Peleponnesian War Scenario (in English and Italian)

Locutus · May 5, 2002, 15:45

Created by ASIER, translated by me. Download here. Here's the readme:

Peleponnesian War Scenario for Call to Power 2
----------------------------------------------

*** Legal issues ***

Downloaded from Apolyton Civilization Site
http://apolyton.net

Not to be distributed via digital media(Internet site, CD, etc) without the written permission of the Administration of Apolyton Civization Site or the Author.

THIS MATERIAL IS NOT MADE OR SUPPORTED BY ACTIVISION.

The creator and the translator (and Apolyton) are not responsible for any damage caused to your computer as a result of these files.

*** Installation ***
Simply unzip in your main CtP2 folder (by default C:\Program Files\Activision\Call to Power 2\).

*** Introduction ***
This is a Peleponnesian War Scenario for Call to Power 2, created by ASIER (email: angelarcos@euskalnet.net). It recreates the situation in Ancient Greece at the time of the Peleponnesian War (431-404 BC). You can play as either the Spartan Confederation or the Delian League (or, if you want a real challange, one of the minor nations: Persia, Illirya, Macedonians, Cretans or Neutral States) and your goal is to establish dominance over the entire Greek world.

*** Translation ***
The original scenario was made in Italian. A translation to English was made by me, Locutus (email: locutus@apolyton.net). Everything except the Great Library was translated, but the Great Library is not very important for this scenario so this shouldn't be a major problem. Note that I hardly speak any Italian whatsoever so I can't promise the translation is 100% accurate but it should certainly be playable.

*** Feedback ***
If you have problems/feedback/suggestions/etc. feel free to post about it on the forums at Apolyton (http://apolyton.net/forums). You can try emailing ASIER but keep in mind that English is not his native language. For translation issues you can also email me, Locutus.

Thank you for playing this scenario and have fun!

Wouter Snijders (also known as Locutus)

Locutus · May 14, 2002, 03:57

BTW, did I mention that this scenario includes a new city sprite, one of some sort of village (a single sprite, not a whole set)?

Immortal Wombat · May 14, 2002, 10:37

no, you didn't.

nor did I

Calgacus NM · May 25, 2002, 09:08

This is the kind of mod I've always wanted to play...thanks. I have to wait to go back home to play it though

.

Caranorn · September 5, 2002, 08:41

Hi Locutus,

I think there are some serious problems with this scenario's graphic files. The sprites appear to be fine, but the tga files are a mess. For both types of cavalry the file sizes are definitelly off (they are too large and don't fit correctly into the army windows). The same could be true for several other files. I am not certain what the exact files should be (probably 30 by 30)(all the data I had was for CTP not CTPII, and even then I have to go on memory as I don't have my old material on this computer).

The file labelling is also very strange, definitelly not standard. Looking through the scenario's data files I found among others that the graphic file ID's links the fyrdman icons to the cavalry label (not really important, but confusing) and the light (javalin) cavalry icons to the pikeman label (again confusing). Add to that non standard labeling of files (A, B, L and F versions of files are not used in teh same context as in teh original game, and then the various new files are not even constant in that labelling among themselves). All of that led me to quit editing the files for that scenario to try and fix the graphic problems. It simply became too confusing to work my way through the text and graphic files.

I expect the problem concerns allmost all the new tga files in this scenario and how they are labelled.

Marc aka Caran...

P.S.: It seems Apolyton has changed it's file storage structure and probably purged the old database. Are all the old sprite files for CTP and CTPII gone? Even Wes' MedMod seems to be gone (last I knew he and all concerned with the mod were quiting the thing, but it was workable). I still have all the material on my computer I expect, so I don't need a fresh download, but others might not find them.

P.P.S.: I also noticed I was working on a large number of 2D sprites (mostly scanned from various books and board games) just before I left myself. I doubt I'll ever finish them, but if anyone was looking for such ancient to medieval material you can point them to me.

Locutus · September 5, 2002, 11:17

Hi Caranorn,
Good to see you back

Yes, I'm aware of the graphics glitches. This is because ASIER used CtP1 units in this scenario and didn't bother to convert the tga files to CtP2 formats. It works this way as in it doesn't crash the game, but sometimes it looks weird and can be annoying. The same goes for the naming convention: those are also CtP1 style.

Since I didn't make the scenario (just the translation of the text files), this is not something I can do much about. It would be great if someone could go in and fix all these problems but I for one don't have time for this - I have too many other things to do. You could try contacting ASIER himself but since he hardly seemed to speak any English, explaining him what we want could be tricky... Also, we haven't heard from him since he sent in the scenario, for all we know he left CtP2 modmaking behind him months ago.

Anyway, as annoying as the problem is, the scenario can be played as it is just fine, so it doesn't bother me too much.

