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Franciscus
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Simple mod

Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:50 am

For those interested, I made for my personal benefit a simple and unambitious mod for AACW April campaign, based on the leader mod by Runyan :hat: .

The main objectives were to make for me the game more enjoyable and "believable" (especially playing as CSA), but with no fundamental changes to AACW vanilla (namely, NO new leaders, no modified leader stats and no changes in the models or units folders or any others for that matter) and compatible with JSGME to make it hassle-free to install and uninstall the mod.
Main features:
1. CSA and USA initially unable to raise divisions. Then the limit is set to 48 for CSA, beginning October 1961 and 72 for USA, beginning July 1861.
2. Joe Johnston's force is raised in Winchester in order to be easily able to raise replacements while locked.
3. Appearance of Longstreet, Ewell, Jones and Early embedded in their respective brigades in Beauregard's army
4. Automatic promotion of Longstreet in 1862
5. DH Hill now appears in North Carolina
6. The various general pools that appear in the game are not restricted to Richmond and Washington, but are distributed throughout the regions, as per leader mod. The difference being, again, that no new leaders exist: only the ones that exist in AACW vanilla.

In order to apply the mod, just unzip the files inside the events folder of the mod to the events folder of your game instalation or put the root folder (Simple Mod) in your MOD folder if you use JSGME.

Any feedback will be appreciated. But, remember that this is a SIMPLE mod, not on a par with the more ambitious ones, namely the leader mod or the coming fury mod.

--> edit: removed a redundant Jackson promotion, as he begins, as per vanilla, a 2 star general

-->edit2: Longstreet, Early, Ewell and Jones now appear with their brigades;
Bonham and Holmes now are brigadier generals

-->edit3: Hardee, Bragg and VanDorn appear as 2 star generals; vanDorn delayed to January 1862
Attachments
Simple Mod.zip
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runyan99
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 12:28 am

Franciscus wrote:2. Joe Johnston's force is raised in Winchester in order to be easily able to raise replacements while locked.


I think I will try to incorporate this myself. Johnston's army was based at Winchester after he abandoned Harper's Ferry.

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lodilefty
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:11 am

runyan99 wrote:I think I will try to incorporate this myself. Johnston's army was based at Winchester after he abandoned Harper's Ferry.


I'm trying a different idea: I added a Depot in the region he starts, calling it "The Valley". With the new advanced attrition option, you have to be at a depot to add missing elements. For balance, I added a depot in Alexandria to allow Union Army to add elements while locked.

This "spices up" the Shenadoah valley a bit, adding more things to do there. Jackson's operations were often based south of Winchester, as that city may have the record for "changing hands" during the war. Also, I'm not sure the rail line to Manassas goes to Winchester (historically it didn't), so my new "Valley" location enhances transfer back and forth.....

...and Sheridan has something to burn! :niark:

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Franciscus
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:17 am

lodilefty wrote:I'm trying a different idea: I added a Depot in the region he starts, calling it "The Valley". With the new advanced attrition option, you have to be at a depot to add missing elements. For balance, I added a depot in Alexandria to allow Union Army to add elements while locked.

This "spices up" the Shenadoah valley a bit, adding more things to do there. Jackson's operations were often based south of Winchester, as that city may have the record for "changing hands" during the war. Also, I'm not sure the rail line to Manassas goes to Winchester (historically it didn't), so my new "Valley" location enhances transfer back and forth.....

...and Sheridan has something to burn! :niark:


I like very much your idea. :coeurs: How do we add a depot to a region ?? :innocent: (and keep things JSGME compatible ?)

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lodilefty
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Command mod

Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:42 am

Franciscus wrote:I like very much your idea. :coeurs: How do we add a depot to a region ?? :innocent: (and keep things JSGME compatible ?)


Involves script file and recompiling the scenario.

I liked your idea so much I started my own version! Other than the depot changes, the biggest change is my modification of the Draft options. "Call volunteers" delayed until July 61, "Mobilization" delayed into '62 (or is it '63?).
These changes reuire the use of .inc files while compling.

Also, modified Command and Control, limiting Army cmmand radius.

I also renamed "Dallas" back to Dallas, and built Fort Worth...

....and fooled around wth leader ratings and abilities.

Attached. JSGME compatible, and "stands alone". Leader ratings/abilities affect all scenarios, everything else is only implemented in the "mod" scenario (I think). Of course, you can uninstall using JSGME to get back to vanilla leaders

I'm still testing it..... DB spreadsheets are available.....
Attachments
Command Mod.zip
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Franciscus
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:55 am

lodilefty wrote:Involves script file and recompiling the scenario.

I liked your idea so much I started my own version! Other than the depot changes, the biggest change is my modification of the Draft options. "Call volunteers" delayed until July 61, "Mobilization" delayed into '62 (or is it '63?).
These changes reuire the use of .inc files while compling.

Also, modified Command and Control, limiting Army cmmand radius.

I also renamed "Dallas" back to Dallas, and built Fort Worth...

....and fooled around wth leader ratings and abilities.

Attached. JSGME compatible, and "stands alone". Leader ratings/abilities affect all scenarios, everything else is only implemented in the "mod" scenario (I think). Of course, you can uninstall using JSGME to get back to vanilla leaders

I'm still testing it..... DB spreadsheets are available.....


