Some medals for the braves

[Schugger]

Hi guys,
I've created some medals and ribbons for my own campaign and thought I might show and eventually share them.
Unfortunately, my unsolvable user-keyboard interface conundrum stroke again (chronic traumatic encepahlopathy eventually?) and I forgot how to attach the relevant files to this post so you could actually use them.
(Pictures are just samples of the whole set).
 
Air Victory Medal for five air victories (first rank)
`Mech Combat Medal for five 'Mech kills (infantry only) - 4th rank (Gold)
Medal of Valour. Awarded for 10 kills in a single scenario (note: This is the "Blue Max") - 1st rank
Service Cross. For each 50 kills in a career (5th rank, gold with Diamond 250 kills)
Wound Medal. For being wounded in combat, obviously - here fourth rank (gold)

These are the corresponding ribbons for the medals above. I have made a set of (at least) four for each one - basic, bronze, silver and Gold and written the medal/ribbon file in a way, that you get the next rank of each medal/ribbon if you award it again.

- Air Combat Ribbon 2nd rank - bronze
- Anti-Mech Ribbon 1st rank
- Medal of Valour Ribbon 2nd rank (i.e. twice managed to kill 10 enemies in a Scenario)
- Service Cross Ribbon 5th rank (see above)
- Wounded Medal Ribbon 4th rank

Edit: Here are the links to the files.
The first one gets you all those medals and ribbons I have made for my campaign, the second link gets you the txt file for all those medals and ribbons to be put into your "universe" folder.

Datei von filehorst.de laden
Datei von filehorst.de laden

[BubbleLord]

Unfortunatly, my unsolvable user-keyboard interface conundrum stroke again (chronic traumatic encepahlopathy eventually?) and I forgot how to attach the relevant files to this post so you could actually use them.

Alternatively, you can give the description/award requirement in that case so others can mod them into their games. Although I'm not a fan of the medals (minus the massive and winged blue cross), I think ribbons are sadly underrepresented. The five you have are definitely getting added to my pool (hopefully as intended if you share what they represent/how they're earned) since they add more to my ribbon color pool. I'll share mine as well to hopefully repay your own sharing.

In order, mine are for AA/AAA kills, Civilian Aide (hospice), Rumble Seat tutoring, Hippocratic Oath honoree (treating X amount of enemy combatants; really just so I can make my long-term doctors have something to show for not sucking), Improvising Combatant (basically environment or flavor-rich kills), Orbital Assault Award (hotdrops) and a basic Tech Grade (small XP reward for tech service lengths).

















Again, cheers for sharing your stuff -- hopefully more people keep it up.

[Dr. Banzai]

Here's what I've been using. The first is rank patches, the background color is determined by their role (red for MechWarriors, blue for Aero, green for Infantry, etc.). Then there are campaign ribbons and combat ribbons. The last three are special citations: Doctor's medal (can be awarded to civilians), POW, and Purple heart ribbons. I also have medals to go with the Combat and Special awards, but I'm only allowed 4 attachments... ;)

[Schugger]

Thanks Bubble Lord. Yes, all are intended as free for all :) I will edit the post above accordingly, to explain for which purpose I have made those medals and ribbons.

I do also think that you just can't have enough ribbons. They look cool but unfortunately they are quite hard to notice in the personal tab as they are displayed so small.
I really like the idea of Dr. Banzai's rank insignia, I also struggled with the idea but for the lack of ideas I never came beyond chevrons, stars and diamonds.
What would be really nice if you had some kind of uniform displayed in the personal tab, where you could not only style the uniform but also attach ribbons, medals and rank insignia to it - something like this (yeah, I found out to attach files by now ;) )

[Dr. Banzai]

The key is balance for placement. And using the mulit-medal/ribbon function. By making most awards ribbon-only, it saves up space on the screen. The rank insignia is for the medals area, and the only other awards that receive a medal are Purple Heart, the founding member pin, Blue Pulsar (4+ Kills/Scenario), Red Neutron (8+ Kills/Scenario), Distinguished Cross (12+ Kills/Scenario), and Distinctive Merit (9+ Kills/Contract). So the most medal images they have on the screen is 7 (rank insignia included), and ribbon "salad" gets most of the images.

[Schugger]

Will post a pic of one of my soldiers persona tab:
3 Medals is the maximum amount of medals they have and not that many ribbons either. Medals look fine and dandy but ribbons could have more space in my opinion.

