Matrix Games Forums

A few Playtesters Wanted for late Beta stage testing of Gary Grisby’s Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich

If you have the time, skills, interest and creativity for testing our soon to be released game, then contact me at karlisr@matrixgames.com

Please indicate the hardware/software systems you use, your previous testing experience with Matrix or any other publishers of strategy games, and your availability. After I receive this information, and if you are selected as a tester, you will receive a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that you must complete and return to me. After I receive the NDA, you should be able to start testing within a few days.

If you are still thinking about testing but are not sure, think about the taxes you paid the IRS and help get rid of your frustrations by Bombing the Reich!


THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUICK AND ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE. OUR REQUIREMENTS FOR LATE BETA TESTERS HAVE BEEN MORE THAN MET. IF YOUR EMAIL COMES AFTER TODAY WE WILL RETAIN YOUR INFORMATION FOR POSSIBLE NEW TEST TEAM OPENINGS FOR NEW AND OTHER GAMES, IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.

ORIGINAL: Karlis Rutins

If you are still thinking about testing but are not sure, think about the taxes you paid the IRS and help get rid of your frustrations by Bombing the Reich!

or you can bomb London and the rest of the UK [:'(]

Does that mean that we will see a BETA AAR soon? I feel like a little girl right now...

AAR should be doable, was hopeing to get a PBEM one set up, but the guy I was going to do it with has been traveling alot, me vs the AI , does not last long enough, before I am working on something different 

I'd love to beta but I am a bit too weird. I'd try crash the game just to figure out why....

want a newbie to this game (not to others) ?

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker

I'd love to beta but I am a bit too weird. I'd try crash the game just to figure out why....

That's what betas are meant to do...

sounds like i need to get me purse out soon!

PM sent, I could not get your link to work Karlis

I'd love to do this but my computer is acting all funky. New computer next week....sigh

Ready to rock and roll.

I'm available, if you still need a Beta player.  I played BoB and BTR (and actually date back to U.S.A.A.F. on the Apple IIe).  Where these sort of games are involved, you might say it's an area of serious interest.  [:)]
 
I'm running Win XP SP2 on an Athlon 2600, 3 Gigs of RAM, with an ATI Radeon X800 graphics card.  Can do daily turns.

I am game. Send me in coach.

Just in case, Beta Testing and getting people in, is in Karlis Hands, i got nothing to do with it, I get to torment those poor souls Karlis sends me

hmmmm, I think we in the wrong busness

Brr..
 
Abit to late on this one, well new chances in future i guess..
 

Just found out about the re-release. Great!

I've been "Bombing the Reich" for a number of years -- Allied only!
Currently running a 1943 campaign, using version 4. I'm at Apr '44.
I know I'm too late for Beta testing, but I thought I'd drop a few items some tester might want to check.

1. Enter a sweep missson, then enter the next mission as a bombing mission using the follow command. During the next action phase it crashes the game, when that bombing unit attempts to bomb. Obviously the bombing mission does not have a valid target, but it is irritating to have to go back and find the mistake in plotting.
1a. I read in the forum about fixing the "Dover Dash"... thank you, thank you!!!

2. When booting up a briefing phase save. The damage from prior action phases is not overlaid on the map. The damages are correct and the game will run, but remembering what needs to have follow up missions is getting harder in my old age.

3. Shuttling a detachment -- mistakes happen -- now I can't get the Detachment back to the Cadre Unit. I tried moving the detachment or changing a/c. The detachment will go away, zero ready a/c?, but the pilots end up in other units.
3a. Why do Cadre units refill when I send out a detachment?
3b. Shuttle a raid group to Italy/Russia. Now attempt to shuttle all the units back to their correct units. Work around by moving all shuttling units to one airfield first.
3c. Let a veteran detachment build up a good kill score. When it shuttles back look at the Cadres unit's kill score. Everytime a pilot, with kills, shuttle out and back his kills are added to the unit's totals.

4. When breaking through the first line of axis defense, a few of the fortification areas of the second line will show an industrial or airfield symbol. My current game map has three airfield symbols near Ferrera, Italy!

5. Sometimes, a unit loses its commander, "Sgt A. From" becomes the commander! I'm certain the Squadron or Wing Comanders in that unit aren't to happy! Same thing happens in the American airforce, too!

6. Shuttle out a detachment of P-47c. Change the cadre unit to P-51D. Shuttle back the detachment. Now I have a whole unit of P-51D! This works with any a/c. It is a way to "increase-the-production-rate". In this example, if the unit is changed again, all the a/c go into the P-51D pool.

