SPWAW Executable Patch and Editor Beta Release

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

[am holding off release for a day or two while making a few more changes]

Decided to let you gentle folk know where things are at. Have been very busy with War Plan Orange, the War in the Pacific patch and War in the East. Did get a little time and worked on the SPWaW editor. Am going to give it and the bit I worked on the executable to the production folks to release for public beta?

Here is what I did:

SPWaW 8.41 Patch Notes

1) Made it a bit harder to spot enemy units, especially at range one or zero.
2) Allowed the German artificial intelligence purchase routine a little more armor.
3) Sniper units may no longer close assault vehicles.
4) Sometimes the player setup side was incorrect, when assaulting beaches. Fixed.
5) The in game save menu button now automatically saves the Mega-Campaign. This might be useful, if the player has been experiencing CTD and wishes to save without having to exit the scenario.


SPWaW Editor vs. 5.0 Menu Batch Option Features

1) Fix Known File Data Entry Errors: Changes the HEAT rounds in infantry anti-tank units from HEAT ammunition to the AP ammunition the program expects, deletes any APCR rounds in units if the weapon APCR maximum range is zero (a crash to desk top bug) or the weapon APCR penetration value is zero, deletes any HEAT rounds in units if the HEAT penetration value is zero, makes all bicycle and motorcycle units size one, cavalry units size two, changes non-vehicular size zero units of 5 or more men to size one, changes any size zero anti-tank guns or mortars to size one and changes some size one infantry and machine gun units of four or fewer men to size zero.

2) Set Control factors to Programmer Convention: Changes fire control, range finder, gun stabilizer and infra-red vision values to consistent values. Please note that the “88mm FlaK18” gun had an analog computer range finder. This explains the 8 range finder. (The program looks for a size 3, German anti-aircraft or heavy anti-aircraft gun, and if it finds one changes the value. If not, then you may have to enter the value manually). The “PzKpfw-Vg Uhu” Panther tank changes the IR Vision value to 5, due to an infra-red lamp and detector. If you have changed the name of this vehicle (originally in slot #35, you will need to enter the value manually). The gun stabilizer values granted American light tanks, tanks and tank destroyers starts at four, for units entering service after 1941 and increases to eight for those units entering service after 1943. Vehicular unit size modifications could not be made, as the program cannot determine the vehicle size from other data in data base.

3) Standardize Small Arms & Artillery Ammunition: Changes infantry type small arms, machine guns, mortars, on map and off map artillery out loads to standardized values. Please note that infantry type units entering service in the early war for the Soviet Union and the late war for Germany receive less ammunition, American army infantry type units receive more ammunition and all other countries receive the standard. For machine guns, on map and off map artillery, American army unit receives more, Soviet army units receive less and all others receive the standard. Scouts, headquarters units, gun crews, second line units, special forces, guerillas and the like always receive less.

4) Recalculate Costs for Units in this File: Changes unit costs for all units based on unit class, smoke discharger presence, crew size, unit size, carry capacity, land or air speed, amphibious speed, survival value, rate of fire, infra-red vision ability, gun stabilizer value, range finder, fire control, firepower and armor. The armor recalculation considers amount, type, slope and location of the armor. The firepower factor considers the maximum range and accuracy and other capabilities of each weapon, as well as the number of rounds the unit carries for each weapon, up to sixty rounds for some weapon type and ammunition and a lesser number for others. Please note that ammunition is a factor in calculating costs, so an German 88mm anti-air craft with zero rounds of ammunition (code does not care about the unit name) is evaluated as a size three (vehicular size, very easy to hit, soft target) group of eleven men armed with fists and unable to move and with a rate of fire of only five, not able to swing very quickly and a kill factor of zero, giving a net unit cost of one (for effort). So, when trying to figure out how values were derived, please look at ammunition, rate of fire and other factors not normally obvious.

Hope this information is of use to you...

Michael Wood
Lead Programmer,
Matrix Games

[FNG]

Thank you very, very much! [&o]

[Warrior]

Sounds interesing, looking forward to trying the changes in play.

[Orzel Bialy]

Thanks for putting in those extra hours on this project Mike...much appreciated! [;)]

[IBTyrone]

Way to go, Mike! Your work is greatly appreciated!!!!

[&o]

[chief]

Mike: Again a Large Thank You, for your time, effort, and patience. Danke, Merci, Dai Jobe and Gracis (I think I'm correct).[8D]

[KG Erwin]

Wow!! The final version has even more "stuff" in it than I ever thought was possible.

Thanks, Michael. You have done the OOB designers a fantastic service. [&o]

[soldier]

I wonder why motorcycle platoons are reduced in size ?
I would have thought the motorcycle/sidecar combination would be much easier to spot and hear than normal foot soldiers
sounds like some nteresting changes

[Korpraali V]

[&o] Eager to play it!

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

You are correct, in that the issue is not a bug and could be debated. As such, will move the resizing code to "Set Control factors to Programmer Convention" and change name to "Set Factors to Programmer Convention".

