Question: Turning Saved Turns Into Scenarios

[Miketee10022]

Hi One and All,
I have recently gotten more into Campaign Games, and wanted to create a few of my own. I am a little confused, however, about the process. Specifically, I'd like to extract some of the individual turns from some of my existing Campaign Games (generated by the computer), and turn them into scenarios that I can link into a Campaign I can both replay and share with others. Is there a way to turn a saved turn into a Scenario? Looked through the manual and did not see anything specifically on this. If this is addressed in another thread, can someone link me to that thread? Thanks so much!

[DRG]

You do it manually

Save game files are named SPSVxxxx.dat....... Scenario files are named SPSCNxxxx.dat. To turn a save into a scen rename it to an empty scenario slot..... it's not a perfect conversion, you need to tweak it a bit after "conversion"


Don

[Miketee10022]

Thank you Don! Will give it a try!

[shahadi]

Creating scenarios from saved games is possible as Don described. My Red Line Syria was created from saved games. However, as Don says, it takes some tweaks.

Firstly, you should purchase all forces in total from the first game. Those forces not required in the first game should be assigned a Reinforce Turn of 50.

Secondly, do not remove units or formations in subsequent scenarios as you will loose unit damage and graphic effects.

Thirdly, and this is the tricky part, setting the Victory Flags and values in a way that subsequent scenarios are balanced. Meaning, the score will persist into subsequent scenarios, especially unit damage. Now, you can edit (repair) unit damage by changing the Damage value in the Editor, except for the KIAs.

You should plan the campaign or battle covering every scenario.

It's a lot of work, but a heck of a lot of fun.

[Miketee10022]

Originally Posted by shahadi

Creating scenarios from saved games is possible as Don described. My Red Line Syria was created from saved games. However, as Don says, it takes some tweaks.

Firstly, you should purchase all forces in total from the first game. Those forces not required in the first game should be assigned a Reinforce Turn of 50.

Secondly, do not remove units or formations in subsequent scenarios as you will loose unit damage and graphic effects.

Thirdly, and this is the tricky part, setting the Victory Flags and values in a way that subsequent scenarios are balanced. Meaning, the score will persist into subsequent scenarios, especially unit damage. Now, you can edit (repair) unit damage by changing the Damage value in the Editor, except for the KIAs.

You should plan the campaign or battle covering every scenario.

It's a lot of work, but a heck of a lot of fun.

Thanks so much Shahadi. Just to let you know, I have tweaked saved games and played them as scenarios with good results. I used Turn 0 so there was no damage to any units or KIA's. I was able to buy additional units (just for fun and experimentation) which worked fine. I did not delete any previously purchased units, nor did I change the set up or victory flags. So it was all pretty easy.

Just curious - is there a thread that goes into some detail on the nuts and bolts of setting up and editing campaign games? I read through the manual pretty thoroughly, and it was helpful. But there is nothing like tips and 'war stories' to help a newbie!

Thanks again to you and Don!

[Miketee10022]

Don and Shahadi - Just an addenda here. The only glitch I noticed is that when the scenario ends, it does not go to the score-screen. It simply ends on the appropriate turn, and then goes into the saved-turns screen. Is this something that can be fixed (maybe in the scenario editor)? Or is it pretty much embedded in the code and not really addressable by the player. Thanks!

[DRG]

This is just a wild stab in the dark, I don't build scenarios and wouldn't have time even if I wanted to but try opening it with ScenHack and saving it with that...... I really don't know but this *may* ( maybe ) help. Remember renaming saved games to scenarios is a kludge that just happens to sort of work ( generally )

[shahadi]

Originally Posted by Miketee10022

Don and Shahadi - Just an addenda here. The only glitch I noticed is that when the scenario ends, it does not go to the score-screen. It simply ends on the appropriate turn, and then goes into the saved-turns screen. Is this something that can be fixed (maybe in the scenario editor)? Or is it pretty much embedded in the code and not really addressable by the player. Thanks!

I have not seen that behavior, although I've built several battles using this technique, with the latest being Red Line Syria (RLS). In Red Line Syria – SEAL Platoon Golf 09/12 I converted that saved game to a scenario whereupon I built Red Line Syria – Alpha Co 1/6 Marines 09/12, and Red Line Syria – Bravo Co 1/6 Marines 09/12. Unfortunately, Charlie Co was to battle a reinforced Mech Inf battalion with a supporting Tank Co, but the AI is a stubborn beast, most uncooperative in failing to give me IFV that Opportunity Fires at 1km, so it is on hold, maybe indefinitely. Anyway, the point is that we can convert saved games to full scenarios.

Rather than guessing at what could be the culprit, if you could post the saved game files, I'll grab them "and take a peek under the hood." If you're comfortable with this, I'll report back what I find in the forum.

[Miketee10022]

Originally Posted by DRG

This is just a wild stab in the dark, I don't build scenarios and wouldn't have time even if I wanted to but try opening it with ScenHack and saving it with that...... I really don't know but this *may* ( maybe ) help. Remember renaming saved games to scenarios is a kludge that just happens to sort of work ( generally )

Thanks so much. I will give this a try. One thought I had was that Campaign Games (from which this saved turn scenario was derived) sometimes base victory conditions on specific games within the Campaign. Here's where the glitch could lie. But I will test this out and let you know how this works.

Shadadi - I am going to try the above solution first. And if this does not work, I'll upload the scenario to the appropriate forum. If you want to just try it - regardless of this issue - I am happy to upload it for you. Just let me know.

[shahadi]

Originally Posted by Miketee10022

Thanks so much. I will give this a try. One thought I had was that Campaign Games (from which this saved turn scenario was derived) sometimes base victory conditions on specific games within the Campaign. Here's where the glitch could lie. But I will test this out and let you know how this works.

Shadadi - I am going to try the above solution first. And if this does not work, I'll upload the scenario to the appropriate forum. If you want to just try it - regardless of this issue - I am happy to upload it for you. Just let me know.

Yes, you should investigate this issue as much as you can and follow these leads. While it is true you can rename in ScenHack, the files are by default renamed from a saved game to a scenario format as described earlier.

I would like to see the files and replicate the condition you encountered, that being said, upload the saved game files in this thread please.