German 15cm sIG and the various units using it

[Pibwl]

I see, that most units have no description. Unlike OOBs, they are not important for playing, so maybe you just let volunteers do the work?..

I don't care too much myself about lack of descriptions, but in need I can write concise descriptions, eg. for Polish stuff (I recall, that years ago I contributed some material to SPWAW). This might be in fact a good idea, explaining their usage...

Michal

[DRG]

12,222 units in winSPWW2 and 36,024 in MBT....total 48,246.

Assume it takes 3 minutes to produce a text file so doing them all would consume over 2400 hours of work.
Any further questions as to why adding descriptive text is way, way, WAY on the backburner ??



We never, ever thought there would be text for every unit . The capabity is there for special items

[BigDuke66]

You need a test file for simply adding a description?
Can the description somehow corrupt the unit data?

[Cross]

Originally Posted by BigDuke66

You need a test file for simply adding a description?
Can the description somehow corrupt the unit data?

That was no doubt a typo.
The 'S' is nest to the 'X' on the keyboard.

Cross

[BigDuke66]

Oh OK that makes sense.

Of course the work load seems massive but if some volunteers would wright the stuff down and formate it too, the official team just has to copy & paste it into the OOB(or is the encyclopedia an extra file?).
And its not like you get all descriptions in the next few weeks or even months, that stuff will coem in over many many years.

[PvtJoker]

Originally Posted by BigDuke66

Oh OK that makes sense.

Of course the work load seems massive but if some volunteers would wright the stuff down and formate it too, the official team just has to copy & paste it into the OOB(or is the encyclopedia an extra file?).

The unit and formation descriptions are kept in \Game Data\Text folder under the WinSPWW2 install folder. The default location would be C:\Program Files\Shrapnel Games\The Camo Workshop\WinSPWW2\Game Data\Text. They are simple text files, US ASCII character set only like everything in the game.

The file naming format for units is etXXXYYY.txt, where XXX is the country code and YYY is the unit number, both with leading zeros. For formations it is ftXXXZZZ.txt, where ZZZ is the formation number. You can view and modify the files with any text editor. Make backups first as always, although mistakes like 8-bit characters in the description texts do not seem to be very harmful, only the descriptions themselves will get mangled. (Perhaps I should try some Unicode there and see what happens ).

The maximum line length for formations is different from units, since the formation descriptions are displayed full screen. In fact I haven't checked it, yet, but it's much more than the 53 characters limit for unit descriptions.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by BigDuke66

Oh OK that makes sense.

Of course the work load seems massive but if some volunteers would wright the stuff down and formate it too, the official team just has to copy & paste it into the OOB(or is the encyclopedia an extra file?).
And its not like you get all descriptions in the next few weeks or even months, that stuff will come in over many many years.

And every piece would need to be checked not only for accuracy but for format as well which is why I don't actively encourage the activity and IF...as has occurred more than a few times in the past....a unit with a text file ends up being deleted we have a text file in the files that shows up ( surprise, surprise...) when a new unit is added in that slot because NOBODY is going to double check that a unit has a text file associated with it.... people find then months later when they check the encyclopedia and find text that has nothing to do with the unit.

I treat text files now as something that is added when circumstances warrant and that is rare and that's the way I want to keep it

OK ?

Don

[Pibwl]

Originally Posted by PvtJoker

I though I could answer that: there is plenty of room for explanations in the encyclopedia. I have written pretty long stuff there and have yet to encounter the line limit. The weirdo formatting code requires that line length of the description file has to be limited to 53 characters + a special line break character which seems to * (i.e. asterisk). Here is an example from me (a desciption for the Italian M-15/42 tank):

If you have more of them, maybe you'd like to share them in Mods section?... If we have now an established v.7, I could write something in the future as well, when I finish with pictures...

[PvtJoker]

Originally Posted by Pibwl

If you have more of them, maybe you'd like to share them in Mods section?... If we have now an established v.7, I could write something in the future as well, when I finish with pictures...

I am going to make a modified Italian OOB for the v.7. I had one 95% ready for v.6, but never got to posting it since v.7 was so close. It will have many tweaks and some deletions in it, as well as additions. The Italians had LOTS of war booty equipment from Austria (post-WW1) and from France (war "reparations" from Vichy France), which was not used in North Africa or Russia, probably due to logistical concerns. Some like the ex-Austrian 77mm guns and French 105mm mle.1919 mountain guns were actually used (in North Africa and the Balkans, respectively).

I didn't post them for inclusion in the official Italian OOB, because Don already had his hands full with other stuff. I will try to include description texts for the more interesting stuff like AFVs and ex-Austrian siege artillery pieces.