Matrix Games Forums

+1
It seems that if you are not part of some inner circle of people, everyone else is just hung out to dry.
Has momentum on this patch ceased?
Could we be given some official comment on what gives?
or a definitive "work has ceased".

Jack (Lobster) you are not on my short list, but you did not say anything about TOAW 4. So you now have me thinking, have you signed a NDA?

I found this news on the Lock 'n Load Publishing Forum:
"Here are the first early screenshots of Tank On Tank West Front. Ralph Trickey is leading the charge on this game. The map graphics are just a rough a sample. The nice new maps should be available in a next set of Screenshots we put out."
I do not known if the Ralph Trickey named here is the same or another programmer.

http://forums.lnlpublishing.com/threads ... hots.1022/

Interesting catch JMass. I serously doubt that there is more than one wargame-programmer named Ralph Trickey.

I couldn't see the screenshots in that game clearly (you have to register and log in to see screenshots, WTF?), but it looks like pretty lite fare, so it would be a shame if Ralph is concentrating on that rather than TOAW, but I guess that's his business. It would be nice, however, if TOAW could somehow be handed off to someone that would do something with it. For instance, it is kind of amazing (and commendable) to see what the guys are doing with the old Tiller Campaign Series.

ORIGINAL: 76mm
I couldn't see the screenshots in that game clearly (you have to register and log in to see screenshots, WTF?)

Yes, you have to register but you can search on google images: "ralph trickey tank on tank", it should find some images from Facebook.

Ralph also has his own software company called "Trickeysoft"

ORIGINAL: fogger

Jack (Lobster) you are not on my short list, but you did not say anything about TOAW 4. So you now have me thinking, have you signed a NDA?

TOAW 4

There, happy? [;)]

With all of the doom and gloom regarding Toaw's future, what other game(s), here or elsewhere, come closest to replicating the Toaw experience. Lobster has mentioned John Tiller and Battlefront. Any others?

TomC

I couldn't see the screenshots in that game clearly

If you click the link for the poster [admin David Heath, the principal owner], it will give you a pop up, and from there click on the 'media' link which will take you to a page where you can view all the screenshots in full resolution.

I have signed the NDA but I don't violate it by saying that there is nothing in the Development Forum that would shed any light on situation. Nobody from Matrix visits there either.

The 'David Heath' from Matrix? If so, that is cool

I'm not negative - just inquiring on the status - there has been little\next to nada input from MG on this. Even a Simple "we hear you, and will have more news on the status soon..."

Even Ralph's FB status is a tad cold. I've left a few posts, with no replies.

Life does get in the way, but even a 'just a brief drive-by to say 'hi'' would be appreciated.

And, no, I have ZERO input this round for the update...

I'm happy to report that Ralph resurfaced today on the Development Board with a new update. [:)]

[X(][&o] Hell yea!

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

I'm happy to report that Ralph resurfaced today on the Development Board with a new update. [:)]

That's good news Bob. Thanks for posting that. My first reaction was to think, "And...?".

Thanks for the update. And Ralph (for your eyes only),- welcome back, looking forward to your input!
cheers

ORIGINAL: Lobster
That's good news Bob. Thanks for posting that. My first reaction was to think, "And...?".

+1

Don't make us get out the Ouija Board again.

Two new posts in the blog...

http://operationalwarfare.com/

Wow, some news!
I do not have a clue as to what Ralph is talking about, it is great to see his interest and ideas!

to see, if this finally gets going and we have a new patch soon.

Well, from what I understand the code for TOAW is a bit of a mess. I guess Norm was not so much a programmer as a game designer and maybe had not heard of organized code. [:D]

So, given that it's a mess and someone who had nothing to do with the coding is working on it I can imagine it must be somewhat frustrating. Still, having some kind of communication at all is better than none and I appreciate it as I'm sure everyone else does. For instance, "I can't look at this crap anymore. I have to walk away for a bit". I'm perfectly fine with that.

As for getting a patch soon. Probably not if he's found other botched or out dated programming. TOAW is very old.

ORIGINAL: Lobster

Well, from what I understand the code for TOAW is a bit of a mess. I guess Norm was not so much a programmer as a game designer and maybe had not heard of organized code. [:D]

So, given that it's a mess and someone who had nothing to do with the coding is working on it I can imagine it must be somewhat frustrating. Still, having some kind of communication at all is better than none and I appreciate it as I'm sure everyone else does. For instance, "I can't look at this crap anymore. I have to walk away for a bit". I'm perfectly fine with that.

As for getting a patch soon. Probably not if he's found other botched or out dated programming. TOAW is very old.

Don't misunderstand me, TOAW was very well written for it's time. I've looked at other programs written around that timeframe and they are absolute messes in comparison. Norm did a fantastic job given the constraints. It was written before C++ so there is a huge reliance on global variables. There is some separation between the logic and display but some parts are better than others. I'm pretty sure it was also written originally as a DOS program and the conversion to Windows works, but it used to have lots of loops polling the input which was the only way to do it in DOS but not the best way in Windows and impractical for mobile. The interface code was written assuming an 800x600 display and everything was coded using pixel coordinates and an 8x8 font. While it wasn't OO, it did do some sensible things like passing x, y as the first two parameters when looking at terrain and other sensible things like that.

I've got the advantages of both using C++ and OO and having used several windowing systems (Delphi, C#, HTML, and a few others) so I have some ideas on what the programming interface looks like. So I'm taking the time to do an almost complete rewrite of the graphics system to isolate the windows pieces in a couple of source files and writing an abstraction layer above it.