eifelschreck' (Eifel terror) by the local German population. Over 10% of the bombs crashed after only a few seconds, many of them hitting populated places and causing severe damage and casualties.

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Hamaha15

[FoxbatRU]

Скрытый текст

22 часа назад, Hamaha15 сказал:

Please tell me, is the forest with Christmas trees is some kind of public mod or is it also your project?

 

[352ndOscar]

@FoxbatRU Probably…… Could be…….

 

@Hamaha15 That is GREAT News!  Looking forward to it.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

 

On 8/6/2023 at 10:03 PM, FoxbatRU said:

Please tell me, is the forest with Christmas trees is some kind of public mod or is it also your project?

 

Actually, it's mine

It's not ready for official release yet, but it will be released to the public at some point. I posted a small teaser earlier:

[FoxbatRU]

7 часов назад, AEthelraedUnraed сказал:

ctually, it's mine

It's not ready for official release yet, but it will be released to the public at some point. I posted a small teaser earlier:

Great! I would like to see your version. So far I have been making various combinations of maps and conifers for myself based on two mods (1, 2). In the first I liked the options for deciduous trees with fallen leaves, from the second I took the principle of adding coniferous trees. But unfortunately, conifers directly added there in close models incorrectly use large branches. I created a finalized version so that conifers and near were normal, but another problem appeared. Everything works well only in the central part of the Rhineland map. Closer to the western and northern borders, the trees either do not appear at all or grow in the wrong order.

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by FoxbatRU

[352ndOscar]

Wow!  Two months went by fast!

Any updates @Hamaha15

Edited October 12, 2023 by 352ndOscar

[Hamaha15]

?

 

Morning, yes indeed, two months time is nothing compared to the open space to fill...

 

Bastogne environment and the town proper are ready as is the surrounding of Vielsalm. To make this part of the battlefield complete before sharing I want yet to add Freyneux and Dochamps and I want to link the St-Vith area with Vielsalm via Le Poteau.

 

In the past days priority shifted, however, to the Dutch province of Zeeland that has become 'mature' - you may know its basic scenery from @SYN_Vander's EMG. There's a chance to integrate the updated scenery into the stock game. The downside: the mod update files have to be reworked to fit into the game. Nothing impossible to do but a lot of extra work. The larger the updated area, the more time it would take.

 

In the future I will continue to share the accomplished updates of larger areas as a mod in the forum as a first step to allow the interested ones for using them immediately, reworking them 'behind the scene' and 'in parallel' to enable the mods to possibly become official updates at a later stage. Double textures and groups could be quite easily removed from existing personal missions in case of an official release.

[352ndOscar]

Thanks for the update!

[Picchio]

Hey, @Hamaha15! Any news to share?

[jollyjack]

I  saw a link for an adapted Normandy map with a lot of objects added ... but where, or are there any new ones?

[Hamaha15]

On 12/17/2023 at 8:37 PM, Picchio said:

Hey, @Hamaha15! Any news to share?

 

I'm working on the updates. The focus at the moment lies at the Scheldt Estuary in the Western Netherlands to support a third party's project.

 

Then I will finish the St.-Vith - Vielsalm - Manhay - Freyneux area, filling in some 'open space' still left between these towns. I will share this part of the Ardennes along with the surroundings of Bastogne. Of great interest for fans of the new CG-4 Waco glider.

 

After that I will go back to the Netherlands to finalise the environment of Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem to support Market Garden scenarios. Another playground for assault glider pilots.

 

Progress was slowed down in the past weeks due to 'real life' interference but I will take advantage of the calm days ahead...

 

I have no idea of where to find a link to the modified Normandy map. It's not by me. Next year I will resume adding a simplified London city to that map. But that's a really BIG project, near a mission impossible...

 

Cheers

Edited December 23, 2023 by Hamaha15

[Jaegermeister]

5 hours ago, jollyjack said:

I  saw a link for an adapted Normandy map with a lot of objects added ... but where, or are there any new ones?

 

Maybe this?

 

 

[=SqSq=Civilprotection]

Hey all,

 

I'm posting an updated version of my capturable hex system. The only changes are a general rework for the Western Front (Allies on the west and Germany on the east), and the addition of gliders as an object that can capture a hex. Just land a glider alive within the capture area and finish mission and the territory will be yours!

 

I'm also including a multiplayer test mission for anyone who wants to try kicking around a frontline with their choice of ground vehicles, paratroopers, and/or gliders.

 

Happy flying!

Western Front.zip Hex 2.2 [WF] Bridge.zip

Edited March 5, 2024 by =SqSq=Civilprotection
typo

[GenMarkof007]

Hi All,

Quick question:

I have created a symbol (for artillery) using icons, but when I imported it for my new mission on the new map of Odessa, the symbol appears quite small due to the large size of the map. Is there a way to select all the icons in my symbol group and resize them to make them larger for the map? Or do I have to resize them manually, as I have done for most of my other symbols that I want to use in the game? Any help regarding this issue would be greatly appreciated.

It would be beneficial to have a tool that allows users to select a group of icons and resize them collectively by a percentage. This feature would enable users to increase the size of the entire symbol without the need to individually adjust each icon. Wishlist 2.0! 

Thx,
GenMarkof007