SPWaW 8.403 Patch Notes (January 9, 2006): ------------------------------------------ 1) In some screens, the scroll delay was not functioning. Fixed. 2) Fire effectiveness of infantry primary weapons in slots 2 to 4 have been reduced, unless the firing unit passes a special experience check. This reduction always applied to infantry primary weapons in slot 1, but the code assumed that none of these would be found in later slots. The experience check for slot one assumed some troops would be goofing off, drinking tea or for some other reason, would not be firing effectively. This limitation now applies to these primary infantry weapons in other slots, as it is assumed that these would be fired by ammo carriers, squad leaders or some one else who might be otherwise occupied. Secondary or crewed weapons are handled in a different part of the code. 3) Reduced hex radius of secondary damage applied from attacks to units in the same or nearby hexes. 4) Reduced effect of secondary damage to units in the same or nearby hexes from direct fire attacks. 5) The default Bulgaria morale values were not being set properly. Fixed. 6) Made it a bit harder to spot enemy units, especially at range one or zero. 7) Allowed the German artificial intelligence purchase routine a little more armor in smaller engagements. 8) Sniper units may no longer close assault vehicles. 9) Sometimes the player setup side was incorrect, when assaulting beaches. Fixed. 10) The in game save menu button now automatically saves the Mega-Campaign. This might be useful, if the player has been experiencing CTD and wishes to save without having to exit the scenario. SPWaW 8.40 Patch Notes (June 24, 2005: -------------------------------------- 1) Fixed a bug which could allow size zero units with only one man left to appear as snipers in some combat and spotting routines. 2) Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the program, when generating maps in the editor, for any campaign or battle, with the Victory Frontage option turned off, to place the three victory hex clusters in unexpected locations. Please note that Victory Frontage off is useful for company to battalion sized battles and Victory Frontage on is useful for regimental or brigade sized battles. 3) Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the game to crash when starting a battle in the long World War II campaign, if playing or fighting the Germans. 4) Fixed a bug which prevented units riding on vehicles or in soft vehicles from taking damage, when the vehicle was hit by fire. 5) Fixed a bug in the OOB editor that prevented the unit text file value from saving properly. 6) Adjusted base experience and morale values used for creation of leaders and units. These are minimum values, to which a random number is added. See tables, below. 7) Made it a bit easier to spot enemy units, especially at range one of zero. 8) Rewrote the code that chooses if the player mission is advance or assault in the long WWII Campaign and campaigns created using the Campaign Generator. Decreased the likelihood of Allied armies in the early war and Axis powers in the late war. 9) Changed the way reinforcement points are generated in the long WWII Campaign. Instead of having a maximum of 1/15th the value of the players force, the value is now 1/10th of the enemy force. The reasoning here is that reinforcements are more needed when the player is outnumbered, such as in a defend mission, than when he has the dominate force, such as in an advance mission. 10) In 1944 of the long WWII campaign, the computer opponent will receive more troops, if the human is playing Axis and fewer, if he is playing Allied. This effect becomes greater in 1945. 11) Rewrote bit of code that determines where a unit will move. In meeting engagements, if a unit was closer to a friendly hex than an enemy hex, it would move towards that hex. When visibility was high, that put most friendly units closer the friendly hex and most would move to that friendly hex and mill around. Now they will only move towards a friendly hex if there are no enemy hexes left or they are very close to the friendly hex, else they will move towards an enemy hex. 12) Altered the equations some for determining visibility in random battles. Extreme and very short ranges are less frequent (less than 5 or more than 40). Computer opponent artificial intelligence was having difficulty setting up, in these cases. 13) Reduced visibility in sand storms in the desert by a significant amount in random battles. 14) Modified how the German computer opponent picks troops in the long World War II campaign. Uses same pick lists, but picks in a slightly different fashion. Very small battles were using odd choices, since the unit costs have arisen in some orders of battle. SPWAW version 8.3 (October 2, 2004): ------------------------------------ - OOB patch only, no code changes. SPWAW version 8.2 (June 30, 2004): ---------------------------------- - Memory leak fix and ai pic-list corrections plus new oobs. SPWAW version 8.01 (Febuary 6, 2004) ------------------------------------ - No info found about changes. SPWAW version 8.0 (late 2003): ------------------------------ - Mainly AI pic-list changes, new oob's. This is incompatible whit 7.1 version so update is not possbile. - Introduced new menu graphics. Some of the things we fixed in 7.1 version (early 2002): -------------------------------------------------------- A) The Splash Damage Effects. B) Added Different Armor types. C) Fixed the Mega Campaign crash. D) Fixed Waiting for Snyc Bug. E) Improved OOB's. F) Adjusted the Prefs for Infantry Toughness against Hard and Soft targets. G) Adjust the Combat routines dealing with APCR. H) Adjusted the Tank shirts so they can become damaged and will reduce there protection effects. I) Command Control will now work in the Mega Campaigns on any OS. (Once again thanks to Arralen for helping us finally nail this one down. J) Halved the support points in the long campaign What New In SPWaW v7.0 (late 2001). ----------------------------------- BUGS: 1. Units passing over shallow water or through swamps ignore the beneficial benefits of bridges and will sometimes become stuck or flood out. Fixed. 2. After exiting a campaign game, if another is continued before exiting the program, some campaign data, such as the number and types of kills for the scenario, are not completely cleared. Fixed. 3. Campaign generator bugs concerning minor countries have been fixed. 4. For certain hardware configurations, the Mega Campaign was not functioning properly. Fixed. CHANGES: 1. Speeds displayed for units now better reflect the speed at which the unit is traveling. Note that although infantry speeds may seem to be calculated differently than vehicle speeds, infantry moves differently within a hex, not in the linear vehicular fashion, but tend to zigzag as they search for micro-terrain. 2. Small maps are now generated for battles in the Long WW II Campaign for core forces plus support forces totaling less than 3000 points. Maps for core forces plus support forces less than 1500 points should be small, even more often. 3. In campaigns, the computer opponent now receives purchase points only for the support forces actually purchased by the player, as opposed to the points made available to the player for support force purchasing. So, purchasing fewer support forces will now reduce the points available to the computer opponent. 4. Two player hot seat and play by email capability has been added to the Long WWII Campaign. Player number one is prompted to select the player type for player two, human or computer, each time the game is loaded. By selecting human for player two, the game becomes a two player game and each player is shown a save screen at the end of each turn. Simply save and send the files, stored in the save directory, to the other player. Player two, when played by a human, allows the player to purchase and deploy forces. Not designed for league play, the two player campaign is not secure. 5. Two player TCP/IP play capability has also been added for the Long WWII Campaign. 6. Two player hot seat and play by email capability has been added to the User Defined Campaigns (such as the ones released by Matrix Games or created by end users, using the campaign editor). Player number one is prompted to select the player type for player two, human or computer, each time the game is loaded. By selecting human for player two, the game becomes a two player game and each player is shown a save screen at the end of each turn. Simply save and send the files, stored in the save directory, to the other player. Player two, when played by a human, is not allowed to purchase or deploy forces, this having already been done by the campaign scenario author. Not designed for league play, the two player campaign is not secure. 7. Two player TCP/IP play capability has also been added for the User Defined Campaigns. 8. Two player hot seat and play by email capability has been added to the Mega Campaigns. Player number one is prompted to select the player type for player two, human or computer, each time the game is loaded. By selecting human for player two, the game becomes a two player game and each player is shown a save screen at the end of each turn. Simply save and send the files, stored in the Mega Campaign save directory, to the other player. Neither player one or player two, when played by a human, are not allowed to purchase or deploy forces, this having already been done by the campaign scenario author. Not designed for league play, the two player campaign is not secure. 9. Two player TCP/IP play capability has also been added for the Mega Campaign. 10. The Mega Campaign player may now permanently rename leaders. 11. Computer opponent aircraft purchasing has been recoded. The computer opponent should now purchase aircraft in very small battles less often, than before. 12. Purchasing routines have been further refined. 13. Fixed rafts with no passengers "flying around." 14. Fixed Barges "regrowing" in Barge Carriers after saving and restarting game. 15. Improved AI routines for combat and game tactics. 