Decisive Campaigns: Case Blau

[Sir Slash]

Thanks Sandman. Good advice.

[Philippe]

I found a very old thread that talked about how to change the unit colors.

As I had suspected, to change unit colors you need to use the editor.  What you have to mess around with are the regimes, and you're probably looking at having to generate a whole new set of scenarios. 

So changing the unit colors is a non-starter.  Not that hard to do, but forcing people to download new scenarios just to use unit colors that they may or may not agree with is an imposition and a bad idea.

Having said all of that the unit colors aren't so far off that I can't live with them.  To get a sense of what I would have done in that department, take a look at my Panzer Campaigns mods.


So now the mod is getting smaller and easier to make.


I've started playing around with the flags and symbols, and will probably produce a mod that only changes the flags and symbols, so you can plug it into any other mod that you may or may not have installed. 

It will be another one of my historical flag mods, but I think I may include a non-swastika variant.  I noticed several complaints that the out-of-the-box German flag looked too much like the French flag (it does, and that's why I'm going to make this mod), and many of the same people who are bothered by that resemblance are also uncomfortable staring at swastikas.

Personally I prefer my bad guys straight up, but I can sympathize with people who remember what flag was flying when their country was occupied by force.

[Philippe]

I'll make a full announcement later this weekend, but if anyone is interested I've finished the Historical Flags and Symbols mod for Decisive Campaigns Case Blue.


There are detailed notes in the mod on exactly what's been changed and why, as well as instructions on how to use it. 


No screenshots yet, but if they ever do happen they won't be much fun because Imageshack isn't what it used to be.


This may be the smallest mod I've ever made, and it can be downloaded here:


https://app.box.com/s/birj2fsdttuy5nwj04pw

[FlickJax]

Thanks Phillippe, I dont have yet but plan on getting before end of sale.

[Philippe]

Historical Flags and Symbols version 1.5






[To see this image in full size, you'll need to click on the center of the image above and then click on the next image when you're taken to the image host's website] .


This mod is a by-product of flag work that I've done on Battlefront and Fury Software's Strategic Command games and John Tiller's Panzer Campaigns series.

This mod makes a few changes to the graphic presentation, nothing more.  It will have zero impact on any pbem games, and won't cause problems if one player uses it but another doesn't.

This mod is designed to be used with other graphics mods.



WHAT THE MOD CHANGES:



Germany:


The mod uses a German roundel derived from the roundel on the Parteiflag.  Kiddytoto's treatment of the Parteiflag roundel is very good, so if you substitute his for mine I won't be offended.


The large, medium, and small headquarters flags are the Reichskriegflag, the German warflag. This is the flag that would have flown in front of any army or navy headquarters, as well as in front of administrative offices in any occupied territory.


The crossed anchors icon for the Wehrmacht navy is the emblem that was worn on the shoulder boards of the Kriegsmarine.

The Luftwaffe eagle has been repainted.

I have replaced the roman alphabet SS icon with white SS runes on a black background.


Italy:

The large, medium, and small headquarters flags are the correct flags for the period (green-white-red tricolor with the coat of arms of Savoy in the white section).

The Italian flag during the first part of the 20th century was not the modern simple green-white-red tricolor.  Italy was technically a monarchy, and the coat of arms of the ruling house of Savoy always appeared in the middle of the white stripe (the Italian navy -- aka Regia Marina -- used the arms of the house of Savoy topped with a crown in the middle of their ensigns).  This coat of arms can still be seen on many Italian product labels, especially when the companies are headquartered in Northern Italy.  The red shield with a white cross tends to show up on vermouth labels ( Italian vermouth is not as dry as French vermouth, or I'd look in my liquor cabinet and confirm that Cinzano still uses it) and I've seen that coat of arms on syrup bottles for Italian ices in Little Italy.

The national icon for Italy is now the coat of arms of the house of Savoy (white cross on a red shield with a blue border).


Hungary:

The large, medium, and small headquarters flags are the red-white-green horizontal tricolor with the coat of arms of Hungary (aka the crown of St. Stephen) in the center.  Most people at the time thought that this was the Hungarian national flag, and it is generally accepted that it was the warflag. The out-of-the-box version of the game mistakenly used the modern Italian tricolor for the Hungarian flag in the most zoomed-out view. That has been corrected in the mod.

The national icon for Hungary is now the crown of St. Stephen.



Romania:

After much soul-searching I've decided to leave the plain Romanian tricolor from the out-of-the box version as the Romanian headquarters flag.  Although still technically a monarchy (a bit like Italy), Romania was under the Antonescu regime, and using military flags emblazoned with King Michael's monogram and coat of arms just didn't seem right.

The national icon for Romania is now the Romanian cross (allegedly modeled on the German balkenkreuz).

[The net effect of these national icon changes is that they are not only more historical this way, but much easier to tell apart].



Soviet Union:

The national icon for Soviet regulars is derived from the Red Army badges that were made out of enameled metal.

The national icon for Soviet Guards units is based on the Guards badge that they wore. 

The national icon for Soviet Naval Infantry (the Black Death) is based on the fouled anchor that appears on Russian marine badges.

The Soviet Roundel now sports a hammer and sickle. 

The red star that came with the game is very nice, but should only really designate the Red Army.  So the hobgoblin of little minds and semiotics strikes again: both large roundels should have symbols for armies, or both roundels should have symbols for countries.  I prefer national symbols, hence my mod.



The non-swastika version of the mod:


The german national roundel uses a roundel based on the Wehrmacht eagle.

Instead of a Reichskrieg flag, German headquarters will be designated by the Wehrmacht eagle on a feldgrau background. (If you happen to prefer the lighter greyish-greenish background of the earlier versions, it's still in there with  _alt suffixes added to all of the files, and can be restored with minimal fuss). 



