AOD DEC MOD (feat. Darkest Hour Map)

[Decriser]

Arsenal of Democracy
DEC MOD v.1.3

Highlights:
Use of the brand new DH (Darkest Hour) Map
Modified AI for more challenging gameplay
More than a dozen of new music files
Graphical enrichment with:
- New sprites (Bebro’s, Puma, Dr. Rare….)
- SKIF
Some new techs and events
More city areas in the game
Modified balancing and game mechanics
Scenarios:
1914 Great War (adapted from Darkest Hour)
1936 Road to War (like in AOD but with DH map)
1936 Victory or Valhalla (2 Player Coop – multiplayer scenario Germany and Italy / It is possible for single player,
but should be played with either Germany or Italy and would be very hard)
1936 Rising Nations (4 Player Coop - multiplayer scenario against the rest of the world / adapted IC's to give a challlenge)

What you need to play this MOD:
- Arsenal of Democracy 1.07
- Darkest Hour (because of the map)

MOD Installing:
v.1.3

- Added new tech layouts
- Bug fixing
- Minor balancing changes
- To avoid gfx problems, the adjacent.tbl from DH also has to be copied


Game Files v.1.3
https://rapidshare.com/files/3276224...DEC_MOD_1.3.7z
Mirror:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/c34c...DEC_MOD_1.3.7z

Music (optional - if not used, copy the original music)
https://rapidshare.com/files/3503295812/music.7z.001
https://rapidshare.com/files/2710934651/music.7z.002

DecMap (optional - after installing Games Files just unzip in the game main folder - Attention, only works with DecMod!)
https://rapidshare.com/files/2610887676/DecMap_v1.0.7z

New Start Menu (optional - if using 1920x1080 Resolution - just unzip in the game main folder)
https://rapidshare.com/files/2112467..._Start_Menu.7z



1.) Just download the files posted.
2.) Unpack the files with 7zip. This creates the "Arsenal of Democracy 1.07 - DEC MOD" folder.
3.) Copy from your original ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY the "AODGame.exe" Version 1.07 into the \Arsenal of Democracy 1.07 - DEC MOD folder. It has to be Version 1.07, that's important!
4.) Copy from DARKEST HOUR the 4 Lightmaps and the adjacent.tbl from \darkest hour a hoi game\map\Map_1 into the \Arsenal of Democracy 1.07 - DEC MOD\map folder.
5.) Have fun!



What about the new DH Map?
To use the DH map in AOD some intense conversion had to be done. Therfore only 1936 scenarios are available. It's really time consuming to make the conversion because very often you have to check manually file after file. There is another project form "Sid and Josip" which aims to convert the DH Map to AOD. Hopefully then also the other scenarios can be played. Until that you can use my mod. It looks stable, I did several test games, but rembember it's still v.1.0.
edit: 1914 Scenario is also available

What are the changes to the AI?
I tried do modify part of the AI like the former DAIM Project, which should make the AI more unpredictable und challenging. I removed several restrictions what the AI is allowed to do. The focus was the England AI, because I wanted them to use their navy more effective.

What about the changes in balancing and game mechanics?
- Generally all units do more strength damage. Especially air units do real damage again because I want players to use airplanes.
- Units get more experience and a higher experience combat bonus to simulate veteran units.
- Leader traits also get more combat bonus, I want you to use leaders - trait conform
- Terrain has a big combat influence again, don’t attack mountains or urban areas with tanks, don’t try to attack Russia in winter (frozen) – in my opinion the vanilla game got a bit too mainstreamed there, I reversed back to good old times.
- The stacking penalty is a bit reduced but still there
- Units lose organisation again when moving (except at really good infrastructure)
- Max 8 Tech teams allowed to weaken the big factions a bit and to slow down the research
- Moved several naval-techs to later years to encourage people building lower tier ships and not waiting (as ships don’t upgrade) until/near the end of the techtree
- Added some new techs for better combat and logistic bonuses
- Added more starting Manpower, who wants countries running out of mp?
- Several other minor tweaks

Victory or Valhalla – 2 player multiplayer scenario Germany – Italy
Italy and Germany are allied in this scenario. Germany has significant less IC and Italy some more IC then in the vanilla game. Russia is really powerful! There are some garrison units present to strengthen Russia, England and France. Russia has barricaded their most valuable provinces (land forts). This is expected for 2 human players for having a real challenge. Recommended on normal or hard difficulty. Also possible for singleplayer but not for the faint hearted!

