Some things to note for the PDT files.
I. If you plan on using the Weather lines in any of your designs to portray dusk and dawn turns you will want to note this info:
1. If you are using the PDT file line 4 with a value of 0 (underlined below) for the hours of twilight then the weather lines will control the visibility but the time (in bold) on line 4 needs to be the first night turn in the weather lines. These PDT lines result in the battle engine properly showing in the lower info listing of the window that its a Night turn:
5 0 <b><font color="yellow">19 0</font id="yellow"></b> <u>0</u> 1
1 1805 9 6 <b><font color="yellow">19 0</font id="yellow"></b> 100 1 100 125 50 0 0 Light Rain
2. If you are using the PDT file line 4 with a value of 1 for the hours of twilight then the weather lines wont matter and twilight would begin with the above example at 1900 lasting for four turns with night starting at 2000.
So in the first case the line four entry needs to sync with the first night turn listed in the weather lines but in the second it would be dusk instead.
Designers need to know this so that the players avoid ending up with premature darkness in the game.
Note: on weather lines you do not need to list the term "Night" as the game engine does this for you BUT if you are using the weather lines in case #1 above to portray Dusk then you need to insert the text "Dusk" (quotes not needed).
For example:
1 1805 9 6 19 0 100 16 125 125 0 -10 0 Dusk/Heavy Rain
II. New Fire Mod
There is a new fire mod in the weather line data that can be used with version 12. A value of 100 means 100 percent fire ability with any number less reducing the fire to that percentage. I used a sample line above. It comes after the Arty mod but before the Attack mod. Here is the value underlined:
1 1805 9 6 19 0 100 16 125 125 <u>0</u> -10 0 Dusk/Heavy Rain
In this case Heavy Rain has rendered musket fire impossible. The Arty mod is 125 meaning that it gets a 25 percent mod added to all fire (for mud).
This allows us to portray battles where heavy rain caused the battle to degenerate into a artillery duel and cavalry was king.
In the above example the Attack mod is -10 meaning that all attackers suffer a -10 reduction. The 0 that follows is the cav flag which if set to 1 means that cavalry could not charge.
III. Leader Command Ranges (all of you will need to know this one)
As of Austerlitz all Army/Wing/Corps commanders have a command radius. As our maps grew it become impossible to believe that Napoleon could give his bonus to Davout at Eckmuhl while he himself was near Abensberg. Thus line 8 has been upgraded to allow for more command ranges.
Here is line 8 from the Moravia pdt file:
4 5 4 6 7 6 14 18 14 18 25 18 25 42 25
The numbers are in groups of 3. Thus:
4 5 4 - brigade radius for Austrian, French, Russian
6 7 6 - division radius (nations as above)
14 18 14 - corps radius (ditto)
18 25 18 - wing radius
25 42 25 - army radius
If you are using PDT vers. 12 or later but do not want to assign a command range to these type officers then use a "0" in the place where you see a value above. Here is how it would look:
4 5 4 6 7 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
This was a big edition to the series but it is not used in all scenarios. Always check your army commander to see if you have a infinite command range or if it in fact has a limited radius.
Usually its going to be present in the scenarios that have a very large map.
IV. Ver. 13 - Bridge movement value
The Bridge MP cost is tied to the Path value. However, there are times when you may want to change the cost to reflect a narrow bridge or if you wish to change the Path MP cost as well. This value is to go at the very bottom of the PDT file on its own line just after the fractional MP cost for Disordered units.
Here is a sample:
1 1805 10 10 19 0 100 3 100 100 100 0 0 Overcast
0
5
3
2 3
4
(with 4 meaning 4 MPs to enter the Bridge hex)
Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
NWC
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