Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

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artofwar85
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Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby artofwar85 » Wed Mar 05, 2014 4:15 am

It is 2014 - have just bought the game, am frustrated with it and have seen posts where people have given up on the game but then others just love it and it seems a patch has never been done to add more turns or changes to the campaign so that it is easier for some but that it still is only to be played as is without I suppose the phrase would be "the consideration of the diversity of the types of players out their that have purchased the game." In other words some but seemingly many of us would like it to have which most games do different difficulty levels etc. this adds to repeat playing of the game. However, their may be those that think making the game easier would be sacrilege. (ok we got that over with)

Anyway, using the Editor the game can be made more enjoyable for the "Novice" or type of player that just wants to not have to get so frustrated just learning the game. Using the Editor one can simply just add more turns to a scenario and then play a scenario that they usually have to ache over but now they have more turns or they can use the editor to change other things in a scenario. Also, I have stumbled upon a way to change the campaign by giving its scenarios more turns and though not tested I am sure you could tweak the scenarios of the campaign wherein a particular scenario that you choose could have more units on your side etc. or even change map size - all this is done through the editor. Thank God that the makers of this game included an Editor.

Down below all of this will be a post I did on another forum that explains how to do all of this but first which actually will be covered in depth in the post below I will try and explain the overall concept read the post below to get all of the info as needed.

When one starts a campaign as we all know one file is generated that is auto saved and auto updates each time we leave the game. Most games do not do this which allows in my opinion the player to more likely enjoy the game because they can usually with most other games save it at any point and in the event they are having a bad hair day their game\campaign is not ruined but with this game in my opinion it causes each move and turn to be crucial because if you screw up you can only as it is now replay the scenario you cannot replay the turn. so if you screw up on turn 8 you can not start back at turn 6 or 7 or 8 you must replay the entire map and then when you are at turn 8 again you hope to do turn 8 better and if you don't you have to then start back over again - this frankly is a disservice to the gamers that buy this game - in my opinion but I think many of the posts in the forums support this notion.

Read this part in order to add turns to a scenario during a campaign or to any stand alone scenario
Ok with that said, in order to add turns to a campaign game (I will discuss how to save individual turns in a minute) you must add turns to the scenario that you are playing in the campaign game, duh... ok so use the editor in order to do this. Realize first that you must add turns to a scenario that occurs during a campaign before you start a new campaign maybe you could do this after you have started campaign if you know the name of the scenario before you click on it to play it .. so you could edit it before you clicked on it which locks it into the campaign file but it will probably be best to add turns to a campaign scenario before you even start a campaign which generates the campaign file. NOTE: the campaign file is put on a secretive part of your computer it is hard to find. Ok when you look at the scenarios the game has there is a list of shown under "Scenarios" what I would do if you think most scenarios need more turns is to add more turns to each of these scenarios THEN start a new campaign - If you know of a scenario and it alone only needs more turns then edit this scenario only. What you must do is for example in the "Stalingrad Campaign 1942-43 Axis" your first and only choice is the 2nd Kharkov scenario so add more turns to this scenario THEN as mentioned before start a new campaign. In order to do this properly you start the Editor, open the 2nd Kharkov scenario add turns to it and then click on save NOT SAVE AS click on save so it gives it the default scenario save name. Then you close the game and copy this file to the proper location so that when you start a campaign the 2nd Kharkov scenario will have more turns. NOTE: besides turns you could change other things too - read the Editor section in the manual to see how to do this.

This is the thing to do ... Open the Editor and then for each scenario add turns to it then start a new campaign then each scenario will have more turns or whatever else you change. I would back up the original scenarios first. I do not know if the Campaign includes all of the scenarios listed this is why I would edit all of them.

This next part is key: When you use the Editor to edit a scenario it puts it in a particular folder on your C:\ drive you must then find this file and copy it to the scenarios folder where the game is installed. When a campaign is started scenarios are played and their turns numbers are such as the ones that are listed in this scenario folder. The campaign scenarios are pulled from this scenario list. So when you add 25 turns to the 2nd Kharkov scenario and if you do not place this file into the right location where you installed the game it will not be found or seen by the campaign you start.

Ok so what you need to do now is to read all the stuff below in order to learn how to properly save a scenario so that it can be named correctly and then moved to the right location on your computer so you can then play a scenario or all scenarios in a newly started campaign with more turns or whatever else you tweak.

