ACWCO Engineering Department

 

HPS/JTS PDT Files

Before modifying a pdt there are several things you want to keep in mind.

1. You want to be careful not to modify the existing pdt files so it doesn't affect your games.
2. You want to make sure your opponent is aware of the changes you make and agrees to them before starting the game.

The easiest way to modify a pdt file is to open it with a text editor, you can use Notepad or WordPad both of which come with most pc's or any other straight text editor. I would advise you against using Microsoft Word to work on any of these files as the way it saves the file will cause problems when the game engine attempts to use it. This is because of the way Word saves spaces and tabs in its files.
Once you open the file the first thing you want to do is to save it under a new name. Using the Save As function in the File menu you can use the original file name and add a number or letter to it such as Antietam_1A.pdt or give it a name that indicates what game it is for and your initials such as Antietam_KM1.pdt. Then when you create a scenario to use the pdt file in you can note the changes in the pdt in the description.

 

Below is the Overland2.pdt file from the Overland game.
We will go through it line by line explaining what each line does in the program.
Just remember the line numbers are for the Overland2.pdt They may change when working on other pdt files due to differences in the number of weapon lines in the pdt. Also some pdt files don't have all the functions in use and some of the values shown will be different for other pdt files. However you should be able to use this page to determine the values from any pdt file by comparing their location and make up.

