The American Civil War

[Atreides]

If this project is still active in any shape or form, I did make a map of the Eastern Theatre of the American Civil War a while back - unfortunately, I've since lost the list of placenames for the villages (though IIRC I did place them according to some period maps).

Thanks, it's nice but it needed a scenario file. Since I made one to try it out here it is:

Delmarva.cfg

(1.65 KiB) Downloaded 63 times

Instructions for those less familiar with this technical stuff:
Of course it needs to be put in a scenarios directory (as the map needs to be put in maps) and they must be created first. The main.cfg also needs to be edited to include the scenarios dir. (just copy the macros line and change to scenarios) Oh all this is in the civil war mod dir where the addon is.

Oh and a typo report for the addon maintainer: both factions seem to be called Sates not States. : ) Sounds funny somehow. Sates.

[Bilbo_Sacket]

That is an awesome, map! I am not currently actively working on the mod at the moment, however when I do return to the project I am sure I can come up with some uses for any maps that you have produced.

[Bilbo_Sacket]

I will fix those bugs immediately.

[Bilbo_Sacket]

I have fixed the spelling typo, and I have removed the capture artillery ability.

[Atreides]

That is an awesome, map! I am not currently actively working on the mod at the moment, however when I do return to the project I am sure I can come up with some uses for any maps that you have produced.

Yep, I've played it a bit and not only does it look good but it plays well. It really needs names for the cities though to complete the ambiance.

[Atreides]

Found a small bug while choosing an amla one of the pics was missing. Log shows it was this one:

20231209 20:53:44 error display: could not open image 'icons/armour_leather.png'

I spell it armour myself but alas BfW uses the US spelling. : )

BTW the attack icons are really cool. Shells and cannonballs looking spiffy.

P.S. Found another small bug, the attack anim's all are missing durations, causing them to play too fast and sound funny. Duration twice the length of the start time usually works well (e.g. -150 start 300 duration)

P.P.S. A few more little things I found. McClellan is still mispelled in the name field which is user visible. Also the nice flags are not being used. Just add them to the factions direct, don't bother with the flags.cfg file. Core macro flag variant will work for the rebs.

P.P.P.S. I finally got a chance to listen to the music since I usually have it off and listen to the radio instead. Really good stuff, sounds great!

P.P.P.P.S. Formation ability I thought was broken but when I looked into code I saw that the description forgets to mention that it does not work in woods which is where I noticed it (having a huge fight in big woods north of the keep between what seem to be Richmond & Washington) on Delmarva map. BTW you could also add hills, mountains, etc. Better yet invert it and make formation only work on flatland.

[Bilbo_Sacket]

Thanks for the help! As a result of your findings I have, added the confederate and union flags, I have fixed the McClellan naming problem, and I have added to the description of the formation ability the knowledge that it does not work on forest.

I looked into the animations and could not find a problem, maybe you could be a little more specific? The animations for the guns and cannons were copied and pasted from other mods, or core Wesnoth to be sure I got them right. They seem the same as before.

As for making the formation ability only work on flat terrain, I have decided against that, because I think there is sufficient evidence of line formations working on hills for example, little round top was fought with both sides in formation. (this did not last long for the CSA because of the withering fire from the USA, but nevertheless it did happen and any unit regardless of terrain would have faced the same problem under such a volume of fire.) To put it simply hills by themselves do not destroy a formation, but things like trees fences and houses do, by blocking where soldiers can actually walk.

I also fixed another bug that I found with the CSA Colonel who could not advance into a Brigadier General.

Thankyou for your feedback!!

[Atreides]

I looked into the animations and could not find a problem, maybe you could be a little more specific? The animations for the guns and cannons were copied and pasted from other mods, or core Wesnoth to be sure I got them right. They seem the same as before.

The gun anim macro is fine IIRC, works really well. It is just those bayonets (and other melee attacks?) it seems. I believe I fixed my copy so what is below is what I found and is how it works nicely.
BTW many animations you might find out there are poorly done so just copying them is no guarantee! The best ones to use as a template would be the Era of Magic ones.

Code: Select all

    [attack_anim]
        [filter_attack]
            name=bayonet
        [/filter_attack]
        start_time=-150
        [frame]
            duration=300
        [/frame]
        {SOUND:HIT_AND_MISS dagger-swish.wav {SOUND_LIST:MISS} -100}
    [/attack_anim]

As for making the formation ability only work on flat terrain, I have decided against that, because I think there is sufficient evidence of line formations working on hills for example, little round top was fought with both sides in formation. (this did not last long for the CSA because of the withering fire from the USA, but nevertheless it did happen and any unit regardless of terrain would have faced the same problem under such a volume of fire.) To put it simply hills by themselves do not destroy a formation, but things like trees fences and houses do, by blocking where soldiers can actually walk.
Thankyou for your feedback!!

Good point about the hills. Although it does remind me of the Battle of Chickamauga where it was fought in heavy woods yet they did manage to use line formation not just column. Movement in line is very slow in forest though so often you get caught in column as you attempt to advance in the woods. All in all I agree that you have it right, woods do disrupt formations in general.

[Transfermium]

I've been working on adding labels to the Delmarva map and (maybe) making it into an actual scenario.

[Bilbo_Sacket]

"The American Civil War" mod has been uploaded to the 1.18 add-ons server. And a couple of sound bugs have also been fixed, including one which caused all of the melee weapons to fire the wrong miss sound animation. And the bayonet sound animation has been slowed down.