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[Shakaali]

DCG and Forgotten Countries


Paul Lowengrin's Dynamic Campaign Generator (DCG) http://il2dcg.blogspot.com/ is an excellent, very versatile campaign generator for all versions of IL2. However, it has one flaw: it has only limited number of countries available: Germany, USSR, Free France, RAF, Royal Navy, RAAF, RNZAF, USAAF, US Marine Corps, US Navy, Japan, Japanese Navy, Poland, Slovakia, Finland, Italy, Romania, Hungary and the Netherlands. Thats all.

No Nationalist Spain, no Republican Spain, no Vichy France, no [insert a country].  And there is no way to add any more countries.


However, there is a way to substitute a country with another one and create a sort of a "frankencountry".  Just four easy steps.

I'll try to show you, step by step, how to create Vichy France for DCG, replacing Romania.

NOTE: These instructions are intended to those who already know how to create DCG campaigns.

If you would like to get started, see Tailspin's old but great tutorial:
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,50725.msg553622.html#msg553622


Step 1 - The Squadrons:

Create the campaign. Use squadrons from the country you would like to use in FMB - in this case Vichy France:


 
but make corresponding dgen- files as the country you  would  like to substitute, in this case Romanian (campaignsROx,dcg, squadronsROx.dcg & planesROx.dcg)

Note that blue squadrons go to another blue country and red squadrons to another red country. There are some restrictions, see Step 4.

Note: Vichy France has squadrons with parenthesis () in their internal names, such as GB2-32(3)03. Avoid them, DCG doesn't like them.


Step 2 - Language and Emblems: 

Open the master mission file with text editor . Search for the squadron names and copy them.

Code: [Select]

[Wing]
  GCI700
  GCII301
  EC259502
  EC259603
  ECN3-1300
  GB1-32_Arm01
  Esc7B_Syr00
  GBI3901
  GAO-51000
  GRII3901



Open squadids.dat with text editor. Search for Romania and paste the squadron names right under  ro01 (delete two last digits and add a description after a few spaces):

Code: [Select]

ro01                    <none>
GCI7                    GC I/7
GCII3                   GC II/3
EC2595                  EC 2/595
EC2596                  EC 2/596
ECN3-13                 ECN 3/13
GB1-32_Arm              GB I/32
Esc7B_Syr               Esc 7B
GBI39                   GB I/39
GAO-510                 GAO 510
GRII39                  GR II/39
EO1-595                 EO I/595


Launch game and start a Romanian campaign:






Ranks and names are in Romanian, but once you launch the campaign, your pilots will speak French and their aircraft will have Vichy French markings.




Step 3 - Ranks and Medals


Go to il2mainfolder/Missions/Campaing . Make a copy of Ro folder:


 


Copy the contents of VI folder and paste it to Ro folder. Overwrite.  Restart the campaign. Ranks and medals should now be Vichy French:



 



Step 4 - Pilot names

The last step is to create a name list. DCG reads pilot names from inside the exe, but there are some countries that allow you to override hard-coded names. Currently seven countries:

Blue:  Germany (DE), Romania (RO) and Italy (IT)
Red: USSR (RU), France (FR) , USAAF (US) and the Netherlands (DU)


Create a file called xx_names.dat (xx = country ID). In this case the file is RO_names.dat. List names FIRSTNAME LASTNAME:

Code: [Select]

Claude Debussy
Fabien Barthez
Pierre Clostermann
Alexandre Dumas
Jacques Chirac

May be a tad faster and easier if you use a French name generator: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/french_names.php


Place the file in the campaign main folder.

DCG randomly combines a first name with a last name.


Launch IL2 and restart the campaign:



 






Now you have almost perfect Vichy France as a DCG Nation.

Easy, isn't it?



Remember, though:


Step 3 affects to all campaigns In order to play Romanian campaigns in the future the Ro folder must be restored from the backup

Steps 1,2 and 4 affect to this particular campaign only.

[CDS025_DOGO]

Magnificent contribution, I have flown some of your Shakaali campaigns, but I had not thought about this.
thanks for your time 

[vonOben]

Thanks for sharing this useful information, Shakaali! 

I wonder if this would work also for DGen or DGen_mod?

[vonofterdingen]

Great  information for DCG campaign builders. Many thanks!

[UberDemon]

This is awesome.... but I am thinking there has got to be a way to add the countries outright...

[Whiskey_Sierra_972]

I was working in a similar mods that update the units for WWI because all them are missing....

Into the IIRC (because I'm not at my modding rig) Regiments files there is an association between some of them into [BRANCH] section....

Those nation:

Germany, USSR, Free France, RAF, Royal Navy, RAAF, RNZAF, USAAF, US Marine Corps, US Navy, Japan, Japanese Navy, Poland, Slovakia, Finland, Italy, Romania, Hungary and the Netherlands

....are listed all as related to a main one:

USMC with US
USN with US
RAAF with GB

....so I belive that editing this with the correct association we can add all the missing nation with their best....counterpart....for example:

Nationalist Spain with DE
Republican Spain with RU
Vichy France with DE

But some test must be done about....

[Shakaali]

This is awesome.... but I am thinking there has got to be a way to add the countries outright...

The countries are hard-coded in DCG. The only one that could add nations would be Paul Lowengrin, and that is unlikely to happen because of the amount of work it needs.