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A Canadian Cat

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Posts posted by A Canadian Cat

    Various Infantry Mods- WIP

    in CM Normandy Maps and Mods

    Posted

    Hi Ian- You just need to rename them to "canadian-turtle-helmet 2", "canadian-turtle-helmet 3" (for the MkIII) "canadian-helmet 2" (for the MkII) and numerically up in relation to how many mods you have. Just remember the blank space before the number. Polish would be "polish-turtle-helmet 2" or "polish-helmet 2", and so on.

    I'm glad you like it, guys. Just happy to give back a little and do my part. I'll try to make some progress on the other stuff this weekend.

    I'll get right on that - thanks. Any thoughts on updating the mod to make it official? My guess is that the same procedure would be needed for the Poles too.

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    Trigger or not to trigger

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Whether you realize it or not, and regardless of the syntax of the exact commands, what you are talking about is an application-specific, high-level programming language.

    Oh I realize that - I program for a living - so I get it.

    There are languages in place that can handle this quite nicely and they could be integrated into most any application. Python comes to mind and it has flavors that run on most any platform so it would work with both Mac and Windows. It can also be customized by BF to handle a very limited command set.

    And I would be thrilled and have a blast making the AI do cool stuff.

    The thing we need to keep in mind is that the vast majority of people are not capable of (or more accurately not interested in) learning how to program. While we might want an open programming language for the AI, I am not sure it would fit the target audience here very well.

    Right now we have a lot of people who can create an AI script that can perform reasonably well. There are enhancements that could be made to the existing AI scripting that could allow those same people to do even better. I personally think that some ability to trigger responses from the AI would go a large way towards that. I also think that to make sure that same group that are creating AI programs now keep creating AI programs, the game needs away to enhance what is there now not replace it with a amazingly flexible programming language.

    IMHO

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    Trigger or not to trigger

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Sure. But from a technical standpoint, what you are talking about is still a group of IF... THEN conditionals. E.g.: Groups 1-3 are forward units Left, Right, Center, respectively, Group 4 is reserve

    OK but I was thinking instead of turning this into a programing language (which BTW I actually would be OK with but that is just me). Keep it really really simple.

    Currently each AI group has a single track of actions. I am suggesting that give each AI group two tracks and a trigger to choose which.

    Group 1:

    Set up in place on the left

    Group2:

    Setup in place in the centre

    Trigger Group2 takes 80% casualties

    A chain of AI actions (same as now) that move towards the left flank

    Move

    Move

    Assault

    etc.

    Trigger Group 3 takes 80% casualties

    A chain of AI actions (same as now) that move towards the right flank

    Move

    Move

    Assault

    etc

    Group 3:

    Setup in place on the right

    Group 4:

    Setup in reserve

    Trigger Group 1 takes 10% casualties

    A chain of AI actions (same as now) that moves to counter the attack on the left

    Move

    Move

    Move

    Move

    Assault

    Trigger Group 2 takes 10% casualties

    A chain of AI actions (same as now) that moves to counter the attack in the centre

    Move

    Move

    Move

    Move

    Assault

    Trigger Group 3 takes 10% casualties

    A chain of AI actions (same as now) that moves to counter the attack on the right

    Move

    Move

    Move

    Move

    Assault

    And as you can see just by my writing this down I see that you need multiple triggers for each AI group and you also need to decide if once one trigger happens do the other ones get ignored or might they trigger and override the units current plan.

    Clearly this will take a large amount of effort to design correctly.

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    Trigger or not to trigger

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Interesting thoughts on triggers. I never really though about using triggers so that a unit that reaches the end of its orders would have something else to do after a certain time with no enemy contact. Nor did I think of writing if then else statements in the AI coding.

    What I was thinking would like be useful is something much simpler. Consider a AI programmed to defend a few objectives. Right now an AI cannot really have a mobile reserve that can react to an attack. Yes, I know that designers can guess and perhaps get it right but that is all it is a guess. If a AI defense line is breached on a flank then the other units just sit there waiting to get attached from their side.

    So I would like to the same kind of AI scripting that we have now but allow which script an AI group runs be triggered (and all times adjusted relative to when the trigger happens). What that would allow a designer to do is arrange a defensive line and hold a couple of AI groups in reserve. Those reserve groups would have a trigger to choose one three scripts: one to move and defend the left, one to move to defend the centre and one to move to defend the right. Then trigger for which script to choose is based on a unit on the left, a unit in the centre or a unit on the right taking casualties. Once the trigger happens the chosen AI script would run as usual. In addition you could add triggers on the main defenders such that the unit in the centre would move left if the defending unit on the left took a high level of casualties etc.

    Yes, it is true that fake attacks on a flank would draw the AI the wrong direction, buy hey I sometimes fall for that too. The scenario author could easily vary the triggers so one day your faint draws the reserves but the next day it does not and the reserve instead responds to the real attack. Tweaking those trigger levels would add additional dimensions to varying the AI's behaviour game to game.

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    Various Infantry Mods- WIP

    in CM Normandy Maps and Mods

    Posted

    Uploading these to the Repository in a few minutes.

    Looks great and I installed your mod. The only game I have going where I am playing CW forces is The Main Event which are Canadian. I saw no sign of your awesome looking helmets on my Canadian soldiers. Is this mod supposed to work on the Canadian's helmets too? I have not had time to try out a QB with the Brits to test so I am just wondering what my expectations should be before I start trouble shooting tonight.

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    AFV lazy crew

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    I have seen something a bit similar except in my case the drive would not drive the tank even though the engine was fine and there was a crew member assigned to drive.

