Gizmotron's Axis & Allies User-Mod file

strange... I've never seen that error before. are you using a non-English version of the program?

for a lot of the new entries I entered the description and name directly into the new .tgi files and bypassed entries in the Localization folder. this made it easier to make sure all of the entries got used-- and if I had something missing I could check the specific file instead of slogging through the very large Localization data files. if you're using a non-English version this method might be incompatible. I'll have to look at the patch again.

since the Kesselring SAI is part of the original game you might be able to solve the problem by simply deleting that one corrupted file. I don't see this problem in the Uncommon Valor mod-- so somewhere along the line this got fixed and I don't remember the problem specifically. but, I would suggest deleting the Kesselring SAI.tgi file and see if that helps. it's already part of the basic game so it shouldn't have any negative side-effects.

how do you get it to play the game?

this is a 'patch' that modifies the original game. it's not a stand-alone game. if you have the original "Axis & Allies" game just past the 'Data' and 'Video' folder into your Axis & Allies Program Files directory.

the correct file path is usually like this:
C:\ProgramFiles\Atari\Axis & Allies\

you need to put BOTH the Data folder and the Video folder into that file-path for all of the features to work properly.

if you don't have a fully-functioning copy of Axis & Allies this patch will do nothing but take up space on your hard-drive, sorry to say.

regiments are built out of units. a unit is any individual aircraft, infantry, ship, or vehicle that gets used in a regiment.

the original game would not allow players to have 20 active regiments at a time. I increased the limit to 180. in theory, players now have six times as many regiments. to put it in perspective. the original game allowed players to have a max of 20 infantry regiments with 9 soldiers. that meant players could have a maximum of 180 soldiers in their army. their economy could not support more than that limit. this patch allows players to have 180 regiments with 9 soldiers each. the new total could be as high as 1620 soldiers on one player's side.

Axis-and-allies.com

that's were a lot of stuff is being held. I haven't been there in a long time-- so I'm not sure if it's still online. but this is where theharkonnen, the Last Sterling, and I talked about a lot of modding ideas.

best advice I can give is download a mod and start playing it. then open up the .tgi files with a text editor and start looking at things.

half of what I've learned how to do was by studying every mod for this game I could get my hands on. after that it involved years of experimenting and trail-and-error testing. hard to explain.

feel free to download this mod and just start exploring the files. (don't change anything until after you've looked at a couple of hundred files to see how they compare). that's how I got started.

I don't have time to write an exhaustive primer on the subject. most of the important lessons learned are mentioned on the forum that I've linked to. don't know if it's still up or not-- but that's all I can afford to do right now.

I don't know how to read Chinese, unfortunately. and the google translations aren't as good as being able to read the original language. what Chinese generals are featured in the mod? what special operations did they give to China? how do they work around China's lack of armored and mechanized units during WW2?

I've seen photographs of Chinese soldiers using bazookas. this was probably limited to the forces that fought in Burma-- and perhaps the 1945 efforts to retake captured territory. I think w/o research China could use "captured" Japanese AT rifles.

this was confirmed in the latest book by Phillip Jowett "Soldiers of the White Sun". the KMT had one battalion of Panzer Mk.1s that got wiped out early in the war. I can see why they decided to use that (easier than trying to create a new T26 or Renault model. I was planning on changing the Panzer Mk.2 to look like a Panzer Mk.1. also going to use the Japanese tankette as the basis for the CV.33 that the Italians gave them.

I downloaded the mod and it's got lots of great stuff in there. tricky to play when I can't read any of the commands! I like the 10 nation interface in WW2 mode. I was in the middle of working on that myself-- so it's nice to know that it's possible!

I was trying to transform the existing "sand storm" into a "snow storm" but I'm having trouble getting the colors to change. any suggestions?

speaking of which, I was planning to use the JPN Banzai infantry as the basis for most Chinese infantry-- this way I could accurately reflect the general lack of helmets. would it be okay if my modding parter and I used some of those models? I would like to give credit where credit is due, however. likewise, if you guys wanted to use some of the 30+ special ops I've got in my mod here that would be fine. I've determined that the number of 'public' generals is 10. in the general tgi file there is a line that reads 'public = true'. this means you can't have more than 10 generals featured in the WW2 mode. if 'public = false' however, they do not appear in WW2 mode. they can be used only with the editor and in custom-made maps. there appears to be no real limit to the number of genrals that do not appear in WW2 mode. I added some generals from Canada, Australia, and the Phillipines into this mod. (I work with a half-dozen Filipinos, so I liked the idea of giving them some representation in the game)

my current plan is to use the mule ambient actor already included in the game. although it would be nice to have them capable of pulling a trailer, I don't know if I can get that to look the right way.

we're working through Italy right now. my partner has gotten most of the Italian stuff done-- now it's up to me to finish off the Alpini divisions and units-- these were the best Italian infantry units during the war. they would have stats comparable to US Marines. they often used submachine guns because these were easier to use in cramped mountainous conditions. they also had a special demolitions regiment-- so having a saboteur as a CO would be something fun to add.

the models used for Italy are mostly reskinned American and German tanks-- so, no, we don't have any working models that are specifically Italian right now.

although I finished making the functioning model-- I can add it to the game through the editor-- the model looks exactly like a regular sandstorm. I just need to figure out how to change the colors assigned to the model. even though I manually changed every single color I could find in the .nif model, changed the dds files to white, for some reason it's still showing up as though it's a regular sand-storm. my problem is making the new snow-storm look different from the sand storm. I'm not sure how to change the color assignment. usually, when you change the .dds file the colors change automatically-- but not in this particular case.

when I designed the "Artillery Barrage" special op I was thinking it would be perfect for wiping out regiments but weak against buildings. I would consider raising the power from 700 to 800-- but not more than that. at least this way it could actually destroy depots as well. although it does poorly against buildings it is the only special op that is effective at wiping out entrenched infantry in forested terrain and cities. at 1000 experience points it is also the cheapest bombing op in the game-- if I made it significantly more powerful I'd want to increase the experience points required.

y'know what? I forgot to say "thank you". I appreciate the feedback.

as far as Canada is concerned, I could easily make a duplicate British faction that uses Canadian generals (which was my original plan). however, if I were to actually try and make a full-blown new faction, I'd have to do a lot more research first.

current plan for WW2 mode is this:

United States
Great Britain
Russia
France
China
Minor Allies (Netherlands, various Allied colonies and minor participants)

Germany
Italy
Japan
Minor Axis(Eastern Europe and Finland)

if it turns out we can successfully make more than 10 self-sufficient factions I would consider working on Canada. (there was a Canadian mod that was made awhile back-- but I was never able to get it to work properly)

so-- all of those units are included in the "Uncommon Valor" mod EXCEPT the Black Prince, the AVRE, and the Archer.

Italy, France, and China are almost done. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, at least.

as far as Canada is concerned-- I was going to do a duplicate of Great Britain with Canadian generals. they're SO similar to Great Britain it made sense. I'll probably do the same with Australia. the biggest differences would be slightly different recruiting options at the Armor HQ and the Airborne HQ.