SPWAW 5.0-7.1 version history

[NoX]

I have collected here from this forum the version history of SPWAW from 5.0 to 7.1 becaus AFAIK it is not available anywhere else and the information is very timeconsuming to search evrytime from the forum. Theres also the version notes from 8.0-8.403 in the end although those can be find whit the patches available online. (Outlined in yellow font color)

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FEATURES, CHANGES and BUG FIXES IN v5.0:

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.


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-5.01 version fixed "one small bug" in the game code (no details found) and added a new OOB set.

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Ok Guys Here is what we did on SPWaW v5.2:

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.

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In the upcoming 6.0 release, players will find the following:

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. We now have it working and it seems to really answer just about everyones desires. So maybe we have a a little surprise for you real soon. Thanks for your Support.

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Here is what we changed in this version 6.1:

1.Internet Play has been fixed.
2.Reduced Ammo" will not work in online play.
3.Emplacements (HQ tents & Command posts) now help with reducing suppression.
4.Entrenched troops can now be within 6 hexes of emplacements and receive help reducing suppression and rally.
5.Lowered Russian chance of fanatically defending
6.Flamethrower accuracy improved

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What New In SPWaW v7.0.

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

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Some of the things we fixed in 7.1 version:

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

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8.0: mainly AI pic-list changes, new oob's. This is incompatible whit 7.1 version so update is not possbile.

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8.2: memory leak fix and ai pic-list corrections plus new oobs.

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8.3: OOB patch only, no code changes.

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SPWaW 8.40 Patch Notes:

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.

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SPWaW 8.403 Patch Notes:

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.

SPWaW 8.402 Patch Notes

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.



Edited by moderator - yellow highlite color almost unreadable

[NoX]

My personal oppinions about the version history of SPWAW:

-My current personal favorite and only version that I still play is spwaw 7.1 whit Panzer Leos H2h mod and using the 7.0 Mech.EXE version. Reason is that in version 7.0 tanks and vehicles get imobilized if they crash into a buildings, in v7.1 and abowe you can run down the whole city whit tanks and seldom if ever get imobilizations. A big city fight spoiler for me. Also in online play 7.0 seems more stabile to me than the newer versions.

Btw. 4.5 version is the best in online stability IMHO and I liked the bombers flying onmap like the Flying fortres and so in the OOB's. Those were ofcourse replaced by the level bombers unit class from SPWAW v5.0 onwards. But other areas lack so much in v.4.5 that I do not play it anymore.

-SPWAW version 5.01 would be the best ever version of SPWAW for me because not only do the vehicles get imobilized if they hit a building but it also has the tank rider casualties if the tank carrying infantry gets hit. The splash damage in 5.01 seems to be handled better also in that it is not so effective especialy for airstrikes killing infantry in the surrounding hexes. Also the flametrowers are much more realistic IMHO. In version 6.1 and abowe you get the super killer flametrowers that can wipe out a squad whit one shot and are deadly accurate too. Reason I don't use 5.01 however is that it has the bug where a loaded online game restores all ammunition to units.

-5.2 version had the super strong infantry. So no go for me. And online game problems too as in 6.0...

-6.0 had the broken online game where weapons would change sporadically when fired. Say a 75mm tank gun would change to an MG when fired! This was fixed in 6.1.

-versions 8.0-8.403 all have the online OP-fire issue so disruptive that it makes them unplayable for me. Ofcourse the tanks driving trough buildigns issue is still there too and bothers me. 8.4 did re-indroduce the tank rider casualties though and snipers cant close-assault tanks amd the fixed scroll speed in artillery plotting screen (wery useful if you have a fast computer), but that is not so important to me as some other issues.


As you probably have notice from these comments I only play online games. For single player and PBEM games however the newest version (8.403) is probably the best choise and I do have it on a CD as a backup If I want to play the original scens and camps again.


Ohh and also found a rather good old post explaining the online game Op-fire problem here:
tm.asp?m=42713&mpage
Interesting reading if you are into online gaming whit manual op-fire confirm turned on.



As said these are just my own personal observations over the years and everyone probably has their own wievs and oppinions about the different spwaw versions.

[KG Erwin]

Thanks for providing this summary, Lahtinen. Yes, the POV of the gamer is important to the level of satisfaction achieved within the iterations over the years.

For SOLO gamers, though, I believe that the work done by the Enhanced team, independent of the official updates, is indeed definitive. The balancing out of the "national ratings" also addressed the concerns of PBEM players.

The watershed moment in the latter-day development of SPWaW was the re-emergence of Michael Wood. Arguably, the game had skewed some of the original ideas beyond recognition. This negatively affected the work done by subsequent OOB teams.

Honestly, when I came aboard as a contributor, no one really had any clue about how some of the game routines actually worked.

Uhh, well, no point in dredging up old, unhappy times, but the version we have right now is excellent. It's not perfect -- it's never gonna be perfect.

To paraphrase another favorite of mine, "it's only SPWaW, but I like it". [;)]

[Alby]

I had forgot about these. this would be intersting to have a human vs human Long campaign
[:)][:)]
 
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.

[sabrejack]

What version is that two player campaign mode in? [&:]

[NoX]

Sabrejack AFAIK it is in all versions starting from spwaw 7.0. However it is not as simple as it would first appear. Basicaly in two player campaign one of the players chooses the AI side to play and the campaign creator sends a save file from his singleplayer campaign to this player. I have never tried it though.

Here is the original post explaining the feature:
tm.asp?m=52949&mpage

[parusski]

The features, changes and bug fix history is great to see. We should never forget the years of dedication from Matrix to this game. Thanks for the list NoX,

[sabrejack]

Thanks Nox.
 
I'd never noticed / tried that feature. It might be something I look at one day... [:)]

[Krec]

i use 8.403 with albys latest mods and we turn hitting up to 125 and the game rocks,   we turn hitting up as to help kill junk units  ie jeeps , trucks and small stuff.   seems to work pretty darn good.  only real bugger is the air craft entry bug thingy.  but actually ive kind of get a sick pleasure  knowing my pilots maynot take the rout ive plotted.  also arty splash damage is just fair. althou i love using 8inch or 203s because they do the job there are supposed too. [:D]

[Alby]

ORIGINAL: Krec

i use 8.403 with albys latest mods and we turn hitting up to 125 and the game rocks,   we turn hitting up as to help kill junk units  ie jeeps , trucks and small stuff.   seems to work pretty darn good.  only real bugger is the air craft entry bug thingy.  but actually ive kind of get a sick pleasure  knowing my pilots maynot take the rout ive plotted.  also arty splash damage is just fair. althou i love using 8inch or 203s because they do the job there are supposed too. [:D]

hehehe not "ALBYS" mods....many people worked on these suckers....just tell those guys quit buying all those "Seeps" and you wont have to kill junk units...LOL.
That aircraft entry was supposed fixed in one of the versions of the game, but it isnt.....it never works quite right in online games.
Turn arty to 120....dont know what Bart sets it at..