War in the West v1.00.48beta available for testing

[Gerry Edwards]

Hi Everyone,

The next public beta for War in the West (v1.00.48) is now available in the Members Club.

See below for the list of changes this version brings:
V1.00.48 - July 12, 2015

New Features and Rule Changes
1. New Feature (section 26.3.6) - Air Weather Forecasts - On the weather screen you will see two dates at the top, the current date on the left and the next turn’s date on the right. When you select the next turn’s date, you will see the forecast air weather for that turn. The Axis have no early forecast information on Polar Maritime, Tropical Maritime, and Polar Continental fronts until they have arrived on the map. The Allies have no early forecast information on Polar Continental fronts. For these fronts without early information, they must already be on the map before they are included in the next turn’s forecast. The forecast is just that, an estimate of where the fronts will go, along with the knowledge of the dominating weather that will exist in each climate zone during the next turn. There are no forecasts for ground conditions. --- This item was mistakenly included in the readme notes for this 1.00.48 version. It's actually only hooked up for those players testing the Torch expansion as it was a new element that we are still testing. Our plan is to make this available to all WitW owners in a future version, and it's a case of a new feature being added to the basic engine due in large part to work going on for the Torch expansion. Sorry for the premature announcement of this feature.
2. East Front Option (section 23) – Made a few more balance adjustments to the East Front option that changes the amount of Soviet potential received at different times during the war. While doing this fixed a bug in the AI that was not giving the German AI full credit for some units sent to the East Front box in 1943. With all the East Front changes in 1.00.44 and these mostly minor tweaks in 1.00.48, it’s expected that the German player will need to send a significant number of units east periodically during the war as they did historically. This is needed in order to keep the Soviets from scoring significant points for the Allied player and prevent an early end to the game.
3. New Supply Path Rule (section 20.4.1) – During the logistics phase, a supply path cannot be traced out of a sand hex, but it can be traced into a sand hex. Note that supply paths are traced from a supply source to a unit. So if there is a sand hex between a unit and its supply source, the unit will not be getting supplies.
4. Improved the random number generation routine.
5. AI Improvements - Fixed a case of bad Axis AI line forming near Taranto reported in public AAR. Improved Allied AI's ability to capture isolated ports behind their lines Northern Europe in 1944. Improved the Allied AI’s use of support units. It will now try to push more support units (especially combat engineers) down to front line corps and divisions, and will attach the more plentiful US combat engineer units to non-US units when they are available.
Bug Fixes
1. Allied City Points shown at the top left of the victory screen was incorrectly removing some captured cities from the value as the East Front moved west. As the EF front line moved west it was causing some Allied cities deemed behind the EF line (X column number) as not being captured by the Allies. This was causing some loss of Allied victory points. Fixed.
2. German AI attack creates a battle report that shows no defending units (or men), and lots of attacking German battalions. Fixed.
3. Fixed the Breakout & Pursuit first turn AI script which had stopped working around version 1.00.37.
4. Fixed a rare interface glitch that could occur during creation of a Bomb City Air Directive.
Data and Scenario Changes
1. Fixes for the two “Fuhrer…” named units in the 43 and 44 Campaign games to ensure both arrive when playing with the East Front option on.
2. 44 Campaigns - Reduced the starting Soviet potential. Increased starting German supply priorities.
3. New ob and ground files and changes to Westwall and Bulge to try to address issues with a lack of US AFVs in the late war scenarios. Added depots to German held isolated ports in Westwall and Bulge.
4. Mortimer von Kessel and Karl von Le Suire added to German leaders.
5. Two revised ground pictures.

