Matrix Games Forums

Hi Everyone,

The next public beta for World in Flames (v2.3.0.0) is now available in the Members Club

Please check it out and note any new issues with the listed changes.


Change History:

Air Operations [ul]
• Fixed a fatal error in air-to-air combat during a naval combat phase when playing without carrier air units and all the units in a group (i.e., fighters or bombers for either side) have been destroyed, cleared through, or aborted, and a player decided to abort from the naval air combat.
• Fixed a problem where an air unit was unable to return to base because a potential hex was being considered invalid because of Foreign Troop Commitment Limits. The hex in consideration had been taken by the enemy and then recaptured by the original owner. The United Kingdom had been the original owner but when recaptured the program was marking it as owned by the Commonwealth. In the program code the distinction was causing problems when trying to determine if the ownership of the hex had changed.
• Fixed a problem with calculating the correct air-to-air combat values under the unusual circumstances that the phasing side had a fighter-bomber flying as a bomber, its side had no fighters, and the fighter-bomber was aborted/destroyed in air-to-air combat. Because the fighter-bomber returned to base (or was placed in the Destroyed Pool), its flag was reset as “flying as fighter”. This had been causing the program to not subtract one from its air-to-air combat value. The program now handles this case correctly.
• Fixed a problem in the Guadalcanal scenario where the Japanese were not given the opportunity to port attack naval units belonging to the United Kingdom because the United Kingdom (as a country) is not part of that scenario. The correction now lets the Japanese perform air attacks (of all types) on units belonging to the United Kingdom because they are a Commonwealth member nation. This correction also fixes similar problems in the half map scenarios.
• Added some code to make sure no air units are selectable at the beginning of the Commit Subs subphase of naval combat. Selecting them at that time could cause them to disappear from the map.

Naval Operations

• Fixed a problem with a hex inland in Albania being shown as adjacent to the Italian Coast.
• Fixed the problem with naval units initiating combat not being marked as such, and remaining organized after the search rolls and combat occur.
• Fixed a minor problem with which sea areas are selectable for Naval Combat when the possibility of the Axis initiating combat with US convoys potentially carrying resources/build points to another Allied major power with which the Axis major power is at war. Previously a sea area would be incorrectly shown in the Select Sea Areas for Combat form for the Axis major power (e.g., Japan) to initiate combat (e.g., with a US convoy carrying resources to China). However, clicking on the Initiate Combat button would have no effect. After these code changes, the sea area does not appear on the form unless clicking on the button will actually initiate combat. That is, the check for whether a sea area appears on the form is identical to the check for whether initiating combat using the form’s button works. There are a bunch of US Entry Option rules related to this.

Land Operations

• Fixed a problem with a completely conquered China causing Chinese partisans to be unable to move.
• Fixed a problem with failed invasions where the number of units the attacker should lose according to the CRT result is less than the number of invading units - all of which are lost. For example, if the CRT shows 1 attacker loss when 2 units are invading, but the attacker failed to take the hex, then both the attacking units are lost. Previously, the program was confused by this situation and asked for an additional unit to be destroyed after all the invading units had been destroyed.
• Added a check so Polish zones of control extend into Germany during the first impulse of Global War and Fascist Tide, even though at that time Germany is technically ‘neutral’ (i.e., not at war with any major power).
• Fixed a problem with the USSR units not exerting a zone of control into hexes it controls when Finnish land units are moving. This bug was another case caused by the USSR being technically ‘neutral’ since it was a major power that wasn’t at war with another major power.
• Modified the rail line data from north of Lake Peipus so it branches south one hex. This makes the MWIF European map match the World in Flames board game map.
• Fixed a problem that was preventing Vichy units from retreating into Vichy controlled hexes. Note that this also affected shattered Vichy units.
• Added a line of code so the detailed map doesn’t automatically center on the next selectable unit when moving the cursor over an invasion hex during the Ground Support phase.

