Patch ETA?

[RyanCrierie]

There's a ton of things open to us:

1920s Pacific Carrier Warfare; with the carriers as scouts to find the enemy for the battleline to clash with.
1930s Pacific Carrier Warfare; they're starting to get some recognition in fleet problems; rather than just being scouts.

All the never built european CVs, like the French one, German ones, Italian ones; ripe for what ifs...

OR

This is a big IF...I bet we won't get it for free; but probably in an expansion, since it would require quite some code to be done....Hunter/Killer Operations against U Boats by CVEs in the Atlantic.

[decaro]

Gregor,

Ryan should be working for SSG! These are all excellent ideas.
What do think?

ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie
There's a ton of things open to us:

1920s Pacific Carrier Warfare; with the carriers as scouts to find the enemy for the battleline to clash with.
1930s Pacific Carrier Warfare; they're starting to get some recognition in fleet problems; rather than just being scouts.

All the never built european CVs, like the French one, German ones, Italian ones; ripe for what ifs...

OR

This is a big IF...I bet we won't get it for free; but probably in an expansion, since it would require quite some code to be done....Hunter/Killer Operations against U Boats by CVEs in the Atlantic.

This last suggestion could almost be a game in itself; scoring can be based on how many subs you sink vs. the number of convoy cargo ships you lose. I also think it would require less code than you'd might expect as C@W already has codes for subs and CV(E)s.

[RyanCrierie]

For the 1920s and 1930s stuff; we can just let the US Government do the work for us; we can just "Steal" the actual 1920s and 1930s "fleet review problems", such as Carriers attacking the Panama canal, etc.

[northerner]

pATCH 1.01 http://www.ssg.com.au/?page=patches  Released: 12th August, 2007

[northerner]

Apologies it is not Carriers At War but Battlefront. I was so excited. It says CAW but when downloaded it is Battlefront patch.

[OldBoney]

Yes, but it looks like it's getting close!

[alexs]

Hi Guys,
Sorry about that - i jumped the gun a little with having the link there - i've removed it for now until the patch is officially released.

Looks like the timing on this should be some time next week - Problems permitting.

Alex

[Unhappy]

ORIGINAL: Gregor_SSG

We have made a number of changes to increase replayability in the patch. There is a new Random Selection variant which means that you don't know what variant you are playing. In order to fully exploit this there are now 38 variants for Coral Sea, so there's no way you can tell what forces the enemy has just by looking at your own. We will do multiple variants for the other scenarios as well, and release them when we can, but it takes time.

Gregor

This sounds interesting. Perhaps wishful thinking on my part but I think it sounds a bit like my post from the wishlist thread:

I wish...

That the 'Startup Warcards' were not activated until AFTER the player hits 'Start Game'. That way the scenario designer could use some of the Startup Warcards to change the initial dispositions and aims of each sides' forces, introducing some variability and unknowns into the game. Also, this would require adding % possibilities and threadout values to the Startup Warcards to accomodate the initial 'branching.'

For example:

Shift TG Location - to alter the starting location of Taskgroups
Alter TG Mission - so that the player would not know definitively ahead of time what the enemy was attempting to accomplish
Transfer Warships - to alter the make up of Taskgroups
Transfer Squads - to redeploy aircraft to different airbases
Delete forces - (maybe) to remove some forces the player thought would be present from his force pool or the enemies (surprise!)
Conditional Missions and Conditional Ship Preservation - to alter the victory point value - thus the player might need to change their strategy to suit these changed conditionals
Change Naval/Change Air VPs - like above
Redeploy submarines - so that a player could never know for sure where they would be lurking

As an example...it is the fall of 1942 - Japanese forces are spotted steaming Southeast from Truk, the group includes a large invasion fleet, you believe they are headed to Guadalcanal, but maybe they'll go for Pt. Moresby...or northern Australia? OK - far out example but the uncertainty would add to the game. The initial forces could be altered for each possibility.

Some of these warcards may need to trigger a pop-up window to inform the player about changed conditions - these could reflect FoW, imperfect intelligence, Acts of God, Ship breakdowns, unforseen events whatever.

