Wild Bill
Posts: 6821
Joined: 4/7/2000 From: Smyrna, Ga, 30080 Status: offline
|
Calvin, this is for you. I would have sent it to you , but you did not include your E-Mail address. The unzipped files go into your scenario subdirectory.
This is how you manage your campaigns:
The Problem to Avoid
When you load a a zipped campaign into SPWAW, \Scen subdirectory, (an edited one, like ours), it occupies a certain space. When you load another of the same type, it overwrites the old one. In other words, you cannot have two of this type of campaign open in SP: WAW at the same time.
There is one master file that controls all the scenarios in one campaign. It is called usercamp.dat. Each campaign has the same master file name. It is the only one the game will recognize. The game was originally designed by SSI so that the owner of the game could design campaigns on his computer and they would all be saved into this one file.
Because, however, we are doing campaigns on separate computers, we cannot access the same usercamp.dat file. Each campaign we create has its own usercamp.dat file. Again, if you load an edited campaign into the game and one is already there, it will load right over the top of it and sometimes mix the scenarios of the two campaigns.
Resolving the Matter
To avoid this problem, here is what we will do.
1. There should be a separate folder in the game called “Campaigns.” If not, you’ll need to make one.
2. In this new folder, keep zip files of all your campaigns. For example, in mine I currently have two zip files:
· tunisiacampSPWAW.zip
· eaglesSPWAW.zip
3. When I am ready to play a campaign, I first make sure that there are no campaign scenarios in the \scen subdirectory. You will recognize these because they all begin with UC. I remove them and also remove the usercamp.dat file.
3. Now I open the zip file from the SPWAW\Campaigns directory. For example, eaglesSPWAW.zip has seven files: six scenario files and one master file.
4. I load these into the SPWAW\scen subdirectory. I keep the zip file intact, right where it was. That way when I need to remove the Eagle campaign, I can simply delete it. I have another copy still in my SPWAW\Campaigns folder in that same zip file from which I extracted the files earlier.
5. So I delete the campaign files from SPWAW\Scen (remember, they begin with uc) and the usercamp.dat from the \Scen subdirectory, but NOT the \Campaigns subdirectory.
6. Now I can go to the SPWAW\Campaigns subdirectory and open tunisiacampSPWAW.zip and put those files into the game. Until there is a better way, this is how we will have to do it. After you have finished playing you can remove those files from your \Scen subdirectory. Remember, you still have the campaign tucked away in the \Campaigns subdirectory in the tunisiacampSPWAW.zip file.
By using this method you’ll be able to receive and store new campaigns as they are produced for the game with no danger of them being mixed or corrupted. Just keep a zip file of each campaign in your Campaigns File folder and open them whenever you are ready to play.
------------------
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games
_____________________________
In Arduis Fidelis Wild Bill Wilder Independent Game Consultant
|