16. Major update to all OOB's Here is what we changed in this version 6.1 (July 9, 2001): ----------------------------------------------------------- A) Internet Play has been fixed. B) Reduced Ammo" will not work in online play. C) Emplacements (HQ tents & Command posts) now help with reducing suppression. D) Entrenched troops can now be within 6 hexes of emplacements and receive help reducing suppression and rally. E) Lowered Russian chance of fanatically defending F) Flamethrower accuracy improved G) Rifles will be effective to a range of about 200 yards. Beyond 350 yards they will only be useful for suppression fire. H) Squad light machine guns will be effective to a range of about 400 yards. Beyond 500 yards they will only be useful for suppression fire. I) Medium and heavy crew served machine guns will be effective to a range of about 500 yards. At ranges of 300 to 500 hundred yards they can produce severe casualties against moving infantry. Beyond 750 yards they will be useful for suppression fire. This weapon is now a real killer. J) Armored fighting vehicle machine guns will be effective to a range of 200 to 500 yards, depending on the type and placement of the machine gun. If the vehicle is armed with a small bore cannon of 37mm or less, it will be useful for the player to turn off the main gun and use the coaxial machine gun at ranges greater than 200 yards and less than 500 yards, as at ranges greater than 200 yards the crew must take an experience check before it can fire the coaxial machine gun and at ranges of greater than 500 yards the cannon may be more accurate than the coaxial machine gun. K) Artillery is now slightly more effective than in version 6.0. L) Small units, of 4 men or less, are still size zero for spotting purposes, but are now size one for purposes of being hit and damaged. M) This means they are difficult to spot, but once spotted, are no harder to kill than normal units. The exception to this is the sniper, who is still quite difficult to spot and kill. N) Terrain cover has been reworked and is now of significantly greater importance. The player should always keep soft targets, such as guns and infantry in the best cover available. The difference to hit a target in good cover can be of an order of magnitude ten. Soft units in cover now take a good deal fewer casualties. O) For soft targets, movement is a serious danger. Especially, if moving in the open and within effective range of the attacking weapon. The player will need to move slowly and stay in good cover. A crewed machine gun 300 yards away may kill 6 or more men in a single shot, when firing against a squad moving in the open. P) Infantry are now harder to spot if 250 yards or more away and harder still, if 750 yards or more away. Q) Catastrophic destruction of buildings will now occur less frequently and require larger bore ordinance to bring them down. This allows greater use as cover. R) Bridges are now much harder to destroy, especially stone bridges, for which you need artillery of 170mm or greater, a bomb or a satchel charge. S) The ratio for troop purchase points has been changed from 1:1 to meeting engagements, 1.5:1 for advance missions and 2:1 for assaults to 1:1 for meeting engagements, 2:1 for advance missions and 3:1 for assaults. The increased effectiveness of cover and the disadvantage gained by moving units necessitates greater forces when attacking. T) The to hit chance displayed in the data box, after a unit has fired, has been recalculated for rifles and sub-machine pistols, when those weapons are in slot one. The value no longer needs to be multiplied by the number of men in the squad. So, now if the chance displayed is 15%, that is the chance for all men in the squad combined, to hit. Please note that since the men in the target receive a saving throw against the fire, they may still sometimes go to ground and take no casualties. U) Victory Point Change - This is a big change -- for some reason, killed men have always been counted as only 1 victory point, no matter what unit they are from or what their unit cost is. In order to make the set unit costs (and increased unit costs, like general Rommel in your example) be counted, killed infantry units are now counted at their unit cost in victory points. Partially-killed units are worth the proper proportional amount. In the upcoming 6.0 release, players will find the following (July, 2001: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Rifles will be effective to a range of about 200 yards. Beyond 350 yards they will only be useful for suppression fire. 2) Squad light machine guns will be effective to a range of about 400 yards. Beyond 500 yards they will only be useful for suppression fire. 3) Medium and heavy crew served machine guns will be effective to a range of about 500 yards. At ranges of 300 to 500 hundred yards they can produce severe casualties against moving infantry. Beyond 750 yards they will be useful for suppression fire. This weapon is now a real killer. 4) Armored fighting vehicle machine guns will be effective to a range of 200 to 500 yards, depending on the type and placement of the machine gun. If the vehicle is armed with a small bore cannon of 37mm or less, it will be useful for the player to turn off the main gun and use the coaxial machine gun at ranges greater than 200 yards and less than 500 yards, as at ranges greater than 200 yards the crew must take an experience check before it can fire the coaxial machine gun and at ranges of greater than 500 yards the cannon may be more accurate than the coaxial machine gun. 5) Artillery is now slightly more effective than in version 5.1. 6) Small units, of 4 men or less, are still size zero for spotting purposes, but are now size one for purposes of being hit and damaged. This means they are difficult to spot, but once spotted, are no harder to kill than normal units. The exception to this is the sniper, who is still quite difficult to spot and kill. 7) Terrain cover has been reworked and is now of significantly greater importance. The player should always keep soft targets, such as guns and infantry in the best cover available. The difference to hit a target in good cover can be of an order of magnitude ten. Soft units in cover now take a good deal fewer casualties. 8) For soft targets, movement is a serious danger. Especially, if moving in the open and within effective range of the attacking weapon. The player will need to move slowly and stay in good cover. A crewed machine gun 300 yards away may kill 6 or more men in a single shot, when firing against a squad moving in the open. 9) Infantry are now harder to spot if 250 yards or more away and harder still, if 750 yards or more away. 10) Catastrophic destruction of buildings will now occur less frequently and require larger bore ordinance to bring them down. This allows greater use as cover. 11) Bridges are now much harder to destroy, especially stone bridges, for which you need artillery of 170mm or greater, a bomb or a satchel charge. 12) The ratio for troop purchase points has been changed from 1:1 to meeting engagements, 1.5:1 for advance missions and 2:1 for assaults to 1:1 for meeting engagements, 2:1 for advance missions and 3:1 for assaults. The increased effectiveness of cover and the disadvantage gained by moving units necessitates greater forces when attacking. 13) The to hit chance displayed in the data box, after a unit has fired, has been recalculated for rifles and sub-machine pistols, when those weapons are in slot one. The value no longer needs to be multiplied by the number of men in the squad. So, now if the chance displayed is 15%, that is the chance for all men in the squad combined, to hit. Please note that since the men in the target receive a saving throw against the fire, they may still sometimes go to ground and take no casualties. 14) Victory Point Change - This is a big change -- for some reason, killed men have always been counted as only 1 victory point, no matter what unit they are from or what their unit cost is. In order to make the set unit costs (and increased unit costs, like general rommel in your example) be counted, killed infantry units are now counted at their unit cost in victory points. Partially-killed units are worth the proper proportional amount. What's new in SPWAW 5.3 (June 27, 2001): ---------------------------------------- - Added a range and accuracy dependant small arms bonus so the closer you get and the higher your hit chance the more bonus kill chance you get. If you stay 5-7 hexes out you will not notice much change, but close in especially to 1 or 2 hexes and the rifles will start to ring up some kills. SPWaW v5.2 changes (June, 2001): -------------------------------- 1. Fixed HEAT OOB ratings. 2. Adjusted pen for several weapons. 3. Corrected the OOB's 4. Bottom hits use 1/3 side armor rather than 1/4 so MGs shouldn't kill tanks as often 5. HEAT random variable fixed 6. Armor angle calculation tweaked (compound angle is somewhat larger than before) 7. Effects of compound angles tweaked (Slope effect reduced somewhat) 8. Ricochet incidence reduced somewhat Casualty computation scrubbed, better accounting for leadership fire direction, artillery casualties and protection of units entrenched, incover and in protective terrain. Bottom line is artillery casualties are increased and small arms casualties decreased, and exposure for firing reduced for entrenched troops so firing doesn't strip them of cover as much. 9. "Save" for men killed reduced for larger warheads. 10. Special opfire multipliers increased for close range and decreased for long range 11. Dial to control the amount of special opfire added. 12. "Light infantry" and "ski troops" classes now able to melee and be overrun. 13. Elite/poor status on formations now taken into account on unit cost. 14. Fixed "random start line" w/custom maps not working when map has river or beach settings. 15. Fixed reinforcement & retreat hexes not appearing with custom maps (these are not saved with the maps, so they appear in the default location). 16. Removed "view map" button from reinforcement screen (was causing mines to disappear and other oddities). 17. Fixed unit costs calculating wrongly when "True Troop Cost" was on and "Historical Ratings" were off. 18. Average visibility in random battles is increased. 19. Fixed reloaded online/timed games getting all ammo back. 20. Added preference setting for special op fire frequency. 21. Sound files re-recorded to make sure they do not crash the game while playing. 5.01 version (May 10, 2001): ---------------------------- - Fixed "one small bug" in the game code (no details found) and added a new OOB set. FEATURES, CHANGES and BUG FIXES IN v5.0 (May 4, 2001): ------------------------------------------------------ 01) Added Mega Campaign support. This will not include the editor. 02) Level bombers and naval gun classes added and now act like off-board artillery. Level bombers maybe assigned on Turn 0 (i.e., before the battle). 03) On the bombardment screen before the battle, you can set a specific turn for bombardments (like for gliders & paratroops). 04) Added overrun combat. These are for enemies in the same hex. Overrun is Alt-O (overrun). 05) Added melee combat. These are for enemies in the same hex. Melee is Alt-M (melee) 06) The @ key changes ranges from hexes, to yards, to meters. Note: the ranges on the unit info screen remain in hexes, since there wasn't room for larger numbers. 07) PBEM security violations now give a prompt to override the warning and load it up anyway. 08) Setting range in online/timed play no longer asks you twice. 09) Added tank panic - infantry may run from tanks as they move (like trucks do). 10) Added "battle difficulty" button in Generated & Long campaigns to affect the number of points for the AI. 11) Fixed music-on setting. Some PC were crashing when playing certain songs. 12) Indirect fire adjustment delay was slightly reduced. 13) Removed Soviet purchase advantage. 14) Purchase point values for computer opponent (which start out equal to your base force normal points plus all support points, whether or not you use them) were reduced from x1 for defend, x1 for delay, x1 for meeting, x4 for advance, x7 for assault to x.50 for defend, x.66 for delay, x1 for meeting, x1.5 for advance and x2 for assault. 15) Fixed waypoints vanishing after buying more units in the scenario editor. 16) Fixed units ignoring waypoints once they get shot at or bombed. 17) Added message informing user that the program is exiting in online/timed play at end of battle. 18) Fixed modified unit cost & size not sticking in scenario editor when reloaded. 19) Computer opponent should now purchase fewer artillery batteries and air strikes. As it will need to spend its points on something, it will purchase more of other things. 20) The computer opponent, when playing early war Belgium, Holland or France will now purchase substantially fewer tanks. Combined with less artillery, expect a lot of infantry. 21) In randomly generated battles, when fighting Germans: Canada, India, ANZAC and the USA will now fight in the desert from the beginning of 1940 to the end of 1942. 22) In randomly generated battles, anyone fighting the Italians (except the Soviets) from the beginning of 1940 to the end of 1942 will fight in the desert. 23) In randomly generated battles, anyone fighting the Italians (except the Soviets) from the beginning of 1943 to the end of 1945 will fight in Southern Europe. 