Blitzkrieg Banzai? (SP1 Conversion)

[MarkSheppard]

Map is straight from the SP1 version through a long and convoluted automatic process (SP1toWW2.exe --> SPWW2 version 2.2 -> WW2Map.exe).

The OOB for both sides was rebuilt from scratch; with a few more toys present in this version that weren't in the SP1 version.

I still need to do more work here, such as editing the Japanese OOB to make the formations more in line with a mechanized unit; as I had to buy the APCs in a separate formation.

Right now, I'd say it's more of a PBEM only scenario until I can get more experience; this was just a quick "can we convert SP1 scenarios over?" proof of concept that I threw together; because a Japan v Germany throwdown has always intrigued me since I beat the German campaign in Iron Storm for Sega Saturn; which was... Germans v. Japanese in India for control of the world.

[glaude1955]

This is a very good idea to revive old scenarios.
Congratulations for the work done

Regards
Yves

[MarkSheppard]

From a "How To" Guide I am working on for converting scenarios:

"The scenario quality for SP1 overall is much lower than with SP2; because scenario designers could only have 48 units per side, of which one was the HQ unit.

It basically meant that if you wanted mechanized/motorized infantry; you really couldn't have much in the way of other units.

SP2 improved on this by allowing I think up to 200 units. This meant that scenarios in SP2 could become much more varied.

With the limit of 48 units per side in SP1; many scenario designers in that era went overboard with the pure tank combat (well, that and Infantry was undermodelled in SP1).

A lot of extra steps are required for a SP1 to WinSPx conversion; as opposed to a simple(r) SP2 to WinSPx conversion; so save your SP1 scenario conversions to only those scenarios that are truly interesting.

Essentially, for both games; you want to find a scenario worth your time -- you should expect to spend about 3 to 4 hours per scenario conversion; because while the map transfer can be automated; the OOB transfer can't be; and in many cases, you may want to slightly redesign parts of the scenario to be better."

[MarkSheppard]

Slight non Blitzkreig Banzai (but SP1 related) post.

I think I have figured out how to convert SP1 campaigns over. It takes a LOT more steps; but it's feasible.

[MarkSheppard]

Here's a quick precis I just wrote:'

Each SP1 Campaign is made up of multiple files:

The DAT files are essentially scenario files; but with the player's side OOB blank; making it impossible to convert directly as-is.

The campaign files are laid out as follows:

CAMP_X_Y.dat

where

X is the campaign letter. Theoretically, you could have up to 26 campaigns in SP1; but neither SSI nor Novastar ever went that high.

and

Y is the scenario letter. This means that apparently the maximum number of scenarios in a campaign in SP1 is 26.

Thus;

CAMPGA.DAT and it's associated text files (see below) are related to the seventh (G) campaign, first battle (A).

A campaign has several text files attached to it; with the following syntax:

IN : Intro text.
MV: Marginal Victory Text
ML: Marginal Loss Text
LO : Losing text

To convert; you have to rename the CAMP_X_Y.dat files to more conventional SCENxxx.dat files; so that they can be opened in the SP1 in-game editor.

E.g; you rename them as:

CAMPGA.DAT = SCEN190.DAT
CAMPGB.DAT = SCEN191.DAT
CAMPGC.DAT = SCEN192.DAT

In order to successfully dump/convert these files with SP1toWW2.EXE; you need to open them up in SP1's in-game editor, hit the BUY button for PLAYER 1; add a few random units; then SAVE the scenario again.

The re-saved SCEN file will now successfully show up and be convertable/dumpable in SP1TOWW2.EXE.

[MarkSheppard]

UPDATE:

I have successfully managed to rebuild, using:

• Borland Builder 5.00
• Fred Chlanda's Source Code

Some of Fred Chlanda's old programs, in particular his rather finnicky SP1toWW2.exe

I've managed to at least streamline it to make converting maps from SP1 format to SP2 format (aka SPWW2 Version 2.2) easier, from whence on you can convert to present SPCAMO Map Format with WW2Map.exe

I've also begun work on a Python program to strip data from SP1 scenarios; it's...very much a WIP.

