[scenario] Afghan Roulette + Taliban mod

[Zveroboy1]

Map preview (the full map is roughly 1.6 km X 1.6 km) :

Extract from the briefing :

In Afghanistan, in the green zone of the Helmand Province, the British forces have established a series of small outposts based on an ink-spot approach. By concentrating on just a handful of population centres that it floods with reconstruction projects before expanding outward, its goal it to draw Afghans into the coalition fold.

Toki CheckPoint is one of these outposts. Located in the middle of a remote, insurgent-riddled area, 1 mile south of the Loy Mandeh village. It is just an old farming compound, home to Lima company 42 commando royal marines. The area is so littered with IEDs that the only way in or out is by helicopter.

The Green Zone is an area of densely irrigated land, supporting almost 90 % of the local population. Its fertility makes Helmand Afghanistan’s largest producer of opium. A maze of interconnecting irrigation ditches, treelines and open fields, it is unbearably hot (55°C) in the summer and bone-chillingly cold (-20°C) in the winter.

It is 7 am, late summer of 2011 during Op Herrick 14. You are tasked with conducting a foot patrol in the area. Our goal is twofold : to conduct searches in suspect compounds known to be used by the Taliban for insurgent activity or weapons caches and baiting the talibans into attacking us so they stay away from the village and the reconstruction effort there.

Notes :

When designing this scenario, my main goal was to try to create a mission that could be played several times, almost like a sandbox, where the player can try different tactics and approaches. There are therefore 4 AI plans each with a different set up for each enemy group. And within each set up there are several different random positions for the enemies. I hope that combined with the random objectives it gives the mission a fairly high replay value.

Due to its randomized nature, each play through can vary greatly and produce very different results. I tried to minimize the odds of this happening, but the map is fairly large for an infantry battle and it is possible that the player might encounter very little opposition in some circumstances. You might just stumble upon an IED and have a sniper take pot shots at you. Or you could head directly into a group of Taliban combatants...or two. It is in any case a counter-insurgency mission and it can be a fairly low intensity affair. I am fully aware that this might not be everyone's cup of tea and I designed mostly this scenario for myself. Just a warning so you know what to expect.

I recommend that you download and install the Afghanistan Mod Pack that re-textures buildings, walls and adds opium poppies as well as my Taliban mod. (see post below)

 

Disclaimer :

Okay this is my first published scenario, be nice kiddos. I have been working on this Afghanistan pack for almost three months now : the retexturing of buildings, the reskinning of some of the Syrian uncons into Taliban fighters and a scenario to go with it. The scenario could probably do with a bit more testing and polish but to be honest I got a bit burned out about this whole project. So rather than let it remain on my HD forever, I have decided to release it. The victory conditions and force balance in particular are probably a bit off and if you guys give me some feedback, I could perhaps tweak it a little. Also the random objective system fully described in the briefing might be explained poorly. It is actually fairly simple but it requires some dice rolling and an honour system on the player's part in order to work.

Basically you need to roll two dice to determine the two objectives assigned to you for this mission. And it is designed in a way so that the two objectives are -fairly- close- and not on two opposite sides of the map. There is probably a more elegant way to do this, but this is what I came up with. And don't worry, you won't need some sort of nerd meister twenty sided dice to do this, just a regular 6 sided die is required.

Oh yeah, obviously you need the British module for this.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nblpi035puwdhvu/AFG - Afghan Roulette.rar?dl=0

I am probably forgetting something here and added a bunch of last minute changes that haven't been fully tested, so please let me know if there is anything wrong. Thanks.

[Zveroboy1]

I am a bit reluctant to create a separate post for the Taliban combatants, because frankly it is not quite up to the standards of some of other more talented modders on this forum. Because of the model it is based on,  they only vaguely resemble real Taliban insurgents but this is the best I could do with my limited modding skill and available time. I have been using them myself to play half a dozen Afghanistan battles though and with a bit of imagination, they work okay I suppose. In any case they're better than the default uncon skins for this setting.

