anybody in here???

[Obsolete]

They didn't have RTS 20 years ago...

I grew up when 110 Baud was the norm.  If you can remember the days of "Hit Escape Twice to Continue!!" then you will also remember that we did have e-mail and usenet groups longgggg before the 90's when houses first began starting to incorportate this band new thing called the internet, and BBSes only dropped out just before the new millenia.  That's right, we had e-mail, and online chatrooms before the internet.

Beleive me, as far as RTS goes, it's not a new thing, we had them too.  I noticed people are STILL thinking that Morpogs (sp?) are a whole brand new thing.  They are only re-discovering what's already been done a generation ago (or more). 

The problem with discussions like this, is current day DOOM fans have no understanding the meaning of 'Spear of Destiny'. 

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: ralphtrick

I'm being paid a percentage of the sales, but I'd be a lot richer with a second job.

I thought it might be illuminating to post that the current 3.4 rev is 3.4.0.83. That's 84 revs made so far under 3.4, and there had been 7 under 3.3, too, for a total of 91 to this point. Ralph has really been contributing, even if you can't see it yet.

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: macgregor

The pbem experience, while it opens the possibility of many more opponents, is extremely cutthroat as these people are faceless entities(not the fault of Matrix). Any game that wants to exploit pbem play is going to have to be extremely cheat/loophole-proof. Because even if most people haven't discovered gamey advantages. The sheer knowledge that such game tricks are out there can dissuade me from playing. Computer games rely on code as opposed to rules to enforce civil gameplay, which makes game design that much more difficult for the programer.

If cheating is your big issue, then TOAW III has to be much better than ACOW. Several huge cheat paths were closed in TOAW III. Admittedly, there remains the ability to cheat by reloading. The effort to at least hinder that cheat seems to have been a bust. Ralph has addressed it a bit in 3.4 by storing the random seed in the PBEM file - so reloads will generate the same random numbers. But there will still be ways around that if the cheater is really determined.

Ultimately, the only fix for the reload cheat would be to exchange PBEM files for each combat phase instead of each player turn. That could require up to 9 times as many PBEM file exchanges, of course. As I've posted elsewhere, players could employ that scheme now, via the use of a referee: Once you get all your attacks set up, the turn must be sent to the referee, who then pushes the execute button - then sends the turn on to whoever retains control.

Of course, the 500lb gorilla which I haven't acknowledged is that these scenarios i mentioned really rely on a realistic naval model. This is still considered the big 'niche' interest. People like me should probably refrain from haunting the matrix website. Perhaps there could be a 'we'll call you if something you're interested in develops' list, thus allowing us to forget about the game completely until then.

We'll get there eventually, I think. But, if you've seen the wishlist, you know that list of wishes is enormous. And each one we try to implement seems to prove to be much more difficult than we ever imagined. Nevertheless, Naval Combat will benefit from one improvement in 3.4: Naval units now bombard even if adjacent. Before, they had assaulted under that condition, with absurd results.

[Silvanski]

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

ORIGINAL: ralphtrick
I'm being paid a percentage of the sales, but I'd be a lot richer with a second job.

I thought it might be illuminating to post that the current 3.4 rev is 3.4.0.83. That's 84 revs made so far under 3.4, and there had been 7 under 3.3, too, for a total of 91 to this point. Ralph has really been contributing, even if you can't see it yet.

Wanna add that there are days when he cranks out 2, or at one time 3 revisions.

I response to some remarks made in this thread...
Yes TOAWIII has its flaws and shortcomings, but guys let's not forget that the original came out in 1998 and that the current build is based on and constrained by the original design. Over the years many bugs have been rectified and radical new stuff like the separate supply calculation will silence a lot of criticism concerning P1/P2 imbalance.

This is done primarily by Ralph -on a part-time basis- and CL, with me checking some odds and ends in regard to the PO and whatever quirk pops up from a casual players point of view

Now I never had ACOW so I can't say much about what the difference is.
In regard to ACOW -and older- scenarios not working well under TOAWIII, checking and clean-up of events is necessary, as well as reconstitution points, but imho should be up to the designers -butmind you, many of them are not in the TOAW-ACOW community anymore.

I've done and will be doing more mods and corrections, pending permission from the designers and time, cuz testing this stuff is a time consuming activity. I even hope to revive some interesting TOAWI scenarios

edit to add: yep the scenery in the movie "Battle Of The Bulge" doesn't look nowhere like the Belgian Ardennes... mountain ranges?[X(] and don't get me started about the tanks being used[:-]

[macgregor]

My question is; Would I have more chance surviving an 88mm round in a Sherman than a 90mm M36 round in an M24?

[Zaratoughda]

If someone wanted to put a cheat proof system together.... they could do it with a server. When the scenario gets loaded the game connects to the server and gets a unique code. Then, when the player saves or is otherwise done with their turn, the game reconnects and gets the game 'released'. If the player reloads out of this system it gets flagged.

Steel Panthers.... winSPww2.... has a system like this (I believe) except it uses registry values. The problem with this.... is a computer astute player could reload the scenario and reset the registry values to what they were and get by this.

Now, you can develop a fairly sophisticated system that does not use a server and is very difficult to crack but.... if you don't use a remote server... something that players cannot hack.... then there is always exposure to cheaters.

Zaratoughda

[sPzAbt653]

and don't get me started about the tanks being used

M-48's with German crosses painted on them, weren't they? Those that produced that film should be ashamed of themselves.

It makes us appreciate films like 'A Bridge Too Far', they even rented the Nijmegan bridge to film on the actual location.

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: Zaratoughda

If someone wanted to put a cheat proof system together.... they could do it with a server. When the scenario gets loaded the game connects to the server and gets a unique code. Then, when the player saves or is otherwise done with their turn, the game reconnects and gets the game 'released'. If the player reloads out of this system it gets flagged.

Steel Panthers.... winSPww2.... has a system like this (I believe) except it uses registry values. The problem with this.... is a computer astute player could reload the scenario and reset the registry values to what they were and get by this.

Now, you can develop a fairly sophisticated system that does not use a server and is very difficult to crack but.... if you don't use a remote server... something that players cannot hack.... then there is always exposure to cheaters.

Zaratoughda

What happens when the server's company goes out of business? (Try to find a "Talonsoft" server these days).

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
It makes us appreciate films like 'A Bridge Too Far', they even rented the Nijmegan bridge to film on the actual location.

I seem to recall seeing a Leopard subbing for a Tiger II even in that one.

[desert]

I grew up when 110 Baud was the norm.  If you can remember the days of "Hit Escape Twice to Continue!!" then you will also remember that we did have e-mail and usenet groups longgggg before the 90's when houses first began starting to incorportate this band new thing called the internet, and BBSes only dropped out just before the new millenia.  That's right, we had e-mail, and online chatrooms before the internet.

Beleive me, as far as RTS goes, it's not a new thing, we had them too.  I noticed people are STILL thinking that Morpogs (sp?) are a whole brand new thing.  They are only re-discovering what's already been done a generation ago (or more). 

The problem with discussions like this, is current day DOOM fans have no understanding the meaning of 'Spear of Destiny'. 

Listen - I know that in the 80s people communicated through bulletin boards and IRC; I also know that "greenhorn" was used instead of "noob", and that there was a game called Zork. However, that is the limit of my knowledge. If they had them in the 80's, though, RTS and "morpogs" (MMORPGs?), then nothing was rediscovered; it's just that I thought they first appeared in the 1990s. I guess I was wrong.

[Zaratoughda]

Simple..... the IP address is configurable so someone else can take over. Worse case, you can run without this most secure configuration.

Zaratoughda