National start and end dates

[RecruitMonty]

At present I have two options. I can copy every single armoured/infantry platoon, company etc and duplicate them from decade to decade adding additional points for experience and morale where appropriate. If I do this I have no idea whether I will have enough space in the OOBs. I'm fairly sure I have none left in one of them. Alternatively I can leave it the way it is and switch "training" off in the preferences. The only problem is this applies to the opponent's forces too. Also I have no idea whether this interferes with the experience and morale levels of elite units, which I have naturally assigned better morale and experience values as the regulars.
If this isn't the case then I guess I'll have to provide the base values for the most likely opponents so that you can fight your battles realistically.

Using vanilla Denmark, Germany or indeed any other "dark infantry" nation leads to the troop quality being unacceptably low.

Anyone know if these assumptions of mine regarding the training option are correct? Is morale also included in this? If not then I'm kind of screwed unless the Developers toss me a bone or one of the more computer literate and adventurous modders in the community figures out how to edit morale and experience, at least.

[RecruitMonty]

Update!

I've come up with a work around. It is not perfect but it works well enough. The experience and morale levels are now at acceptable levels.

[Wiking]

Gotta ask what you adjusted it all to? I'm curious And quite eager for the mod!

[scorpio_rocks]

Please share the "work around"

[RecruitMonty]

Nothing special really.

I first took a look at the base experience and morale values for Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Canada, USA and Russia in MBT.

I then did the same for all but Denmark in WW2.

Doing so made it possible for me to figure out what I was aiming for.

Knowing this, I then figured out how many points I needed to add to the existing values in the German and Danish OOBs to get the regulars up to acceptable levels. The Danish base values are fairly low so I had to add more to them than I did to the German ones. I figured out that I could split the OOBs into two time periods:

1946-1969 and 1970-2020.

I then edited every formation adding more points where necessary (elite units and such like).

The result isn't bad at all.

As for the start date of Germany, well, there was not too much I could do there I am afraid. Beyond my expertise.

Now I am wondering how I can go about changing the names for Denmark and Germany in the game proper.

[RecruitMonty]

I'm close to a release. There are a few icons left to do. The Weserflug variants.

I also need to test out the OOBs to iron out any kinks.

The names in-game are not correct. I'd like to at least edit that if nothing else. There are also no pick lists. I don't know how to edit those.

When I've gotten those things sorted out I will provide a few of you with an alpha so you can test etc.

Then we'll load her up for public consumption and hopefully the community will make some maps, scenarios etc.

[scorpio_rocks]

Changing the names in game means editting a couple of files (one easy, one a little more complicated):

1. The Mobhack .ini file

Found in folder:
...\Shrapnel Games\The Camo Workshop\WinSPMBT\MOBHack

File = mhMBT.ini

Edit with notepad or a similar text editor (NOT a Word Processor)

This allows you to change the names of Countries (in some places in the game) and (if necessary) the names of unit classes.

2. The MBT .exe itself (MAKE A BACKUP BEFORE CHANGING!!!)

Found in the main folder - winSPMBT.exe

Edit this with a hexeditor (eg HxD).

Replace all occurences of old name with new one - PLEASE NOTE: The new name MUST be the same length as the old! ie "Denmark" must be replaced by a 7 letter name.

Good luck!

[scorpio_rocks]

Your "work around" is unfortunatley the only way I know to adjust from the base exp / morale levels.

The problem is if the replaced OOB's levels are far from your new country's levels as the maximum I can seem to apply is a +25 modifier.

[Wiking]

I still maintain that a lower morale and experience value spread for a very late war / post war Germany is believable whether victorious or not. It may help to offset the technological advantages (if any) as well.

That said I'm glad you found a way to mitigate things, I do think the big stumbling block now is the name issue. On the plus side, Denmark can be easily renamed into Germany but if you want a more formal or precise name I'm not sure how you can get around the character limit Scorpio mentioned.

As far as alpha testing, I'm all for that! I don't mind missing picklists, as I think most players would be wanting to play as Germany from the start and not against it...not until later.

[Wiking]

Also a quick addendum based on my personal experiences with bolstering troop XP through the bonuses: this does not affect replacements. Replacing units during campaigns will draw from the national morale levels, from what I have seen. If this is incorrect I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will correct me.

The long and short of it is, all you can do is give the player a "boost" from the start, I think. Repairing a destroyed tank that started from 75 to 85 will probably re-roll on something from 55 to 70 depending on the exp/morale spread.