24) In randomly generated battles, when fighting the Germans: Canada, Britain and the USA will fight in Southern Europe in 1943 and Northwester Europe in 1944-45. 25) The weather routines were rewritten. In all types of battles, the visibility should now reflect the conditions better than before. Bad weather now reduces visibility severely, as does darkness. 26) Level bombers may no longer be purchased at night or when the player lacks air superiority. They can be purchased when ever air strikes can be. As they are artillery, the strike limit does not apply to them. 27) The message displayed when level bombers are bombing is no longer "Med Bomber firing indirect fire, range 60", but is now, "Med Bombers bombing area". 28) Strike groups and level bombers purchased by the computer opponent are now much less likely to attack at night, in the middle of a severe thunderstorm or in a sandstorm. 29) Dawn and dusk air strikes have been removed because the graphic makes it look like night. So air strikes and level bombers are now available from 7 am to 5 pm. 30) Computer opponent purchase routines were generally rewritten, as all the formations got moved around, during the many upgrades to the orders of battle. 31) Mortars now take up space in transport vehicles equal to the number of men in the mortar unit, unless they have a 100 series weight. 32) Fixed bug where game would crash in multiplayer at beginning of player #4's turn. 33) Fixed some bugs in the infantry close assault routine that were making the success chance higher than it is supposed to be. 34) Units of the classes "motorized engineer" and "armored engineer" now do all the special stuff that the "engineer" class does. 35) Added to the list of unit classes which lose primary weapon shots after moving (which were MG, mortar, heavy mortar, and heavy MG) are AT Gun, Flak, howitzer, artillery, and infantry guns. 35) Surrendering now forfeits the end-of-battle victory hex points and doesn't count remaining turns for the turn-by-turn hexes. 36) Player control numbers over the units have a "P" in front of them (3 or more players only) to avoid confusion with the # of men numbers. 37) Removed turn display from special forces reinforcement info in deployment so they can't be reassigned once you notice they weren't coming. 38) Reduced vehicle breakdown chances by one-third and weapon breakdown by half. Also increased chance of repair for both (weapon more so than vehicle). 39) Added a toggle for the "asterisk" display, the hotkey is the asterisk key. This hotkey is disabled for online and PBEM games. Online and PBEM games use the host's "asterisk setting". 40) Fixed smoke ammo in online play being too low. 41) Made some changes in the armor penetration model. There will also be a substantial upgrade to the armor combat model in 5.0 APCR performance has been greatly enhanced, depicting its performance much more accurately. T/D effects have been revised based on better curve fitting and a couple new data sets from Combat Leader research. A new ricochet tweak improves the depiction of the "critical angle" so ricochet probability will be low below critical angle and ramp up quickly. All this assumes lots of things, but less things are generalized than before! You should get fewer "945,395mm armor" results now and small T/D ratios will now ricochet much less often (so 88 hitting at grazing angles will act like an iceberg on the Titanic more than a stone on the water) 42) Fixed preference-changing loophole in PBEM games. 43) Fixed bug with loading non-infantry on trucks. 44) Fixed "done" button not appearing when getting reinforcements during battle in online play. 45) Stuart Millis, Mike Amos and Mike Wood have truly made these OOBs the best ones yet. I sure everyone will find a few nice surprises. 46) Wild Bill and his team have gone over and updated over 170+ scenarios and also added 4 brand new campaigns. 47) Don LIewellyn and Bill Wilder scenario tutorials will be included. These detail tutorials are for the new as well as experience player. 48) Paul Lewis and Nick Papp have added many of the graphics into the game. 50) Major AI improvements have been done. The AI will now pick much better forces and correct formations for each nationally. 51) We have added a feature that will allow gamers to add and use there own custom graphics for their scenarios and campaigns. These graphics will also now appear in the scenario editor. This feature is for the scenario author that wants it all. 52) The latest versions of Fred Chlanda programs for SPWaW will be included. 53) Harri Pesonen PBEM program will be included. This program is used to auto send turnbased game files between opponents. It handles zipping the file then e-mailing it. 54) Added an option that the Japanese may Banzai and the Soviet units may go Berserk when in melee. Other nations have a smaller chance if getting a special attack and defend bonus during melee. Also terrain will increase and decrease losses during melee combat. 55) Brent Richards and Kevin Greer are redoing the manual. You can expect a even more detail manual. 56) Marsh vehicle breakdown has been raised a little higher. 57) Fixed objectives vanishing after buying more units in the scenario editor. 58) Added the feature to the scenario editor to tell you the Icon and SHP file each graphic shown in the editor. 59) Gamers can now added there own custom graphics and use them in the scenario editor and use them in your scenarios and campaigns. 60) The Polish should now take far fewer tanks and will now also use cavalry. 61) Changed tank panic message, made infantry-AT unit class immune to tank panic. 62) Fixed range display on 'c' screen. 63) Added new keys to help screens. 64) Added version number to first screen. 65) Added new code for high-penetration HVAP gun ammo (penetration 251-255). 66) Fixed some units not following waypoints when defending or delaying. Units may abandon their waypoints when a unit in the formation is destroyed. 67) Reduced chance of units surrendering outside of melee. 68) Units of "Cargo Aircraft" class are now restricted to carrying units of "Airborne Infantry" class. 69) Fixed not being able to edit bomber entry turn in editor once saved and reloaded. 70) Eliminate units surrendering to planes 71) Overrunning a gun: The Overrunning player now has a chance of destroying the gun. The Overrunning player also has a chance of immobilizing tank during the assault. 72) Air entry in online play uses opponents settings for both players. This has been corrected. 73) Fixed when largest size random map crashes when "beach" is selected 74) Fixed computer in online play so it will move and attack now. 75) Fixed beach map generation crashing with big maps. 76) Fixed desert-rough wrong tile being used. 77) Undid paratroop restriction - instead, non-paratroopers take much more suppression from the drop. 78) Units no longer surrender to planes. 79) Fixed computer units not moving in online play. 80) Level bombers will now scatter -5 to +5 hexes along the x axis and along the y axis and then drop all their bombs in a straight line, at the rate of two per hex. 81) Units should no longer gain recon ability when upgrading or repairing during any type of Campaigns. 82) Added a save prompt when exiting the scenario editor. 83) Increased overrun casualties, lowered chance of tank immobilized by overrun. 84) Fixed mid-move op-fire not happening in online play. 85) Added a Yes / No prompt before you exit a scenario design or map session without saving. 86) Added a Yes / No prompt after hitting the 'load all' button. 87) Changed tank panic to happen a little less. Its now also modified by nationality: Japan, Finland panic less often; Italy, Rumania, Hungary, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Soviet (May and Sept of 1941 & 1942 only), Greece, Nat. China, and Bulgaria more often. 88) Tank panic is now restricted by unit class. Immune units within 3 hexes also keep other units from panicking. 89) Fixed a loophole where units loading would then have the suppression value of the transport, so loading and unloading a unit could be used to restore suppression. 90) Added hotkey alt-J to center map on a specific hex. 91) Added hex coordinates for units on HQ screen. This will make it easier for you to find a unit using the new alt-J feature. 92) Immobilized units no longer dig in. 93) "Special op fire" now takes the unit's suppression into account, also displays more specific messages. 94) Air units in online play should now come and go properly instead of using the other player's settings. 95) We have broken down Op-Fire to three levels. Point Blank Op-Fire is triggered when ever a moving unit moves moves next. If the unit is in a defense stance it will be triggered from 1 - 3 hexes away. 96) Special Op-Fire: It will now considered the units suppression level and will also add a small amount of suppression every time you Special Op-Fire. So the more you shoot the more suppression the unit receives. 97) Return OP-Fire will happen when one of your units gets shot at. There is a chance it will fire back even if it has used all of its shots. 98) VCR replay option has been re-coded. 99) Improve and added more detail to the weather routines. 100) We have updated all of our units LBM pictures 101) We have added a lot of detail to close assaults routines. Gamers should notice that units should be able to assault bunkers and forts now without so many morale check failures. 102) Unit Costs System - If "True Troop Cost" is set to on it now gives a more accurate method of determining a unit's cost based on their base experience level. Units that start with lower base experience will cost less and units with high experience will cost more. 103) Unit Victory Points - If "True Troop Cost" is set to on Victory points scored for destroyed units also take their experience into account. Units that start with lower base experience will be worth less victory points then units that have experience and are lost. 104) Rarity Ratings - When "True Troop Cost" is on units rarity ratings now come into play. Units that were rare or out of production will have a greater chance of not being available to the player. A unit's rarity affects their chances of being available on the purchase menus. Units currently unavailable will now show up in red on the purchase screen. Also when playing via the Internet two commanders on the same side when not have the same units available to them. 105) Out of Production units may now be available even after it was being made. Units whose production availablity has passed may be available, but at only half the normal chance (per year). 106) Units Rarity Ratings are now rechecked after you purchase each one of them. Note: if you delete a formation that is rechecked and now no longer available, you cannot buy them back, so be careful! 107) Changed True Troop Cost button on preferences screen to allow different settings for True Troop Cost and Rarity. 108) Fixed bug with the unit value display. Note: if a unit has been given a custom cost, this value will be modified by their experience as any other unit's is. If you want the value to be exact, either give them experience 70, or adjust the value until it comes out right on the unit-view screen (where the modified value is shown). 109) We also added more custom maps. D-Day beach maps, including Sword, Utah, Juno, Omaha, and Gold, plus Pointe du Hoc and many others. 110) Undo button is disabled in online games. 111) Fixed auto-buying not using the True Troop Cost properly. 112) VCR replay hot-key changed from V to alt-V. 113) Enemy forces now break less easily. Also added a message to indicate when they do break. 114) Victory hexes worth 0 points are no longer shown (except in the editor). 115) Fix units on bridges disappearing between PBEM turns. 116) Melee & overrun now take the Infantry Toughness setting into account. 