Hat Patch Version 02.08.01.00

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Attached is a zipped file that contains the new MWIF.exe: version 02.08.01.00. It also contains the Release Notes shown below.

The primary reason for this hot patch is to fix existing problems that players have run into. A secondary goal is to see if it performs well for numerous players, prior to making it a Public Beta. The ultimate objective is to make a new official release that includes fully functional code for NetPlay.

================

Release Notes for Version 02.08.01.00

All Modes of Play

Air Operations
1. Fixed a problem with Undoing a carrier air unit flying as a bomber in a port attack so that it remains organized once the Undo is completed.

2. Fixed a problem with carrier air units flying as bombers in a naval air combat mission returning to their carriers: they now return to their carrier (instead of being destroyed) and revert to a plane role of ‘undecided’. Note that if a carrier is damaged, its carrier air units cannot fly during naval air combat.

3. Fixed another problem with carrier air units having fought a naval air combat not being able to return to their carriers. This also fixes a problem with carrier air units appearing to be in two places at once.

Land Operations
4. Fixed a newly created problem with control of a hex not changing when a country retakes a hex in its home country.

Supply
5. Added some checks to prevent units that are out of supply from participating in air missions. This came up when a game was saved in the middle of an air mission phase, and recalculating supply when the game was restored correctly changed the supply status of some air units from in-supply to out-of-supply.

Peace
6. Added another check so surrendering major powers only generates half the US Entry markers as conquering them.

7. Fixed a problem with displaying the Activity Limits for the Allied side after China has been completely conquered.

8. Fixed a problem with enforcing peace between Finland and the USSR where German peacekeepers were being forced to relocate to hexes in Finnish Borderlands. This change also applies to Bessarabia when peace is enforced between Rumania and the USSR.

Vichy
9. Fixed a logic error which permitted Vichy units to stay at sea when Vichy isn’t Hostile. For most major powers, non-convoy units must return to base if the major power is neutral. For Vichy France, the rule is different: non-convoy units must return to base unless Vichy is Hostile to an Allied major power.

10. Fixed two problems with Vichy units defecting during land combat. The first was that attacking Vichy units were not checking for defection. The second was that if more than 1 defending Vichy unit defected, only one was removed from the map and placed in the Free French force pool. Neither of these problems now occurs.

Save/Restore
11. Fixed a problem with older saved games where French Indo-China partisans were controlled by the USSR, They are now controlled by Nationalist China.

12. Added some code so when a game is restored, any pilots in the Future Force Pool are moved into the Removed Pool (where they belong). This is merely a tidiness issue and should be inconsequential for game play.

13. Changed the NextEntryNumber when a game is restored so the restored game always picks up the numbering consecutively, instead of starting from zero again. Again, this is merely a tidiness issue and should be inconsequential for game play.

Cosmetic
14. Added the die roll values to the informative message when a sea area search is unsuccessful.

15. Moved the OK Done button on the Use Oil form away from it previous position close to the Reorganize All button so the form is less likely to be closed by accident.

16. Modified the message when a country surrenders to include whether the surrendered country is completely conquered or not.

17. Added informative text to the popup Unit Menu which shows the unit’s controlling major power. Most of the time this is obvious but in the case of Chinese partisan units in French Indo-China, their controlling major power is Nationalist China, not Communist China. That is, the Nationalist Chinese move those units, not the USSR. Chinese partisan units in China itself are Communist Chinese, hence their controlling major power is the USSR. The popup Unit Menu helps make this clear for each unit.

18. Modified the text in the Main form display of the naval combat subphases so they are less likely to be shown using a smaller than usual font size.

19. Added code so when a player is deciding to send naval air support, the program centers on the sea area where the combat is about to take place..

Head to Head Play

20. Fixed a (newish) problem where the game halted after Germany declared war on Poland.

21. Fixed a problem with the subphase not advancing to return bombers to base after resolving strategic bombing attacks.

22. Fixed a problem in Air Transport and Air Reorganization where after the defending player ended the Defender Intercept subphase, the game failed to return control to the phasing side.

NetPlay

Air Operations
23. Fixed a problem with avoiding a port attack when the possibility of air-to-air combat exists.

