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veh skin modding, future add-ons


hejhog

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I may have missed this in the past, but here goes:

will there ever be a way to mod veh skins a la CM series?

also, will more vehicles be added, and if so, about how often and how many each time (i know that's probably too much to ask)...

Also, the ability give your vehicles custom numbers really rocks. I only just figured that one out a couple of days ago.

Really having fun with this game- it is more than a worthy successor to CC series.

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Originally posted by hejhog:

I may have missed this in the past, but here goes:

will there ever be a way to mod veh skins a la CM series?

also, will more vehicles be added, and if so, about how often and how many each time (i know that's probably too much to ask)...

Not by mod community, only by 1C. You cannot change sounds, textures, add new units, modify existing data.

You can only create new campains and new missions on the already existing maps. All unit and map expansion will be added trough new payable addons made by 1C and BF.

br.

Dr.Jones

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Patboy,

sorry, haven't beent there in a while! you are more than welcome. i will have to go look. but i've been so busy tryin to play ToW i haven't done much else comp game wise...

and in the future, asking isn't necessary. you are more than welcome to this.

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Some new models I'd like to see:

German IG 18 75 mm Infantry Gun

50 and 60 mm mortars for several nations

The early A-series British tanks

(probably in an Afrika Korps add-on)

The 88mm Dual-Purpose, of course.

The 20 mm Towed AA gun

A serious re-think on the HMG's.

The Stuka (omigod, how did they forget the Stuka?)

That's a pretty good start.

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The problem is not in creating new models and skins, this could be done easily, I could create .msh exporter for any model editor (wiht hier file, etc), even IMG can be easy to write, the problem is how to force the game to accept your new model, maps.In this version you can't ,just wanted to clarify this, read YES, write back to game, NO.

br.

Dr.Jones

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you can't do sounds either? man, them mg34/mg42 sounds GOT TO GO! even the stock CC sounds had these beat.

vehicles i'd like to see:

251/9

251/2

PZ IIIH or PZ IIIG

STUG IIIF

PSW 233

PZ IIIN

to name a few. I'd hope that mortars would make vehicles like the 251/2 possible, and since most of the base art already exists, shouldn't be too hard...

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Hejhog

I couldn't agree more. We really need the Pz IIIH or Pz IIIG for early Eastern Front. We also need at least one early war Soviet Armored Car. I hope that 1C will begin to fill out the units, especially of mass produced units.

Oudy

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To Dr. Jones:

Do you know if it's possible to add sounds/vehicle skins (or other textures/graphics) which replace the existing ones?

I know with the Il-2 series you could do this, at least with graphics (not just aircraft skins) if you knew the name and directory the files were supposed to be in. This is how the "Il-2MAT" mod worked which changed insignia, serial codes, unit badges etc. on aircraft.

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Originally posted by Drawde79:

To Dr. Jones:

Do you know if it's possible to add sounds/vehicle skins (or other textures/graphics) which replace the existing ones?

I know with the Il-2 series you could do this, at least with graphics (not just aircraft skins) if you knew the name and directory the files were supposed to be in. This is how the "Il-2MAT" mod worked which changed insignia, serial codes, unit badges etc. on aircraft.

That's the problem, data is encripted and compressed in sfs files, so no go if you don't have sfs encoder/decoder program. There is no program publicly avail. which encodes sfs's, so don't bother looking, 1C should decide to give this tool to public, but I guess this wont happen any time soon smile.gif

br.

Dr.Jones

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I think many developers miss opportunities by moving on to other projects instead of expanding their previous work. Battlefront has definitely not been guilty of this as opposed to say Electronic Arts.

Still, I personally would like to see this product (TOW) expanded in a Advanced Squad Leader fashion, with additional modules sold as plug-ins at lower costs from the core game.

Perhaps, though, models like the ASL genre may not be portable over to the computer game world. Still, info coming back from Battlefront would indicate that perhaps this is the tack they intend to take for future products. We shall see.

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Originally posted by SlapHappy:

I downloaded the demo for SFS (Single File System) from the internet. It requires Delphi or C++ builder to operate, however. It's a developer tool.

No go smile.gif .

1C should NOT give decoder and encoder for SFS files, but instead should provide some root dir in TOW directory in which you could add/overide new maps and units, so practicaly TOW would first check that directory for any new data before reading SFS file.

This would be good compromise, they would retain their SFS protected files and thus allow to add new items without SFS files being corrupt or changed!!

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I mean look at Close Combat-a game which even though being pretty ugly to play pushed the boundaries of wargame realism so much that it is still being played today, mainly through being so moddable.

TOW is a game that pushes the envelope to the same degree but is really let down by a load of things, some of which could be fixed, such as enterable buildings etc. The modding sounds like it could be a real Achilles' heel for long term playing, though.

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What I meant was that if the filename and location is correct, you may be able to get modified files to override those in the .SFS archives. This worked in Il-2, so maybe it will do in TOW?

An example: if the skin texture file (stored in the .SFS file) for the Tiger tank was "textures\vehicles\tiger1.tga", if you put a modified "tiger1.tga" file in the appropriate folders below the TOW root folder, it would override the original texture. (Hope this makes sense)

In the case of vehicle skins and other graphics, the originals would have to be extracted first, but this wouldn't be necessary for sounds, assuming you knew the format and frequency/quality used by the game.

Originally posted by SlapHappy:

BTW, just want to give kudos to Drawde79 for the impressive work he did adding mod content for the SHOWWII game. Well done.

I think my mission generator for S:HOWW2 was used as the basis for the Faces of War dynamic campaign generator - not sure, though. What was Faces of War like compared to S:HOWW2? (never played it) "Soldiers" was a fun game and in some ways the most realistic (at the time) in terms of vehicle damage and weapon modelling, physics, etc - shame the missions were so small and limited. If a map/mission editor had been released for that game I might have stuck with it. I also tried modding Blitzkrieg 2 but gave up due to the difficulty of modifying the campaign missions.

I'm thinking of creating a mission/campaign mod for TOW, with more historically accurate vehicle types for the date and theatre represented in each mission, also soldier weapon loadout changes such as SMGs/rifles for officers (I'll wait for the patch first though - assuming it isn't released before I get the game in the mail; it's possible that this will make some changes to the missions). Not planning on doing any vehicle skins though, even if it is made possible, as there are many people here far more talented than me at this (and the default skins in TOW look pretty good anyway)

[ May 28, 2007, 07:14 AM: Message edited by: Drawde79 ]

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Originally posted by Dr.Jones:

I can try this, I'll change the texture and I'll see.

br.

Dr.Jones

Hehe, it works, we can replace skins in TOW, this could work also for sounds!

I replaced main tex for Tiger tank and it showed in encyclopedia smile.gif

br.

Dr.Jones

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