Essential Mods?

[murphus]

Somebody mentioned small arms mods, by Juju. But I can't find any small arms on cmmmods. I'd love to have a mod for the Maxim MG, so it has the real wheels and the pathetic little shield. Any hints on where to get small-arms mods?

[junk2drive]

At cmmods, cmbb, by designer juju, all, other,

ModSlutProject_Juju

sneaky huh

[murphus]

Thanks, Junk. I'm on my way...

[gautrek]

Try my site for screenies of most of my mods

[murphus]

I DLed the Juju small-arms pack, and it's very nice. But I'm disappointed to note that the Soviet HMGs still have tripods, I can only assume that it's impossible to mod the tripods. It's a mite annoying when the Soviet HMGers pick up their Maxims and walk with them, tripod in the air, when in reality they would have trundled them along. Not the end of the world, but a bit of a pain.

[Yskonyn]

Hi guys, ordered the game yesterday, arrived today already!

I've been following this thread and I wonder if MadDog's MOD Guide on CMMOS is still worth anything, or are those MOD's listed there inferior in quality to those mentioned in this thread?

Thanks!

[Tarkus]

Congrat Yskonyn, your in for some real good time !

Mad Dog guide on CMHQ is really more approriate for CMBO, and a bit out of date to say the least. (Last update on CMMOS may 2003). But CMMOS is quite a useful tool if you take the time to properly configure it.

Have a look at cmmods. You must register. It is THE mod place now. You will find hundreds of mods and both the latest version of the CMMOS (including, IIRC, all the info you need to get it to work properly, look under designer name MikeT) and the excellent MCMMM by GreenasJade (got a separate link on the left menu). Both are must have IMHO.

enjoy

[Yskonyn]

Ah blast, I thought it would arrive today because I missed the courier and found a DHL note, but it was only a new SD memory card for my Digital Camera which was broken and replaced... :-( I already thought that it was way too soon for the software to be here...

Well, looks like I'll have to make myself comfortable playing the demo's for some more days.

Anyway, I spent today downloading several MODs recommended here in the thread, but because DD's work and Gordon Molek's work are only to be found on CMHQ I thought maybe CMMODS wasn't the right place to go.

Fortunately I downloaded most from CMMODS.

Great job Tarkus on the interface MOD! I really like it from the screens I've seen! Definately going to make it to my harddisk once the games are here! *thumbs up*

One thing remains a bit unclear: the winter MODs for the vehicles. Are those scattered around different MOD authors or are there packs available where you have 'all-in-one' packs?

If they are scattered which authors should be checked then?

I already got MikeyD's winter armors.

Many thanks and good to be so welcome!

[murphus]

Patience... patience. My advice to you is to say a few last words to friends and family, finish any outstanding work and prepare to be sucked in to the CM universe. You may never come back.

[Tarkus]

Hi again. Thanks for the kind words, I am happy you like the DS interface.

Originally posted by Yskonyn:

One thing remains a bit unclear: the winter MODs for the vehicles. Are those scattered around different MOD authors or are there packs available where you have 'all-in-one' packs?

If they are scattered which authors should be checked then?

I already got MikeyD's winter armors.

As for winter mods, two things worth of note:

At cmmods.com, there is a "winter" column that tells you if the mod is/contains a winterized version. Also, many modders include some sort of reference in the title, like "WW" or something.

There are some winter packs. Here's a suggestion: go about this by section. With the search function, sort by country, then unit type. It can be long at first, but this way, you can get pretty much everything there is systematically. The "problem" now is that it gets confusing since there are so many mods.

Good luck, have fun.

[Yskonyn]

Thanks for the info, oh and murphus; Indeed I might never return from this venture, because you should know that I ordered the CMBB/CMAK combo, the CMAK companion handbook AND the CMBB Strategy guide! *evil grin* They will all arrive in one big package! LOL!

[Col Deadmarsh]

I can't find the Undaunted Skies on CMmods.com Is it still there?

[junk2drive]

On the left under CMBB mods, click by designer, on the right window find Undaunted, click the plus, then all, then other.

