IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

World in Flames is the computer version of Australian Design Group classic board game. World In Flames is a highly detailed game covering the both Europe and Pacific Theaters of Operations during World War II. If you want grand strategy this game is for you.

Moderator: Shannon V. OKeets

User avatar
Erik Rutins
Posts: 39650
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2000 4:00 pm
Location: Vermont, USA
Contact:

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by Erik Rutins »

Just a bit of additional news. We are making good progress on the supply issues. I'd expect a new public beta for testing supply fixes by the end of next week given the current pace.
Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC


Image

For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.
joshuamnave
Posts: 967
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:51 am
Contact:

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by joshuamnave »

I guess when half the people still playing this game are beta testers anyway, there's no real rush in pushing out fixes to the paying customers. The only thing that has changed since you first made this post is that the pace of fixes has gone from just under one per week to just under one per month.

When do you plan to recruit another Delphi coder to help Steve out?
Head Geek in Charge at politigeek.net - the intersection of politics and all things geeky
User avatar
tacfire
Posts: 138
Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:38 am

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by tacfire »

The next supply patch sounds like it will be an important one.
I am looking forward to it.
User avatar
AxelNL
Posts: 2389
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 12:43 pm
Location: The Netherlands

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by AxelNL »

ORIGINAL: tacfire

The next supply patch sounds like it will be an important one.
I am looking forward to it.

To set the right expectations (and hopefully Matrix/Steve does not mind):

It looks like we cleared all known/registered supply bugs reported by the beta team and in the tech forum. We had a couple of regression issues which we cleared again, and laid bare a very nasty memory-eating and well-hidden bug in the Conquest phase code (which could crash the game in a random place) - which took a major chunk of Steve's time. It took us from release 1.1.7.2 to the current 1.1.7.9 - and Steve is wrapping up the last things on his to-do list before posting a public beta.

Hopefully the supply bugs which were not known/registered or which have been hiding behind others are not present that much when this is released. It is alas timewise not possible to replay a complete Global War scenario between every sub-release. We tested on regression based on savegames where bugs were present, and ran through our own games scouting for appearances of supply bugs or regression of those. It looks like we missed a regression in TRS loading 2 divs from a sea area in 1.1.7.2 already (see tech forum).

Summary: yes this is an important release - and it fixes all Bermuda Triangle appearances I know. But you might still find one or two which we all (beta and tech forum participants) missed.

Best regards,

PS: It is a pity Dabrion never sent me "his" supply bugs - or I could have checked those as well.


User avatar
von altair
Posts: 316
Joined: Tue Apr 27, 2004 3:22 pm

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by von altair »

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Steve has our confidence and is capable of fixing the reported issues with WIF. I'll repeat again that while we appreciate greatly the patience shown by the community to date, we need to ask for a bit more to put this new plan into effect and hopefully the results will speak for themselves.

Regards,

- Erik

I have watched this forum for a long time. I am intrested about the game. However current state is not promising at all. The game is in beta phase. Usually companies offer free betaplay for customers to test the game. Matrixgames on the other hand sells this betagame with a premium price. Explaining that the price comes out from superior manuals (alas, even digital betagame costs the same). They are good, yes, but still the game is in beta. What do you do with pretty manuals without a working game?

- No AI
- No working netplay
- The game is full of bugs. Even pure solitaire game is not possible without constant load/save.

After more than 5 months of release, situation is this and the game price EUR 76.99+tax. Matrixgames is asking patience from
customers... Someone could call all this as scamming.

I would like to buy the game, but even with a good will I can't do that and can't even prefer this title to my friends.

"An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?"

"Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?"

-Axel Oxenstierna
User avatar
AxelNL
Posts: 2389
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 12:43 pm
Location: The Netherlands

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by AxelNL »

on the positive side you might want to check this thread:
tm.asp?m=3591405
User avatar
Centuur
Posts: 9065
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:03 pm
Location: Hoorn (NED).

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by Centuur »

ORIGINAL: von altair
ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Steve has our confidence and is capable of fixing the reported issues with WIF. I'll repeat again that while we appreciate greatly the patience shown by the community to date, we need to ask for a bit more to put this new plan into effect and hopefully the results will speak for themselves.

Regards,

- Erik

I have watched this forum for a long time. I am intrested about the game. However current state is not promising at all. The game is in beta phase. Usually companies offer free betaplay for customers to test the game. Matrixgames on the other hand sells this betagame with a premium price. Explaining that the price comes out from superior manuals (alas, even digital betagame costs the same). They are good, yes, but still the game is in beta. What do you do with pretty manuals without a working game?

