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HOW TO MAKE A BIG MOD (TEST DUMMY LOG)


kohlenklau

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My Demo scenario is also coming along and I think I am understand the mod better. That map is so interesting I may just move the first "real" scenario to that sector and design the rest in chronological order. But first things first. Let's make sure the demo looks the way the mod is supposed to present the units. I played the scenario this morning and it needs balancing, but it's just a demo. 

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37 minutes ago, kevinkin said:

My Demo scenario is also coming along and I think I am understand the mod better. That map is so interesting I may just move the first "real" scenario to that sector and design the rest in chronological order. But first things first. Let's make sure the demo looks the way the mod is supposed to present the units. I played the scenario this morning and it needs balancing, but it's just a demo. 

 

38 minutes ago, kohlenklau said:

I can still try and watch it, avec vin et camembert

Sorr make a mistake ! this is the one in english !

 

Edited by JM Stuff
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Just in case that the german from @Damian45 would try to pass to the Albert Chanel  that eventual @kohlenklau could have a scenario in his box,  with some research from @Suchy to prepare a duel with @Falaise or @kevinkin or @Heinrich505 supported by @Ivan Zaitzev and @Vacillator and well commented by @Erwin...

I was prepared some older helmets for the defense of the Eben Emael fortress, and hope this time that they will put some heavy weapons on the roof of the fortress, to say a good welcome to these gentlemen falling from the sky...not that we have again A Deja vu...

 😆

(Just kidding boys)

qrbtTtt.jpg

Edited by JM Stuff
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I sent the FR40 MOTHERLOAD to a bunch of folks on the mod team.

2.4GB of France 1940. It could/will even be bigger as I have not pulled over ALL the CMBN buildings.

It is still in progress and is a mod that needs carefully orchestrated with NOT ALL CAN BE IN Z AT ONCE.

I am working to develop certain different combo packs, maybe 3 or 4, A through D, that allow scenarios to be properly displayed. For example, in some scenarios the Italians appear as French to drive R35's. But the Italians also are the German mortar teams. So they cannot be on stage at the same time. Follow me?

I asked BFC if the ACTUAL German 50mm mortar is in CMFI but got no reply. It IS in the data files along with R2V module but that could have just been a goof. I have hunted high and low to try and see where it is. No idea. It is not in the pdf manual that is part of R2V.  

Edited by kohlenklau
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6 minutes ago, kohlenklau said:

I sent the FR40 MOTHERLOAD to a bunch of folks on the mod team.

2.4GB of France 1940. It could/will even be bigger as I have not pulled over ALL the CMBN buildings.

It is still in progress and is a mod that needs carefully orchestrated with NOT ALL CAN BE IN Z AT ONCE.

I am working to develop certain different combo packs, maybe 3 or 4, A through D, that allow scenarios to be properly displayed. For example, in some scenarios the Italians appear as French to drive R35's. But the Italians also are the German mortar teams. So they cannot be on stage at the same time. Follow me?

I asked BFC if the ACTUAL German 50mm mortar is in CMFI but got no reply. It IS in the data files along with R2V module but that could have just been a goof. I have hunted high and low to try and see where it is. No idea. It is not in the pdf manual that is part of R2V.  

Only Phill can resolve Ideas from @kohlenklau !

And in all of this he is the Master.

Edited by JM Stuff
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"FAKE LOBSTER"

The number of friends and fans of CMFI FRANCE 1940 mod are currently countable on your fingers and toes. It sure seems.

So, why not just address the elephant in the room?

I admit it. In this mod, you will be offered some "fake lobster" I call it.

I guess "fake crab" is better known. It is fish that is processed and made to look like crab with coloring.

I joke and use lobster because of the long use of Space Lobsters in CM forums, etc.

What is my "fake lobster"?

Fake lobster is when what you see on the screen is not 100% what the game engine thinks it is.

Some folks are confused on what is possible as a non-BFC forumite trying to mod the game.

Some folks are purists on the simulation and will not even look at fake lobster.

I would say that this mod has fake lobster but it also has situations where the fake lobster is not present.

The mod CAN be enjoyed by purists. It just has to be a certain scenario to avoid their food allergy!

