Panzer Campaigns - Jison's MapMod Revival

[Hunter9502]

(this is a direct copy of my post on the WDS forum, apologies for any weird formatting)

Hello everyone. Many of you surely know about Jison's MapMod series (as of 2024 his linked website is no longer accessible). I noticed this thread where some people seemed interested in having it brought back. I myself used to always use his mods until the engine update. Unfortunately Jison has not released a MapMod for any game past Japan '45, and they have all been rendered unusable by the 4.00 updates and the new zoom level. Having just updated the El Jarama '37 mod to the modern engine I wondered how easy it would be to update Jison's mods myself, since I haven't seen anyone else do this yet.

It actually turned out to not be that complicated, as generally the work involved just meant scaling up some images (similarly to what was done by WDS for the First World War series, where Jison's GFX is officially integrated), and since most games in the series share the same color palette a lot was as simple as copy pasting. Nonetheless, the sheer amount of games in the series, my ambition to make versions for games that Jison had not officially supported, and testing to check for potential issues, all combined to make this a many hours ordeal. I also encountered the issues of Filipino and Norwegian troops, which were not present in any game Jison modded. I whipped out Photoshop and did my best to mimic his Unitbox style, which I hope looks convincing enough. There was also an issue with a missing NATO symbol for partisans, which I fixed. It should also be noted that since I am just scaling up images the units and hexes may not appear as "crisp" in quality in the full zoom level as it would with the vanilla game. There's nothing I can do about that unfortunately.

Please note that I am not able to test every game, and it is certainly possible that I made mistakes while putting this together, so I would greatly appreciate feedback and reporting of any issues encountered. I'll try my best to make fixes ASAP after they are reported.

Naturally credit goes to Jison for the original mods. If he takes issue with me posting these I am happy to take down the links. I will also of course be happy to remove this post if/when official updates are made by Jison.

So, with all that said, I present my collection of updated MapMod versions:

These will require JSGME (Generic Mod Enabler) or a similar software to install without having to overwrite files. If you'd rather just install directly I'd recommend making a complete backup of your game folder beforehand.

As advised by Jison on his website, the "Hex Outlines" setting should be turned off.

Full Folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1...sp=sharing

Changelog:
4/10/2023 - A hex shading issue reported by Gris was corrected (Salerno '43, Scheldt '44, Sealion '40, Sicily '43, France '40, Market Garden '44)
4/11/2023 - Custom Czechoslovak unit box replaced with one from Jison's Danube Front '85 MapMod (Scheldt '44, Kiev '43)
4/12/2023 - Symbol for broken units at 200x zoom fixed to be properly scaled (all)
5/1/2023 - Missing Australian unit counters for the 200x zoom added (Salerno '43)
6/1/2023 - Altered GFX for Pacific titles to show the rice paddies in the furthest out zoom level (Japan '45, Japan '46, Philippines '44)
7/13/2023 - Added MapMod Slopes and WDS Elevation submod
10/22/2023 - Added Orel '43 MapMod
2/12/2024 - Added Alternative NATO Symbols submod

Updated Official Releases:
A (*) symbol denotes MapMod's where Jison included custom unit GFX. If you don't want these just delete the Units folder from each country folder.

Budapest '45: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AU6NPlS...share_link
Bulge '44: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19JUcTEJ...share_link
El Alamein '42: https://drive.google.com/file/d/123JvLbL...share_link
France '40: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16ikIyFW...share_link
Japan '45: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rl1_Uuy...share_link
Kharkov '42: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WOmetXN...share_link
Kharkov '43: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EgJBULU...share_link
Korsun '44: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G8RVHsJ...share_link
Kursk '43: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U3PWj1h...share_link
Market Garden '44: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KGv9Fmb...share_link
Minsk '44: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VT2SzQ9...share_link
Moscow '41 (*): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JtVEGcc...share_link
Moscow '42 (*): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fq9xzX0...share_link
Normandy '44: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xzPFRYn...share_link
Rzhev '42 (*): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vM9W1AK...share_link
Salerno '43: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Ws-rm2...share_link
Sealion '40: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13P3cEVR...share_link
Sicily '43: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FCgM5vc...share_link
Smolensk '41 (*): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QwoQYsu...share_link
Stalingrad '42 (*): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UYCtuEH...share_link
Tobruk '41: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WF6care...share_link
Tunisia '43: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oSRhq1o...share_link

At some point I would like to make a variant for Tunisia '43, as the desert hexes are not very accurate to the real life terrain in that region. If you prefer authenticity the vanilla map textures from WDS are far more accurate.

