Jump to content
Battlefront is now Slitherine ×

TOW mini-mod released - single-shot Panhard 25mm gun


Drawde79

Recommended Posts

(Due to lack of a mod/mission forum I'm posting it here - hope this is OK)

This is the first mod I've created for ToW. It's a very small and simple "mini-mod" which changes the French 25mm SA-34 gun (on the Panhard 178 armoured car) to a single-shot, manually loaded weapon (as it was historically), rather than an automatic weapon. (This actually makes it a lot more effective, as it is more accurate and does not use up ammunition as quickly)

Download link

In the mod, the SA-34's reload time and accuracy is set to the same as the German 37mm PaK 36. The ammunition for the weapon consists of single rounds rather than 15-round magazines (ammo icon is also changed), and the Panhard 178's ammo loadout now consists of 150 rounds rather than 10 magazines. The sound script for the weapon is also modified to stop the sound effect from looping.

Armour penetration and other data for the weapon is unchanged.

This mod has been fully tested and I haven't found any bugs/problems with it. However, I'd greatly appreciate any feedback as to what the historically accurate values for the 25mm SA-34's reload time and accuracy/dispersion should be. Also whether the default ToW data for armour penetration, velocity, etc. is correct.

I'm also working on an "unarmoured trucks" mod, which should be ready fairly soon, and a weapon sound mod (using both CM:BB/AK sounds, and modified/tweaked versions of the original ToW sounds) though this should take a while longer to complete.

Feel free to host/mirror this file on your own webpage (CMMods included)!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Drawde - Good to see you've become active with this.

I've also done some tinkering with the grenades and fixed certain problems. For example, converted Gammon Bomb to be a percussion grenade vs. the timed grenade used in the game. Also found the German grenade bundle data to be nonsensical, although various tinkering with that I found to be inconclusive.

I was wanting to get some of these fixes out, but was thinking that perhaps they were too minor to be released under their own merit. Additionally, there is no agreed upon method for importing new data structures into the game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by von Ribbentrop:

I,m lookon forward to your sound-mod,

when using my mortars in Wach am rhein, they sounded more like a space weapon.

neverteless the arty sounded good, very strange.

Currently I'm only doing weapon sounds (cannons, MGs and small arms), not explosions, ambient sounds etc., but I do agree that the mortar projectile sounds are very odd! Replacing them isn't just a case of taking sounds from CM, though, as they are 3D sounds made by moving projectiles rather than (as in CM) a simple sound effect played when a mortar shell lands.

Apart from the truck armour mod and the sounds, I'm also trying to mod the aircraft. I was surprised (considering that TOW was produced by the same developers as the Il-2 series!) to find when looking at the data files that all the fighters and ground attack planes are armed with Russian 20mm cannons (even the Polish PZL.11...) - in fact all the aircraft of each type seem to be virtually "cookie-cutter" copies other than having different 3D models. My attempts to give P-47s bombs have failed so far, so I'm trying to add an aircraft version of the US .50 cal MG instead.

I also noticed that none of the aircraft have armour, even the Il-2 and Hs129 - not sure, though, if adding armour would affect gameplay by making them too hard to shoot down (I'll try it and see what happens)

I will be away for a week or so from tomorrow, once I get back I'll continue work on my TOW mods. Maybe, though, some of the "issues" I'm trying to fix with my mods will be fixed in the patch... here's hoping! At least this is one WW2 game where a complete "realism mod" isn't necessary - just minor tweaks, fixes and additions.

As I mentioned in my original post, I'd appreciate advice from French WW2 equipment experts/grogs on data for the 25mm gun.

(edit: in reply to SlapHappy's post)

I was going to wait until the patch release before doing any serious modding, let alone releasing anything, but the delay, and uncertainty as to what fixes and changes the patch will actually include, has made me rethink this! I thought that releasing even a small and basic mod like this might encourage others just by showing it can be done.

Installing mods is fairly simple as the game engine reads data files outside the .SFS archives before it reads the ones packed into the archives, hence to install modded files you just need to put the files and folders in your TOW root directory. No different to installing CM graphics/sound mods, except that the original files aren't overwritten, so it's fairly easy to remove the mod by deleting the files.

I haven't really looked at the data for grenades, partly as I rarely seem to get the chance to use them in missions, but from the times I have managed to use them it seems like Russian AT grenades are rather overpowered (they seem to be a guaranteed one-shot kill on early-war German tanks)

[ June 25, 2007, 11:57 AM: Message edited by: Drawde79 ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Wolfseven:

could you fix the T-60 it miss everything out to 700 meters and is very accurate at 70, meters

Wolfseven

The gun's dispersion rating is .5 @ 1000 meters, which is the same as the 45mm Russian gun and the 20mm German tank gun. The T-60 uses the gun data for the 20mm_tnsh weapon.

Could it be bad luck or low-quality crew? There seems to be nothing to indicate the gun is inherently less accurate than it's similar-caliber brethren. BTW, the lower dispersion factor the better - The 88L71 has a rating of .25 @ 1000 m.

Of course, this is also all modified by the gunner quality of the crewman on the gun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Drawde79:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by von Ribbentrop:

I,m lookon forward to your sound-mod,

when using my mortars in Wach am rhein, they sounded more like a space weapon.

neverteless the arty sounded good, very strange.

Currently I'm only doing weapon sounds (cannons, MGs and small arms), not explosions, ambient sounds etc., but I do agree that the mortar projectile sounds are very odd! Replacing them isn't just a case of taking sounds from CM, though, as they are 3D sounds made by moving projectiles rather than (as in CM) a simple sound effect played when a mortar shell lands.

Apart from the truck armour mod and the sounds, I'm also trying to mod the aircraft. I was surprised (considering that TOW was produced by the same developers as the Il-2 series!) to find when looking at the data files that all the fighters and ground attack planes are armed with Russian 20mm cannons (even the Polish PZL.11...) - in fact all the aircraft of each type seem to be virtually "cookie-cutter" copies other than having different 3D models. My attempts to give P-47s bombs have failed so far, so I'm trying to add an aircraft version of the US .50 cal MG instead.

I also noticed that none of the aircraft have armour, even the Il-2 and Hs129 - not sure, though, if adding armour would affect gameplay by making them too hard to shoot down (I'll try it and see what happens)

I will be away for a week or so from tomorrow, once I get back I'll continue work on my TOW mods. Maybe, though, some of the "issues" I'm trying to fix with my mods will be fixed in the patch... here's hoping! At least this is one WW2 game where a complete "realism mod" isn't necessary - just minor tweaks, fixes and additions.

As I mentioned in my original post, I'd appreciate advice from French WW2 equipment experts/grogs on data for the 25mm gun.

(edit: in reply to SlapHappy's post)

I was going to wait until the patch release before doing any serious modding, let alone releasing anything, but the delay, and uncertainty as to what fixes and changes the patch will actually include, has made me rethink this! I thought that releasing even a small and basic mod like this might encourage others just by showing it can be done.

Installing mods is fairly simple as the game engine reads data files outside the .SFS archives before it reads the ones packed into the archives, hence to install modded files you just need to put the files and folders in your TOW root directory. No different to installing CM graphics/sound mods, except that the original files aren't overwritten, so it's fairly easy to remove the mod by deleting the files.

I haven't really looked at the data for grenades, partly as I rarely seem to get the chance to use them in missions, but from the times I have managed to use them it seems like Russian AT grenades are rather overpowered (they seem to be a guaranteed one-shot kill on early-war German tanks) </font>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...