SB HQ (Squad Battles Launcher) v.1.5.5 (new!)

[Xerxes77]

SBHQ is a launcher/front end for the Squad Battles series. Its primary purpose is to provide a single point of access to a collection of SB titles and includes a few handy features for designers as well.



Installation is as simple as it gets - just unzip the file attached and drop SBHQ.exe in the root folder where your SB games are installed (it can coexist with the official WDS launcher). Double click to run. Once started, SBHQ.exe will look for available SB games under the root folder (including mods, as long as they're installed as separate folders containing a recognized executable) and will ask the user to select one of the titles found. Once a game is selected, the screen shown above will appear, from which you can launch a scenario, play a saved game, manage mods (through JSGME) and open/edit auxiliary files like .oobs, .pdts, manuals, etc.

The behavior of the different sections of the program should be for the most part self-explanatory. A few notes:

- Columns in the main scenario list can be sorted by clicking on the column header. They are also resizable.
- Clicking on the main game title at the top will bring back the game selection dialog.
- The radio buttons allow filtering by game status (new / old) or mode (except for Direct-Play, currently not supported).
- The "Play" button will launch the game and start the selected scenario automatically, bypassing the classic File Selection Dialog.
- The "Autoplay" button is is only available for campaign-enabled titles. Essentially, it lets the user watch the computer fight against itself (AI scripts must be defined for both sides). When clicked, the Autoplay button will create a "dummy" scenario named "#### Autoplay ####.scn" and launch the SB game as usual. The dummy Autoplay scenario should be then selected in the File Selection Dialog in-game like any regular scenario. The difference is that you will see the battle play out automatically, with the AI against itself. This is mostly for fun, but can also help adjust balance issues or tune the AI performance in a given scenario.
- The "Mods" button interacts with JGSME. It will open it directly and allow easy management of mods for the different games. This function requires that SBHQ.exe be launched with administrator rights, otherwise it will throw an error.
- On the lower right corner you can select to see a group of useful files or a preview of the scenario map.

The launcher can be invoked via a shortcut that can be pinned to the taskbar/desktop. This provides easy access to a user's full SB collection with just a few clicks.

This is a fun project I started for myself just to use the Autoplay feature, and kept growing into a frontend. I intend to keep working on it as time allows. Hopefully it may provide some enjoyment to others. As usual, looking forward to comments, feedback, requests, etc.

Current version: 1.5.5

Changelog:

v.1.5.5
- Important note: This version should work with both 4.0 and the new 4.01 versions, however the Autoplay feature will not work in the latter. If you want to play AI vs AI, you'll have to keep a separate 4.0 version of your game.
- Stock editors (sqedit.exe, sqoob.exe, etc) can now be run simultaneously
- Various small fixes

v.1.5.1
- Hotfix: Added support for Squad Battles: Falklands. (D'oh!!) All SB titles should be picked up by the program now.

v.1.5.0
New Features:

- Added support for encrypted PBEM saves (before they were just ignored. Doh!)
- Requested: Added support for JSGME.exe when installed in locations other than the main game folder. JSGME.ini must still present in each game folder for proper redirection.
- Added flags for the combatants/factions participating in each scenario.
- Map Thumbnails! Added a new panel that shows a "stylized" preview of the map for the selected scenario. Clicking on the thumbnail will open a larger view, with the possibility of saving the .bmp of the map to the game folder with the format '[Scenario_filename].bmp'.

Bug fixes:

- Fixed issue when loading scenarios with wrong map data.
- Fixed issue when the user pressed Cancel while trying to change the game.
- A plethora of changes and fixes for improved exception handling.