How many unit icon colors per Force?

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Norm Koger's The Operational Art Of War III >> Scenario Design >> How many unit icon colors per Force?

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How many unit icon colors per Force? - 11/25/2008 8:47:55 PM

kenwolfe

Posts: 51
Joined: 3/12/2008
Status: offline

I have a question about assigning color schemes to units. It appears that there are a total of 110 color schemes to choose from: 22 background colors each with 5 possible icon colors. I have two questions:

1. Are these really the only combinations of icon and background colors we have to choose from?

2. If so, it appears that this means any particular "Force" (defined as all units with the same background color) cannot have more than five "Armies" (where an Army is defined as all units with the same color scheme... same color in both background and icon). Is that true?

I ask these questions because it appears to place some limitations on how I can set up support scopes.

Regards,

_____________________________

Ken Wolfe
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Post #: 1

RE: How many unit icon colors per Force? - 11/25/2008 10:31:39 PM

ColinWright

Posts: 2604
Joined: 10/13/2005
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: kenwolfe

I have a question about assigning color schemes to units. It appears that there are a total of 110 color schemes to choose from: 22 background colors each with 5 possible icon colors. I have two questions:

1. Are these really the only combinations of icon and background colors we have to choose from?

2. If so, it appears that this means any particular "Force" (defined as all units with the same background color) cannot have more than five "Armies" (where an Army is defined as all units with the same color scheme... same color in both background and icon). Is that true?

I ask these questions because it appears to place some limitations on how I can set up support scopes.

Regards,

You can modify the tiles with any graphics program, let them keep their original name, place them in a folder with the name of the scenario, and put the folder in the graphics directory. The scenario will then use use the tiles when you run it. The computer will see the original tile name, and the players will see whatever color you assigned it.

This should expand your options considerably. However, you'll want to give players some way of 'decoding' what you did. Like, if you make two different background colors exactly the same and set the using formations to internal cooperation, players would assume units from different formations were capable of limited cooperation when in fact they couldn't cooperate at all.

_____________________________

I am not Charlie Hebdo

(in reply to kenwolfe)

Post #: 2

RE: How many unit icon colors per Force? - 11/25/2008 10:31:48 PM

Curtis Lemay

Posts: 12969
Joined: 9/17/2004
From: Houston, TX
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: kenwolfe

I have a question about assigning color schemes to units. It appears that there are a total of 110 color schemes to choose from: 22 background colors each with 5 possible icon colors. I have two questions:

1. Are these really the only combinations of icon and background colors we have to choose from?

2. If so, it appears that this means any particular "Force" (defined as all units with the same background color) cannot have more than five "Armies" (where an Army is defined as all units with the same color scheme... same color in both background and icon). Is that true?

I ask these questions because it appears to place some limitations on how I can set up support scopes.

Yes to both as far as support scopes go. Aesthetically, the actual colors can be edited via the Windows "Paint" program or equivalents. But that won't affect support levels.

(in reply to kenwolfe)

Post #: 3

RE: How many unit icon colors per Force? - 11/25/2008 10:36:22 PM

ColinWright

Posts: 2604
Joined: 10/13/2005
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

quote:

ORIGINAL: kenwolfe

I have a question about assigning color schemes to units. It appears that there are a total of 110 color schemes to choose from: 22 background colors each with 5 possible icon colors. I have two questions:

1. Are these really the only combinations of icon and background colors we have to choose from?

2. If so, it appears that this means any particular "Force" (defined as all units with the same background color) cannot have more than five "Armies" (where an Army is defined as all units with the same color scheme... same color in both background and icon). Is that true?

I ask these questions because it appears to place some limitations on how I can set up support scopes.

Yes to both as far as support scopes go. Aesthetically, the actual colors can be edited via the Windows "Paint" program or equivalents. But that won't affect support levels.

Yeah. Where it's of significance though is that one can keep some sort of visual identity distinguishing the two sides and the various nationalities whilst getting a full range of cooperation levels. Like, several identical browns and one has units that are all visually 'British' but where certain formations can't cooperate at all with units from other formations.

