Bug or Feature II

SPWaW is a tactical squad-level World War II game on single platoon or up to an entire battalion through Europe and the Pacific (1939 to 1945).

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ASDN
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Post by ASDN »

Finally, I've played my first game (tutorial).
I found that the sound (music) starts jerking when units moves (AMD K6 333/64MB RAM/AWE64 ISA). Sometimes it occured at the beginning of the move (whan I clicked on new hex) and sometines during move.
Even worse: I figured out that the music start to jerking (during the move) when my units are spotted by enemies. So I knew if I were spotted even if I didn't spot the observer itself (eg. I got PanzerSchreck squad hideout (approximately) before it had shot).
I assume that the procedure for checking if the OpFire should be open is calculating something too long. Maybe put some WinAPI PeekMessage() calls in this procedure ? It should help the Windows breathing. Image

[This message has been edited by ASDN (edited 05-20-2000).]
Dice4Eyes
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Post by Dice4Eyes »

This might be a stupid question/obsarvation, but i'll have to ask. Why all the duplicate sound files.

Exampel 1000.wav = 1022.wav

Mvh Daniel E.

[This message has been edited by Dice4Eyes (edited 05-20-2000).]
Divide et Impera
Daniel E
JimY
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Post by JimY »

Originally posted by JimY:
[Also, while the plane chances of hitting something probably should be increased, as others have pointed out, the fact that the planes do not expend ammo makes up for their inaccuracy.[/B]
After finishing 1st scenario, I found out how to play with ammo limits. This fixed airplane ammo. Planes still recon hidden units.

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Recon_slith
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Post by Recon_slith »

A few minor things-

The British Centurion tank formations are spelled with an A (Centurian). Babylon 5 aliens with funny hairstyles?

Light tractors and such on the info screen are described as "Can SMALL load guns......" not 'Can load small guns......'

The Japanese aircraft in the Corregidor scenario have no bomb ammo at the start.

Should Naval guns be able to fire smoke? I never heard of any smoke rounds being developed for them.



[This message has been edited by Recon (edited 05-21-2000).]
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Bondy
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Post by Bondy »

Dice4Eyes(Mvh Daniel E.) - you wrote:
"Why all the duplicate sound files.
Exampel 1000.wav = 1022.wav"

Michael Wood wrote the answer in another thread - here's what he wrote:
"Some one asked why we have a lot of duplicate sound files in the game. It is because I programmed the game to randomnly choose one of 3 to 6 sounds for each sound effect. This comes to hundreds of sounds.

The sound folk are hard at work, even as we speak, producing new sounds to flesh out all the sound file possibilities. These new sounds will be released, once they have enough of them."

That is great news - that means more sounds in the update and those files will no longer be duplicate sounds - great idea.
Dice4Eyes
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Post by Dice4Eyes »

Originally posted by Bondy:
Dice4Eyes(Mvh Daniel E.) - you wrote:
"Why all the duplicate sound files.
Exampel 1000.wav = 1022.wav"

Michael Wood wrote the answer in another thread - here's what he wrote:
"Some one asked why we have a lot of duplicate sound files in the game. It is because I programmed the game to randomnly choose one of 3 to 6 sounds for each sound effect. This comes to hundreds of sounds.

The sound folk are hard at work, even as we speak, producing new sounds to flesh out all the sound file possibilities. These new sounds will be released, once they have enough of them."

That is great news - that means more sounds in the update and those files will no longer be duplicate sounds - great idea.
Thanks Bondy, so they are just placeholders then until we get more sound files.

The Background music, battle sounds are so great, there so much feling of being in a gigantic battle.

Cool man, more sound man.

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Mvh Daniel E.
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Daniel E
headhunter
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Post by headhunter »

A small sound issue, don't know if it has been mentioned:
The GE M34 MMG uses a single shot rifle sound.
Larry Holt
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Post by Larry Holt »

I find that when I get close to a towed AT gun it fires its gun at me but also rifles too. Now I assume the rifles belong to the crew. It seems that they can't crew the gun and run over to fighting positions to fire their rifles at the same time. I think these should be mutually exclusive.

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Never take counsel of your fears.
Seth
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Post by Seth »

Plus, why in God's name would you get up and blaze away at a T-34 with your trusty popgun? The gun crews do seem to be awfully fearless. In SP1 you could get truly absurd supression on tanks by having your infantry bounce bullets off the sides. Maybe the AI still thinks this is a good idea? I get shot at at fairly long range quite a bit, ith weapons that couldn't hurt me point blank. I have also had AT teams use up all their shots by firing the pistols after the AT rifle ran out.
Desert Fox
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Location: Ohio, that is all I can say.

Post by Desert Fox »

Well, as bad as it might be to have infantry firing rifles at tanks, I think it is even worse that tanks do not fire their machine guns at infantry. They only fire with all their weapons when the target is within 5 or so hexes. While I understand that it is pretty silly to be firing machine guns at longer ranges to kill tanks, I want them to fire every bloody weapon they have at infantry targets, no matter what range they are at. This is something I hate, especially when fighting the Japs. On the plus side, it saves ammo so that there is plenty to explode for when the enemy infantry gets close enough to assault the tank.
Larry Holt
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Post by Larry Holt »

Originally posted by Desert Fox:
Well, as bad as it might be to have infantry firing rifles at tanks, I think it is even worse that tanks do not fire their machine guns at infantry. They only fire with all their weapons when the target is within 5 or so hexes. [snip]
On a similar note, I can NOT get tanks to just fire their MG at close infantry (2 hexes). While I can select my target and use the "C" key to select a MG weapon, it does not fire. Nothing happens. I am forced to waste HE rounds to shoot up infantry when I'd like to save them for longer range engagements.

