Wow, it looks good, but I doubt a lot of people will have a computer near them when playing A&A, and I think it’s not that hard keeping track of income in a game once you’re used to the set-ups, unit costs and territory values. And in PBEM, the programs used already take care of this. Still, nice program :)
Ow, if you like to write A&A-software, try this one: A&A anniversary battle simulator/calculator, that would fill a hole in the market ;)
I hope you realize I was just trying to give you some goodnatured ribbing. Mostly it just boils down to the fact that I’m just lazy. Although, I think it is very rare that something like this could become a standard from a grass-roots basis, you’re welcome to advocate and proselytize. The cost difference between good-enough and better is often hard to justify a change to the existing inertia. (I know, that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do.)
And I’m not even going to touch the argument about the environmental impact of the energy needed to put a few extra KB on disks and through the net. I’m pretty sure I’d do a better job reducing carbon emissions if I just ate one less burrito a month. :-D :-P
Lol, that’s right, but still, if it’s the right thing to do, plus you’re allowed to eat extra burrito’s, I wouldn’t doubt a second :-D
Is anyone else having trouble getting the latest files? I just tried to grab them and got an error from mediafire: “The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.”
Given the recent discussion, it would serve me right if this is because you’ve exceeded bandwidth limits or something similar.
Nope, no problems here… Poena Dei :-P
@Cmdr:
Hey, Holkann, I’d repost that response you had explaining all the files and how they function from the other thread to this one.
Allright, here e goes:
Here’s a quick overview of the files needed to make an ABattlemap module (the ones with an asterisk are the ones really necessary for a module, the other ones are very handy though):
map.bmp*:
is the visual image of the map that will be shown on the screen.
mapinfo.txt:
contains the name of the module (+ some extra info, but that I don’t understand)
start.aam:
contains the starting position of the units.
toolpieces.bmp*:
the amount of rows decides the amount of nations playing. The amount of columns decides the amount of units in play. The first column is regarded as the “flag”, or the token which decides which country owns what territory. The size of a row or column may not be altered, but new columns and rows may be added.
bigpieces.bmp:
essentially the same as toolpieces, but with a bigger size of the rows and columns
toolpieces.txt*:
lists the properties of each column/unit of toolpieces.bmp (or bigpieces.bmp). Those properties are: name, IPC-value, “navality” (= 1 if the column represents a naval unit, 0 if the column does not).
sektorinfo.bmp:
is a bmp-file representing the territories available on the map. Those territories are separated by black (RGB= 00 00 00) lines. To identify each different territory, the territories are filled with a different color, which’s RGB-value corresponds to its line numer in sektorinfo.txt. (note that this file must have the exact same size as map.bmp)
sektorinfo.txt:
lists the territories line by line with their properties. A typical line is like this:
France (Fra) : 01060100 0000016a 00000113 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
=> the first attribute is the name of the territory.
=> the second attribute (after the semicolon) is a block of hexadecimal numbers (which are actually 4 separate numbers):
01 means this is a land territory, 06 means it is worth 6 IPC’s, 01 means it is originally owned by the country represented by the first row of toolpieces.bmp, and 00 is simply redundant.
=> the third and fourth attribute show the place (in pixels) where the IPC-value of this territory should appear (hexadecimal!).
=> the fifth attribute is again 4 separate numbers, specifying “oil” or “convoy” properties:
00 is redundant, 00 indicates no country looses IPC’s if taken, 00 indicates this isn’t a convoy route, 00 means this isn’t an oil territory.
=> the rest are redundant.
sektorinfo.map:
is the version of sektorinfo.bmp the ABattlemap program can read.
sektorinfo.sek:
is the version of sektorinfo.txt the ABattlemap program can read.
Now, how do you make the .map and .sek files?
Your ABattlemap folder contains 2 files who manage this: csek.exe and b242map.exe. To use these however, you’ll need to use the console (the black screen with white letters in windows). The easiest way to do this, is to creat a folder on your C disk. For instance: c:\aafiles . You drop there both those exe’s, and sektorinfo.txt and sektorinfo.bmp. Run the console, and navigate to c:\aafiles (the command “cd…” let’s you go 1 folder up, the command “cd something” lets you go to the folder “something” if available in the folder you’re currently visiting with the console). If you’re in the right folder, type “csek.exe sektorinfo.txt sektorinfo.sek”, hit return, and the sektorinfo.sek will appear in the folder. “b242map.exe sektorinfo.bmp sektorinfo.map” does the same trick for sektorinfo.map.