Very impressive :hat: Yours seem like a "compreensive" but yet simple to apply and understand mod. I will try it in the future, for sure (although will change Old Joe strategic rating to 3 or 4, I think - but I do NOT want to discuss this here :niark: )

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lodilefty
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 3:46 am

Franciscus wrote:Very impressive :hat: Yours seem like a "compreensive" but yet simple to apply and understand mod. I will try it in the future, for sure (although will change Old Joe strategic rating to 3 or 4, I think - but I do NOT want to discuss this here :niark: )


Actually, with the new inactive lock option, I'm thinking of reverting all ratings back to vanilla, and just keep the abilities changes I made..... "Overcautious" has quite a negative impact on aggression

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Franciscus
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:28 am

lodilefty wrote:Actually, with the new inactive lock option, I'm thinking of reverting all ratings back to vanilla, and just keep the abilities changes I made..... "Overcautious" has quite a negative impact on aggression


I also now think that vanilla ratings are good enough.

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lodilefty
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 12:48 pm

Franciscus wrote:I also now think that vanilla ratings are good enough.


Forgot to point out that I also start out with Milroy, Polk, Holmes, Jackson and Bonham as 1*. Eliminated the Union Army unit at Alexandria, Used your (and runyan99's) idea to bring Longstreet, Ewell, and Early on in 61. Limited Divisions as the two of you have, but didn't go as high a number when I did activate divisions (48 v 60). Deleted some of the 'generic' 311 Generals, and split into 'East-West' arrivals....

The draft and mobilization limits create a wholly different war. No flood of brigades in 61. The repeat frequency of these options is also reduced once they are active.

I'm gonna put the ratings back to WAD, but keep my abilities mods, then repost. Probably tomorrow, as today I have to go do my other hobby: playing trumpet (actually Soprano Bugle) in an Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps. :tournepas

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Eugene Carr
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:47 pm

Good work guys.

I've been messing around with the databases too, my original focus was seniority but I keep finding something else to change!

Just as an aside could the 'O.Wilcox' in the confederate generals be intended as 'C.Wilcox' a ** 'Cadmus Wilcox' thats what I've done with him anyway.

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Franciscus
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 3:08 pm

lodilefty wrote:Forgot to point out that I also start out with Milroy, Polk, Holmes, Jackson and Bonham as 1*. Eliminated the Union Army unit at Alexandria, Used your (and runyan99's) idea to bring Longstreet, Ewell, and Early on in 61. Limited Divisions as the two of you have, but didn't go as high a number when I did activate divisions (48 v 60). Deleted some of the 'generic' 311 Generals, and split into 'East-West' arrivals....

The draft and mobilization limits create a wholly different war. No flood of brigades in 61. The repeat frequency of these options is also reduced once they are active.

I'm gonna put the ratings back to WAD, but keep my abilities mods, then repost. Probably tomorrow, as today I have to go do my other hobby: playing trumpet (actually Soprano Bugle) in an Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps. :tournepas


I think that you should post your great mod on a separate thread ASAP, to be more easily acessible to the rest of the forum.

As side notes:
- One of the reasons why I am reluctant to implement limits is the possible bad consequence on the AI capabilities. Draft limits are reasonable and probably would give a intersting PBEM game, but I am afraid on the AI game consequences. Any thoughts ?
- I noticed when applying your mod with JSGME that a new campaign (command mod) shows on the "new game" window. But a few of the others (namely the new ones, East, West, TransMiss and Atlanta) got their names garbled (everything went back to normal after disbling the mod - that's the beauty of JSGME...). Why ? (Haven't tried to play them though - I am also involved on my other "hobby" - being a father :niark: )

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Clovis
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 3:17 pm

Franciscus wrote:I think that you should post your great mod on a separate thread ASAP, to be more easily acessible to the rest of the forum.

As side notes:
- One of the reasons why I am reluctant to implement limits is the possible bad consequence on the AI capabilities. Draft limits are reasonable and probably would give a intersting PBEM game, but I am afraid on the AI game consequences. Any thoughts ?


In my own experience, AI isn't suffering but I've altered number received too. In any case, some AI events giving free conscripts can be implemented too...
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lodilefty
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Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:53 pm

Franciscus wrote:I think that you should post your great mod on a separate thread ASAP, to be more easily acessible to the rest of the forum.

As side notes:
- One of the reasons why I am reluctant to implement limits is the possible bad consequence on the AI capabilities. Draft limits are reasonable and probably would give a intersting PBEM game, but I am afraid on the AI game consequences. Any thoughts ?
- I noticed when applying your mod with JSGME that a new campaign (command mod) shows on the "new game" window. But a few of the others (namely the new ones, East, West, TransMiss and Atlanta) got their names garbled (everything went back to normal after disbling the mod - that's the beauty of JSGME...). Why ? (Haven't tried to play them though - I am also involved on my other "hobby" - being a father :niark: )


oops! I think I'm using an old copy of the strings file that gets copied in with my mod... :siffle:

I'll tidy things up and start a new thread. :niark:

As to hobbling the AI with draft limits, I'm still testing balance. For one, the CSA can barely buy enough militia to stop raids!!
The idea of "AI only" conscript bonus sounds interesting....

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Franciscus
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Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:31 am

lodilefty wrote:As to hobbling the AI with draft limits, I'm still testing balance. For one, the CSA can barely buy enough militia to stop raids!!
The idea of "AI only" conscript bonus sounds interesting....


IMHO a simpler alternative would be to leave things as they are in vanilla and if you wish, use your own "ironman" rules while playing the AI :siffle:

(PS: I made a small correction to my mod, as there was a redundant Jackson promotion in 1862 left over from the leader mod)

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Franciscus
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Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:00 pm

A small update: now Longstreet, Ewell, Early and Jones appear with their respective brigades inside the Army of Potomac, and Bonham and Holmes are brigadiers.

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Franciscus
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Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:39 am

Anther small update:
- DH Hill now REALLY appears in North Carolina
- Hardee, Bragg and VanDorn appear as 2 star generals; vanDorn delayed to January 1862

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