BrucErik CSD Studio

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Erik2
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by Erik2 »

Excellent pocket-work.
I pruned the Totalize-scenario and put it back in the scenarios-folder.

Did you ever check the campaign-stuff?

If you have the time, could you please add some proper defeat/victory lyrics?

Other than that, it is ready for play-testing.
bru888
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

Thanks for the compliment. I do put a considerable amount of time and thought into such things before I presume to edit. You always be the judge as to whether they make the cut. This is the first time that I looked at the campaign. Superb map! Minimalist in detail but entirely suited for the task in terms of scale. I have some ideas, though. I'll be back later.
- Bru
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by Erik2 »

One campaign map idea would be to add major towns and other significant land-marks.
bru888
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

Erik2 wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 5:21 pm One campaign map idea would be to add major towns and other significant land-marks.
Remarkable. We are starting to read each other's minds. :)
- Bru
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

So let's start with the map. I kept it simple, so as to not interfere with location rings and faction flags. Only the beaches and the major towns that are mentioned in various Scenario Descriptions are included. I tweaked some of the rings and flags to accommodate them and only after doing some research to confirm the changes:

map.png
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I have noticed that the optimal campaign map size seems to be 1967 x 1500 pixels - that's what the "pros" use. Yours was 672 x 513. The game seems to stretch smaller images and make them a bit blurry or distorted. Yours was okay (the proportions are the same, which is important - 1967/1500 = 1.31 and 675/513 = 1.32), but I wanted to see if it would "take" expansion and still look good. It did, maybe even better. This was important because, if I had applied the labels to the smaller image using my photo editing program (instead of the campaign editor, which I could have used, but what about the dots representing the towns?), the labels would have been blurry when the game blew up the image to fit the screen. So this has turned out well, it seems.
- Bru
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

I improved on the Campaign Description, I think:

Screenshot 3.jpg
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- Bru
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

When starting the campaign, I didn't like the Campaign Event image being truncated, the message itself being chopped off, and the lack of decorations. Other than that, it was great ( :wink: ):

Screenshot 1.jpg
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This is better in all respects, I believe. The teacup was de rigeur, of course:

Screenshot 7.jpg
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The trick with the message was to keep the first sentence to one line and consolidate the rest. It reads as: "Begin as the British at Gold/Sword Beach or Canadians at Juno Beach. |Gold or Sword leads to Villiers -> Cristot - > Chaumont -> Martlet -> Epsom D1 -> Epsom D4. Juno leads to Juno D2 -> Mesnil -> Carpiquet. The branches then meet at Goodwood/Atlantic."

The Campaign Event image I downsized to 512 pixels width, added canvas room at top to bring the total height to 415 pixels, and filled in the resulting white band at the top with more cerulean blue sea. That allows the entire map to be shown.
- Bru
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

Regretfully, I had to revise this message due to the absence of the Bonfait scenario:

Screenshot 8.jpg
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I feel a bit bad about it but on the other hand, I am glad that you agreed with me that Bonfait really was not up to our standards for this campaign. It just felt like a sudden drop-off in scope, intensity, and time/turn span. It really did seem like a tutorial scenario in the middle of the campaign. If one of us ever redevelops and improves Bonfait, maybe we can put it back in the campaign.

I also touched up this message:

Screenshot 9.jpg
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- Bru
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

Here is your campaign tree. I recommend re-posting this image with your beta play thread, if you decide to do one. I threw a PDF version of this into the campaign folder.

Campaign Tree - Normandy UK 1944_1.jpg
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A couple of final notes:

1) Thanks for swapping out the campaign victory image. I like your alternate choice; the only other one that I would have considered myself was the picture of the three kids looking at the destroyed German tank. That one gets me. But yes, the one that you chose is quite good.

2) Please do me a favor and swap this text file for the one in the Juno scenario folder. When I was looking at the "Starting Locations" choices (Gold/Juno/Sword), I noticed that the description for Juno was the only one that did not name the beach itself. I changed "clear the beach" to "clear Juno Beach." Please remember to delete the "_(Juno)" from the end of the file name. I also uploaded the file to the "Back to Erik" folder.

text_english (Juno).zip
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And I uploaded the entire campaign folder, with revised campaign files and the scenarios that you had therein (with the exception of the revised Juno Beach text file, which is now in there) to the "Back to Erik" folder. What do you say, partner? Think it's ready for prime time? Then go ahead and give it the limelight!
- Bru
Erik2
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by Erik2 »

It has been a pleasure, Bruce.
Take a few well-earned days off.
I may call upon your services again as soon as you're ready :wink:

Erik
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

Thanks, Erik. Merry Christmas!

By the way, I'm working on expanding Les Grands Bonfaits. Just the map, the turns, and a few other things. Perhaps if you like what I did, you will populate it with resources, command points, and units as you see fit and we can work 30Bonfait back into the campaign.
- Bru
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

Here's the revised map, with location names and objective hex links restored. Throw the template out; it's now distorted as a background.

