Matrix Games Forums

I am using this game to teach tactics to my military history class, but I am running into some network glitches, I think.

We are running several different scenarios within one game. For example, I have group 1 playing scenario 1 in West Front and then group 2 playing scenario 2 in West Front. When they go to join an TCP/IP game, they have two options, but they are both called West Front. Eventually they pick the right game, but it can take a while (especially when I have about 10 groups).

When they assign units, we are running into issues where even though units are assigned to a player, they cannot control the units.

I am also getting periodic crashes, which creates a lot of problems, because everyone then has to get out of the game.

Any thoughts? We are playing on a school LAN, running Windows XP, and I have downloaded the latest patch.

Good day.

I would recommend giving the following pages a browse and see if it answers any of your questions:

http://www.theblitz.org/member_sites/online/index.htm

Absolutely fantastic to hear you are using this game to teach tactics! There are some new additions coming with 1.03 that will assist in that!

Where abouts are you?

Hope you're well
Take care and good luck
Jason Petho

I am located in the Chicagoland area, where I teach at a private high school. It is a lot of fun! I am excited to here that 1.03 will help in this area - how is it going to do that?

The link you gave me is pretty informative, but I don't think that it addresses some of the issues I am having - I'll re-read it because I went through it pretty quickly.

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
I am located in the Chicagoland area, where I teach at a private high school. It is a lot of fun! I am excited to here that 1.03 will help in this area - how is it going to do that?

Wish I had that in high school!

There will be a number of enhancements that will provide some new tactical challenges to your students. I can't go into precisely what yet, but they will be new and exciting!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
The link you gave me is pretty informative, but I don't think that it addresses some of the issues I am having - I'll re-read it because I went through it pretty quickly.

Looking it over, you're probably right. I am not much for a network player, although there is a group in Europe that frequently plays over a LAN, I am hoping one of them stop by and offer their assistance.

I would imagine there is a separate primary host for each game/group?

Jason Petho

I am very excited about the enhancements! This game is awesome for this class because of the challenge of it, the tactical/strategic realism, and the historical accuracy of the scenarios. I can easily mesh the scenarios into the battles we discuss in class.

Today things are working much better. Each group does have a separate host. I had them log in one group at a time, so it was a bit easier to connect. However, it was still a bit of a crap shoot with the later group as some still had to guess which "West Front" to join as more sessions were created. I think because of the more systematic approach to logging in, things have gone a bit easier. All of the groups can assign units to each of their group members, which we could not do yesterday. I can't tell you how sweet this is when we can do this - the scenarios move along faster, plus every student is engaged and forced to think!

Improving the network connectivity process would be a great improvement to the game...

Thanks for the quick responses! It has been a great help and I'll keep using the game for my classes with that kind of support!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
I am very excited about the enhancements! This game is awesome for this class because of the challenge of it, the tactical/strategic realism, and the historical accuracy of the scenarios. I can easily mesh the scenarios into the battles we discuss in class.

Me too! Very excited even. While there will not be a lot of new scenarios that be using the enhancements with 1.03, I am including a set of BOOTCAMP scenarios (for East Front) that will explain each of the additions and how they should be used.

Regarding scenarios; if you are seeking a certain style of scenario, or battles, let me know and I will see about having some generated for you to be included with a future UPDATE release (1.04 or 1.05 or beyond).

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
Today things are working much better. Each group does have a separate host. I had them log in one group at a time, so it was a bit easier to connect. However, it was still a bit of a crap shoot with the later group as some still had to guess which "West Front" to join as more sessions were created. I think because of the more systematic approach to logging in, things have gone a bit easier. All of the groups can assign units to each of their group members, which we could not do yesterday. I can't tell you how sweet this is when we can do this - the scenarios move along faster, plus every student is engaged and forced to think!

Absolutely brilliant! So happy to hear about the good news!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
Improving the network connectivity process would be a great improvement to the game...

I will point our programmer to this post and see if there is anything he can do. I wouldn't expect any changes in this regard until later though (1.04 or 1.05).

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
Thanks for the quick responses! It has been a great help and I'll keep using the game for my classes with that kind of support!

My pleasure indeed. Always helps to have a passionate core group behind the game to ensure it's longevity!

Take care and good luck
Jason Petho

Regarding scenarios; if you are seeking a certain style of scenario, or battles, let me know and I will see about having some generated for you to be included with a future UPDATE release (1.04 or 1.05 or beyond).