120) Units in the same hex are no longer automatically spotted. Note: units that fire are always automatically spotted (unless they are Sniper class). 121) Fixed units not getting kills or experience or victory points in melee & overrun. Fixed same for AA guns vs. aircraft. 122) Fixed some infantry not being able to be overrun (due to class #). 123) Removed end-of-battle map from surrendered PBEM games to prevent a cheat. 124) When a player has hit the "time out" key (F2), F12 no longer unpauses, so they can use Roger Wilco without unpausing. 126) Fixed unit's target being set to its previous target in OpFire confirm. 127) After selecting special terrain types, city grids were being created using those types, instead of wooden and stone buildings. FIXED. 128) In the computer opponent phase, when a vehicle controlled by the computer moved or fired, it always refaced the turret to directly forward, before the player could opportunity fire or return fire. The player did not have this ability. FIXED. 129) Computer opponent should now pick infantry force more often when playing against Soviets and less often, when playing against Germans. 130) The German computer opponent should now place armor in deep reserve less often. 131) The computer opponent should no longer buy a ton mines and place them along the river bank when defending against a river crossing. This made it just about impossible for a human player to get across. 132) The computer opponent should now buy armored or motorized infantry less often when assaulting a river. 133) The computer opponent should now put armor in reserves less often when assaulting a river. 134) The computer opponent should now take a more pro-active defense in defending rivers. 135) The computer opponent should now use armor more aggressively, when assaulting rivers. 136) The computer opponent can now search better for bridges, when assaulting a river. 137) Improved AI handling of troops and improved some its game tactics. 138) Fixed bug with unloading assault boats taking casualties and then restoring them. 139) "special op fire" messages now appear in pop-up box too. 140) Alt-J now can jump to a specific scenario # on the main menu and the editor menus. 141) Added file log for the combat text, called combat.txt, turned on from within the game by the Alt -L hotkey. This logs the text in the bottom window, as well as that "% chance to hit" window that pops up during the attack. 142) U.S. artillery speed bonus now on/off with national characteristics preference. 143) Added the morale/experience check to the NearKill routine. 144) No longer able to buy air units in bad weather. 145) Op fire shots will no longer be used up on crews more than 2 hexes away. 146) AI buys less tanks for river crossings. 147) Changes to HE and HEAT penetration code 148) Fixed targeting screen not starting with the current target. 149) Fixed unit class 70 (special forces) not being able to melee. 150) Fixed suppression for nearby units being killed not happening. 151) Fixed "special op fire" message popping up when unit wouldn't shoot and "return op fire" when the target unit was moving, not shooting. 152) Added casualties to bottom of screen box. 153) Fixed the units barreling into buildings when there was a road or track in the building hex. NEW FEATURES, ENHANCEMENTS and BUG FIXES v4.5 (December 21, 2000): ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. The 20-meg VCR replay save now will go beyond 2.3 megs. 2. Some unnecessary replay data was being (frequently) saved, which was causing the entire vcr replay problem to begin with. This has been located and removed. (The 20-meg size is just extra insurance.) 3. Fixed AI forces moving before the set reaction turn. It is important to note that there are (and have always been) two exceptions to the reaction turn setting; one is if the units get involved in short-range combat, in which case they seem to be freed from the reaction turn restriction. The other is if the AI decides it is time to mount an emergency counterattack, which it may do if more than half of the victory hexes are enemy-controlled. This counterattack only can happen when the AI is defending or delaying. 4. Fixed a bug with dead leaders not being replaced at the end of a battle. At the end of the battle in which they die, the unit of the formation that was the acting leader becomes the leader in the next battle. They are moved to the 0 position of the formation (although this seems to take a second battle to happen). 5. The bug with reinforcements being added to the campaign core force is fixed. 6. Units that are out of contact have that text in yellow at the bottom of the screen to be a little more noticeable. Also changed the text to be more explanatory. 7. Weapon slots 2, 3, and 4 for infantry now only fire those weapons once, not once for each man. 8. Tracked FO units now have proper bombardment delay. NEW FEATURES, ENHANCEMENTS and BUG FIXES v4.4 (October 20, 2000): ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Reinforcements in user campaigns are now auxiliary units. 2. PBEM saves should save properly in slots 10, 11, 12 now. 3. Fixed PBEM VCR replay stopping prematurely. 4. Fixed bombardment in online play repeatedly landing in same hex. 5. Text log is cleared after each player's turn in hotseat play. 6. Added a much larger VCR replay buffer and now saved the VCR replay as a separate file so it compresses better. 7. Units disappearing bug fixed and VCR playback missing units corrected also. NEW FEATURES, ENHANCEMENTS and BUG FIXES v4.3b (October 7, 2000): ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. You can now upgrade units of classes #86 and up in the campaign. 2. Fixed up Finnish name list with Finnish suggestions. 3. Fixed starting dates, etc., for purchasing units in user campaigns. 4. Reinforcements in user campaigns are now auxiliary units. 5. PBEM saves should save properly in slots 10, 11, 12 now. 6. Fixed PBEM vcr replay stopping prematurely. 7. Fixed bombardment in online play repeatedly landing in same hex. NEW FEATURES, ENHANCEMENTS and BUG FIXES v4.2 (October 2, 2000): ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. A bug was found that stop waypoints from working with some scenarios. Also if two players were playing online with one player having fixed waypoints and one not fixed it could cause the game to crash. 5. We replaced the Russian leader names with better ones. 6. A bug was found that stop waypoints from working with some scenarios. Also if two players were playing online with one player having fixed waypoints and one not fixed it could cause the game to crash. 7. We replaced the Russian leader names with better ones. NEW FEATURES, ENHANCEMENTS and BUG FIXES v4.1 (September 25, 2000): ------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Casualties from previous battles that weren’t yet repaired were being counted as kills in the current battle in the WWII campaign and generated campaign. This is now fixed. 9. Reloading a saved game would recalculate the starting number of men in a squad (when Reduced Squads). Caused scoring problems in addition. Fixed. 10. Fixed a bug in the PBEM playback that could cause the vcr replay to end prematurely (which would cause many strange and bad problems). 11. Sniper-class units can no longer capture victory hexes. 12. Fixed problem with online games not starting with same data if reduced squads or combat ammo was chosen. 13. Increased reliability of combat results on remote machines in online games. 14. Differing OOBs or game versions in online play will no longer let you continue the game. 15. Victory hexes that score every turn will score for any turns left unfought in the battle (for example, if the other force breaks or surrenders). 16. Removed OOB cost multipliers for aircraft and artillery from the program. Values in OOBs are now used as-is. 17. Many of the preferences are now locked out during online play like they are in PBEM. 18. Online games now have a different order to the setup sequence -- selection of game type is now after the players join. This allows the next change to work. 19. Specifying “mech.exe /i” in the Combat Net filename box will allow the skipping of many of the online setup screens. It automatically fills in the correct ip address, uses the saved name, and attempts to connect three times (just in case the server is slower than you). IMPORTANT: make sure that SPWAW knows what your ip address is. Check this by running spwaw.exe and clicking “online”. If the wrong ip address is shown here (for example, if you are using a proxy or NA T to reach the internet), do not use the /i switch! 20. Fixed unit ID tags not showing up. 21. Fixed wrong formation assignment of units during scenario editing. Units of side #1 were sometimes being assigned formation letters that belong to side #2. Because of the nature of this bug, it is only truly fixed for scenarios that start buying units for side #2 from scratch, but it is only necessary to do this if the existing lettering problems bug you; there do not seem to be any ill game effects other than not being listed on the HQ menu or unit list. 22. Added a third setting to the Unit Numbers preferences, “All Units” (renamed the others “Your Infantry” and “Your Units”). This setting displays unit numbers on enemy infantry, and cannot be modified once a PBEM game or online game starts. 23. Random victory hexes now only put every-turn scoring hexes in the middle third of the map (east-west axis). 24. Fixed Done button sometimes not moving second player on side forward to deployment, also put in text for that player to explain how the process works. 25. Disabled some more of the side buttons in online games when it’s not your turn (was not behaving well when anything interesting happened while you were not on the map screen). 26. Fixed bug with random numbers used in combat results. 27. Saying ‘n’ to surrender prompt no longer ends your turn. 28. Answering ‘n’ to quitting the game would sometimes end your turn. Fixed. 29. Prevented “too many people to fit” message from popping up on other players’ screens in online play. 30. Prevented line of sight showing up on other players’ screens in deploy phase when changing facing. 31. Fixed bug that could get online game out of sync when op fire confirm was not being used. 32. Fixed units teleporting and problems with rocks appearing in online play. 33. Made default points for generated online battles same as in single player. 34. Removed breakdown & malfunction messages for the other side’s units. 35. Changed the end-of-buying process in online games with 3 or more players. Now, each person must press Done before it moves on. 36. You can no longer move your teammates’ units around in the deploy phase. (Unless you specifically grab them on the HQ menu). 37. Fixed some overlapping text on the save screen in online play. 38. Fixed problems with op fire being prematurely interrupted in online play. 39. Fixed AAA not firing at planes in online play. 40. Fixed caves, coastal guns, and immobilized units able to change facing by clicking on enemy unit. 41. Near blast damage reduced to 67% of current value vs. infantry. 42. Smaller generated battle map sizes now have shorter default turn lengths. 43. Custom maps now use 3-digit numbering system; the old 2-digit ones will still load if a 3-digit map is not found (so you don’t have to rename all the 2-digit files). 44. Made rough map graphics appear in appropriate generated battle locations. 45. Fixed inability to say ‘n’ to bail out prompt. 46. Fixed problem with reloading online autosave if one player continued for some of the next turn before quitting. It was not properly checking to make sure both people had the same saved game. 47. Fixed syncing problems with reloading online saved games. 