I'm working on a total makeover of the target set in SPAW.

Part of the project involves moving the frontlines around for a couple of reason:

1 - I never liked the idea of having three SPAW scenarios, one for default, one for online play and one for the floatplanes. I'm going to try to combine the needs all three scenarios by moving the frontlines and some of the aircraft carriers. We'll see how it goes. At some point I'll need input from the online players but not just yet.

2 - I wanted to replicate a beach assault. I tried it in ETO2015 but I didn't know as much about the TMOD's dat files so I gave up on including it. Now that I have a better grasp of the data I got it to work for Guadalcanal.

Here's a few screenshots to give you an idea:
The invasion fleet-

Jap fortifications in the foreground, Allied landing forces in the background-


BTW, those puffs of brown smoke are shell blasts If you add this setting to the [EAW] section of your ini file you will get this affect ----- GroundBattle=1

Also, there is a date trigger in the TMOD.dat files. It was originally meant to turn on the V-1 launch ramps only in 1944-45 but it can be used to turn on and off any TMOD in any year. Meaning, this invasion fleet will only show up in 1942. In all other years this is Allied territory so there's no need for an invasion fleet off the coast of Guadalcanal.

In addition to the invasion scenario I've produced a number of TMOD's that are elevated thus allowing for all sorts of new add-on targets attached to existing ones, like AA guns, carrier deck aircraft and deck cargo:







One of the great things about the target editor is you can magnify the terrain down to a couple of feet, thus putting TMOD's exactly where you want them. For instance, here's a radar tower at the very top of a mountain peak:


I have a long way to go. So far I have most of the targets in the Solomon chain and all the fleets upgraded to the new standard but that's only about 1/4 of the total number of targets.

I'll post updates periodically as I come up with other inventive ways to use the vastly superior modifications available in the 1.6 development line.

Imagine Iwo Jima

Well done- looking forward to testing it

Thanks, Jel.

FWIW, the editor changes you made are working perfectly.

One relatively small problem with damaged TMODs, otherwise the upgrade is going well.

Check my post at the Gen.

Great work, Ray. You chaps continue to do great and innovative work with this venerable sim. I eagerly await the final outcome.

One little question. Is the GroundBattle option simply a binary one, in other words a choice between 0 (off) and 1 (on)? I had assumed it was based on a scale between 1 and 10.

I'm pretty sure it's binary but maybe Jel can confirm this.

Great idea and looking good.

AFAIK It is binary (on or off)
I will use this post to add some info re-multiplayer games, as the frontline explosions setting is relevant to them.
Multiplayer games run in real time. Other than for testing in "host only" mode there is no time acceleration.
Many of us enjoy taking off, having a battle, landing at a friendly base to re-arm and re-fuel, returning to the fray and eventually returning to base.
In order for this to be possible the friendly and enemy bases need to be close to the front line so that the flying distances are short and the players are not flying for an hour or more in order to reach the battle.
This is why I modified SPAW by re-positioning the carriers so that they could be selected as bases for multiplayer games. It is not realistic, but because of the real time constraint it was necessary.

I did a similar thing in my beta version of "The Western Front" with the 256x160 tilemap, and it was even more critical given the slow speed of the WW1 planes.
The effect of this was that ground explosions occurred on the airfields, because they were close to the front line. Hence we devised a way of turning them off for multiplayer games.
This was done by having a file named "NoFL_Explode" in the theatre folder. The exe checks for the presence of this file, and if it is found then the frontline explosions do not occur, even if they are set to "on" in the "eaw.ini". This means that players do not need to edit their "eaw.ini" files.
My "NoFL_Explode" file was a "New text document" with no text and saved as "NoFL_Explode" without an extender. The exe does not read the file, it just checks for its presence.

Jel

This invasion scenario is ideal for multiplayer games, especially if allied carriers are positioned appropriately. The Japanese planes can fly from land bases close to the frontline

Correction.
I just checked Ralf's code for routines where the "GroundBattle" setting in the "eaw.ini" is used and I found this:



So the GroundBattle value is not binary.
The ImpactTimer is 31920 divided by the GroundBattle value, so the higher the GroundBattle value the shorter the ImpactTimer.

The ImpactTimer is constrained to a minimum value of 3550, so the GroundBattle setting can be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8. Anything higher sets it to the default minimum of 3550.

Jel

Ok, thanks for clearing up the ground battle issue.

I moved the front lines and the carriers so that they're closer together yet still make some historical sense.

In addition, I ran the front line right vertically though the middle of Guadalcanal which gives the Allies and the Japanese an airfield to fly from. In fact, when you take off you can see the enemy field in the distance.

I think this might make for some interesting interactions.

Ray, as a modder you should really use the host only system to actually try your theatre in multiplayer mode.
Here is an example of what you need to do. I had Moggy's Swiss theatre loaded


When the exe runs click on multiplayer, and when the next screen appears move the mouse so the cursor is on "Internet TCP/IP..." which will be in red when the mouse cursor is over it:

Click the mouse and a small IP selector screen appears. When it does just hit your "Enter" key.

