1914: Leaders
This is one subject that hasn't been mentioned yet. We're going to need to do some more research on leaders.
This is the format of the leader file in TGW:
Name;ID;Country;Rank;Traits;Skill;Experience;Loyalty;Type;Picture;x
And this is how it will need to look in 1914:
Name;ID;Country;Rank 3 Year;Rank 2 Year;Rank 1 Year;Rank 0 Year;Ideal Rank;Max Skill;Traits;Skill;Experience;Loyalty;Type;Picture;Start Year;End Year;x
So instead of just "Rank" we have the year in which the leader reached rank 3 (Major-General/Rear Admiral), rank 2, 1 and 0 (Field Marshal/Grand Admiral). We also have an "Ideal Rank" and "Max Skill". Finally, we have the leader's start date and end (death) date to find out.
HoI2 seems to use 1930 as the default rank dates for leaders who already start the game at that rank: I suggest we use 1900 for our mod. (Unless anybody fancies doing a Boer War or Spanish-American War battlescenario and so would prefer us to use 1898? ) Similarly they use 1990 as the date for ranks the leader never reached historically. I propose we do the same for this.
Ideal Rank should be the highest rank the leader reached historically during the period 1914-24. I presume it will be the same as the rank we gave the leader in TGW in most cases.
In HoI2 most leaders' Max Skill appears to be their starting skill plus 3. I suggest we use the same formula. Exceptionally incompetent or talented leaders might get some tweaking either way.
Start Date would be the date the leader was promoted to command of a division. Leaders available from the start of the scenario use 1930 as their start date, so we should use 1900 and/or 1898.
End date is the year the leader died, retired or was sacked. We need to discuss how to handle this, since it's quite controversial in vanilla HoI2. My preference would be to only include end dates for leaders who died of natural causes (including accidents), retired due to ill-health or old age, or resigned due to unrelated political scandals - not leaders who were killed in action, shot themselves after losing their entire army to a German encirclement, or were sacked after failing a military operation. What do others think?
For leaders who should be available throughout the game, HoI2 uses 1960 as their end date; I propose using 1930 (to match up with the start of HoI2).
I assume leader IDs and picture names can stay the same as in TGW, but we'll need to test this.
So, put all this together and, to take an example, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's leader line should change from this:
Haig;56044;ENG;1;4;5;0;5;0;haig_douglas_eng;x
to this:
Haig;56044;ENG;1900;1900;1915;1916;0;8;4;5;0;5;0;haig_douglas_eng;1900;1930;x
Assuming he starts in 1914 as a corps commander, becomes an army commander at the start of 1915, and supreme commander of the BEF at the start of 1916.
Thoughts?
This is one subject that hasn't been mentioned yet. We're going to need to do some more research on leaders.
This is the format of the leader file in TGW:
Name;ID;Country;Rank;Traits;Skill;Experience;Loyalty;Type;Picture;x
And this is how it will need to look in 1914:
Name;ID;Country;Rank 3 Year;Rank 2 Year;Rank 1 Year;Rank 0 Year;Ideal Rank;Max Skill;Traits;Skill;Experience;Loyalty;Type;Picture;Start Year;End Year;x
So instead of just "Rank" we have the year in which the leader reached rank 3 (Major-General/Rear Admiral), rank 2, 1 and 0 (Field Marshal/Grand Admiral). We also have an "Ideal Rank" and "Max Skill". Finally, we have the leader's start date and end (death) date to find out.
HoI2 seems to use 1930 as the default rank dates for leaders who already start the game at that rank: I suggest we use 1900 for our mod. (Unless anybody fancies doing a Boer War or Spanish-American War battlescenario and so would prefer us to use 1898? ) Similarly they use 1990 as the date for ranks the leader never reached historically. I propose we do the same for this.
Ideal Rank should be the highest rank the leader reached historically during the period 1914-24. I presume it will be the same as the rank we gave the leader in TGW in most cases.
In HoI2 most leaders' Max Skill appears to be their starting skill plus 3. I suggest we use the same formula. Exceptionally incompetent or talented leaders might get some tweaking either way.
Start Date would be the date the leader was promoted to command of a division. Leaders available from the start of the scenario use 1930 as their start date, so we should use 1900 and/or 1898.
End date is the year the leader died, retired or was sacked. We need to discuss how to handle this, since it's quite controversial in vanilla HoI2. My preference would be to only include end dates for leaders who died of natural causes (including accidents), retired due to ill-health or old age, or resigned due to unrelated political scandals - not leaders who were killed in action, shot themselves after losing their entire army to a German encirclement, or were sacked after failing a military operation. What do others think?
For leaders who should be available throughout the game, HoI2 uses 1960 as their end date; I propose using 1930 (to match up with the start of HoI2).
I assume leader IDs and picture names can stay the same as in TGW, but we'll need to test this.
So, put all this together and, to take an example, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig's leader line should change from this:
Haig;56044;ENG;1;4;5;0;5;0;haig_douglas_eng;x
to this:
Haig;56044;ENG;1900;1900;1915;1916;0;8;4;5;0;5;0;haig_douglas_eng;1900;1930;x
Assuming he starts in 1914 as a corps commander, becomes an army commander at the start of 1915, and supreme commander of the BEF at the start of 1916.
Thoughts?