V1.00.44 – 9 June 2015
 New Features and Rule Changes
1. Added ability to attach construction units to cities at the cost of 1 AP point per unit. These are attached to cities the same as flak from the City Detail screen. They can be sent back to their HQ at no AP cost by pressing the X next to their name in the City Detail screen. Construction units in cities will automatically attempt to repair factories (including ports and railyards), and repair/expand airbases. Units in cities will be used first, but if deemed insufficient, additional construction units may still be summoned automatically to the hex. Units attached to cities will not be used by the automatic rail repair system.
2. Now all brigade and regiment sized units can attach one support unit. Multi-role units that convert to off-map status will send any attached support unit to the HQ.
3. Added air transfer destination air base resupply code that is immediately activated when an air unit is transferred to an airbase:
- if air base is empty it will assign it to new air hq (based on max aircraft)
- if air base is empty it will try to swap air base nationality
- air base will be resupplied and air support transferred if there is some in the pool. No new air support will be built.
4. Railyard damage was not directly impacting the amount of freight that would be shipped and unloaded at a railyard depot in the hex. Now, there is a percentage chance equal to the railyard damage that the amount shipped to a railyard depot will be divided by 10.
5. An air Group on an isolated air base may not disband.
6. Transferring an air group will send all damaged/reserve planes to the transit air pool. If the air base is isolated they will be destroyed.
7. Interface Adjustment - You can now always access the air base detail screen while in F10 mode by double clicking on an airbase.
8. Formula Adjustment – (Section 14.2.3) the 50 hex range limit for using railyard capacity for movement is changed to a 30 hex limit. Note, the check has always been made from both the starting point and the ending point for a movement of freight or economic goods.
9. Formula Adjustments - East Front Option Changes - Increased German casualties in the East Front box. Germans also now use more fuel/supplies for activities in the East Front box.
10. Formula Adjustments - Section 20.1.7.2 - Significantly increased the attrition to vehicles from resupply operations. Increased both the amount of vehicles damaged and destroyed.
11. Formula Adjustment - Section 21.1.6 - Increased Allied vehicle repair to 50% per turn.
12. Formula Adjustment - Section 21.2.3 – The most that can be repaired per turn by priority repairs is now 20% of the damage (was 25%).
13. Formula Adjustment - Made it easier to cause high amounts of damage to fuel, syn-fuel, and railyards.
14. Formula Adjustment - Reduced the effectiveness of organic (under the hood) airfield radar on intercepts in Africa. It should be harder to effectively intercept raids in Africa due to less developed air defense systems in Africa.
15. Formula Adjustment - The change in 1.00.37 to try minimize warp/rout moves from Africa to non-Africa locations no longer restricts HQs, but it should prevent combat units from making such a move.
16. Formula Adjustment - Improved air mission range calculation in F1 and F9 modes.
17. AI changes
a. German AI is no longer disbanding depots in ports when the enemy gets near them.
b. Fixed a case where the Allied AI came ashore at Taranto and never invaded anywhere again during a campaign 43.
c. German AI isolated unit warps from Corsica to Northern France. Fixed.
d. Fixed several other instances of AI moving isolated units out of pockets (26th Panzer and 2 FJ in Italy).
e. Altered Axis AI so it will be more likely to send some additional units to the Eastern Front in late 43/early 44 and again in late summer 44.
18. Clarification – All level 3 depots should be set up in scenarios with rail access to a national supply source (level 4 depot). Only naval shipments to level 2 ports will show a blue line on the map when using the 8 key as it is assumed that all level 3 depots are receiving their freight via land.
19. Clarification – The morale help level directly impacts the national morale levels. An Allied player with a current USA national morale of 60 and an Allied morale help level of 90 will have an effective USA national morale of 54.

 Bug Fixes
1. FB air group sent for re-training reporting as attached to East Front base. Fixed.
2. Changed circle dots to square dots on metrics screen to avoid crashes on some configurations.
3. It is not possible to delete an air directive after AI turn. Fixed.
4. Several reports of different airbases losing its HQ. Fixed.
5. Fixed airfield and depot automatic repair/expansion as HQs were having the range they would automatically send out repair units reduced.
6. Due to the sequence of actions, destroyed freight in depots was not causing a loss of fuel or supplies in the general pool if those pools were already low. This has been changed so that the correct amount lost will always be taken from the pools.



 Data and Scenario Changes
1. 43 Campaign - Added 100k US, 80k British, 4k Canadian and 2k Brazilian to manpower pools at start.
2. All scenarios now have named pilots.
3. Some new leader and aircraft photos to go with changes/additions made.