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An old soldier but not yet a faded one.
Never take counsel of your fears.
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Paul Vebber
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Post by Paul Vebber »

There seems to be a bug in the "select weapon" routine. TUrn the main gun off from teh unit status screen (selct unit,and right click, or hit the space bar. CLick on the weapon name on the list and it will turn red, it will cease to function.

Tanks only fire their MGs at infantry that are close by if the pass an experience check. I the tank is buttoned there is a significant penalty. You can get around that by turning the main gun off.

Lots of these little inconsistencies are unfortunately the price you sometimes pay when you do "surgery" on extant code that someone else created...every change seems to creat to bugs, so it becomes like fighting the Hydra :-)

Dice4Eyes
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Post by Dice4Eyes »


A minor bug, sometime instead of shell holes in a clear hex i get a destroyed building graphic. Creates the feeling that this isn't war but a lowbudget hollywood set. I'm just waiting for the director to scream cut. Looks real funny. Image

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Mvh Daniel E.
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Daniel E
Charles22
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Post by Charles22 »

May the power of the mg's be with you. I have the solution. I used to think that firing the main gun, and then hitting 'f' afterwards would keep the mg firing. Not so. If the hex into which you're firing, has multiple units, this may be where the only place where you'll experience problems, though as I'll explain even that has it's benefits.

Let's apporach this from it's most difficult. Assuming the hex consists of one infantry AT, one tank, and on AT gun. Did you realize that units are 'stacked'? In other words, when you see three numerical units (identified with a number hovering over them), that they're stacked from top to bottom? Selecting the AT gun is as simple as patiently moving the cursor so as to see data on a different unit. Do you realize that if you take your cursor over the bottom of the pile, that you can hit LMB and it will fire on that unit? Needless to say, the more units the more difficult to target a specific one, but none to worry, because we're talking mg's here, right? From my experience in this game, it almost seems as though the unit, non-targeted, gets more damage. I have a lot of experience getting around the mg's refusing to fire unless the main gun fires. Simple solution: toggle the main gun off, and move the cursor over the unit and hit LMB. It works every time. It's not unusual, especially if I forget an ammo truck as I did last battle, to have quite a score of tanks with main guns disabled because they are dealing with nothing but infantry at the time. I suppose to really be safe, one could toggle the main gun back on before ending the turn.
Desert Fox
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Post by Desert Fox »

Yeah Charles, I have done that many times just to get my mgs some use, but the problem is that only the first mg fires, not all of them. When I am targeting a soft target at range, I want all my mgs blazing, even if it is a low hit probability. It at least adds suppression if it doesn't give more kills. But, if Paul says its not likely to be fixed, then its just something to live with I guess.
Charles22
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Post by Charles22 »

Desert Fox: The latter guns only fire after an experience roll passes, from what I remember, furthermore, the BMG will only automatically fire upon the distance involving two or less hexes. I suppose, you could say the less experienced crews don't have the confidence to both fire the guns and concentrate on hitting with the main gun, and once they're within easy range to hit even mice, then they're wild and free.
Dave R
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Post by Dave R »

Originally posted by Larry Holt:
On a similar note, I can NOT get tanks to just fire their MG at close infantry (2 hexes). While I can select my target and use the "C" key to select a MG weapon, it does not fire. Nothing happens. I am forced to waste HE rounds to shoot up infantry when I'd like to save them for longer range engagements.

This is a hang over from the original SP3 engine. It seems that if a tanks main gun can't fire for what ever reason, to fire at infantry, you have to target them first before it will fire it's secondary weapons at them

In times of war we see the worst that man has to offer. But we also see the best that man has to offer.
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Alby
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Post by Alby »

I've been having a lot of problems with the sound. It's like the soundtrack gets 'stuck' in a spot - I get lots of reverb and silly noises. It seems to happen almost all the time with artillery if I have fast-art off. Also whenever there is a lot of stuff going on - fire and return fire, etc. It will also freeze the screen while it's trying to sort the sound out - makes the movements all jerky. Basically, I just can't use the sound.

above Posted by winston smith..

I found the wav sound for the artillery(299) and it was very long, so i shortened it, that seemed to help quite a bit....
Alby



[This message has been edited by Alby (edited 05-22-2000).]

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Alby
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Post by Alby »

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Paul Vebber:
There seems to be a bug in the "select weapon" routine. TUrn the main gun off from teh unit status screen (selct unit,and right click, or hit the space bar. CLick on the weapon name on the list and it will turn red, it will cease to function.

The same happens when you try to "select weapon" for infrantry as well, try to fire a pzfaust or bazooka only and nothing fires except the enemy tank at you..heheh


Dave R
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Post by Dave R »

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Seth:
Plus, why in God's name would you get up and blaze away at a T-34 with your trusty popgun?

Yohhh! If it's good enough for Tom Hanks in Saving Pvt Ryan it's good enough for me, and he was using a Colt .45 against a Tiger!(grins)
In times of war we see the worst that man has to offer. But we also see the best that man has to offer.
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