Unit depth + battlemap mouseover issue relooked at

[Kaidonni]

Okay, to begin with, I'm wondering if there are any keys at all that allows one to change the depth of a unit, increasing the rank depth or decreasing it. This is in relation to that petition thread, also, but also in a league of it's own.

As we all know, battles suffer a mouse-over problem. Now, I've done a tad bit of investigating, and it seems to me that the only part of the battlemap that is broken is how the computer evaluates where a unit is on the actual battlefield itself. A Quick Battle, with the Italians versus the French, the one I always seem to get, no matter what :laugh4:, provided me wth a little insight into what is going on. You can either use unit cards to select a unit, or select them from the battlefield - only thing is, with the latter, the selection 'handles' (the thing that tells you the name of the unit, whether it's ready or not, how it feels, it's abilities, etc) seem to be...displaced. They are, in this particular battle, towards the windmill, forward of the actual army. Is this a problem with a text file, or purely with graphics drivers? The campaign map seems to have been fixed by some files from NTW...maybe some text file determines a few things on the battlemap, and needs to be tweaked so that this 'mouseover' problem is no longer present. However, further to this - every other button works fine. You can even direct your army via the radar map, and use keys to make sure they face the correct direction (one reason why I asked about changing unit depth...doesn't seem to work using the radar map). The radar map matches up properly...hmmmm? Sounds interesting.

I think we should all join together (well, the people who are having problems) and see if we can sort this out. In another forum, someone stated that it was purely graphical issues, but is it wise to jump to the conclusion it is entirely dictated by the driver itself, and not something in the game we can modify*? To me, there must be something stupid going on, because why does everything else match up, yet the selection handles don't? I can see my army on top of the unit cards, and the enemy through hills, etc. I mean, it could even simply be the formatting of textures themselves, and they just need to be 'modernised' by being resaved, etc (not sure if that actually makes any sense, or is even possible...:laugh4:). These are all clues as to what might exactly be wrong. It needn't be necessary to request CA to release any code to modders (probably unlikely anyway) or demand Nvidia look at their drivers more closely.

So, who is up for a little brainstorming and investigation? I really want MTW back, and it is unfeasible to downgrade drivers or switch to ATI cards for me, as I suspect it may be with many others.

*Legally! No discussions of any illegal activities in the thread, please, thank you for respecting that - Kaidonni.

[CBR]

You can change the depth of a group (not individual units) by using the formations in the GroupFormations.txt located in the FormationData folder.
IIRC you can use the first Template gf_SimpleLine and just change the number of ranks (NumRows) to whatever you want.


CBR

[Kaidonni]

What about actually in a battle itself, though? Like in RTW and M2TW? Like when dragging the units out? And does the AI in MTW ever change the depth of it's units, or do they remain the same?

[CBR]

The formations are to be used in battle using 1-9 keys. The AI does not use them though as they use another file I think.

I dont know how much the AI changes depth. I can see in the AiSpecialFormations.txt that there are different NumRow values so maybe it does. But Im no expert on the AI as I play MP only.

I use an edited groupformation file myself, although I dont have problems with mouseover etc. Its a quick way of getting my guns into 2 or 3 ranks whenever I want it.


CBR

[Kaidonni]

Just wondering how I'd go about editting that file exactly...

I mean, say I put two units of Feudal MAA into a group - would pressing any keys allow me to simply order those two units to go one rank deeper if the files were set up properly? Without sending the rest of the army into such a move? Would I be able to modify the text file so that, pressing 1 allowed my selected groups to go two ranks deep, 2 so that they go three ranks, and so on...? How would I go about implementing those changes in the file?

Just fought that Quick Battle implementing the standard formations and radar map, and it was difficult. I suppose that isn't really a bad thing, it does actually allow me to play the game. Just improvisation is all that is needed (it doesn't mean we shouldn't investigate into what is causing the mouse over problems exactly, though...LOL...). Also makes it more fair on the AI. Better than nothing, I guess.

[CBR]

You actually dont even have to make a group first. Just select the units you want and hit the key for the formation you want to use and they will be grouped automatically and start moving to go into whatever the formation is.

The simplest formation is the first one in the file called Template gf_SimpleLine. You can use that as a base for any changes as long as its just simple stuff like making a line with specific number of ranks. You simply copy the whole entry and paste it over one of the other entries.

If you look at the first template then you will see "NumRows -1" That means the selected units will use same number of ranks they already were in. That number is really the only one you need to change and its pretty straightforward. The number you enter will be the number of ranks the selected units will use.

Just make a backup of the file and experiment a bit.

Or buy a nvidia 7xxx card instead as that doesnt have problems in battles heh.


CBR

[Kaidonni]

It's my bro's computer, I can't change the graphics cards. :no:

These Nvidia 8600 drivers are still much better than the 8800 ones...those, er, well...let's just say you didn't need to be using MTW for things to go wrong. By things, I mean interface lock-up... And by not needing to be using MTW, I mean using Maya, saving a picture off of Google, browsing directories when trying to save your own work...and so on.

I'll try experimenting a bit, then. Thanks. :)

I hope other people are picking up on this improvised solution. I've figured that I might not necessarily be able to simply change the ranks like I used to before the mouseover problems - but it's either improvise or not play MTW at all, and the improvisation doesn't exactly make the game unplayable. It makes it more challenging, actually...lol. That and now that I can see units through hills, etc, I can see my impending doom marching towards me...*eep*