Armored Brigade v1.006 Public Beta!

[Tamas]

Hi Everyone,

The Armored Brigade team have been busy working on a lot of improvements and fixes.

Before we officially release these, we would like to confirm our tests that everything works as it should.

If you are interested in helping us test the update before it becomes official, you can download it from THIS LINK, or grab it from the MEMBERS AREA if you have it registered.

If you post your feedback in a new thread, please start he thread title with "[1.006 public beta]".

Thank you!

You can read the list of changes below:

Code: Select all

Fix: The Polish ZPU-2 AA-gun wreck sprite was misnamed.
 Fix: Helicopters always returned to the battle position #1 after HQ CAS.
 [engine] Implement the helicopter covered/quickest path mode option.
 [engine] Improve the wedge, vee, line and echeloned line formations. There's much less movement between the formation left/right sides, especially with large formations.
 [engine] Implement the 'fortified' (not dug-in) scenario defence level option.
 [engine] Allow the battle go on without a limit after the end conditions have been reached.
 [engine] Implement the 'seek cover' SOP option.
 [engine] Implement the message action options system.
 [engine] Implement the 'enemy ground unit spotted' message.
 [engine] Implement the 'orient listener with the locked unit' audio option.
 [engine] The illumination flare brightness is limited when the flares overlap.
 [engine] Add more map editor mode terrain type hotkeys.
 [scenarios] Add the 'Winterburan' scenario.
 [ui] Store all the battle event messages and allow mouse wheel scrolling on the message list.
 [ui] Show the ammunition details when the mouse cursor is on the unit weapon info panel.
 [ui] Add the 'fire all' buttons for artillery HE, DPICM and illumination rounds.
 [ui] Update the SOP menu button style.
 [ui] Show explosion icons for artillery and mortar shells and bombs.
 [ui] When moving helicopters, scroll the screen automatically to the selected helicopter battle position.
 [ui] Show the helicopter BP/TRP name when designating them or moving helicopters.
 [ui] Show the 'player character' hint less often.
 [ui] Show the on-map mortar and artillery minimum and maximum ranges and the illumation shell radius when setting the target area.
 [ui] Update hotkey: 'Custom fast compression': Ctrl+Tab.
 [ui] Update the blue map location label color.
 [ui] Update the credits.
 

[22sec]

Awesome! Will give it a look.

[Veitikka]

There's one issue in the new helicopter system: If the BP 1 and 2 are in the same location the helicopters will start circling around without getting anywhere when they try to change the battle position. This will be fixed in the official patch, no need to report it.

[noooooo]

[&o]

[22sec]

The new helicopter path finding was fun to watch the first time. It definitely changes the dynamic of helicopters, in particular selecting the covered path means it takes a longer time to arrive at the BP. That should force players to plan ahead accordingly. How does the AI determine which path type its choppers will use?

[thewood1]

Great update. The UI changes around events and auto-pauses helps manage the game so much better. Its almost a different game to me.

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: thewood1

Great update. The UI changes around events and auto-pauses helps manage the game so much better. Its almost a different game to me.

Thanks man. I very much appreciate you for following this project.

[22sec]

ORIGINAL: thewood1

Great update. The UI changes around events and auto-pauses helps manage the game so much better. Its almost a different game to me.

I only had a minute today, so just checked out the helicopter flight paths. I did set up the auto-pauses, and looking forward to how they effect how I play the game.

[mmacguinness]

Excellent. Reforming formations hugely improved.
Lost tanks 3 and 5 in company line formation, remainder just smoothly closed ranks without changing relative positions.

other added options to pause or go to 1:1 time very useful too.

[zacklaws]

A big improvement.

Only issue I saw was "Allow the battle go on without a limit after the end conditions have been reached." it never happened. The battle ended as usual with no option to continue unless I missed it. This was with one of the ready made scenario. When I find time, I will recheck.

