campaign editor?

[phoenix]

I know there's a scenario editor, but can I edit the campaign in RJW? I'm sick of starting out with poorly trained Russian crews and would like to do a what-if campaign (meaning, what if the Russians had trained their crews better....) and see how I fare against the Japanese like that. So I want to change the starting experience/quality points for the Russian crews in the campaign. Does anyone know if that's possible? Thanks.

[randomizer]

You can edit the *.cam file manually as there is no public Campaign Editor available.

Save the original file some place safe.

Open The Russo Japanese War.cam file using M$ Wordpad as your text editor (or notepad but the file itself is rather big).

Use the Search function to find the ship that you wish to edit.  For example a word search for Novik will lead to the following entry:

Ship1Name=Novik
Ship1Classname=Novik(00)
Ship1LL=1212847E 381428N
Ship1CrewQuality=-1
Ship1TimeToRaiseSteam=0
Ship1Mines=0
Ship1EngineDamage=10
Ship1Course=100
Ship1AmmoLevel=100
Ship1CurrentEndurance=140000
Ship1Probability=0
Ship1Historical=1
Ship1RefitOverdue=0
Ship1InPlay=1
Ship1Reinforcement=0
Ship1RepairTime=0
Ship1Mine capacity=0
Ship1PictureName=

Edit the crew quality as desired.  Continue until you're happy then save and close ensuring that the *.cam file extension remains intact.

Should you decide to have two parallel campaigns you must ensure that whatever unique name that you give the modified *.cam file is also used in the supporting campaign files.  For example you name your edited campaign Mod RJW.cam.

Copy and rename the following files:

The Russo Japanese War.crf = Mod RJW.crf
The Russo Japanese War.txt = Mod RJW.txt
The Russo Japanese War.msn = Mod RJW.msn

Ensure that all associated files are located in the ...\Scenarios\Campaign folder.  You should now see two separate campaigns when you fire up the RJW campaign executable.

Should you use the original file name be aware that you will need to restore the stock campaign file for any future updates so saving your edited campaign under a different name makes some sense even if it is more work.

Good Luck.

[phoenix]

Many thanks, Christopher.

The only bit of all that I didn't quite understand was - 'Ensure that all associated files are located in the ...\Scenarios\Campaign folder.' Associated with what? And how do I tell if they're associated? And where will they be if not in '...scenarios\Campaign' folder? Sorry - I'm stupid when it comes to any kind of programming type stuff.

Maybe it will be clear what you mean when I try to do it.

Peter

[randomizer]

First off, none of what follows is particularly difficult and just requires basic text editing, some file management skills and a willingness to experiment.  Until you're comfortable I would recommend that you start small and always, always, always back up original files some place easy to find so that you can revert to stock as desired.  Be advised that mods may result in unusual side effects and so you should be aware of this before you begin.

Four unique files constitute a campaign and all must have the same name but feature different file extensions.  Examine the ...\Scenarios\Campaigns folder and you will see the four stock campaign files:

The Russo Japanese War.cam
The Russo Japanese War.crf
The Russo Japanese War.msn
The Russo Japanese War.txt

If you edit the stock files, the changes will be global every time you run the campaign so amending the Russian training values essentially creates a new dynamic in all future campaigns.  If this is what you want, go for it.

The technique outlined above result in an entirely new campaign so now you have Stock and your own variant and you can even edit the *.txt file to add narratives or reminders of the changes made.

There may also be a The Russo Japanese War.bak but it can be safely ignored for these purposes.  The *.bak file is generated by the game at some point and should be a copy of the stock *.cam file but I would still copy the original file and park it in a safe place.  In all of my SAI installations I created a folder, Z_Working; where files are edited and parked.  The Z_ is meaningless and serves only to ensure that the folder will always sit at the end of the folder tree and so be easy to find.

Let's say you want to give the Russian's a training advantage in a stand-alone campaign variant.  Copy all of the above files and paste them in another folder.  Rename them all to whatever you like ensuring that they all have the same names and that only the file extensions are different.  Something like:

Better Trained Russians.cam
Better Trained Russians.crf
Better Trained Russians.msn
Better Trained Russians.txt

Cut and paste these four files back into the ...\Scenarios\Campaigns folder and when you next run the SAI-RJW Campaign executable the list should now show two campaigns:

Better Trained Russians
The Russo Japanese War

All of the parameters and text will be identical to the stock game but the new training values will be in effect.  Changes to the narrative text are made on the *.txt file while Operations Points, reinforcements and other variables are in the *.crf file and these can be edited in a similar manner with the same caveats.

Good Luck

[Fredrik W]

I just want to add to the above. There is a crew quality setting for each side in a campaign which is also important. Ships crew qualities will tend to gravitate to the side crew quality. You can find that under [Side#] in the campaign file. Example:

[Side1]
Name=Russian Pacific Fleet
FlagFile=Russia.bmp
ScenarioAccuracy=0
UnspecName=
AlternatePointChance=0
Intelligence=20
RepairCapacity=1
OPPerTurn=20
OP=50
SideCrewQuality=-1
Agressive=-1
MST=4
BBRatio=0

So if you want the Russian crew quality to be better over time, you can change this to 0.

[oldpop2000]

One suggestion that I have found useful over the past thirty years of work on computers, is to change one variable at a time. Then, play the game and see how that variable affects the application. It's much easier to go backward with one change, than several.

[phoenix]

Many thanks all, especially Christopher. Very clear, thanks. I'll give it a go. To save backing up and so on I might just do a separate, additional install into a different place (already did this for Alex's mod) and mod that. The install for the game is so quick and easy it's no prob. Thanks.

[randomizer]

You're welcome!

Should you catch the modding bug at all a very handy tool is Jaeson Jone's Generic Mod Enabler (generally abbreviated to JSGME and currently in version v2.1.0.107). This brilliant little file-swapping utility adapts well to games like the SAI franchise and is very easy to learn to use once you're comfortable with modding game files.

JSGME allows you to add mods or restore your installation to stock with a single mouse click. I use quite it successfully in a number of games either with my own custom mods and those produced by third parties.

The utility is available free from a number of web sites; I won't post any links but just to a Google search for "Generic Mod Enabler download" whenever you're ready.

Thanks.

[fredsanford]

I was wondering how hard it would be to mod a few variations to the historical RJW situation for the fun of it. Say a 'maximum' Russian setup, and a 'maximum' Japanese setup?

Maximum Russian mod features assume the Russians are prepared for war, and are not surprised by beginning of hostilities. So the campaign begins on Feb 7, and the Varyag & Korietz can sortie, as well as the rest of the Russian fleet. The Russians have notification of an impending sortie by the Japanese, who have a mandatory transport mission to Chemulpo Bay. The Russians also have the Red Sea reinforcements in place, as well as the repair ship Kamchatka has deployed prior to the war and raises the Russian repair ability somewhat- materials are also assumed to be stockpiled so more OPs and repair points each turn.

Maximum Japanese mod features:
Since the Japanese are pretty much 'all in' already, this has the British intervene on the Japanese side. The Baltic Fleet never arrives, and the China station units intervene directly. Also, could something like this be an option in the land campaign events if it looks like the Russians are running away with it? Also, could Japanese behavior be modded to shift to a convoy system if they lose > than some threshold of points in TR loses?

[alex]

It is easily create such modification. For first variant you need append new ships to 1st Pacific Squadron, change reinforcements and repair capacity, increase crew quality and operational points as example.