Matrix Games Forums

As I understand it, Mike submitted a"patch" for the mech.exe around May 1st or 2nd.
Can someone please let us know the status of this?
Thanks

Mike just sent me another update last night, it should be out soon as SPWAW v8.4. I'd say mid-late next week.

Regards,

- Erik

SPWAW 8.4 [X(]

Great news, Thanks..
What else did Mike do to the mech??
do you know??

Thanks again for the update.

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Mike just sent me another update last night, it should be out soon as SPWAW v8.4. I'd say mid-late next week.

Regards,

- Erik

Woo-hoo! Maybe my designation of my latest USMC OOB update to 8.4 wasn't wishful thinking after all. Thanks for the info, Erik.

To avoid confusion, though, any OOB changes will NOT be part of the patch. My update was done independently.

Michael explained his changes to the mech.exe elsewhere. I salute him for deciding to revisit the code, and we will have a better game as a result of his changes.

Time to celebrate!

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Mike just sent me another update last night, it should be out soon as SPWAW v8.4. I'd say mid-late next week.

Regards,

- Erik

To avoid confusion, though, any OOB changes will NOT be part of the patch. My update was done independently.

Michael explained his changes to the mech.exe elsewhere. I salute him for deciding to revisit the code, and we will have a better game as a result of his changes.

Time to celebrate!

Yes he explained his earlier changes...I wonder whats in the latest update he sent to Erik??[X(]

Alby, if he changed anything else, I have no clue about it. We'll all be surprised together.

Good morning Gunny,poped in to see if anybody knew anymore about this patch cause I started a long camp against old AI in january of 42, as a USMC co command with my usual habbit of toying with the nationality switch composed a marine and U.S. army combined 3800 point force. This was 4 months ago! and eventhough the playing time has lessend from works requirements have only played 4 battles,the biggest reason being I've gotten 4 draws!!!!???? It doesn't make any sence to me until I heard others had these issues like unloaded passengers from hit or under fire AFV's or transports gingerly kicking your A** after just being blowen out of their rides,,. Did Luzon,Java,Battan and I'm finding it very difficult to counter the jab,thrust and hook with extremely heavy and accurate heavy Arrty and light to meddium tank pokes that can dance threw my mines and take reasonally accurate hits from my meagerly experienced troops and eqiupment to counter?? RT THIS JUNGLE FIGHTIN INTHE EARLY YEARS IS HARD CRAP THEY GOT ALL THE ADVANTAGES FROM EXPERIENCE IN MONGOLIA AND NORTHERN CHINA AND YES THE HISTORICAL PREF IS ON, IMHO MC ARTHUR WAS A PUTZ!!!!! RT

Riun, one of the changes involves the types of missions you will be given in a long campaign. You started in December 41, didn't you? As the USMC, I don't recommend that--it's better if you start in August 42, with Guadalcanal, for several reasons--the USMC base garrisons in 41 were designed specifically for defense missions. The true mission of the Marines was redefined in the 30s, as becoming an amphibious assault force, but other interests led to the Marines being pulled in several different directions, leading to the 1941 division being a multi-purpose organization, with attached Parachute, Raider (commando) and tank battalions. That being said, Allied countries in long campaigns will more likely draw defend/delay missions in long campaigns during the early war (1940-42).

For other countries, it is less likely that the Germans in the latter-war battles (44-45) will be given advance/assault missions. For long-campaign fans, like me, it's a welcome change.

The other changes Michael submitted are more subtle, BUT, none of this will affect the campaigns/scenarios you are currently playing. All you gotta do is replace the old mech.exe with the new one (when it becomes available), and you're good to go.

ORIGINAL: Riun T

I'm finding it very difficult to counter the jab,thrust and hook with extremely heavy and accurate heavy Arrty and light to meddium tank pokes that can dance threw my mines and take reasonally accurate hits from my meagerly experienced troops and eqiupment to counter?? RT THIS JUNGLE FIGHTIN INTHE EARLY YEARS IS HARD CRAP THEY GOT ALL THE ADVANTAGES FROM EXPERIENCE IN MONGOLIA AND NORTHERN CHINA AND YES THE HISTORICAL PREF IS ON, IMHO MC ARTHUR WAS A PUTZ!!!!! RT

I absolutely agree with two of your points--one, the Japanese artillery is much better than in real life, BUT, it realistically reflects their improvements in the tough days of 1944-45 (Peleliu-Iwo Jima-Okinawa). For the 1941-43 period, you just have to deal with it.

MacArthur-- a self-promoting egotistical jerk, BUT, he had some strategic acumen-- I'm still struggling with a balanced appreciation of him. Then again, I still hold mixed opinions on USMC legend Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller and his tactical methods.

Sorry to stray off-topic, but honest appraisals of military commanders are very difficult --they all had their bad days, even Napoleon, Robert E. Lee and Patton.