48. Made F1, F5, i, and / keys work when it isn’t your turn in online games. 49. Plays a more noticeable sound when someone loses their connection in online play. 50. The cost of elite and second line troops is calculated as though their average morales are 80 and 60, respectively, when purchasing them (unless True Troop Cost is turned off). 51. Fixed problem with abandoned tanks not being counted as destroyed. 52. Fixed random battles always being on day 0 of the month. 53. Counter-battery fire is now synced properly in online play. 54. Fixed reinforcements not being available in PBEM generated battles. 55. Fixed problem with computer AI not using proper sighting routine in one place, and therefore acting strangely towards hidden units. 56. Vehicle breakdown chance is halved. 57. Fixed 5-foot slope around plowed fields. 58. Changed cost of moving across slopes. 59. Changed movement costs in bad weather. 60. Renamed some unit classes, changed some units’ movement classes. 61. Infantry SAM class is now Ski troops. They pay half movement cost in winter. 62. Fixed surrendering in PBEM games to show who surrendered correctly. 63. Casualty list is now cleared out before loading or starting new games. 64. Updated terrain.txt with "more breakdowns" and "less breakdowns" instead of "breakdown roll", which was on all the terrain with modified breakdowns, not necessarily worse ones. 65. Offboard artillery is now located slightly off the appropriate screen edge, centered on the y-axis. This makes it so that if it is a large map and the artillery’s range doesn’t quite cover the whole map, it covers appropriate areas. 66. Fixed bug with player #2’s counter battery fire doing way too much damage. 67. Map Victory flag graphic fixed. 68. Sound files fixed. Some sound files when used with a few sound cards were causing the game to crash. 69. Combat Command and Combat Net is opened allowing for gamers to find opponents easier. NEW FEATURES, ENHANCEMENTS and BUG FIXES v4.0 (August 24, 2000): ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. If a custom map is selected in the random battle generator, the program will now set objectives and starting lines before the game begins. 2. Base experience, base morale and leadership ratings for selected nation now appear in the purchase screen. 3. The maximum penetration is now displayed in the unit data screens for both the purchase screen and the encyclopedia. The penetration value is based on the greater of HE and AP. Except in the case of bazookas and the like, HEAT and APCR values are not considered, because of limited ammunition. This display looks at the first weapon listed for the unit and is included to make comparing tanks and assault guns easier. 4. The chance for the unit to have a radio is now displayed in the unit data screens for both the purchase screen and the encyclopedia. This chance is a percentage value. 5. The unit range finder is now displayed in the unit data screens for the purchase screen, the unit data screen and the encyclopedia. 6. Maximum visibility in the editor has been raised to 99. 7. The default map size in the editor and the random battle generator has been changed to small. 8. A new special code has been added, “Second line troops”, which subtracts 10% from experience and morale, when the unit is created. The special codes now include: a. 0 = Normal troops b. 1 = Recon troops c. 2 = Dedicated artillery d. 10 = Elite troops +10 experience/morale e. 11 = Elite Recon troops f. 12 = Elite Dedicated artillery g. 20 = Second line troops – 10 experience/morale h. 21 = Second line Recon troops i. 22 = Second line Dedicated artillery 9. The type of formation and any special features of those troops are now displayed in the purchase screen, above the formations. 10. New type of terrain in the desert called “sand depression”. It represents soft flowing sand and functions somewhat like mud, in that vehicles can become bogged down in it. 11. The player may now over ride the default weather, game length and visibility in the random battle generator. Buttons are provided. If the data is not overridden, the computer will generate appropriate values for the two sides. If the player chooses to change visibility, then subsequently changing time of day for the battle will have no effect on visibility. The legal values are 2 to 60 for turns game length, 1 to 99 for visibility and 1 to 6 for weather. 12. All Japanese leader names have been replaced by new names. 13. Twenty one new classes have been added. The Light Armored Car, Heavy Armored Car and Recon Tank all behave like armored cars. The "Heavy APC" can be used for units like the “Stuart Recce”, that can carry protected troops, but are not normal APCs. The “Medium Tank”, “Lend Lease Tank”, “Captured Tank”, “Captured SP Gun”, “Special Tank” and “Very Heavy Tank” allow for greater granularity in armored formations. The “Armed Halftrack” protects infantry like a halftrack, but has limited carry capacity. The “Prime Mover” behaves like a halftrack, but usually has little or no armor. “Armored Infantry”, “Armored Engineers”, “Marines”, “Second Line Infantry”, “Medium Infantry”, “Motorized Infantry”, “Motorized Engineers” and “Conscripts” allow for greater granularity in infantry formations. The “Recon Halftrack” protects infantry and behaves like an armored car. 14. Added ability to specify points for in-battle reinforcements in user-made campaigns. 15. Added ability to edit the campaign text files from within the editor; right-click on the appropriate number. I would recommend using either this method or editing them externally exclusively, as notepad-edited text files will have some garbage characters at the end when edited from within the program. 16. Wave files that match the campaign text names (but with .wav extensions instead of .txt extensions) will play in the intros/summaries. 17. Put “new campaign” button on campaign selector screen for editor. 18. Hitting F1 on the random battle screen brings up a weather & visibility help screen (rbhelp.txt). 19. F1 also brings up a help screen on the campaign edit screen. 20. New type of terrain in the winter called snow 21. Units that travel at high speeds or over rough terrain have a chance of that unit will breaking down. 22. Units weapons may breakdown when being used. If a player uses a unit a lot during Op Fire this can increase the chance of that weapon breaking down. Some weapons can be repaired during the game. All breakdowns are also effective by a country equipment modifier that can increase and decrease the chance of breakdown. Units experience can also increase repair of a damage unit. 23. Squads now can be set to not start full TO 24. On board artillery ammo is reduced when hit by enemy fire. 25. When Vehicle moves in dry weather they now leave a dust trail. 26. Depleted infantry units will no longer fire all of its weapons. 27. The artillery explosion sound is now determined by warhead size. 28. The artillery barrage message delay has been reduced to one half the message delay set in the Preferences. This should speed up artillery barrages. Also, remember that if you hold down the “f” key during the barrage for a bit, the fast artillery option will turn on. 29. A hot key is now available in the main editor screen, which sets the mission to a river crossing. This will allow the infantry to be equipped with rubber boats. 30. Allow a chance that paratroopers (20%) and gliders (15%) will not arrive during the battle in generated battles. 31. Query user, when he chooses stream, for stream or gully. 32. Query user for type of beach, sand beach or volcanic beach and use different terrain icon set. 33. If in desert, call stone wall sandstone wall and use different terrain icon set. 34. If in desert, use first part of trees, brown trees. 35. Add new terrain type, cliff, which can only be traversed by special forces. 36. Add two new terrain types, rocks and boulders and do not allow vehicles on rocks. 37. Add a new terrain type, trench 38. Platoon, company and battalion headquarters units (any formation headquarters) will now have a (x) around there strength to show that they now are an “HQ” on the unit in the deployment and game screens. This was added, to assist the player in finding the headquarters units during play. 39 Computer opponent has been reprogrammed to use reserve forces more aggressively. Also, it should now commit these reserves earlier than it did in previous versions of the game. 40. Fortifications are now treated as armored targets for bombardment purposes. This means they will receive the benefit of armor ratings and will no longer take casualties from rounds that do not hit the fortification. 41. Added autosaves in slots #1 & 2 for solitaire & hotseat games. 42. Changed major & minor victory margins to 5 and 3 respectively (vs. comput er) and 4 and 2 (vs. human). 43. Email games are no longer allowed to save the game on the battle report screen. 44. Three new buttons were added to the preferences screen. These include a button for vehicle breakdowns, weapons breakdown and full squads. These are all in the realism section and may not be changed during a PBEM game. The first two buttons toggle the routines that determine if a vehicle or weapon breaks down in combat. The third determines if infantry squads are up to full strength, when purchased. If not, then the number of men in the squad becomes full squad strength for the battle. Some text was also moved to improve the appearance of the screen. 45. The button, “FULL AMMO” was renamed “REDUCED AMMO”. The default is on and that means the unit will not get a full load of ammunition. This way, if the user wants the most realistic game, he should have all bright green lights on the bottom. 46. A new option, “REDUCED SQUADS” has been added. If on, this simulates men on leave, runner duty, sick call and so forth. The effect is some of the men are not present for the battle. The number of men missing depends on the number in a full unit and may run up to one third the maximum men. In the case of units with very few men, it is assumed that men were soaked off from other units to replace the missing men, so units of less than 6 men very seldom have reduced numbers. In campaigns, the number of men missing each is determined at the beginning of the battle. 47. A new option, “VEHICLE BREAKDOWNS” has been added. If on, this simulates engine overheating, tracks slipping off the bogie, flat tires, transmission failures and other malfunctions that could cause immobility in a vehicle. A number of factors are included in the determination of vehicle breakdowns, including the type of terrain, the unit maximum and current speed, the experience of the crew, the date and nationality of the vehicle. Breakdowns should occur least in for a late model American vehicle driving at two thirds or less speed on a flat paved road. The chances increase when the terrain is rough, wooded or containing other difficult terrain, such as shell holes, without a road in the hex. The also increase at high speeds. Crew experience makes a substantial difference in the chance. Americans have the most reliable vehicles, followed by countries of the British Commonwealth, the Germans, the Finns, the Soviets, the Italians, the Japanese, the 1940 French army and other minor powers. Starting in January of 1942, the French using American vehicles use the American reliability charts. The Germans suffer a sharp decline in reliability after 1943. Soviets reliability improves steadily after 1942. Immobilized vehicles will now attempt to repair the damage each turn. In order to make the attempt, the crew must be in the vehicle and not buttoned up or have any suppression. Since immobilization damage can be as simple as a loose spark plug wire or as complex and time consuming as replacing tracks, which can take hours, repair times will vary. Usually, however, it will take an average of 20 turns for an experienced crew to affect repairs. The player will be informed when repairs are completed. Since the repairing unit must be at zero suppression, this will allow even a single machine gun or infantry squad to keep repairs from taking place by firing every turn at the vehicle and pinning the crew inside. 