KS Napoleon Mod II 1.05

A new version of the Nappy mod, (1.05) and a new version of the Sprite mod, (1.01) are out.  The links can be found in the first post of this thread: SOWWL Kriegspiel Style
You need to download both.  Don't delete the 1.00 copy of the sprites mod, as you will still need it for SOWGB.

This version gets rid of the flashing sprites.  Also the first version of the KS toolbar is included.  It's still a work in progress, but has most of the buttons needed.  It is certainly not as useful as the one in the previous game, but there is only so much that can be done given the poor decision to use MyGui for this part of the game.  The number of couriers in the OOBs have been increased and will hopefully solve the 'bad frame in packet' problem we've been having.  A few other changes have been made to address other issues that have cropped up.

If all the above proves true, this will be the first true working version of the mod and we can move on to making game improvements.

I don't get tired of saying thanks Kevin, hopefully tomorrow we can try it out.

Hopefully? Hopefully? Of course we'll try it out! I'd endure an evening of bad frames just to chat with you guys again and give 105 a spin. Maybe Ron will be there?

ahhh... good man... well done, Comrade Marshal!

Thanks Kevin

Also, thanks to the KS team for all the testing over the last few weeks.

It was a gruelling ordeal, very exhausting. I hope Kevin appreciates all the hard work his test team puts in for him. I got a slightly sore mouse wrist once.

indeed... I for one would like to see some form of reward from Kevin to us: how about we can change the percentage of Russians popping up in his scenarios by about .5 percent?

WOW! Just fired this up. Great new toolbar! You managed to use the right hand side where NSD said you could not! And different "tabs". Very good.

You went with the wooden panelling background effect again. Did the clear glass design not work for you? I think I preferred it.

EDIT: First thing I have noticed - when you order a brigade to march by roads and press the "thin column" button, the battalions or squadrons still stay in columns of divisions. I could only get them to take up march column by selecting each btn/sqdn and pressing the "thin column" button. Is there a way to make all march formations the "thin column" when "use roads" is selected?

I use the road column command quite a lot for infantry but we don't have it - its there on the cavalry and artillery "tabs". Could it be added?

I haven't tried it yet but does hitting the "advance" button then bring up the different distances we had in SoW:GB? I found that very useful.

I can't see the wheel by the left and wheel by the right buttons. Did you remove them? I found those quite neat -a battalion looked so much better doing that than when it pivots around it's centre. I'd honestly prefer that we use the left and right flank wheel commands rather than the (rather silly looking) pivot around the centre command.

...and...and... I'm not getting ANY AI pop-up messages!   This is great.   How did you do that?

how about we can change the percentage of Russians popping up in his scenarios by about .5 percent?

You want more Russians?  Not a problem, I'm happy to oblige.   You probably don't know this, I try to hide it, but they are my favorites.

First thing I have noticed - when you order a brigade to march by roads and press the "thin column" button, the battalions or squadrons still stay in columns of divisions. I could only get them to take up march column by selecting each btn/sqdn and pressing the "thin column" button. Is there a way to make all march formations the "thin column" when "use roads" is selected?

Yes, I can add a road column march button.  In the meantime, try ordering the brigade to a location, give it a formation, and then press the use roads button.  They should march along the roads in road column.  The problem arises when they are given a second set of orders while already on the march.  Then they revert to column of divisions.

I haven't tried it yet but does hitting the "advance" button then bring up the different distances we had in SoW:GB? I found that very useful.

Yes, it's available for brigades and battalions and for both cavalry and infantry.

I can't see the wheel by the left and wheel by the right buttons. Did you remove them? I found those quite neat -a battalion looked so much better doing that than when it pivots around it's centre. I'd honestly prefer that we use the left and right flank wheel commands rather than the (rather silly looking) pivot around the centre command.

The wheel forward/backward are available at the battalion level, (the red buttons).  I'd like to make the AI use this movement instead of the center, (correct spelling), rotate.  The oblique and by the flank buttons are available for brigade and battalions, (red buttons).

