Foggy weather

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >> Foggy weather

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Foggy weather - 7/10/2001 9:03:00 AM

Mark McIntosh

Posts: 31
Joined: 6/24/2000
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Status: offline

I can not seem to create this condition in a designed scenario for Western Europe. Tyring to recreate Bulge weather conditions 16-19 December. If Summer, 3=hazy. If Winter, 3=windstorm. manual says it should be foggy for a temperate climate. Visibility set to 2-3 hexes. At night 3=clear?

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- 7/10/2001 10:55:00 AM

A_B

Posts: 296
Joined: 4/11/2001
From: San Jose, CA
Status: offline

Check out my thread on weather. The only thing the weather in the game does is pick a max. visibility, slow down movement, and is used for the picture in the top right corner, and the background sound effects. If you want to try and create more realistic weather, you'll have to require players to change their preferences. For example, rain or snow could have a max visibility of 16 hexes (800meters), which would be the furthest out you can see muzzle flash (which you could shoot at, even if you don't see what it is). Spotting could be reduced to 30-50%. At these percentages, spotting is still pretty good - test it out. Hitting preferences could also be lowered, 50-80%. If you're aiming at enemy muzzle flash, you won't be as accurate as if you can actually see a target. I think hitting of 50% at night works out about right, and 70% to 80% for heavy rain/ sandstorm.For night battles, you could also try reducing Route/rally, to simulate the difficulty of trying to rally men whom you can't find. Finally, Spec-op fire could be reduced as well, to simulate the difficulty of aquireing new targets at night. I've tried playing with these settings - on the guadacanal campaign - and they seem to be a bit more 'real', as much as i can judge it anyway.

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Unconventional war requires unconventional thought

(in reply to Mark McIntosh)

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- 7/10/2001 11:46:00 AM

11Bravo

Posts: 2082
Joined: 4/5/2001
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by Mark McIntosh: I can not seem to create this condition in a designed scenario for Western Europe. Tyring to recreate Bulge weather conditions 16-19 December. If Summer, 3=hazy. If Winter, 3=windstorm. manual says it should be foggy for a temperate climate. Visibility set to 2-3 hexes. At night 3=clear?

Mark, Can't help you with the mechanics of setting weather, visibility, etc., but I have some information on actual weather visibility in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. For what its worth, the following give Day-Visibility (forget the source) 16-Fair 17-Good 18-Poor 19-Poor I got more if your interested...

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Squatting in the bush and marking it on a map.

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- 7/10/2001 12:39:00 PM

Flashfyre

Posts: 330
Joined: 10/6/2000
From: Waynesboro, PA, USA
Status: offline

Here's a designer's way to simulate fog on your map: Use the map in a separate scenario, using the same nations. Buy lots of artillery batteries (of any size); depending on amount of fog and size of map, I use the following guidelines: Small Map:6-8 batteries (6 for light, 8 for heavy) Medium Map: 8-12 batteries (8 for light, 12 for heavy) Large Map: 12-20 batteries (12 for light, 20 for heavy) Now, don't buy anything else; you should have an A0 for each side, and one side with a bunch of arty. Deploy as usual; don't worry about the A0s...leave them where they are. Go to the bombard screen, and pre-plot all your arty to fire 'SMOKE'. Scatter the individual missions to areas that you feel fog would appear in real life; canyons, low spots, valleys, etc. Save the scenario as something temporary....I usually call it 'test'. Exit the editor, and use Hotseat Play. This way the computer doesn't run either side; you do. Start the scenario; the smoke missions will fire. When done, take a look around the map; does the smoke look right? Is it in large clouds, or in lines? If something doesn't look right, use the A0 unit to call for more smoke missions (BTW...turn off C&C when doing this). End the turn, and let the smoke fire again. Check it as the other side. When it all looks ok, SAVE the scenario. Now...exit the game (IMPORTANT:remember which saved game you used) and go to the Save Game folder in the Steel Panthers folder. Rename the files for the saved game to a scenario number (one that isn't being used) and move them to the Scenario folder. Now, start the game and go to the editor; load the new scenario (the one you renamed) and go to the map. There should be lots of 'fog' on the battlefield. Now set weather to foggy, reduce the visibility to something appropriate, and finish building the scenario. Now, when played, the fog effects will become apparent; low viz, with areas of no visibility (due to the fog). Hope this helps.

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The Motor Pool http://www.geocities.com/aurion_eq/index.html?976419304550 [email]kmcferren@onemain.com[/email]

(in reply to Mark McIntosh)

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- 7/10/2001 9:52:00 PM

Larry Holt

Posts: 1969
Joined: 3/31/2000
From: Atlanta, GA 30068
Status: offline

Have you tried setting the vis to an exact hex number using Fred's scenario editor? I've not tried this yet in 6.1 but it worked for earlier versions.

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Never take counsel of your fears.

(in reply to Mark McIntosh)

Post #: 5