This mod replaces the textures of Syrian uncon combatants with Taliban combatants.

Issues :

Most of the turbans don't really wrap around the back of the head of the models properly. It was just way too complicated for me to fix this and I didn't think it was worth the hassle. At the same time, I felt that I couldn't just make them a plain colour which would have been much easier but make them resemble Taliban even less.

I have noticed a weird glitch which happens sometimes indoors if you turn shadows off and shaders on, where keffiyehs of the original textures get applied as a shader on top of the combatants clothes for some weird reason that escapes me. I suspect it is not caused by the mod itself, but rather by a conflict in the file naming structure SF2 uses or remnants of SF1 or orphan files that are present in the original brz. Then again it could be something I did while modding the textures. If someone knows what could cause this issue, please let me know, so I can try to fix it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/62ph1spr4ohsggd/zTalibans.rar?dl=0

 

[MOS:96B2P]

3 hours ago, Zveroboy1 said:

 

When designing this scenario, my main goal was to try to create a mission that could be played several times, almost like a sandbox, where the player can try different tactics and approaches. 

Due to its randomized nature, each play through can vary greatly and produce very different results. 

the random objective system fully described in the briefing might be explained poorly. It is actually fairly simple but it requires some dice rolling and an honour system on the player's part in order to work.  Basically you need to roll two dice to determine the two objectives assigned to you for this mission.  

This sounds very interesting as I really like sandbox type scenarios.  Also the "very different results" is probably a good thing for re-play purposes.  The random objective system is intriguing.  I don't really have time to play it now (I'm putting the finishing touches on Coup d'etat).  However I think I will at least open it and read up on the random objective system.  I'll probably need to wait a little while when I have more time to play it all the way through. 

+1 for creating a scenario.    

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Got my attention as soon as I saw those compounds.....Bravo on a very convincing map! 

EDIT - For some reason I can't download it.    @MOS:96B2P  If you've done so could I get a copy via our shared DB space please?

Edited March 10, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead

[sburke]

Not sure when I will get to this, but really looking forward to it.  Ambitious first effort @Zveroboy1 Hats off to you.

[Erwin]

Am a fan of sandbox type scenarios.  Looking forward to this.

[MOS:96B2P]

33 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

could I get a copy via our shared DB space please?

Uploading to Bashar Al Squarehead's folder now. 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Cheers dude. 

[Aquila-SmartWargames]

9 hours ago, Zveroboy1 said:

I am a bit reluctant to create a separate post for the Taliban combatants, because frankly it is not quite up to the standards of some of other more talented modders on this forum. Because of the model it is based on,  they only vaguely resemble real Taliban insurgents but this is the best I could do with my limited modding skill and available time. I have been using them myself to play half a dozen Afghanistan battles though and with a bit of imagination, they work okay I suppose. In any case they're better than the default uncon skins for this setting.

This mod replaces the textures of Syrian uncon combatants with Taliban combatants.

Issues :

Most of the turbans don't really wrap around the back of the head of the models properly. It was just way too complicated for me to fix this and I didn't think it was worth the hassle. At the same time, I felt that I couldn't just make them a plain colour which would have been much easier but make them resemble Taliban even less.

I have noticed a weird glitch which happens sometimes indoors if you turn shadows off and shaders on, where keffiyehs of the original textures get applied as a shader on top of the combatants clothes for some weird reason that escapes me. I suspect it is not caused by the mod itself, but rather by a conflict in the file naming structure SF2 uses or remnants of SF1 or orphan files that are present in the original brz. Then again it could be something I did while modding the textures. If someone knows what could cause this issue, please let me know, so I can try to fix it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/62ph1spr4ohsggd/zTalibans.rar?dl=0

 

Is it possible to replace Syrian Fighters with Taliban?

[evilman222]

Like what I see so far, but if this was 100% accurate to the source material, the guys on garrison duty should be chilling out in brightly colored underwear...

[Combatintman]

@Zveroboy1 - that map looks hoofing (good) as the Royal Marines would say. Looking forward to giving this a spin once I kick one of my projects out of the door. Have a like anyway for the map and for joining the scenario designer club.