7. Plot a mission, add some fighter escorts, move on. Go back and cancel the mission. None of the units come back to a ready status. I do a work around by removing the escorts, then removing the additional bombers, then finally the lead group.

8. Do the days plotting, moving the cursor over allied airfields display zero, 0 a/c ready, which is correct because these units will be flying. Now do a move unit command. All units, except the unit being relocated, will display the number of a/c ready that the unit started the day ready with. Now attempt to find a unit that it really ready to fly! Be sure to relocate units and change a/c first!

9. Plot a long bombing mission, say Warsaw. Put in the escorts, let's put some Spitfires or P-47's to escort the mission back across the channel with the escorts ending at the British coastline. Run the turn. Why does the fuel bingo just about the time the escort meets the bombers? The longer the mission the more noticable this is. It happens in Italy, also. It seems as if the escort fuel or start time offset isn't quite right.
9a. It would be nice to be able to add allied escorts with an easier method!

10. Why does no one in England or Italy know what time the sunrises or sets? Please, include this. For the long campaigns this would be nice, since the Axis does not react to the first mission of the day very well!

11. During the briefing, the top pilots list is not showing the top pilots. I have new aces with above 5 kills not showing on the listing, while earlier pilots' kill remain on the listing.
11a Every now and then, the listing sorting function stops working. I have not discovered a pattern to this one. I just reload and move on.


I have some other lists of things not to do while playing, which I'll post later when I find them. I have downloaded version 6 patch and I looked at the read_me, but it doesn't seem to cover these items, and I'm not ready to start over.
Plus, I have some wish lists, too!

Don't take any of these as complaints, just suggestions. This is my favorite time waster!!! I will be purchasing the new version.

ORIGINAL: TechSgt

Just found out about the re-release. Great!

I've been "Bombing the Reich" for a number of years -- Allied only!
Currently running a 1943 campaign, using version 4. I'm at Apr '44.
I know I'm too late for Beta testing, but I thought I'd drop a few items some tester might want to check.

Thanks for dropping in... It's been hard labour since we started, but if you check Ron's screenshots you'll see how far we've come...

1. Enter a sweep missson, then enter the next mission as a bombing mission using the follow command. During the next action phase it crashes the game, when that bombing unit attempts to bomb. Obviously the bombing mission does not have a valid target, but it is irritating to have to go back and find the mistake in plotting.
1a. I read in the forum about fixing the "Dover Dash"... thank you, thank you!!!

Yes, both are fixed...

3. Shuttling a detachment -- mistakes happen -- now I can't get the Detachment back to the Cadre Unit. I tried moving the detachment or changing a/c. The detachment will go away, zero ready a/c?, but the pilots end up in other units.
3a. Why do Cadre units refill when I send out a detachment?
3b. Shuttle a raid group to Italy/Russia. Now attempt to shuttle all the units back to their correct units. Work around by moving all shuttling units to one airfield first.
3c. Let a veteran detachment build up a good kill score. When it shuttles back look at the Cadres unit's kill score. Everytime a pilot, with kills, shuttle out and back his kills are added to the unit's totals.

Not sure you're 100% right with some of your observations, but 3a is definately an issue. 3b is related to the level of AC that complete the shuttle - more than half have to make the journey or something. 3c is definately an issue we've had on the books, but never seen the causal relationship.

4. When breaking through the first line of axis defense, a few of the fortification areas of the second line will show an industrial or airfield symbol. My current game map has three airfield symbols near Ferrera, Italy!

Fixed...

5. Sometimes, a unit loses its commander, "Sgt A. From" becomes the commander! I'm certain the Squadron or Wing Comanders in that unit aren't to happy! Same thing happens in the American airforce, too!

Made a lot of checks and changes to the leader code... Was never happy seeing Oblt V. Munchen leading the 318th FS...

6. Shuttle out a detachment of P-47c. Change the cadre unit to P-51D. Shuttle back the detachment. Now I have a whole unit of P-51D! This works with any a/c. It is a way to "increase-the-production-rate". In this example, if the unit is changed again, all the a/c go into the P-51D pool.

[&o] I picked this one up years ago. Not sure if I've fixed it or not. Did you know that the unit now flys like a P51D with the guns of a P47C? It's true - the plane performance is not stored seperately, but with the base AC.

9. Plot a long bombing mission, say Warsaw. Put in the escorts, let's put some Spitfires or P-47's to escort the mission back across the channel with the escorts ending at the British coastline. Run the turn. Why does the fuel bingo just about the time the escort meets the bombers? The longer the mission the more noticable this is. It happens in Italy, also. It seems as if the escort fuel or start time offset isn't quite right.
9a. It would be nice to be able to add allied escorts with an easier method!