Even so, I have a half-empty 500GB hard drive with an external 750GB hard drive. I don’t care if it takes an extra 300 kbytes for the files. The difference in download time is negligible. Disk space is cheap. Labor (i.e., my free time) isn’t!
And even if I did care, I have to download and install a new application that takes up several MB, in order to save 300kb? Somehow this doesn’t quite fit my definition of “better” :-D :-P :wink:
=> You’re looking at it the wrong way: you still have to unpack it at your hard drive, so it will always take up the full amount of space on your hard drive, no matter how good or bad it is compressed. Alright, for those of you not liking a little moralistic speech, skip to the next post:
The big advantage of compressing things (be it with winzip or whatever), lies in the nature of uploading/downloading/internet storage. Internet storage is not as cheap as a HD, and in Belgium we’ve got upload and download limits which limit our internet traffic. Besides that, every byte put on the net needs a server running 24/7 using up valuable energy.
Now, take the 200 kB, make it 200 MB, and figure out the time and energy saved by uploading 200 MB instead of 600 MB. If I could save 67% of my time uploading stuff, this easily makes up for downloading 10 MB for the 7-Zip program. En plus, I get to down/upload 67% more if everyone would use 7-Zip. So that’s why I’m advocating everyone to use it, even for small files, so people are used to the program when the need arises. I know for some people, it doesn’t matter how big their files are, but to other people (for instance with a telephone connection), it does. Besides, In these times of environmentalism and economic crisis, don’t waste energy/money needlessly by putting huge files on the net where small would also suffice. Why do you think this board limits its files to 256 kB?
See it like this: riding 1 km with a suv doesn’t require a lot more gasoline than riding 1 km with a small hybrid car. But drive 1000 km, and everyone agrees the small hybrid is cheaper. So promote the hybrid, not the suv.
rar isn’t time limited: the only thing you get when the time limit has passed is a pop-up the time limit has passed: the program still works fine.
But I’ll put on a zip version too, only to show it is worse (as in: takes up more space) than rar :p
@Gnarl536:
I recommend 7-zip.
See www.7-zip.org
You can decompress rar-files with it. The compression in 7-zip-format (.7z) may even be better than in .rar:
So HolKann’s files are compressed to 541.641 Bytes in .rar. The same files compressed in .7z only take 221.015 Bytes.And: 7-zip is free and Open Source!
Hmm, interesting… Allright, WinRar is officially abolished in favor of 7-zip, tnx :)
@Cmdr:
What file controls that, Holkann? I’ve kind of edited my map considerably and it’s a continual work in progress, same with my toolpieces. I’m trying to make ABattlemap prettier so we can get the art addicts off TripleA and return them to the one true path of Battlemap!
Lol, I second that :D
Now, as for the file used to change names and values of territories: it is sektorinfo.txt/.sek. But to understand how it works, you need to understand the whole program. I’ll give an overview of all files and their function in an ABattlemap module, but it’s not easy, so be warned:
map.bmp:
is the visual image of the map that will be shown on the screen.
mapinfo.txt:
contains the name of the module (+ some extra info, but that I don’t understand)
start.aam:
contains the starting position of the units.
toolpieces.bmp:
the amount of rows decides the amount of nations playing. The amount of columns decides the amount of units in play. The first column is regarded as the “flag”, or the token which decides which country owns what territory. The size of a row or column may not be altered, but new columns and rows may be added.
bigpieces.bmp:
essentially the same as toolpieces, but with a bigger size of the rows and columns
toolpieces.txt:
lists the properties of each column/unit of toolpieces.bmp (or bigpieces.bmp). Those properties are: name, IPC-value, “navality” (= 1 if the column represents a naval unit, 0 if the column does not).
sektorinfo.bmp:
is a bmp-file representing the territories available on the map. Those territories are separated by black (RGB= 00 00 00) lines. To identify each different territory, the territories are filled with a different color, which’s RGB-value corresponds to its line numer in sektorinfo.txt.
sektorinfo.txt:
lists the territories line by line with their properties. A typical line is like this:
France (Fra) : 01060100 0000016a 00000113 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
=> the first attribute is the name of the territory.
