Hubert Cater

Good points, actually some of the information was left out purposely to allow for that uncertainty feel when playing the *political* game. I figured it was at least a good idea to give the basics, but if it were all spelled out then game play might become too formulaic and not re-create some of the tension of the unknown effects and randomness. But of course if there is enough of a demand for all the details I will reconsider. Hubert

Yup these can be continued, but probably best to upgrade to v1.04 for both players to take advantage of the changes. You will receive a version mismatch warning message on your first turn after upgrading but not after that. Hubert

This one will definitly be fixed in a future patch, I want to finish up the TCP/IP first as it is the top priority, but I will fix the purchasing issue for Russia as I agree it can be a game killer and I'll think about something for Alexandria as well based on all the input. Thanks! Hubert

Interesting points guys, the charts and income I kind of considered as part of the inherent spy network and intelligence systems at work, but the *thought balloons* is one I definitly missed... or at least never even considered this way. Originally I figured to just remove the destination information but that's a good point about still getting transporting information etc., gives you an idea what the AI is still up to. I'll probably change this as it's easy to do in a later patch. Hubert

Originally I had it doing this, but there was a problem on slower systems, it was really really slow. It's a good idea and I just might revisit it in the future in one way or another. Hubert [ September 06, 2002, 02:41 PM: Message edited by: Hubert Cater ]

OK, sorry I can't be of more help but glad to hear that you've got a workaround that works on your system. Very glad to hear you are enjoying the game as well Hubert

If you bought the game then you would have the campaign files on CD so this should not be a problem, the fact that you *lent* your CD to someone else amounts to piracy in itself and I think you are aware of that. With that being said I am going to lock this thread up.

If you haven't upgraded to patch v1.03 then it is not a problem, with patch v1.03 you will need the CD in the drive although the next patch will not require this. Hubert

That's really weird, if it is sending them to your recycle bin after you restart your computer. To be honest I doubt that's game related as there is nothing remotely close in my code to perform that type of operation. Just taking a wild stab here but could it be a virus? Anyone else have this problem? Hubert

Sorry for the immediate inconvenience, but it has been and the patch should be available soon. Hubert

Not sure if this helps, but PBEM games must be in your PBEM directory, saved games in the SAVE directory otherwise they may not show up when you try and load them Hubert

OK this is strange, let me just make sure that I got this straight. You are saying that you launch the game and then when you select for example the 'Load Saved Game' button and then highlight a saved game and select the 'Delete' button it actually deletes core files from the game also and places them in your recycle bin? If this is correct, can you please tell me what OS you are using and I'll see what I can do to track it down. In the meantime I would suggest that you do not use this method to delete files and rather do it manually using 'My Computer' Hubert

No worries, you guys are great and to be honest it's my absolute pleasure to read so many responses to SC. All "ideas/complaints" are welcome and as always I'll keep my eye on them to see if and how they may affect future decisions. I don't recall saying there would be no SC2, but if I did I must have been tired. To the contrary, there will be another game in one shape or form but just not ready to commit to the design just yet Hubert [ September 04, 2002, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: Hubert Cater ]

I'm in the middle of performing the final testing on the latest patch, last one prior to TCP/IP, and it does have a slight improvement with overall AI prioritzing and planning. Good news is that I've made some notes and have a few ideas to add in even more variety to the AI, but this will have to wait until after the TCP/IP patch. My goal is to make it the ultimate foe, especially at the harder levels!

Actually this is not far off at all with the design framework I chose. It is, as you mention, precisely the TIME SCALE and STRATEGIC SCOPE that determined the reinforcement rules. Being allowed to overrun units located in cities etc. too quickly and the game would not play out properly at all in a strategic sense, most likely it would be over in a couple of years easy. If it were tactical in scope than I would agree the reinforcement rules would need serious tweaking, but the scale would be very much different, so I think that this has to be kept in mind as well. Hubert

My pleasure! Hubert

Thanks! Yeah this is a problem after you apply the latest patch, older saved games from v1.0 are not compatible and causes the game to crash. I've addressed this and it will no longer happen with the next patch. Yup units need supply, it's all a part of the design and HQ's help. There still was a small problem where HQ's could not be linked together to create a supply line, this has also been addressed and will be part of the next patch. This probably has most to do with supply, HQ's and experience. If your enemy the Allies have been bombarding unhindered for a long time with their air fleets then they will have a higher experience and can wreak havoc on your units. Research can also play a factor, but one way to avoid this is to keep your own air units in range to defend against allied attacks and keep HQ's close by as well. No cheating at all with stuff like that actually, although John did bring up the point that the AI did seem to know where his coastal garrisons were, and I just checked and sure enough this one did slip through the cracks. I'll have to address this in a future patch. Hubert

This is related to action points, supply and movement cost. Take a look at these values when you click on your unit at the bottom and top left of your screen to see exactly what is happening. Same as above If the unit is completely surrounded in a city, i.e. all adjacent land hexes are occupied by your units it will have a max reinforce value of 5, if it is cutoff in the open with no HQ in it's pocket it is 0 and if there is an HQ in the pocket it will be at most 4 Hope that helps, Hubert [ September 03, 2002, 09:21 AM: Message edited by: Hubert Cater ]

OK i'll see if I can repeat that. Hubert

Not sure maybe, I would suggest trying the latest driver for your video card first and then if that fails an updated video card might do the trick. Good luck! Hubert

There are no plans right now, but glad to hear you are enjoying the game! Hubert

The way it is now there are two main random factors per turn (there may be more and that will only complicate this further), the research returned and the outcome of your up and coming battles. If one is locked and guaranteed then it allows to replay the other until the desired result is achieved, so the only course of action is to lock the other random factor as well. This might be doable, but would require a lot of work on my part where I think my time would be still better served in other areas for now. Locked research may not seem like a big deal for the most part, but it just does not sit right with me to have one part locked and the other factors still open, i.e. it could occur where you will achieve a sweet research deal and be in a precarious position like the Battle of Britain, or a risky amphibious assault etc. where the combat results may dictate the outcome of the war as well. That's all I will probably say for now and leave it open to other opinions in case we've missed something here Thanks! Hubert

I understand that, but believe me I've double, no triple checked this thing and it is what it is, a random research model where you sometimes get the results you expect and where you sometimes don't. Believe me it's dead! Investment points or research level possible for each area? If it's the latter that won't change as it's preset to allow each unit type to attain a final strength level of at least 15. Hubert

This is a very good idea and an alternate approach, but I think I would most likely decide against it unless it was slightly modified. As Immer has alluded to, it may cause games to be very similar in the long run without randomness. I guess this is what the current research tech boils down to, two major camps, one that prefers the randomness of the research tech and one that does not. My design philosophy for this game is to go against the guaranteed reward for investment and in the end this boils down to preference. Now I am not saying that the random research tech is perfect, but I will most likely stay away from the suggestions that lean towards the set return on investment or the ones that will recreate tech advances (albiet with slight variance) exactly as they happened in the war (as others have suggested in the past). Hope this helps, Hubert

Oops my misleading comments... should have wrote "This will *probably* happen" Hubert