Battle Academy 2 Historical Flag mod

Started by Philippe, May 12, 2017, 04:26:15 PM

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Philippe









I've adapted the BA Historical Flag mod to BA 2 and the non-Steam and Steam versions have been uploaded to my box account and are available for downloading.

The mod changes thirteen dds files and comes in two versions: one version replaces German flag symbols and repaints the German unit icons into a more traditional grey.  The other version replaces the flag symbols but uses the game's original red unit icons. 

I've included both versions of the mod in the same download in case you have trouble deciding which look you prefer.  The grey unit icons tend to disappear when fighting in crowded environments like cities, but the grey is more authentic.  I've included both versions of the mod as complete installations, so you won't have to go hunting around inside the game folders to figure out where things go. And you may even find yourself switching back and forth between versions, depending on the scenario.





The mod can be downloaded from these links:


The regular non-Steam version:


https://app.box.com/s/nkynki8c93bhiwaw56siazrykkg3gvsd


The Steam version:



https://app.box.com/s/wbv4ihexirt5ultfouklc6frsclzrjse




My account sometimes runs out of bandwidth towards the end of the month.  If that ever happens, just wait until the next month and you will be able to download.



Non-Steam version:

This mod uses a manual installation.   After you unzip the mod to a safe place, copy and paste the mod's Slitherine folder to wherever you keep your Slitherine  installation.  The folders in the mod are set up in such a way that everything should fall into the right place.

It's always a good idea to make copies of what you are about to overwrite in case you hate the mod.


The red unit icon version of the mod needs to be removed from its folder before you try to copy and paste it into the folder that has your Slitherine folder.  If you leave it in the 'Red Unit Icon version inside (Slitherine)' folder, it won't change anything and the game won't be able to read it.



Steam version:


This is a manual installation Steam mod that is not part of Steam Workshop.  What that means is that if you ever verify the integrity of your installation, Steam will overwrite the mod with the original files.  So always be prepared to reinstall the mod after you do this (which you should probably do from time to time anyway).

After you unzip the mod to a safe place, copy and paste the mod's Steam folder to wherever you keep your Steam installation.  The folders in the mod are set up in such a way that everything should fall into the right place.


The red unit icon version of the mod needs to be removed from its folder before you try to copy and paste it into the folder that has your Steam folder.  If you leave it in the 'Red Unit Icon version inside (Steam)' folder, it won't change anything and the game won't be able to read it.
Every generation gets the Greeks and Romans it deserves.


History is a bad joke played by the living on the dead.


Senility is no excuse for feeblemindedness.

Philippe

Four textures were left out of version 1.0, so I've added them to 1.1. 

If you have the latest version, from time to time you should see something that looks like this:



The new version can be downloaded from the links in the first post of this thread. 
Every generation gets the Greeks and Romans it deserves.


History is a bad joke played by the living on the dead.


Senility is no excuse for feeblemindedness.

Philippe

Never say never.  Emerson's hobgoblin struck again and I made a small adjustment to one of the Soviet unit icons.



If your green Soviets have a red star rather than a green star on their icon, you have the latest version. 

The mod's version 1.2 can be downloaded from the links in the first post of this thread.
Every generation gets the Greeks and Romans it deserves.


History is a bad joke played by the living on the dead.


Senility is no excuse for feeblemindedness.

Philippe

The BA2 Historical Flag mod is probably finished, but I'm just waiting for confirmation that two uniticon files that I don't really feel like modding don't need to be modded (I think they're artefacts of the development process, but as I'm just finding my way through the innards of BA2, I can't be sure). 

I've uploaded version 1.3b to the links in the first post of this thread, and I'm hoping that's it (in other words you can download it now if you want to).

To summarize, I've provided two complete versions of the mod, one with German unit icons in historical grey, one with German unit icons in the game's original red.

You won't find the balkenkreuz in the red and white roundel anywhere on view (except in the version with the original German unit icons, and then only in the unit icons).

National symbols now appear on the campaign selection screen in places where the original game had left them out through an oversight (the tutorial and the German and Soviet Kursk scenarios).

The Soviet unit icon for green troops has had it's red star repainted from green to red.  The German unit icon for green troops is now partially light grey/white to reflect the color of uniform German troops wore when they were in training (and if I ever find out what kind of uniform Soviet troops wore in training, I might do something similar for them).

The Soviet and German units with awards have been repainted to reflect these few changes.

Modding the graphics of BA2 has been a bit of a pain because it uses DDS files.  To try to figure out what goes where I've had to convert large swathes of files to something viewable in a DDS converter, and even then there have been a lot of graphics files I simply can't explain (some of them are dead ends from BA1).

The other thing I haven't liked about making this mod is that it uses a lot more swastikas than BA1.  Putting together a mod with this many swastikas makes my girlfriend extremely uncomfortable, and except when I get lost in the challenge of imposing my will on the graphics, I'm not too thrilled about it either.  I'm looking forward to going back and modding games about the Middle Ages and Renaissance that use less charged symbols.
Every generation gets the Greeks and Romans it deserves.


History is a bad joke played by the living on the dead.


Senility is no excuse for feeblemindedness.

Richie61

Thanks Philippe  O0  Going to load these into JGME and fire them up!

Never saw your BA flag mod. Where can I find it?

Ed
Ed
aka Richie61

"If You Don't Stand for Something, You'll Fall for Anything"

Philippe

You can get the Battle Academy 1 mod here:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3843216

or here:

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=63876

or even here:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/287070/discussions/0/611703999965890679/

(I'm pretty sure that if you did a search at the Grogheads Forum you'd probably turn something up)

These mods are designed for MANUAL installation.  You copy the mod and paste it to wherever you keep your Steam or your Slitherine folder.  There are readme files (not a big deal in the case of BA2, but important for BA1) and installation instructions that you won't see if you just run it through an installation program.  The mod mimics the folder structure of the Steam or Slitherine installation, depending on which you use, so it's a one action installation (apart from having to click yes when Windows asks you if you want to overwrite the various folders or files).
Every generation gets the Greeks and Romans it deserves.


History is a bad joke played by the living on the dead.


Senility is no excuse for feeblemindedness.

Richie61

Philippe,

Downloaded both and installed them with JGME. Both work great! Thanks again  :notworthy:

Ed
Ed
aka Richie61

"If You Don't Stand for Something, You'll Fall for Anything"