green "shield" above soldiers/tanks

[basilio]

Hello to everybody!
I just purchased Men of War and, being an old fan of Soldiers and Faces of War, I like the game, so far!
I have just a question.
I noticed that above my soldiers/tanks there is a "green shield" with a cross.
Is it possible to disable this icon, just for realism?
By the way, what is this icon for? I could not find a description of it in the manual.
Many thanks!

[filon102]

i think its for knowing where ur troops are at o_O lol i think :realbig:

[medbrat]

As filon wrote, this is to make selecting your units easier in those circumstances when there are many mingled troops, yours and your ally, for example; or in grass, and in general, when you look across a zoomed out map and need to select your spread out units quickly.

I can't see how this has anything to do with realism, well, eye-candy graphics, perhaps. This can be switched off in mods. However, this may not be a good thing: in my experience playing BTRH mod for A1, the lack of these shields was rather painful when shepherding 50+ units...

[basilio]

As filon wrote, this is to make selecting your units easier in those circumstances when there are many mingled troops, yours and your ally, for example; or in grass, and in general, when you look across a zoomed out map and need to select your spread out units quickly.

I can't see how this has anything to do with realism, well, eye-candy graphics, perhaps. This can be switched off in mods. However, this may not be a good thing: in my experience playing BTRH mod for A1, the lack of these shields was rather painful when shepherding 50+ units...
Yes, sorry.
I meant for eye-candy only.
Just leave us the option to have this icon on or off......

[sgt_steiner]

i thought it was possible to turn all these "eye candy" things off, i could swear it was said on this forum it was possible to do so.

[Orrie]

Here's a minimod I made for removing the icons, symbols and circles around units.

Tho, every player need the mod to play against each other.

EDIT: forgot to past the link :lol:
http://www.orriekm.net/download.php?fil ... plates.rar (http://www.orriekm.net/download.php?file=Orrie%27s%20Minimods/unit_icon_templates.rar)

[Jason1]

I don't like the green shield either. Here's how to get rid of it:

Rename game.pak to game.zip
Take the file game.zip\interface\scene\squad\squad_icon.tga out and put it in a mod
Rename game.zip back to game.pak
open squad_icon.tga in Paint.NET or some other paint program and remove the shield
save squad_icon.tga (with proper transparency settings)

Run the game and the shield should be gone...

[FFA702]

it will ruin the compatibiliti for online game... so u cant play online any more! :rtfm:

[basilio]

I don't like the green shield either. Here's how to get rid of it:

Rename game.pak to game.zip
Take the file game.zip\interface\scene\squad\squad_icon.tga out and put it in a mod
Rename game.zip back to game.pak
open squad_icon.tga in Paint.NET or some other paint program and remove the shield
save squad_icon.tga (with proper transparency settings)

Run the game and the shield should be gone...

Thank you all for the answers!!!!!!!!!!!!! :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow:
Jason,
despite your description is very accurate, I don't have enough skills to use the paint.net program nor to edit the .tga file.
Could you just create the file without the shiled, so that we can install it as a mod?

[Dilust]

Yes, a mod would be appreciated.
And if all mp players have installed the same mod there is no desync problems.
Thank you all in advance.

[medbrat]

Yes, a mod would be appreciated.
And if all mp players have installed the same mod there is no desync problems.
Thank you all in advance.
Actually, replacing the icon .tga file is a better solution, since people can play with each other with standard shields/no shields with no need for a mod. There is no desync problem there, since the sound/image files are not required to be identical by the multiplayer code. Otherwise the community will be aparteided into two parts, one with the mod and one without...

[sgt_steiner]

it really shouldnt be much of a problem changing between mods and un-modded game, i found the system for applying mods very simple(click options then mods, click on mod to be applied then click apply, all done within game menu) even though i was very new to using a pc,
i fully understand that it may seem difficult if you have never used or applied a mod but once you have done one it is really easy with just a little patience.

[politruk]

it really shouldnt be much of a problem changing between mods and un-modded game, i found the system for applying mods very simple(click options then mods, click on mod to be applied then click apply, all done within game menu) even though i was very new to using a pc
That's not the problem. It's that some people simply will not know about the mod. So there will be less accessible games since half of the community will play with the mod, and the others will play without it.

[basilio]

Ok, I'm trying to edit the file myself.
Following Jason instructions I was able to extract the squad_icon.tga file.
But I am not able to make the shield trasparent.
Could someone help?
I uploaded the squad_icon.tga file to filefront.
http://files.filefront.com/squad+icontga/;13363014;/fileinfo.html
Many thanks in advance!