Conversion of units

[Eagletanker]

how do you convert units from BA to eastern front?

[Paul59]

how do you convert units from BA to eastern front?

I assume you mean transfer units from the original Battle Academy into BA2.

These are quite detailed instructions, sorry if I have missed anything out.

Step 1. Go into the original Battle Academy's folders to /Battle Academy/DATA/BATTLE/UNITS. There will be a big list of .TXT and .S4F files. Copy the files corresponding to the units you want and paste them into the DATA/BATTLE/UNITS folder of your scenario. Each unit needs a .txt and a .s4f file.

Battle Academy movable Light AT guns have firing sounds and graphics when you move them. This is because the models .txt file does not have any movement instructions, you just have to copy and paste the movement animation info from a similar BA2 units .txt file.

Step 2. Go into the original Battle Academy's folders to /Battle Academy/DATA/BATTLE/UNITTEXTURES. Again, copy the files corresponding to the units you want and paste them into the DATA/BATTLE/UNITTEXTURES folder of your scenario. Each unit needs it's own .dds (and if it is a vehicle or large gun a _D.dds) texture. Sometimes it is not obvious what textures you need, as the names might not match. In that case you have to open the units .s4f file and find the name of the texture it is using, a frequent example of this is the various infantry heavy weapons like mortars and mgs which normally use the infantry textures.

Step 3. Copy the unit lines that you need from Battle Academy's Squads.csv file and paste them into your scenarios Squads.csv file at the bottom. If you don't already have a Squads.csv file in the scenario folder, just copy and paste the original BA2 Squads.csv file into your scenario folder. You must have #REPLACE in cell A1 of your scenarios Squads.csv file, so that the game will use it instead of the original BA2 Squads.csv file.

Each new unit must have a unique name in column A. There must be no spaces in this name. This name is just for the game's internal reference, the actual name displayed in the game is determined by the UNITNAME string, see Step 4 below.

It must also have a unique ID number in column B.

The unit points (column L in the Squads.csv file) seem to be worked out differently between the two games. I generally don't worry about this too much, except to change the trucks from 9
points (in BA1) to 40 points (BA2).

Movable artillery (like HMGs, mortars, light AT guns etc) have ridiculously long movement rates when transferred to BA2. The solution is to find a similar BA2 unit, and copy it's Squads.csv columns O to Q values into the BA1 units stats line.

BA1 units do not use Squads.csv columns DC to DH;

Column DC is for the number of Smoke Rounds a unit has, so Engineers should have 4, mortars and other smoke capable artillery have 6.

Column DD is for Engineer capabilities, so just put a 1 in for any Engineer units.

Columns DE to DH are only used in the Random Skirmish Generator, so I won't bother to describe them in detail.

Step 4. Create the unit name and info strings in a text file in your scenario folder. It is best to just add them to an existing text.txt file, or copy and paste an existing text.txt file from another scenario or BA2 itself. Do not try and create your own text.txt file from scratch as the format will be wrong. Each new unit will need it's own unit name and info strings. like in this example:

IDS_UNITNAME163,"Char Bis Flamm",
IDS_UNITINFO163,"Char Bis Flamm~~Converted from captured French Heavy Tanks, this flamethrower tank is a formidable opponent for infantry or light vehicles.",

The number 163 in the example above corresponds to the unique ID number you have given the unit in the Squads.csv file, see Step 3 above.

[Eagletanker]

Thanks Paul, now I can import some French trucks and give Germany a new surprise.