Credits and thanks
I also used contents of other mods and add-ons. Special thanks to these people for making the game better and spending a lot of time to do this.
- Bebro, Puma & Dr. Rare for their marvellous sprites
- The darkest hour team for their wonderful new map
- SKIF project team for their really nice unit pics/icons
- Design MOD Team for their work (used some stuff)
- Titan79 and his TRIPARTITE PACK (used some stuff)
- As start/interface screen I used an old wallpaper from procer (stony road team) which is from hoi or hoi2 times
- Some of the music is also from another mod (I don’t remember, it’s some time ago), I really like these tracks – they provide a great ambience (fits the game so well)

Have fun!
Decriser


Screenshots









Optional Download DecMap

[bestmajor]

thanks, i'm downloading this.

looks all nice, but is it possible to get this without the sprites?

and well, how is speed with the new map?

[Decriser]

If you don't want to use the sprites just delete the files in the folder gfx\map\units and copy your own (or standard AOD) into it. Maybe take a look at the palette files also. If you want to use counters, you can use these anyway.

Personally I didn't notice any speed decrease because of the new map.

[bestmajor]

ok. now how do i open those files. i just downloaded this 7zip but it doesnt seem to work.

[Akhenaten]

going to try it out, thanks

@bestmajor: you need to use HJsplit or similar program first, then 7zip.

[bestmajor]

thanks Akhenaten, seems to work. checksum INVH?

[Leonaru]

Is the map conversion complete? I mean, including AI file changes etc? Because that's what let the last map conversion mod die.

[Decriser]

@bestmajor: checksum INVH is correct

@leonaru: yes all files are converted and the game is stable (as far as I was able to test). Feedback is welcome.

[bestmajor]

Feedback is welcome

ok.

i have a gfx issue on the map near munich. i didnt see it on your screens, though? - anybody else?



again, thanx a lot Decriser for this work!

as for the german OOB. i think this really needs some work? - i mean those "Home Forces" - thats a bit BS, isnt it?

something weird also are the population stats (but this is probably coming from the original. just compare the manpower points of european capitals).

big plus for adding the stalin line!

i see you're a fan of those skiff icons, but apart from that have a look here http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...hics-and-audio)
Titans counter mod is just awesome for people who like counters and the map icons are better than vanilla as well.

if you need some input with at least the german land OOB maybe take a look here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...1#post12764794 (note thats not finished as i do not intend to make an own mod, but i left some notes there about the position of divs, leaders and such things, so maybe it will be helpful).

last thing: well the urban colour really needs some work


EDIT: small note Re: the indian/british Raj; i would delete this one as all content (leaders first and foremost) are brits. Wavell, Slim, Auchinleck, Wingate, Christison are all in UK as well so its just doubling british leaders there (and there are no real indians).

EDIT2: ah well... if you can use some of my stuff feel free to take it btw...

[Decriser]

Home forces: You got me, I wasn't historically accurate about this

GFX Issue: Trie to copy your original "adjacent.tbl" from \darkest hour a hoi game\map\Map_1 to \Arsenal of Democracy 1.07 - DEC MOD\map folder

Urban colors: You mean because it's totally red on the map? I liked it, because I think these are one of the most important spots on the map, so why not giving them the attention.. What I really should do is adding Victory Points VP to all urban areas.

british raj: I like the idea from the DH-Team that they now exist as own country, because I think it makes the game more challenging in this area. Didn't notice about the leader, I will have a look into it.

Thanx for the links, really some good stuff there - in the end its often just a matter of taste what to use

[Titan79]

I see you're a fan of those skiff icons, but apart from that have a look here http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...hics-and-audio)
Titans counter mod is just awesome for people who like counters and the map icons are better than vanilla as well.

Thanks for support, bestmajor

[bestmajor]

Urban colors: You mean because it's totally red on the map? I liked it, because I think these are one of the most important spots on the map, so why not giving them the attention.. What I really should do is adding Victory Points VP to all urban areas.

well, if Tobruk and such places deserve an urban is sth i doubt.

