The Battle of Fredericksburg – Part I: Crossing the Rappahannock and the Assault on Marye’s Heights – LITE Version Map and 3D Objects by Tom “Tomcattwo” Stevenson; Scenarios by Mark S. “MarkT” Tewes; Order of Battle by Gary Laga This ZIP file provides a reduced object, lower poly-count map for “Take Command: Second Manassas” (TC2M) PC game published by Mad Minute Games. You must have a copy of TC2M with Patch 3, and Community Mod Pack (CMP) 2.0, or CMP 3.0 installed on your PC for this package to work. Additionally, you must also have the standard set of files from the Fredericksburg_North modification, available here: http://www.madminutegames.com/Maps/Fredericksburg_North.exe This modification to the game was not tested on the Dixie II Gods and Generals mod. This map and set of scenarios is part I of a two part Battle of Fredericksburg set. Part II, Attack on Prospect Hill (Fredericksburg_South), will be distributed at a later date. Together, these two maps, objects and scenarios contain historical and what-if variants of the actions that occurred at Fredericksburg Virginia from 11-15 December, 1862. WARNING: This map contains fewer new 3D objects than the “full” version, but the same scenarios and as many as 5 Corps of troops (over 100,000 men) on the field at once. This may cause some older computer systems to lag when running the battle. If your computer system has 1GB of RAM or less, or an older video card, you may need to reduce the level of detail in your TC2M options setting to run the map and scenarios satisfactorily. If you still get a D3D error (for example “unable to Create Texture” or Out of Memory), you’ve got a really old vid card (with not enough video memory to run this mod). Try increasing the virtual memory (see Mad Minute Games’ Forums for info on how to do this). Christmas is coming…maybe ask Santa for a new vid card?? Installation To install the Fredericksburg_North_Lite map version, perform the following: 1) Unzip the Fredericksburg_North_Lite.zip file into a folder on your hard drive. The zip file contains only three files: Fredericksburg_North_Lite.lsl (the Lite map file) README_Fredericksburg_North_Lite.doc (this file) README_Fredericksburg_North_Lite.txt (a text version of this file) 2) Browse to your TC2M\Maps folder. Find the file named Fredericksburg_North.lsl (if you can’t find it, you’re either in the wrong folder, or you have not installed the standard Fredericksburg_North modification – go back and do so right now because you NEED the standard Fredericksburg installation to run this Lite Map). RIGHT click on Fredericksburg_North.lsl, and select Rename from the dropdown list. Rename this file to Fredericksburg_North_Standard.lsl or some other convenient name. 3) Copy the file Fredericksburg_North_Lite.lsl from wherever you unzipped it into your TC2M\Maps folder. 4) RIGHT click on Fredericksburg_North_Lite.lsl in your TC2M\Maps folder. Select Rename from the dropdown list. Rename the file Fredericksburg_North.lsl – double check the spelling!! 5) Crank up TC2M and go have fun playing the Fredericksburg Custom Scenarios or Open Play battle. To restore the original Fredericksburg_North.lsl map, just reverse this renaming process. Differences between the “Full” version and the “Lite” version: 1) Reduced about half or more of the houses, especially small ones. Used row houses to populate blocks in town. Town still looks OK. 2) Removed all single chimneys, wells (except Stephens' well, a historic object) outhouses, chicken coops etc. 3) Removed all pillars for the burned out bridges 4) Stopped rotation of the millwheels. I should probably just take them out, but I didn’t. 5) Removed all abatis around the entrenchments at the base of Howison Hill (more historical stuff gone ) 6) Added fog and reduced draw distances. 7) Fixed collision topheights on bridges and such. I left all historic buildings in, as well as the pontoon bridges, and Lowe’s balloon “Intrepid” Gotta have SOME eye candy in there ya know, even for those older systems… Drops the poly count from 467 (in the full version) to 196 (in the Lite version), but it still looks decent. Known Problems There is one known crash problem I have encountered as a repeatable crash in CMP 3 (not tested in CMP2), and I don’t know if this is a TC2M general problem or a problem with my mods: Apparently, TC2M does not do a good job unloading my maps once a scenario is ended. If you try to play another scenario or Open Battle after playing a Fredericksburg scenario or Open Battle, the game will crash at “Loading Tree Shadows.” I dunno why it does that, but it does. Solution: don’t do that. After you finish playing a Fredericksburg scenario or Open Play with the Fredericksburg_North map, exit the game and start the game again before playing any other scenario or Open Battle game. Removal To remove this modification, you must manually delete the files indicated in the installation list above. Usage Legal stuff: USE THIS SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! The modification authors (Thomas L. Stevenson, Mark S. Tewes, Gary Laga) will not be held responsible for any special, incidental or consequential damages resulting from possession, use or malfunction of the program, including damages to property, loss of goodwill, computer failure or malfunction and, to the extent permitted by law, damages for personal injuries, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. In other words, USE THIS MODIFICATION AT YOUR OWN RISK!! The map, 3D objects and scenarios are distributed free of charge. You may redistribute the entire package to others. You may not charge any money for this package, the 3D models or scenarios – they are free of charge to the TC2M community. You may not upload this package to any website that charges a fee to download software. TC2M modders are authorized to extract 3D Power Render Object model files (.pro, .ls and .jpg) from the TC2Objects_FBurg.dat file using LibEdit and use them in their own map modifications, provided that credit for the models used is given to Tom “Tomcattwo” Stevenson in the README file of the new map mod. Map modders who have questions concerning the model files may email Tomcattwo at Colt_Coltrain@comcast.net. Other information: We’d like to thank Norb and Adam for making such a great game and allowing us in the modding community to continue to make it better. I would also like to personally thank Louie Raider, Master Map Designer, who helped me with a lot of hints and tips, and also David “Davinci” for his support as well as some very nice railroad tracks. Visit the message boards at http://www.madminutegames.com/MadMinuteBB/index.php for more info on this and other mods for this outstanding game. Have fun – let us know of any bugs on the forum. Also, let’s see some after action reports!