My Napoleonic mods have all just been updated (again), and this is probably a good time to mention a few details that often get lost in the shuffle.
First, under each game title you will see three links.
The first link in each title is to a Box account, the second and third links are to Dropbox accounts.
The third link (i.e. the second Dropbox link) is to an older version of the mods that predates the latest couple of rounds of updating. I doubt that anyone will download it very often, but for now it's there, in case someone needs it (for EAW, for example). The main feature difference is that it uses Ezjax's trees.
The first two links (the Boxnet and the Dropbox links) are both currently using the same graphics (the version that became the standard a few weeks ago) but one of them has different sound files in its media folder.
Ed Williams (aka Volcano Man) has kindly agreed to allow me to include his Sound Pack for the Napoleonic Campaigns series, so you won't have to go to his Volcano Man site to download the sounds separately.
So if you want to download one of my Napoleonic mods with Ed's excellent battle sound modifications, one-stop-shopping is now an option.
The first link listed under each title (the Box link) will be the link to the version including the Volcano Man sound mod.
And the second link listed under each title (the Dropbox link) will be the link to the version that does not include the Volcano Man sound mod.
If the Box links run out of bandwidth before the end of the month, just download from the second link and then download Ed's sound mod from the Volcano Man website.
If you have any doubts about which version is which, the Box and Dropbox links have slightly different version numbers. The higher number is always the one that includes Volcano Man's mod.
By the way, a quick and dirty way to tell whether you have Volcano Man's mod installed or not is to open a scenario where there are skirmishers and make one of the shoot at something. In the plain vanilla version you should hear a single dull pop, which is kind of odd since that sound is supposed to represent fifty to a hundred skirmishers skirmishing. In Volcano Man's version more than one guy will fire, but it's sporadic firing and not an organized volley.
On another note, there are a multiple readme files and several different customization options in each of the mods.
There's generally one master readme file, one readme file that is a note to remind you to back up your original (these are essentially a form of total conversion mods and a lot will get overwritten), and a readme file that tells you how to use the special features.
Some of the special features are simple things like making parallel installs so you can make (for example) the Retreat from Moscow look different from the march on Moscow. But one of the things in the readme file is a fairly detailed set of instructions on how to do something that most people aren't familiar with, namely, how to install and/or change the desktop icons I've provided with each mod. If you use the parallel install method (described in the readme files), you'll understand why you need those extra icons.
One of the special features that I don't tend to discuss in the readme files very much is the use of alternate textures. The things that I've provided in these mods are designed to look good and work well together. You may not always agree, and so in a few cases I've provided a few simple alternatives that you can play around with if you think something might look better. The things that are most likely to have alternatives are the cover screen art, a few of the 3D map features (last time I looked there were supposed to be blood/no-blood options that could be installed -- the default is set for blood), and some of the music (usually but not always the music in the Media folder, not the Music folder).
One last comment about music.
In my own personal computer what I have done is to make copies of the existing music folders so I don't lose them (the copies are in the game folders next to the working Music folder), deleted the original versions of the music folders (so that there is no partial overwriting), and then have made a copy of the slightly modified music folder from the Leipzig game, and copied that into all the other games.
[The modification of one of the bacground files in the Leipzig game simply consisted of editing out someone yelling 'God Save the King!', since that is only appropriate in a battle where one side is English].
The end result is that there is music when you fire the game up (instead of that silly explosion sound), and I've taken pains over the quality of the win/lose/draw music. But while the game is playing you just hear clanking background noises, which are much less distracting and make it easier to concentrate on what you're doing. And it really won't matter much if the program decides to play the same sound track over and over again fifteen times. If you really want music playing in the background, there's no shortage of electronic devices that can provide it for you (I'm sure some people listen to Led Zeppelin, but I really don't want to hear about that).
_________________ Every generation gets the Greeks and Romans it deserves.
History is a bad joke played by the living on the dead.
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