I will take this time to go through the mod carefully and explain what is modded. If you have negative comments or criticisms, you can PM me or attack me here. but I prefer the PM. :D

~~~~~~~~~

A. The infantry mods:

1. ALLIES

To me this part of the mod is almost empty of fake lobster.

@Falaise and @JM Stuff and @Damian45 and I have worked to create a new arena of infantry combat.

CMFI has many nations and we took great advantage of that.

The 1944 French equipped with US gear have been modded to look like 1940 French Army. Regular metropolitan French troops AND Colonial troops -perhaps from Morocco. JM made the awesome RF grenade emblem helmet after I struggled and failed. Falaise made the Moroccan crescent moon collar badge coats. JM AGAIN gets a gold medal and made "crescent moon" emblem helmets. His new name is "Mr. Helmet"...?

The 1945 Brazilians equipped with US gear have been modded to look like 1940 French Army, the Senegalese Tirailleurs (S.T.). Names modded by me to be Senegalese! JM made a helmet with anchor emblem of the S.T. Falaise made coats with anchor badge on collar. I used black faces from my [buffalo] mod. I need to sprinkle in some Senegalese into the French voices which were renamed from stock Brazilian voices.

The 1943 Polish equipped with British gear have been modded to look like 1940 French Army. Voice files renamed and modtagged to now be French. Names changed to French names. Ranks changed to French 1940 style.

Bolt-action rifles. Sure, deep down, there are differences. Maybe we are generically treating them as the same. At the CM level, I think it is ok with this mod.

We can do certain scenario editing tricks to keep the number of SMG low on the French side. Both sides have rifle grenades. Oh well. There are not too many.

I only have 60 minutes for editing and can make additional posts for this description of the mod.

Folders for infantry

cCvjoDT.png

eOIfplB.png

zZz09SM.png

 

Fd6ujHr.png

tEfnw3X.png

2zdsD8K.png

 

I am probably almost at my 60 minutes for editing. You might notice german ponchos up above. These are my existing transparency files to make stuff not be visible. I just re-use and rename. Falaise and I have made brand new gear items. We also decided to have some items just vanish. US webgear compass pouch for example. The same will be true for German Y-strap upper back gear that cannot be there as France 1940 the Germans are going strapless! 😮

The wife now returns soon from her 1 week away and I must go crazy to clean the sink dishes and all such things in a rapid last-minute manner. 

MORE DESCRIPTION LATER. Next is AXIS Infantry to showcase the beautiful mods of @Damian45

one more screenshot to show Senegalese folder

sdJG4qK.png

 

 

Edited by kohlenklau
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A. The infantry mods (continued):

2. AXIS

To me this part of the mod is almost empty of fake lobster.

@Falaise and @JM Stuff and @Damian45 and I have worked to create a new arena of infantry combat.

But without a doubt we have been blessed from almighty himself with Damian agreeing to help us with his time and talent.

Of all our CM titles, only CMFI goes back to July 1943. Thank the lord that BFC did this or we would be well and truly screwed. 

You gotta play with dates in the editor to get what we want. We are making a document with tips and guidance. Thanks Kevin. @kevinkin It takes a little zig zagging but we CAN achieve a 1940 TOE similarity of adequacy. Set unit quality to poor prior to purchase of regular German Infantry 43A and then set the scenario date BACK to July 43. The goal for axis is NO PANZERFAUSTS, only one MG-34 per squad. Yes, we DO get the G-41, oh well. YES, we do get the grenade launcher, Oh well. MINOR INCONVENIENCES!!

The game engine makes them wear a 1942 tropical uniform which we rename the skeleton file to put them into M43 with jackboots but made to LOOK like 1940 uniform with jackboots and <thanks to Damian> NO Y-STRAPS. Germans are going strapless for the summer look. :D

All this under the hood file renaming malarky can be ignored if you are just a regular forumite wanting to just play the damn game. 

If you recall from the post above, we used transparency files to make the normal gear worn on the backs of our landsers, vanish...

I am on the job, slightly behind schedule, to bring in the new gear item, the gas sheet pouch, to all versions of the foot soldiers, MP-40 dude, K98K bubba and MG34 guy. Oh, and pistol boy.

Damian is trying to make sure we have no anachronistic gasmask cans and such. We will always be looking for these things to get OUT of the game. The yellow ones from 43 onward. IF YOU HAVE EXTRA STUFF in your z, we cannot help that. I do again recommend an entire separate install of CMFI for this mod. It has nothing to do with a license key. It is VERY EASY TO DO. You simply copy the entire game folder and repaste. You set up a new shortcut that goes to the new CMFI. The new CMFI still looks to the same game file folder where you have scenarios and PBEM turns. BUT IT CAN HAVE ITS OWN Z FOLDER. You get rid of all that hassle. If you have a big enough...uhhh...hard drive...this aint an issue. I will show a screenshot of my folder arrangement. TRY TO!!!

I have shortcuts to my CMFI CMAK2 mod and a separate shortcut to fire up CMFI France 1940.

Also a shortcut to the 2 different z folders.

mXTPx9o.png

 

If anybody wants to know more about this set-up, just ask. I will move onward.

German 50mm Mortar

I can't find this mortar in CMFI. It is in the data files but maybe that is a goof. Oh well. So, I rolled with the punches and modded in the Italian Brixia mortar. Good enough for me. I have it appear in 2 options. Italians who wear SS uniforms and Italians who wear Heer uniforms. This is done with multiple modtags. [germanbrexia] and [germanbrexia heer]. Again, I will press onward. 

Damian has been cranking out the mods. I really appreciate it. My challenge is to get it all to appear when desired and have no oddity occur. We just test and make fixes. 

regular heer. 

Waffen-SS in smocks.

Waffen SS in feldbluse.

SS Polizei in feldbluse.

German nurses in spike heels and lingerie. <just seeing who is paying attention!>

BULK RENAMER UTILITY FREEWARE