=> the second attribute (after the semicolon) is a block of hexadecimal numbers (which are actually 4 separate numbers):
01 means this is a land territory, 06 means it is worth 6 IPC’s, 01 means it is originally owned by the country represented by the first row of toolpieces.bmp, and 00 is simply redundant.
=> the third and fourth attribute show the place (in pixels) where the IPC-value of this territory should appear (hexadecimal!).
=> the fifth attribute is again 4 separate numbers, specifying “oil” or “convoy” properties:
00 is redundant, 00 indicates no country looses IPC’s if taken, 00 indicates this isn’t a convoy route, 00 means this isn’t an oil territory.
=> the rest are redundant.
sektorinfo.map:
is the version of sektorinfo.bmp the ABattlemap program can read.
sektorinfo.sek:
is the version of sektorinfo.txt the ABattlemap program can read.
Now, how do you make the .map and .sek files?
Your ABattlemap folder contains 2 files who manage this: csek.exe and b242map.exe. To use these however, you’ll need to use the console (the black screen with white letters in windows). The easiest way to do this, is to creat a folder on your C disk. For instance: c:\aafiles . You drop there both those exe’s, and sektorinfo.txt and sektorinfo.bmp. Run the console, and navigate to c:\aafiles (the command “cd…” let’s you go 1 folder up, the command “cd something” lets you go to the folder “something” if available in the folder you’re currently visiting with the console). If you’re in the right folder, type “csek.exe sektorinfo.txt sektorinfo.sek”, hit return, and the sektorinfo.sek will appear in the folder. “b242map.exe sektorinfo.bmp sektorinfo.map” does the same trick for sektorinfo.map.
More info: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=11223.new#new
Also, there are some .txt files in your ABattlemap folder, those are handy too, but they are in German.
Allright, I hope this answered your question, but it probably is all quite confusing (it took me a while before I got it myself, just started out file by file, and got it all in the end). Any questions, shoot, but plz read this overview and the link I gave, so you’ve got something to “hang things up to” (as in: if you understand A, you’ll relate it to B and C without needing any help).
Yes, the forum screws them up. They are available with the AA50-modules though, you can download the modules here:
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=12873.0.
Good luck!
Well I guess I could mention that in the NOs North West Europe is den and in the hover it is nwe or that Borneo is brn in one place and bor in another
but I think those are small enough issues to let slide. :-D
Blast, you did brake it (even though just a little 8-) ). And it’s minor, true, but fixed nonetheless (life would be much easier if I wasn’t a perfectionist in some ways ;) ).
also ukr is listed twice when hovering Germany’s NO… again no big deal
Check!
@Cmdr:
So the sea zones and the super submarine upgrade has been repaired?
Yes, just as the double Ukr and Bor/Brn or Den/Nwe.
Hmm, owkey, we both agree it’s not great, but I still think it is the absolute worst tech by far. War bonds are pretty good, simply needed a decent tech to compare adv art to to show its worthlessness. Ow, I just saw your thread on fixing subs, not gonna argue with you about those for now 8-)
@Cmdr:
War Bonds arn’t bad either, really. They are like an ANTI-Rocket technology, which is a neat concept.
=> Isn’t that advanced factories? (War bonds is the 1d6 of extra income)
@Cmdr:
Advanced Artillery: At first glance I was all over this technology! 1 Artillery would increase the offensive punch of two infantry by +1 each. On a purely cost evaluation basis, this means that for 10 IPC you can have 6 Defensive Punch and 6 Offensive Punch in 3 units vs having the same in 2 units (2 armor.)
However, after getting quite a few games under my belt, I’m not really hungry for this tech. It’s still good, mind you, but it’s limited in use for everyone.
My guess would be, this is best for Russia and maybe for Germany, it’s very limited in power for England and America and almost useless for Japan and Italy. (Still useful, just almost useless.)
Hmm, you have to compare after upgrade / before upgrade: 10 IPC’s after = 6/6 and 3 hits. 10 IPC’s before = 5/6 and 3 hits. Now tell me, is this a good technology? Equal to war bonds, even for Russia?
