Sneak Peeks, Coming Attractions, Works-In-Progress

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: jglazier

Excellent! The new work you guys are putting into the game looks fantastic!

Thank jglazier [:)] All I can say the 2D and 3D guys kept themselves busy, while Berto's been both ironing out persistent bugs and adding new features.

Here's a full screen view of the latest build. Listing some latest changes, the 1.01 change log keeps building up:

[*] Auto Scroll as an option. When ON, map scrolls when mouse moved to or beyond edges (current version), or when OFF horizontal and vertical scroll bars come available. Handy for keeping that Game Manual open in the second monitor, for us double monitor set up owners.
[*] 3D revisions to many nations
[*] 2D revisions to terrain, vegetation, unit sheets and counters.
[*] For resized unit sheets (2D Zoom in is the 100% version), the Normal and Zoom-Out versions should now appear crisper. Some work involved, as different parts of 2D units sheets are resized using different algorithms, but all worth it.



The image is compressed into a jpg, so the screenshot has lost some of the details here.

[berto]

With bugs, often it's a coding flaw, but not always. Sometimes the problem is in the game data.

Fortunately we have some powerful tools -- CSlint and others -- to help us sort through the issues.

From a recent bug report exchange in the Dev Forum:

ORIGINAL: berto

Using some advanced CSlint & Cygwin technique, let's see which helos in the game have their -fire flag set to XIndirectFire:

---

Robert@roberto ~/cslint
$ ./csflgrpt.pl -g me -fire XIndirectFire | egrep --text "P[[:digit:]]{2}6[567][[:digit:]]{2}"
P226520 65536 0 8 4096 262160 Lahatut-500 MD Defender
P226523 65536 0 8 4096 262160 AH-1Q Cobra/TOW
P226524 65536 0 8 4096 262160 AH-1-S2-E Cobra/TOW
P226525 65536 0 8 4096 262160 AH-1-S3-F Cobra/TOW
P226526 65536 0 8 4096 262160 AH-1-S3-F Cobra
P226519 65536 0 24 4096 16 Bell 205 Gunship Rockets
P236510 65536 8 8 4096 262160 Mi-8 Hip Gunship
P236511 65536 8 8 4096 262160 Mi-8 Hip Gunship
P236512 65536 8 8 4096 262160 Mi-8 Hip Gunship
P266511 65536 8 8 4096 24 Mi-8 Hip Escort
P306513 65536 8 8 4096 262160 Mi-24A Hind A Gunship
P306514 65536 8 8 4096 262160 Mi-24A Hind A Gunship
P306515 65536 8 8 4096 262160 Mi-24D Hind D Gunship

---

By means of a different CSlint utility, verifying:

---

Robert@roberto ~/cslint
$ ./csoobrpt.pl -g me -id -fireflags -name | egrep --text "P[[:digit:]]{2}6[567][[:digit:]]{2}" | egrep --text " 8 | 24 "
P226520 8 Lahatut-500 MD Defender
P226523 8 AH-1Q Cobra/TOW
P226524 8 AH-1-S2-E Cobra/TOW
P226525 8 AH-1-S3-F Cobra/TOW
P226526 8 AH-1-S3-F Cobra
P226519 24 Bell 205 Gunship Rockets
P236510 8 Mi-8 Hip Gunship
P236511 8 Mi-8 Hip Gunship
P236512 8 Mi-8 Hip Gunship
P266511 8 Mi-8 Hip Escort
P306513 8 Mi-24A Hind A Gunship
P306514 8 Mi-24A Hind A Gunship
P306515 8 Mi-24D Hind D Gunship

Leaving no stone unturned! (Or so we try.)

[budd]

How close are we to getting the AI to use Helos?

[76mm]

This all looks great. Please hurry up already!

[berto]

ORIGINAL: **budd**

How close are we to getting the AI to use Helos?

Not close for ME, not at all for ME 1.01.

The A/I uses helos, sort of. The A/I will move helos around, have them fire, etc. What the A/I currently can't handle is Air Levels, helos moving up or down, taking off, landing, unloading passengers while at ground, etc. So A/I-guided helos will play through the game at the Air Level they initially start at. If they have passengers, too bad, because the A/I will never direct the helos to move to ground to unload them. (Under human player control, helos can do all these things, of course.)