24. Fixed a problem with returning carrier are units to their carriers from a Port Attack when the attack was Avoided using surprise points. The problem was that the air unit only moved back to the carrier on one computer - belonging to the player that owned the air unit.

25. Fixed a problem with returning fighter interceptors to base after a strategic bombing mission.

26. Fixed a problem with the program not proceeding to a second ground strike after processing the first.

27. Made changes to the other 7 air mission phases that were made to Ground Strike so when there is more than 1 air-to-air combat, once the OK - Done button is pressed, (acknowledging that a combat is over), the program proceeds to the next air-to-air combat.

28. Fixed a more general problem with carrier bombers returning to their carriers after an air mission..

29. Fixed a bug in returning air units to base after an air-to-air combat.

30. Fixed a problem with air-to-air combat sometimes getting out-of-sync on the two computers, depending on the sequence in which the players acknowledge various messages. This change should prevent the players from having two messages to acknowledge on the screen at the same time.

31. Fixed a problem when both sides voluntarily abort land based air units from an air-to-air combat, which had been causing the program to halt.

32. Fixed a problem in air-to-air combat where if one side chose to Abort and the other side chose to Stay, the game would halt if the side that chose to Stay returned its fighters to base before the side that chose to Abort returned its air units to base.

33. Fixed another problem with terminating an air-to-air combat when one side aborts and the other side stays.

34. Added some checks to eliminate redundant displays of the Air-to-air Combat form after a combat has been completed (i.e., “Click on OK Done”).

35. Fixed a problem with the game halting after an air unit aborts due to anti-aircraft fire.

Naval Operations
36. Fixed a problem with naval units that were overrun and destroyed because they had nowhere to which to rebase remaining on the map on one of the computers.

37. Fixed a problem with selecting naval combats where if there were two of more major powers on the same side that needed to decide, and one major power chose not to initiate combat in any of its available sea areas, then the other player’s computer would not be updated that one major power had finished deciding. The game would hang up with computer knowing the phase was done while the data on the other computer indicated there were still decisions to be made.

38. Added a check to prevent naval search rolls from occurring twice. This was happening when both sides had to decide about committing subs in a sea area.

US Entry
39. Added a data field to the saved game file to record whether a die roll for drawing a US Entry marker should be made. This only affected when two declarations of war were made on the same major power (e.g., Germany and Italy DOW the USSR). Previously an incorrect extra die roll for a USE marker would always be made.

40. Added lines of code in multiple places to make certain that each US Entry Action which has been taken (e.g., Align French Indo-China) is recorded on all computers.

41. Eliminated an incorrect draw of a US Entry marker for the Japanese gaining control of a Chinese city when China is surrendered.

Offensive Chits
42. Fixed several problems with the use of Offensive Chits being lost during Port Attack CAP initialization. Now that information is written out to the saved game file and restored correctly if a game is saved and later restored.

43. Fixed a problem with Japan using an Offensive Chit for a super-combined.

44. Added a check to make sure the number of offensive chits never goes negative (e.g., to 255, which equals -1).

Declaration of War
45. Fixed a problem with the US declaring war on both Germany and Italy, when already at war with Japan.

46. Fixed a fatal problem with setting up the USSR reserves in Barbarossa.

Peace
47. Eliminated the repetitive refresh of the Main form on the Axis computer during Surrender.

48. Fixed a problem with surrendering a major power (completely conquered) where the major power remained in the game on the Axis computer.

49. Fixed a problem with surrendering a major power where control of a conquered saved Oil Point was only changing ownership on one of the computers.

50. Eliminated a redundant second change in ownership of a Chinese Warlord from China to Japan when China is surrendered.

Other
51. Added code when determining the major power owner of resources so if the current value is “No One” (i.e., a neutral country), the program still proceeds through the Use Oil phase cleanly.

[rkr1958]

Steve,

It appears that 2.8.1 is broken. See tm.asp?m=4462419

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

Steve,

It appears that 2.8.1 is broken. See tm.asp?m=4462419

I am working on this.

It was easy enough to fix the reported bug, but before I post a new HotPatch, I want to make sure there aren't any other problems with returning carrier air units to carriers.

I hope to get the new HotPatch out today (Friday - Hawaii time).

[rkr1958]

[&o]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

Steve,

It appears that 2.8.1 is broken. See tm.asp?m=4462419

I am working on this.