[Elefant]

Now that I have found mods out there I am turning into a modslut like DavidI said. I am running cmmos ver 4.03 and I haven't figured out how to apply the mod for white wash German vehicles. I downloaded the rulesets and mods for,

winterfahrzeuge dunklegrau

winterfahrzeuge dunklegelb

However, when I apply those mods and play for example Danube Blues I do not get the Tigers, Stugs or 251's in winter camo.

[Elefant]

Do you have to run cmmos to load Tarkus' Dark Steel Interface or do you just copy and paste the bmp's into the bmp folder?

Thank for all your assistance to my rookie mod questions.

[Philippe]

Originally posted by Elefant:

Now that I have found mods out there I am turning into a modslut like DavidI said. I am running cmmos ver 4.03 and I haven't figured out how to apply the mod for white wash German vehicles. I downloaded the rulesets and mods for,

winterfahrzeuge dunklegrau

winterfahrzeuge dunklegelb

However, when I apply those mods and play for example Danube Blues I do not get the Tigers, Stugs or 251's in winter camo.

Pick one mod, describe it exactly by file name and describe exactly what you're doing and we can sort you out.

Have you gotten any of the other CMMOS mods to work? What is the full path of your CMMOS, and what is the full path of your CMBB (i.e. where do you have them)? I'm not familiar with that (or any other mod) off the top of my head, but are you sure it's a CMMOS mod? If so, are you sure you remembered to install it (clicking on the configure button etc)? Does an icon for the mod appear in the CMMOS control panel, and if so, is it in enabled or disabled mode ? This might be a good time to learn to read the CMMOS log file. What does the log file say in the part that pertains to your mod after you click on the icons for that mod in the CMMOS control panel. And then there's my personal favorite, did you remember to apply the mod after you clicked on it in the CMMOS control panel (I do this one myself all the time when I'm in a hurry).

[Philippe]

Originally posted by Elefant:

Do you have to run cmmos to load Tarkus' Dark Steel Interface or do you just copy and paste the bmp's into the bmp folder?

Thank for all your assistance to my rookie mod questions.

Last time I looked the Dark Steel Interface wasn't a CMMOS mod.

So you just copy and paste to the bmp folder, but make sure you make a copy of all the different bmp's changed by that mod and put them in a separate folder first.

This raises an important point -- CMMOS only works for mods that have been converted to CMMOS format, and mods that have been converted to CMMOS format don't work unless you use them in CMMOS. So it's really important to make sure that you've got your CMMOS configured to work on something simple before you start trying to add more mods.

[Elefant]

Philippe, thanks for all of your help. Hopefully I can get a winter Tiger to brew up lots of T34's with your help.

Here is where I got the mod

winterfahrzeuge_dunkelgrau

winterfahrzeuge_deunkelgelb

http://www.combatmission.com/cmmos/Winterfahrzeuge/Winterfahrzeuge1.htm

I have been able to get Zimniy_Kamuflyazh_RuleSet to work. The T34's in Danube Blues goto whitewash

http://www.combatmission.com/cmmos/Zimniy_Kamuflyazh/Zimniy_Kamuflyazh1.htm

path to CMBB is C:\Program Files\CMBB\MODS

C:\Program Files\CMBB\Rule Sets

path to cmmos is C:\Program Files\GEM Software Productions\CM Mod Option Selector

I apply the mod and click done when finished. In regards to winterfahrzeuge it takes about 60 seconds to apply as it rather large

If you can recommend another winter mod for German AC's, AG's, tank and guns that you like I will use it instead.

in regards to the mods at http://www.cmmods.com/web/CMMods.nsf I do not see where to download the rule sets.

Again, thanks

[Philippe]

If I'm reading your post correctly you've got it working now?

I don't actually know CMBB all that well, by the way. I was planning on loading everything into CMMOS and eventually figuring out what I prefer.

