Matrix Games Forums

[Deleted by Admins]

This forum was fairly active when it first opened, but there has been very little information from the developer in many months. Moreover, the game seems far enough along where the developers are not soliciting requests for features, etc. From what I have seen on this forum, if you didn't see it in the features list, I wouldn't have much hope of seeing it in the game, at least initially.

So at this point there is very little to discuss about this game, hopefully some screen shots or something will be released at some point.

Due to the NDA I can not say too much. But you can rest assured that there is a lot of work being done on the game. During December there have been 7 updates and in November there were 10. William and I are currently play testing FITE2 and Larry and Tom are play testing 3 other games. Some bugs have come up which Ralph is working on. I am sure that if the game was released with the bugs in it a lot of people would be bitching like hell. When will the game be released I can not tell you. Rome was not built in a day and this is bigger than Rome. But rest assured that it will be worth the wait so hang in there.

[Deleted by Admins]

ORIGINAL: fogger

Due to the NDA I can not say too much. But you can rest assured that there is a lot of work being done on the game. During December there have been 7 updates and in November there were 10. William and I are currently play testing FITE2 and Larry and Tom are play testing 3 other games. Some bugs have come up which Ralph is working on. I am sure that if the game was released with the bugs in it a lot of people would be bitching like hell. When will the game be released I can not tell you. Rome was not built in a day and this is bigger than Rome. But rest assured that it will be worth the wait so hang in there.

This has been an issue with TOAW. Long periods of no communication. I understand that Ralph has other projects to attend to, and I do not want a buggy game. But,I wish Matrix et al would understand that even little tidbits of news is better than no news. What you just told us, that there have been updates, is great to hear. It helps to keep the spirits up.

TOAW will be here when it gets here. In the mean time, a message, even if it is only that we are working away is helpful.

In the mean time, a message, even if it is only that we are working away is helpful.

It's Christmas Eve so I thought maybe I'd say a few words about the development process. Thomas Harvey
is the designer of the mammoth monster Pacific At War and as you may remember it's got weekly
turns so there's about 194 of them and Thomas and I are playtesting it again even as we speak and we're
on turn 125 or so and Thomas is taking Eniwetok and Ulithi which most of you know is near Tinian and
Saipan, both of which are within B-29 range of the Jap home islands. I'm playing the Jap side and I'm in
the process of abandoning the China mainland to ship all the troops to the home island chain so as to
get ready for the invasions that will spell the end of the empire. I've lost all my surface group ships and
am down to 1 CA, 1 DD, and about 5 CV's. I've been holding them back to make one more suicidial run
at the Allied ships. Thomas lost about 8 CV's and at least one BB so far but has most of the rest of his
original ships and is putting them to good use. He's taking over the island of Java and has made landings
in the Phillippines and the Celebes area. Even Borneo. I lost Port Moresby about 6 months ago game
time and it's looking like Manila is about to fall so that will leave me with Formosa, Hanan, and Okinawa as
the home island buffer zone. The problem is that the Allies have to capture either Tokyo or Okinawa and
if you ask me I think he's aiming at Okinawa, which is what I would do if I were the Allies.

The troops still left in Burma, about 20% of the OOB, are probably going to be lost because about that
much will have to be left behind to give enough window for the rest of them to leave without resistance.
My air fleet is down to about 50% of the original size and some squadrons are only half-manned. But
there's only about 10 more turns or so before I get the Kamimaze planes. Then the Allies will see some
ship losses, those things are deadly.

This is toward the end of the game and I've started getting boat-loads of new untried troops in the units.
They are respawning after being killed in Burma or China or Java. So they are extreemly low in supply and
readiness and will need about a month of game time to fill up with all the equipment they will need and
give them a bit of rest. I'm keeping those near Tokyo but them that are combat ready are parked at ports
ready to ship out to the islands somewhere.

I've got my Nell's and Betty's out on the fringe of the front lines and they are able to reach out about 80+
hexes into the Allied backfield so I can hit any ships just lounging around. I can't reach to Melborne and
that's where most of the Allied ships are but I guess the fact that Thomas thinks he has to keep them
that far away to save them from airstrikes is just about as good as sinking them. Nah, I'm kidding. Anyway
I've heard a rhumor that all the AAR's that are being published in the development forum are going to be
moved here so you can get in on all the action too. I have no idea when that will happen myself and I
couldn't tell you if I knew but I'm thinking that the official release date came and went without anything
happening so I'm thinking maybe it's going to be soon. "Soon" in quotes meaning I'm leaving it up to you
to define.

EDIT: Fogger dude: How about a report of your game(s)?

Larry, I think what people want to see is not what people are doing testing scenarios but what is going on with the game in general. This thing has been going on for years and during all of that time there has been less information released than there was about the Normandy Invasion pre D Day. This is not the Manhattan Project. As for this being bigger than Rome, it certainly has taken longer than Rome. [:D]

The guy working on John Tiller's Campaign Series has done a remarkable job of keeping in touch with their fan base during development. That is the kind of connection everyone wants with someone working on a game update. Why his example is not a Matrix standard is perplexing.

Anyway, years later, still anxiously awaiting for a release of this.

Yeah considering that this a "new", or at least a standalone game, it shouldn't receive the same treatment as a patch (complete silence for months-years, and hey, here's the patch!), but I guess it is what it is. A shame as in this way you're not attracting a lot of newer players.