That would be fabulous. On Friday I will get a little feedback from my students to see if there are some scenarios that they would suggest. A lot of times I get great ideas from students that I would have never thought of...I am thinking of offering extra credit to students who want to create a scenario in the scenario editor. If I get a good product, I could send it your way if you would like. Of course, I would check it very carefully for historical accuracy...[:)] Of course, my hopes are not very high at this point since we are at the end of the semester and many of my students are stressed out by other projects.

Another quick question...I tried to talk to Matrix Games about this, but it was difficult contacting someone...would there happen to be educational pricing for this game and other strategy games? Probably not your typical question, and I am not sure if you would be the one to talk to, but I am looking to buy additional licenses for this game and even other eras of war, such as Vietnam and present day conflicts. If not, no worries!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
That would be fabulous.

My pleasure!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
On Friday I will get a little feedback from my students to see if there are some scenarios that they would suggest. A lot of times I get great ideas from students that I would have never thought of...

I would be curious to hear that feedback!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
I am thinking of offering extra credit to students who want to create a scenario in the scenario editor.

I will see about putting aside some time to put together a general video tutorial on how to use the organization, map and scenario editors. Might not be until after Christmas though, as wrapping up 1.03 will take up the majority of my free time.

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
If I get a good product, I could send it your way if you would like. Of course, I would check it very carefully for historical accuracy...[:)] Of course, my hopes are not very high at this point since we are at the end of the semester and many of my students are stressed out by other projects.

By all means! It could be an added incentive for the students to have one of their scenarios included as part of the stock set!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
Another quick question...I tried to talk to Matrix Games about this, but it was difficult contacting someone...would there happen to be educational pricing for this game and other strategy games? Probably not your typical question, and I am not sure if you would be the one to talk to, but I am looking to buy additional licenses for this game and even other eras of war, such as Vietnam and present day conflicts. If not, no worries!

That is an excellent question, and I don't see why they wouldn't. I did point David Heath to this thread, as he is a major player at Matrix Games, he might have some insight.

Stay tuned for other eras in the Campaign Series realm [;)]

Jason Petho

Hey Jason,

Last day that we are strategy gaming [:(]! I have a couple of student working on scenarios: one is an assault on Mount Suribachi (not sure about that one) and another is working on a battle in the pacific - not sure where yet.

Just so you know, I was still having network issues with one particular group. They were playing Rising Sun, the Edson's Ridge scenario - players kept getting kicked out randomly with an "iexplore.exe" error. The rest of the groups seemed to work well, although from time to time they had the same issue.

Thanks for your help and feedback!

Other suggestions from students:

The ability to place black sand in the map editor.

Some felt that the AT weapons had too much of an advantage over armor...not sure about this, but they said that they were trying to take out an AT weapon that was out in the open, but that there was no effect on the unit...

Is there a way to check the hexside terrain beside trying to identify it visually? I can click on a hex and it tells me the terrain of the hex, but it is hard to identify things on the edge (walls, stream types, etc.), which of course dictate movement, battle, etc.


Thanks!

Josh

Hi Josh

ORIGINAL: phillydomer

Hey Jason,

Last day that we are strategy gaming [:(]! I have a couple of student working on scenarios: one is an assault on Mount Suribachi (not sure about that one) and another is working on a battle in the pacific - not sure where yet.

Last day! The horror, the horror!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
Just so you know, I was still having network issues with one particular group. They were playing Rising Sun, the Edson's Ridge scenario - players kept getting kicked out randomly with an "iexplore.exe" error. The rest of the groups seemed to work well, although from time to time they had the same issue.

Hmm, weird. Thank you for the info, I will pass it along.

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
Thanks for your help and feedback!

Anytime, tis my pleasure!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
Other suggestions from students:

The ability to place black sand in the map editor.

Good suggestion!

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
Some felt that the AT weapons had too much of an advantage over armor...not sure about this, but they said that they were trying to take out an AT weapon that was out in the open, but that there was no effect on the unit...

Instead of trying to shoot at it, why not assault it? That will usually eliminate the problem. If you must shoot at it, an MG, mortar or FLAK type unit would be the best to do so.

ORIGINAL: phillydomer
Is there a way to check the hexside terrain beside trying to identify it visually? I can click on a hex and it tells me the terrain of the hex, but it is hard to identify things on the edge (walls, stream types, etc.), which of course dictate movement, battle, etc.

Unfortunately, no, not that I am aware of. You can rotate the map though to ensure you aren't missing anything. The best place to see if there is any hexside information is in zoom level 4.

Hope you're well!

Jason Petho