Posts: 195
Joined: 10/4/2000 From: Brookings, SD, USA Status: offline
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ORIGINAL: GJK
Though I personally prefer the NATO symbols (obviously), I think that the original counters would look great as well *if* the gradient wasn't used at all, and I'm not particularly fond of some of the color choices. If I get ambitious enough, I may make a set that uses a solid color with everything else that the originals have.
I'd like to see your version without the gradient. So the above sounds like a capital idea to me.
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Any relationship between what I say and reality is purely coincidental.
EXCELLENT WORK! The map combined with the new counters are nice! One suggestion, maybe the shade difference between German and Austrian should be a bit stronger, at a quick glance it's hard to tell plus the flags are similar.
How about a side view or top view for the naval vessels?
Actually, I just used the same colors that "Paths of Glory" used for its units.
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ORIGINAL: pkpowers One suggestion, maybe the shade difference between German and Austrian should be a bit stronger, at a quick glance it's hard to tell plus the flags are similar.
Discovered that myself last night while playing. I'll work on upping the contrast between the two shades of gray later tonight.
Really nice. I have installed these maps and counters, and while I was perfectly happy with the original graphics, these are even better to me as an old boardgamer (I don't mind the PoG/GWiE style at all).
There are some small problems with the map; those reported above plus one forest hex in western belgium. I do not know if these problems existed in the original map as well (maybe the image is correct and the hexdata is wrong?).
I also used GIMP to create scaled down versions of the map for the overview maps.
The only detail I am not sure of is the symbol for the assault units, but perhaps that is the correct NATO symbol?
There are some small problems with the map; those reported above plus one forest hex in western belgium. I do not know if these problems existed in the original map as well (maybe the image is correct and the hexdata is wrong?).
It's forest on the original map as well - I'll erase it from that hex though since the hex data indicates that it's open.
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ORIGINAL: pellen I also used GIMP to create scaled down versions of the map for the overview maps.
I did the same (using Photoshop), I'll include that in a final zip once I've made these corrections.
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ORIGINAL: pellen The only detail I am not sure of is the symbol for the assault units, but perhaps that is the correct NATO symbol?
I forgot what reference I found for that symbol - I believe it means "assault" or "heavy", don't recall which. If someone can find a more appropriate symbol, I'll substitute them.
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ORIGINAL: pellen Thanks for sharing this mod with us!
I also noticed on my british units the ready box is blacked out, also the brit HQ's symbol is blacked
I'm not seeing this on my screen, is anybody else having this problem? Can you take a screenshot of what you have and then either post it or just email it to me?
I forgot what reference I found for that symbol - I believe it means "assault" or "heavy", don't recall which. If someone can find a more appropriate symbol, I'll substitute them.
You are probably correct. I just didn't recognize it and failed to find it in any of the NATO symbol lists I had at hand. All ww1 games I have seen uses different symbols for assault units, including one game that uses the empty "unspecified" symbol, so I guess this fits into an old tradition anyway. :)
Ok, I've made corrections to both the map and counters. The map required a bunch of work; I went hex by hex and matched up what the hex was being reported as including removing the extra forest hex in Belgium. Mountains are only in Switzerland now and the desert (brownish color) only exists where the game says it does.
Note to Mr. Hunter: There's several hexes that are reading as "sea" when the map shows them as land. These include most of Norway, Sweden and hexes in Finland as well as all of western North Africa. I'm guessing that perhaps that is so that the AI doesn't go wandering up there? Also, Malta, Sardina and Corsica show as all sea. Several hexes in Turkey read the same, including 31,41 & 32,41. Also, Denmark's capital is missing and should be hex 24,7 unless the capital wasn't there back then or for game purposes it should just be an open hex.
Counters: Updated the British. Seems that the program didn't like any white being on them so I changed the white boxes, icons, etc to a very light gray and they seem ok now.