GFX Issue: Trie to copy your original "adjacent.tbl" from \darkest hour a hoi game\map\Map_1 to \Arsenal of Democracy 1.07 - DEC MOD\map folder

thanks, this worked.

british raj: I like the idea from the DH-Team that they now exist as own country, because I think it makes the game more challenging in this area. Didn't notice about the leader, I will have a look into it.

initially i liked the idea in CORE as well, but i doubt you'll ever get the historical content for without deleting a lot of british leaders or accept doubles. same for syria and indochina. - btw all three countries dont have unique counters.

in india theres a soviet mot div

manchukuo and japan have the very same country colour.

[Decriser]

Bestmajor - thx for the feedback, indeed you did a closer look.

For sure I would work on these issues/changes, it depends a bit if people wanna play this.

[bestmajor]

well i like the DH map a lot and i'm curious if it works well with AoD.

as i'm at it, shouldnt the indian province Panjim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjim#History be portuguese?

[Julle64]

I have waited for something like this so I downloaded this as soon as I noticed it. I have just started a game as Germany, which is always a good choice if you want to test something new. So far so good and I haven't noticed any bigger bugs, only some minor issues. So here is some feedback you requested:

- intelligence cost has so far stayed at 0. WAD? Will it start to rise later?
- German interceptor model 2 is Messerschmitt 109D, but the pictures are of Heinkel 51 (?).
- In message settings there is one line at the end of the Economic list showing UNKNOWN_STRING_WANTED. I think it should say "When a production line can be upgraded".

I also noticed that Reoccupation of Rheinland doesn't give any dissent reduction anymore. This is probably WAD, so no more free minister changes for human played Germany. I always thought that it was a bit gamey.

[Decriser]

@bestmajor: Yes, Panjim was Portuguese, by converting the map I gave it to the indians. Was more or less a matter of style...

@Julle64: Thx for your hints
- Didn't change the intelligence/espionage system, but as long as you leave the espionage slider at zero and don't command new spies to be placed it stays at zero costs
- GER Interceptor Model 2 Issue is from an older version, I am gonna fix this
- UNKOWN_STRING_WANTED -> an incomplete config file "addon.csv" is the reason why - gonna fix this (if u want to do it yourself just copy the original 1.07 addon.csv into the mod folder \config\Additional)
- "Reoccupation of the Rhineland" should still give (-2 dissent), didn't change it

[glen1525]

sir i cant download this mod i tried registering but it doesnt work. mod looks great id like to try it . is there another place to download it. thanks glen1525 the rapidshare website doesnt work unless you pay. what a rip

[Julle64]

@bestmajor: Yes, Panjim was Portuguese, by converting the map I gave it to the indians. Was more or less a matter of style...

@Julle64: Thx for your hints
- Didn't change the intelligence/espionage system, but as long as you leave the espionage slider at zero and don't command new spies to be placed it stays at zero costs
- GER Interceptor Model 2 Issue is from an older version, I am gonna fix this
- UNKOWN_STRING_WANTED -> an incomplete config file "addon.csv" is the reason why - gonna fix this (if u want to do it yourself just copy the original 1.07 addon.csv into the mod folder \config\Additional)
- "Reoccupation of the Rhineland" should still give (-2 dissent), didn't change it

I was a bit unclear about the intelligence cost. What I meant was that the espionage budget has so far shown x.x/0.0. The first value x.x is how much you spend to espionage and this is user definable in the production tab. The second value is the amount you should spend to keep it "up to date" and this second value has in my game stayed at 0.0 all the time, no matter how much the first value is.

The reoccupation event didn't gave me -2 dissent. I have to try this once more.

EDIT: I retested the Rhineland event and now it fired correctly. I just don't know what happened first time.

EDIT2: Never mind the espionage problem either. I just noticed what you meant. In a vanilla AoD game you have some spies in your home country from the start but this starts with 0 spies. And that's whats kept it at 0

[Mr_B0narpte]

For sure I would work on these issues/changes, it depends a bit if people wanna play this.

If its worth anything, I want to play this.

[Decriser]

sir i cant download this mod i tried registering but it doesnt work. mod looks great id like to try it . is there another place to download it. thanks glen1525 the rapidshare website doesnt work unless you pay. what a rip

As far as I know you should be able to download this without being registered and paying. The restrictions are -> no simultaneous downloads and reduced speed.