Using the OOB Editor 101 (Full Version)

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KG Erwin -> Using the OOB Editor 101 (6/26/2004 1:11:28 AM)

In this thread, tutorials and hints on using the "Editor" will be presented. For those who want to tinker with the existing OOB files or create entirely new ones, here's the place to learn how to do it.



KG Erwin -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (6/26/2004 1:14:27 AM)

This was posted by Kevin Duguay--this is how to create a new weapon, unit and formation:

To get started open the Steel Panthers World at War V8.2 or 1 if you want to practice.
Look for the Icon that looks like a group of city building, this is the Spwaw-Editor.exe. Open it
The screen now should say "STEEL PANTHERS WORLD AT WAR OOB EDITOR" on a black back ground. At the top of the screen on the left side you will notice a small word "file", click on it.
Move cursor to Edit OOB and the Nations list will appear. Move cursor down to Nation 82-U.S. Army and click on it.

You are now in the U.S. OOB in the Units screen.

Now we have to make the weapon. Click on "Weapons" you will now see a listing of the weapons in the U.S. OOB.
Move down to weapons slot 209, it should be empty.
Enter the following information.

Range(this should be name) 60mm T18E6 Mort

Weapon Class.....03 Team

Weapon Size.......2

Max Range..........64

Max APCR............4

Accuracy..............0

Warhead..............3

HE-Kill.................5

Pen AP.................0

Pen HE................9

Pen APCR.............0

Pen HEAT.............0

At this point you could move the cursor back to File look for SAVE, click it then continue.

Now we have to make it a UNIT find the unit toggle and click it.
Move down to Units slot 099.

Enter the following information. Leave all other slots at 0 or empty.

Name............T18E6 MTR

Nation...........82- U.S. Army

Class ...........80 Light Mortar

Crew............2

Speed...........9

Radio............52

Icon..............66

LBM..............56

ROF..............8

Cost..............18

Available from January 1944 to the end of 1949

Weapon 1....209 (60mm T18E6 Mort will appear in slot) HE.. 24(No. of rounds)

Weapon 2....144 (Mi Carbine will appear in slot) HE.. 20

Ok all done! Move cursor to File and hit SAVE done!! The weapon unit shoul show up in the varrious Lt Mortar screens under Artillery when you are picking units for your custom OOB. For Historical accuracy Use the Ranger Lt Mortar.

OR!

Create a NEW FORMATION!!

Find Formation toggle and click it. And enter this information in Formation slot 1138 (it should be empty)

Name............AB Lt Mortar

Formation Type.......01 Platoon

Nation..........82 U.S. Army

Purchase Screen.....02 Artillery

Availlable from January 1944 to the end of 1949

Special...........10

Unit 1.... Under type enter 099 (60mm T18E6 MTR will appear in slot)

Under No. enter 1

And Save!! It fits already tried it!! Now the U.S. Paratroopers have their own Elite Lt Mortar units. If you check you will see that the other 60mm Lt mortars will also appear under this heading.



KG Erwin -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (6/26/2004 1:17:53 AM)

The following was posted by Stuart "Major Destruction" Millis. This explains the unit "classes":

In the weapons list, the drop down menu for class shows a variety of options. Some appear to be self explanatory, (maybe they all are) but as KG mentioned all is not apparent on the face of it and many hidden properties are included with each option.

The following is an initial draft and not intended as authoritative. Edits may be made to change this.

01- Primary Infantry This weapon should be placed in slot 1. It would include all rifles and pistols. Pistols are often placed in slot 4.

02- Secondary Infantry. This weapon would be placed in slots 2, 3 and/or 4. Weapons such as light machine guns, hand grenades and AT weapons fit this class.

01 and 02 are not intended for use in forts.

03- Team weapon. In conjunctio with icons, this class would apply to weapons such as machine guns and mortars.

04- Anti-aircraft gun. Weapons with this class will opfire at aircraft. Applies to any AA gun, or AAMG

05, 06, 07 Small, medium, large gun. Applies to any gun not in the list above. Small guns are tank machine guns and tank guns and field pieces p to a cretain calibre, large guns over a certain calibre and medium guns are those in between smal and medium guns. Class is coded to work in conjuction with weapon size and warhead to give appropriate sound, cratering and explosion graphic.

08- Infantry Flame. Flamethrowers used by infantry units. Can apply to other weapons that need a flame graphic, such as molotovs.

09- Vehicle flame. Flamethrowers used by vehicles.