Unofficial Releases:
Please note that besides Japan '46 none of these have Jison-style intro and victory screens or sidebars, which were beyond my abilities to replicate.

Japan '46: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CAP5Jtl...share_link (credit to Simulacra53 on theblitz.club for his "MapMod Lite", which was used as a base)
Kiev '43: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ztoz8T0...share_link
Mius '43 Demo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zjqwibf...share_link
Philippines '44: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11XYihls...sp=sharing
Rumyantsev '43: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11gi9eDz...share_link
Scheldt '44: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qJHHtQ_...share_link
Orel '43: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G2-xDLz...sp=sharing

Submods:

The Alternative Markers and Alternative NATO Symbols are NOT compatible, as they use the same file.

Alternative Markers:

Some may have also used Jison's Alternative Markers (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1123091796545781813/1206506364361506836/d_markers.png?ex=65dc419d&is=65c9cc9d&hm=e4b9f1a9ab68195c6aa0540f454eb9be887cb51fed5690c0b60bb62372efaeef&), which have a different style for fortifications as seen in the linked image. I also updated these, and they can be found in the big folder or linked below. Just drop the included Map folder on to the Map folder of your chosen MapMod and overwrite, or install as a mod in JSGME and enable after the MapMod (this will spit out a warning, but it will be fine).

The reason for multiple versions is because the GFX file containing fortifications is the same as the one with supply sources and deception units, which have varying colors between the different groups of games.

Alternative Markers - Eastern Front: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pw8nF-G...share_link
Alternative Markers - Pacific Front: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E__M2oi...share_link
Alternative Markers - Western Front: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fHPgH9w...share_link

Alternative NATO Symbols:

As requested by @Alex1414 I have also made an alternate version of the NATO symbols to remove the "rounding" on the corners of the symbols in the 200x zoom. By default these updated MapMods use a modified version of the Jison NATO symbols WDS created for the First World War games when they added 200x zoom, but this submod will make them look a bit more faithful to Jison's original style. You can see how those look here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1123091796545781813/1206511824942661712/image.png?ex=65dc46b2&is=65c9d1b2&hm=98ce5ddd07679bc403e4a3204728b4e29641b39d8dd2c4a8db63f3e88888fcb6&.

For the same reason as the alternative markers these have to be broken up by the groups of games.

Alt NATO Symbols - Eastern Front: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NU3pyns...drive_link
Alt NATO Symbols - Pacific Front: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_JmAHaO...drive_link
Alt NATO Symbols - Western Front: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J_JBsPA...drive_link

MapMod Slopes:

Additionally, Jison's MapMod's do not include slope hex sides, so using any of these mods you will see no difference when enabling or disabling the "Map Slopes" setting. I am unsure why Jison did not support this feature, but I have added a submod that includes them, which is based on the files in Strela's "Jison Mapmod for JTS (non Gold) Versions" post on The Blitz. Eventually I may just integrate this into the main files. A visual comparison can be seen here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1123091796545781813/1206506364734668810/T17XXb0.png?ex=65dc419d&is=65c9cc9d&hm=5f71d3a9d3227c5f821ba2fbad3bcf13541359cafa40f9c9857ba8570d53a07d&.

MapMod Slopes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WmANpVP...drive_link

Example Images (Full Zoom):

Philippines '44:


Kursk '43:


El Alamein '42:


Kiev '43 (and my attempt to mimic Jison's style for Czechoslovaks - now replaced by discovered files from the Danube Front '85 MapMod):


Bulge '44: