Domination of the Draka Mod - initial stages.

[Randallw]

Domination of the Draka Mod - late stages.

Hi. For the last week or so I have been gradually starting work on a Domination of the Draka mod. If anyone is unfamiliar with it, here's the timeline.

http://users.accesscomm.ca/geis/draka/history.html

It's a dystopia, but I think if you can play Germany while glossing over the unsavoury bits it will work the same.

So far I have grouped the various nations (the Author has something for the growth of super states) and made the flag and shield for the Draka. I also figured out how, using notepad, to change the scenario files. I initially was going to work on it before springing it, but have decided it would be silly not to elicit advise if people have any.

My first question is this. Does anyone know how I am suppose to add aircraft or ships to a nation. I am building up South Africa, but using the DD editor can't add ships or air units, except for deployment or development and even then not ships.

oh and I almost forgot. IS it possible to change the alliances. I can change members and stuff for the existing ones, but as the SU is replaced in importance by the Draka I'd like to make them the third alliance.

MOD AVAILABLE
I can now announce the availability of the Domination mod.

There are a number of faults I am aware of, not least the seemingly harmless error when the domination scenario is loaded, but I plan to work on things. I decided to put aside the perfectionist need to make everything perfect and get it out into the community otherwise I'd take forever, and it's been almost eactly a year anyway .

1.3 version now available.

http://rapidshare.com/files/45867194/Draka.zip.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/45867195/jsgme.zip.html

Finally let me make clear that the mod is presented via

Scenario: Domination 36.

(I left some stuff out of the readme. It's late and I can't do anymore tonight)

 

[Faeelin]

okay, using the editor, you can add naval units. Go to the country, and then click on the tab that's labelled OOB. Click on the ports tab, and click on the tab labelled units. Then click add naval unit, then go to the divisions tab. Then click on new naval vessel.

 

[Randallw]

Thanks. It's clear now how it works. Unfortuantely there seems to be something about SAF that won't allow new ships, though I can now get new aircraft. Major powers and stuff work fine but SAF, and just to check ROM, don't allow new ships. I'm thinking perhaps they need the technology before they can build ships.

edit 1- hmm, I might have been wrong, or somethings changed. It's YUG not ROM that's the same and AST also can't make new units, even fighters. I am wondering if it has something to do with adding new provinces, although I haven't touched YUG.

edit 2- I'm pretty sure it has to do with having mucked about with SAF, even though I did the same to USA and it worked. Anyhow I just discovered how to define my own country and it allows ships so I guess I'll try moving all the provinces to the new country.

 

[TehMike]

Are you planning on adding new leaders? Do you intend to depict the technological leapfrogging that the timeline does, or are you just going to settle for the DD equvalents?

 

[Randallw]

Sorry to be so long. I desperately Want to get on with the Mod but what with this and that I have barely started to learn how to do things. I was using the Editor but it was causing errors so I have to do it manually.

To answer your questions.

Yes I will add new leaders and ministers. The Draka need ministers and leaders, but where to find pictures?. They have to be wearing black uniforms and of course there would be some women, something to show the difference between the Draka and the rest of the world.

Although not strictly necessary I will try to change other nations Ministers. So far I have the books version of Hitler and DomPedro III of the Empire of Brazil. Perhaps the US can have Black and Mexican ministers and who knows perhaps corresponding Presidential candidates.

I will be having a more balanced military, none of the god mode with the Draka having automatic rifles and modern tanks in 1940, unless someone can research that far .

The beginning of Book 1 states that the Draka have more resources and people but the US has a slightly greater IC. I will of course also have to find out how to make an AI for the Draka that will never have puppets but instead automatically annex any nation they conquer.

There's a lot to be done and I don't know when I can get started. Perhaps I should avoid actually playing DD

 

[OAM]

As I said before, I can help if you want. Also, the Drank have way less "free" people :rofl:

 

[Randallw]

That's something I need to include. The minister of security will clearly have to be a prince of terror and perhaps a few other ministers so it adds up. The Draka go to greater lengths to disuade revolts and I have renamed Garrisons as Order police with headhunters.

 

[unmerged(59851)]

I didn't read the books, but I know of the timeline because it interested me. Isn't Japan supposed to have non-Drakan China?

 

[Randallw]

Yes indeedie. I simply haven't finished the map. As soon as I make the changes I will change the map image. Taiping China was half conquered by the Draka, and the rest was a Japanese puppet. By 1936 though Japan moves in and annexes what's left. The map is the stage I reached before I had to figure out exactly where the border was. The timeline says the Draka get western China but in the first book someones lover is stationed in a province that wiki says is near the south east. But I think I must have the wrong province. I will be splitting China down the middle. You can see I gave the Domination Mongolia, Sinkiang, Tibet, Nepal etc. These were easy. I simply took every province they had and gave them to SAF using the editor. Then I gave up on the editor because it was ruining my game and bugged. I will have to finish manually. I should remove Communist China and half of whatever that green warlord is, then give everything else to Japan. I will have to work out what all the province IDs are. I am also unhappy with the small bit above India. If the allies DoW the Domination they need only take 1 province and cut off everything to the east. Problem is just to the north is Stalinobad. Why would the Draka have a province called that? . But theres nothing I can do about that so no need to worry. It's no worse than Archona apparently being called Pretoria on the map.

I also need to decide how much of New Guinea Australasia gets, and then develop all of it. New Guinea is much more developed and the allies used 2 million troops to take it back.

 

[Randallw]

Just thought I'd take a little time and find out how many divisions US had. I was thinking of giving Domination as many to make it even. US has practically no army . Well looks like I have to figure out by myself how many divisions to give the Domination. I think this US also needs more troops, and of course I have to finalise an idea of how to create a distinction between Janisaries and Citizens before I make their army. Will Janisaries be a new model of Infantry, or should citizens just be given a xp bonus. Perhaps Janisaries can be the bulk Infantry or perhaps Motorised infantry, while Citizens get the specialists, armour and mechanised infantry. Yeah I think that might be simpler. Perhaps in a later version I'll introduce a new army unit.

 

[Randallw]

Ok then. I think I have finished off the map, putting aside the chance I might mess with the borders in future. I was thinking about giving the Domination a sea port in southern china but checking some maps realised the Draka don't reach that far.

I actually figured out that I COULD use the Editor, as long as I made a copy of the folder with only the bare files needed for the Editor to work and then copying back only those files I meant to change.

Excuse me for making soonerborns comment make no sense.

 

[unmerged(59851)]

Don't worry about it.

I like your idea about the Janisaries and Citizens. I think that if you make new units, Janisaries should be a little worse than normal, and Citizens should be better.

 

[Randallw]

I am now making up leaders for the Domination. I started by copying Germanys leaders to the SAF folder and have been changing the IDs and country. I chose Germany as I think they are the closest to what I see as the Dominations form of combat (I will also be giving them the same doctrines as Germany). I will then be changing the names using British, French, German and Icelandic names that I will make up plus the few Domination officers I know of, Von Shrakenburg (Snr and Jr), Tull, Finbogasson. I should go through the books to look for more names. If anyone knows of more please tell me , hopefully with a reference so I can check their situation.

I'm thinking less Old guard, but all things being equal in the interests of fairness a few just to show the Draka can be as obstinate as others. I have been thinking of using a lot of leaders with a trait representative of the Domination. There doesn't seem to be one to improve the ability to handle partisans that I know of, so perhaps I was thinking of having lots of lower skilled officers with the logistics trait to represent that the Janisaries are given the minimum amont of supplies. These officers can be used to run the infantry, leaving the most skilled to run the citizens.

After this I will work on the tech teams, a few combines and Institutes (SAF already has a national railroad, hello the transportation combine). I will also work on the ministers. Anyone know what the Archons name was?. In Georgia there is a Staffmeeting where I think it might be mentioned, but that might be the Chief of Staff.

What I would like from people is somewhere I can find a lot, and I mean a lot, of BW pictures of soldiers to use for Leaders images. Most useful would be having them in black uniforms, and it might be hard, but women as well.

 

[Randallw]

I found a good photo of some Female Draka officers.

Seems if I want female officers I need to rely on Soviet. Darken the uniforms and I think they look suitably militant.

