SITREP

[wodin]

Sounds great mate.

[Agema]

ORIGINAL: simovitch

The screenshot above(from RDOA)was made at the break of dawn before effective intel. As the day broke it became clear that the Germans were there in force. FTMTTR should play out just like RDOA during the first few hours.

Here's what is left of Frost's group on the night of D3:

And that is why I never even try to take the road bridge!

Playing the BftB Market Garden expansion, I've barely ever got significant forces into the Western suburbs like I managed in HTTR.

In HTTR, I could usually secure a decent position in the west suburbs, and anchor the rear around Oosterbeek and the woods, then hold a good defensive perimeter (ideally with the rail bridge not blown up) and wear down the Germans enough for the XXX corps to smash through the enfeebled remnants. Of course, it's not so easy in the remake because you can't readily surrender the supply point - but I could hold a perimeter further west.

[wodin]

I haven't played CO for a long time now. Mainly due to Phoenix mentioning the halting bug. Now I'm aware of it I know it will start to annoy me, also I wish there where more smaller scenarios, but hey.

Anyway I was reading Daves list of patch fixes and to me it sounds like a massive improvement yet again to the game, I'm pretty excited to see the new fire effectiveness and better suppression than before. I'd like to see instead of rout a unit perform a hasty fighting retreat\withdrawal and only rout in extreme circumstances where a unit is poorly trained, badly led and low moral. Fingers crossed the units don't start routing to quickly again with the new changes.

Still really looking forward to the patch and will be buying COTA scenarios and get HTTR in the sale.

[BigDuke66]

Will there be an "Open Beta" before the release or will the Beta team handle all testing?

[wdkruger]

Any news on the latest build of the beta? Really looking forward to it.

[Arjuna]

Testing revealed two issues, both of which need to be addressed.

The first relates to force formations. I issued a defend order with a frontage and depth of 900m and aligned this so that the forward edge ran along the line of woods. I didn't specify a formation type. when it executed it ended up deploying into line and pushed the line units way forward of the tree line. It should not have done this. I had written code previously that adjusted the desired frontage and depth based on persQty and formation type with that of the required frontage and depth. But it turns out that this works fine so long as the frontage to depth ratio of the selected formation type matches approximately the ratio specified by the player. In this case the line formation that the AI chose has a ratio of roughly 2:1 where as I specified a 1:1 ratio in the order. Consequently it doubled the depth and hence pushed out the forward line.

To fix this I need to rule out selecting a formation type unless its frontage to depth ratio is in alighnment with that specified in the order. But I also need to modify the interface to prevent the user from setting a depth that would distort the ratio too far.

I think you'd agree that because this thwarts the players intent it does need to get fixed.

The second issue concerns running the game under XP. At the moment it doesn't using our current installer. We can get it to run under XP if we simply install by manually copying files. So there is something wrong with our installer. This needs to be fixed and we're working on it.

Otherwise the feedback to the changes we did for the last build have been good.

[wodin]

Cool...I do think next game XP support should be dropped if it's causing issues...

[wdkruger]

Thanks for the update. I had noticed that it is hard to align troops to a particular geographic feature. However, yhe biggest changes I am looking forward to concerns the coordination in complex (regiment level) attacks. Currently, it just doesn't work because of the multiple delay problems. I basically have stopped issuing attack or probe commands to higher level HQs. It sounds like these have been addressed earlier. I was also kind of interested how the reduced casualties/routing behavior changes have affected behavior and scenario balance.

Warren

[Fishbreath]

I'm glad it's progressing. Is there any chance we could get an interim release on the forum in the next week or two (or the final release, for that matter)? I'm hoping to do a Bastogne AAR on the same days as it happened on a couple of gaming forums, and the coordinated attack delays and halting bug make it like pulling teeth in the currently-released version.

[ComradeP]

Cool...I do think next game XP support should be dropped if it's causing issues...

That would be very unfortunate.

[BigDuke66]

I really wonder how many still use XP, we now get W8 so it is really time for them to catch up.
I see a reason not using Vista but W7 ran fine from the start and still does it and with W8 coming it's about time to at least step up to W7.

[wodin]

ComradeP it's sadly a fact that eventually you have to upgrade an OS//XP has been around for over a decade now so it's had a good crap of the whip. Win7 is an excellent OS..as good or better than Win XP so I see no real negative reason for people not to update (unless they have less than 2 gig or a netbook or something as it struggle son those machines). Eventually things move on and if XP is holding up further games or if new features etc can't be done due to having to be XP compatible I feel it should be put to bed.

[Talon_XBMCX]

I built a new PC about a month ago and finally installed Win 7 pro. I wish I would have done it sooner. I hate going to work and having no choice about being on XP.

[loyalcitizen]

I also use XP.

[CharlieMike24]

@loyal citizen

.....but you also use a 19th century bicycle to get about!

[8|]

[BigDuke66]

@Arjuna
Do you aim for the new patch to be released before Christmas?

[Phoenix100]

I bet he does 'aim' for that. But will it happen?

[wodin]

Unlikely as he has found a couple of serious bugs..not only that it can take a good two weeks or so for Matrix to get it ready and online once it's finalised and sent to them.

[Phoenix100]

yes. But they have the christmas spending incentive.

[Arjuna]

Yes I am aiming to. I will probably go for a public beta just so you all can get your hands on it. I need to check with Matrix re their capacity to release this before Xmas.