New Cold War 2020 mod version available!

[Suhiir]

Many thanks Andy !

I've read your AI pick lists discussion and realize it will be a lot of "fun" to create a new one and swap it in/out. One reason I'm leaving it for last in my rework ,beyond the practical consideration that I need to finish the units and formations before I can even start on it.

Yeah, I've noticed the pick lists vary with opponent. A very nice way to deal with certain issues (inf-ATGM's as you noted).
Were I to get truly ambitious is there any limit on how many pick list variations one can build in?
I.E. One each for assault missions vs armor heavy, light, and rare opponents; one for defense vs the same.

Mobhack said:barges (carried in barge carrier and used for beach), barge carriers (river xing), HQ (both unit and formation No. 0!), crews, assault raft (carried by grunts in the river xing) are fixed in OOBs as is the 1000lb bomb weapon slot (for secondary explosions on ammo dumps), as discussed somewhere in the mobhack help.

Naval artillery (used in beach landings) - uses a set contiguous list of batteries (or mortar sections or field arty which will be carried in barges for some armies which don't really have a navy, but you must provide "cover" units for the situation where an end user decides to beach assault with the Swiss, say..), as laid out in the appropriate section of the AI pick list data files. Stamping all over the naval gunfire support formations will do weird things for the AI beach assaulter!.

Andy

I'm aware that these units must occupy their fixed positions in the OOB. Question is, are HQ and naval artillery the ONLY things that must occupy fixed slots in the formations ? Nothing I've read seems to indicate, with any certainty, that other then the HQ in slot 0 and naval guns in a contiguous list, anything else must occupy a fixed position in the formations.


Yeah, I know the folks that don't read the "Read Me" will scream
Not much one can do about that but shake your head and try to figure out a polite way to suggest they learn to read.


Would that I could leave the existing formations alone and thus avoid the whole pick lists problem.

But I'm at the point in my rework where some new formations are necessary, and yes I could (and in all probability should) just add them to the current formations, trouble is availability dates. The changes I need to do will make it impossible to use the current pick list.
I need to modify these quite a bit due to changes in the Tables of Organization over time.
Also the main reason I started on this project was that SPMBT tends to provide administrative rather then combat formations and I got tired of having to spend hours with the editor adding "standard" support weapons to platoons, companies, and battalions.


So far I've been having a lot of "fun" trying not to screw up the units themselves. Because I want my OOB to be compatible with existing scenarios. Thus the unit type can't be changed (no real problem, lots of empty slots available in OOB #13 USMC), but I have to be VERY careful with changes to weapons. So far it seems that scenarios seem to store only the unit slot number, number of crew, and ammo load for each weapon slot in the unit, so any other changes will be picked up when the game program reads the unit data when one runs a scenario. Of course this means any weapon added to an empty unit weapon slot will have no ammo. But if you're trying to do something this extensive you have to expect to run into a few problems.


As much as I'd like rebuild to be a seamless replacement for the existing OOB . . . it ain't possible.
So my target audience is the "purists", "tech weenies", and "bean counters". These folks should have enough tech savvy to read the "Read Me", swap files as needed, and realize there WILL be some problems trying to use a revised OOB.
On the other hand they'll be able to play a battle or campaign with the USMC and have it "look" and "feel" like the USMC.

Once again, I want to assure you I'm in no way complaining about SPMBT in any way, shape, or form. I'm merely trying to circumvent certain inherent limitations as best I can.

[Mobhack]

As I said before- the only help on AI pick lists is what is written in the file attachment. Otherwise I would get dragged into micro-detail arguments with folk who half-understand things.

Yeah, I've noticed the pick lists vary with opponent. A very nice way to deal with certain issues (inf-ATGM's as you noted).
Were I to get truly ambitious is there any limit on how many pick list variations one can build in?
I.E. One each for assault missions vs armor heavy, light, and rare opponents; one for defense vs the same.

Read the text file, and you will see that force selection is based on OPFOR army ID number. It's section ID Number 1 (one) of the TXT file - opponent file!. And you also have example multiple AI pick list - pick 15 Australia, as an guide. Extra picks lead to extra main control files, as stated in section no 2 (again, see Australian pick file and spreadsheet, compare and contrast with the single AI pick example as required)).

Do not simply edit the dat files by hand - use the spreadsheet, copy the appropriate entire column of data and paste to the correct dat file, or you will come a cropper!.

As I said no more help, the AI pick list zip file is the only help provided.

Cheers
Andy

[Suhiir]

I fully understand you don't wish to discuss details of pick lists (for obvious reasons).

But . . .
Understood that it's based on OPFOR army ID number.
Understood that each requires a main control file.

My question was : Is there any limit to the number of OPFOR army ID's / time periods one can designate in the pick list ?
10, 20, 5000 ?

[Mobhack]

The opponent list has 1 (one) slot per OPFOR army number. You could assign pick 1 to army 1, 2 to army 2 etc, or the more usual (0=normal list, 1=3rd world/light forces list) to a multiple of enemies in the list.

Each sub pick list is on month and year - you could well do 1950-2020 on a month by month basis, and if required, by OPFOR. Limit would be the number of digits in file names (999 most likely, since I think I based it on NNN so 3 digits).

Basically - there is more granularity available than any sane person would require.

Cheers
Andy

[Suhiir]

Thank you once again !

I'll now (attempt) to shut up on the subject and allow you some well-earned peace.

You're implying my project is sane ?

[Marcello]

I see that several types of cluster bombs have been included in these CW OOBs. May I ask how did you get the various parameters (WH size, HE kill etc.)?
I am trying to include a cluster bomb (the south african CB-470 to be specifics) in one of my OOBs and if somebody else has already toyed with these weapons I would like to know how he went about it.

[thatguy96]

I researched the bomblet size and then toyed around with the multiple weapon formula for the HEK when I did it. So if the bomblet was supposed to be the size of a hand grenade then you could take various parameters from hand grenade and apply them. I also used existing weapons and tried to figure out the most likely initiate weapon and then work forwards or backwards from that as well.