Read this part to replay a turn in a campaign
The campaign is saved each time automatically each time you exit the game. Therefore, if you are playing a scenario of a campaign such as BAKU that has 16 turns (I don't even know if this is in the campaign game as I said I just got this) and say it is turn 11 and you screw up turn 11 this is what you must do in order to replay the turn. If this messed up turn ruins the whole campaign at this point you could restart the scenario this map Baku but let's say you just want to replay this turn. Then what you must do unfortunately is have saved a turn prior to this turn 11 that you messed up this would be turn 10. in order to save turn 10 you must exit the game. Ok so what this means is any turn you want to save you must exit the game to save it - the problem is that the game overwrites or copies over all previous turns when you exit the game. If you leave at turn 10 you can not start the game and go to turn 9. But actually you can it is just a pain in the neck to do but it is probably a whole lot better to do this than to restart the entire map. This is how you do it. Play the campaign let's say you are playing Baku Play turn 1, then turn 2 then 3 then 4 then 5, and let's say you want to save this at turn 5 because you never ever want to replay these turns again but you want to be able to restart at turn 5 if you mess something up on this scenario then the thing to do is to now exit the game. The game saves the campaign at this turn - it save it to a file. Copy this file to a safe location on your computer then restart the game, now, if you mess up then exit the game and copy the file that you saved to a safe location that is turn 5 because that is when you saved it copy the file back over the now in existence messed up turn 6 or whatever turn you are on when you decided to restart at turn 5. For example, when you exit the game it calls the file something like Kharkov _ert so save this file then when you play the game and mess up it calls the file I think the same exact name like Kharkov_ert or if not it overwrites any other file there -- the point is there is only one file it keeps maybe with or without the same name. so if you mess up then exit the game and copy the the good file turn 5 back to where you copied it from this way when the game starts it will see the turn 5 file and you can start at turn 5. If in fact it generates a different file name than the one you saved then delete this file and then copy the good file - turn 5 back to this location.

In order to understand where all of these locations are in order to do all of this read the stuff below

Read all of this below in order to understand where the files are that you need to copy and overwrite to make all of this work. Read the stuff above to get an overall general understanding. This does actually work you can add turns to campaign scenarios and you can save a specific and or every turn of a campaign - it may be tedious but it can prevent you from having to replay turns that you have already mastered and may save you overall a lot of time and aggravation.

There is a way to have extra turns during the playing of a scenario and there is a way to save a campaign. First of all you have to be somewhat of a computer geek to do some of this but actually for most of us it will be already understood or easily learned. (Read the junk below for the entire explanation otherwise for only turn help in scenarios skip this part)
The following explanation is for Windows 7 and explains where user created scenarios and where the campaign is saved under Windows 7 on my machine BUT WILL BE similar for most windows systems. On my C: Drive and under my USERS folder there is a folder named Bob and within this folder there is a My Documents folder - Bob is my user name and the name I choose when I set up this pc so your pc will have a similar folder but a different name in the user folder unless you’re a moron and your name is Bob like mine …... The path is C:\Users\Bob\My Documents ok the reason I mentioned the My Documents folder is because this is familiar to most people however the way this game is set up the My Documents folder is irrelevant however the AppData folder is important !!! The AppData folder is within my Bob folder the path to this folder is C:\Users\Bob\AppData NOTE: VERY IMPORTANT - you will ONLY be able to see this AppData folder and, you need to be able to see it, if you first go into or have gone into your C:\ drive (click on your C:\ drive under My Computer and click on "TOOLS" at the top of this window, then, under the Tools drop down menu click on "Folder Options" click on the VIEW tab, where it reads 'Hidden files and folders' make sure you choose "Show hidden files, folders, and drives”. Then, click on APPLY - at the bottom, then OK at the bottom of this window. Being able to see this AppData folder will enable you to essentially save campaign progress and allow you to find out where your user created scenarios are - User Created Scenarios are crucial for you to have xtra turns in a scenario this will be explained later. The path to the auto save progress of a campaign is placed in the campaign folder however this folder is located at C:\Users\Bob\AppData\Roaming\Unity of Command\save\campaign\01_2nd kharkov.usg Ok this is the campaign folder and NOT the campaigns folder. The Campaigns folder is located where you installed the game. The campaign folder is located in your own Users folder and similar to the path I have just listed. Your name or the name you choose will replace the Bob above - in order to see the AppData folder you must first make your pc shows all folders and hidden files - then you open up the AppData folder then the Roaming folder which is within the AppData folder, then, the Unity of Command folder and etc. the Unity of Command folder will only be called Unity of Command if you installed the game in such a way that you choose the folder where the game is installed and you called it Unity of Command. I installed mine on my D:\ drive under the folder named "Unity of Command" path being D:\Unity of Command this is why my path reads AppData\Roaming\Unity of Command\ etc. and so on. Ok so as a campaign progresses it is auto saved to one file only and it is put in this location shown above - the above path. So therefore, what you could do is after the end of a particular map during a campaign you could go to this location on your pc and copy this auto generated file and save it to another location. This would allow you to revisit the campaign at the beginning of any map just remember to save your last auto generated file before you copy a saved file to this location I would delete any other files in this location and just have only one file in this location at a time. So therefore, you could though it would be an aggravation - you could exit out of the game after each turn during a campaign and save the file located in this location as the game auto keeps up with the progress of a campaign each time you exit the game. Then return to the game and play the next turn and if you screw up the next turn you cold exit the game which would auto save the game and the progress of the game to this location - which is at this point a screwed up mess - but then you could copy say turn 5 (assuming you saved turn 5 already and it was a good turn) to this location and then replay turn 5 where you screwed up rather than replaying the entire map. Just remember to save all turns to a separate location and only have one file in this save folder at a time so the game does not whack out. I have not tested what happens if I have multiple saved turns. ((Special Note: it is most unfortunate that unlike most any other game of this type this game auto generates only One saved game file so if you screw something up [maybe your girlfriend stops by whilst your playing] you have to replay then entire darn map including the first turns which you may have mastered – just to get to turn 5 or 6 that you screwed up at – I am sure this save method makes the playing quite redundant rather quickly.))