- No AI
- No working netplay
- The game is full of bugs. Even pure solitaire game is not possible without constant load/save.

After more than 5 months of release, situation is this and the game price EUR 76.99+tax. Matrixgames is asking patience from
customers... Someone could call all this as scamming.

I would like to buy the game, but even with a good will I can't do that and can't even prefer this title to my friends.


You are entitled to have this opinion. So I suggest to wait for another year and than see how things are at that point...
Peter
User avatar
Kitakami
Posts: 1316
Joined: Thu May 02, 2002 11:08 pm
Location: The bridge of the DNTK Kitakami

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by Kitakami »

I have found Matrix Game the best in post-sale customer support, which includes constant updates and tweaks. I own a number of their titles, and it is a constant through ALL of them. Yes, WiF has issues, but I will patiently wait until the most important ones are solved. As I see it, it is definitely worth the wait!
Tenno Heika Banzai!
Numdydar
Posts: 3281
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 9:56 pm

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by Numdydar »

+1 to this

If you have any doubts head over to the War in the Pacific AE forums and Matrix is still allowing code changes to that game after being out over 5 years in the form of betas.
majordefeat
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:21 pm

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by majordefeat »

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

- If a game crash occurs, the other player should be notified. Needing to rely on phone text messages, e-mail and actual phone calls should not be necessary, as it is now. No fun having to re-do a move because your oppenents game crashed.
Not possible. Sadly the crash causes communications to be lost so sending the other player a message post-crash is not possible.


An analogy might be the IRC system. A command similar to ping to manually test whether a packet sent via the server to the player is deliverable would help. Also, if your own client has lost connection to the server, it would be a case of automated ping response, ping response, ping no response messages that would allow a message to be given to you that you have lost connection. The server would know you have dropped off by similar ping response ping response ping no response messages, and it could tell your opponent. It seemed strange to have to phone a friend when playing via Netplay to ask whether they were still online.
User avatar
delatbabel
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 1:37 am
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by delatbabel »

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
To respond to the points above - to our knowledge no such other programmer exists...

I have extensive experience in programming in Delphi as well as its prior incarnations (Kylix, Borland Pascal, and all the way back to Turbo Pascal for DOS). I consider myself an expert level software engineer and software architect. I am not familiar with the code base for WiF, not having seen it, but I doubt it would take me anything like 12 months to get completely familiar with it.

I am a reasonably competent WiF player, having played a number of games to conclusion, socially, at WiFCons and online via Vassal.

However it's my understanding, having read back through some of his blog entries, that Steve essentially works for free on this project. I can't afford to do that.

In November I will be moving to Vietnam. It's a country which has a huge base of programmers of every level of capability that can be hired extremely cheaply. This is due to the Vietnam government making a commitment to teaching computer science at all levels of school -- read some of Neil Fraser's blogs for more entertaining detail. It wouldn't be difficult for me to obtain and manage a team of reasonably cheap Delphi programmers to fix the bugs and add the remaining features to WiF, provide domain knowledge as well as Delphi knowledge, liaise with Steve and the rest of the team that manages testers, etc, all pretty much in my spare time. Again, this could not be done for free, I'm a software engineer not a charity, but it could be done.

This is primarily in the aim of making WiF a playable game for me -- living where I do now and then in Vietnam from November it will become pretty much impossible for me to find nearby tabletop WiF players, so if I'm going to use the Matrix Games WiF (as opposed to, say, Vassal), then I need to have the bugs fixed, and I need netplay to be working. Sorry to be selfish about that, sue me. :)
--
Del
Numdydar
Posts: 3281
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 9:56 pm

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by Numdydar »

So you have removed yourself from being available since you are unable to work for free. So Eric is still correct in that no one with Steve's experience that will work solely on commission (i.e. not get paid except through sales) is available.

Yes with money to pay people WiF would be in much better shape. But since no one is will or able to spend any, even cheap labor is too costly. Now if someone came along with a wad of cash and said 'Here is some money, please fix WiF ASAP.' then your offer would be very doable. But until that occurs, saying you have all this experience but can't help because you need to get paid (very understandable btw) do not help the situation much. However, it does reaffirm Eric's point that pretty much Steve is it. At least until you can work for free too [:)]
tom730_slith
Posts: 169
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 1:43 am

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by tom730_slith »

I'm amazed (and pleased) that the game has made it to market! This genre isn't like console game "shoot 'em ups" that can expect tens of thousands of units sold. We "serious" war gamers are a relatively small "niche" market that won't produce the kind of sales numbers that justify large up-front development costs. Given that, when I first heard this was in development (several years ago) I was excited. It was a long wait and I'm pleased to have it, pleased to be able to play it whenever I want, and honestly THRILLED that the folks that got this up and running are still working to improve it.
I guess it's understandable to have high expectations, but I honestly feel some have expressed unreasonable expectations given the financial realities.
Just my 2 cents.[:)]
ORIGINAL: Numdydar

So you have removed yourself from being available since you are unable to work for free. So Eric is still correct in that no one with Steve's experience that will work solely on commission (i.e. not get paid except through sales) is available.

