Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 12:46 pm Post subject: Volunteers for DOF3 beta testers
G'day Grognards
Well, i am almost finished tinkering with the data base text files (something you can play with endlessly).
Have even nikin proofed the data except there will still be no lend-lease AFV aside the HTs .
If nikin really wants US & UK AFVs, then he is welcome to make a submod
Soon i am going to start editing the 48 Campaign operations (x3) for the H2H (DOF3 default), German player and Russian player
DOF3 is intended to be released in both a COI & a CC3 version (happy troger?)
Beta testers will be required to playtest to find any errors especially in the area of unit upgrades as this is the biggest nightmare in data writing.
This will apply for the H2H Geteam & Ruteam files
Russian player Ruteam file
German player (wehrmacht) Geteam file
German player (SS) Geteam file
Also, when the Campaign OPs are done for the German player & Russian player submods, i want beta testers to test AI performance on the maps to make sure VLs positions do not cause problems for AI
Would also like volunteer/s with experience in editing COI/CC3 EXEs to make some needed changes to accomodate new Campaign names, particularly the ArmeeGruppeMitte Campaign.
Nembo says he is busy through mid 2012, but i believe will make some changes to the DOF UI screens including a new mainscreen with,..........again....
I'm just curious but could you tell us what changes/improvements DOF3 are gonna bring to us? How is it gonna be different from DOF2 in general?
There are many minor "tweaks" involved which may be too numerous for me to remember and print here.
What i have done is make a Forum search for "DOF3" and found bits i have written previously re DOF3 and copied them to this post, then added a few other little bits
Have increased the number of weapon sounds so fewer weapons will share the same sounds.
The original CC3/COI sound.sfx file had only 108 sound slots available, of which only 50 were delegated to weapon sounds.
So in DOF2 i had to put extra weapon sounds in slots delegated to other non-weapon sounds, such as UI screen clicks, battle screen ready sound, H2H disconnect, etc.
This gave DOF nearly 60 weapon sounds.
Now i have created a sound.sfx file with 128 sound slots and no longer need to use non-weapon sound slots.
So now DOF3 will have about 70 weapon sounds!
Really, i don't know why another modder had not done this before!
Another groundbreaking AGS DOF innovation!
Tank availabilities have generally been cut back a little
The Gestopo units in the conscript section have been replaced by 7man versions of the 4man conscript teams.
In the AI submods
There are 2 GermanPlayer submods: a Wehrmacht v AI submod & a SS v AI submod
There have been many 4man infantry teams added in the Wehmacht submod (using SS slots).
There have been many 4man infantry teams added in the SS submod (using Wehmacht slots).
The OT-34/85 was added to the data files for DOF3 (at the expense of the T-20)
Flame tank OT-34 L-11 gun replaced by F-34 gun (happy nikin?)
Removed ther JSU-122 from 1943 (happy nikin?)
May remove PzF30 from summer 1943, or i'll just leave it in lieu of the faustpatrone
12cm/120mm mortars have been removed
The 12cm mortars slots in the Geteams files have been replaced with a 4man AT team with demo charges as requested by ll_Alexis_ll
The 8cm/82mm mortars now use the explosion graphics and shellholes of the 12cms (Like WF mod)
The 12.8cm K-40 L/61, was probably never deployed in a field gun carriage, so i have simply renamed it as the 15cm K-18 L/55, in DOF3 (just so i can jam it up nikin's nose)
The 12.8cm PaK-44 has been renamed 12.8cm PaK-44 81/3, as this version used the 2 wheeled split trail carriage, just so as to diffrentiate it from the 12.8cm PaK-44 81/1, which used the French GPF's 4 wheeled carriage (just so i can jam it up nikin's nose). Also, even if it were possible to add another 2 piece graphic for the 81/1, it would be too much of a time wasting exercise to do so.
Still in front of me is the gargantuan task of rebuilding all the Campaign operation scenarios
The DOF3 default Campaign Operations will be the DOF3 H2H Campaign Operations
The amount of Requistion points has been decreased for the DOF3 H2H Campaign Operations
There will be 48 DOF3 Campaign Operations, instead of 42 DOF2 Campaign Operations.
Some maps in the original 42 Campaign Operations will be replaced.
The 4 of the 6 new historical Campaign Operations will be:
2 Ops will be the Germans fighting through Belarussia in 1941, then, the same two map sets will be used for 2 OPs, being 2 legs of Operation Bagration in 1944, so the "to & fro" will be 3 years apart
These extra operations will help make up the 16 operations of the new :
Heeres Gruppe Mitte Campaign
Frankly, atm i cannot remember where i had planned the other 2 Campaign Operations, maybe it was 3 & 3.
3 more Barbarossa OPs & 3 Bagration OPs)
Part of the DOF3 concept is to have 48 Campaign Operations which can all be played by playing 3 seperate Campaigns each being 16 operations (Barbarossa, Hammer & Anvil & Reich on the Rocks)
So i have to complete 144 DOF Campaign Operation scenarios altogether
Most of which will just be making some modifications to existing DOF2 campaign operations scenarios, so only 18 DOF3 campaign operation scenarios have to be made from scratch
There wil be a new MAIN screen & Splash screen (maybe some others).
There will probably be invisisble buttons again if Nembo does the screens for me again
No new graphics as all my Paint Shop Pro trial versions have expired and i really don't want to go there.
So many hours of work.
But if anybody wants to submit some good new graphics, i'd add them if they are cool
Would love it if somebody would make a good 10.5cm-leFH/18 graphic to replace the crappy one i made :)
Thats all i can think of ATM
If i think of any other significant changes, i will add them here in an edit later.
Any genuine helpful suggestions are welcome and will be considered.
