Custom Unit sound/graphics

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FOARP
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Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by FOARP »

Hi there, I'm creating some custom units for a mod and am trying to work out where the instructions are in the data files that tell the game which animations/sounds to use for which units. I've done the graphics for a couple of units, but can't work out how to give them animations/sound for their weapons. Anyone help me out with the answer?
BiteNibbleChomp
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by BiteNibbleChomp »

efx.pzdat. Easiest if you copy the stats of an existing unit.

- BNC
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FOARP
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by FOARP »

Thanks BNC.

EDIT: Yay! It works! Here's a screenshot of Confederate troops battling the US army outside Louisville, Kentucky -

Image

However I'm still trying to work out how to use the scenario editor to give organic transport to units other than the Opel Blitz/SdKfz/Bren Carrier/Truck (which appears to be the Bedford truck). I'm trying to get Confederate troops to use the Minor Axis Opel Blitz (the one without Wehrmacht markings) but simply adding a truck unit with the minor axis Opel graphic in equipment.pzeqp doesn't seem to do this.
McGuba
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by McGuba »

Wow, this looks like a great idea, indeed! American Civil War Part II, if I am right! :shock:

Even BNC did not have this very original idea! :wink:

Have you come up with a name already? North and South maybe? Or maybe even better: Confederate Corps!!!

Will the "North" have tanks like Grant and Sherman and the "South" have the Lee? Or the "North" have all the traditional US equipment? But in that case it would be a bit weird for them to name one of their tanks as Lee, I guess. :oops:

However, your screenshot suggests the "South" mainly sports foreign equipment (with some German and Soviet "Lend Lease" units, lol). I guess they should also have some captured northern stuff, though. If we are here, that second ligth tank looks a bit out as it can be seen from the side as opposed to the usual top down view of the other units. I suggest having a universal PzC-like set of unit icons, if possible.

Anyway, I am already excited! Long live the Secessionists! But we demand more information on this project! :twisted:

As for the organic transports: you should be able to do it quite easily. You can check the Romanian or Hungarian units in the equipment.pzeqp and do the same for the Confederates. I do not see why it does not work. You can even define dedicated transports for different units as it is done with the German 8.8 cm FlaK 36
and the SdKfz 9 in the base game. If you are still stuck you can upload the equipment file and I can have a look.
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FOARP
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by FOARP »

Thanks a lot McGuba!

The idea is for a mod based on the Southern Victory books (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Victory), where the Confederate States won the American Civil War, but then lost WW1 (in which the USA allied with Germany) and had to cede large parts of its territory to the USA. Thirsty for revenge, and led by a messianic dictator heading a fascist-style party ("The Freedom Party") they eventually launch an invasion of the USA to take back their lost territory . . .

At the moment I'm just playing around with the graphics and learning how to do things. Because the author of the books didn't spend a lot of time describing the military units in the book, except to basically indicate that they were similar to those historically employed by the Wehrmacht, a lot of the Confederate units in this game will basically be re-badged German units or other units altered a bit so as not to look too much like those of another country - there isn't much information to go on otherwise. The tanks in the above picture, for example, are versions of the 7TP tank coloured grey.

In the long term, I hope to make:

- A Confederate campaign including the Mexican Civil War(http://turtledove.wikia.com/wiki/Mexican_Civil_War), Operation Blackbeard, Operation Coalscuttle, the fighting in Baja California, the Bahamas, and the defence of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the last stand in Atlanta.

- Units for every type of equipment mentioned in the books.

- Maybe a US campaign as well.

US army units will be kept the same, though names which don't make sense in the Southern Victory timeline will be changed.
Shoughie
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by Shoughie »

Hello, I love the Idea of this mod, as I am currently reading the Great War Trilogy of the same series having already red the Settling Accounts books. I would love to contribute to this mod in any way I'm capable of. For a start I was playing around with the DCS and made some units.
Shoughie
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by Shoughie »

So this is how I picture the Confederate "Butternut" uniforms looking like. What do you all think?
Attachments
Opel_Blitz_UNIFORM 8.png
Opel_Blitz_UNIFORM 8.png (26.71 KiB) Viewed 7656 times
german_M4_Sherman_UNIFORM 8.png
german_M4_Sherman_UNIFORM 8.png (27.31 KiB) Viewed 7656 times
Wehrmacht_Inf_UNIFORM 8.png
Wehrmacht_Inf_UNIFORM 8.png (17.94 KiB) Viewed 7656 times
McGuba
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by McGuba »

FOARP wrote: The idea is for a mod based on the Southern Victory books...
Ah, all right, thanks for enlightening us. :D I have never heard about it, but it is indeed an interesting alternative history timeline. And a big departure from the usual (and somewhat boring) historical scenarios. If done well, it can provide a real refreshing gameplay. Probably the best thing in a mod like this is you have total freedom, no one will say: "it is unhistorical", lol.

Good luck with your modding project and let us know if you have any problems, I am quite sure one of us will help you out, whatever it can be.
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Akkula
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by Akkula »

Shoughie wrote:So this is how I picture the Confederate "Butternut" uniforms looking like. What do you all think?
Very nice. Try to create the DCS insignias for the confederates and they will be perfect.
Cheers.
Eastern Front: Soviet Storm (v1.96): http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=147&t=50342
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BiteNibbleChomp
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by BiteNibbleChomp »

McGuba wrote:Probably the best thing in a mod like this is you have total freedom, no one will say: "it is unhistorical", lol.
But it is unhistorical!

Good luck.

