ACWCO Engineering Department

 

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 was 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 Antietam_Weather.pdt file from HPS Antietam.
We will go through it line by line explaining what each line does in the program.
Just remember the line numbers are for the Antietam_Weather.pdt They may change when working on other pdt files due to differences in the number of weapon lines in the pdt. Also some dpt files don't have all the functions in us 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.

6
Line 1: Version number (1 through 6)
Campaign Antietam
Line 2: Game Title
0
Line 3: First side (0 = Union, 1 = Confederate)
5 0 20 0 1 4
Line 4: Dawn hour - 5 Dawn minute - 0 Night hour - 20 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
1000 8 25
Line 6: Maximum stacking in men - 1000 Maximum counters per hex - 8 Number of men per Strength Point - 25 Note : I would recommend you do 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.
3 3 6 6 12 12 28 28
Line 7: For each side Union, Confederate Brigade command radius (3 3) Division command radius (6 6) If version >= 3, for each side Corps command radius (12 12) Army command radius (28 28)
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 3 - 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 2 2 2 2 - 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
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 9 2 5.5 3 1.5 4 .5 -1
Line 36-60: For each weapon until $, fire effectiveness values. This is the multiplier used for this weapon. For an A weapon at 1 hex = 9 2 hexes = 5.5 3 hexes = 1.5 4 hexes = 0.5 The -1 indicates the previous value is the maximum range of this weapon. Note 1: 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. There is a list of available weapons and their letter codes located on this site.
40 40 10
Line 61:Combat modifiers for targets Enfilade modifier (in percentage) - +40 Mounted Cavalry modifier (in percentage) - +40 Gunboat modifier - +10
0 0 0 -40 -10 0 -30 -10 -30
Line 62: 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 63: 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 64: Elevation Combat Modifier
100 2 3 3 4 5 2 3 3 4 5
Line 65: Leader loss base (100) For each side: Union, Confederate; Leader wound chance - 2 2 Leader kill chance - 3 3 Leader melee wound chance - 3 3 Leader melee kill chance - 4 4 Leader melee capture chance - 5 5
30 0 0 40 10 0 20 0 10 6
Line 66: For each terrain type, it's terrain height, height of man Blocked - 30 Clear - 0 Water - 0 Forest - 40 Orchard - 10 Marsh - 0 Town - 20 Field - 0 Rough - 10 Man - 6
18 1 -30
Line 67: Probability of breastwork construction - 18 Breastwork movement cost - 1 Breastwork combat modifier (in percentage) - -30
5
Line 68: Gunboat ammo value.
6 4
Line 69: For each side: Union, Confederate; Ammo reinforcement values Union - 6 Confederate - 4
0 0 0 2 2 4 3 0 4
Line 70: 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 71: Abatis movement cost - 1 Abatis fire modifier - +20
3
Line 72: The movement cost to deploy skirmishers.
4 -60
Line 73: If version >= 2, Trench movement cost - 4 Trench fire modifier (in percentage) - -60
300
Line 74: If version >= 2, night attack penalty.
200 2
Line 75: If version >= 4 Max bridge value - 200 Bridge repair value - 2 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 76: If version >= 5, night movement fatigue.
150
Line 77: If version >= 7 This is from the new game Chancellorsville and only used there currently. 150 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.
1 1861 7 18 9 0 100 6 135 90 -10 0 Heavy mist
Line 78 until 0: 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.   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.
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.