8
Line 1: Version number (1 through 8)
Campaign Overland May-June 1864
Line 2: Game Title
0
Line 3: First side (0 = Union, 1 = Confederate)
4 0 21 0 1 4
Line 4: Dawn hour - 4 Dawn minute - 0 Night hour - 21 Night minute - 0 Hours of twilight - 1 Twilight visibility - 4 (if negative, causes poor weather message).
20 60
Line 5: Turn length during day turns - 20 Turn length during night turns - 60
800 5 20
Line 6: Maximum stacking in men - 800 Maximum counters per hex - 5 Number of men per Strength Point - 20 Note : Originally I recommended you not modify the Number of men per Strength Point This was tried in the Battleground series and it was discovered that it produced some glitches in the game engine. Overland is the first game that uses 20 men per Strength Point and it did not appear to cause any problems during the playtest.
6 6 12 12 24 24 32 32
Line 7: For each side Union, Confederate Brigade command radius (6 6) Division command radius (12 12) If version >= 3, for each side Corps command radius (24 24) Army command radius (32 32)
1 1 1 900 5 20
Line 8: The first 3 values are currently not used in the ACW games (1 1 1) Maximum fatigue - 900 Percent probability of fatigue recovery during day - 5 Percent probability of fatigue recovery during night - 20
12 24 12 10
Line 9: Movement allowance for Infantry - 12 Cavalry - 24 Artillery - 12 Supply wagons -10
0 0 0 0 0 - Blocked 2 2 2 2 2 - Clear 0 0 0 0 0 - Water 5 4 6 8 8 - Forest 3 3 4 6 6 - Orchard 4 4 8 0 0 - Marsh 4 1 2 2 2 - Town 2 2 3 2 2 - Field 4 4 6 0 0 - Rough 0 2 2 2 2 - Trail 0 1 1 1 1 - Road 0 1 1 1 1 - Pike 0 1 1 1 1 - Rail
Lines 10-22: For each terrain type: Movement cost for Line infantry Column infantry Cavalry Artillery Supply wagons
1 1 2 2 2 - Stream 0 0 0 0 0 - Creek 1 1 2 2 2 - Fence 1 1 2 6 6 - Stone 2 2 3 6 6 - Embankment 0 0 0 0 0 - Cut
Lines 23-28: For each terrain hex side type: Movement cost for Line infantry Column infantry Cavalry Artillery Supply wagons
1 1 2 2 2
Line 29: Movement cost for moving uphill for Line infantry - 1 Column infantry - 1 Cavalry - 2 Artillery - 2 Supply wagons - 2   Note:It was discovered while modifying the movement rates that the moving downhill cost is 1/2 of the uphill cost with fractions being dropped
2 3 2
Line 30: Change facing cost for Infantry - 2 Cavalry - 3 Artillery - 2
2 2 2
Line 31: About face cost for Infantry - 2 Cavalry - 2 Artillery - 2
4 6 3
Line 32: Formation change cost for Infantry - 4 Cavalry - 6 Artillery - 3
0
Line 33: Line formation rearward movement penalty
24 1 1
Line 34: Ammo loss base - 24 For each side: Union, Confederate; Probability of ammo loss 1 1 Note in this case this is a 1/24 chance.
3 3
Line 35: For each side: Union, Confederate; Artillery Ammo Loss for loss of artillery unit.
A 1 5 2 3 3 1 4 .5 -1
Line 36-75: For each weapon until $, fire effectiveness values. This is the multiplier used for this weapon. For an A weapon at 1 hex = 5 2 hexes = 3 3 hexes = 1 4 hexes = 0.5 The -1 indicates the previous value is the maximum range of this weapon. Note : These lines are continued for each weapon in the game. After all weapons have been assigned combat multipliers a $ is placed on the next line. The game engine converts the letter to a weapon name that is displayed in the unit box. This appears to be in the game engine itself and thus cannot be modified. There is a list of available weapons and their letter codes located on this site.
50 50 10
From this point on the Line Numbers may vary from one .pdt file to another depending on the number of weapons listed. The following line will be right after the $ indicating the end of the weapons list. Line 77:Combat modifiers for targets Enfilade modifier (in percentage) - +50 Mounted Cavalry modifier (in percentage) - +50 Gunboat modifier - +10
0 0 0 -40 -10 0 -30 -10 -30
Line 78: For each terrain type, combat modifier (in percentage). Blocked - 0 Clear - 0 Water - 0 Forest - -40 Orchard - -10 Marsh - 0 Town - -30 Field - -10 Rough - -30
0 0 0 0 -10 -20 -20 -40 -70 50
Line 79: For each terrain hex side, combat modifier (in percentage). Trail - 0 Road - 0 Pike - 0 Rail - 0 Stream - -10 Creek - -20 Fence - -20 Stone Wall - -40 Embankment - -50 Cut - +50
-20
Line 80: Elevation Combat Modifier
100 3 3 1 1 3 3 1 1 3 3
Line 81: Leader loss base (100) For each side: Union Leader fire wound chance - 3 Leader fire kill chance - 3 Leader melee wound chance - 1 Leader melee kill chance - 1 Leader melee capture chance - 3 Confederate Leader fire wound chance - 3 Leader fire kill chance - 1 Leader melee wound chance - 1 Leader melee kill chance - 3 Leader melee capture chance - 3 In most cases you will find these probabilities identical in the PDT for both sides. However John Ferry elected to set them differently for Overland. "Confederate leaders led from the front, and therefore (in Overland) stand a greater chance of being a melee casualty." "On the other hand, Union officers considered it unmanly to take cover and suffered for it when taking fire." The important thing here is the first 5 values refer to the Union and the second to the Confederates.
50 0 0 33 10 0 20 0 10 6
Line 82: For each terrain type, it's terrain height, height of a man Blocked - 50 Clear - 0 Water - 0 Forest - 33 Orchard - 10 Marsh - 0 Town - 20 Field - 0 Rough - 10 Man - 6
50 1 -50
Line 83: Probability of breastwork construction - 50 Breastwork movement cost - 1 Breastwork combat modifier (in percentage) - -50
5
Line 84: Gunboat ammo value.
6 4
Line 85: For each side: Union, Confederate; Ammo reinforcement values Union - 6 Confederate - 4
0 0 0 2 2 4 3 0 4
Line 86: For each terrain type: Blocked, Clear, Water, Forest, Orchard, Marsh, Town, Field, Rough; terrain flags 0 = none 1 = line disruption, 2 = mounted cavalry disruption 3 = line & mounted disruption 4 = Disrupt all not using column or road movement
1 20
Line 87: Abatis movement cost - 1 Abatis fire modifier - +20
3
Line 88: The movement cost to enter a skirmisher controlled hex.
4 -50
Line 89: If version >= 2, Trench movement cost - 4 Trench fire modifier (in percentage) - -50
300
Line 90: If version >= 2, night attack penalty.
200 6
Line 91: If version >= 4 Max bridge value - 200 Bridge repair value - 6 Note: The Max Bridge Value will affect the values needed for bridges to allow units to cross water hexes if the optional Bridge Limit & Repair Rule is used as noted in the help files.
50
Line 92: If version >= 5, night movement fatigue.
120
Line 93: If version >= 7 This is from the new game Chancellorsville and only used there currently. 120 Crew Kill Level - refers to the number needed to produce a Crew Killed result. Default Value is 100, higher values mean fewer crew kills, lower value means more crew kills. I have not been able to determine what the old value for this was but I know from the playtesting that crew kills were reduced with this value set at 150.
30
Line 94: If version >= 8 This is from the new game Overland and only used there currently. Trench Value - refers to the number needed to produce a Trench in a hex. This value is built turn by turn using the formuila number of men / 100 x number of turns.
1 1861 7 18 9 0 100 6 135 90 -10 0 Heavy mist
Line 95 until 0: If version >= 5 Weather Lines - Breaking this down into it's components to make it easy 1 Weather Line (a 0 indicates the end of the weather lines) 1861 Year 7 Month 18 Day 9 Hour 0 Minute 100 Probability of this line being used 6 Visibility in hexes 135 Movement Cost Modifier (100 for Clear weather = original MP cost) 90 Artillery Fire Modifier in %, normal value 100 -10 Attack-Modifier in %, normal value 0 0 Flags Name No flags defined, value should be 0. Heavy Mist - tag for weather condition, can be any text, there is a limit of 45 characters, any more than that will be cut off due to the way the engine displays it..   Note 1 : Once a weather condition is set that weather will remain in effect until a new weather condition probability is met.   Note 2 : You cannot increase the visibility of Dawn or Dusk turns beyond the number of hexes set in line 4. You can however set it below this number.   Note 3 : You can set up a weather pdt that will affect only visibility ranges. By setting the Movement and Artillery Modifiers to 100 and the Attack Modifier to 0 and setting the visibility at different ranges at different times it is possible to set up weather lines that will only affect visibility.   Note 4 : You can set up alternate weather lines. By using different probabilities for the same time period you can set up a chance of more than one weather condition. However remember if the last line for that time period satisfies it's probability that is the weather you will have so watch how you set up your weather lines.
Recently I was asked if it is possible to modify the Version number in Line 1 and add weather lines to a scenario. So I tried it using Corinth, which has a pdt with Version 2. I changed it to Version 8 and added weather lines affecting just visibility and they worked ok. In the process I discovered there is a Maximum Visibility setting for Day Turns of 70 hexes in the game engine. I didn't really test the other new functions but since the weather lines worked fine I would guess the others should also. If anyone discovers this is not true please let me know.
0
Line 267 - 0 Indicates the end of the pdt file.

Once you've made your changes to the pdt file you're going to want to try it out. See Using the Scenario Editor page for information on modifying a .scn file to use a different pdt file.