(sorry stole the opening line from Tommy Shaw of STYX)
[:D]
Coming Memorial day weekend (barring any unforseen problems [;)])
Which is May 26, 27, 28, and 29 for you gamers outside the USA
We are releasing
SPWAW "Enhanced" v1.0
to the public!!
The work on this project has been going on now in one form or another for nearly a year or more.
Previous releases of "The Depot Multi Mod" were basically just a drop in the bucket, testing the waters so to speak.
For the past 6 months or so, we have almost completely reworked the entire set of all 28 oobs, not just the big 6.
Some nations have been TOTALLY reworked.
Finland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, The Phillipines, India, Anzac, and Greece immediately come to mind as near total reworks.
Kevin Mcferren (Flashfyresp) worked his butt off on alot of these OOBs and is to be commended.
Some oobs basically may "look" the same to you, but trust me they are not. They have had many many inconsistancies, and errors addressed and corrected.
you will also find some new units and formations in your old favorites!!
All nations have been worked on in one way or another.
You will find names consistant thru out the nations and we have also renamed weapons and units in all oobs.
For instance GE 81mm Mortar is now GE Mortar Sqd
or US Mortar Sqd or SO Mortar Sqd or etc etc....
you will see this message now.
"GE Mortar Sqd firing 81mm Grw34 Mortar"
as opposed to.....
"GE 81mm Mortar firing 81mm Mortar."
BTW...
while I am on mortars, the 60mm M2 Mortar is now classed as Mortar instead of Light Mortar. this unit could fire smoke rounds and by reclasssing it, it can in the game now as well.
[:)]
I know you smoke lovers will love that, you smoke haters will not..
[:D]
The M19 60mm Mortar still remains classed as Light mortar is used basically by Airborne troops.
All infantry (and other) weapons should have some "caliber" in the name
Example..
".30-06 M1903A4" which formerly was named "M1903 sniper."
which looks better to you?
another example... you will see in the message box a unit firing a weapon like this.
"US MMG Squad firing at GE Grenadiers using .30cal M1919a4"
as opposed to....
"30 cal MMG firing at GE Grenadiers using 30 cal MMG"
which seemed to be redundant, the unit had same name as the weapon.
But not just names have been addressed, oh no!!!
[X(]
a .30 cal MMG in the USA now should have the same stats as a .30 cal MMG in Greece, or wherever. An M4 Sherman Tank should now have the same stats as the same exact tank in Belgium, or wherever.
not be 10 MPH slower, have thinner or thicker armor, have less or better fire control ratings..etc etc....
just used these 2 as an example but it applies to everything, everywhere.
The way a tank or MG or whatever performs, now depends on ther countries National Experience, Morale, and Leadership ratings.
which BTW have been reworked as well.
We tried to look at a each particular year and the events that happened in that year and base the ratings on that.
Stuart Millis (Major Destruction) did some excellent work on these ratings, and without him and The DesertRats great Mechedit Program, it would have never been achieved.
[&o]
The pricing has all been done using the "Programmers Conventions" routines Mike Wood put in the latest OOB editor.
Pricing now is based more on ammo loadout, armor ratings, speed, rate of fire, number of men, and many other factors, as opposed to being based on rarity.
To us, this is the cleanest and most error free set of oobs yet seen.
The artillery casualty report is gone. You now cannot fire artillery in an area and see messages reporting how many casualties you have inflicted.
which has been called "recon by arty" by some players.
[:D]
The AI cannot use this "cheat" so the human should not be able to either.
The "willy meter" remains in as an option, most players wanted this and you can turn it off and on now, so we didnt want to remove it.
The weapon fire animation has been changed and looks very cool now.
It is much easier to see and when i first saw an inf Gun fire at me, it actually made me jump, lol.
The opening screen has been changed as well.
The Matrix emblem and the picture of Wild Bill used to be in bottom left hand corner and made chat hard to see for online players.
It has now been moved to the top right corner
Desert Camo has been added for most nations AFVs, The Germans cannot use this due to code issues however.
the Targetting crosshairs has also been redone is somewhat bigger and looks very nice.
Lahtinen has done all this excellent Graphics work and also reworked the Finland OOB (who better than a Finn?? [:)])
His graphics work is second to none
[&o]
I am sure I am forgetting some other things that have been redoen but you will just have to download it and find them!!
[:D]
Oh yes...Over 130 new or different sounds and music files, nearly 300 new Lbms (picture files), and many many new Encyclopedia files have added!!!!!
[X(]
we were hoping to correct and or replace all the ENC text files but it is simply too big a task right now. we may add this in as a patch in the future but for now, many have been added or corrected.
Anyone want the job??
[:D]
As in the Depot Mod, SPWAW Enhanced uses all different Infantry and vehicle Icons from Standard SPWAW, also The terrain Graphics have been redone from Standard SPWAW by Jim Sodano (Tracer
you may have seen these already if you ever used the Depot Mod.
As of now I am attempting to "edit" some of the campaigns in SPWAW so they are playable using SPWAW Enhanced, this is long and tedious job so no promises on how many
[;)]
Special thanks to "The Team" for all thier hard work
Mike Wood - Consultant, Lead Programmer of SPWAW, without whom, none of this would have been possible
Kevin Mcferren (Flashfyre SP) - OOBs, graphics, research
Stuart Millis (Major Destruction) - OOBs, research, testing,
Mike Amos (Warhorse) - OOBs, research,
Lahtinen - Graphics, OObs
Maurizio Salvetti (Mau Fox) - Graphics, OObs, research
Glenn Higginbotham(Gunny Erwin) - OObs, research, testing
Eric DiNicola (Goblin) - testing, research, beer...lots of beer
TheDesertRat - OObs, graphics, and making one hell of a useful program(mech edit)
Jim Sodano (Tracer) - Graphics
Ken Baran (Orzel Bialy) - OObs, testing, research
Friedrich Klett (Losqualo) - Graphics, OObs
Trip 1509- playtester extroadinare.
and to the playtesters who have had to put up with many many changes...
[&o]
Bud (aka Iced), Major Lifer, SteeliiiBart, Tank Jockey, Commander Klank, Krec, Kannonfodder.
And to everyone who contributed to the SPWAW DEPOT OOB project, from which many changes were taken from.
I am sure I have forgotten to list many many things and or people, maybe some of the other guys can chime in, if not you will have to download and "Enhance" your SPWAW experience...[:D]
We know we can never hope to please everyone, but we damn sure tried!!!
Good Gaming!!!!
[:)]
