Hubert Cater

aesopo, john, Sorry to hear you felt that the Global map was going to be included and as Matt mentions there was never a promise or mention of this in any of the product information. I have mentioned in the past that the Global map is still being worked on and part of this process is porting it to the latest engines, i.e. WaW and now PDE, but how it will be released is still to be determined. Good news is that it will much more than a port to the latest engines as we are also including quite a few new features and a few surprises that I think most people will enjoy. Hope that helps, Hubert

Hi Lars, Sorry to hear about the trouble. My guess is that perhaps the installation or download was corrupted? I looked up the code for the error you received and it is basically a missing file error which of course should not be happening. Can you try to re-download and/or a re-installation of the game to see if that helps? Hubert

For those that have noticed any sort of game speed issues or video card issues, thanks to Peter (SC2 player from Germany) there is now a temporary workaround that may apply to your situation: Try running the game in DirectX Emulation mode. Click Start->Run from your taskbar and typing in DXDIAG. This will launch the DirectX diagnostic tool. From here select the 'Display' tab and then look for the line that says DirectDraw Acceleration: Enabled. Next to this line click the button named 'Disable' and then exit. WARNING: Running the game in DirectX Emulation mode is an advanced option and should only be done once all other options have been exhausted. NOTE: This may also disable your Direct3D Acceleration so if you have games that rely on 3D acceleration you will want to re-enable DirectDraw Acceleration as needed. * * * In the meantime I am testing an in game solution that should hopefully not require players to run DXDIAG to resolve the issue. Hubert

For those that have noticed any sort of game speed issues or video card issues, thanks to Peter (SC2 player from Germany) there is now a temporary workaround that may apply to your situation: Try running the game in DirectX Emulation mode. Click Start->Run from your taskbar and typing in DXDIAG. This will launch the DirectX diagnostic tool. From here select the 'Display' tab and then look for the line that says DirectDraw Acceleration: Enabled. Next to this line click the button named 'Disable' and then exit. WARNING: Running the game in DirectX Emulation mode is an advanced option and should only be done once all other options have been exhausted. NOTE: This may also disable your Direct3D Acceleration so if you have games that rely on 3D acceleration you will want to re-enable DirectDraw Acceleration as needed. * * * In the meantime I am testing an in game solution that should hopefully not require players to run DXDIAG to resolve the issue. Hubert

Game Does Not Launch - If you receive a DLL registration service error log in as an Administrator, or right click the desktop icon and select 'Run As Administrator' in order to proceed. Speed - If your game runs slow please try the following: * Update all your video and sound card drivers to their latest versions * Update to the latest version of DirectX * Try running the game in Full Screen mode. This setting can be selected in game via the SETTINGS dialog. * Try running the game in 16 bit mode. This setting can be selected in game via the SETTINGS dialog. For example, if you are currently running 1280x1024x32, simply change this to 1280x1024x16 * Try running the game with Video Acceleration. This setting can be selected in game via the SETTINGS dialog. Vista/Windows 7 - In some cases Vista saves files in the following directory: Drive:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Battlefront\Strategic Command\ This link explains the 'Compatibility Files' problem with people running Vista and not being able to see thier files: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VistasShowCompatibilityFilesAndTheScrumptiousWonderThatIsFileVirtualization.aspx There are two known workarounds: 1) Disable Vista's User Access Control and then it should save the files as expected. 2) The other is that if you do not wish to disable UAC you can try and install the game into any other directory other than the Program Files directory. For example, C:\Games\Weapons and Warfare etc. If you do this it doesn't seem to redirect the files with UAC enabled. Dual Monitors - Strategic Command does not support dual monitors. In most cases the game will run very slow and essentially will be unplayable so it is highly recommended that you disable your second monitor when running the game.

Hey Honch, Was just reading your list and I am a little confused on #8. What exactly is the difference?

arado234, Resources are much more plentiful in the Western Allies vs. the USSR campaigns as both sides pretty much start at optimal positions. Losses can be quite high but very often quickly replaces as MPP income allows for much more builds and replacements. US also starts with more resources on map but a nifty implementation by Edwin delays a part of their full mobilization until the Japanese surrender. This also applies to the 1939, 1941 and 1943 campaigns where once Japan surrenders the US industrial complex pretty much just goes into overdrive so the Germans really need to secure victory before this otherwise they quickly run into trouble.