_____________________________

I am not Charlie Hebdo

(in reply to Curtis Lemay)

Post #: 4

RE: How many unit icon colors per Force? - 11/26/2008 2:53:34 PM

kenwolfe

Posts: 51
Joined: 3/12/2008
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: ColinWright

quote:

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

Yes to both as far as support scopes go. Aesthetically, the actual colors can be edited via the Windows "Paint" program or equivalents. But that won't affect support levels.

Yeah. Where it's of significance though is that one can keep some sort of visual identity distinguishing the two sides and the various nationalities whilst getting a full range of cooperation levels. Like, several identical browns and one has units that are all visually 'British' but where certain formations can't cooperate at all with units from other formations.

My concern was not with the visual appearance of the units but with the support scope. So this answers my question, thank you. I just wanted to confirm that there can only be up to five "armies" per "force" so that I can plan the OOB, color schemes and accompanying support scope levels accordingly.

Regards,

_____________________________

Ken Wolfe
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

(in reply to ColinWright)

Post #: 5

RE: How many unit icon colors per Force? - 11/27/2008 10:42:13 AM

vahauser

Posts: 1644
Joined: 10/1/2002
From: Texas
Status: offline

kenwolfe,

One of the first things I do when I get a new scenario is to go into the scenario editor and learn all of the support hierarchies. Once I know that, then the next thing I do is to typically re-color most (or all) of the units, especially for the side I'm playing (human vs. PO only). I usually don't mess around with the PO's units very much.

I re-color the units because usually I don't like the color schemes chosen by the scenario designer(s). This isn't meant to be a slam against the scenario designer(s), but I am getting older and my eyesight isn't what it used to be. So I change the unit colors to make the units more easily distinguishable to me, especially in stacks. I like to be able to just click on a stack and have a visual clue as to what kinds of units are in that stack without having to manually check the stack.

For example, I know that all units that have Free Support can be any background color I want. So I typically assign colors to Free Support units based on the kinds of units they are. In Directive 21, for instance, I changed all the German RR Engineers to dark green background. This really stands out in a stack of gray combat units, so I can immediately find out where my RR engineers are. I use a brighter green for bridging engineers for the same reason--namely, to be able to locate them quickly. Typically, I only re-color the most important units (RR engineers, bridging engineers, MP units, RR artillery, supply units, commandos, etc.) and I make them all a different background color so I can spot them fast.

Since there are only 22 background colors to choose from, and some of those are being used by the PO (and also by miscellaneous Allied units), then I am very very careful in my selection of background colors for my important specialist units so that none of them have the same background color. This means that only the most important specialist units get their own distinct background color. But this method works very well for me and greatly speeds play for me since I'm not constantly having to paw through stacks to figure out where my most important units are (Free Support only).

_____________________________

(in reply to kenwolfe)

Post #: 6

RE: How many unit icon colors per Force? - 11/27/2008 6:32:44 PM

ColinWright

Posts: 2604
Joined: 10/13/2005
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: vahauser

kenwolfe,

One of the first things I do when I get a new scenario is to go into the scenario editor and learn all of the support hierarchies.� Once I know that, then the next thing I do is to typically re-color most (or all) of the units, especially for the side I'm playing (human vs. PO only).� I usually don't mess around with the PO's units very much.

Another aspect of all this is that in design, one can make use of the difference between a mere change in icon color versus a mere change in background together with variations in the support level to obtain various effects.

For example, one can arrange things so that one formation has full cooperation with some but no cooperation at all with others, while another has only limited cooperation -- but limited cooperation with almost all. One can also arrange matters so that the infantry of a formation enjoys limited cooperation with other infantry, but the artillery does not (this is particularly useful if one wants to avoid ahistorical massings of all divisional artillery).

_____________________________

I am not Charlie Hebdo

(in reply to vahauser)

Post #: 7

RE: How many unit icon colors per Force? - 11/29/2008 10:15:14 PM

kenwolfe

Posts: 51
Joined: 3/12/2008
Status: offline

Thanks for the tip, that sounds like a very good idea. It's too bad there wasn't a feature like "highlight all railroad engineers" etc but changing the background color graphic would be just as good.

_____________________________

Ken Wolfe
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

(in reply to vahauser)

Post #: 8

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Norm Koger's The Operational Art Of War III >> Scenario Design >> How many unit icon colors per Force?

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