 I wanted to take a second to tout the great benefit of getting a bulk renamer. It hauls butt and has a ton of ways it can help speed up modding. I have spent time to dump all the voices of a nation into one folder from their subfolders. Once done, this main folder of files can all be renamed and modtagged in a few seconds.

Edited by kohlenklau
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1 hour ago, kohlenklau said:

A. The infantry mods (continued):

2. AXIS

To me this part of the mod is almost empty of fake lobster.

@Falaise and @JM Stuff and @Damian45 and I have worked to create a new arena of infantry combat.

But without a doubt we have been blessed from almighty himself with Damian agreeing to help us with his time and talent.

Of all our CM titles, only CMFI goes back to July 1943. Thank the lord that BFC did this or we would be well and truly screwed. 

You gotta play with dates in the editor to get what we want. We are making a document with tips and guidance. Thanks Kevin. @kevinkin It takes a little zig zagging but we CAN achieve a 1940 TOE similarity of adequacy. Set unit quality to poor prior to purchase of regular German Infantry 43A and then set the scenario date BACK to July 43. The goal for axis is NO PANZERFAUSTS, only one MG-34 per squad. Yes, we DO get the G-41, oh well. YES, we do get the grenade launcher, Oh well. MINOR INCONVENIENCES!!

The game engine makes them wear a 1942 tropical uniform which we rename the skeleton file to put them into M43 with jackboots but made to LOOK like 1940 uniform with jackboots and <thanks to Damian> NO Y-STRAPS. Germans are going strapless for the summer look. :D

All this under the hood file renaming malarky can be ignored if you are just a regular forumite wanting to just play the damn game. 

If you recall from the post above, we used transparency files to make the normal gear worn on the backs of our landsers, vanish...

I am on the job, slightly behind schedule, to bring in the new gear item, the gas sheet pouch, to all versions of the foot soldiers, MP-40 dude, K98K bubba and MG34 guy. Oh, and pistol boy.

Damian is trying to make sure we have no anachronistic gasmask cans and such. We will always be looking for these things to get OUT of the game. The yellow ones from 43 onward. IF YOU HAVE EXTRA STUFF in your z, we cannot help that. I do again recommend an entire separate install of CMFI for this mod. It has nothing to do with a license key. It is VERY EASY TO DO. You simply copy the entire game folder and repaste. You set up a new shortcut that goes to the new CMFI. The new CMFI still looks to the same game file folder where you have scenarios and PBEM turns. BUT IT CAN HAVE ITS OWN Z FOLDER. You get rid of all that hassle. If you have a big enough...uhhh...hard drive...this aint an issue. I will show a screenshot of my folder arrangement. TRY TO!!!

I have shortcuts to my CMFI CMAK2 mod and a separate shortcut to fire up CMFI France 1940.

Also a shortcut to the 2 different z folders.

mXTPx9o.png

 

If anybody wants to know more about this set-up, just ask. I will move onward.

 

Why I really like the CM France 1940, is because BFC in the past created it with TOW that I was loving it, but sad, there were on this time much problems, untill the style of game begin to sleep, and die, I was really love the man to man section, so now that we have a new system modern playable and attractive I am full in, 

Yes thank you to BFC to created this wonderfull games, and thank you Phill and all the participants active now, and I hope to see more newcomers to let us discover their welcome skills, and make us relive this new era of our ancestors.

Edited by JM Stuff
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an easy one...

B. The terrain mods

This is fairly straight forward to grab CMBN terrain stuff and bring it over to CMFI. It CAN get huge. I am going slow and gentle at first. buildings, walls, fences, foliage, flavor objects.  The horizons. Sounds. The French mosquito is a different sound than the Italian mosquito. :D

The generic use modtag is [france1940]

Edited by kohlenklau
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another easy one!

C. "Nice to haves"

These are things we could do without but add for some fun and atmosphere. They are nice to have things. I recorded some new intro music. "Victory is Ours" Napoleonic march. I made a splash screen. Mine was already shown but it was amateurish. You gotta see what Damian has made. A real top quality splash screen (actually 2 which are similar but slightly different) and some really really sweet "artistic" loading screens! @Damian45 Can I let folks grab them from my dropbox? OK with you?

An important thing about these nice to haves is they load upon start-up of CMFI so they are not modtagged. If they are in your z folder, you get them ALL the time. So, I guess do that second install and you have no issue. Or pull them aside when not wanted.

Edited by kohlenklau
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9 hours ago, Damian45 said:

I don't mind that much but preferably when you give out the big 1940 mod pack to everyone.

I will meet you in the middle!

When I release the teaser demo scenarios with a smaller reduced mod pack, I will ship them the splash screen and loading screens ABSOLUTELY FREE limited time offer not redeemable in Alaska or Hawaii

CMFI FRANCE 1940 TEASER PACK 1:

I am hoping that the teaser demo scenarios with a smaller reduced mod pack are released next weekend 8 April 2023 off CMMODSIV as one zip file with scenarios, mods for z and an illustrated readme pdf.

 

Edited by kohlenklau
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"FAKE LOBSTER" continued

Continuing my lecture on the elephant in the room..."fake lobster" I call it.

Fake lobster is when what you see on the screen is not 100% what the game engine thinks it is.

Some folks are confused on what is possible as a non-BFC forumite trying to mod the game.

We cannot change the game code physics. I have heard the CM Pro version that BFC sells to military ministries CAN do this.

Now I will take the time to go into the more complex parts of the mod and explain what is modded. If you have negative comments or criticisms, you can PM me or attack me here. but I prefer the PM. :D