- BNC
Ryan O'Shea - Developer - Strategic Command American Civil War
BiteNibbleChomp
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by BiteNibbleChomp »

McGuba wrote:Even BNC did not have this very original idea! :wink:
I haven't read the books, so I wasn't really able to come up with it. But I have an alternate timeline of my own that might be turned into a campaign one day.

- BNC
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guille1434
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by guille1434 »

I like the idea of that alternate timeline! Here is some stuff that can be useful... If I am correct that series of books were written by Harry Turtledove... I read the World War series and I also liked it very much!
About what it's uploaded:

- A M4 Medium tank with the CSA insignia and a prominent "Rebel" flag.
- A template with several variations of the CSA insignia.
- A template to add the CSA flag, it may need to be adjusted in its relative position depending on what icon is applied to.
Attachments
CSA_Flag.png
CSA_Flag.png (6.37 KiB) Viewed 7606 times
CSA_M4_Sherman.png
CSA_M4_Sherman.png (32.66 KiB) Viewed 7606 times
CSA Cross.png
CSA Cross.png (551 Bytes) Viewed 7606 times
Shoughie
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by Shoughie »

That's awesome, I love it. I have a folder of all the German units available in DCS in the "Butternut" colour. However there are no masks for the German field guns, towed anti-amour pieces, and towed anti-air. If I had those I could skin them quickly and upload the pack for you to add your lovely battle flags. Then We'd be one solid step on the way to this mod.
FOARP
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by FOARP »

Hi Sloughie - Whoa there! First things first: the CSA flag in the Southern Victory books was a cool reversed-colours version of the old CSA army flag.

I'd been thinking of using grey rather than Butternut (not least because I don't really know what colour Butternut is or if it is as cool-looking as grey, which was the traditional Confederate colour), but if you can come up with a cool-looking Butternut look for at least the infantry I'd be much obliged. Of course the Freedom Party troops use camouflage pattern similar to the SS so we can just re-use the SS units.
Shoughie
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by Shoughie »

Hi, I apologize if I went too far ahead on your project, I'm just in love with the concept. I'd totally forgotten about the flags being inverted. I'm not sure if I have the know how to do that.

By the time of the Second Geat War the CSA was wearing a Khaki colour influenced by the British.
When I get the chance I'll work on a couple different options for you to choose from, but it only makes sense to keep the infantry and vehicles a uniform colour.
FOARP
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by FOARP »

No problem, I take your point about tanks and troops matching, though I'd still like to see something that looks menacing enough. It's noteworthy that the artwork from the books (e.g., Drive To The East) shows grey-ish tanks and aircraft.

Actually right now the thing I would really love to see is:

- Good artwork for the National Assault Force (basically the Confederacy's Volkssturm).

- Mexican revolutionaries: infantry with sombreros and bandoliers.
FOARP
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by FOARP »

As an example of something I'm working on, have a look at the following. The books tell us that the Confederates had five classes of tanks (or barrels in the terminology used in the books) - Marks 1 to 5 - however they don't really describe them, the wiki lists some details by them but I'm not sure that the books ever said anything quite like what is described there. For our purposes, anyway, five classes isn't really enough for a full campaign, especially if one class is, according to the wiki (and I don't remember the books actually saying this) just a copy of a British WW1 tank.

This means we should try to make some tanks which fit the Confederate army and which can be up-gunned and up-armoured to make different versions of the same tank. Ideally they shouldn't be immediately recognisable as those of a real-life country, though we may end up just taking German tanks if designing them becomes too much of a chore. For my attempt at making a Mark 2, I started with the Polish 7TP tank (which most people won't recognise by sight), desaturated the image to turn it grey, and added a CSA flag in place of the Polish checked-flag, and ended up with this design - the Mark 2 Barrel (A):

Image

To make an up-gunned version of this tank, I used the free-select feature on GIMP to cut out the barrel of a 5cm PAK, desaturated it, and then pasted onto the Mark 2 Barrel (A) and retouched the shadow to make the Mark 2 Barrel (B), with its 37mm pop-gun replaced by a mean long-barrel 50mm gun:

Image

To make an up-armoured version of the Mark 2 (B) I then cut out the side-armour plates from the Panzer IIIN, reduced them in height, and then pasted them onto the Mark 2 (B) to make the Mark 2 (C2):

Image
Shoughie
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by Shoughie »

Wow, great work, I am truly humbled. I'm awful with the free editor :/.
I fear for your infantry requests we may need to call upon the hero of the Modding community Guille1434. He's made the best units I've seen on this site.
BiteNibbleChomp
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by BiteNibbleChomp »

Have any of you considered using the Wehrmacht reserve graphics "training_unit.png" used by Blue Germany in the tutorial?

For the sombreros, I would just draw them on - It'll only be like 6x8 pixels or something.

I have a bit of experience with units now so might be of some use. 8)

- BNC
Ryan O'Shea - Developer - Strategic Command American Civil War
McGuba
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Re: Custom Unit sound/graphics

Post by McGuba »

FOARP wrote: one class is, according to the wiki (and I don't remember the books actually saying this) just a copy of a British WW1 tank.
As far as I know there were only two mass produced British tanks in WW1 the Mk. I/IV and the Whippet, which does not leave much choice here. Some time ago guille made a nice icon for the Mk.IV on which you could build upon by recolouring and stuff:

http://slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 20#p456889
Ideally they shouldn't be immediately recognisable as those of a real-life country, though we may end up just taking German tanks if designing them becomes too much of a chore.
Godd thinkink. However, there is not many other "unkown" tanks like the 7TP I think. So maybe you could try mixing different parts of different tanks to get a unique new looking one. Like copying the turret of a German tank on a Soviet tank chassis and adding some more elements from a British and French tank.
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