Slitherine

Paul59 wrote:

edward77 wrote:Thanks Paul. Is it ok to edit and save the UnitIcons.dds files with Paint.Net or would I need some other software ?

I'm sorry, but I don't have any experience of using Paint.Net myself. I am still learning new tricks with my old Paint Shop Pro, and I can't be bothered to learn a new program! I guess it will be Ok, there is nothing special about the UnitIcons.dds file, it seems to be the same format as all the other .dds files that are in the game.

Maybe the other modders have more of an idea?

paint.net works fine. Just remember to save .dds files as DXT3 (Explicit alpha).

Ok, Tried it and it worked. Eureka!

Paint.Net works fine with this game, I use it for all mods to uniforms, flags, terrain, objects, etc. Do remember to reduce Saturation (there's a drop down button) very significantly - say to 65% - if you mod uniforms, otherwise you will get that 'toy soldier' look, sadly all-too-visible in some of my earlier stuff. Philippe took me in hand.

Paul & Odenathus,
How do you get the lighting effects at the start of Pavia and Bannockburn?

edward77 wrote:Paul & Odenathus,
How do you get the lighting effects at the start of Pavia and Bannockburn?

You need to put this code into the battles .bsf file;

FUNCTION StartTurnPost(side)
{
int i;
int id;
int turn;
int j;
int visibility;
int v;
int team;
int stage;
int destinationX;
int destinationY;
int distance;


SetUniversalVar("TurnCounter", GetUniversalVar("TurnCounter") + 1);

turn = GetTurn();

// CUSTOM - Set variable visibility for fog etc.
visibility = SkewedRandom(2, 6, 1) * 10;

// visibility = 300; // For demo only.

for (j = 0; j < 2; j++)
{
for (i = 0; i < GetUnitCount(j); i++)
{
id = GetUnitID(j,i);
if (id != -1)
{
v = visibility;
// Increase visibility for units on windmill hill
if (GetTileHeight(GetUnitX(id), GetUnitY(id)) >= 50)
{
v += 60;
}
SetAttrib(id, "LOS", v);
}
}
}


turn = GetTurn();



if (side == 0)
{
if (turn == 0)
{
for (i = 0; i < GetUnitCount(0); i++)
{
id = GetUnitID(0,i);
if (id != -1)
{
SetCannotControl(id, 1);
SetAttrib(id, "AP", 0);
}
}
}
}

It's basically just the code from the stock Lutzen scenario. That's why there is a reference to units on windmill hill! I think that bit just gives a sight advantage to units on any hill, I hope so! If you want to have the restricted visibility for just a limited amount of turns, you need to have an extra bit of code added, ie;

if (GetTurn() < 7)

Where the number refers to the turn number that the visibility returns to normal. Remember that in the code each side's turn counts as one, therefore 1 is the AI's turn one, 2 is the player's turn one, 3 is the AI's turn two, and so on. 7 in this instance refers to the AI's turn four.

In my Holowczyn scenario the code, including the time limit restriction, looks like this;

FUNCTION StartTurnPost(side)
{
int i;
int id;
int turn;
int j;
int visibility;
int v;

if (GetTurn() < 7)

{
SetUniversalVar("TurnCounter", GetUniversalVar("TurnCounter") + 1);

turn = GetTurn();

// CUSTOM - Set variable visibility for fog etc.
visibility = SkewedRandom(2, 6, 1) * 10;

// visibility = 300; // For demo only.

for (j = 0; j < 2; j++)
{
for (i = 0; i < GetUnitCount(j); i++)
{
id = GetUnitID(j,i);
if (id != -1)
{
v = visibility;
// Increase visibility for units on windmill hill
if (GetTileHeight(GetUnitX(id), GetUnitY(id)) >= 50)
{
v += 60;
}
SetAttrib(id, "LOS", v);
}
}
}
}

Paul, I must apologise for causing you so much effort. Clearly I did not make the question more explicit. I have already incorporated the visibility changes with turn and height in some of my scenarios. What intrigued me were the changes in lighting over all the whole map independent of the visibility. In Pavia the visibility is extensive but it is dark everywhere.

edward77 wrote:Paul, I must apologise for causing you so much effort. Clearly I did not make the question more explicit. I have already incorporated the visibility changes with turn and height in some of my scenarios. What intrigued me were the changes in lighting over all the whole map independent of the visibility. In Pavia the visibility is extensive but it is dark everywhere.

Pavia just has the reduced visibility for the whole scenario, it never returns to normal. It uses exactly the same code that I used in my first example above. I did nothing else to the scenario that would affect the lighting, at least nothing intentional.

Edward, if you just mean making it darker for the first or last few turns (nothing to do with visibility, for which see Paul's very comprehensive answer above), there's a button on the standard Editor - no need for all that damned scripting - which you can use to set the time the battle starts, and changes in the level of lighting. I think it's the same one that controls the weather effects.

I have at last had a chance to look at my Pavia scenario in the editor, unfortunately I have been very busy all week. You need to look at the "Conditions" button that Odenathus mentions in his last post. It seems that I have given it at 5.15 am start time, this is historical but means that there are several turns to play through before you get to dawn. Also I have chosen the "Default Night time lighting" rather than the "Standard lighting" for the Twilight. As the historical battle was in February I guess I was trying to get an especially dark look for the battle. I'm sorry that I did not reply earlier with this information, I originally designed this scenario nearly two years ago and I had forgotten that I had made these selections.

cheers

Paul

Thank you both for enlightening me!

Hahaha, 'enlightening' re the question of darkness, was that deliberate?

Of course it was. There`s light at the end of the tunnel.

Hi,

Where can I download this nice mod? The dropbox link is broken.

I would like to second the above request. Dropbox gives a 404 not found error, can anybody reupload?

I may as well add another request for a place to download this file as the dropbox link does not work.