Wfdevice.dat
1. 7.92mm vz.24 HMG (0162) – Type changed from Squad Weapon to Heavy Squad Weapon; Accuracy increased from 15 to 750; Anti-armor decreased from 10 to 0; Penetration decreased from 7 to 0.
2. 8mm Schwarzlose HMG (0163) – Type changed from Squad Weapon to Heavy Squad Weapon; Accuracy increased from 15 to 750; Anti-armor decreased from 10 to 0; Penetration decreased from 7 to 0.
3. 8mm Hotchkiss Mle 14 HMG (0164) – Type changed from Squad Weapon to Heavy Squad Weapon; Accuracy increased from 15 to 750; Anti-armor decreased from 10 to 0; Penetration decreased from 7 to 0.
4. 7.92mm ZB53 AAMG (0226) – ROF increased from 40 to 45.
5. 7.92mm vz.37 CMG (0266) – ROF increased from 40 to 45.
6. 7.92mm MG37 (0267) – ROF increased from 40 to 45.
7. 7.92mm vz.37 BMG (0268) – ROF increased from 40 to 45.
8. 7.92mm MG37 BMG (0269) – ROF increased from 40 to 45.
9. 160mm MT-13 Mortar (0409) – Duplicate device eliminated.

Wfground.dat
1. 105mm Field Gun (0222) – Device 0142 facing changed from Fwd to Side.
2. Tauchpanzer IVd (0419) – Device 0262 ammo decreased from 2400 to 1500; Device 0265 added; Side Armor increased from 15 to 20.
3. SdKfz-8 (0422) – Renamed SdKfz-8 Halftrack; Type changed from SP Flak to HT AT-Gun.
4. Matilda II (0662) – Devices 0328 & 0295 facings changed from Fwd to Turret.
5. 107mm Mortar (0729) – Device 0139 facing changed from Fwd to Side.
6. Recce Section (2119) – Device 0148 facing changed from Fwd to Side.
7. Rifle Squad (2657) – Device 0176 facing changed from Fwd to Side.
8. 12in Naval Gun (3524) – Device 1016 facing changed from Fwd to Turret.

Wfac.dat
1. Some camera/drop tank issues fixed on Mosquito recons

Wfleader.dat
1. Several new Allied air leaders.
2. Maitland Wilson available in 11/42 and Horrocks now available in Torch/Africa scenarios.

Wfob.dat
1. Many more ob changes for Torch/Africa scenarios.

Happy Gaming!

[barkhorn45]

I cannot dl using windows explorer get a disconnected at source mess.
Tried chrome can dl but my accelerator(dap)won't run using chrome so when dl stop's no resume file lost.
Does anyone know how to make dap my default dl'er for chrome?

[Joel Billings]

To give you an idea of the major changes with this version, there was a lot of work done to better balance the East Front option, and to get the AI to play a more historical game with regards to the East Front (i.e. transferring more units there, sometimes for short periods of time). For those of you not sending units east, but only sending them west, the east front should be very difficult. We'd like to hear player's experiences with the East Front option in games starting with this version.

Other changes will allow you to attach a support unit to any brigade/regiment, and allow you to attach construction units directly to cities (AP cost of 1). You can use this to ensure critical repairs or airbase expansion are worked on. Railyard bombing should be more useful now and fuel and railyards should more vulnerable targets given the several changes made. We also made some adjustments to vehicle damage as we weren't seeing the vehicle shortage we expected to see in the German army. There are also some new effects when transferring air groups to an empty airbase, that give the player more immediate control over nationality and support at the airbases (item 3 in the change list above). We've improved the AI, preventing some illegal warp moves, and getting it to retain depots in ports (so it might be tougher to take out besieged ports with tough units). The last major adjustment was an increase in some Allied manpower in the starting 1943 campaign pools. We found that there was not enough manpower to make it through the long campaign given the growth of the Allied air forces and the regular wear and tear on units.

All in all we expect this will move the needle of balance toward the Allies in East Front Option off campaigns, and make it harder for the Axis player to take from the East Front (in fact the Axis player should expect to have to send some units east or face a major VP loss both during the game and at the end as the Soviets capture Berlin early). We made these changes based on player feedback, AARs, and lots of AI tests that we've been running that indicated that other changes in the game had pushed the balance too far toward the Germans.

