2.4 Patch Released!

[jeffs]

Will you guys rerelease 2.4 any time soon without the Coastwatcher problem? It really is pretty unusable if the problem is still there. We understand it is a pain and takes time, but we definitely would appreciate it.

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

Fixing now. Will have new emergency patch out soon.

Bye...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: jeffs

Will you guys rerelease 2.4 any time soon without the Coastwatcher problem? It really is pretty unusable if the problem is still there. We understand it is a pain and takes time, but we definitely would appreciate it.

[toraq]

What about the other bugs detected???


1- Aircraft not damaging the airport when there is a own land unit in the hex

2- the combat replay and combat report are different

3-Land based bombers (specially japanese ones) do not attack TF with CAP (mainly CVs TF),

4-IJN AAA ammo being zeroed in UV ver 2.3 Scen.17, when attacked by bombers at 100 feet level

I guess it is too late for those [:(]

[rekab]

Thanks torag for keeping the AA ammo problem to the fore.

I have noticed that with 2.4 all US planes now cause this to happen, not just the FB's at 100. The very good news is I think for the first time the US fleets suffer the same problem from Japanese air attacks. (I played a few games Scen3 vs AI and sunk the Sara and the Lex, Wasp managed to get away).

IJN subs are great in 2.4. (Scen 3)

I notice that the centre (center) hex of mid ocean hexes goes green when giving coastwatcher reports.

--Bob

[jeffs]

Hello...

Fixing now. Will have new emergency patch out soon.

Bye...

Michael Wood

Thanks!

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

Ran tests on the issues you raised.

1. With Japanese and Allied troops at Port Moresby, was able to target and damage airfield with Betties, Nells and carrier aircraft attacking individually or together. Not sure what the problem was in you game, bad weather, bad bomb runs or what. The issue has never been raised, before.

2. Played several PBEM turns and found combat replay and report to be identical. You may have to wait a turn or two for the two computers to synchronize after starting a new build.

3. This was an intentional design decision. Was added, in a patch, after players complained that Betties and Nells were being shot down too often, in large numbers. Player response was favorable. As WIP used a different set of routines for air-to-air combat, and we had no complaints from players, we chose not to add the feature.

4. Ran some tests and could not reproduce this error. Using fighter-bombers at 100 feet or higher, level bombers at 100 feet or higher or dive bombers, ammunition usage was normal. Did eventually run out of ammunition, after many planes had attacked. Seems to be working as designed.

5. Fixed problem with coast watchers.

Will hold patch for a day or two and monitor this forum. If you have a specific save where problem arises, send it to me at mikew@matrixgames.com.

Thanks...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: toraq

Thx matrix for the new patch. Something I was not expecting = client satisfaction [;)]

But, under my point of view there are still some important bugs that should be fixed. In order of importance:

1- Aircraft not damaging the airport when there is a own land unit in the hex. Example: Japanese bombers do not damage PM´s airport if there are japanese LCUs there. So once you have started to invade PM, there is no hope of closing the airport until you take the base!!! This is annoying!

2- In PBEM games, the combat replay and combat report are different. When I play the allies and there is a carrier battle (most of the times) I load the combat replay that my opponent has sent me and it is quite different from the combat report. This is not FOW because there are so many differences! Different attacks to different TF, bases captured while they are still holding...You feel that you´re playing a different game!

3 - Most of the times, Land based bombers (specially japanese ones) do not attack TF with CAP (mainly CVs TF), even if they have plenty of escorts. In WitP, this is not happening so often...

4- IJN AAA ammo being zeroed in UV ver 2.3 Scen.17

[toraq]

Already sent a mail with the first bug: japanese bombers unable to damage airports when their troops are in the base.

This is a major bug, really. Imagine a Guadalcanal campaign where jap. are unable to close Henderson Field with air attacks[:(]

I´m working on the others to show you the problem

Thanks

[Nomad]

I will echo on #1. I know that the allies can not hit port or airfield in a Japanesse hex if there are allied units in the hex. When I asked about this a year ago I was told that it was a known problem. [&:]

For item #2, combat replays do sometimes go wonky. I have never been sure just exactly what causes it but it is not from doing an upgrade. Just sometimes in the middle of a turn the combat replays start to differ in what happens( not number of hits etc ). I have seen ships sunk that were never attacked during the turn. I have seen bases captured that were not captured. This has been happening for a long time. I sent save games years ago, noone ever said they found the problem.

