Matrix Games Forums

Thank you all for the very useful posts to the Support area.

I wanted to write to give you a sense of the "big picture" of the issues that have been reported and of our progress toward the next update.

Presently there are 39 items on my to-do list derived from the forum and from our own testing, things I've jotted down since the game's release. 19 of these are marked as "fixed" or "fixed?" (which means may be fixed but need to be tested). Of the remaining 20, 6 are improvements to the existing interface rather than issues that need to be resolved.

Looking over the remainder of the items on the list, I am planning to give first priority to those items that most affect game play (the undestroyable gunboats are at the top of this list) and that are reported by the most people, then work toward those items that have less of an affect on game play and that are reported by fewer people.

Thank you again for the reports and for the other help you've all given us.

Thanks Eric for showing an interest in the game and the people who play it. 
 
To re-cap I have just a few main play issues;
1) The A.I.'s ability to withdraw or not enter battle if it's will is too low compared to the defender.
2) The message prompt box which should appear when pressing retreat or quick battle in tactical battle mode. This sometimes appears under the game interface and although it can be clicked on by minimizing the battle screen that sometimes seems to cause further problems.
3) Calvary in line that lose sufficient numbers.  The icon becomes invisible on the battlefield unless you put them into column.
 
Cheers. 

Eric,

I very sincerely thank you for all the support you continue to provide, and the frankness and honesty you display when dealing with your communities.

You make first-class games, and are a first-class human being!


Thank you!!

[&o]

I second that [&o]

Eric, can we see your to-do list? That could help both you and us

OK, here is The List. 

FOF To Do List
--------------
1) AI attacker in HW sometimes stalls and does nothing.  Detect this and either tell

AI to retreat.

2) FIX1.2.2: Copy generals' special abilities to other scenarios from main.

3) Is it First Sgt. or Sgt. level that has no bonuses or penalties for the AI? 

Manual says First Sgt., but game seems to show this for just Sgt.

4) FIX1.2.3: No cities in low animation mode?

5) FIX1.2.2: Siege related CTD.

6) FIX1.2.2: Freezing interface.

7) FIXED: V1.2.4: "Very stronger"

8) Show governor loyalty on city screen, other info?

9) FIX1.2.2: Backspace key changes AI moves?  (As US human)

10) "" in guns.txt file read. (Code to remove seems to be there already. ???)

11) Add "always instant combat" preference

12) Add mousewheel/arrow support for Overview scrolling.

13) CHANGE V1.2.4: Add disease variables to AcwConstants file.

14) Change Overview map to show brigades, garrisons, raiders, et al.

15) FIX V1.2.4: Nefas submarine on land?

16) Prefer to retreat to home provinces w/o enemies

17) TCPIP: Client sb getting popup boxes?

18) ? Make repair fort orders persistent.

19) FIXED: V1.2.4: US nefas buy blockade runners

20)  FIXED: V1.2.4: Battle VP's nefas going -6 to +6?
20a)  Report on changes of VP's from battles; perhaps remember names of last 3

battles that changed VP's.

21) Governor thanks all for doing something. (Which categories??)

22) FIXED: V1.2.4: Strength lost during battle in unit history report reported

incorrectly. (Prebattle strength was not initialized for reinforcements.)

23) FIXED?: V1.2.4: Getting two versions of legendary units.

24) FIXED: V1.2.4: 6pdr no icon in quick combat?  Others?  Do systematic test of

artillery gfx. (Graphics files were not named properly.)

25) Update tooltip for medical attrib mention disease prevention (if room).

26) FIXED?: V1.2.4: Should always be able to build camps regardless of city support

level.

27) FIXED: V1.2.4: Using the "attack" option on a city doesn't seem to work.

28) Gunboats not being captured/destroyed when enemy loses battle in province (? All

cases.)  Are gunboats incorrectly blocking the capture of a province?

29) Can't read credits some machines. (Font used by .swf file seems not to be a

standard windows font.)

30) Reinforcements for hexwar: some not arriving (maybe assoc w/ corps/div bonus or

else telegraph or sim.)  Reported as arriving but seeming not to, perhaps 2nd

reinf/turn from bonus.

31) Report info lost when game is saved during detailed battle.

32) ? Implement undo key on advisor screens.

33) Governor elections only in 1862???  Code doesn't seem to indicate; prob in data

or reading data??  Ask testers verify.

34) FIXED?: V1.2.4: Units on same side picking up abandoned weapons.  (Added

additional prevention line.)

35) FIXED: V1.2.4: Bug: Can nefas buy units in cities when don't control governor

from the City Details screen.

36) Restore to command shouldn't use up a use when clicking on a unit already in-

command.

37) If AI is greatly out WTF'd, then have it withdraw.

38) Implement TCP/IP save in detailed battle??

39) Calvary in line in HW invis with sufficiently low strength.


