Matrix Games Forums

Any estimated dates on when PACWAR 2.0 will be released?? Reckon it will possibly be released before the end of September?

Thank you...

Website says FALL 2000. Could be September, October, ect...

Must be some issues that they need to iron out. Looking forward to see the results.

Waiting patiently by my keyboard....

-Jeff

Hello...

Although the final decision is up to David Heath, I would think we should be able to release the PacWar patch by the end of September. Most of the art is finished. We have about another weeks worth of coding. We still have a couple scenarios to update and a couple new ones that are not quite finished.

Thanks...

Michael Wood,
Associate Producer
The Matrix Project
___________________________________________

Originally posted by sulup:
Any estimated dates on when PACWAR 2.0 will be released?? Reckon it will possibly be released before the end of September?
Thank you...

I hate to sound negative, since you guys do great work, but please play the game through before you release it. WiR's entry date problems are very disappointing for an otherwise capable effort.

Great news from Mike Wood!!!!

-off topic-
BTW, Mike, how do you *progress* from a "Matrix New Recruit" to a "Matrix Member"?
-on topic-

Still waiting...

-jeff

Originally posted by Jeff Norton:
Great news from Mike Wood!!!!

-off topic-
BTW, Mike, how do you *progress* from a "Matrix New Recruit" to a "Matrix Member"?
-on topic-


-jeff

Just keep posting . I think at 30 posts you become a "Member" - what a warm fuzzy that is!

------------------
Rick Bancroft
Semper Fi

I'm not sure the delays have been such bad news. I have played so many hours of the original PACWAR over the last few months that my skill has increased dramatically.

------------------
HeadsUp
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

Yes, it would be a good idea to play through the game at least once or twice before release. Although releasing it to the public would be a more efficient way to iron out any bugs since theres gonna be hundreds of players out there banging on the game and wheir bound to come up with situatations that two or three people sitting at Matrix games testing the game would had picked up.

Originally posted by sulup:
Yes, it would be a good idea to play through the game at least once or twice before release. Although releasing it to the public would be a more efficient way to iron out any bugs since theres gonna be hundreds of players out there banging on the game
...

I don't mind the idea of being a guinea pig for Matrix here, and I'm not here to bash Matrix, so no knee jerk reactions please, but the extra ~5000 tanks in the German inventory should have been obvious to anyone familar with the Campaign '41 scenario, who calls up the tank pools list at the beginning of the game. The accelerated dates for arriving forces would become obvious to anyone playing the rest of '41 out in the game.

This actually doesn't bother me, but I do wish that in the future Matrix wouldn't release a new (largely untested) update to a game and simultaneously send their *only* coder for it on a 2 week vacation! Untill the coder gets back WiR isn't worth playing right now.

Originally posted by Ed Cogburn:
I don't mind the idea of being a guinea pig for Matrix here, and I'm not here to bash Matrix, so no knee jerk reactions please, but the extra ~5000 tanks in the German inventory should have been obvious to anyone familar with the Campaign '41 scenario, who calls up the tank pools list at the beginning of the game. The accelerated dates for arriving forces would become obvious to anyone playing the rest of '41 out in the game.

This actually doesn't bother me, but I do wish that in the future Matrix wouldn't release a new (largely untested) update to a game and simultaneously send their *only* coder for it on a 2 week vacation! Untill the coder gets back WiR isn't worth playing right now.

Yes, the programmer ought to hang around until every bug has gone, then send him on vacation - a nice LONG vacation!

Originally posted by sulup:
Yes, the programmer ought to hang around until every bug has gone, then send him on vacation - a nice LONG vacation!

I have a little experience (very little!) trying my hand at coding, you dont seem to understand the virtually "hundreds of thousands" of commands must be organized to make even one scenario/game work OK. If only one guy did this work for WiR, HE DA MAN!
If the group of 4-5 programmers spent months redesigning the code as I believe, GOD BLESS EM ALL! Thier efforts are worthy of your thanks -not your scorn. This is a labor of love for the game (remember you PAID nothing for it!) and they even ASKED us to help them debug the game (as if you read the updated manual!) I deeply appreciate the talents and efforts put forth by these gentlemen and am willing to put my money (or my credit card) where my mouth is. Give em a break and just say thanks for a free game.
Jim M.

So, my question is just what kind of coding is used for the game. Is it a C dirivitive or a Grisby-code?
Inquiring minds would like to know...
-jeff

Gotta be Grigsby- certainly is not C+ (or++)

Originally posted by Jeff Norton:
So, my question is just what kind of coding is used for the game. Is it a C dirivitive or a Grisby-code?
Inquiring minds would like to know...
-jeff

I believe that Borland C was used as the compiler for the program.

Also, 1 person, Arnaud Bouis, is responsible for all of the coding changes and a fair amount of the design changes represented in
Matrix remake of WIR. He, and the playtesters, are all volunteers for the project, rather than Matrix "employees". The major bugs present in the release came from the final changes he made and because all of the testers, like myself, have jobs, we were not able to play the entire campaign before it was released - it would have taken weeks to thoroughly test it. We did find some other last minute bugs that were fixed, along with the bugs we found in the prior 10 versions that were released for testing. Arnaud did a great job, especially considering he was working with someone else's complex code. He worked very hard on this project.

