ToW2 editor? Newbie questions ...

[DaveyJJ]

Newbie user with some basic questions ...

Does ToW2 (Afrika) have a map/terrain editor like ToW1?

Does the map editor use one of the existing maps/scenarios as a base to modify, or do you create completely new maps?

If it uses existing maps, would any of the base Afrika maps be suitable to represent parts of Italy? (My late father-in-law fought in Italy with the 8th British Army and won Poland's highest award of valour in December 44 near Ravenna.)

How easy is it to create a basic company-sized attack-defence engagement with static defenders?

How do you go about placing victory locations on the map, so that as soon as the attackers have gained it, the game is over?

If ToW2 Afrika won't allow me to make Med style maps, does ToW1? (I also play Normandy, so ToW may be the better buy anyway?)

Thanks for the answers!

David

[Schrullenhaft]

The TOW 2 Africa 1943 Map Editor is similar to the one in TOW 1. It's primarily geared towards editing maps rather than creating them from scratch, a process that is a bit more involved and requires more tools than provided with the editor.

Although you could 'mod' TOW 2 Africa 1943, you are basically using terrain (landscape, trees and brush) that is found in Tunisia rather than northern Italy. So appearance-wise it may not look like the area near Ravenna Italy. TOW 2 buildings on the other hand can be entered and fought in/from, whereas with TOW 1 they could not.

Another limitation, which could be 'modded' is that you will have units from North Africa, May 1943 rather than from Italy December 1944. So uniforms, vehicles, weapons and textures will be from North Africa. TOW 1 would probably be closer in terms of terrain appearance, units, weapons and textures.

Creating battles can be done (once a map has been created) with either TOW 1's: Battle Generator and Mission-Campaign Editor or TOW 2's: Mission Generator and Mission-Campaign Editor. Using the Battle Generator/Mission Generator is pretty easy, but it only gets you the basics in setting up a battle. Using the Mission-Campaign Editor gives you far more tools and allows for a much more detailed setup (including triggers). Using the Mission-Campaign editor will involve much more effort and will take time to learn.

The TOW series doesn't really match up to true unit sizes in terms of the battles that people may want to create. There are limits on the number of units that can be present on the map, so true 'company-size engagements' may be a bit harder to create. You'll most likely 'approximate' these engagements with reduced infantry forces.

So the choice comes down to being able to fight from/within buildings and appearance of the buildings and terrain and finally the selection of units. There are other differences between TOW 1 and TOW 2 than just the buildings, but that is a noticeable starting point.

[DaveyJJ]

Thank you, Schrullenhaft.

Having watched the videos I had assumed that the map editor was more along the lines of "use one of the existing scenario terrains and modify to your liking" to create a new scenario. That's OK.

Smaller scale (more tactical) the better, btw. I'm a tactical war gamer at heart so that's fine. Company sized was my outer outer limit, I'm more comfortable with a squad or two, maybe eeking up to a platoon.

I assume that triggers like a victory trigger on a particular spot would be among the easiest to set up in the "harder to use" Mission-Campaign Editor? Or does the BG also allow this sort of thing to be set?

So, if I did want to do anything but North Africa (or East Front), say Italy or Normandy, then I currently have to go the ToW 1 route, even if means giving up buildings as enterable terrain?

Final question ... these simple scenarios that I create for my own amusement in the Battle Generator and/or Mission-Campaign Editor. Can I assume the MCE allows far more flexiblity in setting up forces? Or can both the BG and MCE be used to allows players to pick forces or are they set? And is the opposing force AI controlled?

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm hoping to get home this evening and have made my decision between 1 and 2.

[Schrullenhaft]

The Battle Generator/Mission Generator is used to select forces and this can either be passed on to the Mission-Campaign Editor or to the main game to play with the map and forces selected. Both Editors can be used to setup a battle, but the Battle/Mission Generator is an easier method to setup things initially.

Battles created and then directly played within the game are battles of destruction rather than specific territory (Capture the Flag). However I'm not really familiar with the choice in victory conditions. There doesn't appear to be much to victory conditions except a couple of types of 'multiplayer' setups, which involve 'Capture the Flag' as one of the options.

In terms of getting the setting and units correct, it would seem that TOW 1 would be the better bet. If you could get all of the appropriate mods (which may not exist), then the TOW 2 series would be a bit nicer.

[Knokke]

@DaveyJJ

You'll probably have to use ToW1 to recreate engagements in Italy rather than ToW2, unless you're ready to do intensive modding on ToW2 (you'll have to be able to use 3dsMax and the Mega Mod Pack tools to create italian style buildings and static objects, and create new textures for the units in photoshop).

As to the creation of maps from scratch, rather than simply editing existing ones, it is possible both in ToW1 and ToW2. There are a few threads in the forums covering this topic. Basically, you'll need to create 16 bits RAW BMP greyscale images for the elevation of your terrain from Digital Elevation Models data available here