Official Patch Release?

[luftwaffe]

Not to pressure you guys, but is the new patch going to be released as the official patch soon? I love this game but the only complaint I have is the A.I., I'm not a programmer and I do understand how diffilcult it must be to program A.I. but it would be nice to see the computer a little more agresive especially when the Germans are attacking the Soviets. I don't have a internet connection on the main comp I have the game installed on so I'm basicaly stuck either playing hotseat games or most of the time playing against the computer. It's probably to late for suggestions but one idea I had was when the Germans invade the Soviet Union and capture factories maybe there should be a 2 or 3 game turn penaltly to the Germans when they can use the captured factories. This would reflect real life when as the Germans invaded Russia they retreated back practiceing a scorched earth policy destroying everthing so the Germans couldn't use anything, so in the game when Germany takes a Soviet factory the German player would have to wait for maybe 2 or 3 turns before he could repare the factories and use them for supplies or research points, just a idea.

[Joel Billings]

We are (and have been) waiting for the localization file changes to be completed. Since this patch syncs up all worldwide versions we're stuck waiting for localization work. During the past 2 months while we've been waiting we have been able to fix another handful of bugs and make a few other changes and improvements. At any point, however, we could stop and push out the official patch as soon as we get those localized files. I've been told that there has been some movement in the last week with regards to getting those files from Europe. I wish I could give you an estimate on how much longer this will take but it is totally out of our control (and Matrix doesn't have a lot of control over this either). My guess is something will break within the next two weeks (either we get the files or Matrix decides to post a patch that is not fully localized, although we'd all rather avoid doing that). At least the added time has not been totally wasted, and it has allowed some additional testing on the work already done. For those interested, here's the current complete list of changes:

