Name New World Order Variant - Neutrals Unrestricted
Description World War II in Europe on the New World Order map with all powers assigned to an alliance
https://axisandallies.fandom.com/wiki/New_World_Order_Variant_-_Neutrals_Unrestricted

Good Points

Bad Points

Name Big World : 1942 - Factions (Allies)
Description World War II in 1942 on a modified version of the Big World map, with some optimization for an early version of the AI
https://axisandallies.fandom.com/wiki/Big_World_:1942-Factions(Allies)

Good Points

Bad Points

For the canvas and flip etc stuff

Maybe for some tech variant units having brightness applied would probably the simplest. Basically the stuff covered in the pos props. Then for the canvas stuff to work with the flips, basically I was just trying to get something that would play alright with this part...

#units.transform.brightness.<player> (optional) allows the brightness (-100 to 100) to be adjusted when units.transform.color is set
#units.transform.brightness.Russians=25
#units.transform.flip.<player> flips the player's units horizontally
#units.transform.flip.Russians=true
#units.transform.ignore provides a comma delimited list of units that aren't impacted by the above units.transform properties
#takes the unit's name and applies to all images shown for that unit including damaged or tech improved images
#units.transform.ignore=factory,fighter

For the blend options available I think alpha f2 was alright for something subtly lower contrast

map.mapBlendAlpha=0.2f

That's a pretty easy one to add, like just from editing a line in the map props, but sorta the rationale behind choosing those pretty high saturation defaults for the hexes and such. I can't remember what the default is no blends, but it's basically similar to alpha f5 I think maybe?

For tripleA to do all units as a square, say 54x54 px applied to everything pretty sure there is a way to do in the props or game, but I can't remember what exactly it's called. I've done it by accident before where everything will go to the 48px default size, or I think if the graphic is way oversized it may then morph it to fit the standard square, but couldn't figure out just now when messing around lol.

Pretty sure there's a way though if one wanted to do a standard warp for all the units at once, though it's not a view setting on the fly.

Anyway I think should be enough room for the flags on/off option to show alright if I just add a sliver of canvas for some of the narrower units, like if clips too hard into the unit, but for the most part seems to work ok.

ps. Just to further clarify. If we include the Alpha channel blend this can be used to make the map more/less pastel incrementally. Example alpha 0.02f shown above that can be set 1-10 so 0.0f or 0.1f look very close to the default (highest saturation.)

0.2f or say 1.5 f or 2.5f those will pass through white making it more pastel. 3-5f is brighter etc. In the PoS2 props the first mentioned is linear light, but linear light is effectively a monitor setting now, I mean it's just reducing the brightness bascially. Alpha channel blend is more modular and more useful. I think the only other candidate worth the mention is overlay.

Overlay will essentially double the opacity while preserving the brightness. Multiply will do the same but reduce the brightness, they're largely similar. These are not really set to be modular in the way the alpha channel is though, so you can't really increase or reduce the "pastel" effect with the different integers there. The image produced is also quite different, because it's taking the relief layer and essentially layering that again on top of itself a second time. Here is the resulting image for that...

It's kinda cool, but I don't know if most would prefer that. To choose a blend, this would be an entry in the map properties txt. Like just added to the bottom. I would add the Alpha in as the default. This means user can click blends and it will show a slightly lighter version of the default. And if users wants it more low contrast they can increase the Alpha channel to crank that, basically like adding white in heavier amounts to the colors as they paint.

oh here's that one dude for Japan just so I don't forget added him to the big folder

OK I found a batch editing solution for GIMP 3.0, I think it's comparable perhaps even better than BIMP for GIMP 2, but it's a bit of a pain to install manually right now. Similar to tripleA requires the downloading of zips and like saving stuff the right directories, as opposed to the super simple plug-in I was hoping for.

Ideally I would make a consistent edit to the entire collection of units all at once because it saves so much time on the backend, but I think for now it's probably more expedient to just deal with the more problematic units as needed. Example for units which use the 54x54px square, or the 54x60/72 px rectangle the drawn flag will sometimes clip into the leg, depends on the current canvas. So for Germany and Japan, they have a wider canvas on some units, their roundels hits a bit better for their Infantry units. For some of the others it's closer to Frostion's defaults there which are clipped to content typically right to the edge. If the units were flipped at whatever point that could be a factor as well since I often would try to arrange the unit towards an edge on the facing side, so the canvas might be longer on one side than the other. I think maybe to just go through and extend the canvas slightly for all units.

Also I think it might be worth doing a standard morph for all the ships so that the canvas is narrower. So say the current Battleship, Carrier, Cruiser etc use the full 98px, I think it would be better to warp those unit to something more like 84px and then extend the canvas back to 98px on either side. This will give some room for things like roundels or unit crowding/overflows, so the image isn't always right at the edge. Least for the width, height we can't really do much for that. Better probably to lock everything in at 54px there and just try to utilize as much of the canvas as possible for unit sizing the vehicles and such. Basically anything other than infantry can be warped slightly and the look tends to be unnoticeable, I mean as long as it's consistent.

In general for flips it's ideal if the unit image doesn't have directional information, so for example a symbol number/character which when flipped no longer conveys meaning, or essentially symbols that are asymmetrical or which look odd if displaying inverted as if in the mirror. This is why it's better I think for things like drawn on tech symbols (or drawn on flag roundels say) to use shapes that can easily invert, or morph and still look ok.

So for example USSR with the sickle/hammer motif or USA with stars in the upper left, when flipped those will give off a very backwards look. Whereas something like a star easier to flip. The alternative USSR symbol I threw together is a composite of the regular g40 chip, and a period image of the Sickle and Hammer since that design changed over time. Basically I yanked one from from the national banner. OOB doesn't use the star at the top but I kept it, since when reduced to the super tiny 20px scale it's more abstract. I don't see a real need for these beyond the 20px dimensions since the puck in deep perspective is pretty serviceable as the Capital marker and current turn. It also allows Large Flag on to give a different presentation, even if I think it's a bit rough on account of how those center inside the canvas.

Anyway, I will try to knock something out just because it effects the unit place the width of the canvas and how that's set. For now I'd just look to see where the units with the 20px roundel like clip off a leg or things of that sort, and then just extend the canvas for those units to the next up, so like if inf standard 54, then they become 68 or whatever for some room on either side. It'd be nice to get the roundels for the battleships and such not to be all right on the nose, but for that I think they'd have to warp a little.

Here's an example less extreme than putting them into squares, but sorta the same principle going on. As long as the morphs are consistent, so it produces a similar angle. Here's an example using USA and USSR battleship and transportsOr like one time when Rachel Weisz defected and met up with the USA engineer I guess hehe. Basically the side on which a tech or unit type symbol is placed would sorta key up to leave on empty spot on whatever side, depending on how the unit is facing...