uh-oh. Umm, Glenn?

Richrd · 08-09-2008, 07:12 AM,

When I discovered the various ways the component lists could be altered, I went nuts. I set out trying to make OOBs for the entire Ostheer at various points in the war. I still have drafts of several and I'm just thrilled with the outcome. Every obscure fact that is uncovered can immediately be inserted into an OOB. I wish that there was a way to add text to OOBs so my sources can be listed right on the OOB. But heres my problem. In the Kursk OOB I wanted to separate the light and heavy armored cars in LAH. I 'renamed' the PSW 223. When I looked I did indeed have the new AC type, but the 223 was still there. Oh, my God I thought, I'm cranking out new components. This is the coolest thing ever. I did it again and again. All the named HQ's can be used to create new unit types. But I was wrong. Every time I renamed a unit, some unit on the component list was renamed, but apparantly at random. Now some of my OOB's are a wreck. All my German Infantry battalions in EA 42 are now 21cm mortars. They can only be changed back one at a time. I've completely stopped mucking about with the editor for fear that I might ruin work that's taken me years to assemble. So how do you rename components. Also it seems that if you want to add a bitmap for your new unit you have to remember what you changed it from because only the old original names come up on the bitmap lists. This can get really confusing. Am I correct in these observation and is there a work around? Sorry for the long post but I'm trying to be as accurate as possible.

Liebchen · 08-10-2008, 04:19 AM,

Can't you just reinstall from the CD?

Vaevictis · 08-10-2008, 04:44 AM,

But then wouldn't he lose all the work he has done? Be a shame to have to throw so much out.

Jazman · 08-10-2008, 05:18 AM,

Restore from backup. You _do_ backup your work before making changes, right?

Lowlander · 08-10-2008, 05:20 AM,

Hey guys sorry to kinda highjack this thread but I have a question.

Have been checking thro the Decision in Russia mod and managed to install some missing art but something odd happened, no I don't have a problem the first turn opens everything looks OK.

For some reason I have two unit art files with the same name.
Only difference is one unit name is in black print ( new art file ), and the other one is in blue print, but this original game file is also a bigger picture.

Don't want to delete the original file, as I've never had this problem before, any clue as to what has transpired.

Glenn Saunders · 08-10-2008, 05:24 AM,

Richard:

I honestly don't know what you've done here.

Yes you can make ne components and do so very easily. New components won't have unit pictures in the game but that is easy to correct too.

But as someone below said - ALWAYS backup your files as you go - I think I learned this best with Sicily '43 where I learned the hard way how to fix up mistake. I had more "clenched arsehole" momements with that OOB - often late at night.

So I am not sure what I can do to help you with this.

Glenn

Volcano Man · 08-10-2008, 05:52 AM,

To add to what Glenn said about backing the files up:

It sounds to me like you were using the "change name" feature. This works most of the time but sometimes, depending on if you have deleted something in the .dat file (or some other reason that I have yet to figure out) the "change name" feature will change the wrong component's name.

What I suggest doing is, if you are going to use "change name" then save the OOB between each time you use it. Then you should first go to a component in the OOB that you are trying to change the name of and use the "change name" feature and verify that the component that you intended actually changed. If it didn't then you need to load the OOB again DO NOT SAVE IT. The problem is, if that exact component's name did not change then some other component changed which is what sounds like happened to you.

If the wrong components are changing, then I suggest opening the OOB and going to file and click "save all". This will then save all the components in the OOB to the .dat file and the "change name" feature should work correctly. If it does not, then your best bet is to delete the .dat files in each nationality and then open your OOB and click "save all" which will then save new .dat files of every component in your OOB. If you do the latter then you can always delete the .dat files and then open the stock OOB up and click "save all" and create all new stock .dat files. There are lots of ways you can mess up an OOB that is for certain!

Liebchen · 08-10-2008, 06:15 AM,

Vaevictis Wrote:But then wouldn't he lose all the work he has done? Be a shame to have to throw so much out.

Frankly, from Richrd's description, there was nothing worth saving. In one game's oob, every new unit equated to a unit lost elsewhere. In the other game's oob, everyone had 21cm mortars.

:conf: Why would he want to save that? :conf:

Volcano Man · (This post was last modified: 08-10-2008, 08:09 AM by Volcano Man.)

Well, you can always salvage an OOB. Worst case scenario is that you can save parts of the OOB that are good and redo ones that are not. At the very least, you can always salvage an OOB because the structure of it will be fine; the only problem with it is the components.

What I recommend doing is going through the OOB in text pad and replacing 21cm Mortars with whatever the component name should be, one by one. That way, you could look at the data and leave the ones that are fine but replace the ones that are not. Only the most experienced should use textpad or wordpad to edit your OOB, since you could potentially do some sort ore "replace all" and end up causing an error if some num data is changed. The easy thing there is just to avoid changing any sort of numeric data with textpad replace, only use it for names. But as long as you do the replace feature in textpad line by line then you shouldn't have a problem. I would never recommend just trashing the thing and starting over though.

Richrd · 08-10-2008, 10:40 AM,

When I first started I just modified the OOBs that came with the game as new info was uncovered. The periodic updates always erased those changes. Finally, I made a new OOB in each game solely for research purposes. Those are the OOB's that I have lately damaged, which are compiled from some pretty obscure sources. I'm not touching them now for fear of doing more harm. If I could add components to the list, then I wouldn't have to rename any, but I don't know how. Its just to risky to experiment.