1. Bug Fix – Save games are now compatible between international and US versions. This allows PBEM games to be played between players using either version. However, the version number should be the same for all players. If you are uncertain of your version number, you can always check the properties of the waw.exe file in the main game directory.
2. Bug Fix – A change has been made to make save game files upwardly compatible with all new versions of the game. That way you should be able to load into this version a save from an earlier version. However, you may lose the ability to run the replay when first loading the save. Replays of future moves will function normally. If playing PBEM, once one player has played using a newer version, future player in the game sequence will need to upgrade to the same version number.
3. Bug Fix – There was a bug that caused some of the “pointer” lines used during the tutorial to disappear (especially on systems with ATI cards). A fix has been made that should ensure that pointer lines are shown during the tutorial to help users better understand what is being described on screen by the tutorial text. A few other changes have been made to make it less likely for the player to get off track while running the tutorials.
4. Bug Fix - It is no longer possible to expend accumulated research points during the movement phase.
5. Bug fix – Rewinding the VCR should no longer cause display issues with the number of units on the map.
6. Bug fix. - Corrected a bug where the first winter bonus was given to the Russians immediately if the Germans attacked during a winter turn. It is now given one year later as per the manual.
7. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where the first winter bonus and the normal winter bonus were not cumulative.
8. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where cargo on a transport was not damaged but rather remained at sea if the transport was damaged in normal combat.
9. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where the cargo on a heavy air was not damaged if the heavy air was damaged by op-fire.
10. Bug fix - Corrected a bug with the UI that allowed you to avoid the hit if the aircraft was damaged by op-fire.
11. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where op-fire by other major powers on the same side was giving very odd results.
12. Bug fix - Corrected a bug with the optional fuel rule where it was possible to cross a 2 MP land border with a land unit expending only 1 supply point if no more than the 1 supply point was available. It will no longer be possible to move the unit in this case thus requiring the expenditure of 2 supply as intended.
13. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where supply units could change nationality at sea when moved across a chain of transports.
14. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where supply was not given back when undoing a move if the supply had come from a sea area. Now supply is returned if there is a transport with free capacity in the sea area. If no TRS is in the sea-area the supply will not be returned.
15. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where units would sometimes be unable to retreat across a 2 MP land border.
16. Bug fix - Several cases where units got stuck in an area with enemy units yet were unable to attack have been corrected by allowing attacks in these cases even though the attacker cannot expect to inflict any damage. Note that units that have no chance of scoring a hit may only initiate an attack when in an area requiring mandatory combat (see rule 8.4).
17. Bug fix - It is now possible to attack enemy aircraft that were left on CAP duty in one of your land areas. Before this could lead to a deadlock as it was not possible to attack. Now air units may attack even if they have no chance to hit the enemy CAP.
18. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where it was possible to attack and take land areas from other major powers on your own side if the area had neither units present nor infrastructure.
19. Bug fix - The pop-up window asking for confirmation when attacking a minor had accidentally been removed from game. Its back now.
20. Bug fix - In PBEM games the WA player will no longer continue to the Japanese phase if Germany has been conquered.
21. Bug fix - Corrected a bug with the combat report window in the case that a CV aircraft is first damaged in air-to-air and then have its CV destroyed. The report will no longer incorrectly show the aircraft as both damaged and destroyed but only as destroyed.
22. Bug fix - When bombing infrastructure the battle report will now only show damage done in the current attack rather than show the total level of damage the infrastructure has taken.
23. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where the battle report was skipping the original combat if a counter strike occurred.
24. Bug fix - Aircraft on CAP will no longer return to base to a neutral/enemy land area or sea area if their base was captured during the turn. Air units that lose their home base and have no friendly land area to return to will be destroyed.
25. Bug fix - Corrected a bug with the storing of unused population from turn to turn. In some cases too much population was being stored.
26. Bug fix - Corrected a bug where the free Militia Russia receives when attacked by Germany was interfering with the building of normal units due to a population problem. This was fixed by removing the population requirement from the free Militia.
