Nation Mod: The Netherlands

[jeeweej]

Hi all,

So I couldn't help myself and immediately started modding RTW3 instead of just sitting down and enjoy the game.
In this not-so-momentary madness I tried to rework an older mod I made...but in the end it turned out into a completely new and remade mod.

So I present to you:



The Netherlands 


To install:

1. Make a backup of your DATA folder! I cannot stress this enough!
2. Open the .rar
3. Select if you want to use the 1890 data or 1900 data
4. Copy the DATA and FLAGS folders from the .rar to your RTW3 folder, it should overwrite a few files
5. You are good to go to spread high-explosive Gouda cheese and heat seeking clogs all over the world!

To update:

1. (for version 0.2E and below) restore your backup of your data folder and overwrite all files (STEAM file validation might also work)
2. Copy all files from the updated version to your DATA folder (overwrite all files when asked)
3. ?? (magic?)
4. Profit from new version!

Important things to know:

1. Current version contains two sets of files: one for a 1890 start and one for a 1900 start. Pick one for the stats as specified below.
2. So far this is a standalone nation, other (standard) nations have no references to this mod in their WarInfo files.
3. Missions for all (potential) hostile nations with the exception of Spain and Italy have been modified. Spain has no specific missions at all at this point, Italy's missions are all in the Adriatic and need more rework to have them make sense. Battles should still be generated, but need more testing.
4. Things might just not work as intended. There are new values in RTW3 of which the use are not entirely clear to me so far. If you find something out of the ordinary: please let me know in this thread!
5. Turret type is set to German (TurretStyle=2) but seems to be stuck in "Generic". You can change the look of turrets in the Graphics tab in the ship designer as a workaround if you so desire.

What does this mod contain?

• Two new areas! The Netherlands in Northern Europe and the ABC Islands (Aruba/Bonaire and Curacao) in the Carribean
• Three flags (Normal/Facist/Communist)
• List of surnames for officers
• Nation-correct ranks for officers

On to the good stuff: the nation itself!
While making this mod I tried to keep it as realistic as possible. This means that, as a minor naval power, things will be hard at the beginning!
As a small country with a somewhat oversized colonial empire, your main issue will be shipbuilding capacity...and a meddling government (represented in the Inconsistent Naval Policy trait). This means you will be depending on foreign shipyards at the start.
The colonies should provide enough financial support for you to build a decent navy, but being a minor power naval treaties WILL HURT. (as far as I know the naval treaty modifier is a fixed value, so this will not change during the game) On the other hand the colonies you do have are of high value and immediately supply you with oil.

Last but not least: the Netherlands always tried to be a neutral nation. So you have no hardcoded friends nor enemies.


The stats: (if there are two stats, it's for 1890/1900)

Name: The Netherlands
Docksize: 9000/11000
Starting resources: 20000/28000
Government type: Liberal Democracy
Head of state: The Queen
Parliament name: Tweede Kamer (second chamber, the house of parliament)
Possessions: The Netherlands, ABC Islands, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes and Moluccas


National traits:

• Inconsistent Naval Policy: the Dutch government has always had a hand in meddling with naval affairs. This trait is to represent that.
• Efficient Shipbuilding Industry: though small, the Dutch have a long history in shipbuilding and know what they are doing...except when the government intervenes.

Bonus techs:
None.


Research advantages:

• Submarines: After WW1 the Netherlands hosted the NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw, a dummy company for Germany submarine designers, which gave the country a boost in submarine development. This is to represent that.
• Anti Aircraft Artillery: The Dutch navy (and in effect industry) had a heavy focus on AA after WW1 and were early adopters of the legendary 40mm Bofors AA gun, placed in the highly advanced Hazemeyer mount. 
• Radar and Electronics: This is to represent Phillips and Holland Signaal which were Dutch industries that produced radars and fire control systems both before and after WW2.
• Missile countermeasures: The Dutch produced the Goalkeeper CIWS, which was one of the few "mainstream" western CIWS platforms in its day. This trait is to represent that.

Naval guns:
2: 0/0
3: -1/0
4: -1/0
5: -1/0
6: -1/0
7: -1/-1
8: X/-1
9: -2/-1
10: -2/-1
11: -2/-1


Ship names:

BBs: Provinces of the Netherlands, De Zeven Provinciën (the standard name of the flagship of the Dutch navy), old names/references of the Netherlands and heads of state, old names of flagships
BCs: Dutch Admirals
CAs: Colonial posessions and old trade outposts/forts
CLs: Dutch cities and towns
DDs: Reptiles/serpents and Indonesian names and the D- prefix
SSs: the O- prefix (Dutch subs used the O- for subs in home waters and K- for colonial subs, I just stuck with the O)
AMCs: Merchantmen of old
CVs: Mythical creatures
CVLs: Birds of prey and insects


Aircraft manufacturers:
Fokker, Aviolanda, Van Berkel, Koolhoven, Pander, De Schelde, Spyker, Walraven


Helicopter manufacturers:
Fokker


Officer ranks:
Kapitein-Luitenant ter Zee
Kapitein ter Zee
Schout-bij-Nacht
Luitenant-Admiraal
Admiraal (player rank)


Known bugs:
The .n00 file works for both 1890 and 1900, but the settings are for a 1890 or 1900 start (you can pick from the .rar from V0.4 and upwards).
Flag in possession tab in the map screen turns red
Game thinks missions in Southeast Asia take place in Northern Europe resulting in teleporting fleets from one part of the world to the other