Note to Mr. Hunter: All of the British units use white lettering/text *except* for arty units which have black like everyone else. Either all black for everyone or all white would make them all uniform in appearance. If you do go with white, I'll darken the shade of my counters as the white doesn't read too well on them as I have them now.
Thanks! They looks very good. I don't mind different text colors on the counters really as long as they are readable.
I had a quick look at the terrain, and I can understand that it is a pain to check the terrain everywhere... I found the following hexes that still have different terrain on the map and in the text: 28,28 27,18 20,32 And these two hexes have only a tiny bit of the correct terrain drawn on them: 16,20 17,10 (Again of course this may be something that is wrong in the data not the map(s)...)
It is funny that the south of Sweden is land, but the north is sea. Not that it should matter I guess.
Wonderful to see the NATO symbols and map work that you've done here GJK, I'll look at using these in future as they are my preference, but as someone said earlier it's down to individual preferences and not everyone would like this. Interesting question earlier on re NATO symbols, I presume pre-nato that similar symbols were used anyway but they just pinched the name?
Note to Mr. Hunter: There's several hexes that are reading as "sea" when the map shows them as land. These include most of Norway, Sweden and hexes in Finland as well as all of western North Africa. I'm guessing that perhaps that is so that the AI doesn't go wandering up there?
Actually its just because they weren't in the game so I didn't bother changing their default, which was ocean.
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Also, Malta, Sardina and Corsica show as all sea.
Same reason
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Also, Denmark's capital is missing and should be hex 24,7 unless the capital wasn't there back then or for game purposes it should just be an open hex.
Denmark isn't in the game so there is no Copenhagen city.
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Several hexes in Turkey read the same, including 31,41 & 32,41.
I'll be checking those and other glitches.
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Note to Mr. Hunter: All of the British units use white lettering/text *except* for arty units which have black like everyone else. Either all black for everyone or all white would make them all uniform in appearance. If you do go with white, I'll darken the shade of my counters as the white doesn't read too well on them as I have them now.
Artwork is not my area. If you guys think my UI leaves something to be desired you should see my hand-drawn maps. I'll look at the text colour but I have to base the text colour on the original artwork.
Thanks! They looks very good. I don't mind different text colors on the counters really as long as they are readable.
I had a quick look at the terrain, and I can understand that it is a pain to check the terrain everywhere... I found the following hexes that still have different terrain on the map and in the text: 28,28 27,18 20,32 And these two hexes have only a tiny bit of the correct terrain drawn on them: 16,20 17,10 (Again of course this may be something that is wrong in the data not the map(s)...)
It is funny that the south of Sweden is land, but the north is sea. Not that it should matter I guess.
Thanks pellen, I'll try and work on this tonight or tomorrow.
• Changed terrain types for hexes that pellen pointed out in the post above. • Removed the hex grid from all non-playable hexes, including sea hexes to avoid confusion. • Added fort(ress) symbols around fortified cities for easy reference. I *think* that I got them all (let me know if I missed one) however, some of the longer city names cut off the text in the readout that states the fort value, so I can't be for sure on those cities. • Darkened the hex grid just a tad.
Thanks for making the game and thanks for making it so that a mod could be made to suit individual tastes. By the way, have you thought about doing a WWII ETO in this same format? Yes, I know WWII has been done to death but I like the approach that this system uses.
Well, there's other designers who already do great games on WW2. I generally like to work on more ignored subjects. And I know there's lots of people out there clamoring for games on the Balkan Wars, the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Civil War, the Spanish Civil War and the Chaco War :-)
Posts: 3396
Joined: 8/28/2000 From: New Zealand Status: offline
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Well, there's other designers who already do great games on WW2.
Frank probably has to say this due to teh designers' code of ethics....but of course he's wrong, and hte rest of us arent' bound by arcane secret handshakes
There are no "great" games of WW2 at a strategic level at all IMO. There's just a few barely adequate ones that one is forced to play because there's nothing better.