[Dr. Banzai]

Apologies, I put the founder's pin and rank insignia in the MISC area of the awards. Here's a pic of what it looks like.

[Schugger]

Initial Post updated and provided a download link to the stuff I've made.
Free to use as anyone sees fit :)

[Schugger]

Looks like I need some help to get thos Epaulettes in the the miscellaneous award section running:
How does the xml file exactly have to look like?

I have attached my Micellaneous xml file found under data/universe/awards
and three of the epaulettes which I want to show up in the misc section of the character protrait found in data/images/awards.

I must be doing something wrong but don't know what it is :)

Edit; Cant attach xml file so here I do a copy and paste then....
Looks like I need some help to get thos Epaulettes in the the miscellaneous award section running:
How does the xml file exactly have to look like?

I have attached my Micellaneous xml file found under data/universe/awards
and three of the epaulettes which I want to show up in the misc section of the character protrait found in data/images/awards.

I must be doing something wrong but don't know what it is :)

Edit; Cant attach xml file so here I do a copy and paste then

<awards>
   <award>
      <name>Promotion</name>
      <description>Advanced up the ranks</description>
      <miscellaneous>Recruit.png</miscellaneous>
      <miscellaneous>Private.png</miscellaneous>
      <stackable>true</stackable>
      <xp>0</xp>
   </award>
</awards>

[Dr. Banzai]

I don't use the stackable on the ranks, because I have the Name and Description of the exact rank in the XML (and I award XP/Edge for promotion), but I did notice that the tag for the miscellaneous in the XML was just <misc>:

Code: [Select]


  <award>
    <name>Lieutenant, Junior Grade</name>
    <description>O1 Administration Rank</description>
    <misc>O1.png</misc>
    <xp>0</xp>
    <edge>1</edge>
  </award>
  <award>
    <name>Lieutenant, Senior Grade</name>
    <description>O2 Administration Rank</description>
    <misc>O2.png</misc>
    <xp>0</xp>
    <edge>1</edge>
  </award>


[Dr. Banzai]

Having tested out the Stackable tag, I think you issue is using <miscellaneous> instead of <misc>. I changed my one Rank XML to stackable and it worked fine.

[Schugger]

Thanks for testing this out, Dr. Banzai :)

it works as much as I am able to distribute those rewards but the graphic is not shown below the portrait.
The png is 60x150, to large eventually?

Anyway, I have done some reworking on the epaulettes: Purple for MechWarriors, Green for Infantry and Dark Blue for Navy/ASF

[Dr. Banzai]

The misc images appear in the third row. Do you have the images saved in data/images/awards/<XML FILENAME> folder?

[Schugger]

Looks like they just refuse being displayed in the third row.
I get the text in the personal log for the distribution of the award, but those rank insignia are some elusive little suckers for me ;)
Maybe I getting to boneheaded on the issue to find the mistake by myself, so your help is greatly appreciated :)
Here is a copy of my misc.xml file (data/universe/awards)
the misc folder containing all my rank insignia is in a misc folder in data/images/awards
a copy & paste of my misc xml folder:

Code: [Select]

<awards>
<award>
<name>Infantry Promotion</name>
<description>Advanced up the infantry ranks</description>
<misc>01A-Recruit.png</misc>
<misc>01B-Private.png</misc>
<misc>01C-Private First Class.png</misc>
<misc>01D-Lance Corporal.png</misc>
<misc>01E-Corporal.png</misc>
<misc>01F-Sergeant.png</misc>
<misc>01G-Staff Sergeant.png</misc>
<misc>01H-Sergeant First Class.png</misc>
<misc>01I-Master Sergeant.png</misc>
<misc>01J-Sergeant Major.png</misc>
<misc>01K-2nd Lieutenant.png</misc>
<misc>01L-1st Lieutenant.png</misc>
<misc>01M-Captain.png</misc>
<misc>01N-Major.png</misc>
<misc>01O-Lieutenant Colonel.png</misc>
<misc>01P-Colonel.png</misc>
<misc>01Q-Brigadier General.png</misc>
<misc>01R-Major General.png</misc>
<misc>01S-Lieutenant General.png</misc>
<stackable>true</stackable>
<xp>0</xp>
</award>
<award>
<name>yxz</name>
<description>test</description>
<misc>01A-Recruit.png</misc>
<stackable>false</stackable>
<xp>0</xp>
</award>
</awards>

[dgorsman]

Try dropping your XML content in a code block, like this:

Code: [Select]