The point of the editor work was the unit cost recalculating routine. Added the set control factor routine (2), to standardize units, so could test the recalculating work. Then added the bug fix routine (1), because when looking at values created, was finding data base typos that could interfere with game code functions. Added the ammunition standardizing routine (3), because kept finding units with weapons with no ammunition. When started, there was only one routine. Then divided it into several. Left out a number of debugging items, including a routine that checks for cross file weapon discrepancies and one that corrects vehicle sizes, because they might be intentional.

Still working on a few more items. Am adding to the bug fixing routine:

1) Remove AP ammunition if no AP penetration value is found for weapon. Editor already bullet proofed against charging for such, but game artificial intelligence will still use the AP rounds, even though penetration is zero (a nerf ball attack).

2) Change armor slope to zero, if found to be ninety. That would be a completely horizontal slope, sort of two dimensional. Will not crash game, but effective armor can end up being a 15 digit number.

3) If weapon is found with no ammunition, give it a little.

Thanks...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: soldier

I wonder why motorcycle platoons are reduced in size ?
I would have thought the motorcycle/sidecar combination would be much easier to spot and hear than normal foot soldiers
sounds like some nteresting changes

[Huffy]

Thanks Michael...

[Alby]

Everything looks excellent..
Thanks Mike
[:)]

[264rifle]

Mr. Wood: Let me thank you for all your hard work on the SPWAW game. But could you please recheck your sources for the German 88. It quite probably had a range finder (that slightly over 1 meter tube that one man is holding in a chest/shoulder mount in many pictures of German AA guns.) And it quite probably had an analog computer ( dials ,cams and gears) for use against Aircraft. Actually used for predicting aim point for time of flight of 5-20 sec. Not sure on that. Also used for setting time fuses in automatic fuse setting device. Several books (maybe by same author so really only one source?) that German AA units hated to "loan out" 88s for anti-tank use because they seldom got them back and if they did they were missing the fuse setters, predictors and other AA fire control equipment making them unuseable as AA guns. While AA equipment was very sophisticated all but the rangefinder may have been useless for Anti-tank use?? This maynot change numbers just reason for number??

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

A possible solution might be for the OOB fellow to make an anti-tank version with high AP and low HE ammunition, called an anti-tank gun and an anti-aircraft version with high HE and low AP ammuntion, called an anti-aircraft gun.

That way, the AAA version will be able to hit planes better (it is, after all, an anti-aircraft gun), but not the anti-tank version.

In the 8.31 version of the OOB, some one did just that. My editor routine correctly gave the really good range finder to the AAA version, but not to the other version.

Bye...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: 264rifle

Mr. Wood: Let me thank you for all your hard work on the SPWAW game. But could you please recheck your sources for the German 88. It quite probably had a range finder (that slightly over 1 meter tube that one man is holding in a chest/shoulder mount in many pictures of German AA guns.) And it quite probably had an analog computer ( dials ,cams and gears) for use against Aircraft. Actually used for predicting aim point for time of flight of 5-20 sec. Not sure on that. Also used for setting time fuses in automatic fuse setting device. Several books (maybe by same author so really only one source?) that German AA units hated to "loan out" 88s for anti-tank use because they seldom got them back and if they did they were missing the fuse setters, predictors and other AA fire control equipment making them unuseable as AA guns. While AA equipment was very sophisticated all but the rangefinder may have been useless for Anti-tank use?? This maynot change numbers just reason for number??

[tracer]

Thanks for all the time and work you've put into this Mike; it's greatly appreciated!

[Goblin]

Great job Mike! Especially the artillery scrolling fix!!!! I won't have to dread using the arty/spec forces/para menus anymore! Kudos!


Goblin[:)]

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

This is certainly a more pleasant site than some I have recently visited.

Your welcome...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: Goblin

Great job Mike! Especially the artillery scrolling fix!!!! I won't have to dread using the arty/spec forces/para menus anymore! Kudos!


Goblin[:)]

[Goblin]

Lol, true Mike, true. But when you fix something like that, you deserve accolades heaped upon your shoulders![:)] That fix will be universally loved.[:D]


Goblin

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

I decided to add a optional feature to the editor, which would allow the OOB author to recalculate unit costs based on unit abilities. I added a few menu items, so that I could set all the small arms and artillery ammunition for units in the file, set the control factors to those which the program expects and fix a some obvious typos in the file. This would allow me to compare apples to apples, when evaluating how well my recalculating function was working. These debugging functions seemed to work well, so I decided to leave them in, as an option for the OOB author. Might save him some work. Might not. He would not have to use them, at all. And, if he did, he could manually change some values that he felt the ones generated by the function were out of whack.

Well, some folks at another site were not very happy about it.

Glad you liked the fix. I got it off the forum, where I get most ideas for changes. Like to keep the customers happy.

Bye...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: Goblin

Lol, true Mike, true. But when you fix something like that, you deserve accolades heaped upon your shoulders![:)] That fix will be universally loved.[:D]


Goblin

[Goblin]

I think that the likes of gamers are not based on the site they post at, but rather a fear of the game changing towards what they believe might be the negative, or towards the unknown. I think the biggest worry is caused by the latter.

Your periodic updates are much appreciated also, as they help alleviate the fear of the unknown. You will always have people disagree with change, myself included sometimes. Often that fear disappears when they get to try the newest version.

Regardless of what people post here, The Depot, or where ever, you are making many positive changes that are appreciated.


Goblin