Only 1 in 5 ME scenarios have helos. And in most of those 20% of scenarios, helos are minor sideshows. For now, for the scenarios with significant helo presence, you will just have to solo play the side with the helos. For the scenarios with an insignificant number of helos, your playing one side or the other won't make much of a difference. (Of course, there's always PBEM etc., where the lack of a helo-aware A/I won't matter.)

VN will be a different story. You can be sure we will have a fully developed helo-aware A/I ready for the Vietnam game. When we do, we will certainly back port it to ME also.

[Crossroads]

Time to replace the sniper's rifle sight graphic with something like this, for a new Artillery / Air Strike targeting marker?

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: Crossroads

Time to replace the sniper's rifle sight graphic with something like this, for a new Artillery / Air Strike targeting marker?

With Alt Counters:

[berto]

I much prefer that. The old-style crosshairs were quite unsightly.

[76mm]

I like them too, but could they be another color? Black is too hard to see.

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: 76mm

I like them too, but could they be another color? Black is too hard to see.

Well that's the thing, I put in the white effect for this very reason. I tried red and yellow markers, but they looked gawd awful imho:





Early gray version, without the "frosting":



And again, for comparison:



Here's the icons files: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/827 ... 20Gray.zip

Packaged as a JSGME mod, drop to the /Mods folder, then activate using JSGME. Included in the Zip:

[*] icons7d.bmp (2D Zoom-In View Markers and NATO Symbols)
[*] icons6d.bmp (2D Normal View Markers and NATO Symbols)
[*] icons2d.bmp (2D Zoom-Out View Markers and NATO Symbols)


Have a look, let me know if any of you guys come with a better alternative!

[76mm]

hmmm, I see what you mean. I will try to take a look.

[Crossroads]

Good luck! [:)]

[Crossroads]

I guess one option would be to have frosting to surround all edges of the marker, not just as a bottom-right shadowing like I did.

[berto]

Frosting all around -- only if really needed.

Dark gray, no color -- for sure, please.

But much better than the old, too bold, unsightly crosshair markers. So bold as to draw the eye more to them than any other map feature. Even if a bit harder to see, I prefer the new-fangled, more muted target markers.

[berto]

A new menu choice: Options > Details > Persistent:



Before, the Damage Report dialog would show, then remain until you clicked it, else would vanish automatically, depending on the Options > Details setting, whether or not FOW is active, etc.

With Options > Details > Persistent, you will control the Damage Report keep-alive directly. With the Persistent choice toggled ON, the Damage Report remains until you click the x control in the upper right corder, else you hit the Esc key. With the Persistent choice toggled OFF, the Damage Report will display for a time (varies by how much detail is shown), then vanish automatically, without your having to do anything.

Before, Damage Report persistence was a bit of a mystery, and not quite handled satisfactorily. In future, you will specify its behavior straightforwardly.

Note the new Damage Report look, which uses the Campaign Series: Middle East box art. Other dialogs and controls, too, have been given the Box Art treatment. Here is the new Command Report:



Available in all future patches and updates.

[76mm]

OK, I modded one of the Icon files (Icon7d) from the zip file, but I don't see any changes in the game, and see an awful lot of Icon files. What should I be changing?

[Crossroads]

ORIGINAL: 76mm

OK, I modded one of the Icon files (Icon7d) from the zip file, but I don't see any changes in the game, and see an awful lot of Icon files. What should I be changing?

icon7d.bmp is the one you should see in your 2D Zoom-In View. If you put it in as a mod, did you have the proper folder structure? Or, do you happen to have the Unit Viewer open while activating the mod with JSGME (as it locks the original file and prevents JSGME from changing it)? Those would be the Top 2 reasons why a mod would not seem to make a change.

[76mm]

doh, I was using a png file rather than a bmp...

I took your version and made it easier to see; personally I like it better:


I've only done the 2d zoom-in so far, if others like it I can finish the others zoom levels and post it somewhere.

[76mm]

OK, despite the overwhelming lack of demand, I went ahead and did the other levels as well with the pinkish hue. Here it is if anyone wants it:
Pink Frosted Arty Crosshairs

[Crossroads]

Thanks! I will include a pointer to these in my Mods ToC post [:)]