27. Bug fix - In some cases it was not possible to manually supply a unit from an adjacent sea-area even if supply were present. This is now fixed.
28. Bug fix. - The combat analyser was giving incorrect results. It should now give much more reliable results in particular concerning the chance to take the area. This may have an effect on how the AI plays as the AI is using the combat analyser to make decisions about attacks.
29. Bug fix - It is now possible to access the production in an area even if all the factories in that area are damaged to level 2. This allows scuttling and putting on hold of units and thus solves a bug where units in such areas would otherwise be preventing the production in other areas.
30. Bug fix – It is now possible to use the repair screen during the production phase. It has always been possible to repair during the production phase using the map method of repair, and now the repair screen is functional as well.
31. UI change - If you try to exit from game to the main menu when playing a PBEM game you will now see a reminder that PBEM games are to be saved to avoid the reload (cheat) counter from incrementing.
32. UI change - On the post-production pop-up window tech advances will now be shown before the units that finished production.
33. UI change - Changed the order of appearance so resources are shown ahead of rail on the map.
34. UI change – You will now find resource, production, and population totals displayed on the Production Screen during the Movement Phase.
35. UI change – More complete information regarding the modifiers that have been applied to each combat can now be found in the pop-up windows that appear when the mouse hovers over a combat line on the Detailed Combat Report Screen.
36. Rule Change – Section 12.4 (Axis Automatic Victory) is changed to read: If at the end of the Western Allied player turn, Axis production is ever equal to or greater than 70, and one of the following 3 conditions exist, 1) Axis control Moscow 2) Axis control England 3) Axis control both Leningrad and Stalingrad, then the game ends immediately and the Axis win a Decisive Victory.
37. Rule Change – Section 12.5 (Allied Automatic Victory) Allied Automatic Victory is now only checked at the end of each Western Allied player turn.
38. Rule Change – (Section 3.2.6) There is no longer a requirement to garrison East Prussia to avoid unfreezing Soviet Frozen zones.
39. Rule Change – (Section 3.2.6) If Southern Persia is attacked by the Axis, the Western and Central Russian zones that are politically frozen will be unfrozen.
40. Rule Change – (Sections 4.1.1 and 4.1.2) Changed it so that if Tibet is attacked by the Allies, it will convert to German control (used to be Japanese).
41. Rule Change – Section 9.8 (Special Militia Mobilization) Japanese militia are now generated in the amount of 3 times the Population Level of the area instead of one times the PL.
42. Rule Change – Section 12.8 (Scenario Time Limit Victory Conditions) – The Allied production ratios required for the different victory levels have been changed. The new values are 50 times (5000%) for a draw, between 10.01 and 49.99 times (1001% and 4901%) for an Axis Marginal Victory, and 10 times (1000%) for a Decisive Axis Victory.
43. Rule Change – Section 9.1.1 (Factory Points Multiplier) Changed the multiplier x3 US (when at war before Winter 1943) to x2.
44. Rule Change – The US no longer enters the war if Japan is attacked by forces of the UK/Commonwealth/Canada. Neither does the WA politically frozen areas unfreeze. However, if Japan attacks any WA unit or area, the US will declare war and the areas will unfreeze.
45. Rule Change - If Germany controls Eastern Canada then the US will declare war on Germany at the start of the WA turn and this will unfreeze all WA territories.
46. Rules change - Partisans will now be able to damage rail to level 2 rather than just level 1. Partisans will now also be able to damage resources to level 1. This is in addition to being able to damage resources in the pool.
47. Rules change - Transport can now initiate combat. This was done to avoid a deadlock. In that case there is no normal combat – instead the transports and their cargo is simply destroyed to resolve the deadlock.
48. Rules change - Changed the maximum you can spend on any particular tech when already at World Standard +2 or higher. Before the maximum was 3 times how much you were researching towards being above the WS – now that is changed to 1 times. E.g., when research from +2 to +3 compared to WS you can now spent no more than 3 points where you could spend a maximum of 9 prior to this change. When the item being researched is currently at WS or below, maximum research per turn is 3, when at WS+1 maximum is 6, when at WS+2 maximum is 3, when at WS+3 maximum is 4, etc. Land attack and Evasion for Heavy Air units are excluded from this change. Research maximums remains unchanged for those two items.
49. Rules change - Units will no longer retreat to a frozen area if any non-frozen area can be reached.
50. Data Correction – The Gulf of Mexico is now correctly considered adjacent to Greater Antilles.
51. Data Correction – Corrected 2 typos in the Japanese AI production data file that could have caused mistaken production priorities.
52. Data Changes - Changed Spanish army from 5 Inf/1 Art to 4 Inf/2 Art/3 Mil.
53. Data Change - Added 1 Militia to Swedish army.
54. Data Change - Added 2MP borders to several borders around Afghanistan, Caucasus, Eastern Bearing Sea, Eastern Gulf of Alaska, and South China Seas.
55. Data Change - Changed Turkey to 2 infantry and 2 militia. Changed Istanbul to 3 infantry and 1 militia.
