Matrix Games Forums

Development Update August 2009

Hi everybody! I promised to write up a little update every month. That promise I did not quite keep. However good news is development is still going on at a breakneck pace. Some ambitions might be down tuned a bit like the number of initial scenarios, but all in all its shaping up to bring a lot of new features to the engine. I am not going to call a release date because that always ends in tears, but I can say I went past the halfway point some time ago.

In this development update I want to give some info on one of the new features. And that feature is the return of officers. You might remember these guys from Peoples Tactics. I cut them out to save work for Advanced Tactics. But now I decided to give them a comeback opportunity. They will lead the staff in the HQs and give additional bonuses and sometimes penalties to the troops under command.

Officers will now and then receive personal actioncards. Cards can for example speed up certain troops, give defence bonuses or raise morale. These cards the officer can then play on the right unit on the right time. Also some officers will be subject to certain auto-events that for example can cause them to give orders without your approval.

They give the historical scenarios an even more historical feel. Seeing Heinz Guderian in command of XIX Panzer Corps and seeing him use his unique abilities to send the 1st Panzer Division just that extra 20 miles ahead of the bulk of the forces feels right.

But the random games will support officers too. There you will be able to change officers and recruit new ones into the officerpool. In the random games the officers will level up when they have gathered enough experience on the battlefield. Levelling up will raise their bonuses and the amount of actioncards they’ll be able to play.

Furthermore the engine will allow full modding of how officers are used and what sort of actioncards they can play and auto-events they can trigger. The amount of options this opens up for scenario designers is huge.

Well so far the sneak peak. Next development update I’ll discuss another new feature.

Kind regards,
Vic

Don't want pressure you Vic, but when will be seeing a few screenshots?

You know how we are, we hear new game and the question always starts with when. You said you plan no release date yet. But a little peak may be possible??

Leader system sounds cool Vic. Hopefully you can address 2 things in this next game:
- huge air stack problem
- lack of attrition on offense (if attacker has bombardment capability) unless the defender counterattacks

thx

Thanks for the update Victor.
The prospect of being able to use officers sounds nice. Even better when it's available in random games too!
Other than added features, I would like to see updated graphics too. Just keep it simple and clean.

I always thought "staff" were the officers.So now we can have specific officers with names and everything?

What about processing time between turns? Did you get a chance to address that? I love the big maps and games and think it would be great if something could be done here. Thanks.

Are those officers part of HQ staff, or they will be separate unit? (It would be more realistic if they could be injured/killed).
I am just starting to enjoy AT so I do not have many things to say yet. But I would like to see possibility to save during PBEM match. I was told that cannot be done?
There is no problem with small games, but in 1941 Russia scenario one turn last a long time and that is a problem at least for me.
Keep up a good work!

Actually what inspired me a bit with the officers was what Lancer did here:
tm.asp?m=2085540

Ohh.. and the officers will not replace staff, but provide leadership to the staff.

kind regards,
Vic

Great to hear that the officers are coming back! Thanks Vic!

Maybe it would be prudent if officers do make it to the game, that there is option to turn it of. If they become to... stubborn? And decide not to comply to orders from the very top![:D]

One of the things in AT that I missed from PT.... were the leaders. In PT you had to manage them, getting those with good land values commanding land HQs, those with good naval values commanding fleets, and those with good air values commanding air groups. If you didn't have any good leaders, you could spend PP to get new ones (1 PP brought you one new leader). A lot of times you would have to 'discharge' lousy leaders to make space, and there was a readiness hit when you transferred leaders.

So, was another thing to manage but doing so well would give you an advantage.

Sounds like this is coming back to AT (or are we talking the new game here?), and sounds like Vic has improved what he had so.... way cool!

One thing I would like to ask <g>.... I asked this before.... re what is in AT but is lacking re PT... a RULEVAR that would set the starting readiness of units. In PT, when you got new units in it would be a BAD idea to throw them into battle immediately. Typically it would like three turns before they were ready to fight. On the other hand, in AT I throw units into battle on the turn they arrive almost always. They are not as affective as they are once they get some experience but.... still.... typically on turn 2 I have like 5 armored cars in and... no problem in wiping out a PR unit or two. This would not be possible in PT and, seemed much more realistic.

Again <g>.... a request to get a RULEVAR that sets the starting readiness of new troops (setting this at zero would do the trick).

Zaratoughda

What I would really like to see and I guess others as well is a hard stack limit per hex.

And not the 16 units per hex, but rather Powerpoints per Hex which solves überstacks problems like with airforce, artillery, etc..

ORIGINAL: TheArchduke
What I would really like to see and I guess others as well is a hard stack limit per hex.

I was just thinking the same thing while playing and discovering that I could mass giant stacks.

FAsea. There is a potentiall problem with artillery and air being overpopulated in the game. But as for groundforces, be vary. There is a 100 pp stack limit. Any ground forces over that will get a negative crowding modifier when involved in combat. This also applies if you attack with more forces than crowding lets you. This will make your losses go up fast.

And as for artillery, aircraft etc. An overpopulated hex at least makes for an inviting target for the enemy to airstrike/bombard.

Just because it is in inviting target, does not make it more balanced. Thanks to that you can stack 20-30 and pulverise otherwise sound defenses.

Vic
Could there be a way for history file to be saved as a separate&nbsp;file.
When someone does&nbsp;AAR they could upload or link to file so others could load and watch it?