[CatLord]

ORIGINAL: Mike Wood

2. Played several PBEM turns and found combat replay and report to be identical. You may have to wait a turn or two for the two computers to synchronize after starting a new build.

Will hold patch for a day or two and monitor this forum. If you have a specific save where problem arises, send it to me at mikew@matrixgames.com.

Thanks...

Michael Wood

Hi Michael,

I appreciate your effort, and I am sending you 3 zip containing Replay and Report, which have cause me the problem each time (run them twice or more, get different results).

Please, follow the instructions to reproduce (which are fairly simple: Combat Animation should be ON. If OFF, you'll get the expected result, i.e. the proper combatreport.txt ).

The problem arise when planes are attacking ships at 100 feet...

Cat

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks everyone. If you have a reproducible problem, please send it in as this is our last pass to clear up any loose ends with UV. Problems that are extremely rare or not reproducible can't be fixed, so saves with instructions are definitely the best.

Regards,

- Erik

[Warfare1]

Would it be possible to enable mouse wheel support for the combat reports?

It is a pain having to mouse click and use the slider each time.

Thanks [:)]

[CatLord]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Thanks everyone. If you have a reproducible problem, please send it in as this is our last pass to clear up any loose ends with UV. Problems that are extremely rare or not reproducible can't be fixed, so saves with instructions are definitely the best.

Regards,

- Erik

Was Mike (or anyone else) able to reproduce my bug with my 3 saved files ?

Do you need more ?

Do you need something else ?[:)]

Cat

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

This behavior was known to the programmers. It was intentional. Gary had a special routine that checked the port, ships in the port, airfield, aircraft present, coastal guns present, and large enemy formations present and tried to figure out which was the greatest danger to your troops. It especially weighted coastal guns and large enemy formations. As the strike group spread out to attack, they could be assigned to various targets. As it was assumed that since you have troops in the hex, they could spot fire and targets were made easier to hit.

In other words, your orders were being over ridden by local commanders. No bug. Design.

As there have been complaints about the routine, I have disabled it.

Bye...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: Nomad

I will echo on #1. I know that the allies can not hit port or airfield in a Japanesse hex if there are allied units in the hex. When I asked about this a year ago I was told that it was a known problem. [&:]

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

Responded to some of you by email. For sake of others, will repeat.

rebak1:

1) Received complaint about unsynchronized resolution and reference to save, but no save received.

josel:

1) Betties and Nells not able to severely damage airfield at Port Moresby. Part of problem was small bomb load, part crew experience, part routine that diverted some of your bombers from airfield attack to attacking land based units (fixed latter).

2) Japanese coastal defense guns more effect than Allied coastal defense guns. Part of problem was bad leaders and die rolls. You got unlucky. Part was problem in data base. Fixed latter and hard coded for saved games.

3) Third save was also for coastal defense gun issue.

Thomas:

1) Complaint of unsynchronized resolution, with save. Specific instructions indicated that error occurs when combat animation is turned on. Still debugging.

Bye...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: CatLord

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Thanks everyone. If you have a reproducible problem, please send it in as this is our last pass to clear up any loose ends with UV. Problems that are extremely rare or not reproducible can't be fixed, so saves with instructions are definitely the best.

Regards,

- Erik

Was Mike (or anyone else) able to reproduce my bug with my 3 saved files ?

Do you need more ?

Do you need something else ?[:)]

Cat

[toraq]

Already send some e-mails with information and new possible bugs

Thanks[;)]

[CatLord]

ORIGINAL: Mike Wood

Thomas:

1) Complaint of unsynchronized resolution, with save. Specific instructions indicated that error occurs when combat animation is turned on. Still debugging.

OK thanks.

If you are debugging, it means you have been able to reproduce the bug, which is good news. A bug you can see is a bug you can track and kill [:D]

Cat

[jeffs]

Mike,
We all appreciate your hard work in fixing up the rest of the bugs. Out of interest, is there an estimate for when the new patch will be released? Thanks!

