Campaign Series Mod to change platoon.oob

[Sean]

I have tried to mod Campaign Series West Front Game by making my own platoon oob edit.

I am running into a problem.
Initially when I modified a single platoon.oob the game would load the map up, get to screen where Ai is chosen then exit to desktop once i press next.

I found an article here,
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3469942

that describes   -X NoEncryption Option .

This worked for wf.exe  ,
(allows me to load .scrn file)(my game scenario ran with modified platoon.oob)

I wanted it for West Front.exe as well which did not work.
(wanted for West Front.exe so I could play random battle)

How can i play a randomly generated battle using my custom platoon and perhaps later on modified .pdts perhaps?

I thought I would link the main.pdt explained thread,
this is very handy if you want to change the values in the main.pdt ,to make unit density less for example ,or make direct fire more deadly and lots of other interesting and fun changes.

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=60327


I thought I would add a screenshot to illustrate how to make use of this -X shortcut modification. You need to make a shortcut for the game in question ,West Front , East Front ,Rising Sun. Look to my pic to know which .exe you make a shortcut of and where to place the " -X". Note there is a space before the - sign.
My background pic is only for good looks ,you want to look at the 3 little windows and what is written there ,note where I have placed " -X". Thought maybe a picture might help other users.
You need to start the game this way to either (1)start a new scenario   (or)     (2)load a saved game. This allows you to use modified pdts and oobs basically. Then to start a modified game you click on your modified shortcut.

[Sean]

I think the exit to desktop problem I have described might of been caused by something else I had modded maybe.

I reinstalled game and find now ,since I modified the main.pdt as well by limiting only 3 units to a hex (so I can test if mod is working and have less unit density which I prefer) that the west front.exe that I added -X too does not crash anymore but still loads vanilla game (not my mod of platton.oob and main.pdt).
The wf.exe with -X still works good and allows me to play with my mod correctly.

I found I can just start a game normally and generate my Random Battle ,and save this game.
Then I can play this Save using my mod via wf.exe with -X.

This solution does answer my question.
(took me a while to get back to this game-been playing some new Matrix and Steam Sale Games I have bought in last week but thought I should have another look at my issue which I do seem to have solved)

[Jason Petho]

Good to know!

[Sean]

This is in relation to CSME ,Middle East Game (not about Campaign Series West Front Game).


If I want to change company and battalion .oob's to say for example remove a Sherman M1 from certain time years (say after 1960,therefore 1961 and 1966 references in these .oob's) can I just delete the appropriate sections in the .oob's?

For example
company22.oob(original) has this paragrath in 1966 for example
66 01 69 12 C2200224 6 Tank Company 66 - Sherman M1 - 55VP
66 01 69 12 P220014 HQ
66 01 69 12 P220013 1st Platoon
66 01 69 12 P220013 2nd Platoon
66 01 69 12 P220013 3rd Platoon

and similarly
battalion22.oob(original) has this paragrath in 1966 for example
66 01 69 12 B2210222 6 Tank Battalion 66 - Sherman M1 - 217VP
66 01 69 12 P223008 Group HQ
66 01 69 12 C2200224 Tank Company 66 - Sherman M1
66 01 69 12 C2200224 Tank Company 66 - Sherman M1
66 01 69 12 C2200224 Tank Company 66 - Sherman M1
66 01 69 12 P227028 M3 Mk. A
66 01 69 12 P228005 M3 TCM-20
66 01 69 12 P221011 M3 Mk. D
66 01 69 12 P229006 Jeep w/106mm RCLR
66 01 69 12 P226010 Jeep w/MG

I would do similar for 1961 references as well.They are not mentioned in 1962 or 1963 addendum.
Would this work?
I wanted random battles after 1960 to not include Sherman M1 for Israeli forces. They are a bit underpowered in gun and speed and I feel they are unfair against stronger tanks like T54.
Only for own solo random battles.


Alternatively can I just adjust platoon22.oob and change years of service there ,would that work?

[Sean]

I had another idea for CSME.

Can I cut/paste some early time period company/battalion paragraphs to some arab .oob's for a bit more variety, That is add maybe some 1950s equipment to their 1960s lineup?

I have the hardcover book "Diary Of The Sinai Campaign" by Moshe Dayan and found his battles with early period Arab Tanks to be a great read. I would like to introduce some of these tanks into the 1960s lineup in my game.

Can I just cut/paste in a similar manner (this time I will be adding files) to my earlier question about removing files?

[Jason Petho]

You can do that simply with the organization editor. 

You just change the reference date at the top to add the units you want to add for your scenario. 

But otherwise, you can copy and paste other organizations, but you'll have to be concerned with the numbering as I outlined in the manual. 

You cannot have duplicate ID's, those will bugger up the organization editor as it won't know which structure to use (although it usually defaults to the first one in the list)

[Sean]

For Campaign Series WEST FRONT.

How can I limit visibility in a Scenario?
I noticed that some German Weapons fire 20 hexes and I would like to limit that to 13/14 to 16 maybe.
The USA weapons seem limited to 14 hexes so maybe that is a good number.

So can I limit visibility so the German Units cannot see the far targets?
And if so where do I make such a change?

I had a look at Scenario and Map editor and could not seem to find option.
Also looked at main.pdt and did not see an option either.
I could change the weapon.pdt ,but I would prefer not to edit lots of weapon lines.

Ideas?

Edit,
had another look at the Scenario Editor.
Under "Heading" ,
"Visibility" ,the scenario I was looking at , a random scenario ,had "1-16(20)" ,entered here.
I will change this value I think,
curious why it has a range and a value though.

[Sean]

I had a look in the manual ,found this bit,

"achieved by noting the turn sequence followed by the visibility. In the following example scenarios that is 10 turns long, turns 1-5 will have a visibility of 3, while turns 6-10 will have a visibility of 5.
1-5[3] 6-10[5]".

So I think my example random battle had 1 to 16 turns with 20 visibility.
I will change it to "1-16(13)".
I will check if it limits the German Tank Fire.