Screenshot 5.jpg
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Let me do some other work on it, then I'll transfer it to your care. I'll be back.
- Bru
bru888
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

Okay, big changes, Erik.

First, I have revitalized Les Grands Bonfaits. Now I like it! (Of course). So following are the changes and recommendations.

Les Grands Bonfaits (revisited)

Edit: Now that it is included again, I changed the Campaign Tree to this (and swapped this image for what you posted in the beta thread):

tree.jpg
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Edit: I expanded the map, using Google Maps as a reference. Several surrounding towns are now in the map as a consequence. I resized the map in such a way as to provide more north-south room and less west-east, especially in the far east which seemed to be wasted space. Since the map now has different dimensions than the template you used, I discarded it. It looked distorted in the editor.


Edit: I expanded the briefing:

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Screenshot 5.jpg
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Screenshot 6.jpg
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Edit: I created 4 secondary VPs and a corresponding objective; basically 4 western towns that should be held to avoid the SS from getting behind British positions at Les Grands Bonfaits and cutting them off. I made the Germans also wait until the scenario turn limit for their primary objective, to allow the primary VP to be lost and retaken. Therefore, the primary objective is now "Hold Les Grands Bonfaits at scenario end" and the secondary objective is "Hold all secondary objectives at scenario end."

Edit: Thus I felt 12 turns was a better number for this scenario now.

Suggestion: You may want to beef up the Germans a bit; by my calculation according to British CPs, they will be outnumbered. Don't add too much, just enough to make it a challenge.

I have uploaded the revised 30Bonfait folder to the "Back to Erik" subfolder in Dropbox.

Second, and most important, I have recreated the campaign file. If you have not done so, you may want to read what was reported in the beta thread, then see the next post here.
- Bru
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

So, what happened to the campaign file? It was definitely corrupted; not a darned thing that I tried could get it to work. I had to rebuild it from the ground up.

If I had to guess, it was one of two things that corrupted the file:

1) Including inactive specialisations (I have bookmarked an old thread that I intend to update). The British had "Bomber Stream." Canadians and other factions had "Destroyer Tender" and "Rationing." We have seen these have bad consequences before; who knows if it did again with this? I left the potential specialisations for British and Canadians, minus the inactive specialisations, but I cleaned out all specialisations for other factions - they have no specialisations revenue to earn any - except that all other factions have Specialized Training, Tank School, and Flight School from the start, as you had it.

2) When you removed 30Bonfait from the campaign tree, after I harangued about it, that could also have done the job. You and I have had the experience (you more than me) of what can happen with this game when factions, AI teams, and campaign branches are deleted. The program lets you do it and everything looks fine until the game is called up again; that's when you get the bad news.

The possibility of number 2) made me feel even worse about 30Bonfait. What I should have done was not to complain about it but to go ahead and make the improvements that I ended up doing anyway. This possibility gave me extra incentive to redesign the campaign file, even if it was not the true cause of the failure. Besides, now I feel good about 30Bonfait (it also balances the campaign tree).

I took screen prints of your campaign file and followed them closely. I did deviate here and there in a minor fashion, such as renaming the campaign to "Normandy 1944 UK and Canada" to differentiate it and trimming your "defeat" image. I uploaded the entire campaign, scenarios and all (including the upgraded 30Bonfait) to the "Back to Erik" folder.

It should work now. It did for me when I nuked all the way through it. Please see what you think and perhaps use the entire uploaded folder as version 1.2.

Screenshot 3.jpg
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Erik2
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by Erik2 »

You nailed it, Bruce. Good detective work!
The scenario transition works now.
And the campaign now has a more proper folder name as well.
SirAllan
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by SirAllan »

WOW bru and eric you have really been very bussy lately and Im really looking forward to try your excellent work - when will you release it?
Erik2
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by Erik2 »

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Erik2
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Normandy UK & Canada 1944

Post by Erik2 »

Normandy UK & Canada 1944 is out of beta.

Download link in first post.

Latest changes:
All scenarios:
Added more air exit/deployment hexes
Added extra historical air units were applicable (large changes to various scenarios).
Changed number of turns were applicable
Changing a lot of wonderful French accents

Juno:
Fixed German staff car obj

Juno D+1:
Doubled Can Command points and resource income
Added a few British inf units

Please add any new feedback in this thread.

Have fun
BrucErik
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by Mascarenhas »

Normandy etc..

Still v. 1.5

Bocage Bridge (Dickie´s): There are no 16 German units. I took them all 15.

Just take note for the next v.
Hug
bru888
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Re: BrucErik CSD Studio

Post by bru888 »

Mascarenhas wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 9:30 pm Normandy etc..

Still v. 1.5

Bocage Bridge (Dickie´s): There are no 16 German units. I took them all 15.

Just take note for the next v.
Hug
Not sure what you mean here. I assume you are talking about Le Bény-Bocage but the objectives are "Capture all 4 objectives," "Capture Point 266," and "Eliminate all German units."
- Bru
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