Edited March 10, 2019 by Combatintman

[ViperAssassin26]

the Taliban mod looked really good!!

 

[Zveroboy1]

Thanks guys.

On 3/10/2019 at 9:52 PM, strigoi said:

Is it possible to replace Syrian Fighters with Taliban?

strigoi I am not sure what you are asking exactly. If you want to know whether they can be reskinned to look like Taliban, yes it is possible, but I doubt it would look great. Actually my first attempt was with uncon fighters because I liked the way ammo pouches looked on them but I quickly switched to combatants. But the ski masks the fighters are wearing look worse than keffiyehs really. Why do you want to use them to portray Taliban?

They could probably be modded to look like Daech in Khorasan or ISIL-K or whatever these guys are called though. And with the recent situation in Syria and the Baghouz  enclave I wonder if we are not going to see more of these masked fellows in Afghanistan soon.

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Zveroboy1
asdf

[Aquila-SmartWargames]

17 hours ago, Zveroboy1 said:

Thanks guys.

strigoi I am not sure what you are asking exactly. If you want to know whether they can be reskinned to look like Taliban, yes it is possible, but I doubt it would look great. Actually my first attempt was with uncon fighters because I liked the way ammo pouches looked on them but I quickly switched to combatants. But the ski masks the fighters are wearing look worse than keffiyehs really. Why do you want to use them to portray Taliban?

They could probably be modded to look like Daech in Khorasan or ISIL-K or whatever these guys are called though. And with the recent situation in Syria and the Baghouz  enclave I wonder if we are not going to see more of these masked fellows in Afghanistan soon.

 

No, no you´re Taliban are perfectly fine  I mean is there a way that instead of replacing SF´s Syrian Combatants your Taliban mod replaces tSF´s Syrian Fighters (those black robe dudes)?

Reason is there is a Afghanistan Campaign Heart of Darkness where you fight against Taliban. I would love to play it + your Afghanistan Mod. However for a reason the campaign uses SF´s Syrian Fighters (black robe dudes) instead of SF´s UNCON combatants to portray Taliban. The Author released it back then for SF1 with replacing custom skins to make them look like Taliban again but skins from SF1 as we know do not work for SF2. The author seems to be gone for a break since some months, and fighting black robe baclava Taliban breaks the immersion for me.

So your Taliban mod seems would be the perfect substitute for fixing this!

Strigoi  

Edited March 12, 2019 by strigoi

[Aquila-SmartWargames]

Picture says more than thousand words: I would like your Taliban Mods to replace these guys here. 

If you could tell me how, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

[ViperAssassin26]

 

1 hour ago, strigoi said:

Picture says more than thousand words: I would like your Taliban Mods to replace these guys here. 

If you could tell me how, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

I agree the you're Taliban mod looks really good.

[Zveroboy1]

Okay strigoi, I understand what you want now. I just did a quick test : yes, it is possible actually with some creative model swapping. Just give me a day or two and I'll try to swap and rename all the required files.

[Zveroboy1]

I tweaked the Taliban combatants a bit, changed the trousers of the one with the camo jacket, added a new one with a pale blue outfit and then another with black clothes in order to have a slighter darker overall tone when in groups. That's nine in total now, but of course most are just recoloured with only slight variations, but I am more satisfied with the ragtag effect.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/62ph1spr4ohsggd/zTalibans.rar?dl=0

Strigoi & co, I haven't forgotten you, stay tuned for the fighters.

[Boche]

looks great, will be giving it a go!

[MOS:96B2P]

5 hours ago, Zveroboy1 said:

I tweaked the Taliban combatants a bit, changed the trousers of the one with the camo jacket, added a new one with a pale blue outfit and then another with black clothes in order to have a slighter darker overall tone when in groups. That's nine in total now, but of course most are just recoloured with only slight variations, but I am more satisfied with the ragtag effect.

stay tuned for the fighters.