READ THIS IF YOU WANT EXTRA TURNS DURING A SCENARIO - This is much more easy to do. (THIS DOES NOT give you XTRA turns during a campaign game sorry) though it might if the campaign game pulls scenarios as is from the scenario list but I have not tested this.

Ok let's say you are playing the 2nd Kharkov scenario as Axis --- Again, you are not playing this during a campaign but you choose to play it as a stand alone scenario --- and you have say 9 turns and you want more turns the thing to do is to open the Editor and add turns to this scenario then to save this scenario as a user created scenario and then to play it by choosing User Created Scenarios at the game menu. And whoola you now have the number of turns that YOU specified this scenario to have. In the event you understand how to do this you are done and can go edit a scenario and give it more turns - make sure to edit the "Full Scenario Name" under "scernario properties" in order to more easily find the edited scenario. If you need more help in how to do this read on.

Ok so open the Editor the editor is the .exe file called USO-SC.exe You can open the editor by double clicking on this file at its location where you installed the game or simply click on "Scenario Editor" at your start up menu where your games shortcuts are located. so anyway start the editor. The manual for this game is located as a .pdf file where you installed the game - I installed mine to D:\Unity of Command so my manual is located here or you could click on Game Manual at the main game screen anyway the game manual has a section explaining the Editor read this section as needed to understand how to add turns to a scenario and to understand all this dribble here.

Once the Editor is open click on "Load Scenario" then click on "Base Game Scenarios" then of the scenarios listed, which are the ones that come with the game, click on the one you want to add turns to then click on "Load Scenario" at the Tool Box (read the manual if needed) click on "VIEW" then "Scenario Properties" (at the bottom) now where it says (at the top right part of this thing) "Victory\Decisive" change the number of turns to what it has to the number of turns you want for a Decisive or Victorious win. ALSO remember to change the Scenario Name - do this by changing the name that is shown at the top of this window thing under where it reads "Full Scenario Name" make it read for example 2nd Kharkov II - this will show the name "2nd Kharkov II" in your user created scenarios which will easily allow you to see the scenario that has the added turns. Then, click Ok and then [THIS IS IMPORTANT] click on File then SAVE AS - do not click on save - click on SAVE AS and name this scenario a name you can remember such as "2nd Kharkov II" if you just click anywhere in the save as part it will wipe out the entire name rather click at the end of the words to first keep the "2nd Kharkov" part of the name then add what you want like "II" ---- OK so now click "OK" then under file on the toolbox click "Quit"

In order to play this scenario with the extra turns start the game then click on "Scenarios" then "User Created Scenarios" then on the scenario you just saved, if in the Full Scenario Name of the Scenario Properties box you named it "Guns and Roses" you will see the name Guns and Roses listed as a User Created Scenario and when you click on this you will have the exact same scenario with xtra turns.

If should be noted you can more than likely tweek other things like all kinds of stuff such as units, initial terrain ownership, reinforcements, assests etc. But for just more turns do the above.

Another help may be to make your own scenario where you have say 3 times the number of units the enemy has and make this with plenty of turns and play this scenario in order to get a feel for the game.