10- Naval gun. Weapons which are used in beach assaults and apply to naval weapons can use this class.

11- Aircraft Weapon. Weapons used by aircraft.

12- SAM. Not used.

13- Anti tank Missle (sic) - Not used

14- Cluster bomb. Generally given to aircraft weapons that might benefit from the cluster bomb graphic.

15- Cluster minelet. Not used

16- Anti radar missle (sic) not used.

17- ASM. Not used.

18- Napalm. Flame weapon (bomb) given to aircraft. Also can be used for WP ordnance.



Major Destruction -> What do they Mean? (6/26/2004 3:40:47 AM)

Now that you have your customized OOB with the new weapon, unit and formation, let's take a look at these entries to see how they work.

Range(this should be name) 60mm T18E6 Mort

Notice the name is truncated to "Mort". The data field has room for a limited number of letters.
It is important that the calibre of the weapon is placed first. This aids you to find weapons of similar calibre when you sort the spreadsheet data according to name. The rest of the name is then fitted in as best as possible. Therefore "60mm M2 Mortar" is preferable to "Mortar, 60mm M2" or "M2 60mm Mortar" for example.

Weapon Class.....03 Team

Classes are explained elsewhere in this thread. Class can affect sound of the weapon.

Weapon Size.......2

This field determines the size of the weapon. Larger weapons are easier to hit and can suffer damage from enemy fire. Weapon sizes are hard coded for sounds, therefore infantry weapons of size 1 will sound like rifles or sub machine guns, size 2 will sound like light machine guns and size 3 sound like machine guns.

Max Range..........64

Maximum Range for this weapon in this case is 16 hexes or 800 yards. The range data that you enter must be a number up to 196 which is divisible by 4. Ranges of greater than 200 are also used. These are coded so that Range in hexes = (range-200)*8.
For example, a range of 208 is 64 hexes, or 3200 yards.

Never use range 200 for any reason. It can have unpredictable effects.

Max APCR............4

For weapons that have no APCR ammunition and fire indirect (such as mortars) this data entry represents the smallest range available. In this case the weapon will not fire indirect at a range of less than 1 hex.
For weapons that use APCR ammunition and fire direct fire, this represents the maximum range that the weapon will use APCR ammo.

Accuracy..............0

When applied to direct fire weapons this data affects the degeneration of the shot over distance. In the case of indirect fire weapons such as mortars, a value of 0 is always used.

Warhead..............3

Warhead size affects cratering graphics and sound. Warhead size for rifles and other small arms is always 1. Very large warhead sizes can increase the chance of splash damage, i.e. casualties to infantry outside the targeted hex.

HE-Kill.................5

HE Kill determines the effectiveness of a weapon against men. Should the AI determine that a hit has occured, the AI then calculates the number of casualties, based on this data entry. HE Kill value also affects the sound of most small arms.

Pen AP.................0

This number will represent the greatest thickness of armour that the AP round will penetrate. Mortars do not use AP ammunition and therefore will show a 0 in this field.

Pen HE................9

This number will represent the greatest thickness of armour that the HE round will penetrate.

Pen APCR.............0

This number will represent the greatest thickness of armour that the APCR round will penetrate.

Pen HEAT.............0

This number will represent the greatest thickness of armour that the HEAT round will penetrate.

Sound

For all the hard coding mentioned, the sound of your weapon can be overwritten by entering a number in this data field. Notice, for example the sound of the bazooka is entered. Also some specific machine guns (and other weapons) are assigned their own sounds.

UNITS

Name............T18E6 MTR

Be as descriptive as possible. There is no need to include the calibre of the weapon. However when using a generic name such as "60mm Mortar" or "Rifle Sqd", it is advisable to identify the Nation as in "US 60mm Mortar" or "GE Rifle Sqd".

Nation...........82- U.S. Army

The default Nation is always ANZAC. Therefore ensure that all your US Army units have Nation 82 entered. If not, they will not appear in any Nation's purchase list.

Class ...........80 Light Mortar

Class identifies the unit to the AI. Classes have certain hard coded qualities. When selecting a unit inside a formation, all units of the same class will appear in the purchase list for a particular formation.

Crew............2

Number of men. Placing large crews can affect the ability of a unit to be given transport.

Speed...........9

Speed is hard coded to Class. Two different classes with identical speeds will move different distances. Speed of Aircraft is also hard coded to movement sound.