No, it is not. It is bad. I’d prefer every tech above this one. All it does, is giving you 2 attack extra every Russian turn (assuming you’re buying only land units). War bonds gives you 1 attack, 2 defense, 1 hit every turn (3,5 IPC’s ~ 1 inf), excluding flexibility of what units to purchase (war bonds let’s you choose, adv art is only good when buying art).
About super subs: some day I’m gonna write a paper about the use of subs in AA50, they’re difficult to play correctly, but they’re VERY strong, especially in the pacific. Whenever it comes to a Pacific war, subs decide the outcome. Or super subs ;) But ofcourse, don’t use them to defend in small numbers, that’s simply using them wrong. Use VAST numbers (they’re butt cheap!), like 6 subs every turn with USA or Japan or Germany, and don’t be bothered by DD’s: one DD can only kill one sub when you spread your subs out, and a counter sub strike is sure to follow (with the great attack value of subs :) ).
uh… a few more minor errors i think. I think the symbol for Trans-Jordan when hovering Trans-Jordan is Trj, but when hovering Italian NO next to it it is Tra.
the chart in the bottom right lists fighter’s movement as 4/5*… it should be 4/6*
a bit more significant… I think the labels for “Black Sea Seazone (BLA/Z16)” and “East Mediterranean SZ (EMD/Z15)” are swapped. For a while there I was confused why Italy should need to control the Black Sea for its NO but the the East Med! Thanks!
It is a very keen eye you have! But you missed the sub’s attack upgrade wasn’t shown :p Anyway, things are fixed.
sets off to try and break it :-D
crosses fingers and hopes it holds :roll:
@Cmdr:
Null Perspiration Holkann! All I did was beatification, you did the hard work of getting it coded right!
Lol, needed wikipedia to understand this sentence; you’re welcome :). Who did you make a Saint btw?
Allright, work’s done, updated version in 1st post of this thread (since I’m expecting no more major changes :) ).
And while I may be seeming like a pain, I have a lot of experience modding games and such in the past and am trying to provide all the trouble shooting I can so that a finalized version without bugs can be provided as soon as possible.
No, you’re completely right, this is exactly what this thread is for, so tnx for the feedback :)
It is an issue I am having in a game against someone else. Their posted maps have the described attributes. I am not sure why this is. I would assume Holkann moved the “territories” that control this when making the new sektor files. And if he did so those icons should be in the correspondingly named territories on my map.
What I think has happened is that you used your old start.aam file with the latest AA50 module files. This resulted in your starting flags being misplaced, as the board had changed its layout. Remember that the unit icons in an .aam file only remember their position on the screen (as in xth pixel on the yth row), completely independent from the .bmp and .sek files, which define the appearance and behaviour of the map (e.g. territory z is green and belongs to USA) (while actually those 2 files are also completely independent).
Your opponent though had the latest .aam file, and didn’t change it, so hence the confusion.
Could this explain the situation you had?
@Cmdr:
I don’t have to email them, they are map files so the site will let me upload them.
Just change the file name to start (in other words, delete the 1941 and 1942) when you paste them into the appropriate file folders so they over write the old ones and all the pieces should be in neat, orderly, columns.
Yet another tnx are in place :)
2 minor issues. When I load a map made with the map made with the prior chart at the bottom any icons there are showing up in those spaces.
This I don’t really get. The areas are moved a bit because of bigger tech boxes and a unit reference chart, so that may be why your icons are not in the right spot there. (I’m only guessing what your sentence meant though :roll:)
I have seen some maps with Japan with 18 IPCs in '41 this is incorrect as they start with 17. I can not double check this as I replace my start files with ones that have the unit neatly stacked as opposed to scattered pell mell. Jenn has some nice start files she could e-mail you for the final release version.
The 18 IPC’s are back to 17, and neatly stacked units would be quite nice, that’s true. Could you e-mail me your files (username at gmail dot com)? Big begging eyes mode Or Jen, would you be so kind?
I just noticed the '42 scenario still has the turn order text from '41.
Damn, at one point I thought “don’t forget the .bmp file for '42!” :D
Owkey, job finished, you can download it here.