48. A unit which has been abandoned, may now be spiked by an enemy unit that spends one turn in the hex with the abandoned unit and make an experience check. This will destroy the spiked unit. The unit and leader spiking will receive experience for the kill, although the leader will not receive a kill credit. 49. The code that prevents depleted units from firing some weapons has been reinstated. This means that snipers will not use the second weapon, like hand grenades and anti-tank teams of two men will not use the third weapon, like hand grenades. 50. When vehicles move in the desert, it is daytime and the visibility is better than about 600 yards, the vehicle will now leave a visible dust trail. Desert dust only appears if unit moves more than one hex and is not on a paved road. 51. The limited ammunition button is now a three way toggle. It runs from reduced ammunition (combat loads) to limited ammunition (amount shown in OOB) to unlimited ammunition (ammunition is not decremented, when round is fired). 52. There is now a button called, ”CHARACTERISTICS”. When turned off, the national characteristics for the various nations, will not be applied. 53. The Canadians and ANZAC now receive the benefit of the British, for the characteristic of “coolness under fire”. This means suppression will not affect their to hit percentage as much as other nations are affected. 54. The button “COUNTRY TRAINING” has been renamed “HISTORIC RATINGS”. 55. When the Limited Intel option is on, enemy units will no longer have the number of men in the unit printed on the icon or in the enemy unit data pop-out box. 56. The “Stream” button in the editor now evokes a pop-out box that offers the scenario author three choices for the type of stream. The first is stream the second gully and the third trench. The stream and gully work the way they always have and are now both –2 elevation. The trench is –1 elevation, but may not be traversed by vehicles. The AI know about these changes and should be able to find its way around a trench using a routine similar to that used to circumnavigate buildings. Note that vehicles may not enter a trench, even if it has a victory objective in it. 57. A new button has been added to the editor screen. It is called the Rocks/Boulders/Cliff button. It evokes a query, where the user chooses which type of terrain to apply. Rocks are excellent defensive terrain and impassable to wheeled vehicles. Boulders are good defensive terrain and are impassable to all vehicles, except aircraft. A road will negate either the extra movement costs. Cliffs are may only be placed on slopes and are impassable to all units, except units of the “Special Forces” class and take all movement points of the unit to enter, which must begin movement adjacent to the cliff. A road will not negate the movement limitations of a cliff. A cliff is very bad defensive terrain. Rocks, cliffs and boulders are generally treated as very rough terrain. For instance, the chance for vehicular breakdown is increased for rocks and cliffs are a very bad place to try to land a glider. 58. Two new classes have been added, the Rocket Launcher and SP Rocket Launcher. Both are for use, on board. These will be treated somewhat like Howitzers and SP Howitzers, but not exactly. Note that the Calliope type kits put on Sherman tanks do not qualify for SP Rocket Launcher status and should not be created with indirect fire capability for use on the board. There is an off board version of the Calliope that does have indirect fire capability. 59. The new list of national characteristics include: *USA – Troops tend to retreat more quickly than other major nations. They also receive a bonus to rally. *USMC – Troops receive a +10% bonus to hit, when firing rifles. They very seldom surrender. They also receive reduced ammunition and their ammunition trucks reload more slowly. *British – Troops receive less of a penalty from suppression. They also receive a small penalty to rally. *Canadian – Troops receive less of a penalty from suppression, when firing. They also have a higher breakdown rate, when using British vehicles before 1943, than do the British. *ANZAC - Troops receive less of a penalty from suppression, when firing. They also have a higher breakdown rate, when using weapons vehicles before 1943, than do the British. *France – Troops receive more ammunition and their ammunition trucks reload faster until 1943. They also suffer a greater chance to be out of contact by radio. *Soviets – Until 1944, when on the defense in good terrain, during a delay or defend mission, if they take enough suppression to retreat or route away, they will, if they fail a morale special check, become tenacious defenders and all suppression will be removed. They also suffer a substantial chance to be out of contact by radio before 1942. As the war progresses, this chance declines and by 1944, they have the same chance of being out of radio contact as other countries. *Germans – Troops take less suppression from fire. They also suffer a small penalty when trying to rally. *Italy – Troops will sometimes surrender, even if not surrounded, in the Western desert, before 1943. During 1943, if in Italy, they have a greater chance to opportunity fire at enemy troops than normal. *Japan – Troops very, very seldom retreat, route or surrender. They also suffer a reduction in ammunition after 1941 and this reduction increases each year of the World War II. Their ammunition trucks suffer a similar penalty to that of the USMC. 60. Delay times for spotting units with experience and artillery leadership skill of 90% or better was reduced by 1 61. There are two new buttons in the editor which determine the tile sets used. One is the Jungle tile set and the other the Rough tile set. Selecting one these tile sets will alter the appearance of the map generated or being edited. 62. There is a new icon for desert orchards. 63. The player now receives more purchase points when he begins a generated or long WW II campaign. 64. Random victory hexes now have random point values & may be of two types: standard or points per turn. 65. Random maps now use some of the new terrain features (polder, orchards, vineyards, black beaches, rocks & boulders, railroads, graveyards). 66. Custom maps now save & load the start line and victory hex conditions. On the battle generator screen, when you click on “custom map”, you now choose either the saved start & victory hexes, or random either or both. Just keep clicking on custom map to see the various combinations. 67. To save a custom map with start line & victory hexes, you place them on the deploy menu as usual, then go back to the map edit screen to save the map. It’s a little awkward, but it works. 68. If a custom map is selected that has not been saved with this extra data (such as all the current custom maps), then they are randomly generated as though the “random both” option was set. 69. Warning: maps that have the WideRiver variable set, such as the Tractor Factory, do not make random start lines & hexes well. These maps should have them placed, and a note in the comment file to warn the user that random choosing isn’t a good option. 70. Surrendering makes you lose in single player games now. 71. Capitalized text for different custom map types. 72. Added “assaults only” explanation to NO MAJOR WATER button’s help text. 73. Wooden bridges spanning a water, stream, gully or trench hex may no longer be crossed by a vehicle, if there is a wreck or other unit in the hex. 74. Stone bridges spanning a water, stream, gully or trench hex may no longer be crossed by a vehicle, if the are two units in the hex or a unit and a wreck. 75. The F7 key now shows the current line of sight view of the currently selected unit in the game screen or deployment screen. 76. The F8 key now shows the move radius of the currently selected unit. 77. Move Radius is now a three way toggle. Mode A shows the original graphics. Mode B shows darkened hexes into which the unit may move in the day and highlighted hexes at night. Move Radius off still shows no darkened or highlighted hexes. 78. Abandoned vehicles and guns should no longer display an ID Flag. 79. Targeting symbols should now appear, when targeting commandos, gliders, artillery, transports and air strikes, when ID flags are turned on. ID flags will disappear from friendly troops while targeting is going on, however. 80. In the formation selection screen of the purchase screen, the “Next” and “Previous” buttons now line up properly. 81. The weather has been bullet proofed. Weather values of 255 in the editor should no longer occur. 82. Mortars and self-propelled mortars assigned to line companies should now always be dedicated artillery, even if the formation does not have the proper code for dedicated artillery. 83. Radios may now be repaired between battles in a campaign, if the “Repair All” button is clicked. This repair is not certain, but it is free. WHAT TO EXPECT IN SPWaW v3.0: ----------------------------- A) TCP/IP Play: Multi-player TCP/IP Internet play. Anywhere from 2, 3 or 4 players can battle against each other over the Internet. Gang up in a 3 on 1 fight or 2 against 2. Gamers can set a “Gamer Timer” this will be the amount of time each player has to finish his turn. Once the time is up the turn automatically moves to the next player’s turn. B) Time Out: During Internet game the gamers can decide how many “Time Outs” each side is to get. During your turn you may chose to use a Time Out. This will pause the game and stop your clock from running. Time Out time decided by doubling your current setting on the turn timer. This is an Internet only feature. C) Command Intervention: During an Internet game gamers can set how many “Command Intervention” points are giving per player. Because each turn time is set before the game starts this option will allow you double whatever time you have left at the time you press the Command Intervention hot key. So if you have 2 minutes left and press the Command Intervention hot key would give you 4 minutes. This will allow you in the critical parts of the battle to extend your time when you really need it. This is an Internet only feature. D) Op Fire Options: Players can now decided if they want to Op Fire. Whenever your unit has an option to Op Fire you will be shown what unit and weapon you will be firing and the target unit. You now press (y)es or (n)o to fire. Before you start a battle you can set how many seconds the display is shown before the Op Fire is cancel. Op Fire can be used in all game play except PBEM. If you do not want to use the feature it can also be turned off. E) Reinforcement Request: This feature will add a new level to SPWaW. Players can now purchase reinforcements based on 20% of the points spent to make up their initial force. These reinforcements will show up 1-4 turns later on one of the reinforcement hexes. If you use this option during Internet play you must have a Time Out still available. 