Reorganization

• Fixed a problem with reorganization where an HQ (or TRS or ATR) with insufficient points available was able to fully reorganize a target unit. After these changes, an HQ (or TRS or ATR) can still use it last remaining reorganization points, even when they are insufficient to fully reorganize a target unit - in the hopes that another HQ (or TRS or ATR) can finish reorganizing the target unit.

Production

• Fixed a problem with arriving naval units in the 1st cycle for an incompletely conquered major power not automatically going into the Construction Pool.

Production Planning

• Fixed a tricky problem with changing which factory supplies a newly created Build Point to fulfill a trade agreement. The Production Planning form now implements and displays those changes correectly.

Supply

• Fixed a problem with calculating supply (i.e., an infinite loop occurring) when the capital of a conquered minor country (e.g., Warsaw) is recaptured during the Advance After Combat subphase of a land combat.
• Fixed an obscure problem with calculating supply causing a fatal error sometimes.
• Fixed a problem with tertiary supply when an HQ could not find a path to its own primary supply source, but could find one to an aligned minor country’s primary supply source, and therefore was not searching for a path to a secondary supply source. That is, an out of supply HQ was not searching to see if it could act as a tertiary supply source. This came up in China where a Japanese HQ was too far from a rail line to reach a port and then go overseas to Japan, but could reach the capital of an aligned minor country (e.g., Korea) and therefore was not finding (not even searching for) a path to a secondary supply source (e.g., another Japanese HQ which could find an overseas path back to Japan. The program now figures out that the HQ is a valid tertiary supply source.

Other

• Fixed several problems with playing with 3 and 4 monitors. Even if the monitors are different sizes, the program is capable of placing the Main form, Detailed Map, Global Map, and “Detailed Map Assist forms” on 4 different monitors. By Map Assist forms, I mean the Naval Review Details and Summary, Screen Layouts List, and Map Views List. In general, most of the forms still appear beneath the Main form (when there is room). Personally, I find using 4 monitors confusing. I keep having to swivel my head around to find what I am looking for. 3 is about my limit - [clearly I have no future as a stockbroker].
• Corrected some of the logic for displaying certain forms (Screen Layout List, Map View List, Global Map, Naval Review Details, and Naval Review Summary) so they appear within the available space for the monitor on which they are to appear.
• Added numerous checks for the US Entry Options variable being valid before checking for the value of individual options (e.g., whether Resources to China has been selected). This was causing problems in old Guadalcanal saved games where that variable had never been initialized.
• Added 3 new filters to the Unit Filter form. These are only available when in Debug mode and let you select units: Setting Up, Moving, and/or Removed. This helps to track bugs when units get stuck “On the Move” and “Setting Up”, and to eliminate all the “Been Removed” units when finding units not on the map.

NetPlay

• Fixed a problem with the Axis player clicking on the OK - Done button on the naval combat results form before the Allied player - after a naval combat has been completed. That now operates the same way as clicking on the OK - Done button in the Land Combat Results form. The program sends a Game Record Log to the other players and once they have all closed the form, the program proceeds to the next subphase.
• Fixed a couple of problems with declaring Vichy France when all the French minor countries go to Vichy.
• Fixed a problem with flying naval air support for the Axis side. Previously the program would halt after the Axis player clicked on the End-of-Phase button.
• Fixed several problems with ending naval combats. For instance, if all of one side’s naval units in the sea area were aborted/destroyed then the program was not proceeding to the next task of processing the naval abort queue.

[/ul]

ORIGINAL: Indirectlemon

Hi Everyone,

The next public beta for World in Flames v2.2.8.0 is now available in the Members Club

You mean v2.3.3.0 [:D]

Other

Fixed several problems with playing with 3 and 4 monitors. Even if the monitors are different sizes, the program is capable of placing the Main form, Detailed Map, Global Map, and “Detailed Map Assist forms” on 4 different monitors.

