Hubert Cater

For Multiplayer I would suggest simply making a post that you are interested to play as there are many lurkers here that usually take up the challenge. For another option there is a Multiplayer league over at Panzerliga: http://www.panzerliga.de For the Global scenario there is an unofficial port for WaW and even for PDE posted at CMMODS but officially we are still working on an updated version that will of course also include all the changes implemented in the upcoming Pacific Theater release. Hope this helps, Hubert

I've actually adjusted the Silent range as Bill also found it a bit too restrictive, but either way we can continue this discussion in the Beta forum as it is probably not that applicable here just yet

For the short answer, no... for the long answer it would be nice to have, i.e. a more complicated supply system for the Islands but it was felt that the current system, with the few small adaptations has actually worked out better than expected. For example, island hopping is still critical as leaving an uncaptured island that is strategically in your way can really be a thorn in your side and generally islands have a weakened supply value of 5 so they are not that hard to take if you really want them and if they are lightly defended. Now, if you want to increase the islands unit supply value an HQ does the trick and this reflects the player's choice of recognizing the importance of a particular island chain as a base of operations in the Pacific. With limited HQs, and limited ranges for Amphibious transports players really have to think in big picture terms for their strategic decisions much like the Commanders of the day had to when it was their time to work out the master plan of which island they needed to go to next and so on. Essentially we could have gone to a more complicated system but in keeping the "keep it simple" idea in mind and dealing with a few abstractions it really does play out much like you would expect the Pacific Theater to play out but in this case using the Strategic Command game engine. Hope that helps, Hubert

SeaMonkey, Retributar, Thanks and I think you guys will like this one as we've been working really hard on this one for quite some time and you are in for a treat as the campaigns have been really well designed. My hat goes off to Bill Runacre who has done the bulk of the campaign work as well as Robert Carver for his work on the Midway and Philippines campaign. FYI, there is also a rumour we just might have a Guadalcanal campaign included if all goes according to plan

Les, True, if you don't like Strategic Command then it will be hard for me to argue that this is the game for you But for anyone else that has enjoyed the current game system then you should feel right at home with Strategic Command WWII Pacific Theater. Some of the new features and changes I've detailed in another thread and that can be found here: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1083166&postcount=5 Hubert

Here is an example of the scale selected for the islands in the grand campaign: http://www.battlefront.com/images/stories/SC2/Pacific/marshallislands.jpg Generally there were a few ways to handle this one and one would be to leave most islands as single tiles allowing for combat from a sea tile, another would be to add a zoom in option once combat on an island commenced, and the third one we chose which was the least complicated from a coding point of view but still worked well from a design point of view was to simply zoom in slightly for the islands while leaving everything else in terms of scale the same. It actually works well in game as not every island can be defended by multiple units (i.e. the fill each island tile with units strategy) as there are just not enough resources to be had, but at the same time island landings are possible and island battles must be commenced in order to gain control and to eventually be able to move forward towards your ultimate goals.

At the moment, in the grand campaign Artillery does not attack amphibs, but in the smaller campaigns we have included Coastal Batteries that can be used to engage an incoming fleet. For example: http://www.battlefront.com/images/stories/SC2/Pacific/iwojima.jpg Hubert

At the moment the basic unit types are the same as what we have from Weapons and Warfare but that is not to say they are the same throughout each campaign or that they function the same way either. Essentially we have a base set of units and we have adapted them as needed for this upcoming Pacific release. For one example, in the main campaign, Operation Z, you'll notice a difference in the Combat Target Values between China and Japan for their ground units and in the smaller campaigns units have been modeled accordingly to most closely represent the applicable historical size and attributes of the combatants involved. In the Kokoda Trail you would be looking at Company and Battalion sized units while in the Imphal and Kohima scenario you would be looking at Regiments, Brigades and Divisions and so on. That being said there is also some major differences with how Carriers and Subs are modeled for this Pacific release. If you take a look at this screenshot you'll quickly notice that Carriers have now been split into an Aircraft strength portion and a Carrier strength portion: http://www.battlefront.com/images/stories/SC2/Pacific/pearlharbormilitary.jpg While a small change, it has actually had a sweeping impact on how the naval portion of the Pacific Theater plays out. For one, Carriers can once again become the Queen unit of the battlefield with their spotting range and newly modeled attack and defense capabilities but can at the same time be very vulnerable to attack if caught in the wrong mode by enemy units. For example, Carriers can now run in a Combat Air Patrol mode which is good defensively or in more Tactical attack mode (leaving them vulnerable to Air attack) or a mix of both. While Carriers are no longer automatically sunk if their aircraft strength reaches 0, it will still be something players will need to keep an eye on as there are still disadvantages to having a strong Carrier strength value and weak Aircraft strength value. One addition is that a Carrier with an Aircraft value of 0 no longer spots so this is something to keep in mind as well. While there is no demo just yet, for a sneak peak of some of the game play, a trailer for the game has been put together that does show some actual Carrier combat in action around Pearl Harbor. This scene is from the grand campaign so it also gives you a small idea about the scale used for the campaign: For the original non-compressed version of this trailer it looks like Internode Games has it posted here (click 'View'): http://games.internode.on.net/filelist.php?filedetails=19874 There have also been changes made to Naval supply and it now operates similarly to how Submarine supply worked. Essentially supply is now only decreased from combat so this has worked wonderfully for naval engagements throughout the Pacific. For example, a fully supplied Japanese Task force that sets out for Midway will not be at a disadvantage to an opposing US fleet until combat has commenced. Once combat has started only then will the Japanese player have to decide to retreat to friendly port or remain if it has been decisive enough due to the advantage of the US fleet proximity to friendly waters/ports. Much like in real life. Subs have also been adjusted in that they can no longer be spotted while running in Silent mode except by Destroyers. The drawback is that they run at a slightly reduced range while in Silent mode as a counter balance. The nice thing about this is that it does not necessarily allow Carriers to run completely supreme as they may not spot a Submarine lying in the lurk and generally requires a properly balanced task force for most engagements including the necessary Destroyers and so on. While these are just a few of the small changes you can expect, i.e. new sub implementation, new naval supply rules and the Carrier amendments, in general the changes have worked out much better than expected and can quickly be seen not only in the main campaign but in the included Midway campaign as well where it is a real cat and mouse game trying to spot your opponents fleets while running from Subs and attempting a series of landings on the Midway Atoll by the Japanese side. All in all there will be lots of fun to be had