25% of the victory point’s award for destroying your reinforcement pool is automatically added to your opponent’s victory points. A player can request reinforcements every turn as long the player has not spent total of 20% in points over the initial force and when playing Internet play also have a time out available. F) Voice Support: Roger Wilco and Battlecom voice support has been added allowing players on the Internet to talk to each other during game play. G) Unit Purchase Screen Changes: Players when purchasing units will now be able to see remain flights and mines. When purchasing units the top of the screen will show formations special code values and descriptions. You will also see the unit based Experience, Morale, Rally and Leader modifiers The bottom of the screen will now show the units Maximum Penetration value and percentage chance of it having a radio. H) Battle Generator New Options: Players can now set the game length and the starting weather conditions. I) Preference Screen New Options: Four new options are available on the preference screen. I1) Vehicle Breakdown – Units that travel at high speeds or over rough terrain have a chance of that unit will breaking down. I2) Weapon Breakdown – Units weapons may breakdown when being used. If a player uses a unit a lot during Op Fire this can increase the chance of that weapon breaking down. Some weapons can be repaired during the game. All breakdowns are also effective by a country equipment modifier that can increase and decrease the chance of breakdown. Units experience can also increase repair of a damage unit. I3) Combat Squads – Squads now can be set to not start full TO I4) Unit ID Tags – Units can now show their country ID while on the units J) Mike Wood OOB Editor: The OOB editor has been enhanced. K) Onboard Artillery units: Ammo is reduced when hit by enemy fire. L) Dust Trail: When Vehicle moves in dry weather they now leave a dust trail. M) Depleted Infantry Units: Will no longer fire all of its weapons. N) OOB’s Updates: Many of the OOB’s have been reworked. O) [MGN] Matrix Games Network: The release of SPWaW v3.0 will also be the grand opening of our Matrix Games Network. Aiding players in finding opponents online 24 hours a day. This new software add-on is client software that will connect you to the MGN network. It will auto start your game and find out your current ping rate and IP number. When you start your game it will pass the IP information to the game as well. P) SPWaW Opponents Registry: Players will now be able to leave there information when looking for a PBEM or Internet opponent. More information will be released later. Q) Matrix Games Wagamer HQ: League Play the way Mars intended it to be. Players can now play fast and hard to win cash and prizes. Think you’re the best well come get some. R) Unique Battle Locations: SPWaW has expanded it unique battle locations to 665. S) User Generated Campaigns: We completely redone the User Generated Campaigns. Players can now have over 1,000 campaigns. The new campaigns can branch to different scenarios depending on what the out come of the battle. The condition you start your next battle will now greatly depend on how you ended your last one. Designers can now determine final victory by points or victory hexes and even exiting units off the map board. Designers can write their own campaign texts for each battle land scenario results. T) The Text Phrase Change: “Command” has been changed in several places to “Com”. U) Improved Prime Infantry: A prime infantry unit may now opportunity fire with the light machine gun, if the primary weapon has a range less than twelve. V) Artillery Sounds: Artillery with a smaller warhead will now make a smaller explosion sound. W) Artillery Message Delay: The artillery barrage message delay has been reduced to one half the message delay set in the Preferences. This should speed up artillery barrages. Also, remember that if you hold down the “f” key during the barrage for a bit, the fast artillery option will turn on. X) River Crossing Hot Key: A hot key is now available in the main editor screen, which sets the mission to a river crossing. This will allow the infantry to be equipped with rubber boats. Y) Pause Key: Players can now press the pause key to halt play during an Internet game. Because of the new “Time Out” and “Command Intervention” features the pause key need to be approved by your opponents and will lock the game until the pausing player releases the pause. Z) Surrender Key: Players can now surrender when they feel their position is hopeless. This is available for all types of SPWaW games. A1) Victory Types: Players will now have two more new types of victory options when playing a game or making a scenario. The first is called “Victory Turn”, when using this option the player only receives victory points for the turns he held the victory objective for and not for having it at the end of the game only. The second is called “Victory Exit”, when this option is used the player will have exit hexes and will receive victory points for each unit the players is able to exit off of the map. A2) Lock Key In Editor: Scenario designers can now use a lock option to lock certain graphic images when making maps. BUGS FIXED: 1. The thumbnail shows the location of the last unit that was fired upon, instead of the current one. 2. Fire control, gun stabilizer, range finder and radio are not repaired between battles in a Campaign. 3. The last passenger loaded into a vehicle should be displayed on the bottom right of the screen now 4. Barges and landing craft always sink after the first penetrating hit from any weapon. They should now be much more durable. 5. With some minor countries, like Nationalist Spain, the number of orders received at the beginning of a turn is unusually large. 6. When landing craft fire their weapons, they regain all their movement points. 7. Satchel charges should not kill or suppress units not in the target hex. 8. The map does not re-center on the firing unit, when the firing unit destroys the target. 9. Using the direct fire bombardment, “z” key, allows forts to rotate. Fixed. This should no longer occur. 10. During pre-battle bombardment, an extraneous “Continue” button appears on the map in Campaign missions. It should no longer appear. 11. Vehicle bottom armor is not calculated properly. 12. All units that are upgraded between battles become recon units. Now, units with no special code should not gain any and those with codes should retain their old code. 13. Molotov cocktails and anti-tank rifles cause the game to crash. 14. Command and control was not working properly on very large maps. Version 3 Beta 12 (July 23, 2000): ---------------------------------- 1. Increased number of sound buffers to see if missing sounds play. 2. Added ability to view units during the end of battle View Map (left-click on them). 3. Beach assaulters can only get off-board artillery or strike aircraft as in-battle reinforcements. 4. Added weather/visibility/game length selectors to online random battles. 5. New campaign editor - You can set the number of campaign victory points received for the various campaign outcomes. - The “Battle Points Remaining” divisor is not used and not present. - The build & support points always override any user preferences and do not accumulate from battle to battle. 6. Keyboard is now flus hed before op fire confirmation. 7. Fixed preference screen exiting prematurely. 8. Was unable to repeat answering ‘n’ to surrender prompt ending the turn. 9. When a headquarters is destroyed, the next unit to assume command should now show the visual designation for a headquarters, which has been changed to a ( ) around the + sign or number. So an infantry HQ should now have something like (6) and a tank or gun HQ something like (+). 10. Only the platoon and company leaders had the number of friendly troops printed on them when Limited Intel was on. Fixed. 11. When “Crops” is selected in the editor, the player is now asked if he wants plowed land or growing crops. 12. This will occur in the desert or temperate tile set, but not in the winter tile set. 13. When “Beach” is selected in the editor, the player is now asked if he wants black sand or yellow sand. 14. When editing, using the desert tile set, the cobblestone terrain icon is now replaced by a sandcobble stone icon. 15. When editing, using the desert tile set, the stone wall terrain icons are now replaced by sandstone wall icons. 16. The battle location is now printed in the terrain data pop-out box. 17. When playing hot seat games, the players should no longer be able to see the enemy unit headquarters symbols. 18. The beach type for the option of turning half the map into a beach in the editor is now controlled by the beach hex type. To make the beach strip black sand, choose black sand from the query evoked when the beach hex is selected. Then select the beach strip option. After the beach type is chosen, it will apply to all ocean and lake beaches, until either the editor is exited or another beach type is selected. 19. Night battles generated in the scenario editor have not been showing the proper landscape 20. Some battles that should have a background environmental sound track do not. 21. Opportunity fire chances now take into account all of a unit’s weapon ranges, not just the first slot. 22. Yellow and black sand should now blend together. 23. Retreat hexes no longer say “pavement” in help text. Version 2.1 (June 28, 2000): ---------------------------- FIXES BUGS: 1) Some players have expressed difficulties when using the “Fast Artillery” option. It seems that some sound cards with certain settings, could handle the sounds. Therefore, the sound of the artillery barrage no longer plays when this option is turned on. All other sounds will still work normally. Just no barrage sound. 2) When upgrading units in a campaign, the number of men in the unit being upgraded did not change to meet the new unit requirements. So, if you upgraded a two man bazooka team to a Sherman tank, it only had a crew of 2 men. This has been fixed. The number of men in the new unit should now be appropriate to the type of unit being upgraded. 3) Mortars being upgraded would not retain the number of tubes in the old unit. There are sometimes two or three tubes in a mortar section. When upgrading from a section of two 50mm mortars to a section of 81mm mortars, the number of tubes should be two, not one. This has been fixed. Note that upgrading a non-mortar unit, such as a tank, to a mortar team will only produce one mortar, not a complete section. 4) The VCR replay button in the combat screen did not work. This has been fixed. It should now work. 5) Units who bailed out of a gun or vehicle when the player pressed “9” did not have enough movement to exit the hex, due to a change in the movement speed of crews. This has been adjusted, so that crews should be able to move at least one hex, if they make a voluntary bail out and are not pinned, retreating or routed. 6) In the random battle generator, choosing river crossings or beach assaults and a map larger than “Large”, 100x80, caused the program to lock up. River crossings and beach assaults are not yet supported in the random battle generator, so now when you choose one of these and the map size is larger than “Large”, it now automatically switches to large. Also, you may not choose a map larger than “Large”, after you have chosen a river crossing or beach assault. CODE CHANGES: 1) The program no longer displays banners. 