Nota bene: "sb" is "should be" and "nefas" is a word I use to mean not functioning contrary to design or documentation.

Is the 2nd detailed battle in a session (TCPIP) always causing a CTD for the client in that list? If there is anything else you need let me know.
Pretty Please - I can do without the multiplay save if this could be fixed
Thanks

hey Eric, great you giving us some feedback ! [:)]

Yep Thanx[:)]

Thanks Eric...I see you have addressed a couple of my main concerns.
I have just posted in the wish list thread. I hope some of these changes can also be considered.
 
Cheers.

Thanks Eric [&o]

ORIGINAL: Concord Dan
Is the 2nd detailed battle in a session (TCPIP) always causing a CTD for the client in that list? If there is anything else you need let me know.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Have you reported this on another thread already, if so I apologize for having missed it (I sometimes miss reports, esp. when they are made in other threads). The problem you describe probably isn't caused by that which you describe in general since we play LAN games with multiple battles with no problems for the client.

Eric, two more things if it is not too much to ask.
1. When you click in city list to sort by developments and some other categories it never happens. Somebody mentioned that somewhere and I second that [;)]
2. What about stats at the end of the game? Victories, towns taken, armies raised.... More then few people supported that idea.

Thank you

ORIGINAL: ericbabe

ORIGINAL: Concord Dan
Is the 2nd detailed battle in a session (TCPIP) always causing a CTD for the client in that list? If there is anything else you need let me know.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Have you reported this on another thread already, if so I apologize for having missed it (I sometimes miss reports, esp. when they are made in other threads). The problem you describe probably isn't caused by that which you describe in general since we play LAN games with multiple battles with no problems for the client.

Are you playing detailed battles in your games? ( My brother believes we are the ONLY people in the world playing TCPIP with Detailed battles.) It is only detailed battles that causes the problem in the same session.

We can have a turn where we have a quick battle then a detailed then a quick then a detailed. Or a turn where we have a detailed followed by a detailed. It does not matter even across turns ( turn one detailed battle turn 2 detailed battle CTD.) The 2nd detailed is where the client has a CTD 100% of the time. We reported it earlier in a thread here. I understand missing it due to all the requests that have been made here recently.

Our solution is to only allow one detailed battle per turn. After the turn with the detailed battle, we save and load the game again so we can have another detailed battle.

ORIGINAL: marecone
1. When you click in city list to sort by developments and some other categories it never happens. Somebody mentioned that somewhere and I second that [;)]
2. What about stats at the end of the game? Victories, towns taken, armies raised.... More then few people supported that idea.

I added #1 to my list as something to fix. #2 is a bit more ambitious than I'd like to work on right now, but if it's in the Wish List then it'll make our long list and we'll consider it at some point.

ORIGINAL: Concord Dan
Are you playing detailed battles in your games? ( My brother believes we are the ONLY people in the world playing TCPIP with Detailed battles.) It is only detailed battles that causes the problem in the same session.

We are. I will try it again this afternoon -- it may have been caused by something introduced late in development; we haven't done a full run-through of TCP/IP features in a few weeks and so we may have missed it. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

Is the error producing a message?

Re 
24: I have noticed the missing graphic with the Napoleon also.
28: Yes they prevent capture.
31: Good to see this fixed, very annoying to have the Events and Battle results almost completely missing.
36: Thank you, made that mistake many times as it is hard to tell which unit is actually out of command.

A couple general comments on the strategic AI behaviour.

1: When invading my territory(CSA) the Union AI twice never left any troops behind to guard its line of communications. As a result they were easily cutoff and then destroyed - ie 3 Army group and ~ 7 Division containers being disbanded because they had nowhere to go!

2: I had removed the garrisons from the 2 smaller forts in Fredricksburg and the Union AI has continually sent small suicide forces to try and capture them even when hopelessly outnumbered. It doesn't seem to see that. Even worse, if battle is avoided it seiges and captures the empty fort then tries to sent in single brigades to garrison it - again all to the AI's detriment.

3: Similar to above but with the Union AI's Naval Fleet and invasion force. I had successfully intercepted a small fleet/invasion force several times(it never tried to combine its Fleets) but continually tried to land the force. When it finally did there were no more ships and no more troops so lost the Fleet and Division container.

On another note I just remembered a QB with the AI where it had a 10lb Parrot Rifle Artillery unit. On four occasions during the battle, said unit inflicted between 5000-6000 casualties each 'shot', other times 1000-2000 casualties. Seems disapprotionately high.

Thanks for the support.

ORIGINAL: ericbabe



Is the error producing a message?

Only the standard MS Windows XP error message ... Send report to MS to tell us of this problem. I could read the dump if needed.

Thanks again GREAT game

Hi eric i was just gona buy the game when i saw all the bugs in your list r they now fixed or will they be there if i buy the game now,game looks awesome BUT i must no if these issues r fixed thank you.

Go ahead and buy. It is a good game, and any patches are readily available.