------------------
Rick Bancroft
Semper Fi

"Also, 1 person, Arnaud Bouis, is responsible for all of the coding changes and a fair amount of the design changes represented in
Matrix remake of WIR.
He, and the playtesters, are all volunteers for the project, rather than Matrix "employees". The major bugs present in the release came from the final changes he made and because all of the testers, like myself, have jobs, we were not able to play the entire campaign before it was released - it would have taken weeks to thoroughly test it."

As I posted earlier, Arnaud Bouis... YOU DA MAN!!!!
As for the rest of the VOLUNTEERS who put in time on these games, THANK YOU! You are worthy warriors in the finest tradition...

Did anybody notice the advert above this site? Now it says WitP coming November!!!
Hip,Hip,Hoorah!

Hello...

Yes, Arnaud, Nick Papp and a small band of volunteers did the Wir project. The only code I added to Wir were the opening splash screens, the credits, the secure PBEM button and security code.

I and my small, but dedicated, band are doing PacWar. We are fixing some bugs, adding some minor new features and doing a minor rework on the graphics. If was decided that we would not convert the program to Windows, since we could use that programming time for the new game that Mr. Heath, Mr. Grigsby and I are writing.

I have been proceeding slowly and testing each item, as I coded it. So, hopefully, the first build we send you will be fairly clean.

It is not all that uncommon for the programmer to take time off, after the release. It usually takes a couple weeks to get a good list of bugs together. He can then tackle them.

Thanks and have fun with Wir and PacWar...

Michael Wood,
Lead Programmer
Matrix Games



[This message has been edited by Mike Wood (edited September 08, 2000).]

Quote:

Originally posted by moore4807:
Did anybody notice the advert above this site? Now it says WitP coming November!!!
Hip,Hip,Hoorah!

If you were to check the product screen you would see that WitP is scheduled for Spring 2001.

Originally posted by moore4807:
I have a little experience (very little!) trying my hand at coding, you dont seem to understand the virtually "hundreds of thousands" of commands must be organized to make even one scenario/game work OK. If only one guy did this work for WiR, HE DA MAN!
If the group of 4-5 programmers spent months redesigning the code as I believe, GOD BLESS EM ALL! Thier efforts are worthy of your thanks -not your scorn. This is a labor of love for the game (remember you PAID nothing for it!) and they even ASKED us to help them debug the game (as if you read the updated manual!) I deeply appreciate the talents and efforts put forth by these gentlemen and am willing to put my money (or my credit card) where my mouth is. Give em a break and just say thanks for a free game.
Jim M.

Yes, a FREE game with bugs is a hundred times better than a BOUGHT game with bugs. One man doing the job of three is definately DA MAN!

Perhaps you mistook me for saying the programmer to take a LONG vacation by meaning to fire the guy. What I actually meant was that after he stayed to deal with our list of bugs, he should deserve a much LONGER vacation!

Originally posted by moore4807:
I have a little experience (very little!) trying my hand at coding, you dont seem to understand the virtually "hundreds of thousands" of commands must be organized to make even one scenario/game work OK. If only one guy did this work for WiR, HE DA MAN!

I know something about programming and am well aware of all the "thousands of commands". That still doesn't explain how the coder and his testers missed the extra 6000 tanks the scenario editor was putting in the German tank pools.

If the group of 4-5 programmers spent months redesigning the code as I believe, GOD BLESS EM ALL!

There was only one main coder, and there was no redesign of the code, just patches to fix what needed fixing. The game already uses most or all of the available DOS memory, major redesigns just aren't possible.

rts are worthy of your thanks -not your scorn.

Scorn? Maybe you should go back and read what I said. I was basically joking at Matrix's expense about sending the coder on vacation with two major problems in the released code. Remember what I said about knee-jerk reactions?

This is a labor of love for the game (remember you PAID nothing for it!) and they even ASKED us to help them debug the game

I'm not going to play a flawed game whether I paid for it or not. Matrix wants to do this update right, I know that. You don't see them saying "You didn't pay for it, so play it without any critisism or suggestions, and be happy!", do you? Ask them yourself, they *want* feedback, and that includes critisism and complaints along with the usual "U DA MAN" praise.

(as if you read the updated manual!)

What does the manual have to do with anything I was talking about?

I deeply appreciate the talents and efforts put forth by these gentlemen and am willing to put my money (or my credit card) where my mouth is.

I appreciate their work too, and I've already said elsewhere that I'll buy WitP and WoN as soon as they are released. Again, what's your point?

Give em a break and just say thanks for a free game.

Well, until they fix it, I'm not thanking anybody , and that's not scorn either, just reality. Why play a broken game? Why thank anyone for a broken game? I'll thank them sincerely when they've got everything working right in the game.