Another issue was in the message box, "enemy rotary wing aircraft" was being reported for sightings etc, but I noticed that when they was shot down, nothing was reported in the message box to state that fact. As I do not bother with helicopters etc, this issue may have existed for a while in other versions so I would not have noticed it.

[mmacguinness]

I got the "Allow the battle go on without a limit after the end conditions have been reached." message, but didn't choose to continue.

the message log has never reported aircraft losses
Also, aircraft are not included in the OOB. They only way to assess aircraft effectiveness is to tot up the individual unit kill credits in the OOB and compare it to the Summary, any difference being the Aircraft's kills.

Has there been any change to the victory level assessment? The battle I played was called as a draw though I still had most of my tanks, I had destroyed all enemy tanks and had way more firepower. Another few minutes, he would have been wiped out. My losses were moderate, I was in command of the field, at worst I would call it Tactical Victory.

[zacklaws]

Just confirming, (Version 1.006), reference:- ""Allow the battle go on without a limit after the end conditions have been reached." It is not happening when I play the scenario "Rear Guard". Tried the last autosave 3 times, the battle ends with the summary, view replay or exit battle. Unless the option to carry on is somewhere else that I cannot see or is it not possible to carry on a premade scenario?

Another oddity I noticed. When I played the scenario the first time, the victory level for the players side had all gone, no green showing for a long time and I expected a defeat but the game kept playing, and instead it was a victory for the player.

But when I replay the last minute or two of the autosave, I still have a good bit of green showing still but it only appears after the scenario finishes.

Tried adding the autosave file but the forum will not allow it as it is not supported.

Note in the picture, no green showing for the players side at the top

[zacklaws]

End of the scenario.

For the players side, green is now showing.

Also no option to carry the battle on, if it is supposed to be displayed at this stage.

[zacklaws]

And the summary, still no option to carry on.

[zacklaws]

Having now played a couple of my own generated battles, I get the option to resume the battle, it seems with the "stock" scenario, it jumps to the 2nd picture above with the message " the battle has reached its conclusion. Whereas with my own scenario's, that menu does not pop up till I have clicked on "exit battle" bottom right

[22sec]

Love the changes to the in-game map editor.

[Perturabo]

ORIGINAL: zacklaws

End of the scenario.

For the players side, green is now showing.

Also no option to carry the battle on, if it is supposed to be displayed at this stage.

That's "Cancel" XD .

[zacklaws]

That's "Cancel" XD .

That never worked, I tried everything to all avail. If, I recall, I went into a loop. Press "Cancel" the menu would clear and "Resume" at the top would change to "Summary"

But, I may have found out what was wrong this morning..... possibly a corrupt installation up to V1.006.

This morning when I started the game, it failed to load, lots of error messages, to fast to read.
After it failed to load, it restarted itself, this time managed to see one of the messages and it referred to a "rifle sound missing or failing to load" or something on those lines and before I could read the rest of the error messages it crashed again and started to reboot and loaded correctly.

Anyway, to ensure everything is OK, I reinstalled from afresh and it all seems to be working now as it should.

Also regarding the scenario, "Rear Guard", I found that it does not need any player input to have "Total Victory". This morning, I loaded it, pressed start, set it to fast, left it for a couple of hours and I had "Total Victory". In fact it did better than what I was achieving and more units left. Plus, there would have been no artillery, mortar or helicopter support for the player. Maybe that should be a test for any scenario maker who creates a defensive scenario, let the game run out on its own, see what the outcome is, and then readjust it.

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: 22sec

How does the AI determine which path type its choppers will use?

Currently the AI opponent selects the path type randomly.

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: zacklaws

Only issue I saw was "Allow the battle go on without a limit after the end conditions have been reached." it never happened. The battle ended as usual with no option to continue unless I missed it. This was with one of the ready made scenario. When I find time, I will recheck.

In the 'end battle' window you click 'OK' and the AAR phase starts. If you click 'CANCEL' then the action phase keeps going on, even if the victory/defeat/etc. condition has been reached.