Matrix Games Forums

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 1:26 am**

Steve has said he doesn't like Steam because the Steam version of TOAW took away from dev time for the game. Maybe so but it exposes TOAW to thousands of people who wouldn't know it even exists.

And TOAW is worse off for it, as is every other game that has to waste precious development time creating and supporting Steam Versions of their game. The developers and distributors have to play along because it increases revenues, but the public should be aware of the truth, which I only present as I found it by searching the forums and asking questions - many complaints and issues, no real reason to use it, except for people who, if you can believe it, for some reason don't have a clue how to place/locate a file on their computer.

So Don asked and I gave him the details of my investigation into what is, indisputably, a third party leech that is sustained by duping people into thinking it does some service. Anywhere you look you will see people complaining of worthless purchases and statements such as 'Steam is nice IF you get it set up right'. Really? Place the files yourselves you mental cripples. Don't penalize the rest of the world!
So NO I would not try it out, even free of charge, because it offers me nothing [thru some miracle of evolution I know how to copy a file and paste it to another location]. And I see no reason why anyone would try to defend it so vigorously. It's pretty strange.

No further debate please, I gave two reasons why not to use it, but notice that you didn't counter that, you only attacked me. Now can you give ANY reason why it is useful ??

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 3:37 am**

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Steve has said he doesn't like Steam because the Steam version of TOAW took away from dev time for the game. Maybe so but it exposes TOAW to thousands of people who wouldn't know it even exists.
And TOAW is worse off for it, as is every other game that has to waste precious development time creating and supporting Steam Versions of their game. The developers and distributors have to play along because it increases revenues, but the public should be aware of the truth, which I only present as I found it by searching the forums and asking questions - many complaints and issues, no real reason to use it, except for people who, if you can believe it, for some reason don't have a clue how to place/locate a file on their computer.

So Don asked and I gave him the details of my investigation into what is, indisputably, a third party leech that is sustained by duping people into thinking it does some service. Anywhere you look you will see people complaining of worthless purchases and statements such as 'Steam is nice IF you get it set up right'. Really? Place the files yourselves you mental cripples. Don't penalize the rest of the world!
So NO I would not try it out, even free of charge, because it offers me nothing [thru some miracle of evolution I know how to copy a file and paste it to another location]. And I see no reason why anyone would try to defend it so vigorously. It's pretty strange.

No further debate please, I gave two reasons why not to use it, but notice that you didn't counter that, you only attacked me. Now can you give ANY reason why it is useful ??

I use it. Not because I'm lazy. I can lose my entire hard drive and not have to worry about replacing any games I bought on Steam. I get every update and don't have to go checking everyplace I bought a game to see if there even was an update. I don't have to search multiple websites to see if anyone made a mod. I can put Steam on any computer anywhere and have access to every game I've ever purchased there without lugging around multiple disks. And the only thing I did to 'set up Steam' was to install it. That's all nothing more. Now if you have a hard on for Steam fine, it's your business. But when you tell people it's bad because of personal reasons then who is duping whom? Until you actually use it anything you have to say is second hand information and proves nothing. I did not attack you. Just look around TOAW forum and anyone can see you bashing Steam at every opportunity. I simply stated that fact. Exactly how is that an attack?

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 6:52 am**

I simply stated the facts, and you are still attacking me.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 7:32 am**

Steam development paid for itself with the additional customers it attracted.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 8:06 am**

So back to my dumb questions, I have noticed that some scenarios (I think mainly the ones I downloaded) show a complexity of 0:0 and units 0:0. What’s that all about?

The others scenarios show actual values that seem to make sense.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 9:29 am**

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay
Steam development paid for itself with the additional customers it attracted.

That is the developers answer that I said we would receive. It is expected and not a problem. But it doesn't pay me anything, I don't get back the limited development time that has been lost, time that should be spent on the game(s). This is a public/user issue, not a developer issue. I've never said anything negative about the developers, I've only been negative about people using steam, because it hurts the rest of us.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 11:02 am**

My point was simple. Don't depend on the opinions of someone else. They may have an agenda. They may not like how something functions. They may have just had a bad day. If you really want to know if you will like something you don't have to pay for just try it and see. If you don't like it then delete it. The key for TOAW is free, won't cost you a thing. Steam is free, won't cost you a thing. It's entirely up to an individual. No one is the same. That would be boring.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 1:34 pm**

ORIGINAL: Zovs

So back to my dumb questions, I have noticed that some scenarios (I think mainly the ones I downloaded) show a complexity of 0:0 and units 0:0. What’s that all about?

The others scenarios show actual values that seem to make sense.

The scenario must be saved under the latest update version to have the values.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 1:38 pm**

Thanks Bob.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 1:58 pm**

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay
Steam development paid for itself with the additional customers it attracted.
That is the developers answer that I said we would receive. It is expected and not a problem. But it doesn't pay me anything, I don't get back the limited development time that has been lost, time that should be spent on the game(s). This is a public/user issue, not a developer issue. I've never said anything negative about the developers, I've only been negative about people using steam, because it hurts the rest of us.