As always, we appreciate all the feedback and information that player's provide and look forward to getting feedback on this version. Thanks.

[gravyhair]

!!! Thnx.

[ElvisDaKing]

Hi

Last official version is still 1.00.29

Is beta 1.00.44 including updates and features from 1.00.37 ?

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3857216

[Helpless]

Is beta 1.00.44 including updates and features from 1.00.37 ?

Yes

[Smokey2]

Does this mean that 1.00.37 is not being released as a final (non-beta) version?

Smokey

[Joel Billings]

We're not sure. When I last spoke with Erik he had the go ahead to release 1.00.37 as official if Matrix wanted to and could work it into their production schedule, but it wasn't clear if they were going to do so or just wait for 1.00.44. I should be speaking with Erik within a few days and will ask if there are any plays to make 1.00.37 official.

[Smokey2]

Thanks for the feedback Joel.

Smokey

[Uxbridge]

Could this interesting point be somewhat elaborated?

Railyard damage was not directly impacting the amount of freight that would be shipped and unloaded at a railyard depot in the hex. Now, there is a percentage chance equal to the railyard damage that the amount shipped to a railyard depot will be divided by 10.

If the railyard has 30 percent damage, does that mean that there's a 30 percent chance that deliveries to depots connecting to this railyard will be cut to a tenth?

[RedLancer]

Yes - that's exactly it.

[Seminole]

3. Added air transfer destination air base resupply code that is immediately activated when an air unit is transferred to an airbase:
- if air base is empty it will assign it to new air hq (based on max aircraft)
- if air base is empty it will try to swap air base nationality
- air base will be resupplied and air support transferred if there is some in the pool. No new air support will be built.

Got to play a little bit last night and noticed the effect of these changes. Very welcome! Can't wait to see them from the Allied side. Thanks for the continued improvements.

[zakblood]

downloaded and installed, will now learn how to play and then see how it all works, but as it's going live soon i don't think i'll be able to comment much on this beta, but maybe the next one[:D][;)]

[soeren01]

ORIGINAL: Seminole

3. Added air transfer destination air base resupply code that is immediately activated when an air unit is transferred to an airbase:
- if air base is empty it will assign it to new air hq (based on max aircraft)
- if air base is empty it will try to swap air base nationality
- air base will be resupplied and air support transferred if there is some in the pool. No new air support will be built.

Got to play a little bit last night and noticed the effect of these changes. Very welcome! Can't wait to see them from the Allied side. Thanks for the continued improvements.

Do your turn and you will see it

[Harrybanana]

Deleted

[zakblood]

oh bum, posted mine in wrong section, not a good start lol

tm.asp?m=3752945

what file do we upload? is there a error log file the game makes and if so where is it?

ty

settings used, can't upload zip or rar files as not supported here, so can't posted modded files either, plus game only saves at end of turn so no luck on first turn with errors lol




if i can break it, i will or at least try my best to, seems it doesn't like you alter much with standard scn files before game locks up and crashes, 2 attempts and 2 ctd so far, seems i may have to do my own and not used made up ones it seems

[zakblood]

seems on the settings shown above, i can crash the game at will in the first tutorial with a none modded standard game and a modded one, so at least know it's no longer the file scn i modded, it the standard file, with these settings that crashes the game on the first move as i cross my units into battle across on the and onto the beaches as shown in this picture



i have a great record for breaking games with beta's, here's just another one.

pc used is a top end i7 with 16gb of ram, no background none standard apps or program running, on windows 8.1 pro...

same pc used to run WITE for more than a while with not one crash logged

[zakblood]

so clean install, updated to latest build beta version, run as admin from a admin only account, 2nd or 3rd turn in, so now at least have a save

[zakblood]

saves, oh keep forgetting, no zips or rar files failed again

sorted, broken sound codec, removed / repaired and fixed

[Devonport]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

We're not sure. When I last spoke with Erik he had the go ahead to release 1.00.37 as official if Matrix wanted to and could work it into their production schedule, but it wasn't clear if they were going to do so or just wait for 1.00.44. I should be speaking with Erik within a few days and will ask if there are any plays to make 1.00.37 official.

Any chance of an update? Not sure whether to start a new game or wait for 37 or 44.