ORIGINAL: Meyer1

Yeah considering that this a "new", or at least a standalone game, it shouldn't receive the same treatment as a patch (complete silence for months-years, and hey, here's the patch!), but I guess it is what it is. A shame as in this way you're not attracting a lot of newer players.

The developers have been working mainly on testing the new UI. It's a small team and it counts on the few game testers (that includes me as I updated East Front 41-45 to TOAWIV) to ferret out the bugs. Sometimes it's slow going, but progress is being made, even if there is not much to show in terms of screenshots etc. The major game engine upgrades are highlighted in this forum. Last but not least, we are all very grateful to Larry for his volunteer work, he is the main bug finder.

I understand all of that. I'm also grateful to all the people that are contributing for free, scenario designers, testers, etc. And I'm not pointing any fingers, but still, the marketing of TOAW IV is pretty much non-existent. And this goes against the future of the game.

ORIGINAL: Meyer1

I understand all of that. I'm also grateful to all the people that are contributing for free, scenario designers, testers, etc. And I'm not pointing any fingers, but still, the marketing of TOAW IV is pretty much non-existent. And this goes against the future of the game.

And I completely agree.

The guy working on John Tiller's Campaign Series has done a remarkable job of keeping in touch with their fan base during development.

those guys (petho,berto,crossroads,warhorse and apologies to anyone left out) are incredible...only reason i bought the game was their posts informing anyone interested what the heck was going on. Glad i did it too. one
of the best games of the year.

HON could use them too.

I think that this forum is so quiet because we have very little or none information about the game, no news about the real status of the game, no news about the new visual appearance, no news about release date,... All is top secret, only a few beta testers know all this. the rest of people, due the lack of information ,have nothing to say until the game is released.

I was thinking of posting a screengrab of the development board just so you guys can see what
we're working on now but I thought better of it. Rest assured that there is about 2 pages of
threads and we're finding and fixing the little things now. News at last.

OK larry, I know that you have signed a non-disclosure agreement, but people are impatient to see the new toaw IV, thanks for all the hard work you and the beta testing team are doing.

Hahaha...work? Larry is a TOAW junkie. I really don't think he sees it as work but rather an enjoyable past time. [;)]

ORIGINAL: Lobster
Hahaha...work? Larry is a TOAW junkie. I really don't think he sees it as work but rather an enjoyable past time.

Now that the Holidays are almost over I can dispense with all the parties I get invited to ( yeah right ) and play TOAW
full-time. I've been putting out 2, sometimes 3 moves per day of this game ( PAW ) and an almost identical
schedule of moves output for my EAW game with thomas. So yeah, I kinda like what I'm doing. It keeps me off
the streets at night. If it weren't for TOAW IV I would probably wake up some morning face down in a ditch with
lipstick on my collar and my hair messed up and my wallet missing.

wake up some morning face down in a ditch with
lipstick on my collar and my hair messed up and my wallet missing.

lol.Sam Kinison described it as waking up 'sticky, broke and confused' [:D]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Sam Kinison described it as ....[:D]

Sam Kinison, let me hear you scream "When is TOAW IV?"

I think maybe it's time for an update on what the development team is doing. Well, what I'm doing. Thomas Harvey and I
are on turn 145 now in our PAW game and he's taken over the China mainland and has moved some aircraft to
Pieking and is bombarding my home island airfields at great loss to him but I'm steadily losing planes and they aren't being
replaced very fast and he's wearing down my air force. He's got planes to burn. I had 7 carriers sitting in the Tokyo bay and
he sank two of them. D'oh. He says via an email that he's going to try to invade from Korea onto the north coast of the home
islands and fight his way to Tokyo. I guess he gave upon the Formosa route. And he's seen the fortress I've made of
Okinawa and thinks he would have better luck with Tokyo now that he's got the use of all the nearby airfields for his B-29's, etc.

Thomas Harvey and I are also playing his EAW ( Europe at War ) scenario and there's about 94 turns and we're on
turn 50 and the Russians have broken through my lines in the east and Thomas has invaded in France and is advancing toward
the Rhine and I'm being squashed inbetween. I'm going to push all the units that can move to the Berlin area and circle the
wagons.

Also, I've been experimenting with making some changes to my B41 ( remake of the Barbarosa '41 classic ) scenario whereby
I'm adding additional tracks of objectives for the Elmer Assist to follow and I've installed 5 Soviet Strategic targets. Each is 100
civilians in a group to represent the industry in the city and if that unit of 100 civialians is destroyed then there's an immediate
10% drop in the replacement rate to simulate a drop in production. So the Axis has the potential to drop the Soviet production
by 50% of the current production level just by bombing the industry units in the 5 cities. I've got to playtest it to make sure it works
and I'm thinking of using the Elmer Assist to speed that up. My testing so far has revealed that Elmer tends to leave gaps in the
front lines and there tends to be left behind little groups of enemy troops behind the front lines guarded by a single unit so from
time to time you have to manually handle some sticky situations but for the most part Elmer does an admiral job of handling the
troops. I like it. It's easy to adjust the tracks in mid-turn and reduces the time spent moving them all manually. A lot of the pee pee
dancing has been eliminated and movement of the units is now purposeful. Plus it's a great show to watch.