Yes, we recently introduced a new file storage system. We're still working out the details for this, which explains why the CtP1 files and some CtP2 files are still missing. These will be added over the next few weeks though (all CtP1 and the CtP2 MedMod even before the weekend, with any luck). If you need to get the files in the meantime, Wes has his own hosted site now here at Apolyton: http://wes.apolyton.net. The CtP1 files are still avaiable at their old location: http://apolyton.net/ctp/files.

He, we absolutely *love* to have any files you may have, so if you have at least some of those units done, or even half done, many of us would be very grateful if you could post them somewhere...

Caranorn · September 5, 2002, 19:32

Okay, I think I'll try doing this. Actually I already started renaming the files and saving them at the correct sizes. I will have to complete it tomorrow though.

One thing I'm no longer certain of is what type of targa formating does CTPII use? CTP used to be 16 bit per pixel, I saved at 24 bit per pixel (it seemed to be what the files were in, but it might be my default setting). This causes an error in the game (looks like a palette error. Anyhow, if I have no answer by tomorrow I will simply save all fresh at 16 bit and try that, if that fails I'll go for 32 bit. If that also fails I know it's a palette conversion problem from my Mac to PC transfer (yes I do all this on a Mac, bloody nuisance too at tims, I had to copy paste the text files as none of the Mac text formatting is the right type for CTP).

Of course I also made the usual stupid mistakes (relabeling some of the units in the uniticon.txt and forgetting to do the same to the files, then when I corrected those I noticed I had not relabelled all correctly in the txt file after all). It's just my usual sloppy work requiring a lot of trial and error

I will also delete the superficial picture files (ones not used in the scenario but included in the current download). I may look into the sprites too to give them the same ID as the tga files (ASIER gave some tga files a letter ID like archera, I renamed that for a free numerical slot but not necessarily the one used for it's icon).

And to think I yet have to play this scenario

As to my own sprites and files, they are not currently in a usable format (some are still rough scans, others cleaned scans, others complete sprites but no tga and a single entirely complete one). If I do decide to complete these, they will include a dozen medieval sprites and maybe half a dozen antique to classic. All will be 2D only. They were originally intended for my Antiquity to Renaissance mod (on a flat map and to end once the new world was discovered, though I had not finalised how I wanted that to happen, probably via world wonder, the whole mod would have been at a slower pace including many more advances appropriate for the period etc., but to do all that would just take too much time).

Marc aka Caran...

Locutus · September 6, 2002, 05:52

Cool, Caranorn

IIRC it's indeed 16-bit. But in my experience the easiest way to make TGAs is just to make a copy of an existing file and save that (not 'save as', just 'save'), that will retain all the color and compression settings and stuff...

Ah, yes, Mac -> PC and PC -> Mac can be a pain...

Hey, any files you release would be great, we can use a couple more, finished or unfinished (preferably at least more or less finished though), 2D or 3D...

Caranorn · September 6, 2002, 10:16

Okay, here is a ZIP archive to patch the scenario graphics. I decided not to send in the complete patched scenario as it's just too large. The readme file in the archive explains instalation.

Marc aka Caran...

P.S.: I labelled it 1.1p, no idea what version number ASIER's scenario would have, so I assumed 1.0 and went from there. I did not change the sprite ID's after all or adjust the picture ID's accordingly as it means too much work. I did test that the files work as they should.

Locutus · September 6, 2002, 10:23

Okay, fine by me. Can I see this as a final version and put this in the Directory, or should I test it a bit first (seems like I would be the most appropriate person to serve as playtester

)?

Either way, I'll see if I can play some tonight...

Caranorn · September 6, 2002, 14:22

Sure, you take a look at it first. It's always best to have a second person test something like this

If you think it's fine put it out in the directory (possibly make two files, 1 the full version for people who don't have it yet, the other just the zip archive to update the original).

Marc aka Caran...

P.S.: I'll go and play the scenario now, only tested before.

Locutus · September 7, 2002, 09:17

Okay, I played the scenario for a bit, it looks much better now. My sprites are still messed up (FE I get a WWII artillery unit an Athenian Trireme), but I think that might be a problem on my behalf. Other than that, it looks much better

I shall add it to the directory soon...

Locutus · September 7, 2002, 19:46

Okay, I updated the existing DB entry with a secondary file, see here. This seemed like the best solution to me - if you really want a seperate entry for this file, let me know and I'll change that.

Caranorn · September 8, 2002, 09:12

That's fine really, as the file is small I expect it's just as well to just include a link to the update.

Marc aka Caran...

P.S.: After playing the scenario a bit I must say I'm rather disapointed, especially concerning city placements. I have started to play the SPQR scenarios instead and am amazed at their quality (though it also has a few odd factors, I might also make a graphics update for that scenario as some of it's tga's are also buggy, others seem to be very low quality versions of the originals).