@Cmdr:
Note that I put it in the same general location as the one printed on the game board itself.
I did replace it to the lower left corner of the board, because it made the borders between the seazones disappear.
Also added to the download are the necessary SektorInfo files, so other people can create their own versions of the map without going through the hustle of creating these files by hand. Bear in mind though that it’s not a good thing if new maps contain radical changes from other maps, because then people with different maps will have a hard time knowing where the units are placed when playing against eachother.
Edit: also posted a .zip-file without the SektorInfo files in the first post of this thread, since I think the map’s fairly finished now :)
@Emperor:
Shouldn’t the starting map Show Japan’s cash as 17 not 18?
You’re right, will be corrected.
@Emperor:
How about a chart showing unit cost?
@Cmdr:
I just wanted to put the price charts on there. With so many flavors of Axis and Allies and different unit abilities and prices and everything, it can get hard to keep straight. So I fixed it up a bit.
I’ve got nothing against a price chart :) But since there’s enough room left at the bottom, I’ll add it there.
And the tech thingies should be bigger indeed.
Gonna place a new version today, with the suggested changes…
Well so far looks like I am the only one this is not working for. As soon as I minimize battlemap the program crashes.
@Cmdr:
I have not tried to minimize it. I know it crashes when you play around in the new area too long, so save often when using that area.
There was a little bug, sry :oops:
Should be fixed now (the .MAP file wasn’t neatly sync’d with the .bmp).
:cry: Keep the Hammer & sickle!!! :lol:
They are there, you just have to have a really good look ;)
Ow, and thanks for all the help you guys gave: toolpieces, bigpieces, tech drawings, VC counters… Some thing missing though is a nice photoshopped .bmp, kinda like IL’s, but I’m lacking the time and skills for now.
However, if you like any new counters/things added/things changed to the map, now is the perfect time to ask :)
As soon as I get your blessings, I’m gonna make a 42 module and put them in the first post.
It’s not a good idea to post a non-final version with this much changes, because some people would have the changes, others wouldn’t, and both would have to upgrade to the final version sooner or later, making pbm a bit more cumbersome. So for now I’m posting a “work in progress” version here: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=e0d3928ee746fd2b91b20cc0d07ba4d2fc8df7fa75a88935 (obsolete, for latest version: see first post of this thread).
If you guys got any suggestions/comments, go ahead, I’ll try to explain why I did stuff this or that way, but maybe some other way would be better, so go ahead.
As for the map being to big: I’m aiming at a resolution fitting 16801050 under a windows machine (so without a scrollbar at the side or bottom). Currently, the .bmp file is 1560960, but I don’t know if that’s too big for 1680*1050 to fit…
'bout the turn counter: they don’t hurt anyone, if you don’t like them, simply don’t use them ;)
'bout everyone being used to Saudi as a bank: I’m used to a bike, but I wouldn’t mind having a car. And if I really wish, I can still use my bike whilst having a car ;)
Ow, I also adjusted some other stuff, like the flag markers (sry Tim :evil: ) and the little isles.
'nyhow, give it a try, and plz tell what you think of it :)
@Cmdr:
Doesn’t change the fact we need someone to paste a segment on the bottom of the map (or top, but bottom is less annoying) with charts you can place flags on to represent which of the 12 technologies you have and possibly a tracker chart for victory cities as well.
Reference the AARe map for an idea what I am talking about. (If I had a clue what image file needed to be altered, I’D do it myself! It’s just a matter of copy/pasting it from AARe to AA50 and altering the text!)
I was thinking about something like this too, maybe also adding IPC counters for each nation (so Arabia can be kept clean), and a turn counter possibly… Anyhow, if you could adjust the map.bmp file in one of the modules, and mail it to me ( <forum name=“”>at gmail dot com), I’ll generate sektor files and put things together and update the mediafire. a44bigdog pm’d me about this too, and hopefully he can send an adjusted map.bmp too.
Here is my Big Pieces edit with a damaged factroy in the place of the Chinese Factory. Maybe someone will like it.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=d15029b5f55b2eddd2db6fb9a8902bda
Since the bigpieces also need a damaged factory token, your file will be implemented, tnx :)</forum>
Are you sure? I thought it went back to the original controller of the “liberated” AA gun…