+ 1.  Nice work.  I will have these loaded while playing your scenario. 

[MOS:96B2P]

Also the Taliban mod is tagged!!  Very useful!!  Looking in the editor and at my below screenshot made me realize I did not have all the mods.  The editor shows the following tags as imported on the txt file: trashsoft, rubble, mudhouse, mudwall, poppiesyellow, ANA, taliban  

I don't think ANA will work capitalized on the txt file.  It would have to be imported as ana. 

So I found and have all the mods in the scenario txt file except: trashsoft, rubble, ANA 

Or maybe trashsoft and rubble are BFC tags that ship with the game???? ...................... I don't remember off hand. 

Is there a ANA mod somewhere?  (which I think would need to be renamed ana on the txt document)   

Edited March 13, 2019 by MOS:96B2P

[Zveroboy1]

Yes it is tagged so other people who make Afghanistan scenarios can use them and of course this way people can just leave the mod in the mod folder without having to swap it in and out all the time.

mudhouse, mudwall, poppiesyellow : these are all from the Afghanistan texture pack.

trashsoft and rubble are stock tags. I am using the rubble from the squalor mod, but it shouldn't matter. Trashsoft if I recall correctly turns sand into trash and rubble turns heavy rock into rubble.

6 hours ago, MOS:96B2P said:

Is there a ANA mod somewhere?  (which I think would need to be renamed ana on the txt document)  

ANA was just a placeholder, thanks for pointing out that it wouldn't work in capital letters. There are no Afghan National Army troops here so it doesn't do anything.

I was going to make a thread asking if someone was working on an ANA mod.

[MOS:96B2P]

26 minutes ago, Zveroboy1 said:

Yes it is tagged so other people who make Afghanistan scenarios can use them and of course this way people can just leave the mod in the mod folder without having to swap it in and out all the time.

+1  Thank you for doing so. 

 

26 minutes ago, Zveroboy1 said:

ANA was just a placeholder, thanks for pointing out that it wouldn't work in capital letters. There are no Afghan National Army troops here so it doesn't do anything.

I was going to make a thread asking if someone was working on an ANA mod.

Very good.  

[Aquila-SmartWargames]

On 3/13/2019 at 8:42 AM, Zveroboy1 said:

Strigoi & co, I haven't forgotten you, stay tuned for the fighters.

Will Do. THANK YOU! 

[Zveroboy1]

Taliban Heart of Darkness fix for Combat Mission Shock Force 2

As requested by strigoi.

Description :

This mod swaps the models of Syrian uncon fighters with Syrian uncon combatants and reskins them as Taliban using the same textures as my Taliban mod.

This mod was made in order to play old SF1 scenarios which used Syrian fighters to represent Taliban. The Heart of Darkness campaign by dragonwynn in particular.

While it is named Heart of Darkness fix, it will work for old SF1 and new SF2 scenarios whenever Syrian fighters are used as Taliban. If used together with my Taliban mod, both Syrian fighters and combatants will all have the same appearance, the only visual difference being that fighters wear ammo pouches.

Issue :

They share the same issues as my Taliban combatants mod plus this minor one :

There are two types of Syrian uncon fighters in SF2, some wearing sneakers and some wearing boots. The second type share their boots with regular Syrian soldiers. If you are playing a battle featuring both Taliban and the Afghan National Army, which in most cases will be represented by regular Syrian soldiers, some of the boots will look wrong.

The file below fixes the boots of Taliban fighters and turns them into sneakers to match the shoes worn by combatants because I have swapped the models. If you keep it, regular Syrian soldiers will have boots that are not properly textured. If you choose to delete or rename it, then Taliban fighters will have poorly textured shoes.

smod_syrian_boots-soldier [taliban].bmp

(Really it is just simpler to just leave it alone, since it is tagged, it won't affect your normal game. Just realise that Syrian soldiers will have bad looking boots.)

Download :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ba6l9sye2ccxzmw/zTaliban HeartofDarkness fix.rar?dl=0

Link to dragonwynn's campaign :