  <award>
      <name>yxz</name>
      <description>test</description>
      <misc>01A-Recruit.png</misc>
      <stackable>false</stackable>
      <xp>0</xp>
   </award>

It's a bit easier to read and won't auo-smiley certain character combinations.   :thumbsup:

[Dr. Banzai]

Looks like they just refuse being displayed in the third row.
I get the text in the personal log for the distribution of the award, but those rank insignia are some elusive little suckers for me ;)
Maybe I getting to boneheaded on the issue to find the mistake by myself, so your help is greatly appreciated :)
Here is a copy of my misc.xml file (data/universe/awards)
the misc folder containing all my rank insignia is in a misc folder in data/images/awards
a copy & paste of my misc xml folder:
<awards>
   <award>
      <name>Infantry Promotion</name>
      <description>Advanced up the infantry ranks</description>
      <misc>01A-Recruit.png</misc>
      <misc>01B-Private.png</misc>
      <misc>01C-Private First Class.png</misc>
      <misc>01D-Lance Corporal.png</misc>
      <misc>01E-Corporal.png</misc>
      <misc>01F-Sergeant.png</misc>
      <misc>01G-Staff Sergeant.png</misc>
      <misc>01H-Sergeant First Class.png</misc>
      <misc>01I-Master Sergeant.png</misc>
      <misc>01J-Sergeant Major.png</misc>
      <misc>01K-2nd Lieutenant.png</misc>
      <misc>01L-1st Lieutenant.png</misc>
      <misc>01M-Captain.png</misc>
      <misc>01N-Major.png</misc>
      <misc>01O-Lieutenant Colonel.png</misc>
      <misc>01P-Colonel.png</misc>
      <misc>01Q-Brigadier General.png</misc>
      <misc>01R-Major General.png</misc>
      <misc>01S-Lieutenant General.png</misc>
      <stackable>true</stackable>
      <xp>0</xp>
   </award>
   <award>
      <name>yxz</name>
      <description>test</description>
      <misc>01A-Recruit.png</misc>
      <stackable>false</stackable>
      <xp>0</xp>
   </award>
</awards>

Just a hunch here... Try renaming the PNG files without spaces. That's the only difference I see between your code and all the other Awards code.
So, the XML and the Image file name both need to be updated to something like below:

Code: [Select]

<awards>
<award>
<name>Infantry Promotion</name>
<description>Advanced up the infantry ranks</description>
<misc>01A-Recruit.png</misc>
<misc>01B-Private.png</misc>
<misc>01C-Private_First_Class.png</misc>
<misc>01D-Lance_Corporal.png</misc>
<misc>01E-Corporal.png</misc>
<misc>01F-Sergeant.png</misc>
<misc>01G-Staff_Sergeant.png</misc>
<misc>01H-Sergeant_First_Class.png</misc>
<misc>01I-Master_Sergeant.png</misc>
<misc>01J-Sergeant_Major.png</misc>
<misc>01K-2nd_Lieutenant.png</misc>
<misc>01L-1st_Lieutenant.png</misc>
<misc>01M-Captain.png</misc>
<misc>01N-Major.png</misc>
<misc>01O-Lieutenant_Colonel.png</misc>
<misc>01P-Colonel.png</misc>
<misc>01Q-Brigadier_General.png</misc>
<misc>01R-Major_General.png</misc>
<misc>01S-Lieutenant_General.png</misc>
<stackable>true</stackable>
<xp>0</xp>
</award>
<award>
<name>yxz</name>
<description>test</description>
<misc>01A-Recruit.png</misc>
<stackable>false</stackable>
<xp>0</xp>
</award>


[Schugger]

Thx for the hint, dgorsman. It looks much cleaner this way :)

I have done the renaming and both in the xml file and also renamed the pngs. Didn't work...(see first attachement)
If the space between the name would be the issue, the the "Recruit.png" should work as there are no spaces, right?
Second attachemend is my misc folder under sata/images/awards/misc. I only finished the xml file for thegreen ones, obviously.

[Dr. Banzai]

It's a tricky thing. If I have one of the XML files with an award tag, and that doesn't have a description, it can break HQ so that I don't get the right-click menu at all. Remember, it will try to load everything before you even use them, so I'd also add the underscore for _MW and _Navy as well.

[Schugger]

It's a tricky thing...

You don't say :D

Most likely that has been the issue creating more than one xml file so the award ceremony was disturbed by hickups trying to load. Thanks for your effort :)