A following Post relating to the above

Ok this is how you have extra turns during a campaign note this will change the overall feel of the base game campaign but for many it seems I think frustrating because of the small number of turns one has to play a scenario. Ok so in order to add turns to the campaign open the Editor and then since the first scenario is 2nd Kharkov open this scenario and give it more turns then save it using the save command and not the save as command as mentioned above. Using the save command will save it with the name "2nd Kharkov.usc" and this will save it to the above mentioned location now copy this file where it was save to which is in your user folder see above post and copy it to the "Scenarios" folder where your game is installed - You will be overwriting the scenario listed here which is the scenario that came with the game. you could first back up this scenario. Anyway copy this file here overwrite this scenario and when you restart the campaign the first scenario will have more turns according to the amount you specified. Do this for any campaign scenario you want just do it before you start a campaign. Maybe you could do it after you started a campaign if you have not played the scenario yet.


A following Post relating to the above

This means too that you can even edit a campaign scenario buy giving it more units assets etc not just turns. Just remember the concept of how a campaign is saved it makes one and only one file. So you may need to back this up as needed

juoc
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Re: Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby juoc » Wed Mar 05, 2014 11:50 am

Very helpful post for beginners who struggle with the game (haven't tried these things myself so I won't vouch for them)! I'd suggest trying to shorten it and maybe use numbered lists for the step-by-step parts for clarity. You should consider posting this in the game's steam forum, if you haven't already, since it is more active and the game is on sale right now. Welcome to the forum :).

artofwar85
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Re: Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby artofwar85 » Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:26 am

Ok thanks good ideas

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Snowwhite
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Re: Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby Snowwhite » Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:49 pm

I think it's really shitty how there is no easy mode for casual players. There is not enough turns for the game to be enjoyable for a lot of people. We are not all die-hard elite war gamer's.
I love the game, but gave up on it for the simple reason that the turn limit is far to tight. It's not going to hurt the developers to make the game more flexible, if anything it would help them get more sales.

Harry_vdk
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Re: Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby Harry_vdk » Mon Apr 07, 2014 7:52 pm

Snowwhite wrote:I think it's really shitty how there is no easy mode for casual players. There is not enough turns for the game to be enjoyable for a lot of people. We are not all die-hard elite war gamer's.
I love the game, but gave up on it for the simple reason that the turn limit is far to tight. It's not going to hurt the developers to make the game more flexible, if anything it would help them get more sales.


try the next version on learning level.

i hope this help.

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Snowwhite
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Re: Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby Snowwhite » Sat Apr 19, 2014 5:57 am

Harry_vdk wrote:
Snowwhite wrote:I think it's really shitty how there is no easy mode for casual players. There is not enough turns for the game to be enjoyable for a lot of people. We are not all die-hard elite war gamer's.
I love the game, but gave up on it for the simple reason that the turn limit is far to tight. It's not going to hurt the developers to make the game more flexible, if anything it would help them get more sales.


try the next version on learning level.

i hope this help.


Thank you. I might now be able to enjoy the game without such stringent time limits.
Can I play the game as normal using the learning mode? You see I didn't want anything changed except the turn limit. I mean the enemy don't just surrender at the sight of you or anything do they? :D

Oh, and does it work with the DLC?

Harry_vdk
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Re: Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby Harry_vdk » Sat Apr 19, 2014 7:40 am

Snowwhite wrote:
Harry_vdk wrote:
Snowwhite wrote:I think it's really shitty how there is no easy mode for casual players. There is not enough turns for the game to be enjoyable for a lot of people. We are not all die-hard elite war gamer's.
I love the game, but gave up on it for the simple reason that the turn limit is far to tight. It's not going to hurt the developers to make the game more flexible, if anything it would help them get more sales.


try the next version on learning level.

i hope this help.


Thank you. I might now be able to enjoy the game without such stringent time limits.
Can I play the game as normal using the learning mode? You see I didn't want anything changed except the turn limit. I mean the enemy don't just surrender at the sight of you or anything do they? :D

Oh, and does it work with the DLC?


There is no change of the scenarios play. only a change of turns, victory level and more prestige [only Learning].

This works also with the DLCs.

Its a bundel of 5 subfolders with al the campaign/scenarios [4 modified and 1 original]. And can used within the campaing mode or by selecting the scenario directly.

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Snowwhite
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Re: Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby Snowwhite » Sat Apr 19, 2014 11:18 am

Thanks for the reply Harry. So instead of choosing the campaign on game start I choose each scenario from the campaign in turn? Cool.

juoc
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Re: Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby juoc » Sat Apr 19, 2014 7:51 pm

Snowwhite wrote:Thanks for the reply Harry. So instead of choosing the campaign on game start I choose each scenario from the campaign in turn? Cool.


My understanding is that you don't need to play the scenarios separately.

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Re: Editing Campaign Replaying Turns, & More Turns.

Unread postby Snowwhite » Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:26 am

juoc wrote:
Snowwhite wrote:Thanks for the reply Harry. So instead of choosing the campaign on game start I choose each scenario from the campaign in turn? Cool.


My understanding is that you don't need to play the scenarios separately.


What does Harry say? :)