...and...and... I'm not getting ANY AI pop-up messages!

Don't worry, they'll be back in MP.

the basic idea was that with us playing the Russians more often I would never ever again end up with a 2-gun battery... but like I said: .5 percent should be sufficient...

I saw that the pop-up context menu/toolbar/annoying thing had been removed. However when you right click and drag to place a unit or yourself on the terrain the game then won't accept any other inputs until you've left-clicked as well as though the context menu is still there and you need to click away to dismiss it.

Is there a way to get around this?

Is there a way to get around this?

Unfortunately not. It is hardcoded, compliments of NSD.

I have a small AI mod to get rid of gun capture. It is far from perfect, but it's the best I can do until the SDK manual comes out or NSD gets rid of it themselves. Guns will rout if the enemy comes within 50 yd or they are being charged by a unit within 100 yd. These distances seem large and can be adjusted as necessary. The distances were chosen so that cavalry will not capture the guns unless they are already routed. Cavalry covers a lot of distance in a short amount of time so the AI needs time to process the events before they reach the guns.

If the tests with the latest version of the mod go well, we can try adding this new feature and see what effect it has on the game.

Kevin Lil Mac posted on the GCM chat box telling Garnier that the SDk was out for Waterloo the other day.

Kevin, when Allessilo posted on the NSD forum about his Blenheim mod and the dead guns a bombshell went off in my head. I remember the last time we played on the PPT map and I captured some guns with cavalry and only now do I realise what it meant when the result was a destroyed gun sprite instead of a friendly gun crewed by cavalry

He has apparently cracked the problem so you could look at the Blenheim mod to see what he's done.

http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/x12-TheLostBattery.jpg

None of those guns was shot at by my artillery at all, that was all done by melee.

I'm afraid all Allessilo found was fool's gold. His cavalry divisions do not have arty batteries in them, so there is no gun capture.

What you probably saw was the killing of the entire crew. It saw the crew number was 0 so it replaced it with a dead guns. The white flag is run up when a routed unit chooses surrender over extermination.

I will be available for a game at the usual time of 20:00 BST to test the new version of the mod. I want to try for a 3rd time the Austrian/French scenario that crashed twice before. If it will run this time with full couriers, we can consider that problem solved.

outstanding - I should be able to make it - no promises though...

Really nice, Kevin

Glad you put the compass back in the centre (correct spelling :-) )

Any luck with the portrait files? Not sure if I can contribute right now but I've uploaded all of the collection if you or anyone else wants them?

Mike

Thanks Mike. The problem with the portraits is the xml file that has to be created. This is another aspect of the consequences of choosing MyGui. It makes modding and expansions much more difficult than the old game.

That's a bugger.

On the captured artillery issue...Could we not just create a universal captured artillery Class, which is used by all nations? Maybe represented by a broken cannon sprite.

The class could have stats rock bottom or functions turned off.

I expect you have already thought along these lines.

Very happy we didn't have any issues yesterday, and the mod is getting more stable every week.

I think the "Hold to the Last" stance is missing in the toolbar, is that to promote offensive playing?

Sorry again that I had to leave. Unfortunately some of these games run too long for me now. Maybe we could look at beginning 30 minutes earlier or having only 120 or 150 minutes scenarios?

The game went well and my attack on the farm was very good fun and felt very gruelling, slow and intense. The Austrians were crumbling by the end though and it was just a case of lining up as many units as space permitted to shoot the farm into submission. I definitely think that a 30 minute artillery prep really weakens the enemy infantry's resolve to stand when the assault finally goes in. Very realistic. Had I stayed I'd have wheeled my batteries forwards.

There was an incredible cavalry combat on my right, I think Roland gave as good as he got although the melee spilled over to hurt my right flank a couple of times. Was there anything left for your boys Kevin at the end?

Did someone save a rep file?

Issue: AI brigade commanders send out these annoying split battalion skirmish units which are a complete waste of space and manpower. Apart from TCing every single battalion is there any way to disable this activity Kevin?