    The tank took two casualties and I forget if they bailed and I got them to remount or not but in the end I had a gunner, driver and commander and the tank could fire fine but would not move. In my case I could place movement way points but the driver never tried to follow the orders. It stayed that way for the rest of the game.

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    Loading screenshots.

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Do you guys like the blue tint for the German pics? I think it looks cool alongside the red tinted Allied ones. Or would you rather have plain gray like the stock ones?

    I personally am not a huge fan of tinted B&W pics. If I had to choose I would go with a sepia tint (red) rather than the silver (blueish).

    I too would love to see some Commonwealth forces loading screen shots too.

    On the subject of centring pictures. If the game does not centre images you can just re-size the canvas to be the full size expected by the game. Then position the actual picture in the centre and fill the background with black (or what ever colour the rest of the loading screen is).

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    Loading screenshots.

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    It doesn't strike me as posed, or not overly so anyway. By that I mean those four guys probably really were together for a real briefing, although the photographer might have asked them to “scootch in a bit closer for the photo”, or sumfink.

    I vote for not posed for that one too because the photographer has placed focus on the guy standing in the back. Next time you see it have a look at how in focus each of the men is. The guy at the back is the one with the sharpest look. The highest ranked officer is just a bit soft and the guy giving the briefing is noticeably less sharp.

    Don't get me wrong it is a great picture showing interaction and I think it is a great addition to the game. But while the game is loading I have spent quite a bit of time staring at it:) Lord knows I have taken more than a few shots that were less good than they should have been because I miss focused. But if it was a posed shot then I would expect the photographer would have made sure the focus was on the highest ranked officer.

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    Question about the status of the "Lo Vis Icons" and "Niessuh contact icons" mods

    in CM Normandy Maps and Mods

    Posted

    My current plan is to release a three separate .brz files:

    1) Commonwealth forces green icons - will require the existing Lo Vis icons for the allied HQ, snipers and FO units

    2) Commonwealth forces khaki icons - will make the US HQ, snipers and FO units have Khaki icons too

    3) Khaki allied contact icon

    It makes sense that there are only red and blue contact icons (not nation specific icons). The whole point of a contact icon is your guys see or hear something but they don't know what it is. I personally do not want to replace the nice Axis / Allies icons that are included in the existing "Niessuh contact icons" mod. I am adding an optional khaki version of the allied contact icon in case people want to have all their allied icons the same colour.

    It is unfortunate that the HQ, sniper and FO are not nation specific. I would like to see that rectified in a future release. Right now if you want the khaki UK icons you pooch the US units and it would be nice to be able to have a mixed force with different colours. To bad.

    I am OK with looking at making a union jack version after I get what have tested. I was also thinking about making a black and white version of the German tactical icons for the SS. Not sure when I will begin working on that though.

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    Question about the status of the "Lo Vis Icons" and "Niessuh contact icons" mods

    in CM Normandy Maps and Mods

    Posted

    I got tired of waiting :D

    I exploded both of these mods and made British copies of these great tactical icons. Given the repeated requests for khaki versions I made two separate sets - a green version and a khaki version.

    Note: due to the shared FO, HQ and sniper icons using the khaki icons means that any US forces end up with khaki HQ, FO and sniper icons too. You can swap in/out the Khaki icons depending on the game you are playing but I will probably just stick with green for all the allies.

    Also these new mods will expect to be used with the Lo Vis Icons and

    Niessuh contact icons mods not as standalone mods.

    British forces using the green icons:

    CWGreenShowingSelection.jpg

    British froces using the khaki icons:

    CWKaki.jpg

    CWKakiCloseUp.jpg

    Yes, that is the CW dealership scenario - thanks for that.

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    Looking for some icon editing advice

    in CM Normandy Maps and Mods

    Posted

    Just too bring this thread to a close:

    Recap:

    I did my initial work of tweaking files using Paint.Net but that does not correctly support alpha channel for BMP files so my icons were a total failure. Oops should have tested one before doing all the work.

    The solution - which did not involve redoing all the work:

    In the end I made use of a program DXTBmp (thanks Lt. Smash for your PM). With that program it is easy to extract the alpha channel from an RGBA BMP. I saved all the alpha channel images from the original Lo Vis mod I was basing my work on and then started reapplying them to my new images. DXTBmp only handles one file at a time (plus file saving formats was confusing) so I figured out how to use Gimp to do the same task - more steps with Gimp but more efficient for me to process multiple images. Samples to follow...

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    CW Buron - Sticking it out (no spoilers)

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    You are a psychic. I just finished it. Can any volunteers for playtesting it H2H to make sure that this version IS balanced please send me a PM containing your email address?

    Excellent. My main PBEM opponent and I are currently just getting going on "The Main Event" and it will take us a while to finish (he is on holidays for a while right in the middle). So it will be a few weeks before we get to play Sticking it out. I would love to help out - but I doubt you will want to wait for us.

    Thanks

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    Looking for some icon editing advice

    in CM Normandy Maps and Mods

    Posted

    I am trying to make a mod that will provide tactical symbol floating icons ala

    Lo Vis Icons

    http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=1121

    But my icon editor (Paint.Net) does not allow me to create 32bit bitmaps. Neither does the built in Paint (it tops out at 24 bit). I just did it anyway but there is no transparent areas in my versions of the icons (I unpacked the Lo Vis Icons and tweaked them). Clearly I am missing something.

    What are you guys using for icons? How do I create transparent areas that the game understands?

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