US Civil War Mod ver.1.0 Beta Released

[Silent N Deadly 0]

Looks great. Great that you guys released it.

Mirror at OFP.info:

HERE

[Geriec 1]

Hey, these units are just way awesome. Thanks alot CWMOD for your hard work.

Just another possible bug ive found. Everytime the men use the Prone animation (which u said is the same with the standing position) they run as if they were in slow mo

[Sepe 1]

Great! Finally it's out! Downloading now, let's see what will we have.

Okay, finished messing around them, this includes killing poor little yanks from 5 meters with a Napoleon.

The units look great, and the bayonets work well. Then, i made a battle where the Confederate attacks the Union held McPherson's field. Looks good, i order my guys to fix their bayonets. I see some bluecoats already, and then BAM, OFP quits me to the desktop. And i didn't even save, damnit! I try again and again with different situations, and the problem seems to occur only when the AI engages someone. I can shoot freely at anything, but when the AI shoots at an enemy, to desktop we go. What could be the problem? Love your anims by the way!

[Triglav 0]

Thank you all, especially OFP.info for the mirror!

[nikki191 0]

they don't go prone? weird mine do... hmmm might be some sort of clash with the FDF mod i open flashpoint with..

Great mod, im really enjoying it, and havent noticed any lag with lots of squads either... *happy dance

[Triglav 0]

they don't go prone? weird mine do...  

If you installed our anims, then they cannot go prone.

Except officers.

[PainDealer 0]

this prone thing. it's good and on the other hand a bit bad.

the soldiers rarely (if at all) shot while being prone. then again I read a short story of gettysburg battle lately and in one part the writer only described how the wouded crawled around in the town to get some medical treatment. in the mod you get hit and keep on standing well it doesn't bother me that much but I just had to say it

one more thing. I haven't found out the way the bayonets work...

[NeMeSiS 11]

Quote[/b] ]As far as A.I. using it goes...

I have no clue how to make them use it.  

[this] Exec "\CWMusket\scripts\FixBayonet\FixCommand.sqs"

^^all units in the group with a musket will attach their bayonets

[This] Exec "\CWEnfield\scripts\FixBayonet\Fixcommand.sqs"

^^all units in the group with a enfield will attach their bayonets

not tested yet, but i think it should work...  

EDIT: just run into an enemy and you stab him  

EDIT2: i need a horse...

[Triglav 0]

Hooray!

Another mystery resolved.

This indeed works.

You put the line in the init of the group leader and immediately they all put on bayonets.

I put two squads against each other and they shot for a while, then advanced, then got into a massive bayonet brawl.

Bloody affair.

[nikki191 0]

doh, put all the addons in my res/addons folder thats why they kept going prone..oops

love the island.

Definitely need groups in the next update

[JdB 151]

Range and accuracy is short on purpose. It was difficult to hit anything with those guns in that time.

This is somewhat incorrect. Alot of high ranking officers thought the same at the time. This explains much of the around 600.000 casualties. They still thought in Napoleon era tactics. Only problem was that the range had increased about 3 times. Combined with better accuracy this made for turkeyshoots were formations would use outdated tactics with modern weapons.

And yes, I'm a history geek

On to some constructive criticism:

I have opened up the 2 main muskets (as a test), and found that both have just 2 distance lods (0.000 and 0.300). As a Lowlands Warrior member I have learned that to get good looking results with increased performance, you should make at least 5 distance lods.

This makes stuff look better and increases performance. In other words a win-win situation

[Triglav 0]

All units have just 2 lods, not only muskets, but also men and cannons.

Hitting things...in this mod you will get killed at a distance as well. Just not that easy. And casualities...hell yeah...set up two firing lines and see if anyone survives ;)

[JdB 151]

All units have just 2 lods, not only muskets, but also men and cannons.

I only checked 2 pbo's, but the principal remains the same

More distance lods = better

[PainDealer 0]

This is somewhat incorrect. Alot of high ranking officers thought the same at the time. This explains much of the around 600.000 casualties. They still thought in Napoleon era tactics. Only problem was that the range had increased about 3 times. Combined with better accuracy this made for turkeyshoots were formations would use outdated tactics with modern weapons.

that's true. the rifles in the mod are a bit too inaccurate with a bit too short range.

and the editor needs the groups. but hey it's only a beta atm

btw how does that bayonet thingy code exactly work. like where should it be typed? every unit's init line?

[taoistlumberjak 0]

i wish i remembered how to create groups, because i'd be more than happy to set up different groups for this mod (cannon batterys, 12 man infantry units, etc).

[miles teg 1]

Wow!  I wasn't expecting this mod to be this much fun to be honest.  But I'm a convert now!!!!

Oh my gosh this is sooooooooo cool.  I added the bayonet init line script above to the first waypoint of both sides and what was interesting is that the AI seem to transition automatically from bayonet to bullets themselves because I witnessed a confederate soldier bayonet a union soldier and then turn around and fire his rifle at another.   I kinda like the innaccuracy because it makes battles last longer however I think also that soldiers should have ALOT more ammo.  It sucks not having any ammo.  Interestingly though I witnessed an AI union soldier pick up ammo from a dead body.    That was pretty cool to see...of coarse I quickly ventilated him with my bayonet as he started reloading his rifle.   What I really enjoy about this mod is the really exciting close quarters combat.  I can only imagine how amazing it would be with working calvary on horses!  That would just be SOOO intense with calvary riding around shooting and breaking your lines as the infantry charge behind them.  

