Question about UI

Hi community:

I have some questions about UI. Basically I need to know how the UI system works regarding symbology. Lets me explain better with a picture.



I know the symbols up there are related to the sbps file in the "squad_ui_ext". In "Wikinger mod" we edited a lot of them but we are having problems with some of them and we have a few doubts.

My questions are:

a. What determines wether a symbol is in the first or second row ? and How can I mod that ?

b. Do the symbols that appear in the upper side of the screen work only with sbps ? or could it be moddable for ebps also ?

c. I built a bunker entity and now I want to give it a symbol. Then we created an sbps for it and tried in many ways to add a symbol but we failed. The idea is this symbol should appear in the upper side of the screen to be selected in a easy way during the game.

Thanks a lot in advance
Olhausen

I'm not a modder so I can only answer from game perspective but I hope it is at least a little helpful.

First of all there are 3 rows. First one is for infantry based units, including all team weapons and static artillery. Second is for vehicles. The third one is for brit-style emplacements. Pre-brit emplacements like flak guns or bunkers are not shown in any of the rows. That is why I would start at brit emplecaments if I was to look for the connection between unit/unit type and the row.

Additionaly I think I can give you a simple solution to the question c. If you want a bunker to show there, maybe you could copy one of brit emplacements and change it into your bunker. That way your structure should show up in the 3rd row. And honestly I think that from player perspective it makes most sense to have all selectable emplacements in 3rd row.

Do mind that the units from 3rd group (or row) are not displayed in the post-game stats becouse relic devs didn't change that view when adding brits.

I've no idea about how to answer your question. I'd also like to know the answer if possible, but I don't have the time this month to do modding.

However, here's what I know/would try:

a. What determines wether a symbol is in the first or second row ? and How can I mod that ?

Try comparing a vehicle to an infantry unit and see if there's something different in their squad_ui.

Alternatively, try changing a vehicle type from vehicle to infantry (just copy the type_ext from an infantry unit to a panzer for instance).

It could be, for instance, that the three rows are hardcoded so that the 1st one is for infantry, second one is for vehicles, etc.

Apart from brit emplacements, howitzers also belong to the 3rd row. Thus, also check what's different about them. The OKW doctrinal flak cannon might also belong there.

b. Do the symbols that appear in the upper side of the screen work only with sbps ? or could it be moddable for ebps also ?

I don't know. However, my best guess is that since those are squad shields, they are tied to sbps.

c. I built a bunker entity and now I want to give it a symbol. Then we created an sbps for it and tried in many ways to add a symbol but we failed. The idea is this symbol should appear in the upper side of the screen to be selected in a easy way during the game.

I've also failed that many times. I've tried it with the OKW FlakHQ for instance (e.g., by copying what Bofors does), but nothing worked.

What I tried (and failed) to do was copy Bofors sbps and assign flakHQ under the unit list and then prayed that this would work.

However, in retrospect I didn't try playing with the FlakHQ ebps much to adapt it (e.g,. type_ext). Thus, the key to solving this might be there (if this is even solvable).

Do mind that the units from 3rd group (or row) are not displayed in the post-game stats becouse relic devs didn't change that view when adding brits.

The option the add it to the buildlog is called "show_in_build_log" in sbps.

a. What determines wether a symbol is in the first or second row ? and How can I mod that ?

I've always cloned existing units so I don't know exactly what triggers this. But I just had a look through the files and maybe this is linked with ebps/ui_ext/kill_type. It seems that all my 3rd row units have the value 'building'.

b. Do the symbols that appear in the upper side of the screen work only with sbps ? or could it be moddable for ebps also ?

This works only with sbps indeed, but I managed to link a building with sbps. The ebps file should have the team_weapon category and the construction_squad must link to the sbps file. The team_weapon_type is 'stationary'. This sbps file has only the following categories:

c. I built a bunker entity and now I want to give it a symbol. Then we created an sbps for it and tried in many ways to add a symbol but we failed. The idea is this symbol should appear in the upper side of the screen to be selected in a easy way during the game.

I answered this at b. The game thinks your building is now a stationary team weapon . I haven't encountered any consequences of this, it acts like all other buildings.

Good luck!

The option the add it to the buildlog is called "show_in_build_log" in sbps.


I've always cloned existing units so I don't know exactly what triggers this. But I just had a look through the files and maybe this is linked with ebps/ui_ext/kill_type. It seems that all my 3rd row units have the value 'building'.


This works only with sbps indeed, but I managed to link a building with sbps. The ebps file should have the team_weapon category and the construction_squad must link to the sbps file. The team_weapon_type is 'stationary'. This sbps file has only the following categories:




I answered this at b. The game thinks your building is now a stationary team weapon . I haven't encountered any consequences of this, it acts like all other buildings.

Good luck!

Excellent! Thank you very much! Adding in the team_weapon category and setting to "tp_stationary" along with linking the sbps to the on_construction_squad did the trick.

Thanks again for your help.

Hi and thanks to all for the help. Starbuck my team mate is codding this feature and we apreciate a lot the help of the mod community.

Kind regards
Olhausen