[Jatke]

The tactical patterns on a lot of maps have grown stale over the years . The same VL locations have been fought over forever. CC needs sets of alternate BTDs, with new VL locations, that would encourage tactical variety and 'refresh' maps with well-trodden avenues of approach and seldom trafficked locales.

- Rename all 2 & 3 pts VLs to ' . This so it doesnt look strange when, say, Mrs Tusseaud's 2 pointer gets shuffled from village to woods. Or whatever. A VL flag is signal enough.
- Shuffle VLs around in BED9 to various likely locations, minding their values, and that exit VLs should be near a map edge but their order around the edge is flexible.
- After each VL shuffle, save the new, alternate .BTD to a folder.
- Create any number of alternate BTD folders with new, shuffled VLs.
- Name the folders BTD0, BTD1, BTD2 etc., each containing 1 alternate BTD per map.
- Copy an alternate BTD folder to /Maps prior to starting a new Battle/Op/Camp.
- Note the number of the alternate BTD folder being used in the Op/Camp's description.
- Optional for Battles since they can use an alternate BTDs at any time, although a scenario maker may prefer a certain alternate BTD file or set be used for a Battle/Op/Camp.
- A custom BTD folder could be created for a particular Op/Camp.
- Copy the original BTDs back to /Maps whenever necessary.

[If the original BTDs arent replaced in /Maps, how does this affect ongoing Ops/Camps? Turns out that existing VL control, as recorded in the Save, overrides map control in the Save. So an owned VL that gets shuffled gives the VL owner control of the new VL location + the 8surrounding deploy zones. Thus, changing VLs in the middle of Ops/Camps probably would negatively affect its battles.]

[Jatke]

Another aspect of VL control is that when they are coded as neutral control in a Save file, but map control of the VL deploy zone is Allied or Axis, the map control value overrides the VL control value. But the side with map control of the VL only gets control of the single deploy zone the VL occupies, not the surrounding 8 deploy zones as is usually the case.

Pic shows a VL and its map zone coded for GE control gives GE control of an additional 8 zones VL that were map coded as neutral.

A VL coded for neutral control but it's map zone is coded for GE control results in GE control of the VL and map zone it occupies only.

[ScnelleMeyer]

This is an awesome way to create variation and new ways to play maps Jatke! - Thank you for the detailed step by step instructions.

[Jatke]

Example below is an alt VL folder with 10 subfolders named btd0 (original) - btd9. Each subfolder contains custom .btd for all maps in a version/mod and shortcut to /Maps. Drag any of the ten sets of alt .btds to the shortcut in its folder to customize (randomize) the VLs on the maps in a version/mod.

Note which alt .btd version a battle/op/camp uses in its name or description. eg. the btd4 version is used below.

[Jatke]

Custom deployment and VLs for a battle targeted in a particular map locale. Exit VLs can be retained, but shuffled, for strat movement.

[Jatke]

Just using different .btds with the same custom scenario changes the tactical situation.

eg. 5 different custom deployments on a map and 5 different .btds for that map = 25 different tactical situations on the map.

[Jatke]

Custom deployment, custom OOBs, and custom .btds can be combined in 1-2 battle ops to focus the action, limit bad AI deployment, encourage conservative player tactics and enhance role-playing immersion.

Even without custom deployment or OOBs, using multiple .btds per map is almost like having more maps. I often set up VLs and deployment to simulate defensive traces, phase lines, and jump off points as shown below.

[Jatke]

A downside to limiting AI deployment to the 'front lines' is that its easy to see where enemy units are going to be. Except in TBF where you can mod neutral map control shading to be as dark as enemy controlled. The rationale to this 'fog of war' effect is that the enemy could be located anywhere your troops arent. This tweak isnt available in previous CC versions, which hard-coded deployment shading in the .exe.

Another 'fog of war' tweak is to make VL flags pure white so they're invisible on the map. So the player has to sweep the entire map with units to find these hidden VLs while the AI benefits, since it reads the .btd, and still knows exactly where the VLs are located.

[ScnelleMeyer]

This front line set-up of VLs - Will it make the AI move better if it's on the attack in your experience?

[Jatke]

No, on attack the AI still 'gravitates' toward VLs the same as always. Enhancing its attacking is what the frontline custom deployment tries to do. That and a custom OOB to give an attacking AI a hefty force advantage.

The groupings of 16 VLs shown above are mostly for marketing purposes. I use 3-5 + exit VLs. Not necessary to use exit VLs to maps not in the op. 2 map, multi-turn custom ops only need .btds with the 1 exit VL on each map. You can even use a custom .btd to fool the editor into making a scenario that connects two non-adjacent maps.

Custom .btds also make scenario creation much more compatible with CC's VL-based victory conditions. eg. both sides can be given control of the same # of VL pts (= draw) so that control of a single 1 pt VL can determine victory.

A fun custom op, using only 5 VLs total, gives both sides control of 1 map containing their depot and an exit VL to the battle map. On the battle map each side controls the exit VL to its depot map (their rear) + any chosen area of battle map. Then victory can be determined by a single, uncontrolled 2pt VL placed anywhere on the battle map.

[ScnelleMeyer]

Yeah, but if its actually moving towards VLs that is an improvment in a way:)

Thanks for the whole series of posts on this - very interesting what can be done with the game variation and immersion with these edits.

[Jatke]

Having always managed files manually, when I get the chance I'll look into using self-extracting zips. That way you can have a folder for a CC install with sub-dirs for different custom ops. Each sub-dir would have the same name as the op and contain a self-extracting zip of the op save file, a custom .btd, along with a readme explaining the op and maybe a pic of the setup. Select a custom op to play then double click its zip to install files to Games/Save and /Maps. When finished, double click a Revert zip to reinstall the original .btds. Similarly, custom fpools files for BGs arriving later in a custom op could be installed to Data/Base the same way.