I've done a lot of work on the fuel-use/RTB model. We are currently undergoing a detailed discussion on ranges, but in general, escorts work properly.

10. Why does no one in England or Italy know what time the sunrises or sets? Please, include this. For the long campaigns this would be nice, since the Axis does not react to the first mission of the day very well!

Huh?

11. During the briefing, the top pilots list is not showing the top pilots. I have new aces with above 5 kills not showing on the listing, while earlier pilots' kill remain on the listing.
11a Every now and then, the listing sorting function stops working. I have not discovered a pattern to this one. I just reload and move on.

It was limited to the first 9999 pilots only. We now have 50000 pilot slots, so it's a bit more involved...

Don't take any of these as complaints, just suggestions. This is my favorite time waster!!! I will be purchasing the new version.

Nay problem, always happy to hear new voices...

Wish I could. 
 
But I work in mortgage bonds, so I'm a little...well..."busy" right now.  [X(]

Thanks for the quick answers!

I did look around the forum for a couple of days before registering. The multiple fuel storage sites caught my eye. Is this a visual size of the site or are they just additional targets? What I found most intriguing, since I play as Allied, is the Fuel/Bomb button on the unit display! Also, the number of a/c lost by this unit. That's a nice touch.

Additionally, I read in other threads, fixes that have already been taken care of, and OOB questions I figure have been taken care of, also.

In my list of "things"...

1. Summary Page

a. Very occasionally, the total number of Axis a/c destroyed is off by one. Take the prior day's number and add today's number and the amount differs by one. My opinion is the very last Axis plane landing -- if it crashes -- is not being added in. In my games the Axis almost always are the last planes on the ground.

2. Briefing Phase

a. Occationally, a squadron that is sent out as singles, Recon, Night Intruders, or RCM, will display having 268 planes. I have used all twelve planes that day. Click through to the unit page will be OK. Could this be a counter being overflowed/Underflow? (256 + 12)?

3. Plotting Phase

a. My comment about the sunrise is because the game does not inform you when the sun will rise or set for this day. Like it does for the moon rise/set. I notice it is basically subtract one minute per day for Sun rise during the Spring and Summer; and add one per day during the Fall and Winter. Obviously, it is the reverse for sun set.

b. Target List, after knocking the production of an Industry to zero, it "never" recovers. It will read zero from then on. I can do Recon missions months afterwards and the individual target sites recover, plus the axis planes keep flying.

4. Action Phase

a. No second moon rise if the phase extends deep into the next day. The effect may be there, but the display doesn't show any light number until the sun rises.

b. Axis night fighters are doing "Wild Boar" tactics over the target before I even get to the Inbound marker. I figure this must be a percentage function -- ie. intelligent failure, etc. I know this isn't a "problem", but I sure feel like the system is cheating?

5. Map display

a. Using the "Targeted Sites" button causes the Allied Headquarters Flags to disappear. The flags do not reappear. I have to reload the prior day's save. This is probably more to do with the old laptop that I use.

I'll post a "wish list" and "techniques of play" comments later.
After release, how about uploading mission plots that Axis player could react to, or maybe games that an Allied player could pick up from, ie. 1 Jan 45?

ORIGINAL: TechSgt

Thanks for the quick answers!

I did look around the forum for a couple of days before registering. The multiple fuel storage sites caught my eye. Is this a visual size of the site or are they just additional targets? What I found most intriguing, since I play as Allied, is the Fuel/Bomb button on the unit display! Also, the number of a/c lost by this unit. That's a nice touch.

Sometimes the data was already there, it just needed to be displayed, other times, like ground kills and AC losses, I needed to add the data. Either way, it makes a big difference to the immersion...

b. Target List, after knocking the production of an Industry to zero, it "never" recovers. It will read zero from then on. I can do Recon missions months afterwards and the individual target sites recover, plus the axis planes keep flying.

not really - the 0 meant that as the allies, you've hit the critical limit in another industry. The actual output is significantly lowered across other areas, but the 0 was shown for armaments if you got rubber below the critical level. Two things happen from here - one is that the rubber repairs, 2 is that the critical level goes down as armament industry adapts to the lack of rubber.

5. Map display

a. Using the "Targeted Sites" button causes the Allied Headquarters Flags to disappear. The flags do not reappear. I have to reload the prior day's save. This is probably more to do with the old laptop that I use.

Are you sure you're not me posting under an alias? I swear you've found a very similar list of largely unknown issues to what I had discovered over many years... No-one else seemed to care about this one, but it always bugged me...