Sneak peek to Middle East 2.31 and CS: Vietnam 1.31 updates

[Crossroads]

We apologize for the delay of six to nine months from our original plan. With the loss of Berto, it has been an "anno horribilis" for our small team. But what better way to honor his legacy than by keeping the game updated for the coming years so here we go again. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

My original wish was to have a quick final “Berto baseline” out by late May, but we needed more time to sort ourselves out and align with Matrix Games' timelines. Expect an Open Beta in the coming weeks, followed by a full update once everything is running smoothly.

We aim to deliver a more comprehensive update by the end of the year and hope to establish a Spring/Fall update rhythm, as major revisions are now compeleted, including the phenomenal Lua-based Event Engine Berto developed to run parallel to the game engine, developed in C++.

Change Log for the Upcoming 1.31 / 2.31 Update

Enhancements:

• Extended CS Vietnam end date from 12/1967 to 12/1985.

• Objectives now display or obscure their values based on whether the Enhanced Fog of War optional rule is selected.

• Changed Double Value objectives to display the controlling side and award the value to the side controlling it when the scenario ends.

• Changed turn-by-turn Single Value objectives to be cumulative.

• Added slopes to 2D maps.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where Side B was not able to see Single Value Objective values.

• Fixed issues with entering and exiting a Pontoon Bridge hex (bug in v1.30 / v2.30).

• Assaulting a hex now reveals any unrevealed entrenchments.

• Loaded rafts can now move into shallow water and onto land, and unload their passengers at either location (bug in v1.30 / v2.30).

• Fixed a situation where a carrying unit could move into a village but was subsequently unable to move out (bug in v1.30 / v2.30).

• Removed the “Play Campaign” button from the Middle East front end as linked campaigns are no longer supported as of Middle East 2.30.

Let us look at a couple of those enhancement in more detail:


Extended CS Vietnam End Date from 12/1967 to 12/1985

If you've been watching Jason’s Twitch live sessions or YouTube recordings, you’ve seen previews of the late Vietnam War scenarios. Jason will provide more details, but expect to see an Open Beta for the 1968 Tet campaign soon. Similarly, for Middle East enthusiasts, an Iran-Iraq War Open Beta is on the horizon as well, but will take a longer time.

Exciting times, nevertheless!

[Crossroads]

New Objectives and Related Bug Fixes

Berto ran out of time to deliver the full implementation of the new objectives model, which includes both Single Value (same value for both sides) and Double Value (different values for each side) objectives, in two formats: cumulative turn-by-turn or granted to the side that controls the objective at the end of the scenario. Here’s a recap of the various objectives the game supports as of 1.31 / 2.31:

[Crossroads]

Slope Sides in 2D Maps

One of my long-term wishlist items, something we just haven’t had time for until now, is finally here! Originally planned for the Fall update, I managed to squeeze them in earlier. There’s one set of slope tiles for this version. While the “sunny side” hex sides may appear dark at the lowest elevations, they look bright on maps with higher elevations.

Our game supports 50 elevations per scenario map, and we’ll add more color variants in the next update. I opted for a minimalistic approach, using just one color for sunny sides and the same shadow hue as other 2D shapes in the maps.

advyemen_2dslopes.jpg (989.09 KiB) Viewed 989 times

[Crossroads]

Fall Update

More content is planned for the Fall update, likely delayed a bit due to our delay in getting back up to speed.

For the Middle East, we plan to introduce a more extensive set of scenarios with their CS Event Engine Lua scripts. Expect new scenarios, code enhancements, and more bug fixes. For Vietnam, more new content as well.

Again, thank you for your understanding and patience. Do stay tuned. And wish us luck!

[Wampir]

Background sound problem after patch 1.30 and 2.30 - I noticed a problem with the background sound in the game after installing patch 1.30. When you run a new scenario, the first background sound file is played. Unfortunately, the next background sound that should be running doesn't start. The game stops playing background sounds. Unit sounds work properly. I've run several different scenarios several times, the situation repeats itself. I tested this issue on a fresh clean install of the game.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 8&t=395038
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 8&t=396636

[Crossroads]

Background sound problem after patch 1.30 and 2.30 - I noticed a problem with the background sound in the game after installing patch 1.30. When you run a new scenario, the first background sound file is played. Unfortunately, the next background sound that should be running doesn't start. The game stops playing background sounds. Unit sounds work properly. I've run several different scenarios several times, the situation repeats itself. I tested this issue on a fresh clean install of the game.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 8&t=395038
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 8&t=396636

Oh bummer, this was not on my list. Looking at code, it indeed does play only one track then stop.

We are literally handing out to Matrix Games at the moment, also, I don't immediately see how to put a loop there as I should have the logic in place to see if the previous song is still playing. This is an async call. Looks like it has always been so. Do you know if this was changed, or got broken at some stage?