Radio............52

This is one of the least understood fields in the editor. It is very powerful tool for selecting units in the purchase list.
The first digit represents the percentage chance that the unit carries a radio. Units with low numbers will often be out of contact with their commanding unit. Units with higher numbers maintain contact more easily.

The second digit represents the rarity of the unit.
0 rarity = common
1 rarity = uncommon
2 rarity = rare
3 rarity = this unit is unique to the formation(s) to which it is assigned.

Icon..............66

Refer to the icon list to see what graphic will appear on the map. Tied to class, some icons default and require no entry (or 0)

LBM..............56

This is the picture you will see in the encyclopedia.

ROF..............8

This represents the number of times a unit may fire in a turn. Subject also to randomizing factors such as special opfire, suppression, movement, etc.

Cost..............18

This is the raw cost of the unit in the purchase screen. Cost reflects only the value of the unit in the game and does not include any factor for rarity. Cost is specific to certain types of unit or class of weapon and to their special abilities according to class or other factors. All 60mm mortars should cost approximately the same.

Available from January 1944 to the end of 1949

When paying with the Rarity preference turned off certain units may be available for purchase after the "end date".

Weapon 1....209 (60mm T18E6 Mort will appear in slot) HE.. 24(No. of rounds)

Selecting the weapons for each unit and the number of rounds available is is necessary. Unarmed units will carry no weapons and therefore will have weapon 000 and rounds 0

Weapon 2....144 (Mi Carbine will appear in slot) HE.. 20


FORMATION

Formations are tricky. After you create your formation, you must test the purchase screen for your nation to see that the units and weapons that you have created will appear during the dates that you intended.

This requires a new reply.



Major Destruction -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (6/26/2004 3:59:09 AM)

Now for the hard part.

FORMATION

Name............AB Lt Mortar

Several units might use your weapon. In this case however we want the mortar to be used by an Airborne Formation so we identify this in the name.

Formation Type.......01 Platoon

There are principally 2 formations, viz. Platoon and Company
Platoon formations can only contain "Units". Units are identified by 3 digit numbers less than 250.
Company formations typically contain 2one or sometimes 2 "Units" and one or several "Platoons". Platoons are identified by 4 digit numbers.

Unfortunately, to complicate this, Company formations also have 4 digit numbers. A Company formation may never contain another Company formation.

Nation..........82 U.S. Army

Again, the formation default is 90-ANZAC. Be sure that all your Formations are identified to the correct Nation.

Purchase Screen.....02 Artillery

This field will direct the formation to the purchase menu of your choice. Artillery units should be available in the Artillery menu. Units that are purchased from the Artillery menu will have better Command values for Artillery than for either Infantry or Armor.

Formations that are placed in the "Unknown" purchase screen will not be available for purchase by the human player unless the Platoon formation is included in a Company formation. In this way, platoons that are designed to be purchased solely as a part of a Company will be assigned to the "Unknown" purchase menu.

Availlable from January 1944 to the end of 1949

Of course, you want this availabilty to match the availability of your unit.

Special...........10

This 'Special' field contains two pieces of data.
The first digit determines:
0= Normal
1= Elite (or better quality)
2= Second line (or poorer quality)

The second digit determines:
0= No special ability
1= Recon ability
2= Onboard (or quick response) Artillery

In this case you should select a value of 12 for the Special data field [;)]

Unit 1.... Under type enter 099 (60mm T18E6 MTR will appear in slot)

Under No. enter 1

Now your Formation will consist of one unit of the 60mm Mortar.

If you wanted that theis particular weapon should only be available to this particular Formation and therefore exclude any other type of Unit with the same class, you should edit the Radio field in the Unit column to "53"



Kevin E. Duguay -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (6/27/2004 9:10:01 AM)

Major D,

I made your recomended changes to my unit (T18E6). Should this also be applied to the British 2in mortar, and Japanese knee mortars? I know that these two weapons are added to squads in most cases, but being mortars should they be? Just a asking. I totally agree with your suggestions on the T18E6.



RockinHarry -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (6/30/2004 6:21:22 PM)

Some more things worth to know:

"Warhead": Beside splash damage, larger values also add considerable suppression to nearby units. In fact if you make a weapon that does not have "HE kill" (=0), it adds suppression to impact and surrounding hexes only without causing "kills". Just for fun, make a weapon that has no "HE kill", but huge "Warhead" (between 40 - 80). Great for "shocking" enemy (and friendly!) troops!