Changelog:
V01E
Initial release
V02E
Gave shore batteries stern talking to. They're looking the right way now.
Reworked a lot of missions in the WarInfo file
Temporarily replaced the BNat.dat missions for the Netherlands with the German ones. For some reason I had them placed in the baltic...don't ask me why.
V03E
!!THIS VERSION IS OPTIONAL NEEDS A RESTORE OF YOUR ORIGINAL DATA FOLDER!!
Converted from BNat files to a .n00 file, this restores China but makes the start for 1890 and 1900 the same (until NWS implements support for a .n90 file for a 1890 start)
Added customized battle to the Netherlands in the MapData.dat file so you don't have to fight near Helgoland anymore
Various small tweaks and fixes
V04
BNat version of the mod is no longer supported.
Small updates to .n00 file, lowered value of TreatyTonnageValue as your treaty limits was higher than Germany...which was weird. Slight edit of the parliament name to make it more in line with the rest of the game.
Added a 1890 and 1900 version to the .rar file as a quick fix. Will look for a more fancy sollution as long as there are no .n90 files.
V04.5
Small update to the MapData.dat file to (hopefully) fix exit points to ports
V05
!!THIS VERSION IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH PREVIOUS VERSIONS, START A NEW GAME OR USE V04.5!!
Replaced Italy with China as an enemy. Given the colonial holdings China makes much more sense as an enemy. No custom missions as of yet, copied the empty placeholders from the SpainWarInfo file.
Same update to the MapData.dat file as in V04.5
V06
Minor fixes for port locations and entrypoints
Minor tweaks in various missions
V07
Added national design templates, see post in this thread for details.

Download:
The Netherlands V07.rar (968.62 KB)

[tbr]

Congrats for the first nation mod in RTW3! Wouldn't it have been better to replace Austria-Hungary instead of China? The Netherlands have possessions in sea areas where Spain and China also are present, A-H is stuck in the Adria...

[TheOtherPoster]

Congratulations jeeweej, great work.

Yes, I also think that now that in RTW3 we can play against Spain and China, an Asian scenario including also the Netherlands would be just great. Japan also in the 1890 and 1900 starts should not be too strong against these nations either, making for thrilling games.

[jeeweej]

May 21, 2023 10:15:14 GMT -6 tbr said:

Congrats for the first nation mod in RTW3! Wouldn't it have been better to replace Austria-Hungary instead of China? The Netherlands have possessions in sea areas where Spain and China also are present, A-H is stuck in the Adria...

Thanks!
Actually A-H also isn't included in this mod, given that you can only have 8 AI nations as opponents. I opted to keep Russia as a potential opponent, but two of the original nations had to go.
One because of the apparent limit of 9 total nations in the BNat file (the game doesn't accept nation #10 for some reason?) and the other because you can have 8 opposing nations ingame. As this is just the very first version all can still change. If there is a demand for swapping nations, I'm all for it.

TheOtherPoster Regarding an Asia-specific campaign...that's an interesting one, hadn't thought about that one yet! Somehow I automatically went for a Europe-centric approach but that doesn't have to be the case! That would mean having China, Spain, Russia, France, Germany, the USA, Japan and UK as potential enemies? Food for thought!

[jeeweej]

If one of the mods could move this thread to the new and shiney Modding section, I would be very grateful.

[joes]

hey did you mannage to load battles on the BCWaredditor?

[jeeweej]

May 22, 2023 17:34:21 GMT -6 joes said:

hey did you mannage to load battles on the BCWaredditor?

I had to use a workaround.
The BCWarEditor has two "drawbacks":
1. It only recognizes nations from RTW 1 and 2 (Germany, A-H, GB, Italy, France, Russia, Japan, USA and CSA)
2. It only recognizes a max of 6 hostile nations (and RTW3 has 8)

So what I did was: copy my warinfo file from this mod and rename it to CSAWarinfo as a temporary file the editor recognizes (or rename it to any of the other nations the editor "knows")
Then edit the missions for the first six hostile nations. Then copy-paste those into my actual file for the mod.
After that I emptied the temporary file and copied the remaining two nations into it so you can edit them. Then copy paste those into your actual warinfo file and you have missions for all 8 nations.

Hope that makes sense.

[jeeweej]

Version V02E is now available! See the changelog for details!

[jeeweej]

Version V03E released!
This version converts the nation data to a .n00 file and has various other fixes (see the change log). This means the issue with China is fixed, but makes the 1890 and 1900 starts the same.
Therefore if you use this version, only use the 1890 start. Otherwise V02E is also still available for download, which supports both 1890 and 1900 (but still has the issue with China)

[garrisonchisholm]

As soon as this week clears up for me I'm going to be taking a look at this, I spent a lot of time testing a RTW2 Holland mod and enjoyed it quite a bit.

[jeeweej]

Jun 12, 2023 7:09:13 GMT -6 garrisonchisholm said:

As soon as this week clears up for me I'm going to be taking a look at this, I spent a lot of time testing a RTW2 Holland mod and enjoyed it quite a bit.

I hope you'll like it! CV10 did brilliant work on his mod for RTW2.
I'm working on a new version with bugfixes for the missions and other minor tweaks, but I'm a bit short on time these days so might take a bit longer. (and it's also a squash-bug-when-I-encounter-them approach)

[jeeweej]

Added version V04 with minor updates

[blueduck]

Nice mod!   Am really enjoying it.

[jeeweej]

Jun 21, 2023 9:01:45 GMT -6 blueduck said:

Nice mod!   Am really enjoying it.

Glad you like it!

[garrisonchisholm]

Where would you like bugs reported jeeweej, here or by DM? (nothing huge, just ... well, its my job lol)