HOW TO USE THIS MOD:


This mod should be compatible with most if not all other existing graphics mods.  I've only modded some of the flags and symbols.


This mod is designed for MANUAL INSTALLATION.  You don't have to download and learn how to use any other programs (not that there's anything wrong with that).


The mod comes in two parts.  A complete version of the mod as it was intended to be used, and an extra set of files that remove the swastikas for those that are squeamish about that sort of thing.


The mod mimics the game's folder structure, so all you have to do to use it is to copy the folder named "Matrix Games" into the folder that you keep your Matrix Games folder in.


It might be a good idea to back up your originals first in case you hate my work, or use a mod installer.


The simplest way to back up the files that are going to be changed if you don't use a mod installer is to go into your regular installation of the Decisive Campaigns Case Blue folder in your Matrix Games folder and copy the graphics folder.  You can leave the copy of the graphics folder sitting next to the original because the program will only look for the original, and will ignore something named "copy of graphics" or "graphics_unmodified".  If you give the copy a name that is the same as the original but that only differs in its suffix (e.g. "graphics_org") the two folders will sit next to each other when the game folder is sorted in alphabetical order.  You can then switch back by adding a suffix of some kind to the modded graphics folder and removing the suffix from the copy.  Do it too many times though, and you may make mistakes, which is why some people prefer mod installers.

I have nothing against mod installers.  I actually started modding by working as the terrain editor for Gordon Molek's Combat Mission mod installer.  But I ended up getting sick and tired of spending much of my time explaining how to install and use it.  Much simpler to do it manually, provided you know how to back up and switch back and forth at will (which you have to be able to do if you're planning on making a mod).  The nice thing about doing things manually is that it forces you to examine what changes you're actually making to your computer before you make them.  The two parts of my mod can probably be adapted easily enough to a mod installer, but time is short and I have other mods I need to make.   


HOW TO GET RID OF THE SWASTIKAS:

Installing this mod will put a lot of swastikas on prominent but historically accurate display.  If you don't want to have swastikas in your face on all of your German headquarters units, install the mod, and then go to the folder named "remove swastikas".  Inside you'll find another (different and smaller) folder named Matrix Games.  Copy and paste that to wherever you keep your regular Matrix games folder.  The headquarters swastikas will be replaced by wehrmacht eagles with their wings outstretched ( I used to use this symbol in my Panzer Campaigns mods when I couldn't identify a unit-specific emblem for a particular headquarters).  But I recommend that you try the mod with swastikas first, because they aren't as prominent when the Reichskrieg flag is the headquarters symbol (the Parteiflag used a larger roundel and swastika), and because it really is useful when playing the game to call attention to headquarters units with
all of those red flags.


WHERE TO GET THE MOD:



https://app.box.com/s/2isn42lltygazgvck0qr


[If given a choice, try to download the mod zip file and not the folder that the mod zip file is in.  The maga.mg hidden file has been removed from the download, and it never should have been there in the first place].



Caveat: This is a link to a free box account that I use for my John Tiller/HPS Napoleonic mods.  Bandwidth is not unlimited, and tends to get used up around the end of the month.  So if you ever try to download from this link and you can't, look at the calender and try again on the 2nd of the next month.

[Sir Slash]

Great work Philippe. Looks so good I almost don't mind losing now.

[alantaylor]

They look very nice. Will these Flags/Symbols work with DC from Warsaw to Paris?

[Philippe]

I don't own the game so I can't say.  I would need to examine the contents of the flag folder, assuming it has one.

My guess would be that the German material may well be transferable, but something might have changed between the two games.

[Jarhead0331]

Great work Philippe. Looks so good I almost don't mind losing now.

+1. Great work, indeed!

[Jarhead0331]

By the way, what is Vic up to these days? Anyone know anything about his next project?

I think I remember a press release about another large Eastern Front title, which sort of was a disappointment to me. Anyway, that was awhile ago and I haven't heard anything since.

[bobarossa]

By the way, what is Vic up to these days? Anyone know anything about his next project?

That would be this:
http://www.vrdesigns.nl/

Decisive Campaigns set in the East.

[Cyrano]

More specifically still, Operation Barbarossa, presumably bringing the eastern war from its opening to Fall Blau.  Curious to see how many of the innovations he comes up with get patched backwards into the other two games.

As always, great work Phillipe.  Thanks for it!

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

[gabeeg]

Thanks Philippe,  Really like and appreciate what you have done...installed.

[Philippe]

I've made what I'm pretty sure is the last adjustment to the mod.

The Soviet and German roundels have now been textured with lighting effects.  As Plato was so fond of saying, learning is recollection, and I finally remembered how to use the render-lighting filter.

The non-swastika version of the Germans has been recolored to a darker feldgrau, but I left the non-swastika flags and roundel untextured, partly because they looked funny when textured because they were pretty dark to begin with, and partly because my ancient version of Photoshop is really creaking in Windows 7 and that render-lighting filter is way too labor-intensive to use properly if you don't really have to.

And I searched through all the mod folders for hidden files before I zipped them.

[Philippe]

Never say never.



The DCCB Historical Flags and Symbols mod has been updated to version 1.5.


The change is pretty minor, and only effects the non-swastika part of the mod.


The non-swastika part now uses the same German flags and roundel as the DCWtP mod.




The Case Blue mod can be downloaded here:


https://app.box.com/s/2isn42lltygazgvck0qr


The Steam version of the Case Blue mod can be downloaded here:


https://app.box.com/s/fqnvbutepku9ihzb8gl3vo1h1u90s0cz




To see screenshots of the Warsaw to Paris mod go here:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3768892




Or to download the Warsaw to Paris mod, go here:


https://app.box.com/s/dcobsy119z53sjrb7mwr