PowerGmbH, Silent mode should actually do as you suggest but there is one catch and that is if you end your move next to any naval type or under any naval type then the game engine will pretty much stop your sub at the furthest point it can travel before it can no longer move forward without breaking this rule. For example, if you had a line of ships running horizontally, let's say east/west between England and Norway, and the sub wishes to pass through this line vertically, i.e. North/South, then it will succeed in Silent mode as long as it can pass through without ending its move adjacent or underneath an enemy unit. Of course as long as it's path does not run it into a Destroyer as well. But let's say you wished to move your sub in a north route 8 tiles and the last 2 tiles of the selected path are covered by a couple of cruisers, i.e. tile 7 and tile 8, then the sub will actually only proceed as far as tile 6 and then be stopped with a surprise contact by the Cruiser at tile 7. A little complicated but hopefully this makes sense! Hubert

Thanks for the file Mark and I will correct the issue for the next patch. Hubert

Ah, if you are playing with FoW off then all bets are off as the AI can see just as much as you can For tips I would read through some of the older forum posts on game play and strategies and generally ask any questions that you have as the group here is pretty good at helping new players out. Happy gaming Hubert

A few other points, tiles adjacent a convoy lane are also valid raiding tiles and your sub leaves a marker for the AI (a sub unit with a question mark), just like it does in Multiplayer that helps it know where the last convoy raid position took place. Hubert

LarryP, there might be a bit of confusion on the sub modes but generally what Sombra said is correct, all Silent mode does for now is allow you to pass through enemy ships except Destroyers (under FoW) while Hunt allows you to raid the convoy lines. For the zero in effect, this is likely perhaps a misunderstanding of the game system. For example, perhaps your subs were spotted by air units, perhaps you had the misfortune of running into some of the early Allied blockades, i.e. the UK sets up a blockade of the North Sea with its Destroyers in the early phases of the game. Essentially the trick is to try and move your subs around areas of likely spotting by your enemy during bad weather and to avoid Convoy lanes until you are ready and in proper position (unless running in Silent mode). For a simple test, and anyone can repeat this, under WaW I played Fall Weiss and moved the at start German sub in the North Atlantic to tile 51,13 (which is away from the Convoy lanes) while in Hunt mode. Played several turns and sure enough it was never attacked. I then switched to Silent mode and moved it to tile 51,11 which is directly on the Canadian convoy lane and it was not attacked playing through several more turns. I then switched back to Hunt mode and sat in position and it was eventually attacked by the expected Destroyers. Hope this helps, Hubert

Hi Jim, unfortunately not

I would suggest to always make a backup before you proceed with any upgrades but off hand there should not be an issue that I can think of. Hubert

Probably a glitch of some kind if it happened the first time and not the second... if you ever see this again or if you have a saved turn handy where I can repeat this I will be happy to take a look. Send to support@furysoftware.com

Colin, thanks for the AAR and I'm glad you enjoyed the campaign as it was a lot of fun piecing that one together Hubert

You will also need this file: http://www.furysoftware.com/download/military_flag_sprites.bmp

Hi Philippe, Oops, my mistake I see you just needed the 2D unit sprites bitmap and this was not as a result of saving your campaign as a customized version. Normally this is the question I receive so I gave the wrong answer. All you need to do is download this file and paste it in the Bitmaps subfolder for the original Global campaign. http://www.furysoftware.com/download/unit_sprites_military.bmp Hope this helps, Hubert

Moving this to the Tech Support thread

No problem at all. For the default 1939-46 WW2 Global Conflict campaign there are 2 items in the 'Campaigns' subfolder: 1939-46 WW2 Global Conflict.cgn (file) _1939-46 WW2 Global Conflict (folder) If you saved the Global campaign under a custom name such as '1939-46 WW2 Global Conflict Custom' then you will find 2 items in the 'Campaigns' folder: 1939-46 WW2 Global Conflict Custom.cgn (file) _1939-46 WW2 Global Conflict Custom (folder) All you need to do is copy over the folders called 'Bitmaps', 'Interface', 'Sound' and the files campaign.ini and localization.txt from the subfolder called '_1939-46 WW2 Global Conflict' to your new subfolder called '_1939-46 WW2 Global Conflict Custom' Hope this helps, Hubert

Hi Pike, Glad to hear you are enjoying the game as well as the AI. We worked hard on this series and feel free to spread the word Hubert

Hi Philippe, The original world scenario has a subfolder in the 'Campaigns' directory called '_1939-46 WW2 Global Conflict'. If you navigate to this folder you will find the following items: Bitmaps Interface Scripts Sound campaign.ini localization.txt All you need to do is copy over the folders called 'Bitmaps', 'Interface', 'Sound' and the files campaign.ini and localization.txt to the subfolder for your newly saved version of the Global campaign. When you relaunch the game it will look as expected. Hope this helps, Hubert

thetwo, Sounds great and thanks for putting together the custom mod Hubert

H.J. von Arnim, I've had this error reported to me as well but for the life of me I have been unable to repeat it... I'll keep an eye out for it though. Hubert