Matrix Games Forums

O.K. Guys, I think I have some answers on this premature war end problem. It seems to me that this is definitely a bug, as the war end has nothing to do with the current score. The message you get is as follows:

"The war is over. The Allies drop their demands for unconditional surrender. The Japanese agree to withdraw from conquered territories"

Has anyone ever seen this in the earlier versions of the gam? I haven't. It looks like the kind of message that you might expect if the war dragged on into 1947 or 1948!

In any case, I found the flag that is set in a save file to give this message. Once this flag is set, you can no longer load the game for play (you can in the original version of the game, however).

I have uploaded a file at my website that resets this flag and allows you to continue play of the game. This is a temporary fix until Michael Wood can figure out why the flag is periodically set. You can get the file at:

http://home.earthlink.net/~tmflood/page2.html


Use should be pretty self-explanatory. Let me know if you have problems.

Regards,

Rich

You could get it in the original versions, but the Allies really, really had to be getting slaughtered for it to trip. In a very close game (around mid '44?) when the kill/point ratios change you could get it occasionally as well.

My guess would be that v2.1 could be using the late war kill/point ratio modifier from the start?

Thanks for prompt action, Rich. I'll try it right now, and will let you know the results (assuming you're interested <g>).
An no, Babyseal7, it has nothing to do with the kill ratio. I had an early end with 46642 Jap kill vs. 46718 Allies kills in June 44 (data posted as "Early Surrender Data" Nov 27).
Thanks again Rich for taking action. We MUST keep this great game going.

Happy Wargaming
Rainer

There's a progressive kill/loss ratio modifier that kicks in late war. ie. the "value" of the Jp. kills increases as the war progresses. To put it more plainly, perhaps the game is set to use the late war modifier when it's doing its Jethro math routine. Japan can win in '42 by achieving a 2-1 kill ratio. In '45, the Japanese kill ratio multiplier is x2., and that's much what you reported. Thus leading me to believe the kill multiplier is kicking in early.

Regarding the progressive kill ratio, yes, the ratio bumps to 1.5 in 1944, and 2.0 in 1945, but I think this bump is reflected in the total score, which still must reflect the 2:1 overall score ratio to get the decisive victory. In the save files ending prematurely, the total score is nowhere near 2:1, the Allies are ahead in some cases.

I'm wondering, are there other factors (i.e. comparison of kills alone) that will end the game besides a 2:1 overall score ratio that gives a decisive victory. Only the decisive victory is mentioned in the rulebook. This premature ending message sounds like a draw (i.e. no total surrender, but Japanese withdraws from conquered territory).

Regards,

Rich

Toward the back of the manual it talks about Japan forcing a draw if the war continues till Jan 46, regardless of score evidently.

The fix works, and can be easily applied. Great job. Thanks.
I checked it with 3 different crashed slots. All could be "resurrected".
A note to babyseal7' s remark about multiplier: this is already reflected in the score. You can see that when the games turns 31-dec-43 to 1-jan-44. I often was a bit shocked when I (thought I) was doing so well by checking the score. And boom, on Jan 1st the ratio plunges down, e.g. the multiplier kicks in - literally overnight.
Great job Rich. Thanks so much.
Happy Wargaming.
Rainer

Forgot to mention: If and when the allies have NOT achieved a 2 to 1 ratio against the Japanese latest Dec 31, 1945, the games ends in a draw with the said message (I consider this to have lost).
However, if and when the allied player wins, this will not show weeks before. In fact, the score ratio is most often very close to 1 to 1 until the very end. And then, suddenly, the ratio explodes and the allies win.
How come? I have checked this repeatedly (I'm, playing this games since 1991) and found that the real doing in for the Japanese is the collapse of their production in combination with their loss of territory control. That's why I'm (and I'm sure Gary wants it that way for historical reasons!) extremely careful with my troops starting with the beginning of 1945, instead I do everything to "plug the cork" (PacWar vets know what that means <g>), that is, to bring the Japanese shipping - especially tankers -down in any possible way. Most often it works. But not always, of course. Have to leave now, there's a problem at Shortland.
See you.
Rainer

Brilliant! Thanks for the fix. Now back to Jan '42........
Andrew

Hi Rich,

Does your patch work on existing save games that have the early surrender problem? I ran your .exe file - the computer chugged away for about 15 minutes, with some little hard drive activity while your nice graphic was displayed. Finally I closed the graphic and tried to load my 3 old saved games: would not load. What am I doing wrong here? I checked the saved game files - none were modified this date. Thanks.

Dgold,

The patch should work on your existing save files with the early end message. In my rush to get the patch out, I neglected to explain how to run the thing. When you run the EXE, the "No War is Over" graphic splash screen will display. You need to click in this graphic to bring up the file selector. Select the offending PW save file, and click "War On!". This should fix the file. If it doesn't, let me know.

Hope this helps,

Rich

Hi Rich,

That did the trick - I can now resume my saved games. Thanks for the great fix!

Dgold