Doing that will return you to the previous screen, but this time the "New" button is activated at the bottom left:

Click it

The parameters screen will appear. You can use it to make the mission settings. You need to have decided which target and which bases you intend to use.
To select the target click on "Target" in the parameters list to display the target list on the right so that you can select it.
To set the bases click on "Host's Base" at the top right and select it from the list of bases. You can select the other three bases similarly:
NB the target and base lists do not scroll, but you can click on "Down" or "Up" to move to the next or previous section.

You can select the AI aircraft types from the list.

When your settings are made click on "Launch" and you will see this screen:


Note how in my setting the take off is at 11.41 and I should be over the target at 12.00. This would be a real time flight of about 20 minutes, and that is the kind of information you need.

There is no need to fly, but if you do then you need to know that to exit the flight you need to press Shift and either "[" or "]".
This is a deliberate keypress combo made to avoid a player accidentally pressing Esc and being forced to type "Y" or "N" to exit or remain in the game.
Previously when this happened the whole game stopped running until the player pressed "Y" or "N", and this was a PITA for everyone else.

You also need to know that because there is only one player time acceleration works for you (the host)

Jel

I'm willing to try it but can you explain why I should.

It will give you an idea of the flying time involved for groundstarted missions. You may have set targets and bases in order to give reasonable flight times, but you cannot be sure that you got it right.

Using SPAW MP for a groundstarted sweep from the Vic to the Shokaku.

The briefing suggests 13 minutes to the target:


Map screen to check bearings:


Debriefing:


The Japanese AI planes headed our way which reduced the time between take off and contact. I got my first kill after five minutes, and another three minutes later.

I have had some real fun with two particular missions. The first was an Allied truck interdiction at Henderson Field in 1942. This is the invasion site, so I was effectively supporting the invasion of Guadalcanal. There were plenty of targets, and the trucks were incidental.
The second was to bomb convoy42 which has ships carrying all sorts of deck cargo such as trucks, aircraft and cargo boxes.


I had more fun strafing than I did bombing

Thanks for posting the pic.

I'm attempting to produce the most immersive scenario the EAW community has ever experienced so it's nice to have some feedback. And BTW, all feedback is welcome, both the good and the bad. (Can't make it better without some critiquing, know what I mean?)

Maybe this would be a good time to discuss something I tried in the original SPAW but gave up.

I would like to have random lone ships sailing around. Patrol boats, Destroyer escorts and other small craft to give the scenario more variety and to make the game a bit less scripted.

I built a railroad that circled the entire map winding in and out of the various island chains. The idea was to duplicate the trains that run throughout the default world but on invisible tracks and obviously, ships rather than a train.

It worked in a fashion but there were limitations that kept me from using it.

1 - The tracks were visible, even if I colored them the same as the sea tiles because they were a different resolution than the tiles. At the time we didn't have transparencies for the track 3dz model which would have taken care of the problem.

2 - For some reason the ships would self-destruct when I got within about 35,000 feet.

Anyhow, a decade later we have a lot more built in capabilities in the 1.6 development line so maybe this is something we re-visit.

Your post reminded me to check the railway routines in the 160 exe. They were no longer working as intended, but I have fixed the problem.

This is a fighter sweep at Baker Strip in my "New SPAW floatplanes" theatre.
A large Japanese convoy is still generated even though the mission is not a mixed interdiction



As the ships are moving on invisible tracks they change direction in the same way that trains do.

The essential additional files are the "TList04.mpf" with the convoy data and the "EAW_RRD.dat" file with the invisible track data.
The convoy is in four columns.


BTW Your self destructing ships were behaving normally. With interdictions you can locate the convoy with Ctrl-E, but they are not spawned until you are a certain distance away.
When they are spawned they start moving, but train convoys self-destruct if the vehicles try to move over water. This is still true in 160 if they are real trains moving on visible tracks (as flagged in "EAW_RRD.dat"), but if the tracks are invisible the self destruction does not occur.

Jel

I just copied the "TList04.mpf" file, the "EAW_RRD.dat" file, and a "TList03.mpf" file (for a different convoy at Jaquinot Bay) into my "SPAW2019" folder, and flew the same fighter sweep:



It worked well

It works well for the convoys.

However, those occur when the mission is put together rather than a random encounter.

I'm interested in replicating the random trains that occur when you follow the tracks for any distance in the European theater but of course, replacing the train TMODs with a ship TMOD.

No
The mission was a fighter sweep that happened to be in an area where there was a convoy generated by EAW_RRD.dat. A mixed interdiction would have been a deliberate mission, but as it was a sweep it was effectively a random encounter. It was a deliberate test.
That convoy should also appear if the mission is to bomb, or escort a flight to a target that is in that area. This was the fix that I re-instated in the exe, because in the previous recent exes the convoys were not appearing unless you flew a mixed interdiction to the target.

Jel

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. Nice to be able to encounter convoys randomly.

However, it's still not what I was talking about.

To repeat, I envision a track encircling the entire scenario that weaves in and out of the various islands and a ship, PT, boat or sub that runs on that track.

If the encounter variable is set low enough the player shouldn't come across this mod too often and unlike the railroads in Europe, where the player can just follow the tracks to the next encounter, in SPAW it would be very hard to predict where the next encounter would be. It would add another element of randomness to the game.

I guess the question is, does the convoy mod preclude my suggested railway mod?