It was easy enough to fix the reported bug, but before I post a new HotPatch, I want to make sure there aren't any other problems with returning carrier air units to carriers.

I hope to get the new HotPatch out today (Friday - Hawaii time).

[&o]

[Shannon V. OKeets]

In the main World in Flames forum I posted the new Hot Patch - 02.08.02.00 - today.

I had it ready to go on Friday but I wanted to diagram all the calling sequences for returning carrier air units to their carriers (it happens in a lot of places in the game). After checking the logic flow of the code, I ran a dozen tests using a variety of saved games to make sure things were working correctly. Most of those runs were for NetPlay.

[davidachamberlain]

Thanks, Steve. I will give it a try.

I will never complain about additional time for due diligence.

Dave

[juntoalmar]

I haven't played for a while (although I read the forums for fun). If I wanted to get to the latest version do you recomend uninstall completely and start from scratch or just trying to update from the game to the latest version?

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: juntoalmar

I haven't played for a while (although I read the forums for fun). If I wanted to get to the latest version do you recomend uninstall completely and start from scratch or just trying to update from the game to the latest version?

My 2-cents ... I (personally) would not uninstall.

I'd first download the latest full version of MWIF, which is 2.07.00 tm.asp?m=4373022 and then install that.

Then I'd download the latest hot patch, 2.08.01 and apply that tm.asp?m=4461950 over the top of 2.07.00.

Personally, the way I apply a hot patch is first to make a copy of the MWIF.exe file, which is in the Matrix Games/World in Flames folder. In this case, I would name the copy 2.7.0.MWIF.exe. I then copy the MWIF.exe file from the hot patch over the top of the MWIF.exe in the Matrix Games/World in Flames folder. By keeping copies of that and all hot patch executables in between (which numbers 4 in this specific case) in the game program folder I can always run the current hot patch or any that I've copied including the original 2.7.0 version. To do that, I just directly double click on the version I wish to run.

[Courtenay]

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

ORIGINAL: juntoalmar

I haven't played for a while (although I read the forums for fun). If I wanted to get to the latest version do you recomend uninstall completely and start from scratch or just trying to update from the game to the latest version?

My 2-cents ... I (personally) would not uninstall.

I'd first download the latest full version of MWIF, which is 2.07.00 tm.asp?m=4373022 and then install that.

Then I'd download the latest hot patch, 2.08.01 and apply that tm.asp?m=4461950 over the top of 2.07.00.

Personally, the way I apply a hot patch is first to make a copy of the MWIF.exe file, which is in the Matrix Games/World in Flames folder. In this case, I would name the copy 2.7.0.MWIF.exe. I then copy the MWIF.exe file from the hot patch over the top of the MWIF.exe in the Matrix Games/World in Flames folder. By keeping copies of that and all hot patch executables in between (which numbers 4 in this specific case) in the game program folder I can always run the current hot patch or any that I've copied including the original 2.7.0 version. To do that, I just directly double click on the version I wish to run.

You want 2.08.02, not .01, as .01 has a disastrous new bug in it.

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: Courtenay

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

ORIGINAL: juntoalmar

I haven't played for a while (although I read the forums for fun). If I wanted to get to the latest version do you recomend uninstall completely and start from scratch or just trying to update from the game to the latest version?

My 2-cents ... I (personally) would not uninstall.

I'd first download the latest full version of MWIF, which is 2.07.00 tm.asp?m=4373022 and then install that.

Then I'd download the latest hot patch, 2.08.01 and apply that tm.asp?m=4461950 over the top of 2.07.00.

Personally, the way I apply a hot patch is first to make a copy of the MWIF.exe file, which is in the Matrix Games/World in Flames folder. In this case, I would name the copy 2.7.0.MWIF.exe. I then copy the MWIF.exe file from the hot patch over the top of the MWIF.exe in the Matrix Games/World in Flames folder. By keeping copies of that and all hot patch executables in between (which numbers 4 in this specific case) in the game program folder I can always run the current hot patch or any that I've copied including the original 2.7.0 version. To do that, I just directly double click on the version I wish to run.

You want 2.08.02, not .01, as .01 has a disastrous new bug in it.

Yes, 2.08.02 ... Thanks!

[juntoalmar]

Much appreciated explanation. Thanks!