Weapon class 15 "Cluster minelet": Unlike stated before, this leftover from modern SPIII still is active and usable! A single Hit of this weapon (without regard to other weapon stats) creates a 10 point mine field in the impact hex on the map.

I used this feature to create a "Poison Gas" weapon in V8.2 norway OOB assortment of scenario maker units. This weapon is assigned to an "offmap artillery" class unit.
It has "HE kill" of 40 to cause some initial "poisoning" in the impact hex and "Warhead" of 22 to spread some healthy ingredients into neighboring hexes. The creation of the mentioned 10 point minefield causes some moderate hazards to infantry units moving through the hex. Off course it all makes sense only in WW1 like scenarios that does not use vehicles...and you need a lil bit of imagination to consider Wild Bills infamous mine fields...now beeing "poison gas" hexes.

"Max Range": Can not be smaller than 4 (=1 hex). Range=0 (hex) weapons do not work! Thus "hand grenades", "bayonets" ect. are always a 4.

Unit class 25 "APC tracked": Great for creating immobile loadble bunkers, as unlike "Fort" class units, when loaded (with infantry or even vehicles), they donŽt drop their passengers automatically when hit! V8.2 Norway OOB will have a couple of these and you can use these as (fake) sewers, basements, dugouts and more.

ThereŽs more creative use of units, classes and weapons in V8.2 Norway OOB for scenario maker use. Just check my DOC file for details. (Note: it currently has TXT extension, so it can be uploaded! Rename extension to be *.doc and open file with Word!)

Somewhat off topic but still relates to unit editing outside OOB editor:
If you change unit weapons (D-key, weapons 1-4) in SPWAW editor, take note that only weapons 0 to 240 are shown, although in fact 249 are available AND accessible! For example in US OOB if you like to equip some infantry with the "Johnson Rifle", you wonŽt see it in the weapon select screen, but if you enter 247 youŽll get it! If you use Freds WaW Editor oftenly you probably know already.



Major Destruction -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (7/2/2004 12:53:40 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kevin E. Duguay

Major D,

I made your recomended changes to my unit (T18E6). Should this also be applied to the British 2in mortar, and Japanese knee mortars? I know that these two weapons are added to squads in most cases, but being mortars should they be? Just a asking. I totally agree with your suggestions on the T18E6.


Not sure which changes you want applied to the British and Japanese lt mortars.
The British 2in mortar weapon comes in two varieties:
weapons 006 and 107 which are classed as secondary infantry and used in infantry squads (172, 175) in the same manner as an LMG.
Weapon 207, classed as team weapon is intended as the weapon for the light mortar unit
129.
The same distinction has been applied to Japanese knee mortars.

These nations have no light mortar formation. Britain does not have room for a lt mortar formation and Japan has no need for one.



CanadianPowerslave -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (7/15/2004 4:47:43 AM)

Is formation 1199 avalable for use in the German OOB? When I created a formation in it and used it in another, say 1187, I no longer could buy formation 1187. It would be very nice to be able to use it due to there being absolutily no spare German formation slots left, and to create this formation in another country OOB would be too much of a hassel, due to its comined arms set-up.

Another question, is there a limit to the actual amount of units in a company sized formation. I was creating a company sized unit and I wanted to include a 81mm mortor battery in it. But when I went to purchace it, it only gave me 1 or 2 sections of the battery.

Just to let you know, the Company I tried to create was:

Unit 1: Rifle Sec. (B0)
Unit 2: Mot Rifle Plt (C0-C9)
Unit 3: Pz Sec (D0 & D1)
Unit 4: Support Plt (E0-E5, Consits of 1 ATG, 1 Inf Gun, 1 AA plus transport)
Unit 5: Same as 2 (F0-F9)
Unit 6: Same as 3 (G0-G1)
Unit 7: Same as 4 (H0-H5)
Unit 8: 81mm Mortor Battery (J,K& L I think)

This would be 43 individual units.

I can acomplish this by assining units during the deployment phase but in all the editors it makes it so messy.

Thanks for your time!



lynxcat -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (2/4/2010 7:44:15 PM)

I have a question about the Unit screen on the OOB editor. I'm trying to figure out what the FC (fire control rating), and Stab (weapon stabilization) do. In the players manual v5.0 it seems contradict itself about the Stab rating. Pg 62 gives the following for the Stab.... Stab=0 SP AT guns like Archer and Marder
Stab=1 slow 2 man turrets or 1 man turrets
Stab=2 2 man turrets or slow turrets
Stab=3 normal 3 man turrets
Stab=4 few late war weapons
Okay then page 108 basically says that the most a WW2 tank would have would be a 1, and that would be very rare.