Cool! I've been wanting to get MWiF to work with 3 monitors for over 2-years and now it does! Talk about mismatch monitors! The second one I just added, is on the left and shows the global map, was an old 15 inch LCD that I've hooked up via VGA. The main (central) monitor is HDMI widescreen monitor connected directly to the video card on my PC. The third one, on the right and which I've been using for almost 3-years now is also an HDMI widescreen. It's physically a different size than my main monitor and is connected to my PC via an extra video card connected through USB. What a collection ... but I'm now able to run MWiF with three monitors. [:)]

ORIGINAL: Majorball68

ORIGINAL: Indirectlemon

Hi Everyone,

The next public beta for World in Flames v2.2.8.0 is now available in the Members Club

You mean v2.3.3.0 [:D]

Actually, the version number is 02.03.00.00.

Apparently there's a fatal bug with this version where you're unable to abort naval units that need to be aborted.

Will there be a hotfix coming out for this killer bug in a day or so?

Or do we need to revert back to the previous version?

By the way, game files saved with this version will not work with the previous version even when the version number in the game file is edited. So if you have to revert back then all play with this version is lost so it is crucial to know whether or not a hotfix is imminent.

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

Apparently there's a fatal bug with this version where you're unable to abort naval units that need to be aborted.

Will there be a hotfix coming out for this killer bug in a day or so?

Or do we need to revert back to the previous version?

By the way, game files saved with this version will not work with the previous version even when the version number in the game file is edited. So if you have to revert back then all play with this version is lost so it is crucial to know whether or not a hotfix is imminent.

Second that

Working on them today (and tomorrow if necessary) - Dec 24 & 25.

I'll post a Hot Patch once I've removed the bad apples from the code.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Working on them today (and tomorrow if necessary) - Dec 24 & 25.

I'll post a Hot Patch once I've removed the bad apples from the code.

Steve,

For my part this is very much appreciated but, with that said, PLEASE don't let this interfere with your Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

I have made some progress on the problems with version 02.03.00.00 but I still need to fix a couple of serious bugs in Naval Combat. It probably won;t be until tomorrow (Dec. 28 - Hawaii time) that I can make a decent Hot Patch available.



Here are my code changes to date - in raw form.

===

Changes Since Version 2.3.0.0
(as of December 3, 2016)
1. December 1, 2016 - Enabled the debugger.

Changes Since Version 2.3.0.1
(as of December 3, 2016)
2. December 3, 2016 - Added a couple dozen checks to make sure forms are not displayed twice by accident.

3. December 3, 2016 - Added some equal signs to checks for positioning forms on multiple monitors. Previously, having a form exactly against the left edge of a monitor could result in the form being displayed on a different monitor.

4. December 5, 2016 - Fixed a problem with the Selectable Units form where air units were not being listed during the Ground Strike phase if their only viable targets were partisan units.

5. December 5, 2016 - Fixed a problem with undoing paradrop missions so that the number of available land moves is correctly incremented.

6. December 6, 2016 - Fixed a problem with non-Chinese air units belonging to the Allied side being able to air rebase to Communist Chinese cities - ignoring FTC Limits.

7. December 8, 2016 - Added the ability to destroy land units whose only retreat hexes would violate FTC Limits. The mechanism used is that the warning message about the unit being “unable to retreat to a specific hex because it would violate FTC Limits” now includes the option to use the Backspace key to destroy the unit. This has to be used judiciously since the message occurs even if there is another hex (or hexes) where the unit could retreat safely. Since the enemy player controls where units retreat, this capability could be abused. I also modified the order in which units retreat so that HQ are always retreated first - this overrides whatever order the enemy player has chosen. By having the HQs retreated first, they might enable other units to retreat successfully by increasing the FTC Limits for the destination country. The specific case which this change in the code addresses is when the Commonwealth had to retreat from Belgium into France and did not have any HQs in France; hence the units would violate FTC Limits and have to be destroyed.

