Alex has written some preview information for the v1.04 patch and the extended mod support that is coming very very soon. He's still travelling so couldn't post it himself. We think it's great and hiope you do to. It really opens up some very interesting options when it comes to campaign and scenario design. We hope you enjoy it!
Panzer Corps 1.04 supports user-created mods providing custom campaigns. Here is how it works.
- All mods must be placed in "%My Documents%\My Games\Panzer Corps\Mods" folder. If the Mods folder does not exist, it must be created. Every mod resides in its own subfolder. The designer of the mod can provide a full-blown installer that will place his mod in the Mods folder, or a package which the user will unpack and place in this folder manually.
- Inside the mod subfolder there must be a text file called GUID.txt which will contain a unique mod ID. It is an arbitrary string, and it is the designer's responsibility to make sure his ID is unique and unlikely to be used by any other mods. One way to achieve this is to generate a Globally unique identifier (GUID, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_unique_identifier) and place it in the file. You can use of one the many availabel web site to generate a GUID, for example http://createguid.com/. If you have a web site dedicated to your mod, another idea is to use the URL of your web site as the unique ID of your mod. URLs are guaranteed to be unique in the Internet, so other modders are unlikely to use the same URL.
- All the other files and folders inside the mod subfolder repeat folder structure of the main game, for example:
Data folder contains campaigns, scenarios and equipment table
Data/Briefings folder contains briefing files
Graphics folder contains all graphics used by the game
Graphics/Units folder contains unit icons
etc.
If any file is placed in the mod folder, it overrides the same file in the main game. Any game files missing in the mod folder are taken from the base game installation. So it is possible to selectively replace any of the game's files with their custom versions. For example, a mod could replace equipment table with its own custom version (Data/equipment.pzeqp file), or use the default equipment table. The same approach can be used for graphics files, audio files, UI layout files etc.
- Every mod is supposed to provide one or several custom campaigns. If there are no campaigns in the mod, it will be ignored. This means that a minimal mod must include Data subfolder, and inside it a custom campaign.pzdat file describing all the campaign(s) included in the mod, and also all scenario files (*.pzscn and *.pzloc) required by these custom campaign(s).
- If there are any custom mods installed on the PC, the game will detect them and show an additional "More Campaigns" button on the campaign selection screen. Click on this button will bring up a popup screen with all custom campaigns listed under "User-made Campaigns" subsection. Note: for now, there is no option to access individual scenarios from the mods.
- The game switches to the right mod folder after a campaign provided by this mod is selected from the list and all settings are configured (difficulty, weather, supply, fog of war etc.). This means that the main menu and campaign selection UI cannot be changed/overriden by the mods. However, all UI used after campaign is started (e. g. turn splash screen, main game screen, purchase screen etc.) can be customized.
In addition to this, there is a new option to link campaigns together, so that the user can proceed with his core force from one campaign to another one. This feature is used to link together separate episodes of the Grand Campaign, but this feature is available to user-created campaigns too. Here is how to use it.
- Typically campaign file uses END label to specify that the campaign ends after a certain outcome in a given scenario. To tell the game that the player can proceed to a different campaign after ending current one, you need to create a custom end label. It must begin with END prefix, followed by any custom string. For example, Grand Campaign '39 DLC uses END_SAVE_CORE label (instead of just END) to mark points where you can proceed to Grand Campaign '40 - after any outcome in Narvik scenario. Campaign path entry for Narvik looks like this:
Code: Select all
Narvik NarvikA.pzbrf Narvik.pzscn [b]END_SAVE_CORE[/b] 600 NarvikB_decisive.pzbrf [b]END_SAVE_CORE[/b] 350 NarvikC_marginal.pzbrf [b]END_SAVE_CORE[/b] 500 NarvikD_loss.pzbrf
Note that END_SAVE_CORE is used three times here, for each of the three possible outcomes (decisive victory, marginal victory or loss). When the game encounters a custom end label, like END_SAVE_CORE in the example above, it saves player's status (core force, prestige and a few other parameters) into a file before returning to main menu. This happens completely transparently to the player.
- When you create a new campaign, you can tell the game that it can continue from some other existing campaign. To do this, you must specify the GUID of the mod and custom end label from which the player can proceed to your campaign. These parameters are specified in the 9th and 10th columns of the entry point table respectively. Here is an example of the entry point table from the Grand Campaign '40 DLC:
Code: Select all
Eben-Emael 15 German attention turns to the West with a daring campaign to topple its old enemy: France. 0 0 2100 Grand Campaign '40 Grand Campaign [b]{C6FE45B9-F408-45af-9709-1064FDC83694} END_SAVE_CORE[/b]
Here {C6FE45B9-F408-45af-9709-1064FDC83694} is the ID of the Grand Campaign '39 DLC (it is a GUID), and END_SAVE_CORE is custom end label. This data tells the game that player's core saved after '39 Narvik scenario can be used to play '40 campaign.
- Every time the user starts a new campaign, the game checks if there are any matching cores saved earlier which could be used in it. If such cores are found, the game will prompt the user to import one of them, or just start the campaign in default mode (with core force configured by campaign designer).
- It is possible to have different continuations for different results in the previous campaign. To do this, just use different custom end labels for different endings of the campaign, and then link different campaigns to these end labels.
- It is the responsibility of the campaign designer to make sure that the transfer of the core force from one campaign to a different one is safe. For example, both campaigns are supposed to use the same equipment table, because otherwise certain units in the core will not be able to proceed from the first campaign to the second one. Thus, all campaigns comprising the Grand Campaign use the same stock equipment table to avoid this problem.
Hahah!