56. Data Change – In the 1940 and 1941 scenarios, moved 3 WA transports from the South Atlantic South American coast to the Pacific along the coast of Mexico/Central America.
57. Data Change - Lowered WA transport amphib capacity by 1 in all scenarios. Increased amount spent on researching WA transport amphib capacity at start of all scenarios by 6.
58. Data Change – The World Standard for Fighter Land Attack has been reduced to 1 and the World Standard of Fighter Evasion has been increased to 7.
59. Data Change – All Fighter Land Attack values have been reduced to 2 in all scenarios.
60. Data Change – Bulgaria population reduced to 0 in all scenarios.
61. Data Change – Scotland is now rough in all scenarios.
62. Rules Correction – Occasionally heavy fleets will attack light fleets 1 on 1 even when there are heavy fleets on the light fleet side available to fight (i.e. fleets don’t always match up against like fleets).
63. Rules Correction – In most cases, attacking land units that are damaged or destroyed in the air phase or at range 2 land combat are not allowed to fire in later rounds of combat. They may be fired upon if only damaged, but they will not return fire.
64. Rules Correction (Section 8.5.3) - Op-fire by aircraft and artillery is triggered whenever aircraft attempts to pass a narrows. The rules were incorrect in stating that only naval units moving through narrows would receive Op-fire.
65. Rules Clarification (Section 8.5.3) - Op-fire by aircraft in a friendly land region or on a Carrier Fleet is triggered when any non-submarine unit (any air, land or naval unit except for submarines) attempts to move from one adjacent sea area to another adjacent sea-area.
66. Bug fix – When on the save game screen during PBEM play, pressing the map button will no longer exit the game.
67. Bug fix – Carrier Fleets may no longer undo their prior moves made if a Carrier Air unit moves away from the Carrier Fleet and unattaches itself from the fleet.
68. Bug fix – There used to be a chance that a declaration of war would cost more supplies than specified in the rules. This will no longer happen.
69. Bug fix – You may now use the “supply unit” button on the move mode toolbar to dictate use of supplies in a unit’s region to supply the unit.
70. Bug fix – In some rare cases, units that had Op-fired during a previous player’s turn could be improperly marked as having fired during their own turn even if they hadn’t fired. This has been fixed.
71. Bug fix – Possible inaccuracies with the combat modifier for units that have amphibiously invaded by moving through many areas has been fixed.
72. UI change – The repair screen will no longer scroll back to the top whenever a repair is made.
73. UI change – When the close window button is pressed during play, the player will be asked if they wish to exit the game.
74. Rules Change – Damage Naval units will now tend to be placed on factories that are closer to where they were damaged as long as the region has available production space (i.e. it doesn’t already contain units in production that equal or exceed the factory production points in the region). They will always first attempt to go to a region with the same nationality as the unit if possible, and will still move to frozen zones only as a last resort.
75. Data Change – Increased the starting research levels of the German and WA AA units’ air attack values by 2 in all scenarios.
76. Rules Clarification – There are rare cases where due to units being destroyed in previous combat phases, some units may end up being targeted by two units even though there are other units that have not been fired upon. This is due to a preference for units to return fire at units that have fired upon them if they do not have a like type unit to target.
77. Warning – The PBEM security system that tracks the load count may not function properly during games where players upgrade their version number mid-game.
78. Bug fix - Units that have just attacked will not be op-fired at by enemy units in the just completed combat region if the attacking units move out of the area. This is important when subs are involved.
79. Bug fix - If a CV is damaged any CAG on it will also be damaged.
80. Bug fix - The strategic capacity of transports is now utilized so that one transports is fully used up before the next transport becomes utilized. This should lead to fewer "stuck" transports.
81. Bug fix - Undoing the moves of a sub will now also undo any loading of torpedoes.
82. Bug fix - It is now possible to undo fueling of units even when the fueling was done after the unit was involved in a combat.
83. Bug fix – There were instances where the AI would move and mistakenly not receive Op-fire when it should have. This has been corrected so that the AI should receive all appropriate Op-fire.
84. UI change - On the research screen the '+' and '-' minus keys will now increase/decrease the amount expended. This is in addition to using the mouse to click on the +/- buttons.
85. Data Change - Made Gibraltar port only accessible from Western Med (no longer directly from Atlantic).
86. Rule Change/Bug fix - Made it so that only Gibraltar, Spain and Spanish Morocco will op fire at units moving through the narrows between the Western Med and North Atlantic 10 regions (added Spain which is not technically adjacent to the narrows but should fire and removed Morocco and the islands in the two sea zones that were improperly firing at units moving through the narrows).
87. AI improvement - Improved AI production and research strategies courtesy of Lebatron. He created these changes while developing his Franco's Alliance mod.

