Progress Report

[Arjuna]

Hi all,

Crete ExPack

I thought you may like to know that we finished mapping the three battle areas on Crete yesterday. Xavier and Sean have done a very nice job on the Iraklion, Retimo and Maleme maps. Steve has finished the estabs and template scenario, which includes the force list. He has also finished the first draft of the initial Iraklion scenario, although I've got to sort out one minor bug with it. We plan to do our first Crete beta build on Monday and make this available to the Panther Prowlers ( our beta testers ). While they're putting it through its paces Steve will be designing the other scenarios. Then we'll release another build and so on until it's all 100% ready to go.

BFTB

I've been up to my eyeballs in resupply code this week. I now know why we left it out of the first two games. [;)] I should have a first cut up and running next week, touch wood! It's looking very swich. We'll be tracking every bullet and litre of petrol. Units will reassess periodically whether they need more supplies and if so put a request in to their supply base. the Base will also periodically assess what requests it can meet and despacth transport columns carryin the supplies. These will attempt to move along a supply route to the unit and if successful they will then transfer the supplies to the unit and then return to the base. Simple really, isn't it. [;)]

The supply columns will not be represented as units and you won't see them on the map per se. However, they will trace a route factoring in enemy firepower and unit locations. They will suffer losses in trucks, personnel and supplies. They may even be blocked from getting through. They may even be trapped on the wrong side of a river if a bridge is blown and may have to wait till it's rebuilt before returning back to base.

We are still refining our thoughts on the interface and we'll probably progress this in stages, depending on available time. Initially we will provide a means for the you to select a unit and display a link line to its base. The colour of the line indicating whether it is free of enemy influence, under threat or blocked. Eventually we would like to display the actual route being used and the location where it is first blocked( if at all ). We also plan to provide you with a means of setting the resupply priority ( high, medium or low ) for an order, which will influence the liklihood of any requests from that force getting fulfilled.

New Panther Website

Paul and Chris have been beavering away on our new website. www.panthergames.com. Feedback welcomed.

[Willard]

Arjuna--

Thanks for the update.
I cant wait for additional info and for the new releases.

[Tzar007]

Yes indeed,

Thanks for this very interesting update. The resupply system sounds very interesting, and I especially like the feature that allows you to specify supply priorities.

[Guz]

Great to hear on the progress!

[PaulWRoberts]

Sounds great! It seems like a good system. Moving actual convoys around (and back) in real time would have added a lot to the player's workload.