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

Very soon. Sending patch out to production folk, now. When patch bubbles up to the top of que, it will be posted. I worked on last issue, replay problem. Fixed it, within the limitations under which it was written.

The replay engine expects the two players to have the same settings, including combat animations and combat summaries. If they do not, the results of replay will differ, as random numbers are generated for the animations and these will change the combat results. Also, on some computers, the player may need to exit the game and restart, before he plays the replay. Good as it is going to get, in this patch.

Have Fun...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: jeffs

Mike,
We all appreciate your hard work in fixing up the rest of the bugs. Out of interest, is there an estimate for when the new patch will be released? Thanks!

[CatLord]

ORIGINAL: Mike Wood

Hello...

Very soon. Sending patch out to production folk, now. When patch bubbles up to the top of que, it will be posted. I worked on last issue, replay problem. Fixed it, within the limitations under which it was written.

The replay engine expects the two players to have the same settings, including combat animations and combat summaries. If they do not, the results of replay will differ, as random numbers are generated for the animations and these will change the combat results. Also, on some computers, the player may need to exit the game and restart, before he plays the replay. Good as it is going to get, in this patch.

Which is good enough for me.

Thank you Mike.

Last question: Will this patch be compatible with ongoing PBEM ? [:)]

Cat

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

Mostly.

Bugs Fixed:

1) There was a complaint that groups targeting airfields, when friendly and enemy units at the location were being diverted from airfield attack. This behavior was known to the programmers. It was intentional. Gary had a special routine that checked the port, ships in the port, airfield, and aircraft present, coastal guns present and large enemy formations present and tried to figure out which was the greatest danger to your troops. It especially weighted coastal guns and large enemy formations. As the strike group spread out to attack, they could be assigned to various targets. As it was assumed that since you have troops in the hex, they could spot fire and targets were made easier to hit. In other words, orders were being over ridden by local commanders. No bug. Design. As there have been complaints about the routine, it has been disabled.
2) There was a bug that caused all naval task forces to be spotted by coast watchers. Fixed.
3) Japanese coastal defense guns were more effective than they should have been. Typo. Fixed.
4) Air groups on sweep or escort missions were not properly testing morale, when casualties were taken. Fixed.
5) When a partial unit was combined with a prime unit, the supply from the partial unit was not being properly handled. Fixed.
6) Losses to ground units, when targeting an airfield or port, were too high. Fixed.
7) Air groups were sending too many planes, when attacking task forces. Fixed.
8) Air groups attacking barge or motor torpedo boat (PT) task forces were all attacking a single barge or boat. Fixed.
9) Bombers flying at altitudes greater than 32,000 feet were bombing with a greater accuracy than they should. Fixed.
10) Some groups were gaining too many pilots. Fixed. They are now limited to maximum planes plus three.
11) The combat replay was not functioning properly. Fixed. Please note that in order to function correctly, both players must have the options, including combat animations and combat summaries set the same. This is because the combat replay file is just a copy of the saved game and random values are generated differently with different settings. Also, on some computers, the game must be exited and restarted for the combat replay to replay correctly. It may take a turn or two for the combat replays to resynchronize after applying this patch.


New Player Requested Features:

1) Patrol aircraft searching for submarines now use upgraded WIP routines.
2) The chances of submarines being spotted are now increased, if more than one is located in a hex.
3) Submarines will no longer follow a task force into a known minefield hex.
4) Minefield attacks are now handled more like WIP and the chances of submarines and minesweepers hitting mines has been increased.

Good Luck...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: CatLord

ORIGINAL: Mike Wood

Hello...

Very soon. Sending patch out to production folk, now. When patch bubbles up to the top of que, it will be posted. I worked on last issue, replay problem. Fixed it, within the limitations under which it was written.

The replay engine expects the two players to have the same settings, including combat animations and combat summaries. If they do not, the results of replay will differ, as random numbers are generated for the animations and these will change the combat results. Also, on some computers, the player may need to exit the game and restart, before he plays the replay. Good as it is going to get, in this patch.

Which is good enough for me.

Thank you Mike.

Last question: Will this patch be compatible with ongoing PBEM ? [:)]

Cat