One thing I've noticed is that if there is a BFC recovery rule in a ruleset, the program will recognize whatever is sitting in those bmp's as the BFC originals (even if they aren't). It then stores them into a zip file in the mods section the first time you run a rule. There are a couple of rulesets that don't seem to have the recovery rule. I suspect that these were from an earlier model of CMBB CMMOS, though some of the earlier mods are quite good. At some point I'll experiment with it and, if necessary write a recovery rule and maybe post it. [i'm a little leary of falling into the CMMOS rule-writing trap -- I spent 18 months writing rules and not ever playing the game -- I refuse to go there again !]

The whole point about CMMOS was that eventually everything would be in CMMOS. We pretty much got there with CMBO, but then Real Life started catching up with the key players, so though the treatment of CMBB was thorough, I don't think it went as deep. At the time we realized that the CMHQ website would outlive any other private website, so we wanted everything in CMMOS to make sure it got preserved. And sure enough, there are now many mods that only exist in CMMOS form.

So get all the rulesets and all the mods from the CMHQ site. CMMOS was designed so that the user could figure out which he preferred, and was also designed so that you could change mods easily each time your fire up CM. I literally change my mods for each different PBEM scenario that I play.

One the subject of winter mods, I really like the snow-covered (as opposed to whitewashed) mods that Gordon did for CMBO. I don't do vehicles, but I will admit to having looked at it in a few select cases. It seems like it's a lot more work than whitewashing, and that's probably why there are so few of them in CMBB. Too bad, because there's lots of snow in Russia in winter, and every time it snows some of it will end up on the vehicles for a while, whitewashed or not. I seem to recall that when he did the whitewashed series he was running out of time, otherwise the vehicles (and there are a lot of them) would have gotten the full treatment.

[GSX]

I have a MOD question, where do I get, if at all unit pics like the ones for ss etc for German Paras like they have in CMAK? Are any avaialable, cant seem to find them.

[Philippe]

Not sure I'm going to address the question correctly, but there are several unit picture mods in the CMBB section of CMMODS. There are a couple of good ones with black and white photographs, I think one was by Tarkus and one was by Patboy. There's also an extremely accurate one by Michael Dorosh (part of his ASL Conversion mod), as well as an interesting one by Schoerner.

I also happen to have done a unit picture mod that replaces the fictional flag in the background of the German units with a real one. There are a few kinks in this mod that need to be fixed (e.g. wrong color collars on a couple of Luftwaffe units) so it will go through at least one more version, maybe before the end of the year.

To find mine go into CMBB Newest and go about twenty items down the list. The photgraph mods (there are two that I can think of) are worth looking at and replace all the units -- to find them go into the non-national category of units and start scrolling. You have to hunt a bit, but they're in there, and well worth the effort to find them. Michael's unit pictures can be found in the postings of his conversion (you'll see them all grouped together), and Shoerner's mod is probably of about the same vintage as the photographs, so you'll have to do some scrolling.

I hope that's what you were asking.

[Elefant]

Hey Philippe only the Russian winter mods are working. I don't know what the issue is with the German winter mods. Should I just delete them and go grab winter mods at

http://www.cmmods.com/web/CMMods.nsf

Are you required to run CMMOS with the mods at that site? If so, where do you install the rule sets?

18 months writing rules? Hardcore

[Alkiviadis]

Re: Winter Mods. I do a bit of mixing & matching with some winter mods.

Example, I too like snow covered vehicles but with the Tiger 1 early & some models of the T34s what I do is take the whitewashed turret from 1 mod & match it to a snow covered chassis of another. I've seen photos of both German & Soviet tanks with that sort of snow camo & personally think that in the CMxx series it looks like a field expedient quick job. Nothing much seems to be done in CMMOS anymore & frankly I've stopped using it. IF married or with girlfriend get ready to hear the phrase, "I HATE that game, it's ALL you think about all the time", or some such varient. :cool:

[ December 14, 2004, 06:40 PM: Message edited by: Alkiviadis ]

[Philippe]

Don't delete anything, we just need to assemble a little information.

First, the two rulesets in question should be RuleSet 150 and RuleSet 152.

The path should look something like C:\Program Files\GEM Software Productions\CM Mod Option Selector\CMBB

For the absolute avoidance of doubt, that is not the same CMBB file as the one your game is in. CMMOS has a CMBO and a CMBB section, and that just means you're in the CMBB section.