I realize implementing some of these warcards would necessitate a large amount of branching - especially altering TG Mission - and a corresponding increase in the amount of 'work' the scenario designer would have to do in the Warroom. However, it would introduce some variability (and excitement) into the game that I believe players would appreciate.

Thanks.

Any chance that the randomization is achieved in a fashion similar to the way I suggested? I guess what I'd like to know is whether this a 'feature' that users will be able to customize on their own or not?

Thanks. Looking forward to the patch and discovering the impact it has on gameplay.

[alexs]

I suspect the patch will be released very soon. Matrix needs to line a few things up for the download - but we've handed them the final file versions.

Unhappy : Im pretty sure you'll be able to get the functionality you wanted out of new version. The patch brings in a checkbox above the warroom list in the singleplayer setup screen captioned "Random Selection". Once you select it, the warroom list, briefing, objective pictures and taskgroup/landbase buttons all disappear. A "Random Selection" also has the following in-game effects : 1. You can no longer select your opponent's forces in the report screen (so you cant see their list of ships etc) until the end of the game, 2. You can no longer select the opponent's flag in the victory screen (meaning you can't see the enemies missions) until the end of the game, and 3. You cant mouseover the victory level window to get the margins required for each victory level (ie Alld Decisive, Alld Marginal, Draw etc).

So in terms of what you asked for, you could implement by having multiple warrooms in a scenario, and having random selection on. Each warroom could have different starting locations for ships etc.
Also, we've gone through the editor so it should be *much* more user friendly and also provide some new functions for people making scenarios/variants (some extra buttons to copy/paste the allied cards in the warroom etc). What this effectively means, and the way that Ian generated the 30+ variants for Coral Sea, is that he built a base of maybe 5 or 6 different warrooms for each side with variations in the forces/locations etc taking note of the forces in each one. He then copied / pasted them together in different variations, and modified the VP levels to match the competing forces.

As always, we use the exact same editor to generate our scenarios as we bundle with the game. You have access to all the features when creating a scenario that we do.

Hope this sheds some light.

[hadberz]

Sounds great Alexs, Thanks for the update.

[Temple]

AlexS, the new Random Selection sounds great. Regarding the changes to the editor, will the readme for the patch include enough detail to help us be able to find the new functions? 

[alexs]

Temple,
    If you managed to get around in the current editor, I doubt you'll have any problems in the new one. The new warroom functions have buttons with fairly obvious icons / help text to get you going.

    Alex

[bssybeep]

Matrix,
 
Will the CAW patch be releasing this week?  I'm looking to get back into CAW once the new patch is available.

[JD Walter]

Hi Gregor, AlexS,

Yes, we will be making more scenarios for CAW.
...

There is a new Random Selection variant which means that you don't know what variant you are playing.
...

A "Random Selection" also has the following in-game effects : 1. You can no longer select your opponent's forces in the report screen (so you cant see their list of ships etc) until the end of the game, 2. You can no longer select the opponent's flag in the victory screen (meaning you can't see the enemies missions) until the end of the game, and 3. You cant mouseover the victory level window to get the margins required for each victory level (ie Alld Decisive, All[ie]d Marginal, Draw etc).

I just want to say that this is excellent and I am greatly looking forward to your efforts here. I for one was very pleased with CAW and, for the hours I spent with it, am satisfied with my purchase. SSG has a well-earned reputation for its after-market support and I am a satisfied customer who will certainly be ordering future releases from your company.

[kverdon]

Any update on the update?   Last word was that the file was ready and they were just waiting for Matrix to set it up for downlaod?  This weekend perhaps?
 
 

[Erik Rutins]

We're going as fast as we can, won't be much longer...

[flintlock]

If you're really impatient and can't wait for Matrix to announce it, you can download it from here, while you wait for the official announcement.

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[Toby42]

ORIGINAL: flintlock

If you're really impatient and can't wait for Matrix to announce it, you can download it from here, while you wait for the official announcement.

--

What's all this mean ?????

[flintlock]

That it's available. You can wait for the official announcement before you download it though, that's your call.

Cheers.

[Toby42]

So how did you come across this ??