Matrix Games Forums

After decades of proxy wars, the Middle East is on the verge of a war of dramatic consequences. Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have brought both countries to the point of mobilization!

The international community, divided and ineffective, can only watch as the largest conventional battle in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq is about to begin.



Black Gold Blitz, the seventh instalment in the Command LIVE series, has been released! This new episode explores a scenario in which religious, economic and political tensions between Tehran and Riyadh have reached a point of no return, and direct war seems unavoidable.

Grab the game now!

Just tried to purchase but it appears to be only available on Steam...

-C

Nope, already bought, downloaded, and installed from Matrix.

You also have to have 1.13.4 installed to install the scenario. I got that in the members' area

Nope, here's what's on my screen... Steam only.

-C

Same here. Cannot find a non-Steam version.

-Wayne Stiles

Sorry guys we had a technical glitch. We're in the process of getting it all back online now. Sorry for the delay!

Disregard, it just appeared after several tries. An uncharacteristic sloppy roll-out for a CMANO title; one can perhaps be forgiven for thinking that the release was booted out the door because of what's happening in the House of Saud right now.

-C

It was all live, but we were alerted to an issue so we turned it all off, then confirmed it was a false alarm and everything is in the process of coming back online. It takes a while for the servers to synch all the files and we didn't want anyone to get a broken version so better to turn it off while we verified all was ok.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Can we get a changelog for 1.13.4? Or was it just the scenario being added?

The change log is available on the change log button on the Matrix game run and update menu. I think its also available in the Command directory. It covers up to 1.13.5.

A copy of the Build 972.11 release notes is also available here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/321410/d ... 273167232/

Just started my playthough and I have 1 comment so far: Could you ungroup the Iranian IADS? Currently, while playing as Saudi Arabia, I need to go into unit view to see SAMs that I have detected or whose position was already known, making the screen more cluttered. I went in and did it myself, but it would be easier to do it on the official release so players aren't led to believe that there are no SAMs in an area where there actually are, but can't be seen unless in unit view.

Looking forward to this. (Also changeable weather and breakdowns).

ORIGINAL: Malafon

Looking forward to this. (Also changeable weather and breakdowns).

Malafon, you do know you can add these with lua correct?[:)]

Mike

Got it and spooling up the RSAF for the first round of airstrikes of the day. Peninsula air defenses on high alert. Will start south and work my way north. Looks like a lot of fun!

Yes, and that is a wonderful feature from a great company. But I am a game-player, not a programmer.
Without wanting to be rude, I pay you/them to make the game, not to programme it myself.
Breakdowns and weather were a feature in Harpoon 3. I'm genuinely interested and honestly not trolling when I wonder why this is so hard to add in the standard out-of-the-box game decades later? Apologies if this seems ungrateful for your hard work, that is NOT my intention.

I have said this multiple times. Lua is there so that features that aren't built into the interface can still be accessed. There is a wishlist thread available to vote and make your opinion known without sounding ungrateful. If X feature is important enough to you, go to that thread and vote, play Harpoon, live without it and enjoy Command, script a lua function, or convince someone else to script it for you. While comparing to Harpoon, how would you go about getting a feature added that isn't there now?

The devs can't put in everyone's personal high priority feature, function, or obsession immediately. Use the forums, other members, or your own skills to do what the devs don't have time to do now. In fact changing weather and breakdowns are things I think might have already been done by other players.

One small piece of advice, knowing you aren't really ungrateful, maybe don't jump into a release thread, make a stab at your pet features, and then compare the game to Harpoon. That comes across as ungrateful. There are already threads that are perfect for talking about these particular features and other wants. Or start another thread so it can stay on topic. You are free to do as you see fit, just some advice.

ORIGINAL: Malafon
Breakdowns and weather were a feature in Harpoon 3.

Since you mention those, it's fair to point out that neither of them actually worked.

ORIGINAL: thewood1
Lua is there so that features that aren't built into the interface can still be accessed.
[...]
The devs can't put in everyone's personal high priority feature, function, or obsession immediately. Use the forums, other members, or your own skills to do what the devs don't have time to do now. In fact changing weather and breakdowns are things I think might have already been done by other players.

^ This.

The Lua API was specifically added and expanded to allow for things that the dev team hasn't gotten around to yet, for one-offs that are needed on a specific scenario but don't really apply anywhere else, and/or items that for one reason or another are not currently available through the simulation or UI. (This also covers mechanics that are difficult to present in a graphical user interface; if you go through the methods currently listed on the Lua docs site and try to put them up in a GUI, you may end up with something like THIS).

Take comms jamming (not disruption) as a recent example. Some people have been asking for it. It's natively included in the professional edition, but not available on the commercial version. But it was really needed for the Bekaa Valley scenario in Shifting Sands, as it was a decisive factor in Israeli tactics. So a Lua script was added that models it. It's far less elaborate than the PE-integrated real-deal, but it gets the job done quite well. You can copy that script from the scenario, adapt it and use it on any scenario in which you need the same feature. I think it beats waiting for the dev team to make the feature available through "normal" game mechanics.

Cheers.