The other question is what does FC do?? The only thing page 108 says about it is:
FC- Fire control rating--Used to improve hit chances, especially versus moving targets. +FC times 3 is a typical modifier.
What exactly does that mean? What I would like to know is how best to accurately simulate the different turret or non turret types, like 1,2 or 3 man turrets and non turreted vehicles etc. The explanation on pg62 for the Stab seems straight forward enough until it's contradicted on pg 108, but even less clear is how FC works.

I'm hoping someone will have a little better insight into this. Thanks :)



Alby -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (2/5/2010 7:14:28 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: CanadianPowerslave

Is formation 1199 avalable for use in the German OOB? When I created a formation in it and used it in another, say 1187, I no longer could buy formation 1187. It would be very nice to be able to use it due to there being absolutily no spare German formation slots left, and to create this formation in another country OOB would be too much of a hassel, due to its comined arms set-up.


Another question, is there a limit to the actual amount of units in a company sized formation. I was creating a company sized unit and I wanted to include a 81mm mortor battery in it. But when I went to purchace it, it only gave me 1 or 2 sections of the battery.

Just to let you know, the Company I tried to create was:

Unit 1: Rifle Sec. (B0)
Unit 2: Mot Rifle Plt (C0-C9)
Unit 3: Pz Sec (D0 & D1)
Unit 4: Support Plt (E0-E5, Consits of 1 ATG, 1 Inf Gun, 1 AA plus transport)
Unit 5: Same as 2 (F0-F9)
Unit 6: Same as 3 (G0-G1)
Unit 7: Same as 4 (H0-H5)
Unit 8: 81mm Mortor Battery (J,K& L I think)

This would be 43 individual units.

I can acomplish this by assining units during the deployment phase but in all the editors it makes it so messy.

Thanks for your time!


Formation 1199 does not work in any OOB, I forget exactly why, but they are unavailable.

If you are making a Company formation, make sure you dont have any formations classed as a 'company' inside that formation, also you cannot have Plts inside a Platoon formation.

Also make sure all units have dates that are available when you are trying to purchase your formation, alot of things to look for when editing oobs.
[:)]



Alby -> RE: Using the OOB Editor 101 (2/5/2010 7:26:28 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: lynxcat

I have a question about the Unit screen on the OOB editor. I'm trying to figure out what the FC (fire control rating), and Stab (weapon stabilization) do. In the players manual v5.0 it seems contradict itself about the Stab rating. Pg 62 gives the following for the Stab.... Stab=0 SP AT guns like Archer and Marder
Stab=1 slow 2 man turrets or 1 man turrets
Stab=2 2 man turrets or slow turrets
Stab=3 normal 3 man turrets
Stab=4 few late war weapons
Okay then page 108 basically says that the most a WW2 tank would have would be a 1, and that would be very rare.

The other question is what does FC do?? The only thing page 108 says about it is:
FC- Fire control rating--Used to improve hit chances, especially versus moving targets. +FC times 3 is a typical modifier.
What exactly does that mean? What I would like to know is how best to accurately simulate the different turret or non turret types, like 1,2 or 3 man turrets and non turreted vehicles etc. The explanation on pg62 for the Stab seems straight forward enough until it's contradicted on pg 108, but even less clear is how FC works.

I'm hoping someone will have a little better insight into this. Thanks :)


If you are looking at Vanilla, SPWAW, those numbers have become skewed over the years, as many oob people when doing updates to the game, inflated these numbers or just changed them to what they thought they should be....for the most part, only US made tanks should have any STABALIZER ratings IIRC, and also the manual is somewhat outdated.....sometimes code changes did not coincide with the manual.

As for Fire Control ratings, the higher the number, the better chnace of hitting something, I forgot the exact formula for calculating the multipliers and all that, these numbers also became skewed over the years....again for same reasons as above.

V5.0 of the OOB editor, corrects MOST of these numbers by running the programs in the 'batch options' tab.
But it skewss some units costs and ammo loadouts, , Like Rockets and Forward observers off the top of my head.

If you search this forum for thread by Mike Wood, you might find some more info on these numbers.
especially in regards to V8.4 and v8.403
And you can always check out SPWAW Enhanced..in which alot of these type errors have been addressed.
[:)]



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