Some examples of the output so far are:

Scenario Month,5
Scenario Year,40
Scenario Length,15
ScenarioType,Player 1 Assaults
Player1,Germany
Player2,Netherlands
Map Size,Large-(99x80)
Map Weather,Summer
Map Visibility,15

VLOC_ID, XLocation, YLocation, Value, Control 
0,75,41,40,1
1,76,42,80,1
2,76,40,80,1
3,76,41,30,1
4,75,50,40,1
5,76,50,40,1
6,75,51,40,1

UnitSide, UnitNumber, Unit Name, XLOC, YLOC, Experience, Morale, Formation Number, Size, Country ID 
Player1,0,GE SMG Sqd,90,38,82,87,1,1,0
Player1,1,GE Rifle Sqd,88,43,90,84,2,1,0
Player1,2,GE Rifle Sqd,86,40,98,76,2,1,0
Player1,3,GE Rifle Sqd,87,43,92,80,2,1,0
Player1,4,GE Rifle Sqd,88,45,85,86,2,1,0

What I did with SP1toWW2 was I didn't know how to remove things without breaking the program (at least not yet); So I simply moved the non relevant functions under a new drawn panel and covered them up.

[MarkSheppard]

Updated it further to work with SP1 Campaign files -- it was a simple matter of changing the mask on what got loaded from "SCEN*.DAT" to "*.DAT"

My Scenario dumper also works on SP1 Campaign files

[MarkSheppard]

I've got my dumper set up for SP1; and while I don't have the leader dump board set up completely; it's close enough.

This is the sequence:

################################################## ###########
SP1 DUMPER VERSION 1.00
################################################## ###########
SELECT SCENARIO FOLDER TO INSPECT
################################################## ###########
0.) Stock SSI Scenarios
1.) 6th Panzer Scenarios
2.) Cyberboard Scenarios
3.) Early European Scenarios
4.) East Front 1941 Scenarios
5.) East Front 1942 Scenarios
6.) East Front 1943 Scenarios
7.) East Front 1944 Scenarios
8.) East Front 1945 Scenarios
9.) East Front - Finland Scenarios
10.) Japan/PTO Scenarios
11.) Scenario Pack 1
12.) Scenario Pack 2
13.) West Front - Early War
14.) West Front - Desert War
15.) West Front - Mid-War
16.) West Front - Late War
######################################
Select Folder:10
...
Select Folder: 10
#0: Koga, Tokyo, Japan, 25 Mar 1946
#1: Kagoshima, Japan, 2 Nov 1945 42K
#2: Port Moresby, 15 Feb 1942 45P
#3: Blitzkrieg Banzai, ???
#4: Drive to Manila
#5: Fight to the Finish
#6: Through the Maze
#7: "Coming Again!"
#8: Split Down the Middle
#9: The 1,000 Yard Stare

I integrated Hapschott's SP1 collection of scenarios, it takes up about 700 MB on the hard drive lol.

The dump files are:

Dumped_Briefing.txt - Consolidates the .TXT and .CMT files into one file for quick reference.

Dumped_Scenario_Data.csv - Consolidates Month/Year of scenario, Length of Scenario, Type of Scenario (Meeting Engagement or Advance), Selected Countries, Map Size, Map Weather, Map Visibility

Dumped_Bombardments.csv - Lists all preplanned bombardments, who is firing, and who is spotting.

Dumped_Leaders.csv -- Lists all leaders, Ranks, names and rally, infantry/artillery and armored ratings. I don't know how to figure out the formation/leader board for SP1 and am not gonna put time into it for now.

Dumped_VLocations.csv -- Lists all Victory Locations (VLOCs) with their X/Y location, value, and who controls them at scenario start.

Dumped_Units.csv -- Lists unit number, formation ID (A0, etc), are they a passenger (and on what unit) or off map? X/Y Location, Experience, Morale, and Ammunition Stock levels.

################################################## ######

Future Goals: Figure out some way to decompress and then recompress the SPWW2/SPMBT DAT files.

Rather than trying for a seamless automatic conversion (too much time and effort to figure out things), the general concept will be that you:

1.) Convert the Map from SP1 to SP2 then to SPWW2 standards via WW2Map and my hacked version of SP1toWW2.