[Forwarn45]

85. Data Change - Made Gibraltar port only accessible from Western Med (no longer directly from Atlantic).
86. Rule Change/Bug fix - Made it so that only Gibraltar, Spain and Spanish Morocco will op fire at units moving through the narrows between the Western Med and North Atlantic 10 regions (added Spain which is not technically adjacent to the narrows but should fire and removed Morocco and the islands in the two sea zones that were improperly firing at units moving through the narrows).

Joel - I am concerned about the effect of these two changes together. If Gibraltar is only accessible from the med and Spain opfires at units moving into the Atlantic - then the effect of this will be to trap any WA units in Gibraltar if Spain is taken by the Axis. This would be a major trap for the unwary WA player!!! [X(] Even an experienced player would have to be concerned about putting much in Gibraltar for fear the Germans will invade Spain and instantly cut Gibraltar off. For that matter, any WA fleet in the West med could find itself also cut off.

I would propose just limiting the opfire rule to Gibraltar and Spanish Morocco and excluding Spain. The idea would be Gibraltar and Spanish Morocco control the narrows. Alternatively - you could make Gibraltar accessible from the Atlantic only (rather than the med) and still allow Spain to opfire.

[Joel Billings]

Yes, it is a change, but one I think that is for the better. I debated Atlantic or Med and went with Med. The reality is that naval units don't sit in Gib and land units can actually load up on transports in the Atlantic due to the way the map is structured so they can get away. It's different, but I think better.

[Uncle_Joe]

luftwaffe:

IIRC, 1.087 'broke' the AI a little bit. I reported the same lack of German attacking of Russia when I first played it and it has been corrected in the beta. The AI still isnt flawless by any means, but it plays a lot better than it does in 1.087.

I also think that the German AI is the worst of the lot, probably because Germany has so many complex options to weigh. So, if you like to play Germany yourself you have the benefit of having a sounder AI for your opponents. For me, I play Japan and I leave the Germans under the AI as sort of a handicap. Its tough to win solely as Japan if Germany gets skunked!

When the patch is finalized you should see quite a bit of improvement in the AI.

[Forwarn45]

Yes, it is a change, but one I think that is for the better. I debated Atlantic or Med and went with Med. The reality is that naval units don't sit in Gib and land units can actually load up on transports in the Atlantic due to the way the map is structured so they can get away. It's different, but I think better.

Well if land untis can still board transports in the Atlantic - that answers my primary concern anyway. Thanks for the response.

[WanderingHead]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings
85. Data Change - Made Gibraltar port only accessible from Western Med (no longer directly from Atlantic).
86. Rule Change/Bug fix - Made it so that only Gibraltar, Spain and Spanish Morocco will op fire at units moving through the narrows between the Western Med and North Atlantic 10 regions (added Spain which is not technically adjacent to the narrows but should fire and removed Morocco and the islands in the two sea zones that were improperly firing at units moving through the narrows).

Interesting changes here. I think it is good. It was too easy for the navies in control of Gibraltar to ignore control of the opposite shore in Spanish Morrocco by ducking in/out of port to get in/out of the Med.

Also, placing the port in the Med matches the true geography of the Rock, and it seems realistic to me that ownership of Spain by the Axis would close off British naval access (though as pointed out, it wouldn't actually shut down transport to/from Gib, that's OK, probably for ther best).

I think I like it.

Point of clarification. Item 86 refers only to narrows op-fire, correct? Will air units in Morocco still op-fire at non-sub units passing through the straights?

[WanderingHead]

Joel,

Are you still working on bug fixes as well?

I pointed out several to JanSorensen recently, and some I think were quite important. I don't think I saw any of them in your list.

If I recall my list:

1) damaged units (defending) with no route back to a friendly factory were none-the-less finding their way back to friendly factories. Jan stated he found this in the code.

2) strategic movement bug, where sometimes if you moved a stack of supplies, then used some of those supplies, then moved the remainder as a stack, the subsequent sea/rail zones would be charged for the full original stack, i.e. charged extra. If you undid the last supply movement, you did not recover the excess transport capacity charged, it is gone for good. Jan was able to reproduce this, but it is not as easy to reproduce as my brief description here.