~~~~~~~~~

D. The Armor mods:

1. ALLIES

a. Char R-35

Right out of the starting gates we have hit paydirt that I think and hope no purist can frown at. The forum urban myth is that BFC was funded to make CMFI. Right? Who was that awesome guy? And he hit the BFC business timing just perfect to catch them before they got all busy with commercial work and whatever. THANK YOU SIR, MR. MYSTERY MAN. 

The Italian R35 is our French R35. Who can argue that is fake lobster? It is delicious real REAL REAL lobster farmed from the ocean floor off the coast of Maine.

We just modtag the tank to look French and the crew to speak French and wear French tankcrew helmets etc.

So, for purists, a CMFI FRANCE 1940 scenario with infantry and R-35's and the German Pak 37mm is a damn great scenario. A slight dab of fake lobster due to the rifle grenades I guess. Get off your high horse and enjoy the scenario.

hgYQusV.png

b. Char B1 bis

OK, here we have some fake lobster but I did my best to keep the % low. I had already said this way back in the beginning of this thread. I purchased the British Army Churchill Mk I and modded in the 3D "shell" of CMBN MG Flammpanzer. Then I modtag the British crew to be French. A big slow tank with thick armor and a turret gun and a hull gun. Obviously NOT the exact Char B1 bis armor thickness. Crew of 5 versus the actual 4. Oh well. It played pretty cool. The hull gun modelling is not complete and I might never do it. I have other things to focus on instead. Maybe some day I might go tweak it. Or somebody else could tackle it. 

k7rVWCI.png

c. Panhard Armored Car

I used the German SdKfz to be the Panhard with a new shell 3D I built in Blender. A turret with an MG and a 20mm. Seems pretty close to me. 4 rubber tires. Good enough match.

lqpBiK6.png

 

d. Well, I have no others to discuss at this point. I have not started anything with [bef1940] for armor. There is the Bren carrier obviously. I have some ideas for the MKVI. but am hoping some actual British forumites get involved. None so far.

IF ANYBODY HAS ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THESE THINGS ARE DONE...JUST ASK.

Edited by kohlenklau
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29 minutes ago, Artkin said:

here is a pak 36 in CMRT under the volksturm

Yes I'm using several of them in a current PBEM (Rumble at Reitwein). 

Have to say the Panthers are a bit more effective 😆, but they do however have that 150mm HEAT to pop on the end if anything ever gets close enough.

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Just now, Vacillator said:

Yes I'm using several of them in a current PBEM (Rumble at Reitwein). 

Have to say the Panthers are a bit more effective 😆, but they do however have that 150mm HEAT to pop on the end if anything ever gets close enough.

Ahh yes that was in band of brothers iirc. 

Panthers are indeed much more effective. My germans will be bouncing rounds off t-34s  in 1942

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Do you know if it was officially ever mentioned? I don't even see it in the details for F&R on battlefront.com. I can't seem to find it under the luftwaffe unfortunately.

Interestingly in 1942 there was one 37mm pak36 gun + team assigned to every German rifle platoon in motorized or armored divisions

Edited by Artkin
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