Battleground Europe - V1.0 - WWII realism

[Kharn]

Introducing a MASSIVE World War 2 Era for Wesnoth!
(Inspired by WWIIOL: Battleground Europe, a FPS MMO with the world's largest online gameworld and an obsession with realism that is taken too far.)
Includes 85+ unique units most with custom wml and animations from Germany, Western Allies and Russia. The most historically produced tanks, aircraft, and naval units were selected to be a part of the mod. Every unit can level to veteran, and most can level to elite or more.
~30 units are available for recruit by each nation, with several more unlocked via the Tier 2 Factory.
Includes a massive campaign map of Western Europe designed true to life. Shorelines are accurate to the hex, cities have real population ratios, village density is based on a population density map from 1940. Forests and Hills are based on forestation and topography maps also measured by the hex and placed. Games take 50-120 turns.
Also includes Battle of Sedan and the 3 year Battle of Leningrad with preset units based on actual division composition and strength.
Custom AI made for each map type: Small, Medium, Huge, Ocean
Every variable (hp,mm of penetration , upkeep, etc) is mathematically derived based on researched WWII performance statistics and schematics.
Value = Formula
1 turn = 1 Week
xx Cost = Dollars(1942) / 160
xx Upkeep = Dollars(1942) / 160
xx Level = (Cost+Upkeep*10)/40
xx EXP to level = Level*24
xx HP = (mm_of_armour^2)/5
xx AP Damage = mm_of_penetration@750m^2 / 6
xx ground movement = kmph / 5
xx aircraft movement = kmph / 19
An infantryman on screen is a squad. All other units represent single units.
The historic production cost of every unit was researched and converted to 1942 dollars. Every 1 gold in game is 160 dollars from 1940. This was the hardest part of researching the game was finding records of how many reichsmarks or dollars something costed to build and upkeep weekly. (For example a Flying Fortress has the same cost as 2 King Tigers)
There are great custom coded features such as: Exp from capturing villages, Carpet bombing 6 hexes, Conscripts spawning out of villages, lowered attack while swimming, aircraft unable to capture villages, Tier 2 factories unlock units after 1942, aircraft can continue to move after attacking, vehicles can skirmish but only past infantry, supply trucks can tow ATG guns and infantry, and finally an invisible spy unit called the Operator that can actually steal opponent's units and cause havoc behind the front line.

------------------------------

Some notes: It has undergone hundreds of hours of playtesting during the 6 months it was developed. For over 95% of the units the real life stats just happened to be balanced. This is a release candidate version, it is not a beta, this is past alpha and beta. I waited until I had a completed project before revealing. At this point what little remains is adding neat features like paratroopers and artillery, adding elite level to every unit, and other realism things that are harder to code like giving a tank on a hill first strike.

Village gold should be set to 5 on all maps.

It has passed the WMLLINT tools tests. The only errors remaining is code that is intentionally unusual.

The AI is quite good at smaller maps. With very large maps the AI has a hard time handling the larger maps despite all of the testing and tweaking due to the AIs shortcomings with large scale strategy across ground air and sea. If you do want a challenge on the Campaign map play as France. When I play France I usually lose Paris and barely hang on almost losing.

Here are some tips for those new to the mod: Build supply trucks on the first turn. Get a fighter plane up somewhat early because the intel is very valuable, Build an airfield (find a village good for your aircraft to retreat/rearm/heal at and put a few AA guns in the area to shoot down enemy fighters that chase), Conscripts appear to be cheap but they are terrible at combat and cost the same upkeep as trained units..don't build more than a few conscripts, Rifleman is the strongest infantry and should be about half of your infantry, flank when using aircraft or tanks so they hit the weakspots of enemies and deal double damage, keep your fighter aircraft together and in formation, keep infantry in forests or villages for cover, hide a few ATG guns spread out behind your lines in case an enemy tank breaks your front lines, When playing as Russia aim for quantity not quality when it comes to tanks. You have 2 leaders to choose between, 5 star general and Factory. Factories can survive bombings and assassinations, but the General will refund the entire cost of building the T2 factory when you build it.

Credit due to Ruglud for the graphics in Westfront, many of which were used outright or graphically modified to become needed units. Also the the developer of Modern Combat from which a few units sprites were also used or modified.

If you want to do multiplayer, ill be available for it whenever I can. I also have some friends that occasionally play the mod. The AI is pretty good as an opponent otherwise.
Skype: imkharn
Tox: F026E2B82D6B1A1DCBA9900ECAE1E690F821C7577C30303199D7EDF850ED6D6AD7D26C3DD30E

[Ravana]

http://wiki.wesnoth.org/Distributing_co ... -on_Server has correct method. If there is no publish item, then it is likely that your _server.pbl is incorrect.

