v1.03 Beta 5 Now Available!

[Andrew Loveridge]

Hello All,

We have an updated version of the 1.03 Beta. It adds a couple new features, and more bug fixes, on top of the already extensive list of changes in the 1.03 update. You can find it in the Members Club. Below are the newest changes.

V1.03 Beta 5 – February 14, 2011

New Features and Rule Changes[/b] [ul] 1) Manually merged units are now added to the destroyed/disbanded unit list. 2) Added withdrawal info to the hex pop-up text.

Bug Fixes

1) Fixed a crash bug in beta 4 when the hex pop-up is displayed for a city with a port and AA. 2) Fixed a bug where setting the hex pop-up delay to 0 was causing battle reports to be displayed while in Move Mode. 3) Fixed a bug where data was not cleaned correctly when a PBEM password was entered inaccurately. 4) Fixed a bug where HQs were showing a legal movement path through visible partisan units, something they can’t move through. 5) Fixed a bug where city bombing of factories was not correctly adding newly created damage to the existing damage already on the bombed factory. 6) Fixed a bug where phantom attacks occurred during the first turn of a Soviet AI 1941 Campaign game.

Data and Scenario Changes

1) Increased the starting Armaments pools for both sides in all scenarios that begin in 1941. 2) Fixed the starting OB for the 900th Lehr Motorized Brigade so that it matches the revised TOE in the 1941-45 Campaign scenario.

[/ul]

1.03 beta 4
1.03 beta 2

[cookie monster]

[:D]

Because of the confusion last time click on the members club people.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Loveridge

1) Increased the starting Armaments pools for both sides in all scenarios that begin in 1941.

Can't fault your responsiveness but I've just finished T2 of GC41 and am not restarting...................I just hope my opponent is stuffed as well

[Joel Billings]

Even if you don't restart your games, if you were using beta 4 it would be a good idea to upgrade to beta 5. There was a crash bug added into beta 4 that was fixed in beta 5.

For those of you interested in starting a new game you will find that there is a lot more armaments points in the starting pools in 41 (1 million more for the Soviets, 100k more for the Germans). This was done because the change in the armaments production system made in beta 3 was so dramatic that hundreds of thousands of soviet troops were stacking up in the manpower pool in 1941. This was preventing the full mobilization from taking place that we think the Soviets should be able to execute. In 1942 the armaments multiplier increases, so it's likely that the manpower not used in 41, will be able to get into the game in 1942, but for some it might be too late. For anyone playing the Soviets in beta 3 or 4, I suggest they don't bother to build many artillery support units as you won't have the armaments points to build much artillery (at least not without leaving even more manpower in the pool unused). As the change made in beta 5 is a data change, only new games will benefit from the added armaments pools. Although the prior system was clearly building too many armaments points in the long run and required a change, we didn't appreciate the impact it would have on 41 until some additional testing was done.

The bottom line is games started with beta 3 or 4 will be harder on the Soviets then games started with beta 5, although games started with beta 5 will still be harder for the Soviets than games started prior to beta 3 due to the many changes made in beta 3.

Thanks to all of you who have provided comments and saves that have helped us to continue to improve the game.

By the way, we've put a hold on making any additional changes while we wait to see if beta 5 checks out. We'd like to see it become an official patch in the near future and then move on to 1.04.

[marcpennington]

Is there a consensus on how big an impact the increased armaments have and whether one should restart a fairly new campaign game? I began my first campaign game as the Germans on normal difficulty with Beta 4, and have noticed that the advance seems far faster then what I experienced on the various "Road to" scenarios under Beta 2 (Smolensk on turn 3, Kiev on turn 5 etc.), with noticeably less Soviet opposition. I'm assuming a large part of this must be the armaments issue, though I'm a bit hesitant to restart given I assume plenty more patches are coming....

All that said, congratulations on a truly fantastic game that has brought me back to wargaming after far too many years. Further, the level of support of the game through prompt patching and feedback on these forums is truly astounding.

[Gandalf]

How about addressing the "mech" units in swamp hex issue BEFORE declaring a v1.03 official patch? This not only affects the Pripyet marsh area but also Leningrad area.

see: tm.asp?m=2726298

First swamp hexes are like mini-fortresses. Then with v1.03 beta 4, you weaken them enough but allow mech units relatively unhindered access. When I opened up this thread I thought for sure I'd read about a fix for this issue... Instead I read that you're gonna make this v1.03 patch "official"!

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings


The bottom line is games started with beta 3 or 4 will be harder on the Soviets then games started with beta 5, although games started with beta 5 will still be harder for the Soviets than games started prior to beta 3 due to the many changes made in beta 3.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I didn't want my opponent that badly stuffed, and nor did he. Is it possible to fix existing games with patch that will just give instant add on to both sides in say 1st week in July or start of player's next turn or whatever for those of us who started PBEM as soon as beta 3 came out?

[Blind Sniper]

Thanks for sharing the beta patches as soon as they are ready.

[Blind Sniper]

Sorry, double post.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings
The bottom line is games started with beta 3 or 4 will be harder on the Soviets then games started with beta 5, although games started with beta 5 will still be harder for the Soviets than games started prior to beta 3 due to the many changes made in beta 3.

You're not kidding. I have 300,000+ manpower stacked in the pool by turn 8 and 0 armaments. My divisions are fighting at about 3,000-6,000 strength on average. For those in my situation, I suggest you build a minimum of 3 RR construction brigades per army or army group on turn one or two. That seems to help a lot as half strength divisions behind level 2 or 3 forts still seem to hold up well against the Germans.

I'm just worried my armies won't flesh out in time for the winter counter-offensives, hope that's not the case.

Jim

[karonagames]

You're not kidding. I have 300,000+ manpower stacked in the pool by turn 8 and 0 armaments. My divisions are fighting at about 3,000-6,000 strength on average.

Same here in my game against Speedy. At turn 15 I have 700k waiting for rifles! I am just about hanging on. Leningrad looks safe, Moscow will be interesting depending on if he attacks or digs in the snow turns, the south now has big cracks, but the mud should save me. My winter counter-attack is going to be pretty wimpy.

Interesting times ahead. I don't think it is quite a game-breaker, and Joel has assured me that the 1942 armaments production multiplier will help me recover.

[Tarhunnas]

Any guess on when the patch will become official? Is it a week or a month?

[comsolut]

I'm going to hide the post here in the Patch update rather than create a storm in the main forum.

It is hard not to like the game, but after the hours I have put into the game I am becoming frustrated. Either German players do not know their strategy and tactics or the game was not play tested adequately. Seems that straight forward to me.

Each turn is enjoyable but honestly the major satisfaction is defending (I play the Russian side) key cities, launching the few key counterattacks, and having a good defensive line for winter, followed by a Winter Offensive. I.E. the big picture. However, in my first two games the Russian troops steam rolled the Germans and both opponents resigned.

Now finding a new, and I feel very good opponent, we start Beta 1.03 ver 3 (and beforehand told manpower was cut by I believe 5%) and the swamp defense and so on. Now, having started another campaign and investing hours into it, I find a data change (so you have to restart to fix it) changed the armament pool (never saw any hint of that - or a need to adjust) so now all my Russian reinforcements are virtually useless. Having taken my normal hold fast and fight for every inch of ground approach (all the Sir Robin bashers would love to play me) I find I have next to no units capable of building or defending the second and third lines of defense.

If I sound frustrated, I am. It's just a game and I should walk away and chalk it up to another bad game experience. And maybe down the road the play balance issues will get resolved and I will miss out on a winner. But the above change, I feel unexpected and uncalled for, really has soured me on WITE.

Just my venting.

[cookie monster]

The game was released December the 7th, some minor problems must be expected.

Just look at how many patches have been released.

WITE seems a lot more stable than any recently released Paradox game.

[karonagames]

I can understand your frustration as I started a test game with Speedy, as the Soviets and at turn15 I have 700k men waiting for rifles! I think my extra experience will just about save me, as Speedy had me on the ropes but didn't take advantage. I think the main problem with 1.03.3 is that the Soviets will not have enough bodies to mount a strong winter offensive, which was part of the reason for the original changes, but, as often happened in testing there was an "over-tweak" that only gets discovered deep into testing - fortunately this got discovered relatively early, but it is inevitable that people will feel they have had their time wasted if a game-breaking situation is created. My game with Speedy got close to being broken, but we are going to continue, as Joel has assured me that the armaments multiplier in 1942 will allow me to catch up.

[comsolut]

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I am frustrated partly by the balance issues not getting resolved in the beta testing before the game was released. Hey - I am a customer and just providing feedback.

And surprised by the data change. All the indications were data was very stable (data being the key concern because only restarts fix). So happy to play the game, knowing house rules can take care of code issues until the next patch. It just feels like the data change was completely unexpected and of course created a very poor game experience.

Having bought and enjoyed several Matrix games, I do try to protect myself and only invest time where I feel it will be rewarded. Knowing Matrix would patch repeatedly the game issues is GREAT, absolutely wonderful support. I just think slipping in a major data change without - maybe more testing - and definitely a BIG WARNING - might be considered a mistake. Again just feed back to improve customer satisfaction and positive game experience.

[Fetrik]

ORIGINAL: comsolut

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I am frustrated partly by the balance issues not getting resolved in the beta testing before the game was released. Hey - I am a customer and just providing feedback.

Expecting a game of this scale to be balanced upon release is just expecting too much. No other company would have a game of this scale released in a 100% balanced way. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!

If you are frustrated by the balance now return in a few months or just monitor the patch changes and decide when you feel it is time to step back in again.

[Joel Billings]

We're sorry about the armaments issue. The original change was not a data change, but a multiplier change to production. The fix was a data change. We're looking into a way to post an exe that would a player could use to make a onetime adjustment to the armaments points to add the armaments into games games started with beta 3 or 4. Not sure what can be done.

As for becoming an official patch, we should give the beta 5 a week to see if anything comes up before making it official.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings
The original change was not a data change, but a multiplier change to production.

Would it be possible then to release a multiplier only patch specifically for games started under beta 3 or 4 that increases armament production by a factor of 15? Then have players execute one turn using that change and then re-patch to beta 5 again after having executed one turn of production to fill up their armament pools?

I’m producing about 66,000 armaments, so 15 x 66,000 is 990,000. I think I read somewhere that the Soviets needed a pool of 1 mil to fix things. It would help things a lot, but I understand if it isn’t feasible to do it.

I’m not sure what multiple the Germans might need to fix their situation.

Jim

[comsolut]

Thanks Joel.

As I said your support is fantastic. The implementation just happened, imho, to be flawed this time (i.e. data change to correct a prior non-data error would requires a restart so no real correction possible - unless you can come up with the patch you mentioned). HOWEVER, that you would even consider trying to fix the problem is what puts you and your team head and shoulders above the rest.

If you can work something out that would be great, but I do keep reminding myself it is just a game. And as always it is labeled a beta patch. So caveat patcher (so to speak).