So you want to install the two German winter vehicle rulesets to what I will call in shorthand the CMMOS CMBB folder.

When I look inside of mine, by the way, I see 25 folders. 23 of them are Ruleset folders, one is the FileList folder, and one is the mod folder.

Assuming you've installed the two ruleset to the correct place, if you look inside 150 you'll see four enabled icons, three disabled icons, four description text files, an info text file, four rules text files, and a credits word file. You'll see something similar inside 152, only there will be a lot more of everything.

The reason you'll see more enabled than disabled files is that one of them restores everything to summer graphics.

Having made sure that there is an engine under the hood (because that is what you were really doing), go back to the folder CM Mod Option Selector and take a quick look around.

Yours won't be the same as mine, but they have a couple of key details in common. A CMBB folder (where you were just poking around), one or more readme files (which need to be looked at several times until you get the hang of this), and most importantly, a CMMOSlog textfile. This file is your friend. Be nice to it.

What it essentially does is perform a series of sequential checks whenever you fire up the CMMOS program. And whenever you try to do something in the CMMOS program, it tells you that you did or didn't do it, and usually gives a very good clue as to why what you tried didn't work.

Close (rather than minimze)GEM Software Productions and launch CMMOS. Click on a few ruleset tabs, then close CMMOS, and take a look at the log. You'll get the idea.

Now close everything up and start over.

You know the two rulesets are in the CMBB CMMOS folder because you installed them to there. And if necessary, you installed them to a temp file and put them where they belong by brute force. So you know they're there.

If they're there, the next time you fire up CMMOS you'll see a tab across the top of the control panel for each one. If you have a lot of tabs it's easy to overlook things, but they'll be there.

Click on the tab for the dunkelgrau winter textures. You should see four icons, but three of them will probably have the greyed out wrong-way traffic sign showing: the mod is disabled because you haven't configured it yet.

I'll skip the instructions on configuring the mod because I think you already know how and we're focusing on diagnostics. If something goes wrong we'll go over that point on a subsequent round.

So via the configuration routine you add the three mods that go with this ruleset. Close CMMOS, re-open CMMOS and navigate back to the winterized dunkelgrau (you don't really have to do it that way, but things get stuck in program memory sometimes). This time when you look at the control panel all four icons should be lit up and enabled. That doesn't mean they'll work, that just means that there's enough of what the program looks for in your mod section to recognize the presence of a particular mod. Click on each icon, and install one of them (just not the first one, because that makes everything revert to default graphics).

Now close CMMOS, open up GEM Software Productions again, and take a look at the content of the log file. What you're looking for will probably be in the last six or sever lines of text. If there is something wrong you'll get some kind of message about a mod or a file not being recognized, found, not existing, or being out of reach. That's where the fun begins.

As an aside, you may want to set up a Quick Battle (and make sure you save it) with just the vehicles and weather conditions you are testing. By the way, I'm pretty sure you won't be able to get whitewash to show up unless there's snow on the ground, so don't forget to set up the right weather: pick something like January 1942 (for the dunkelgrau) with lots of snow.

There's a good chance that if you do things in this order and you're properly configured, the rulesets will be working. If not the last few lines of your log will make interesting reading.

One last thing. I always forget to hit the apply button after I click on one of the icons. But to mention this now than to find out later...

So give it a shot and let us know what happens.

[Philippe]

Just realized it's probably easier to use MikeyD's Scenario "A Warm Place to Sleep" to test whether or not things are working.

I didn't mention it in the configure discussion which we're not getting into if we don't have to, but there are a total of about 17 zip files of mods that have to be downloaded and installed to make those two rulesets work. So that in itself is a bit of an operation.

I don't remember how many of them are included in the CMBB Special Edition Mod disk -- I just made a list of what I had, compared it to what was at CMHQ, and if I didn't already have it, I downloaded it. Some of the CMMOS mods at CMHQ are in non-CMMOS form on the mod disk. I mention this last bit for those reading this who might have the special edition and might not have realized that it has a very large selection, but not a complete one.