Modules for ABattlemap

@a44bigdog:

2 minor issues. When I load a map made with the map made with the prior chart at the bottom any icons there are showing up in those spaces.

This I don’t really get. The areas are moved a bit because of bigger tech boxes and a unit reference chart, so that may be why your icons are not in the right spot there. (I’m only guessing what your sentence meant though  :roll:)

I have seen some maps with Japan with 18 IPCs in '41 this is incorrect as they start with 17. I can not double check this as I replace my start files with ones that have the unit neatly stacked as opposed to scattered pell mell. Jenn has some nice start files she could e-mail you for the final release version.

The 18 IPC’s are back to 17, and neatly stacked units would be quite nice, that’s true. Could you e-mail me your files (username at gmail dot com)? Big begging eyes mode Or Jen, would you be so kind?

@a44bigdog:

I just noticed the '42 scenario still has the turn order text from '41.

Damn, at one point I thought “don’t forget the .bmp file for '42!” :D

@a44bigdog:

And while I may be seeming like a pain, I have a lot of experience modding games and such in the past and am trying to provide all the trouble shooting I can so that a finalized version without bugs can be provided as soon as possible.

No, you’re completely right, this is exactly what this thread is for, so tnx for the feedback :)

@a44bigdog:

It is an issue I am having in a game against someone else. Their posted maps have the described attributes. I am not sure why this is. I would assume Holkann moved the “territories” that control this when making the new sektor files. And if he did so those icons should be in the correspondingly named territories on my map.

What I think has happened is that you used your old start.aam file with the latest AA50 module files. This resulted in your starting flags being misplaced, as the board had changed its layout. Remember that the unit icons in an .aam file only remember their position on the screen (as in xth pixel on the yth row), completely independent from the .bmp and .sek files, which define the appearance and behaviour of the map (e.g. territory z is green and belongs to USA) (while actually those 2 files are also completely independent).

Your opponent though had the latest .aam file, and didn’t change it, so hence the confusion.
Could this explain the situation you had?

@Cmdr:

I don’t have to email them, they are map files so the site will let me upload them.

Just change the file name to start (in other words, delete the 1941 and 1942) when you paste them into the appropriate file folders so they over write the old ones and all the pieces should be in neat, orderly, columns.

Yet another tnx are in place :)

Allright, work’s done, updated version in 1st post of this thread (since I’m expecting no more major changes :) ).

@Stoney229:

uh… a few more minor errors i think. I think the symbol for Trans-Jordan when hovering Trans-Jordan is Trj, but when hovering Italian NO next to it it is Tra.

the chart in the bottom right lists fighter’s movement as 4/5*… it should be 4/6*

a bit more significant… I think the labels for “Black Sea Seazone (BLA/Z16)” and “East Mediterranean SZ (EMD/Z15)” are swapped.  For a while there I was confused why Italy should need to control the Black Sea for its NO but the the East Med!  Thanks!

It is a very keen eye you have! But you missed the sub’s attack upgrade wasn’t shown :p Anyway, things are fixed.

@a44bigdog:

sets off to try and break it    :-D

crosses fingers and hopes it holds :roll:

@Cmdr:

Null Perspiration Holkann!  All I did was beatification, you did the hard work of getting it coded right!

Lol, needed wikipedia to understand this sentence; you’re welcome :). Who did you make a Saint btw?

@a44bigdog:

Well I guess I could mention that in the NOs North West Europe is den and in the hover it is nwe or that Borneo is brn in one place and bor in another

but I think those are small enough issues to let slide.  :-D

Blast, you did brake it (even though just a little  8-) ). And it’s minor, true, but fixed nonetheless (life would be much easier if I wasn’t a perfectionist in some ways ;) ).

@Stoney229:

also ukr is listed twice when hovering Germany’s NO… again no big deal

Check!

@Cmdr:

So the sea zones and the super submarine upgrade has been repaired?

Yes, just as the double Ukr and Bor/Brn or Den/Nwe.

@Cmdr:

What file controls that, Holkann?  I’ve kind of edited my map considerably and it’s a continual work in progress, same with my toolpieces.  I’m trying to make ABattlemap prettier so we can get the art addicts off TripleA and return them to the one true path of Battlemap!

Lol, I second that :D

Now, as for the file used to change names and values of territories: it is sektorinfo.txt/.sek. But to understand how it works, you need to understand the whole program. I’ll give an overview of all files and their function in an ABattlemap module, but it’s not easy, so be warned:

map.bmp:
is the visual image of the map that will be shown on the screen.

mapinfo.txt:
contains the name of the module (+ some extra info, but that I don’t understand)

start.aam:
contains the starting position of the units.

toolpieces.bmp:
the amount of rows decides the amount of nations playing. The amount of columns decides the amount of units in play. The first column is regarded as the “flag”, or the token which decides which country owns what territory. The size of a row or column may not be altered, but new columns and rows may be added.

bigpieces.bmp:
essentially the same as toolpieces, but with a bigger size of the rows and columns

toolpieces.txt:
lists the properties of each column/unit of toolpieces.bmp (or bigpieces.bmp). Those properties are: name, IPC-value, “navality” (= 1 if the column represents a naval unit, 0 if the column does not).

sektorinfo.bmp:
is a bmp-file representing the territories available on the map. Those territories are separated by black (RGB= 00 00 00) lines. To identify each different territory, the territories are filled with a different color, which’s RGB-value corresponds to its line numer in sektorinfo.txt.

sektorinfo.txt:
lists the territories line by line with their properties. A typical line is like this:
France (Fra)                            : 01060100 0000016a 00000113 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
=> the first attribute is the name of the territory.
=> the second attribute (after the semicolon) is a block of hexadecimal numbers (which are actually 4 separate numbers):
01 means this is a land territory, 06 means it is worth 6 IPC’s, 01 means it is originally owned by the country represented by the first row of toolpieces.bmp, and 00 is simply redundant.
=> the third and fourth attribute show the place (in pixels) where the IPC-value of this territory should appear (hexadecimal!).
=> the fifth attribute is again 4 separate numbers, specifying “oil” or “convoy” properties:
00 is redundant, 00 indicates no country looses IPC’s if taken, 00 indicates this isn’t a convoy route, 00 means this isn’t an oil territory.
=> the rest are redundant.

sektorinfo.map:
is the version of sektorinfo.bmp the ABattlemap program can read.

sektorinfo.sek:
is the version of sektorinfo.txt the ABattlemap program can read.

Now, how do you make the .map and .sek files?
Your ABattlemap folder contains 2 files who manage this: csek.exe and b242map.exe. To use these however, you’ll need to use the console (the black screen with white letters in windows). The easiest way to do this, is to creat a folder on your C disk. For instance: c:\aafiles . You drop there both those exe’s, and sektorinfo.txt and sektorinfo.bmp. Run the console, and navigate to c:\aafiles (the command “cd…” let’s you go 1 folder up, the command “cd something” lets you go to the folder “something” if available in the folder you’re currently visiting with the console). If you’re in the right folder, type “csek.exe sektorinfo.txt sektorinfo.sek”, hit return, and the sektorinfo.sek will appear in the folder. “b242map.exe sektorinfo.bmp sektorinfo.map” does the same trick for sektorinfo.map.

More info: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=11223.new#new
Also, there are some .txt files in your ABattlemap folder, those are handy too, but they are in German.

Allright, I hope this answered your question, but it probably is all quite confusing (it took me a while before I got it myself, just started out file by file, and got it all in the end). Any questions, shoot, but plz read this overview and the link I gave, so you’ve got something to “hang things up to” (as in: if you understand A, you’ll relate it to B and C without needing any help).