Mysterious reduction/enlargement of squads

Aktion T4 · Post by **Aktion T4** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 6:16 am

Little problem with the patch. Seems that some of my squads have a mysterious habit of losing/gaining men between battles.

In the regular campaign, I went through one battle. Then after winning, I was thrown into the upgrade/repair menu as always. I upgraded a few units such as 6 extra US Rifle Squads that I intended on converting over to 12man Ranger squads. So, I converted the 12man Rifle squads into 12man Ranger squads no problemo.

Then, when the next battle came along, I had a total of 6 12man Ranger squads but something else happened.

It seems that one of my 1 man Snipers turned into a 15man Sniper squad while one of my 9man Engineer squads was reduced to a 2man Engineer squad.

And this was not a result of leftover losses from the previous battle. I upgraded and repaired all with a bunch of points left over. So, in effect, everything was at 100% when I started the second battle.

Sounds like a bug to me.

Anyone else encounter this oddity?

Kluckenbill · Post by **Kluckenbill** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 7:15 am

I had a similar situation. After the first battle in a Russian WW2 Campaign I upgraded a sniper into and Engineer squad and got a 1-man Engineer Squad. At the end of the second battle I tried again to refit and upgrade but it was stuck as a 1-man squad.

Greybear · Post by **Greybear** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 7:26 am

Originally posted by Aktion T4:
Little problem with the patch. Seems that some of my squads have a mysterious habit of losing/gaining men between battles.

*********
Anyone else encounter this oddity?

I started a random campaign, Italians, 1\40. decisive victory vs British, upgraded and hit fix all 3 or more times. Several squads now only 3 to 5 men.
Glenn

thor · Post by **thor** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 9:46 am

I may have some insight to the ODDITY you refer to.

The problem may be worse then you think!!

It seems as the number of crewman for vehicles follows this pattern.

I upgraded some Stuarts to Shermans and noticed the men count went to 4. 5 is standard crew for a Sherman.

If there is any direct penalty for to few crew, than this problem is serious for all campaign games!!!

Mike Wood · Post by **Mike Wood** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 4:03 pm

Hello...

Yes, it was a bug. I fixed it. Now units will have the proper crew. We will release version 2.1, with this fix very soon.

Originally posted by Kluckenbill:
I had a similar situation. After the first battle in a Russian WW2 Campaign I upgraded a sniper into and Engineer squad and got a 1-man Engineer Squad. At the end of the second battle I tried again to refit and upgrade but it was stuck as a 1-man squad.

Sorry for the problem. I am programming as quickly as I can. So far, I have fixed:

1) Germans started on the right side of the map, instead of the left against the Soviet Union and Poland. Fixed. It really made one user angry. I guess he assumed the top of the map was north.

2) Upgrading units did not receive the number of men in the new unit. They were stuck with the number they had before hand. Not really a bug, but an unpopular design decision I made in allowing any unit to upgrade to any other. Well, fixed, now.

3) VCR button did not work. Fixed it.

4) Beach assaults in random battle generator locked up the program when using maps larger than 100x80. The water assaults are not yet supported by the random battle generator, so now the game does not allow river crossings or beach assaults with very large maps in the random battle generator. The interface has been bullet proofed. You can still do these in the scenario generator.

5) Bailing crews could not move. Fixed this in version 2.0, but then crew speeds were cut from 12 to 6 movement points. Had to fix it, again.

6) The fast artillery option was causing some problems with some sound cards. Now, if the player has chosen this option, no bombardment sound is called. All other sounds play normally, just no sound for the bombardment.

7) Mortar sections being upgraded to other mortars were only receiving one mortar. Now, if the mortar had more than one tube, it retains that number.

8) I removed the banner ads. This gave room for the chat box that will be used in the TCP/IP code that Tom is writing.

Thanks for Your support,

Michael Wood

[This message has been edited by Mike Wood (edited 06-27-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Mike Wood (edited 06-27-2000).]

Santa Klaus · Post by **Santa Klaus** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 4:16 pm

Thanxs Mike,
you guys are really a great bunch!
If you ever need graphic support, make sure to contact me..
Always helping - and definately enjoying SPWaW

Santa Klaus http://www.fischers-design.de

PR^Spanjab · Post by **PR^Spanjab** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 4:51 pm

Thanks for all the hard work Mike, it is as always appreciated more than you can know!

TCP/IP? awesome!

In the UK we have a new net development in as much as we can get free calls as long as we reconnect every 2 hours, will the net code allow for this and other unexpected disconnects?

/me looks forward to version 3.0 BIG time

Recon_slith · Post by **Recon_slith** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 5:15 pm

Oh dear. Looks like my new campaign is on hold.
I never liked the change anything to anything else option anyway and I won't be using it. It's inherantly absurd (change one sniper into a 5 crew tank? Oh, sure. Happened all the time.) and too forgiving for those who don't plan thier core force at the campaign start. Save your points and turn an infantry company into a horde of Tigers\JS 2's ect. Blech.
Scrap the whole idea as far as I'm concerned.

------------------
Wait for Death. There's a choice?
Recon

Santa Klaus · Post by **Santa Klaus** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 6:30 pm

Hey Recon,

quite ignorant and impolite!
Nevertheless, if start a German campaign in September 39 (no JPz, StuG), why should I waste precious money on ACs, that I want to later upgrade to JPz and/or StuG - once they're available.
So, before you belch, think!
Klaus

Originally posted by Recon:
Oh dear. Looks like my new campaign is on hold.
I never liked the change anything to anything else option anyway and I won't be using it. It's inherantly absurd (change one sniper into a 5 crew tank? Oh, sure. Happened all the time.) and too forgiving for those who don't plan thier core force at the campaign start. Save your points and turn an infantry company into a horde of Tigers\JS 2's ect. Blech.
Scrap the whole idea as far as I'm concerned.