Yes with money to pay people WiF would be in much better shape. But since no one is will or able to spend any, even cheap labor is too costly. Now if someone came along with a wad of cash and said 'Here is some money, please fix WiF ASAP.' then your offer would be very doable. But until that occurs, saying you have all this experience but can't help because you need to get paid (very understandable btw) do not help the situation much. However, it does reaffirm Eric's point that pretty much Steve is it. At least until you can work for free too [:)]
User avatar
AxelNL
Posts: 2389
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 12:43 pm
Location: The Netherlands

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by AxelNL »

+1
User avatar
waltero
Posts: 202
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:02 pm
Location: Alaska

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by waltero »

What's the word, are we still waiting for the game to play properly?
Can't see paying full price for a game that doesn't function properly.

This is the first time I heard of WiF, I will wait...check back in a couple years.
"WELL ~ Mrs. LIncoln,
other than that, How was the play?
User avatar
warspite1
Posts: 42123
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:06 pm
Location: England

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: waltero

What's the word, are we still waiting for the game to play properly?
Can't see paying full price for a game that doesn't function properly.

This is the first time I heard of WiF, I will wait...check back in a couple years.
warspite1

1. Depends on what you mean by function properly. If you mean have an AI, be able to play using Netplay and be bug free then yes, we are still waiting for the game to function properly.
2. Fair enough.
3. Very sensible idea
Now Maitland, now's your time!

Duke of Wellington to 1st Guards Brigade - Waterloo 18 June 1815
User avatar
waltero
Posts: 202
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:02 pm
Location: Alaska

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by waltero »

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: waltero

What's the word, are we still waiting for the game to play properly?
Can't see paying full price for a game that doesn't function properly.

This is the first time I heard of WiF, I will wait...check back in a couple years.
warspite1

1. Depends on what you mean by function properly. If you mean have an AI, be able to play using Netplay and be bug free then yes, we are still waiting for the game to function properly.
2. Fair enough.
3. Very sensible idea

I hate playing the AI. Is it a functional multiplayer game as of yet?
"WELL ~ Mrs. LIncoln,
other than that, How was the play?
User avatar
warspite1
Posts: 42123
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:06 pm
Location: England

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: waltero

ORIGINAL: warspite1
ORIGINAL: waltero

What's the word, are we still waiting for the game to play properly?
Can't see paying full price for a game that doesn't function properly.

This is the first time I heard of WiF, I will wait...check back in a couple years.
warspite1

1. Depends on what you mean by function properly. If you mean have an AI, be able to play using Netplay and be bug free then yes, we are still waiting for the game to function properly.
2. Fair enough.
3. Very sensible idea

I hate playing the AI. Is it a functional multiplayer game as of yet?
Warspite1

And I'm not psychic. No there is no functional multiplayer at present.
Now Maitland, now's your time!

Duke of Wellington to 1st Guards Brigade - Waterloo 18 June 1815
User avatar
76mm
Posts: 4766
Joined: Sun May 02, 2004 4:26 am
Location: Washington, DC

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by 76mm »

ORIGINAL: waltero
What's the word, are we still waiting for the game to play properly?
Can't see paying full price for a game that doesn't function properly.

While the game seems to more or less work for some players for solitaire play, it does not work well for others, such as myself. See this thread:
Frustrations
bo
Posts: 4175
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:52 pm

RE: IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of March, 2014

Post by bo »

ORIGINAL: 76mm
ORIGINAL: waltero
What's the word, are we still waiting for the game to play properly?
Can't see paying full price for a game that doesn't function properly.

While the game seems to more or less work for some players for solitaire play, it does not work well for others, such as myself. See this thread:
Frustrations

I would tell Putin he seems to have an answer for everything.[:D] Come on Tom, I know the beta testers and myself cannot figure what you are complaining about, it just does not happen when we play, there are a few bugs that's for sure but none in the area your talking about, you mentioned windows 7 home and that might be a problem well I have windows 7 home also and have none of these problems.

We are all trying to help you Tom, what version of MWIF are you running?

Bo
Post Reply

Return to “World in Flames”