Everybody benefits from more customers: It keeps Ralph working on a project that he might otherwise abandon. Whatever your wishlist contains, more customers makes those wishes more likely to appear one day.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 4:02 pm**

Well good, it looks like that discussion ran its' course. So let's recap - the poster asked for info on steam, and I responded that it takes the developers time and performs updates that anybody should be able do for themselves. Then we had a staunch supporter confirm that there is actually nothing to steam that he couldn't do himself if he wanted to. Then we had a developer confirm that development time is spent on making steam versions of their games [and I'll add that this is not a one-and-done process, it is perpetual in varying degrees].

I have no agenda, I am simply providing people with the information and facts that were a result of my investigation back when I knew nothing about steam. If I saw it as a positive development I would have no reason not to say so. Skype, for example, is a great program and I highly recommend it to everyone as it can be used for many things beneficial to all of us.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 4:56 pm**

Thanks for all the info on Steam. I have made my decision to not install it.

So back to my dumb questions:

C:\Matrix Games\The Operational Art of War IV\Graphics Override

Is full of files, but I read through a bunch of threads and the info says to move all those files to here:

C:\Users\dlazo\Documents\My Games\The Operational Art of War IV\Graphics Override

So that is what I did, is that correct?

So what is this folder for:

C:\Users\dlazo\Documents\My Games\The Operational Art of War IV\Scenarios\Custom Graphics

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 6:22 pm**

ORIGINAL: Zovs

So what is this folder for:

C:\Users\dlazo\Documents\My Games\The Operational Art of War IV\Scenarios\Custom Graphics

It contains all the scenarios that use custom graphics.

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 6:54 pm**

ORIGINAL: Zovs

Thanks for all the info on Steam. I have made my decision to not install it.

So back to my dumb questions:

C:\Matrix Games\The Operational Art of War IV\Graphics Override

Is full of files, but I read through a bunch of threads and the info says to move all those files to here:

C:\Users\dlazo\Documents\My Games\The Operational Art of War IV\Graphics Override

So that is what I did, is that correct?

So what is this folder for:

C:\Users\dlazo\Documents\My Games\The Operational Art of War IV\Scenarios\Custom Graphics

Hmm...no problem with that on Steam. [:D]

Posted: **Sat Apr 13, 2019 11:10 pm**

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

ORIGINAL: Zovs

So what is this folder for:

C:\Users\dlazo\Documents\My Games\The Operational Art of War IV\Scenarios\Custom Graphics

It contains all the scenarios that use custom graphics.

So here is how it looks on my system, the one is empty but I placed per the scenario setup instructions the folders like so:

Weird or normal?

Posted: **Sun Apr 14, 2019 7:04 am**

Don - Did you just buy the game? What version do you have ?

Posted: **Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:39 am**

Yes just a couple of days ago. .20 was the initial install version and then I downloaded the .21 patch and applied that.

Posted: **Sun Apr 14, 2019 9:36 am**

In this thread concerning the 4.1.0.20 install: What has happened is that we have moved all default scenarios and their files from the folders under Documents/My Games to the ones under the main game folders within C:\Program Files.

The Documents/My Games folders will still be present, and they should be used for all downloaded custom scenarios - so all instructions on how to download and install those remain the same.

Not sure if things are working as Matrix planned. People playing FitE2 who have posted AARs have screen shots where the modified terrain is not used. This is good evidence that the game is not looking in the proper directories for the scenario's modified files. When I patched TOAW it did indeed remove everything from the Documents folder so if the game is still looking there for modified files nothing will be found and the game will use the default graphics.

Since any modified equipment and counter files are part of the scenario this is not as bad as it would have been in the past. But still, to be sure all modified graphics are being used I put all of the scenarios, even the default ones, in the Documents/.../Graphic Override and the Documents/.../Scenarios folders. Now, no matter where the game is looking for files, they should be found. It's only a minor inconvenience and shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

BTW, the person who archived all of those scenarios from The Strategist (Rugged Defense) did us all a huge favor. Hundreds of scenarios would have been lost without his foresight and hard work.

Posted: **Sun Apr 14, 2019 10:35 am**

ORIGINAL: Lobster

In this thread concerning the 4.1.0.20 install: What has happened is that we have moved all default scenarios and their files from the folders under Documents/My Games to the ones under the main game folders within C:\Program Files.

The Documents/My Games folders will still be present, and they should be used for all downloaded custom scenarios - so all instructions on how to download and install those remain the same.

This seems to counter what the install instructions say. Everything new/downloaded MUST be placed in the My Documents folder and to move even the custom graphics file from the Program directory as well (there is files in their but they don't show up until after you move them). After I did that I got a new Custom folder in the game to select more scenarios that were previously not present. It does make one wonder if or what is it being read in the Program directory.

At some points this makes it somewhat confusing, and us older gamers have a knack at hacking games to make them work when they don’t as intended, which seems to be kinda the case here. So I think I got it sussed out now with a little reading and a lot of doing.

It’s like a better game of COW/TOAW III thus far, just have to fiddle at first with the custom scenarios to show up and the downloaded ones as well.

Yes to the dude that saved all the Rugged Defense scenarios. I have already converted all the McBride scenarios over to IV.

Posted: **Sun Apr 14, 2019 3:18 pm**

ORIGINAL: Zovs
Yes just a couple of days ago. .20 was the initial install version and then I downloaded the .21 patch and applied that.

Thanks for the intel Don, and thanks for reporting this.

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