PlayTesters Needed for my Mod

[KG_Wiking]

I need playtesters who will start playing with the mod I am making for CC5.
At this point I have not done too much other than Alter the team size and change a few teams.

I am working on making the rosters complete, with regards to the battlegroups and starting to mess around with the sounds.

I don't have a PLN yet, and am not even close.

KG Wiking

[KG_Wiking]

A good day with regards to progress in the mod.

Was able to add the following:
Added Rank Submod
Added New Sounds and Music
US Teams are pretty well set.
Increased performance of AI for GC.
Completed trial runs for the following battle groups:
4th Division (ALL)
9th Division (All)
79th Division (ALL)

Found some bugs with the mortar teams and was able to fix them.

Have been messing around with the team size and am going to go with 8 man base teams. Basically I'm adding a man to each team.

Some of the "specialty" teams are not fitting in as well as I'd like, but that's what the learning curve is for.

Am pretty happy with the performance of some of the new teams.
The Squad with resident AT has done nicely. Certainly gives the zook a better chance to fire when they have that support by them. I also am seeing that they stay away from the group a la flamethrowers.

The AB team with a 30 cal MG attached to it is purely devastating. I need to redo the ammo though as they carry 1200 rounds or so, and I'd like that to be about 300.

I was watching the team pretty closely and liked the set up times for the gun.

Not sure if I like the Germans having so many MG's. I may go with a bit less MG's in the Grenadiere teams and maybe aid a bit more Anti tank with Panzerfausts. Maybe split it up some.

Mortar batteries are just wonderful. They really lay the rounds and smoke down. Makes assaults and/or withdrawls feasible.

Still haven't added the support elements the way I'd like to, but that will probably be on of the later things that I did.

I'll be posting a link for the changes and would really like some feedback from you all.


KG Wiking

[KG_Wiking]

More progress made
Completed the force pools for US and Germans, but this will likley change as I am still editting some of the data.

Added some new weapons for new squad/types.

Will be adding many panzerjaeger teams with panzerfaust 30 and faust patrone. Probably some with Anti tank rifles too.

Added Gammon Bombs to ABN forces too.

All in all coming along nicely

KG Wiking

[KG_Panzerschreck]

what area/battle/timeframe is your mod based on?

[KG_Wiking]

For the INITIAL TESTING I'm going with the base campaign.

For the mod it will EITHER be the Drive to St. Lo OR Operation Cobra.

The nice thing is that basically these operations were sequential with St. Lo being captured on 7/16 and then allowing Cobra to follow. What I am doing in making a simple rewrite of the game is familiarizing myself with the tools for making a mod.

As far as map a few of the stock maps will be able to be used as the areas around Perriers were not under US control until Mid July and were actually the first part of COBRA, A heavy drive along the St Lo - Perriers Road.

Mostly I want to do this trial mod as a test baloon to see how the teams I've generated work. Admittedly I may have gone a bit overboard in tinkering with the AB units. If the mod features mostly St. Lo only the 82nd played a role, and only until about July 7th 1944. Probably they would be an attachment to the 79th Division and not be in the Reinforcement Pool.

As far as maps I'm starting to learn how to use the BTD editor and edit in starting points and routes. I don't plan on making ANY maps myself. I simply don't have the skill to do so. I want to use the maps from the old West Front Mod. A lot of really fine maps with many opportunities for in tight fighting.

I am making some really solid progress. The line force pools are DONE for both Germans and US - of course some tinkering will take place. One thing that is great about the reinforcement is you can really change the type of teams that enter into the fray. As an example, in the Contenin Wolverines were NOT used by any US group until June 10th. However, they were very quickly adopted by nearly all units as the standard AT weapon in the AT Company - even moreso than the 57mm and standard 3" gun.

Another thing I am doing, which I feel is significantly different from other mods, is the quality of the infantry units drops rapidly when you hit that old reinforce buttong. All Line troops degrade to Green troops. Sure, you get a whole bunch of them, but how good will they be is the challenge of reinforcing. You get replenished armor, but they also start from scratch. The biggest however is in infantry.

I felt it was too easy to reinforce and voila you have a ready to go command that will not miss a beat. Green troops are not easy to manage. They are just coming from basic training and this shows in their cohesiveness.

So, while the mod is in play test and I'm hopefully getting feedback I will clone the data files and start work on St. Lo/ Cobra.