8. December 8, 2016 - Added the ability to destroy Vichy naval units whose only possible return to base ports would violate stacking. The mechanism used is that the warning message about the unit being “unable to return to base to a specific port because it would violate stacking limits” now includes the option to use the Backspace key to destroy the unit. This has to be used judiciously since the message occurs even if there is another port where the unit could safely return to base. The specific case where this occurred was when the only port controlled by Vichy France was occupied by Italian (i.e., non-cooperating) units.

9. December 8, 2016 - Fixed a problem with overrun air units having to rebase twice if there were also naval units that had to rebase.

10. December 8, 2016 - Fixed a problem with calculating Foreign Troop Limits for hexes in Metropolitan Vichy France when Vichy France does not exist. This came up in a game when a Spanish HQ (controlled by the Allies) moved into Metropolitan Vichy France.

11. December 8, 2016 - Enabled territorial units to move within conquered countries even when their home country is ‘neutral’.

12. December 9, 2016 - Fixed a cosmetic problem with reporting fractional odds for the 1D10 CRT in land combat. When the odds are precisely 1:2, the fractional odds are now shown as zero and no die roll is made.

13. December 12, 2016 - Added some code to restoring saved games so if country C has not been marked as conquered, yet its controlling major power has been completely conquered, then C is now marked as having the same conqueror as its controlling major power. This fixes a problem with Austria maybe not being marked as conquered when Germany is completely conquered. The bug had been causing the tertiary supply calculations to go into an infinite loop.

14. December 12, 2016 - Fixed a problem with doubled (by an O-chit) combat engineers not having their city modifier also doubled.

Changes Since Version 2.3.0.2
(as of December 13, 2016)
15. December 16, 2016 - Added a couple of checks to prevent fatal errors when selecting a sea area for naval combat - and the deciding major power for that sea area is blank.

16. December 17, 2016 - Added some more checks for no units in a hex (i.e., Hex Stack is nil) to avoid a fatal error when identifying the units in a hex.

17. December 17, 2016 - Added a line of code so naval units that start at sea during the Naval Movement phase and are intercepted have to fight through from the zero section box.

18. December 17, 2016 - Added some more checks to avoid a fatal error when there are no units available to Reform. Reform Units can occur as part of the preamble for the Production phase.

19. December 18, 2016 - Made some more checks for tertiary supply to avoid infinite loops. The particular case avoided by these changes are repeated attempts to find a secondary supply source for supply source S when S has already found an overland path to an aligned minor country’s (M) capital - which is a primary supply source for M’s units, but not for S itself. In this unusual case, S is out-of-supply but can still act as a supply conduit for units belonging M.

20. December 22, 2016 - Fixed an problem with calculating tertiary supply from the capitals of aligned minor countries overseas which was causing an infinite loop under special circumstances.

21. December 26, 2016 - Fixed a problem with restoring saved games for the Barbarossa scenario from the partisan phase where the restored game had the Commonwealth (i.e., not part of the scenario) as the deciding major power.

22. December 26, 2016 - Fixed a newly created problem with units belonging to member countries of the Commonwealth (United Kingdom) not being able to fly air missions.

23. December 26, 2016 - Fixed a problem with an air transport being able to load a disorganized para unit belonging to a cooperating major power.

24. December 26, 2016 - Fixed a newly created problem (by code added for NetPlay) with avoiding a naval combat causing the program to halt.

25. December 26, 2016 - Fixed a problem with units relocated out of Vichy France when Vichy France is created not being able to move in the subsequent impulse.

26. December 26, 2016 - Made a general fix following all Relocate Units events so that once a major power completes moving his units, their MPUsed (i.e., movement points used) is reset to zero so the units can move in the subsequent phases of the impulse.

27. December 26, 2016 - Fixed some problems with Support for Allied Minors by checking for minors controlled by other minors. For instance, NEI is a minor controlled by the Netherlands, but supporting NEI shouldn't count towards Allied minor support. The same is true for Spanish Morocco and Spain.