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 5:46 pm Post subject: Re: Volunteers for DOF3 beta testers
Thank you AGS for that detailed reply. As I can see DOF3 is gonna be a big improvement over DOF2. More variety in sounds and some new operations will be great I believe. Andl I'm glad that you mentioned reducing amount of tanks, however I'd suggest to make it a big cut - not just "little" one. While playing your Barbarossa campaign I often find maps where there's as many as 6 tanks on Soviet side:o So it's much more than 1/3 of alll units (and exceeding 1/2 when you add other armored vehicles). And since tanks are such huge infantry killing machines in CC, that makes using infantry units pretty pointless in most scenarios:( So if you asked me, I would limit availability of tanks to 3 per side (maybe excluding some battles like Kursk). That would much better reflect a real balance of forces used in WW2.
And one more thing, you wrote that default DOF3 campaign will be meant for H2H gameplay. But iirc, most people play only vs AI (there was a survey on that topic some time ago). So does it mean, you're not gonna make any AI tweaks to DOF3?
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:11 am Post subject: Re: Volunteers for DOF3 beta testers
Regarding tanks, if such a strict limit is not possible then there must be other way round. First, you wrote earlier in your post:
Tank availabilities have generally been cut back a little.
And second, there's this Infantry mod by Blabsky which "Reduces the instance of Armor in Cross of Iron" (a citation from http://closecombat.matrixgames.com/CoI/coimods.html but the link to the mod is broken so I haven't tried it out yet).
I really like that you want to reduce the amount of heavy armor in DOF3 - that will only make it better imo.
EDIT:
I don't know if Operation Braunschweig is already included in DOF2 but if it's not it would be great to have it in DOF3 (as a separate campaign for example).
Regarding tanks, if such a strict limit is not possible then there must be other way round. First, you wrote earlier in your post:
Tank availabilities have generally been cut back a little.
EDIT:
I don't know if Operation Braunschweig is already included in DOF2 but if it's not it would be great to have it in DOF3 (as a separate campaign for example).
DOF already includes several operations from FALL BLAU/Operation Braunschweig
now do your homework first before asking any more questions
Have had one volunteer PM me, so thats a start, not ready for testing, because i just keep going,....
......aw, that could be better,.....tinker tinker,....
............ oh that could do with a tweak,..... tweak tweak
............dum dee dum....., hmm,... what if i........,
.......yeah why not........
...... tinker tinker ..... tweak tweak .....
.....how about...?
... mmmm ... lets see if this will work .......
Oh drat, i was supposed to start making the CampOps last week
..... but hey ....., that would be nice,..... tinker tinker tinker
LOOK where did the time go?
Just last night i increased the number of DOF's trademark multi-explosion GrenadeBundles among German infantry teams, so you're bound to see them go off much more often
Tonight the Russians will finally get their RifleGrenades which they never had before.
Dum dee dum.........., hmmmmm...., what next...?
A modder's work is never done
@ vitamin
Sorry for snapping at you. Guess my wounds are still fresh from that knitpicking loser who's name i wont mention , plus i actually have a sore toe
Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 9:30 am Post subject: Re: Volunteers for DOF3 beta testers
Hi AGS! DOF3!! thats great news
Hi just want to mentioned that my expereience of DOF2 has been excellent.
The only major problem I encountered was the coding on many of the maps particularly the mountainous ones. (karpathaians ect)
My units, tanks and infantry often couldnt seem to negotiate what appeared to completely unblocked terrain in front of them, or would constantly go back and forth along a small stretch of land looking for a non existant path to where i asked them to go.
Sometimes after deployment stage my units wouldnt be able to move from thier starting locations, every order responded to by 'we cant go there!' ect.
I realise that you didnt create the maps themselves however If you are going to re-release this mod i think some one will deffinately have to look at the coding again..
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 9:35 pm Post subject: Re: Volunteers for DOF3 beta testers
I have a few thoughts i would like to share ASG!
Im trying to think about stuff i would like to see changed, so i started with the German side.
I see my self as a pretty good player when it comes to H2H CoI and DoF2, so i feel i have some weight to the balance discussion!
The things i will focus on is mainly pricing, there are some units that i rarely ever get because i feel the price is to high compared to some other unit.
---------
Sdkfz
First off i want to ask what the difference is between a Sdkfz 250 & 251, seems its light and medium? What exactly is the difference? Do the medium take more dmg from mortars and MGs?
There seem to be kinda big jump in price 250 vs 251 with identical equipment?
I think in general that the Sdkfz ATs are to expensive, they can go up to 39p, and some light tanks go for ~45p, that's a no brainer. I think ~18-29 (instead of 20-39) would be better price ranger for all (non-mortar) Skdfz. Might have to compensate the light AT gun (3.7cm) from 23p to 20p.
Also the maybe lower the mortar Sdkfz from 40-45 to 38-40, maybe lower normal mortars with 2 points each to compensate, and maybe add 10 more rounds to the Sdkfz, this would make me think about using them more.
Tanks
PzIII is to expensive compared to PzIV
I don't think there is any good reason to get a p3 instead of a p4 when you have a choice, and the pricing is almost the same 2-3-4p apart. I would say take off ~10-30p on PzIII. (if not early then at least later when Pz4 was more common?)
AT-guns
7.5cm and 5cm is to close in price, 41 Vs 38, i know 5cm shots much faster but id like to have it down to around ~31-33.
Inf
Some of the better inf squads go up to 40-45p, i think its a bit much, inf can die so easy. I would like to see the most expensive inf around 35, and thats the elit elit, and maybe good inf at around 25-30, just some pointers, not sure its a good idea but it feels bit much as it is imo!
---------------------
This is just some of my thoughts after playing many H2Hs, would like to hear what you think! Il do the same with CCCP soon!
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