2.) Dump the Scenario information

3.) Start SPWW2 and create a scenario in the editor by using the information in the dumped files; i.e. instead of trying for an automatic translation, you simply see that the US pick list for this SP1 scenario is:

A0	Battalion HQ	
A1	M3-Halftrack	
B0	M24 Chaffee	
B1	M24 Chaffee	
C0	M24 Chaffee	
C1	M24 Chaffee	
D0	M4a3e8 Sherman	
D1	M4a3e8 Sherman	
D2	M4a3e8 Sherman	
D3	M4a3e8 Sherman	
D4	M4a3e8 Sherman	
E0	Sherman Flame	
E1	Sherman Flame	
F0	Sherman 105	
F1	Sherman 105	
G0	US SMG Sqd	Passenger - D0: M4a3e8 Sherman
G1	US SMG Sqd	Passenger - D1: M4a3e8 Sherman
G2	US SMG Sqd	Passenger - D4: M4a3e8 Sherman
H0	US Rifle Sqd	Passenger - F0: Sherman 105
H1	US Rifle Sqd	Passenger - E0: Sherman Flame
H2	US Rifle Sqd	Passenger - E1: Sherman Flame
I0	US Rifle Sqd	Passenger - D2: M4a3e8 Sherman
I1	US Rifle Sqd	Passenger - B0: M24 Chaffee
I2	US Rifle Sqd	Passenger - B1: M24 Chaffee
J0	US Engineer Sq	Passenger - C1: M24 Chaffee
J1	US Engineer Sq	Passenger - C0: M24 Chaffee
J2	US Engineer Sq	Passenger - F1: Sherman 105
K0	B-25h Mitchell	OFF MAP
K1	B-25h Mitchell	OFF MAP
L0	P-38j Lightnin	OFF MAP
L1	P-38j Lightnin	OFF MAP
M0	8 in Battery	OFF MAP
M1	155 Gun Batter	OFF MAP
M2	155 Gun Batter	OFF MAP
N0	155mm Battery	OFF MAP
N1	105mm Battery	OFF MAP
N2	105mm Battery	OFF MAP
N3	105mm Battery	OFF MAP
O0	155mm Battery	OFF MAP
O1	155mm Battery	OFF MAP
O2	155mm Battery	OFF MAP
O3	155mm Battery	OFF MAP
P0	Calliope	OFF MAP
P1	Calliope	OFF MAP

and you purchase things as needed to approximate the scenario in SPWW2.

4.) Save Scenario to disk.

5.) Use hypothetical ScenSlicer to edit the saved SPWW2 scenario with:

a.) Automatic VLOC relocation and point numbering; since they're small and simple.

b.) It then goes:

B0: M24 Chaffee -- enter X LOC: [input] enter Y LOC:

so on, since one of the tiresome tasks is finding and placing everything to the right X/Y locations.

You can then edit final "chrome" such as facings, etc in the SPWW2 editor, or in SCENHACK.

[MarkSheppard]

Improved the dump system to now do SP1 Campaigns, and made sure all the SP1 Expansion stuff was included now.

The Dump menu is now:

################################################## ###########
SELECT SCENARIO FOLDER TO INSPECT
################################################## ###########
0.) Stock SSI Scenarios
1.) ---Campaign: Poland 1939
2.) ---Campaign: France 1940
3.) ---Campaign: Normandy 1944
4.) ---Campaign: Operation Market Garden 1944
5.) ---Campaign: Warsaw 1944
6.) ---Campaign: Battle of the Bulge 1944
7.) ---Campaign: World War III
8.) ---Campaign: Barbarossa 1941
9.) ---Campaign: North Africa 1942
10.) --Campaign: Russia Attacks 1943-45
11.) --Campaign: Patton's Third Army 1944-45
12.) --Campaign: Panzer Command 1939-45
13.) --Campaign: Philippines 1941
14.) --Campaign: Japan Attacks 1939-42
-----------------------------------
15.) 6th Panzer Scenarios
16.) Cyberboard Scenarios
....