[zookeeper]

The wiki page http://wiki.wesnoth.org/Distributing_content has inaccurate outdated method. There is no publish item in the addons list.

If you don't see the publish option at the very bottom of the list, then there's got to be something wrong with your _server.pbl or the location of the add-on.

[Kharn]

C:\Users\Kharn\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Battle for Wesnoth 1.12.2\userdata\data\add-ons
Add on is located here.
Server.pbl is:

author="Kharn"
icon="/whiteboard/suppose_dead.png"
version="1.0.0"
title="WWII Battleground Europe"
type="era"
description="WWII realism to the dollar. 160 dollars per gold"
passphrase="XXX"
email="XXXXXX@gmail.com"

[Ravana]

_server.pbl not Server.pbl

[Kharn]

TY! Fixed and uploaded.

[Madventurer]

Alright, some feedback:
The add-on itself seems like a good idea, with WW2 add-on being a nice thing.
However, I don't really agree with the idea of historically accurate unit costs, mainly due to how Wesnoth economy works.
Also, the different factions seemed rather similar, main differences being in the vehicles.
The amount of units was redundant, to be fair. Not a whole lot of point with so many different ones.

To sum it up:
Good if not excellent work with history...
but the result doesn't really fit into Wesnoth and how it works.

[Kharn]

Alright, some feedback:
The add-on itself seems like a good idea, with WW2 add-on being a nice thing.
However, I don't really agree with the idea of historically accurate unit costs, mainly due to how Wesnoth economy works.
Also, the different factions seemed rather similar, main differences being in the vehicles.
The amount of units was redundant, to be fair. Not a whole lot of point with so many different ones.

To sum it up:
Good if not excellent work with history...
but the result doesn't really fit into Wesnoth and how it works.

Why does matter how the wesnoth economy works? The relative purchase cost of each unit is accurate. 160 dollars = 1 gold. Upkeep is 1 week of gas, maintenance, and military personnel costs. How does the "wesnoth economy" make realistic costs impossible? Especially when compared to the alternative; making up some numbers.

Tanks of each size, ship of each small size, aircraft of each airforce role, infantry of each main type, Few ATG sizes, 2 AA gun sizes, and supply trucks. That makes up all the units. Can you give some examples of units that are redundant?

I think saying the main difference is vehicles is true but misleading. The main difference is everything everything except the infantry, which is supposed to be roughly the same on opposing sides.

My goal was to bend wesnoth as best as the AI is able to understand towards WWII mechanics. Wesnoth core is a far cry away from being designed for simulating WWII. I knew it would not completely fit in to Wesnoth, but I need something the AI is able to use so that single player can be enjoyable.

[Ruglud]

I know that wesnoth mods are under the GNU, but:
it would be nice, if you mentioned, that you use a lot of my and other sprites for your era.

[WarMan]

Sorry that is it August but I just returned to wesnoth again and noticed this mod. I have been trying to download it but it from the add-ons part of wesnoth ingame but it won't download for some reason. I randomly downloaded 18th century warfare to see if it would download any other add-on and that worked, but I can't download this add-on.

[ichbinsehselber]

Very interesting! Thanks a lot for your work.

I just play tested the river scenario playing in the middle vs AI.

The top AI performed even worse than expected. When I went there pretty quickly it didn't have recruited any units.
The lower AI did a bit better having 3 or 4 units, which is still very bad for this map. The AI does not understand that on such maps it is necessary to build several of the cheapest units in first move to kick-start up quickly.

I guess the scenario was designed for multiplayer (humans)? It is probably difficult to adapt the AI to such a scenario.

The stealth bomber has bombs in medium range. Shouldn't that attack be in the above range category instead?

[kenki]

So parden the fact that I've actually played Battleground Europe (Don't believe me I was in a wille tee video :p joke lol) anyway , comming back from a hiadus of playing wesnoth I figured I'd try your mod..

I am not getting how your mod is supposed to function in terms of combat (I've added ya on skype by the by)

In a silly non nonsensical test of your mod in the Colosseum I've found it funny that your 5 star general seems to not be able to well retaliate.

I tried your factory.. agian not able to retaliate vs fliers really so no idea. How are you supposed to work your ranged guns.

Also I noticed your HP pools., 4000 hp on units that do small bursty damage, err.. weird..

I also find it odd you use EEAW warfare style attacks but don't use the EEAW centry style combat system which would help your mod a lot in terms of some of the combat. The ability I'm refering to is the area attack that is used by the organ gun. The AAA from the factory would be better using that but meh lol.

Anyway , figured to bring that organ gun mechanic to your attention so if you wanted to put it on for turret mgs and so on.

[Sagez]

Great idea but poorly executed. Wesnoth doesn't work well with so many units and Battleground Europe just lags. The amount of villages is also hilarious... this is cool era but sadly nonplayable. A real shame as I am a fan of ''historical'' addons.