Simple UI mod request: red is dead

[Holman]

I was wondering if someone who knows the interface might make a simple change to the stock squad display.

Right now, wounded soldiers are displayed as yellow weapons while dead ones are displayed as yellow weapons with a red cross superimposed. This doesn't make immediate intuitive sense (at least to me), as it just looks like another variety of wounded.

Would it be possible to mod the yellow+red cross designation for dead units to be a completely red weapon instead? This would stand out to the eye more immediately.

[Holman]

Actually, I'm going to try this myself.

However, I've never cracked open the stock files for modding before. Is there a trick to it? Which of the .brz files in the Data folder do I unpack in order to get at the squad panel images?

Thanks for any advice!

[Saferight]

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=114631

[Mord]

It's v100d but it's not gonna work 'cause there are only green and yellow status bmps. If you change all the yellow to red then you will have red weapon pictures when dudes are lightly wounded, which will confuse you more. Juju's mod interface will work better. And if you aren't into that, Marco should be releasing his weapons icons soon. Or you could just pull Juju's icons from his overall mod, that will give you red crosses for lightly wounded, and then red crosses with the red casualty word for heavy wounds.

Mord.

[Holman]

Only green and yellow? That's shame. Since there are three basic states (healthy, wounded, dead), there should be three colors. Slapping a red cross on top of wounded doesn't say "dead" to me; it says "extra wounded."

[Mord]

Well, technically there are four states when it comes to unit bases, green, yellow (light wound), red (heavy wound), and dark red (dead). With the weapon icon states, red could mean either dead or out of commission. They probably added the words because it would take a lot more bmps to make a red version of all the weapons.

The way I described above would be less confusing. A red cross will show your dude is lightly wounded and then the red casualty text will let you know right away a dude is done for without any confusion.

Mord.

[Mord]

How's this look to your eye? Better?

I think it's much less confusing.

Mord.

[para]

Anyone know of a mod to get rid of the skull and crossbones?

cheers

[Holman]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! Very helpful.

I do like the red casualty text.

[Holman]

I'm curious: which file adds that red casualty text? I'd like to try something.

[Baneman]

Anyone know of a mod to get rid of the skull and crossbones?

cheers

I use one that turns it into a red "splodge" under the casualty - had it since some kind soul produced it for CMBN. I much prefer it.

PM me and I'll email it to you if you haven't found it by the time I get home from work in another 3 hours.

[mjkerner]

I use one that turns it into a red "splodge" under the casualty - had it since some kind soul produced it for CMBN. I much prefer it.

PM me and I'll email it to you if you haven't found it by the time I get home from work in another 3 hours.

I believe that one was made by MikeyD. I have it if you can't find it, or need it in less than 3 hours.

[Mord]

I'm curious: which file adds that red casualty text? I'd like to try something.

I think that is hard coded.

Mord.

[Holman]

I think that is hard coded.

Mord.

That's strange. If it's hardcoded, how does the mod change it? And I don't actually see it when I install JuJu's. Am I doing something wrong?

[Mord]

The mod just changes the bmps. The actual red text is somewhere in the code and is placed on top of the weapon picture when someone gets hit. It may be possible that you could open one of those code files and change the red text to something else (kinda like how Vin does his mod) but how that is done is way beyond me.

Mord.

[Offshoot]

It may be possible that you could open one of those code files and change the red text to something else (kinda like how Vin does his mod) but how that is done is way beyond me

The word "Casualty" is in the file <strings.txt> in BRZ v100a. You can change this text to read something else but unless there is a tag somewhere I don't think you can change the colour, font etc. I assume Vin uses 'pictogram' text, which you could do here, but it would still be an overlay and in red.

[Holman]

How's this look to your eye? Better?

I think it's much less confusing.

Mord.

I'm confused. I have never seen this "casualty" text in CMRT--I only see the red cross on top of weapons that have been killed. This is true both with vanilla and with JuJu's UI mod installed.

Am I missing something? I much prefer the casualty text to the red cross. How do I get it?

[Holman]

Ah, I figured it out. It's because I'm using Vin's Animated Text, which changes the word "Casualty" to a cross both on the left-hand soldier state display and on the weapon slot panel.

To change the cross to the word "CASUALTY" while keeping the rest of Vin's great mod, you need to replace text in "strings.txt".

The entry to change in "strings.text" in Vin's Animated Text is the item right after "Routing" under "Soldier State Display". It looks like a superscript 23.

Change this:

<E>²³

to this:

<E>CASUALTY

(And of course use a different line if you're playing in another language.)