Modding Sprite quantities without using slider

[crono900]

So I decided to mod the sprite values manually because the slider adjust all units including artillery in a funny way. I also saw a request for it so I figured I'd make a discussion for it.

The First thing to understand is that infantry and cavalry brigades (as well as skirmishers and scouts) are pretty much made up of 3 lines of attack and defense. There is the center line, the left line and the right line (These are pretty much regiments). Between each regiment there is a bunch of sprites that shuffle around to fill the 3 regiments as casualties occur. So if you add too many sprites they will have sprite filled gaps in the brigade that do not attack or get targeted, and this is the biggest issues I ran into.

If we solve the first issue we run into the second. That is the brigades get too long for the map. To fix I edited the unitprefs so that each company block has 5X4 men in them. That is 5 men shoulder to shoulder (Line 798), and 4 men deep (Line 800). This solves the the second issue for the Brigades length, but not for skirmishers and scouts (These 2 are unknown to me).

These are the issues I'm having.

As for what I have managed without those issues getting in the way, 150 sprites for infantry and cavalry at max units (3000 inf, 2500 cav), Skirmishers and scout are tricky and I've counted about 60 sprites. Artillery is were I've manage to shine, I have found the right values to make it so every gun is shown on the map without changing the number of men or guns in the stats listed.

Without further ado. The values to change in unitprefs
Infantry
How many men represent a unit, factor 0.1: 100 men = 10 sprites #0
0.05 (Line 15)

Cavalry
How many men represent a unit, factor 0.1: 100 men = 10 sprites #1
0.06 (Line 59)

Skirmishers
How many men represent a unit, factor 0.1: 100 men = 10 sprites #3
.1 (Line 147)

Scouts
How many men represent a unit, factor 0.1: 100 men = 10 sprites #4
.1 (Line 191)

Artillery
How many men represent a unit, factor 0.1: 100 men = 10 sprites #2
.53 (Line 103)
Guns per sprite to show up (used for stats)
.124 (Line 944)

This is something I'm going to test at some point soon to increase smoke.
unitprefs.
The probability of showing musket fire smoke and flash 0-1
1 (Line 2008)

I also recommend changing the battleprefs smoke values for even more smoke from muskets and cannons. Reason being is there is not much forming around 2 brigade at medium range in constant fire. will add values soon.

[Juulius Caesar]

Hey Crono, I’m kinda thinking about inputting this into my perfs and was wondering what it looked like before doing so. Any chance you have a few pictures?

[crono900]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2784438964
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2784439370
Here are 2 screenshot at the start of First Battle of Bull Run.

[Juulius Caesar]

Ok yeah I love the effect that has on the artillery. I think at the least I’ll put that edit in for sure. From the tactical map view it’s definitely noticeable that the infantry are larger in size. Any close-ups of an infantry brigade?

[crono900]

Skirmishers
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2784693288
Brigade in fight.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2784694010
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2784694293

[Juulius Caesar]

Oh yes, after seeing the brigade image I see how well it fills out the unit and it is an effect that I like a lot. I will definitely be making this perf change for sure.

Also saw your comment in the thread about regiments in the game. I think this could be a very interesting avenue to take and it would make sense to make this an in-game option so players have the initial condition to chose a regimental or brigade recruiting scheme. Like how a player can toggle fog of war, readiness, or feuds.

I do feel sometimes that my armies composed of multiple corps feels rather small in the battle area despite the manpower. By diving a step deeper the armies can become bigger without necessarily increasing sprite numbers. If this game does want to be the best and most comprehensive tactical civil war game they ought to institute this level of control for the player to decide how much responsibility they want on the battlefield.

[crono900]

I like posting the fact that most of my ideas can be toggled in the options or at the start, because it doesn't deny the work that the devs already put into the game.

Regiments would not be to hard to manage. If you think of the brigades as regiment, divisions as brigades, corps as divisions, armies as corps. All they need to do is limit the max size of brigades so they'd be closer to regiment size, Lower auto promote rank, and add another level to the OOB to represent armies. This would make it a regiment game.

[Juulius Caesar]

Exactly, I like your thoughts. I don't think I could've put it better myself. Thanks again and happy campaigning!

[Juulius Caesar]

Wondering how to mod the combat width, as you did in the earlier part of this post to make the lines 3 to 4 men deep as opposed to 2. Any help here?

[Juulius Caesar]

Actually think I might have found it (notepad does not have code line numbers). Makes sense that it is probably these lines under ##Moving Data and Unit Structure##

Number of sprites on one regiment block on side x - only for Infantry & Cavalry
4
Number of sprites on one regiment block on side z - only for Infantry & Cavalry
2
Size of one regiment block
0.25

Thinking about the struggles you were having with expanding the sprite numbers via the prefs, I wonder if lines like the last one "Size of one..." might help get you somewhere in your tinkering where there are portions of the unit not involved in defense or offense. I only took one coding class in college so I am a considerable amateur so take my input with grains of salt haha.