 

[Randallw]

Anybody got idea for events. Currently I have in mind 2 kinds of events for each time the Domination conquers a country. I put together an event for when the Draka sack Rome and thought of using it everytime a capital is conquered. The Domination gets loot but consequently raises their beligerence. Another idea I had was when the Domination nears a capital the country has a chance for their ministers to flee. If they don't they have a chance of being captured and executed. I recall there is a mod with a whole lot more events but I can't remember what it was. I'd be interested in looking at it to see what sort of events there are.

 

[Randallw]

Anyone think this idea for a skin might be too severe?

 

[unmerged(59851)]

It is a little bright.

 

[Brasidas]

Draka mods have been discussed since the game was first released. I'd done some design work in spring '05 that I'd be willing to share with you if you're interested. I don't have a great deal of time available these days, nor the interest in spending much time upon balancing and testing a new mod.

The scenario I came up with seems to be at about the same point of departure that you're using - the paradrop of "Marching Through Georgia". If the player is only meant to be playing from the Draka perspective, that's fine. But getting the AI to try to pull off the the encirclement that took place in that book would take a lot of tweaking.

Likewise, making the AI files in general to help give the Draka an appropriate personality when not played by a human would be difficult. If it is assumed that the Draka are played by a human in single player mode, things are much simpler. Multiplayer (eg. US, Germany, Draka, Japan) balancing is possible, but probably not the easiest way to start out.

Are you satisfied with just focussing upon enjoyment for a human playing the Draka?

For helping that experience, I chose to go with custom units to differentiate between the Janissary and Citizen forces.

The doctrine path for the Draka would be human wave, with an emphasis upon morale and perhaps an advanced research position (1943 techs already researched?).

Manpower gain would be added in Africa and reduced in Afghanistan. Turkey would be much the same as in the base scenario. Cores would be given to all of Africa, and limited amounts IC would be added, principally around the capital and the Nile river. Cores would not be given in China.

The player would be able to build up Janissary-class units at will within the restrictions of these resources. Manpower would be significant, but not unlimited.

Citizen manpower would be very limited though. It is possible to break the models of a given unit type, preventing upgrading, and to restrict the building of particular unit models to events. The Total Realism Project scenario uses such a system to produce unique units such as the Waffen-SS divisions and the Russian Guard divisions. The Draka could start with the bulk of its Citizen forces mobilized and have a handful of addition divisions added by event later.

The Citizen divisions would have boosted maximum org, as well as a small boost to soft attack. There are available unit models in the light_armor, militia, and fighter txt files to allow for a reasonablely long series of upgrades over the game's timeframe.

A model for how to implement the divided unit tree, the events to add more elite divisions, and the tech activations to allow for the units' upgrades without allowing them to be built with Janissary manpower exists with TRP. I discussed this with the project leader a year and a half ago and received permission to do so.

The problem with this setup is that the player could theoretically bleed these divisions dry of manpower and use "Janissary" manpower to replace them. But at least the game won't be swimming with Citizen units.

 

[OAM]

You could have an event, set to AI only, to spawn like 48 para troopers (this being 43 at the time, and the Draka are advanced) behind the main line of the Germans. AI for Germany could simply have no troops in these provinces. I'm not an expert in the field of AI, but I doubt something like that would be hard to make.

 

[Randallw]

Brasidis, I'd like to see any work you've already done.

I am not attempting to get an exact rerun of the book. I'd just like to set up the world to see how it works out. I hadn't actually planned on recreating the paradrop and anyhow I know the AI doesn't use paradrops.

I'm not specifically trying to make it just so someone can play the Domination. I'd like to make other nations viable. In fact in my test game I want to play someone other than a major, Australasia perhaps, so I can see how things go with the ai.

Making an ai, of which I know the lest, was the last thing I was going to do. I could see how difficult it was going to be.

I want to make Janissaries and citizens but thought I'd leave them for version 1 and work on it afterwards.

I was actually leaning towards german doctrines if I didn't make one up but it slipped my mind that the Janissaries do most of the fighting so I suppose human wave makes more sense.

I'd be interested to see how events making elite units work.

Until recently I would have avoided making events that spontaneously launched special attacks. I checked Pearl Harbour and it didn't look like it actually caused damage or moved units, just gave you a bonus if you were about to do it manually, but I came across the US torch event and unless I'm mistaken it moved US units and occupied provinces.

I'm trying to even things out. I have no interest in making it so the Draka have far better tech. They might have a slight advantage but not an overwhelming one.