Antonius · Post by **Antonius** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 6:47 pm

In any case, it's interesting to be able to upgrade howitzers to SPA once they're available

Tom Proudfoot · Post by **Tom Proudfoot** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 8:34 pm

About the UK free-for-two-hours phone thing... you can keep an eye on the clock as you play and save before your two hours are up. Then exit, hang up, reconnect, and continue on your way. Reloading saved games is one of the game options (along with scenarios & random battles).

Tom

victorhauser · Post by **victorhauser** » Tue Jun 27, 2000 9:09 pm

Originally posted by Recon:
...I never liked the change anything to anything else option anyway and I won't be using it. It's inherantly absurd (change one sniper into a 5 crew tank? Oh, sure. Happened all the time.) and too forgiving for those who don't plan thier core force at the campaign start. Save your points and turn an infantry company into a horde of Tigers\JS 2's ect. Blech...

I agree with you, Recon, that in general people will "abuse" the new change-anything-into-anything-else exactly as Santa describes he is going to (by buying lots of cheap stuff like snipers and turning them into Tigers later). But, hey, it's a free country and people are entitled to enjoy the game however they want. So, to those people, it's not an "abuse" at all, but rather more like a fun new toy at Christmas. And Mike is simply giving the Santas of the world their Christmas present early.

Happy Gaming,
Victor

Tombstone · Post by **Tombstone** » Wed Jun 28, 2000 3:41 am

I fully agree Victorhauser. Sometimes it's fun to go from small to big.. What I like about it is the ability to do like someone said before, change tube arty to sp arty... and other changes that would seem logical but defy the Steel Panthers way of classification. (Like upgrading PzJ units from AT guns to marders... blah, blah, etc.)

Tomo

Recon_slith · Post by **Recon_slith** » Wed Jun 28, 2000 3:00 pm

Well, first things first. Changing wheeled artillery to self propelled is quite logical and I wouldn't hesitate to use it myself. Or a supply truck into an ammo dump or AA gun to SPAA for that matter. A/T guns too.
The main fulcrum is the old 'game' versus 'reality' debate which hasn't been solved and never will. Gamewise the new replacement system grants maximum flexability and is therefore a good thing. On the other hand (and also in a gamewise sense) we already know that the AI is predictable and with this addition it will suffer further due to being able to precisely tailor your forces while the computer is at its ramdom force selection level (ie not so good). Play balance suffers.

As for the reality component, well, it isn't real if you make Kingtigers from a truck or even that proverbial sniper who might not even be able to drive a car. I can rationalise it by calling it a removal of one unit and reassignment of another but the officer is the same and the experience hit is too small for the radical shifts. Far better a random replacement (officer and experience level) to appear. The old is reassigned and never seen again.
Semi-lastly I will say that anyone can play any game in any fashion the rules allow. I didn't say it before because I deemed it obvious.

And now I shall allow myself to become a trifle Peeved..........

Hey Santa,

Don't 'Hey' me sonny. That's BLECH (as in Peanuts) not belch. You are most probably prone to many such transposition errors.
Ignorant, am I? Well, it sure was silly of me to think that no one would be so small minded and thin skinned to take a comment on a recent rules change as a personal affront. Oh, ignorant me.
Impolite? I wasn't adressing you or anyone else on the board. I wasn't being impolite, I was being SARCASTIC. It was to emphasise my point about the rule but I guess that just passed you right by, didn't it? Hey- I did it again!
So then the next time some ignorant, thoughtless and rude swine (such as myself) should dare to express an honest and resonable opinion I am sure we can all leave things to you to set matters aright.
What a relief.

------------------
Wait for Death. There's a choice?
Recon

Mike Wood · Post by **Mike Wood** » Wed Jun 28, 2000 3:21 pm

Hello...

Do please keep in mind that when you upgrade your 96 experience Sniper with officer skills - Infantry 94, Armor: 28, you will have a very poor Tiger II commander. He will direct the crew very badly and they will miss often. It would be wise to only upgrade to units of the same general type. You could, however, buy a bunch of armored cars and upgrade them.

Bye...

Michael Wood

Recon_slith · Post by **Recon_slith** » Wed Jun 28, 2000 3:52 pm

Originally posted by Mike Wood:
Hello...

Do please keep in mind that when you upgrade your 96 experience Sniper with officer skills - Infantry 94, Armor: 28, you will have a very poor Tiger II commander. He will direct the crew very badly and they will miss often. It would be wise to only upgrade to units of the same general type. You could, however, buy a bunch of armored cars and upgrade them.

Bye...

Michael Wood

Ah yes, I hadn't considered that. That will provide some incentive not to take too many liberties with poor old reality.

------------------
Wait for Death. There's a choice?
Recon

Santa Klaus · Post by **Santa Klaus** » Wed Jun 28, 2000 4:32 pm

Hi Recon,

I do appologize in public for misinterpreting your post and, most importantly, for pissing you off.
I will take the rest of the post private.
Sorry for the waste of bandwith.
Santa

Santa Klaus · Post by **Santa Klaus** » Wed Jun 28, 2000 4:48 pm

Hi Recon,

I do appologize in public for misinterpreting your post and, most importantly, for pissing you off.
I will take the rest of the post private.
Sorry for the waste of bandwith.
Santa