[crono900]

Originally posted by its_notorious:

Actually think I might have found it (notepad does not have code line numbers). Makes sense that it is probably these lines under ##Moving Data and Unit Structure##

Number of sprites on one regiment block on side x - only for Infantry & Cavalry
4
Number of sprites on one regiment block on side z - only for Infantry & Cavalry
2
Size of one regiment block
0.25

Thinking about the struggles you were having with expanding the sprite numbers via the prefs, I wonder if lines like the last one "Size of one..." might help get you somewhere in your tinkering where there are portions of the unit not involved in defense or offense. I only took one coding class in college so I am a considerable amateur so take my input with grains of salt haha.

Correct on the first 2. The 3rd line, for 'Size of one regiment block' did not fix the issues I was having unfortunately.

Number of sprites on one regiment block on side x - only for Infantry & Cavalry
4
this one effects the number side by side in a block, as will as the width of the column formation. You might be able to go to six if you change the size of the sprites to 4.
example;
Unit Sprite Size #0
5
to
Unit Sprite Size #0
4

Number of sprites on one regiment block on side z - only for Infantry & Cavalry
2
Effects who many rank there are in the block, as in the number of men in front of men. you cold go 4-6 if you want. Again, you would want to make the sprites smaller, otherwise they blend together.

[Juulius Caesar]

Spent the past day tinkering based on your input and have the game running very nicely as I still tweak the perfs every now and again. Thanks once more for your help.

Going back to that idea of a regimental style of play. If one was to tweak the lines of maximum unit size in the perfs and played as you previously stated (regiments = brigade, brigade = divisions, etc.) the units, therefore (at the "brigade" level at least) could be kept at a regimental size without naturally replenishing beyond that cap if I'm not mistaken, correct?

One could set "brigade" or regiment in this case cap-size to say 800 men and then a brigade or "division" would be around 3,200 men with 4 full-strength regiments.

Also have some thoughts on a historical/random ai for campaigns that would be nice to see in the future as a starting option like the policies that the player can choose.

[crono900]

So, lowering the max units is fine and all, but the problem you run into is the fact that all of the ratios and settings are calibrated for the 3000 men brigades. Sorta like this line in campaignprefs...

Mortality rate of wounded per year if unit is not encamped (calculated from the standard unit size, 1.0 means in a brigade of 3000 standard size and 1500 of it are wounded, in 6 months all wounded cease)
0.66

There are a bunch of these that would need to be changed. Though I have found that the AI does not merge units that often. Artillery is another issue if you are going to change the number of men, 130 (this would require a different set of formulas to see all guns in battle) is about the lowest you can go without sacrificing the Union forts. Several of the forts that remained in Union control will automatically surrender if they don't have enough men.

So the trick, I now look to use is to change the number of men recruited so that if you or the AI recruit a large infantry unit will only get 750 men. Medium would be 562.5 men and small 375 men. With the max number being 3000 men, they would obviously gain some men, but some would get sick or become casualties in battle, so the more they gain could be counted as replacements for those unfit to fight, and so long as you play on the aggressive you should be able to keep them from increasing to much. or merge few of your own units to act as counters to there giant "regiments".

Here are those settings in campaignprefs.
Standard recruitment factors (small/medium/standard size)
0.125
0.1875
0.25

You'll want to change this if you are planning a Spring '61 game.
Pre-war unit size factor (militia) [0-1]
1

These should also probably be modified.
the maximum number of corps below an army for ai recruiting in 61
4
the maximum number of corps below an army for ai recruiting in 70
8
the maximum number of divisions below a corps for ai recruiting
5
the maximum number of brigades below a division for ai recruiting
6

This Idea would be even better if I knew how to edit the auto-promote ranks or if the devs used my suggestion to lower the ranks of auto promote to the lowest rank that would be placed in command of a given unit.
The suggestion; a senior Lt. would lead a battery, a senior Lt.Col. often was put in command of brigades, a Col. would command divisions, a Brig.Gen. would lead a corps. Only armies were commanded by nothing lower than a Maj.Gen.. These officers were often posted this way, because a higher ranking officer was not always available. (Primarily
this was the case for the Union and could cause many feuds.)

[crono900]

Oh... I meant to add, that you should create a folder separate from the GTTCW game folder that you save a copy, of the 'prefs that you modify, to. So you can edit them again after updates to the game and don't lose the values.

[Pripin]

Hmm, I wonder if I can find the pref for casualty sprites in there.

[crono900]

Originally posted by Infidel Castro:

Hmm, I wonder if I can find the pref for casualty sprites in there.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/654890/discussions/3/3192487812587516766/
This discussion touches on that