Unit Call Sign Modification
Introduction
In Steel Beasts Professional units are displayed in the map view (F5) using a combination of NATO standard symbols and accompanying alphanumeric call signs (c/s), representing the unit's battalion/company/platoon and/or section affiliation. Beginning with revision 2.654, these unit call signs may be modified during mission creation from the default standard NATO call signs to those unique to various nationalities utilizing custom “call sign template” files (.cst). These templates affect not only the call signs displayed around map symbols, but also the call signs displayed in text messages that appear in the lower left hand text box during missions. Unique call signs may be assigned to each faction in a given scenario (i.e. Blue, Red, Green...etc.), and a given faction representing different national forces acting under a unified command may utilize multiple templates.
Overview
Users may access the call sign template setup page in Steel Beasts by launching the mission editor from the main page, and then selecting Options>Unit call signs from the editor's pull-down menus. From here, you may select template info for Blue, Red, or any other factional forces in the selected scenario. For this tutorial, we will modify the call sign info for Blue forces, resulting in the image below:
Listed above the line are any active c/s templates, in this case the default SB ProPE template, while below the line are commands to create or add additional templates to the current scenario (New) and to clear any current templates (Clear All). Selecting one of the active templates brings up the following information box:
Selecting the New option will result in the same box, just with blank fields. The template is divided into five sections from top to bottom:
NAME
This section has the name of the .cst that you are using. Each .cst that you use or make is and should be individually named. Additionally, there are five buttons in this section:
- OK: This button selects what you have listed below and applies it to the scenario.
- CANCEL: This button cancels what you have selected and leaves the set-up page. All active call signs (c/s) stay as per the last set-up.
- IMPORT…: This button allows the import of existing .cst templates from either the default template folder ("C:\ProgramData\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\Callsign Templates") or the export folder. For standard installations, the export folder is located at "C:\Users\Your User Name\Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\My Callsign Templates". As of revision 4.010, the following templates come installed with Steel Beasts: ANZAC (Commonwealth), nine Danish templates, one Netherlands template, four OPFOR, the PE default, eighteen Russian/Soviet templates, one Swedish, and four U.S. templates. Additional templates may be found at the SteelBeasts.com downloads section.
- EXPORT…: This button saves what you have selected from the pull-down lists in the four sections below as a .cst in the export folder. The .cst should be individually named so you can import it from the export folder for use in another scenario later.
- REMOVE: This button removes the current .cst from the export folder.
APPLY IF
In this section, you choose which company’s call signs you wish to change. With this feature, you can use multiple .cst per faction. For example, you have U.S. and German forces in the “Blue” faction spread over eight companies, in the first .cst, if you select from the pull-down list 1 <= company <= 4, this template would affect the first four companies (A through D) placed in the scenario. In the second .cst you would select from the pull-down list 5 <= company <= 8, thereby assigning companies 5 to 8 this template (E through H). The same logic applies to alter the c/s templates for platoons. Be aware that any .cst applied to a range of companies will affect all subordinate platoons as well, therefore the Platoon section is only used if you have multiple platoons from differing nations operating independently or in an ad hoc company.
NOTE: There are ONLY 15 Companies per faction, not 16 as listed in the Call Signs symbols section.
TEXT CALL SIGN
This section sets up how a unit is listed in the text area in the bottom left of your screen. There are three levels of how a unit is in the text area:
- Platoon
- Section
- Team
Each level has from 2 - 4 pull-down lists containing the labels Company, Platoon, Section, and Team. Depending on where the pull-down list is, you may not have all four choices. Additionally, there are open blocks between each pull-down list for placing separator marks or symbols (e.g. - ^ / \ : # * ). The levels are read left to right, in a WYSIWYG format, and if no separator symbol is placed between operands, no space will be generated in the actual text. As an example, with the template set like this:
The text block will generate 21 for the indicated unit, while if changed to this:
The text block will generate 1/ B.
MAP CALLSIGN
This section sets up how a unit is displayed on the map screen (F5). As with the Text Call Sign block, there are three levels of how a unit can be displayed on the map:
- Platoon
- Section
- Team
Each level has 3 - 5 pull-down lists containing the same labels as found in the Text Call Sign block, with the addition of the Map icon label. Depending on where the pull-down list is you may not have all five choices. The Map icon is the basic map symbol for that unit at platoon, section, and team levels. Unit designations may be displayed on both sides of the map icon depending on where you place the Map icon label in the pull-down lists. Identical to the Text Call Sign block, open blocks are provided for placing separator marks or symbols (e.g. - ^ / \ : # * ), and if no separator symbol is placed between operands, no space will be generated in the text. For example: if the "Section" level was set to Platoon - Section Map icon Company with no separator symbols between Section, Map icon, and Company, the following would result:
While if set up like so:
The result would be the following:
| Platoon level - |
 |
| Section level - |
 |
| Team level - |
 |
CALL SIGN SYMBOLS
This section sets up how you want your units designated at the Company, Platoon, Section, and Team levels. Each entry accepts numbers, letters, and/or symbols and may contain up to 99 characters. Additionally, there are spots for the CO and XO elements to have their own designations.
NOTE: Although three of the four lists are numbered 1-16, there are ONLY 15 companies per faction, and the 16th company, section, or team will not be displayed.
Reference
This page is based on information and images provided by users Hussar11 and Gibsonm.