2) In battles between Germans and Russians or Polish, the default map side for the Germans in the random battle generator and campaigns is now the left side. 3) The values shown on the bottom left of the screen in the combat screen were rearranged so that units carrying passengers with long names would not overlap other data. 4) The Campaign Generator was not designed to duplicate all of World War II. The Long World War II Campaign was. The Campaign Generator was designed to allow players to pit several countries against the player in a totally random fashion. It allows countries that have never even fought a war against each other to fight a series of battles. As such, it is not historical. It has been a surprisingly popular feature and as such, we have added a new function to it. At the end of each battle, a screen now will display, that will allow the user to make limited modifications to the campaign. He may choose to change one or more of the countries that he opposes. He may also change the terrain over which the campaign battles are fought. So, if the player wants to play a Italian campaign, starting in 1940, against the British, he should select the British for all three opponents and the desert for the terrain. When 1941 rolls around, he can change the opponents to British, Australian and Indian and fight on. In 1943, he can change the opponents to British and the United States and change the terrain to mountainous. He might then change the enemy to Soviet Union in late 1943 and the terrain to plains. In this way, the player can customize a World War II type campaign. Note that to predict how long a period will pass between battles, divide the number of battles to be fought by the number of months chosen for the campaign. 5) New start menu is now available SPWAW first release (May 8, 2000): ---------------------------------- CHANGES - BIG TIME! - At Last! Windows Play This perhaps is the biggest and most important feature to be added to the game. Being a DOS based game would have eventually doomed Steel Panthers with newer versions of Windows. No more! The game is being rewritten as a native Windows game. This will allow stereo sound and will prove a more stable game. - It's Back! The Long Campaign A new long campaign has been added to the game. It works much like the long campaign in Steel Panthers I. The user chooses where to start in WW II and picks a country to play from among USA, USMC, Germany, Great Britain, Japan or the Soviet Union. He then fights a series of battles closely related to those fought during the actual war, with appropriate enemy forces and terrain. As the war continues, he may choose to switch to a new theater. After each battle, his troops gain experience and he is allowed to upgrade units. - Each in his own way - National Characteristics Forces from different countries now have an added flair, characteristic of their nationality. American troops tend to retreat more rapidly than the other major powers, but also rally more quickly. British troops, known for their steadiness under fire, receive less of a penalty from suppression when firing their small arms. German troops benefit from outstanding training by receiving less suppression from fire until the last year of the war, when training dropped off. Japanese troops and US Marines never surrender and Japanese troops seldom retreat. The result, very desperate and bloody close combat between these two. Poorly equipped and lead, Italians will sometimes surrender, even if not surrounded through out the desert war. The Soviet army was known for tenacious defense. Soviet troops, when on a delay or defend mission and in adequate cover, taking heavy fire will sometimes spontaneously recover and ignore current suppression levels. They can then immediately return fire. - Welcome to the New Folks - New Countries Six new countries were added to the game, including Communist China, Nationalist China, Republican Spain, Nationalist Spain, the Philippines and ANZAC forces. These all have the proper terrain types, leadership and battle locations built into the game engine. - Combat at its Best The combat system has been completely overhauled. Units that fire and move, loose acquisition. The flamethrower range has been extended to a maximum of two hexes. Shooting now cost some movement-points, similar to the way that moving costs shots. Unit spotting has been enhanced. Turreted vehicle spotting ability has been reduced. Non-turreted vehicle spotting ability has been reduced even more. Snipers are now very, very hard to spot. Terrain cover has been expanded. Streams and canals now offer cover for all units. In addition, wrecks and holes now offer cover for leg units. Infantry can now only throw smoke 1 hex away. Indirect fire delays have been increased significantly. The shortest acquisition time can be achieved using an FO and using fast response artillery or pre-registered positions. Infantry small arms fire is now much less suppressive vs. armored vehicles. Units being loaded into a vehicle must now be in the same hex with the transport. Vehicles may now only tow, at most, one gun. Machine Guns, mortars, anti-tank guns, flak, howitzers, rockets, infantry guns, light mortars, heavy machine guns and heavy mortars may not fire their primary weapon on the turn they unload from a vehicle or move. - New Armor Penetration System Finally, the matter of unrealistic armor hits and kills is being resolved in Steel Panthers, World at War! Penetration will now be calculated in millimeters, versus "armor factors". The database has being updated to include the armor value in mm and angle allowing a more accurate representation of ballistic effects. This allows for a more realistic effective armor calculation to be made, accounting for the combination of vertical and horizontal angles, as well as the ratio of basic armor thickness to shell diameter (T/D). The new system also includes an increasing chance of ricochet with increasing compound angles and T/D so small rounds at glancing angles bounce very often while large rounds at small angles from perpendicular do not. The fact that the vehicles are not always in the center of the hex and in motion (pitching and rotating) make one of the key random variables lie in determining the horizontal and vertical aspect angle to the target at the moment the shot is taken. This technique, together with a small (~10%) variation in penetration power from shot to shot, attempts to get away from the "big random draw" that often lead to strange results. HE will properly be tested against the basic armor thickness, while HEAT ammo will be tested against the "geometric thickness" and AP and HVAP will be tested against a T/D dependant "ballistic thickness" to determine a possibility for penetration. Weapon penetration and effective armor at the location hit are now displayed. - New Vehicle Damage System New penetrating hit locations have been added. These include most systems on the vehicle. When penetration occurs, each system is checked for damage. The calculations consider the type and size of the penetrating round, the location of the hit, the kinetic force left in the round, the amount of armor thrown inward during the penetration and other factors. It is possible for the round to go all the way through the vehicle and not damage any systems, if the target is lucky. The least amount of damage should occur with a small caliber APCR projectile that barely penetrated a very large vehicle with thin armor, a small crew and a large "survival" characteristic. Damage that penetrating rounds do may be revealed to the firing player or not, depending on if the firing unit would be able to see that damage. Non-penetrating critical hits have been added. These include the toolbox, radio mast, main-gun, coaxial-gun, main gun optics, range finder, infrared sensors, turret ring kills and general crew shock from very large non-penetrating hits. Hitting these locations should be difficult, with HE ammunition generally having a better chance. Minimum size warheads and penetration, proper target facings and so on are needed to affect these systems. The greatest chance of damage should occur with a large HE projectile hitting the turret of an AFV with many external systems. Trucks are now treated like other vehicles, and may now be immobilized, have the suspension damaged or receive systems damage. - Real Smoke - Real Effects Smoke will also drift down wind, creating several partial smoke hexes after a couple of turns. Sighting through several of these partial hexes will be obscured. - Watch out for the Mines! Minefields are now much harder to spot. And, the number of mines left is no longer revealed to the player who did not place the mines. - And You Haven't Seen This Before! - New Classes of Units Fifteen new classes have been added. These include Airborne, Elite, Wagon, Horse Team, Bicycle, Heavy MG, Light Mortar, Leg FO, Heavy Mortar, Special Forces and Guerrilla Forces, Armored FO Vehicle, Glider, Cargo Plane and Spotting Plane. These new types have all been coded to behave appropriately. - Skywarriors that really Work! Two new unit classes, gliders and transport aircraft are now loaded and targeted during deployment. These make there way across the map, after initial bombardment to deposit their troops as close as possible to the assigned locations. But, anti-aircraft, bad weather and bad luck can disperse the troops widely. Fighters and bombers can no longer effectively spot enemy units, but a new type of air mission can be called, in which a spotting plane flies across the map and offers some intelligence as to enemy disposition. - It's a Meaner Game than Ever! - The New AI The AI is now much more aggressive in meeting engagements. - And More for Pleasing the Eye Non-infantry now has a "+" printed on the unit, instead of a number. This obscures less the vehicle or gun. The user can now control the size of the unit icons. There are four sizes, allowing the user to choose the one most comfortable. The user may take a screen shot during his move. This is saved as a Windows .BMP graphics file. - Now some Real PBEM Confrontations The player has a choice of playing a friendly PBEM game that works like a head to head game or playing a fully secure game. Secure saved PBEM games are saved in a separate directory for convenience and are fully encrypted. Instructions to the user are printed on the screen at run time, to let the user know how to handle the files. Secure PBEM games are now be possible with battle generator games or scenarios. - Options - Options - We Got 'Em! The computer purchase advantage can now be toggled. If this is turned off, the AI will get some free units. In small battles, this can unbalance things. The volume of music played from the hard drive can now be increased or decreased. In addition, the user has a choice of music during combat or battle field sound effects. Engineer leg units may now remove, ignore or place mines, during the battle. The user, with a new routine that allows faster computers to play at the same speed as slower ones, can now control the map scrolling speed and animation speed. A new option allows the user to determine if units have full loads or combat loads. These are 100% of ammunition listed in the OOB or random (50%-100%) of the listed ammo. Leader names and ranks are now stored in an external file and may be modified by the user. - Beautiful to Behold Thanks for that very extensive update, Michael. But there is more. A whole new set of graphics, terrain features and much more will be included in this new game. Nick Papp, Mike Amos, Georges Ostermann, Darwin Barnes, Frank Donati, and GiTcH have pooled their talents to bring us features such as railroad bridges, walls, hedges, a whole new assortment of buildings. These and many other graphic features are going to make the game a very pleasant and realistic experience for you. - Amazing Sounds One of the more delightful features among many in Scott Grasse's earlier creation, Steel Lightning, were the very realistic sounds in the game. Scott Grasse's has teamed together with Jon Johnson, Mike Amos, who have also labored hard on this project, brought their expertise with them to help in the creation of great sounds. The Orders of battle have been completely revised with a lot of Scott's material used as a big part of our resources for such information. So there you have it. Steel Panthers, World at War, brought to you through the kindness of Strategic Simulations Inc, and thousands of talented man hours dedicated to the task. Get ready for a brand new experience in Steel Panthers World at War!