3) if you move an empty CV to port, load a CAG, move the CV away from port, and then undo the CV movement, then the CV returns to it's original location with full movement restored but still carrying the CAG. This also led to subsequent instability and crashes. Jan reproduced this but did not observe the instability.

4) the VCR replay always resets to the beginning if you move it. It didn't do this before (I think maybe it has only done this for the recent set of Beta patches, but I don't recall exactly when it was added), but I find it quite frustrating. I need to be able to move it out of the way to see things, but doing so always resets the "tape".

5) not a bug per-se, but an oddity I think should be fixed. For naval engagements, I'd suggest that a retreat only be caused if either side has remaining surface combat units. If there are none, then leave the transports alone. I had a case where CAP was placed over my transports, I attacked with overwhelming air and destroyed the CAP and had my own fighters survive, but my transports were forced to retreat. This even though there were no enemy units of any kind left in the sea zone. In this particular case I was aghast, after winning the battle, to watch 5 transports destroyed because they could not retreat (being in the Baltic, sealed by German artillery and another CAP).

[Joel Billings]

I'm pretty sure that 2 and 3 were fixed in the latest exe we are working with. I'm not sure about 1 and 4, although Jan would probably know if they were addressed.

As for Morocco, air units still get to fire due to the adjacent rule. Only the narrows op-fire has been ruled out for Morocco.

[JanSorensen]

For 1 and 4 it was decided not to fix those at this time, sorry. With respect to 1 it only happens if the units are damaged in an area with a factory (even a damaged one) so its not terribly common, albeit obviously a bug when it does happen.

5 has not been considered so thats open for Joel to decide.

2 and 3 have indeed been fixed.

[luftwaffe]

Is the beta safe to use at this time, or would I just be better off waiting till it's released official? I'm still using the 1.040 patch. Also I want to compliment you guys, most companies don't release a patch this long after a game release.

[JanSorensen]

The beta (v1.087) is much better than v1.040.

The only real exception is a bug with the AI - so if you mainly play against the AI you may want to stick with v1.040.

[WanderingHead]

ORIGINAL: JanSorensen

For 1 and 4 it was decided not to fix those at this time, sorry. With respect to 1 it only happens if the units are damaged in an area with a factory (even a damaged one) so its not terribly common, albeit obviously a bug when it does happen.

5 has not been considered so thats open for Joel to decide.

2 and 3 have indeed been fixed.

Hmm.

Well I thought 1-3 were important, 4 just an irritation, and 5 is a funky rule thing not really a bug anyway. But I am disappointed in not fixing 1. As Jan knows since this was observed in a game against him, whether it is rare or not it certainly can have a large and unfair effect when it does bite.

I'm not sure it would really be all that rare. Maybe not all that common, but Manchuria? Isolated troops on Belorussia? An initial German blitz that isolates and then pounds Kiev? A successful Sealion that captures London?

These all seem to match the description, and I see no reason to expect these to be paritcularly rare events.

[JanSorensen]

Just to avoid any confusion. I am not the one making the decisions - I am just the messenger

[WanderingHead]

ORIGINAL: JanSorensen
Just to avoid any confusion. I am not the one making the decisions - I am just the messenger

Yeah. Similarly to avoid confusion, I'm quite happy with the progress that has and is being made. Just trying to make the argument to those that do decide. Since you'd mentioned you found it in the code, I had thought it would be a straightforward fix, but I guess it must have the potential for unexpected ripple effects.

It's just that I actually thought #1 the most important of the lot. 2 is bad but minor and without consequence with honest play if you notice it happen (except if it crashes), 3 is avoidable once you know it is there.

[scatters]

I agree that fix 1 above seemed the most important one, but still is a great game, and the support has been fantastic.

Has anyone tried to play online with v1.087 or is there a problem with the beta?

I haven't noticed much feedback concerning online play?