Ia m not sure if this is the right place for this, but I was wondering if someone could point me in the direction of the different mods for WITP. I have seen mention and some comment on the mods in the AAR forum etc, but I was wondering if there was a detailed resource out there some where...
However, that doesn't point to the actual thread relative to the mods, so it could be a bit tricky to know what they are about, how to install them and how generally regarded they are.
Any idea?
And in general, how to install a mod without wiping out the stock game?
most Mods are simply Scenario files that go into your Witp/Scen directory. WitP has about 199 "slots" for scenarios. You simply place the scenario file there and fire up WitP.
Other files can be optional, such as ART files and those go in the WitP/ART folder. Most Mods will have FAQ text files telling you where to put what. For those mods that require you to run a "batch" file to install it, there are also FAQ files to guide you.
For Mods that use alternate map and device art....i usually recommend that you install a 2nd copy of your WitP game to the hard drive and use that for mod playing. That way your basic stock WitP isnt' impacted.
My last question about mods tho... how ready/playable are they? For instance, I see a load of problems with RHS, I can't find much at first sight about CHS and even less about the others so... which ones would be suggested for newbies, in sol. mode?
CHS is very playable. Its been around for a long time. I'd say the same for my own or Brian's mod (BigB) If your looking for a smaller game to play....I and at least one other party have done a Guadalcanal campaign scenario. Its all on Spooky's site.
CHS is excellent, maybe because it works well there are not to many posts about it. Some others push the limits of the game, and therefore find some of the more esoteric problems.
I also have no probs with Nikmod & Treespiders mod (First try now, lots of little differences)
Using at least AB's extended map is a must, anything would be better than the vanilla map & game.
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Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum
RHS is not so much a mod as it is a game development experiment. At the time it began lots of things were "impossible" and "beyond the scope of the game" - and it was began as an attempt to address a number of these matters. Its important role was to demonstrate interest in many of these things - and that interest led to a number of changes in WITP itself - and its daughter project. For example, the policy that there could be no Soviet ships (and that Soviet ports would not work with ships) was changed - and now you have both in WITP. An example that went into AE is the case of (admittedly chrome) blimps. A more important case going over is the ablility to send ships "around the backside of the world" - which also made it. Both cases did not use the crude workarounds of RHS - but true code solutions. In another sense - CHS created the map system used by both RHS and AE - and RHS is in particular a creature of CHS in the map sense. Yet even here - RHS went beyond the map system of CHS to offer new options for players - and the most radical of those - the off map move ment concept - is what got adopted - once it was shown to cause a very interesting game.
RHS is now almost ended in its development cycle - and it is becoming ever more practical to play. But it does so in a very different context from stock and mods based on stock. These differences generate controversy, in particular among gamers who like to fight battles and not be bothered to set them up. In RHS successful players are setting up defenses and offenses several months in the future - and doing so in terms of logistic imperatives not present in the basic system where things are substantially locally "fed."
When RHS stops development depends on demand. I thought it was ended - but someone came up with a new issue - so we are looking at addressing a techincal issue with reloading torpedoes by revising ports in some areas - and all research leads to better modeling of the area. We will issue another version with this - probably tomorrow - and while I am not sure I will ever play it (I have too many games going that don't need to restart) - it will certainly help the AE version (and anyone who pays attention) to better represent port capacities. So long as people want more features or corrections - we will do them. But this should not be understood to imply there is something wrong with what came before - it is just that there is always room to be more complete - more accurate - more versitile.
One major problem with doing "a" mod is that you must make trade off decisions one way. RHS has "cheated" by creating an entire set of mods - so players get to participate in the trade off decisions normally made entirely by the modder. If you want to build Shinano (and similar vessels) as battleships - you pick the "battleship oriented" scenarios; if you prefer carriers - the "carrier oriented scenarios". The former better models the war as it was planned both before the war and until about the Battle of Midway; the latter better models the war as it was fought - with fairly large and somewhat surprising changes to shipbuilding and aircraft production planning. Both these "families" of scenarios offer versions with Russians active or passive - and sometimes other vatations (e.g. AI scenarios which behave better under computer control). Then there is the "Japan enhansed scenario" - which evolved into a series of scenarios - representing alternate planning - more or less "the war as the Allies assumed it was" = Japan putting Me-109s into production (which it licenced and tooled to do - but in the end did not do) - stuff like that. These scenarios offer a number of "ships that never were" and other interesting options for players who want a variation from the normal venue. They also offer different planning implementations - both a strong campaign for the central Pacific - and one aimed at both cutting the LOC to Australia and secureing the LOC to the mineral wealth of New Caledonia. These are very different campaigns than the historical one.