Also my frame rates weren't too bad with 3 squads of 10 men per side plus 4  artillery per side (and artillery officer and NCO for each cannon).  

This is definitely one of the most unique and funnest OFP mods to come around in awhile.  I also agree with others that blood textures ARE A MUST for this mod.  The civil war was noted for its very very bloody battles and it doesn't do the mod justice to have all this other realism and no blood.  Blood adds to the sense of death and horror that accompanies combat.  It also makes the players to really not want to end up like one of the bloody corpses on the field of battle.  But the main thing is that it adds a sense of historical authenticity.  

Overall I think that this beta pack was DEFINITELY worth the wait.  

Recommendations for future updates:

1. Increased accuracy on rifles (maybe not on muskets) especially on sharpshooters.

2. Blood textures.

3. Horses

4. field hospital (a table on which lays a soldier with amputated leg)  

5. A music pack with several bugle calls for charges and retreats at least.  Also fife and drum music of that era and perhaps some really nice folk music from that era such as the beautiful fiddle music used in Ken Burn's PBS documentary of the Civil War. (The music is just heartwrenching on that documentary).

6.  A face pack with faces ranging from clean shaven to guys with big sideburns and handle bar mustaches rather then having the mustaches modelled on the soldiers.

7.  More pistols from that period.

8. Civil War era civilians to include slaves.

9. Black Union infantry units

10. Perhaps later on, Buffalo soldiers (calvary) who served in the Indian Wars.

11. Civil war era voices and commands that can be triggered.

12. Models of famous generals like Grant, Lee, Sherman, ect...

All these things I think would give this mod even greater authenticity and a fantastic historic atmosphere.

Also as far as bugs go, on the Ghettysburg map, when it loads up its missing some fields object from MiG.   It would be very cool to see grassy fields on that map!

Keep up the outstanding work.  Again I'm a hardcore modern warfare type of OFP player, but this mod has made me a convert!  

All I can say is... CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!!!!!!!

I'm off to go carry the Stars & Stripes into combat!

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Guest]

Everything's great so far but I have two questins:

-How can I make a mission where the soldiers line up in a line and go towards each other without leaving the safe animation and without starting to fire at each other?

I put their waypoints to "never fire" and "careless" but still: they engage each other.

-When I build larger groups I get weird line formations. They don't line up next to each other but in a staggered formation.

[diamondweapon 0]

now all we need is a map of the s. carolina coast and fort wagner and we can re-enact Glory

[POPKA 0]

it seems to crash on mine whenever the ai shoot using certain guns, and on certain gns the ones that cause the game to crash when the ai use them you can only shoot once, if i reload the anim plays and so dose the sound but the gun dose not actually get a new round so you cant shoot again, and the top of the hats on some of the officers is missing on some of them ,

apart from these bugs i is very good , i think it may be something to do with running it on y2k3 though

[Toasty McGrath 0]

The anim and sound aren't accurate to the actual reloading time. try waiting the 20-30 seconds that they told you to wait in the readme, which you probably didn't read.

[NeMeSiS 11]

btw how does that bayonet thingy code exactly work. like where should it be typed? every unit's init line?

1 unit per group needs it in its init line, preferably the leader...

Quote[/b] ]i wish i remembered how to create groups, because i'd be more than happy to set up different groups for this mod (cannon batterys, 12 man infantry units, etc).

press F2 en drag a line between the guys you want to group?

[pickett 0]

now all we need is a map of the s. carolina coast and fort wagner and we can re-enact Glory

Great idea !

I volunteer for the re-enacting, but who is going to provide the map ?

(Not to mention a detailled model of Battery Wagner)  

[Triglav 0]

Many nice ideas here.

What can I say...

Start sending them in.  

I'll be very happy to play with fort Wagner.

I'll love to get my hands on bugle calls, drumrolls, etc.

After months of working several hours a day making these, texturing, drawing, modelling, making sounds, balancing gameplay, accuracy, distances, doing research on uniforms, rifles, etc...I'm taking a break now.    I need some rest, and when I'm back to energy I'll first start removing actual bugs in the game, and fixing existing trouble, then making new stuff.

Some friendly chap volunteered to make blood textures from existing ones. We need a volunteer to make them show up in game.

Pickett is fixing the shadows issue and some other details.

Extra lods will be a pain in the ass, but I suppose we'll pull it off...

Besides...I still didn't get any beer from any of you. How do you expect me to get anything done without it?

[Triglav 0]

About game crashes.

I have two experiences so far.

1. Napoleonic mod. Some things in configs turned out to be the same. Conflict. Crash. When wishing to play CWMOD, temporarily move all napoleonic stuff to a backup folder...when I did that I never got any conflicts again.

2. Something to do with sound and cannons. Game frequently crashed when two cannons were firing at each other. Then I set the sound and audio properties/Performance/Audio playback to low or zero hardware acceleration. Then it never crashed again. Could be that so many sounds played at the same time (gun firing, shell flying, shell exploding) if fired from many cannons at once, created a conflict and crashed the game...

[miles teg 1]

Hmm... I just realized something... Philcommando's sailing ships would work nicely with this mod.

Some offshore naval bombardment would be very cool if I can figure out if its possible to stick these civil war cannons on the decks of his ships.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>