Holkann:
I’ve been playing with the colors of the pieces and board for 1941 (it will work for 1942 as well, but I rarely play that version). The reason being that Italians and Germans often mix and their AA Guns look almost identical (resulting in forgetting who originally purchased the darn thing) which can be confusing.
Also, light gray vs dark gray is not that big of a contrast.
I would really like dark blue for Italian territories and light blue for Italian pieces, but I don’t have that option in MS Paint.
What I currently have is China’s colors for Italy and light brown for Chinese units. (Same problem with Chinese/English forces as Italian/German forces, just happens less often.)
If I understand correctly, you’re not able to get the color light blue pasted on the Italian flags/units in paint (it always shifts to grey).
This is because the ToolPieces.bmp-file is saved as an 8-bit bmp, allowing only 256 different tones of colors. If I get wikipedia correctly, the tones of these colors depend on the “palette” being used. I have no idea what that exact palette is with the ToolPieces.bmp from ABattleMap, but all I know is I’m only able to get 1 blue color: 00 00 FF (in RGB).
Workaround: save the ToolPieces.bmp as a 24-bit bmp (Paint has this option). Now you should be able to use a much wider range of colors in Paint, and as far as I can see, ABattleMap’s just fine with this. I don’t think there’s any real reason why we should keep the 8-bit mode, but since I didn’t see a problem, I just kept it that way to be safe. The only drawback is the ToolPieces.bmp file will now weigh an astonishing 44kb instead of the more moderate 16kb :-D
Is this what you needed?
Hey, after some trying, I did find 256-color blue tones. See attached images (the 2nd one is actually the one from the A&A: the great war-module).
Although I like the grey tones as they are and do not have any problems with them I am just curious how to change the colors in the map.bmp .
I know how to modify the ToolPieces.bmp and the BigPieces.bmp. But how to modify the map.bmp? Is it just a matter of picture editing in paint - or are the colours defined in one of those
.map, .sek or .txt files?
Colors are only part of the bmp. When you start changing territory shapes and sizes, you’ll need to adjust SektorInfo.map/bmp. If you want to change name or properties of a territory, you’ll need to adjust SektorInfo.sek/txt.
So in short: to adjust colors, you’ll only need to adjust map.bmp ;)
Colors are only part of the bmp. When you start changing territory shapes and sizes, you’ll need to adjust SektorInfo.map/bmp. If you want to change name or properties of a territory, you’ll need to adjust SektorInfo.sek/txt.
So in short: to adjust colors, you’ll only need to adjust map.bmp ;)
Thank you. One far day I will have learned the secrets of ABattlemap ;-)
Kewlies, that’ll work. I use the old pieces, so I had to play around again with the colors also went ahead and color matched the Italian territories because I could.
For those of you not aware, the colors on one PC do not have to match the colors on the other PC for the program to work. Even the icon’s don’t have to match. When you open it on your computer you’ll see the icons and colors that you have.
If anyone wants, I can send them my units/map but you can easily do those yourself too.
There is also the simple solution that I am using for the German/Italy AA guns. I opened up the tool pieces in paint and using the eyedropper tool and bucket tool I changed the White background on The Italian AA guns to the light gray of the Italian pieces. And it took about as long for me to do as to type that.
Hello,
You all have an awesome sight here, this is my 1st post. I am not able to get access to download the ABattlemap. It will not allow me any access to register as a member. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?
Thanks for your help!
@Joe:
Hello,
You all have an awesome sight here, this is my 1st post. I am not able to get access to download the ABattlemap. It will not allow me any access to register as a member. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?
Thanks for your help!
Welcome Joe!
You’re doing nothing wrong, there’s something going wrong at www.flames-of-europe.de where you’re supposed to be able to download the ABattleMap program. I’ve rerouted the link to the www.daak.de download, so it should be fine now. Just try clicking the links in the first post again, and if there are any further problems, don’t hesitate to ask (after using the search ofcourse ;) ).
@Cmdr:
Kewlies, that’ll work. I use the old pieces, so I had to play around again with the colors also went ahead and color matched the Italian territories because I could.
…
If anyone wants, I can send them my units/map but you can easily do those yourself too.
I want 8-) Just to compare with the current pieces, because if yours are better, they should be implemented in the modules :)
Kay, just fire an email to me, Holkann (isfcco@hotmail.com) cause I forgot what your addy was.
what do you think about fleet markers?
What exactly do you mean? Like those things used in AAR FTF?
sorry i only know AA50. i agree that having the units in place looks cool, but its really annoying moving big naval groups bit by bit ( i know CRTL / Shift function ;) )
i though of something like this. now u could place jap F1 marker in sz and the actual fleet plus F1 marker in … um… mongolia :D, UK fleets go to sahara :mrgreen:
( i also changed bombers ( with bombs :evil:) and AC ( make thicker) thx to P@nther for input! )
Thanks HolKann! Your Help is apprieciated!
I know this is a little off topic, but has someone created a “Big Pieces” bmp file that is compatible with Pacific? The one I use with AA50 scrambles the country designations on the AAP map.
Thanks in advance!
what do you think about fleet markers?
What exactly do you mean? Like those things used in AAR FTF?
sorry i only know AA50. i agree that having the units in place looks cool, but its really annoying moving big naval groups bit by bit ( i know CRTL / Shift function ;) )
i though of something like this. now u could place jap F1 marker in sz and the actual fleet plus F1 marker in … um… mongolia :D, UK fleets go to sahara :mrgreen:( i also changed bombers ( with bombs :evil:) and AC ( make thicker) thx to P@nther for input! )
You’re welcome :-)
I think the idea of fleet-markers is great. It reminds me of the old marshaling circles and cards I read about here:
http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=1702&sid=f8cee6efbf1d2010c0b3941857d1f928
HELP!!!
I’m in a tournament game and I am having trouble getting the toolbar to show all of a sudden. I opened it and it wasn’t there. I tried downloading it again and restarting my computer and it doesn’t show. I’m gonna try reinstalling it again (good thing the maps are saved on the forum). I have the file and it says that it is turned “on” but it doesn’t show. The infobar is showing but not the toolbar. Can anyone help??? :-(
Questioneer
Nevermind- reinstalled it- works fine.
Hot tip- keep your map files saved on the forum every turn!!!
Most issues with ABattleMap will be solved when deleting only the ABattleMap.ini
With the next start of ABattleMap the ABattleMap.ini will be created again with all windows arranged by default.
has anyone tried to customize the map’s for Abattlemap,
i have changed mine to different shades of green, and the sea zone’s to blue, it look’s something like the AA50 board, i can write the names of the territories and sea zones over the color
has anyone tried to customize the map’s for Abattlemap,
i have changed mine to different shades of green, and the sea zone’s to blue, it look’s something like the AA50 board, i can write the names of the territories and sea zones over the color
Would you please post an image? Would be interesting :-)