Here's what I have, excerpted from the readme Mike sent:

SPWaW 8.40 Patch Notes


1) Fixed a bug which could allow size zero units with only one man left to appear as snipers in some combat and spotting routines.
2) Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the program, when generating maps in the editor, for any campaign or battle, with the Victory Frontage option turned off, to place the three victory hex clusters in unexpected locations. Please note that Victory Frontage off is useful for company to battalion sized battles and Victory Frontage on is useful for regimental or brigade sized battles.
3) Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the game to crash when starting a battle in the long World War II campaign, if playing or fighting the Germans.
4) Fixed a bug which prevented units riding on vehicles or in soft vehicles from taking damage, when the vehicle was hit by fire.
5) Adjusted base experience and morale values used for creation of leaders and units. These are minimum values, to which a random number is added. See tables, below.
6) Made it a bit easier to spot enemy units, especially at range one of zero.
7) Rewrote the code that chooses if the player mission is advance or assault in the long WWII Campaign and campaigns created using the Campaign Generator. Decreased the likelihood of Allied armies in the early war and Axis powers in the late war.
8) Changed the way reinforcement points are generated in the long WWII Campaign. Instead of having a maximum of 1/15th the value of the players force, the value is now 1/10th of the enemy force. The reasoning here is that reinforcements are more needed when the player is outnumbered, such as in a defend mission, than when he has the dominate force, such as in an advance mission.
9) In 1944 of the long WWII campaign, the computer opponent will receive more troops, if the human is playing Axis and fewer, if he is playing Allied. This effect becomes greater in 1945.
10) Rewrote bit of code that determines where a unit will move. In meeting engagements, if a unit was closer to a friendly hex than an enemy hex, it would move towards that hex. When visibility was high, that put most friendly units closer the friendly hex and most would move to that friendly hex and mill around. Now they will only move towards a friendly hex if there are no enemy hexes left or they are very close to the friendly hex, else they will move towards an enemy hex.
11) Altered the equations some for determining visibility in random battles, eliminating extreme ranges and very short ranges are less frequent (less than 5 or more than 40). Computer opponent artificial intelligence was having difficulty setting up, in these cases.
12) Reduced visibility in sand storms in the desert by a significant amount in random battles.
13) Modified how the German computer opponent picks troops in the long World War II campaign. Uses same pick lists, but picks in a slightly different fashion. Very small battles were using odd choices, since the unit costs have arisen in some orders of battle.

Thanks Erik!!!
and Mike!!!
[:D]

Yes! Now it's REALLY time to celebrate. Thank you, Michael.[&o]

Time to crank up some Stones :"Yeah, hear the diesels drummin, all down the line"

Crank up your engines, gentlemen. For us infantry fans, let's lock and load.

And....

REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

[:D]

ORIGINAL: Alby

And....

REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

[:D]

And Enterprise! And Hertz![:'(]

There were some changes as listed in Michael's earlier posts. I've been receiving each new modification and trying to review it. As Erik says, it should be out in June. None of the changes should affect current scenarios done in 8.1 and above.

One of the biggest changes for me and something the designers should consider is the changing of morale and experience values and its effect on the fighting abilities of the various nations included. They are lower than they were.

WB

ORIGINAL: Goblin

ORIGINAL: Alby

And....

REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

[:D]



And Enterprise! And Hertz![:'(]

[:@][:@][:@]

Hey Gob, actually its a good movie, you should check it out....[:D]

But I know how it ends...[:(]

ORIGINAL: Wild Bill

One of the biggest changes for me and something the designers should consider is the changing of morale and experience values and its effect on the fighting abilities of the various nations included. They are lower than they were.

WB

If designer's test their scenarios a minimum of 5 times themselves before giving it to other tester's, it should be no problem.

ORIGINAL: Goblin

But I know how it ends...[:(]

[:@]
Actually they show the end at the begining...everyone knows the end...
its the developement of the characters that makes the movie
How Crockett is not the great warrior of myth and legend...but actually grows into the legndary Crockett
How Travis, lauged at and ignored in the begining, becomes a good and respected leader...
It shows the many faults of these men....not the super good, bigger than life heros of the John Wayne version..
anyway..check it out...you wont be disppointed...especially in the Battle scenes...[X(]

For the long campaign lovers--you guys will REALLY love the new mech.exe (still in testing phase). With the lower exp levels for the US Army & USMC during 1941-42, and with true troop ON/rarity OFF, you can buy a HUGE core force, if you so choose.

Using those settings, I bought my "usual" USMC core force (which used up most of the 4280 default buy-points in 8.3). Now, I have 4350 buy-points, and the new exp settings gave me over 1300 points left over, which could potentially double the size of my infantry force (from three companies to six).

I didn't do this, but there IS a trade-off: I usually start my campaigns in 1942, but the Gyrenes are now fairly green, as they should be during that time-frame. However, it is also more likely that they will be given defend/delay missions, which was indeed the case for the opening stages of Watchtower.

Some guys may not like this, but I think it's more realistic. The days of 100+ experience levels for some of the "elites" of the USMC (Raiders/Paras) during the early days of the Pacific War are over.

Same goes for the US Army, too. If you decide to start a long campaign in November 1942 (with the invasion of North Africa), expect your guys to have a much tougher time against the battle-hardened Wehrmacht, or even the Vichy French.

The net result is making the inexperienced Americans learn the hard way, as they had to do in real life.

OK--1st battle, USMC long campaign, Tenaru-defend mission 8/12/42: whereas my average experience level in 8.3 campaigns was 78-79 (way too high) at the beginning, it is now 59 (that's more like it, considering that maybe only 10% of the entire 1st Marine Division had ANY previous combat experience in the 30s).