scottsmm, For the expansion what we tried to do is tailor each campaign accordingly using the existing research setup. For example, the 1945 campaigns start with adjusted research values, i.e. lowered relative to what you would typically see in the older 1944 D-Day campaign so that when you reach let's say level 5 in tanks it has the same feel as going from Level-1 to Level-5 as it did in the 1939 Fall Weiss campaign. We thought about having a campaign where with the defeat of Germany the western Allies could go immediately to war with the USSR but this presented a few difficulties. For example, since the current Allied player plays both the Western Allies and the USSR it would be a bit tricky to have this change go over intuitively, i.e. which player now plays the USSR, which player now plays the Western Allies. Also in a game against the AI or even Multiplayer for that matter, there could be exploits such as disbanding all USSR units before the fall of Germany in order to give one side an advantage etc. If you remember this was also an issue with an older setup for Blitzkrieg where we allowed players to DoW on inactive major Allies. A common exploit was to vacate the USA of units and then invade as the UK for a quick victory and as a result we had to eliminate this option. There were a few ideas floated around to help resolve the above issues but in the end we decided it might be more trouble that it was worth and add to a lot of (perhaps) unnecessary complexity to the current game design. As an alternative option we did include the 1944 Shattered Alliance campaign that starts with the Germans surrendering to the Western Allies and in turn they set their sights on the USSR. This campaign is a lot of fun actually

Global campaign will not be included in PDE and for more info on the PDE campaigns expect a Demo, which should be available very soon

aesopo, I've just noticed this on my end and will fix this for the next patch. Hubert

Bill, simply open the campaign up in the Editor and select SaveAs and then save it as the current name, i.e. do not change the name. Hopefully this fixes the issue for you when you start a *new* campaign using the game EXE. Hubert

I've added in a few new entries including the Russians are Coming AAR Part II as well as the Invasion of Cyprus... see top post

Added in the latest blog entry covering the Invasion of Cyprus campaign... see top post Hubert

1. Fortress advantages are the additional defensive bonuses units will receive when inside a fortress. The fortress must face the right direction from the attack though. 2. Subs should demoralize enemy naval units during attacks... have you not found this to be the case?

TheGreatRadish, Glad you like the game and keep an eye out for the upcoming Patton Drives East expansion. There will be some really great USA vs. USSR campaigns as well as some dynamic alternate history WWII campaigns to boot Hubert

Bill, Honch is correct as the Global campaign is still in the works and will be ready as soon as humanly possible... hang in there Hubert

I hate to say it but Detroit actually looks pretty good this year... I'm predicting a Pens vs. Detroit final. HimAgain, agreed as the Leafs are long overdue for such a lament.

This might be because the campaign was renamed at some point via 'My Computer' or something similar instead of using 'SaveAs' via the Editor. If you do this using the Editor it should then work as expected.

Gentlemen, Supply in Russia works the same as it does everywhere else and is based on the general supply formulas. For example it can come from a city or from an HQ, whichever supply source will return the greatest value. For Russia, there are several 'Industrial Centers' that work similar to a capital in terms of providing maximum resource strength to connected resources. These are listed in the Editor under Country Data and for the USSR they are: * Moscow * Sverdlovsk (Urals) * Stalingrad * Grozny (Caucases) Other countries have these as well, for example, Germany has Berlin and Munich and the UK has London and Manchester. Hope this helps, Hubert

Saul, Can you try running the game in 16 bit mode to see if it helps? This can be done by going to the SETTINGS dialog from the MAIN MENU once in game. At this point you may see that you are running the game at let's say 1280x1024x32, simply change it to 1280x1024x16. I would also suggest installing the latest video driver for your card and downloading the latest version of DirectX as well. Hope this helps, Hubert

PPBoyington, Very odd error... if you use ALT-TAB do you see the program icons listed as available items to switch to? I'm just wondering if they are still active but become hidden on your desktop for some reason. Hubert

I have to admit that was one heck of a game last night

I've just added the second part of Timskorn Russians Are Coming AAR to the top links... it really highlights just how much fun this particular campaign can be for both sides as the pendulum can swing back and forth multiple times.

Mr. Dozer, We've added the usual AI improvements as well as the new campaigns but a couple of exciting additions are the new DECISION events. This really allows players to make choices that have pros and cons and can really affect the outcome of the game. For example, in the very exciting alternate history WWII 1939 Storm of Steel campaign the Axis player has several interesting choices such as not honouring the Mototov-Ribbentrop pact and taking all of Poland for themselves at the cost of possibly upsetting Stalin, or not creating Vichy France and therefore having a crack at the North African French possessions without needing to declare war etc. Many options such as these throughout the campaigns and for more information please check out the Blog entries at the top thread as it really highlights the various options and strategies players will now have available to them. Hope this helps, Hubert

Thanks SeaMonkey, and I think you will really like PDE and the up coming Global Campaign Hubert