This is what I've done thus far:
Changed the splash music
Changed the sounds from stock to a modified file
Changed the voice overs from stock to modified
Totally rewritten the composition for all US and German teams. Some are brand new to the game - maybe found in other mods - others are same teams but different sizes.
Some of the changes that come to mind are:
Added Platoon Commander for US and German by adding PLT HQ for US and Kpfuhrergruppe for German
It was a matter basically of taking away a man and some exp for these junior units.
Added Pathfinder Units - a very fast and highly able recon team that can double as a command unit due to the high level of commanders and nco's in it. Four man team.
Made all the teams larger - almost every infantry team has had a man or two added. The half squads are truly half squads.
Reserve teams are now considered to be the ad hoc teams from previous units. These teams have some good exp but their morale may be a bit shaky.
Added a larger amount and variety of AT weapons at the squad level. Most German squads will have a panzerfaust 30 or faustpatrone lying around if that tank or vehicle get too close. Same with bazookas, there are more of them and there are some infantry around them. I made the bazooka soldiers as well as the fausts tend to drift away from the other soldiers in formation to allow some room for backblast.
Added GB39 which was still used by many static units as part of the beach and other units teams.
Took out some MG 42 s and added quite a few MG 34s which were more often in use by the Germans on the Contenin.
Changed the experience of the 82nd from the 101. The 82nd with some combat time were a bit better prepared than the 101.
Tried to emulate the mixed bag effect of some of the German units by reallocating some of the team mixes.

What do I have left to do?
Not too many things. I'm going to add Rhino Tanks for use in July as that was when they started to appear. The icon is being worked on at this time.

Trying to work on an icon for Pupchen gun. Fired an 88 schreck rocket about 400 meters by using a longer tube that was mounted on wheels.

I'm redoing the mortars a great deal. The time to target is 1 second in game, that is far too fast. So I'm delaying the flight time to 3 to 4 seconds. Ive also gone to a battery philosophy, so a mortar team has two or three tubes, not just one. Of course there are many less available for you to use.

The data will be done in about a week, and then I have to make a plug in for it. I think this is the first mod made by a KG member for CC5, so I'm hoping that there will some interest not just in the CC5 regulars, but maybe across the clan.

I have to work about 15 to 20 weapons and I should be done. I'm hoping to have a playable mod by the weekend with a plug in. I guess I need to hunt down Brandenburg :)

KG Wiking

[KG_Wiking]

A setback.....
I wrote a pln and it installed.......YIPPEEE!!!
NOT!

It crashed and deleted files. Thank goodness I have two back ups, so I didn't lose anything. I know that I'm close on the install script but have to look at it with a fine toothed comb......

Will work on data today concentrating on mortars and two aspects of them.
1. Accuracy.....a mortar shot is in base file as accurate as a rifleman.....now that is crazy. Expect a good deal of change there. Will move the base from 398 to probably 33.

2. Delay. The game gives the time to target of 10 with each unit being 1/10th of a second. Result are instantaneous mortar shots landing one second later. A more realistic setting will be 30 or 40. I may even go with 35 to split the difference.

3. Mortars and guns/light vehicles. Mortars have a base penetration of 15 my plan is to raise the top armor of most guns, particularly larger calibre guns and open topped vehicles to give them a fighting chance. However, the inaccuracy of the initial rounds may help softer vehicles run for cover a bit faster. We'll have to see.

I think the changes will help attackers a bit, but don't be worried. The defenders will also have some new tricks up their sleeves.

KG Wiking

[KG_Panzerschreck]

good luck with all your hard work. btw, i have a neat collection of odd/rare/not commonly seen ww2 pics, so if you want to change the pics in the battle group screens, let me know what type of weapon/inf type pic you want and ill hook you up with what i have.

[KG_Wiking]

Thanks Schreck, I will take you up on that.

Todays progress.......
Worked on the mortars and guns and tidied up a few teams.
Still a lot of work to do on forcepools.

Oh......I have a working plugin.
If you want it send me a message on MSN or when I'm on TS.

KG Wiking

[KG_Wiking]

NOt a whole lot of progress the past two days.

I did upload the file to the server, it is the Beyond the Beach file.

Even though this is the base game I wanted to see if I could get a working mod with the base game and get the kinks out of it. After that is done I'll start working on the maps. The battle groups will not be too bad since many of them are the same as in base game and GJS.

I am having some problems editting the battle groups as QClone is tedious for this and BGEditor is just not an overly friendly interface to use.

Some of the changes that I like are the AT Guns and AA Guns. When you get hit by an 88 or 7.5 PAK you know it. One shot, one kill. An 88 will take out about anything on the first shot; they are truly lethal. Mortars are delayed, and that may need to be reduced a bit as they are very tardy.

So, I know this isn't fully done, but I'm asking you all to try to download it and play it. Let me know what you like and what you don't like. Be candid be honest. Also let me know of game bugs. Look at the teams and look at the weapons they carry. IF you think something is wrong, let me know.

I welcome criticism, but kindly avoid being an a**hole in your comments. Constructive criticism is welcomed and appreciated. Comments like this thing sucks are not helpful as they don't give a basis.

Thanks.

KG Wiking

[KG_Panzerschreck]

i really wish i had more time. my disease is really kicking my ass lately and what free gaming time i do get is taken up by CM.