Selecting a campaign gets you this:

#0: Campaign Scenario A
#1: Campaign Scenario B
#2: Campaign Scenario C
#3: Campaign Scenario D
#4: Campaign Scenario E
#5: Campaign Scenario F
#6: Campaign Scenario H
#7: Campaign Scenario I
#8: Campaign Scenario J
#9: Campaign Scenario K
#10: Campaign Scenario L
######Max Index: 10 #######

Most of the campaigns are very simple for SP1, but the ex-Novagames stuff like "Barbarossa 1941" uses virtually all of the available scenario slots in the campaign (up to X scenario), whereas SSI scenarios only go up to like H Scenario or so.

EDIT:

Further improved the briefing text so it intelligently identifies if it's a campaign or scenario file. If it's a campaign file, it pulls together all the text files related to that scenario (formatting not exact yet):

The File we opened is: SCEN/Stock_SSI/Camp_WorldWar3_1945\CAMPGA.DAT

Campaign Scenario Intro Text:
-----------------------------------------
May 20th, 1945 -

The Grand Alliance between the U.S. and Russia is dead. Already
units from both sides have fought small skirmishes along the DMZ between the
two armies. We have just received reports that units of the 12th Mechanized
Corps are advancing near Chemitz. The U.S. 2nd Armor Division is to intercept
and engage the Russians. As part of the 2nd Armor, your combat team has been
ordered to secure the roads and villages near Chemitz. As this is a meeting
engagement, you will not have a full intelligence report.





----------------------------------------------

No Campaign Scenario Marginal Victory File!

----------------------------------------------



----------------------------------------------

No Campaign Scenario Marginal Loss File!

----------------------------------------------

Campaign Scenario Losing Text:
-----------------------------------------
The Russians have broken through our lines. The U.S. 3rd Army has been
forced to withdraw in face of overwhelming numbers. Your failure to stop
the Russians has resulted in the loss of Germany. From now on the Russians
will have the power to control the rest of Europe.

[MarkSheppard]

Here's version 1.00 -- I think it's good enough for initial beta testing.

66~ MB ZIP

It decompresses to about 5,500~ files and 931~ MB due to the nature of how messy SP1 scenarios are (uncompressed files largely).

I've discovered that Python 3.6.3 has built in support for zipfiles and am doing initial tests. If they're successful, a later version will be much, much smaller on disk.

Brief HOW TO:

So, here's how it all works.

###################

Step 1.) Run SP1_Dump_v100.exe (It's 4.9 MB because it's a python executable, and thus has a self contained python install in it).

Select your file that you want to dump via selecting folder and then the scenario.

In the _Briefing.txt file there will be a line similar to this:

"The File we opened is: SCEN/Early_Europe\SCEN030.DAT"

That's because for the purposes of this tutorial, I dumped the Early European Scenario "Croatia, April 1941"

###################

2.) Now run SP1_Map_to_WW2.exe

Click CONVERT MAP

Click LOAD SPWW2 BLANK.

Click SELECT SP1 SCEN DIRECTORY.

Navigate to the "SCEN/Early_Europe\SCEN030.DAT" folder. Select a DAT file and Click OPEN.

In the file menu on the LEFT, select:

"SCEN030.DAT->Croatia, April 1941"

Click LOAD SP1 SCEN FILE

Click CONVERT SP1 MAP

Click SAVE SPWW2 v2.2 Map

I like to save my raw maps in \OUTPUT, usually under something like "Croatia_Raw.dat"

Close SP1_Map_to_WW2.exe.

###################

3.) Run WW2Map.exe

Click on
Menu:
FILES -> LOAD MAP and select "CLRWW2v3.DAT" in the main folder. This is a blank SPWW2 map compatible with later versions.

Once it's loaded, click on
Menu:
CONVERT->WW2 2.x Map

Go into \OUTPUT and select "Croatia_Raw.dat"

The map should now change to the converted SP1 map.

Save it via:

Menu:
FILES-->SAVE MAP

And choose something like "spmap999.dat"

###################

Copy your converted "spmap999.dat" to your WinSPWW2 or WinSPMBT \Maps folder.

Start the respective games and load the map in the scenario editor and begin buying/placing stuff.