Looking at the code, you can toggle music OFF then ON again, this should trigger a die roll for a new piece of music. Hopefully that helps until I can address this in code.

[Jason Petho]

This was introduced in the .30 packages.

It worked before.

I forgot about that!

[Crossroads]

Good to know, if it worked before, then this should be an easier task than what it first appeared to be.

[Crossroads]

With CS: Vietnam 1.31 Public Beta out today (see the announcement here), we're happy to share that we're finalizing the CS Middle East 2.31 installer next. So far, everything looks promising!

Here’s a glimpse of Middle East 2.31 on my widescreen monitor. The 2D maps now feature hill hex side shadows, adding more depth to the visuals. It is quite flat around the Suez Canal location near the Chinese Farm, but there they are.

Plus, you can see one of the Linked Campaign scenarios now available as standalone scenarios. This update includes a couple dozen of these LCG scenarios as on top of the existing ones. The v2.30 pontoon bridge bug is fixed, too, so you can now cross that canal with confidence, relying on your strategy and a bit of luck.

Fingers crossed!

CSME_131_Suez73LCG.jpg (1.79 MiB) Viewed 796 times

[Crossroads]

The Public Beta for our 2.31 Update is out now. Thank you for participating in advance! So happy to have this out now.

[Crossroads]

We have an opportunity for another Public Beta version due to the busy scheduling times with Matrix Games. The next public beta will likely become available sometime next week.

Here are a couple of new items included in the next version, in addition to those mentioned in the opening post:

• Added ten elevation variants to 2D map slope sides.

• Fixed an Assault related bug as recently reported in the CS Vietnam Tech Support subforum. It could likely take place in Middle East as well since the games share the same engine.

• Addressed a couple of issues with the Maus Man 3D Map Mod for both Middle East and Vietnam games.

Thank you for your continued support and feedback!

[Wampir]

We have an opportunity for another Public Beta version due to the busy scheduling times with Matrix Games. The next public beta will likely become available sometime next week.

Here are a couple of new items included in the next version, in addition to those mentioned in the opening post:

• Added ten elevation variants to 2D map slope sides.

• Fixed an Assault related bug as recently reported in the CS Vietnam Tech Support subforum. It could likely take place in Middle East as well since the games share the same engine.

• Addressed a couple of issues with the Maus Man 3D Map Mod for both Middle East and Vietnam games.

Thank you for your continued support and feedback!

Welcome and greet to you.
Please remember to fix the background sound issue in both titles...

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 8&t=395038
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 8&t=396636

See you
Norbert

[Crossroads]

We have an opportunity for another Public Beta version due to the busy scheduling times with Matrix Games. The next public beta will likely become available sometime next week.

Here are a couple of new items included in the next version, in addition to those mentioned in the opening post:

• Added ten elevation variants to 2D map slope sides.

• Fixed an Assault related bug as recently reported in the CS Vietnam Tech Support subforum. It could likely take place in Middle East as well since the games share the same engine.

• Addressed a couple of issues with the Maus Man 3D Map Mod for both Middle East and Vietnam games.

Thank you for your continued support and feedback!

Welcome and greet to you.
Please remember to fix the background sound issue in both titles...

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 8&t=395038
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 8&t=396636

See you
Norbert

Hello Norbert, I haven't forgotten about you. The assault bug looked serious as I wasn't sure how common it might be, likely broken in the 1.30 update. As it turned out, it may not be the most common, but it took almost two days to get to the bottom of it. Background music is indeed next on my to-do list.

[Crossroads]

^ This seems to be an issue related whether the game engine is built against Audiere or DirectX libraries, as I found out.

DirectX supports a callback to notify the previous song ended, Audiere does not. That DirectX code is still in place there.

The current version is built for Audiere. I am considering switching back to Microsoft DirectX. All things good, internal testing providing green light, that is how the next 1.31 / 2.31 Public Beta will ship out, possibly next week.

Edit: Nope, it was a change in Audiere code. Found it, and believe it to have been fixed. Testing testing testing next.

[Crossroads]

Today's tally:

• Edited the Middle East Sounds.dat to reflect there are three songs each for Side A, B, and Neutral background music play.

• Fixed the bug where background music would only play one track or sound file (introduced in 1.30/2.30)

• Background music now always plays either neutral or side-specific tracks only. The random 50% chance for ambient combat sounds in-between has been removed.

• Removed the dependency on C++ 2008 redistributables from all executables except the frontend app. Nope, safer to do this with 1.40/2.40 update with more time to ensure all's good.

[Crossroads]

Latest and greatest from Bill added to coming Public Beta:

• New iteration on Maus Man ME 3D Terrain Mod

• New 2D ME Slopes and Gradients mods for more natural looking elevation changes for both Desert and Mediterranean maps.