[KG_Wiking]

Loki - Thanks for testing it out. Please make a list of any questions that you may have or things that you think are wrong.


Schreck - Take care of yourself! This is just a game, but thank you for the thoughts!

KG Wiking

[KG_Wiking]

The Mod is ready for full testing.

The data is complete.
The mod follows a mostly historical flow, but there is the addition of 17th RECCE and 21 PZ Division to give the Germans a bit more punch.

Reinforcement is in for the US only.

There are a number of new maps. You will need to DL the REG EXTRA map pack and put them into your Maps folder.

THe icons are all up to date, and as far as I can tell there are no problems.

I think this mod offers a happy medium between some of the other mods that are out there. It is obviously I think better than the base game. It has some of the nice maps of the SAS mod, as well as a few more, but the British teams are not in play. The mod is an attempt to be as historical with the one caveat being the aforementioned non historical units being present. I have tried to give both sides enough to work with. THe US has armor in every battle group except for the 82nd. Even the 101st gets a couple of Stuarts compliments of the 4th Infantry Division.

The mod that most of us at KG played was the SAS mod, and I tried to keep some of those better aspects while trying to correct a few of the complaints. It will be hard for the US to throw eight tanks at once at the Germans, simply because the armor is split by the reinforcment tab. I have also beefed up the AT guns for all. If you get hit by a PAK 7.5 you'll know it. If you get hit by a PAK 8.8 they'll be sending a letter home. On the flip side I have drastically reduced the number of schrecks that are floating around. Some have a large cache of them, but some have few if any. However, there are many more panzerfausts - including patrones, 30 and 60's - than there were in the original game.

Another change is the size of the teams. They are larger. Most teams are increased by at least one man. Basic infantry squads now have seven or eight members. Half teams have five or six. There are two types of command units for platoon and company level commanders. Experience of these units is shown. Platoon commanders are not nearly as good as their company counterparts. Reserve units are not necessarily throw - away units as they had been in the past. AD Hoc an ERSATS units are usually very experinced, but are coming from reformed units - hence their morale is a bit shaky. Green units may not have experience, but typically their morale is a bit better. The typical standard game unit had little chance to gain experience as they would break at the first crack of a rifle.

Another aspect of change are the support modules. The mortars now come in batteries which gives them a good deal more punch. The Airborne units do not come into the game with heavy equipment and will have a hard time scratching to stay alive for the first few battles. Most of the battles with the Airborne units are meeting engagements - there are two exceptions - one where the US starts out in a corner and has to scratch out a toehold to stay alive - and another where the ABN has trapped an FJ unit against the river, and the FJ must try to break out of the 101's vice.

I also have changed the reinforcement table slightly, particularly in the north to have the Germans be able to get a unit that may help with a northern breakout.

Now, what I really need from KG is for you to help me out by loading the mod and playing it. I would like to release this mod soon to the general public and feel it would be a real shame if no one in KG played the first CC5 mod made by one of her members. I'm not asking you to play it 24/7 but to try a few of the battles and operations would be wonderful.

I would also like if you could post constructive criticism and hopefully some positive feedback.

If the mod is well received by those who are playing with it, I will release it to the public. I would like to do so within a week or two. If that happens I will start the full blown mod of Beyond the Beach - St. Lo to COBRA.


Thanks

KG Wiking

[KG_Panzerschreck]

congrats man, sounds like everything is moving along well. dangit im gonna have to free up some time to play this thing...

[KG_Wiking]

THe mod is being uploaded to the server and will be on CSO and CCSeries also. I can't take the pressure :)

I think it will be a fun mod.

KG Wiking

[KG_Wiking]

Regextra maps are added to the server. You'll need about 15 of them.

http://www.closecombatseries.net/CCS/modules.php?name=coppermine&cat=12790

Screenshots.

KG Wiking

[KG_CrimsonTrooper]

I tried to download the maps but it would not accept my login.... I am using the one I have always used and it won't let me create a new account using the same email address... I sent an email to their email support and hopefully they will be able to resolve the issue soon.

[KG_Wiking]

The maps are also on our server.

KG Wiking

[KG_Wiking]

Mod has been getting good feedback from those who are playing.

Sadly CSO has not replied to my request to host the mod and ccseries has a bad file on tap, so I've had to give them the file via the back door and also through my own FTP...

Here is a possible screen for the splash that will be out in a short time...
http://habla5.tripod.com/main_screen.jpg

KG Wiking

[KG_Wiking]

Darn Tripod......
http://www.geocities.com/kg_wiking/main_screen.jpg
KG Wiking

[KG_Panzerschreck]

not to sound like im bitching at you dude, but you need to resize that pic. if your gonna post pics they cant be any larger than 500 x 500 pix. if you want to post large, and dont want to lose quality, host on your FTP, then link with a hyper link.

that being said it looks great!

[KG_Wiking]

Did not know that.
KG Wiking