Many - perhaps a majority - of the "problems" with RHS are really problems with WITP - but our methodology of testing and acting on reports of problems means we get the publicity when a problem is found. The Russian active option in code never worked - and any mod that ever used this Matrix issued editor option never worked. It was reported long ago too - by at least two different people - but it was not noticed at Matrix and did not generate a fix. The probem matters to some RHS players because we offered Russian active scenarios - but note that those playing CVO or RPO or the several AI scenarios were not affected at all - so any perception this was "a problem with RHS" was perception - not reality - and a similar perception "all RHS scenarios were affected" was similarly just an uninformed opinion. Note also that Matrix is now looking at the problem - and likely will fix it (at least in AE) - but RHS has ALREADY got it fixed in the sense of a practical workaround.
I am not defensive about it: we seek to discover any and all issues - wether they came from Matrix - or CHS - or me personally - and every time we figure out a problem - the whole community is better off. The we is not royal - I use this term because there are many cooks in this kitchen - and without the many ideas and suggestions and even critics - it would be impossible to make things better. JWE decided to disclose how ASW worked on ships - after he got to peek at some of the code - and this was a good thing. For some reason he did not feel this was related to RHS - but he was dead wrong - and no mod has used his disclosures more completely. We had a bump along the way - because he didn't tell us about how one field was used - we didn't use it properly - and we had to re issue the revised scenarios to get the devices to work. Yet the result is - for the first time - a dramatic improvement in the ASW model. And I credit this to JWE - in spite of his desire to be ignored by me - and probably his chagrin that in fact no one else completely integrated his information in a way that addressed a significant problem with WITP (AS devices are vastly too effective in stock). The Forum community is large - and dynamic - and opinionated - and so wether it is "a wonderful mod" (quoting Panzerjaeger) or "terrible" (I am sure JWE would agree) - or somewhere in between - is more a matter of opinion and taste than anything else. RHS is a bigger game - more complex - more stuff to boss - more kinds of things to worry about than stock. Wether this is good or ill depends on wether you want detail and control - or just fast play? It took years to get here - but we are here now: RHS is ready to play - and what comes next is probably a matter of minor details rather than major structures. If you agree with AK Dreemer that there never was a problem with excess supply - than you will hate supply sinks which eat them (among other things). If you think resource centers that give you supplies was a major design problem (and Matrix thinks it was - since they have addressed it for the next generation) - then you may appreciate the change which changes "AKs to burn" into "you need to value every ship."
< Message edited by el cid again -- 7/25/2008 11:23:44 AM >
CHS is excellent, maybe because it works well there are not to many posts about it. Some others push the limits of the game, and therefore find some of the more esoteric problems.
I also have no probs with Nikmod & Treespiders mod (First try now, lots of little differences)
Using at least AB's extended map is a must, anything would be better than the vanilla map & game.
Buyer beware with Treespider's mod ...there are a number of issues with Treespider's mod that need to be corrected.... primarily having to do with with aircraft loadouts...big ooops on my part...iirc... I may get around to correcting them after AE is released.
< Message edited by treespider -- 7/25/2008 2:45:08 PM >
I like the little things like the Burmese units, IMHO, the these type of units were important in the early years (end of 42?) and this will be an important part of AE.
Are there any specific loadouts to be wary of??
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Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum
I like the little things like the Burmese units, IMHO, the these type of units were important in the early years (end of 42?) and this will be an important part of AE.
Are there any specific loadouts to be wary of??
IIRC I had it in my silly little head that the bombers load capacity would limit the number of devices carried so I provided some of the beasties with a plethora of devices.....
I know better now....I'll dive back in and take a looksy...and let you know what I find.
EDIT : Disregard - I now remember (I think) that is something I found during testing for alternate loadouts.....I think it was corrected after taking a cursory look through the scenario...
There were some other errors however with one of the Dutch aircraft having a max ceiling of 0....and iirc my guerrilla bases that were supposed to be stationary would occasionally pick themselves up and move according to one player who tried out the mod...
Oh and by the way my mod doesn't even compare to the ants you'll find in AE...
< Message edited by treespider -- 7/26/2008 5:46:15 PM >