Hubert Cater

Good point Straha! Original codenames was what I was shooting for so I'll fix that. Hubert

I've taken a look and HQ's should be added more intelligently now. HQ's are meant to only be attached to home units for a reason actually, this is in order to simulate command breakdowns with minors and other allies and to simulate the generally better equipped and superior forces of the majors by the increased readiness and combat morale bonuses that HQ's generally represent.

I think I figured out what is happening here for you. On some systems there is a sound card problem that does not allow multiple wav files to be played asyncrhonously, so what appears to be a freeze is rather just the system waiting for the music to stop playing before it can play the button click. Try clicking on a menu button and wait a bit for the music to stop and you will see what I mean. There has been a fix added for the final release that allows you to specifiy sound interruption in an 'SC.ini' file if you have been experiencing this problem. Also the reason why you lose sound when you kill the game in win98 using the Ctrl-Alt-Delete method is that win98 does not properly handle the termination of the MCI sound system that the game is using. win98 thinks it's still in use and cannot share it any further at that point until the system is rebooted. This is not a problem with win2000/XP as microsoft seems to have fixed the problem. As a temporary workaround, I know some players have used a shorter intro file by just replacing the current intro.wav if you don't like the current long wait to get into the game Hope that helps, Hubert

Supply works like this, the greatest value from the following is used to supply a unit: - Maximum supply value from a city - Maximum supply value from an HQ Supply From a City = City.strength - unit.distance to City so this could be... Supply From a City = 10 - 5 " " = 5 Supply From an HQ = HQ.supply - unit.distance to HQ so this could be... Supply From an HQ = 10 - 7 " " = 3 In this case the supply value will be taken from the friendly city. Also, distances include terrain costs. Hope this helps, Hubert

There are editors in use that control the in-game values, take a look at all the sub folders and you'll see all the data files the game is using. It's an interesting idea to have control over all of these files, but this unfortunatly will not be included. Just being honest, but I don't think having a multiple flavoured SC is a good idea (mostly for me) for a number of reasons, but the game will include a custom campaign editor that will allow for some variety in this area as already stated. Now does this discount a future 'Wargame Construction Kit' perhaps not, but that's a big 'maybe' for the future Hubert

I just took a look at the work in progress here, great job guys and keep up the good work! Hubert

SmallEiffel - Free Gnu Eiffel Compiler Visual Eiffel ISE Hastlenbach Eiffel It's used mostly in Engineering and Financial applications and of course in education because funny enough it uses many of the theoretical principles that an Object-Oriented Language should have. You're correct that it's not in widespread use but there are a lot of high profile customers that use it when they need something that is "bullet proof", including HP, the Chicago Board of Trade and even the German military in their rocket systems. A great book that covers many of the benefits of an Eiffel like language with many comparisons to others is "Object Oriented Software Construction" second edition by Bertrand Meyer. Even if you never use Eiffel and are just interested in programming I highly recommend it as one of the best books I've ever read on the subject. Hope that helps, Hubert

I think the problem here is that the history books will say that the Italians did not do well in the Med. so the logical argument would be that Axis should not do well in the Med in this game, since this would be ahistorical, but it could be argued that the Italians could have done much better considering the numerical superiorty in both ships and men that they had in the area at the time in and around 1940. It has been estimated that the Italian navy had a 2:1 advantage in the Med at that time and in the inital Italian drive into egypt they enjoyed an approximate 10:1 ratio of about 300,000 men against 30,000 British. What happens historically is already known, but what would happen if the Italians did not suffer from poor leadership, or if you were in command? You will still have weak Italian HQ's but you will be the master of their deployment and if you do better than what happens historically then why not? Sure the italian navy was very timid historically, but under your command they don't have to be, and considering the current deployments in the game as it reflects the situation as it were, having successes in the Med as Axis merely shows what could have been possible had the numerical advantages the Italians had been exploited effectively. Edit: I've added a little tweak to the Allied Navy to have them a little more protective of Alexandria and hopefully this will make it a bit more entertaining Hubert [ June 14, 2002, 12:14 PM: Message edited by: Hubert Cater ]

Liberation is a little different than conquering a country, what will happen is that the Liberated country will become a full fledged minor, be it Axis or Allied depending on who is liberating and who had occupied of course, but previous occupying forces will have to mopped up as they do not automatically surrender. Occupied territory will also have to be mopped up, but in the meantime you will collect MPP's for the territory that has been liberated denying your enemy of his previous spoils Hubert

Although, this was a design decision it will be considered for future versions, might add some variety as you've mentioned Hubert

Actually the default setup for neutral countries does follow some logic for the ones that it can be applied to, for example Turkey has a different setup depending upon who declares whether the Axis or Allies declare war on them, and this applies to a few other countries as well, can't remember off the top of my head. This is still true and can be done in several ways, it was just that I wanted to have the 6 historical campaigns setup as they were historically for obvious reasons. Now what constitutes a "what-if" is the real question here, a what-if can be looked at in terms of let's say I am playing Germany in 1939 and I attack and defeat Poland as was done historically, now how do I conduct the rest of the war, do I attack France, do I go for Russia, do I plan Sea Lion right away, do I attack France through Switzerland instead of the Low Countries etc. So from this example I am looking at a "what -if" in the historical context that the initial phase may be historical but I am free to conduct the next 5 years as I wish. Another way to consider the what if is as you've pointed out, what if Germany did not attack Poland right away and wen't straight for France etc., what then? These types of "what-if's" can be achieved with the Campaign editor. No problems Hubert

It's a good point Guanoman, but I wanted to avoid specific limitations, felt it would limit some of the "what-if's" like what if Germany had planned for sea lion early on and not expected the UK to surrender after the fall of France, they could very well of had plenty of transport craft available etc. Despite this there have been tweaks made and the price of Sea Lion for Germany plays out differently over the course of the whole war especially if Russia gets invovled. Also sea lion can be much harder when starting in '39 because you have to play very well to be in the position your in with the start of 'Fall Gelb', i.e. have Poland, Denmark and Norway under the German boot with the inherent bonuses they represent. Hubert

Oops sorry! I guess maybe I shouldn't tell them about that other secret rule until official release

No plans to change the breakdown of armies and corps right now, but perhaps in the future. The difficulty setting for the AI is more or less wrt an entire campaign as it effects collected MPP's for conquered countries etc., and you are right it will be hard to see this in a single year since the increased difficulty setting does not affect standard things like combat formulas etc. that are often done in other games. Also expect some improvements to the AI in the Gold Demo. Hubert

Interesting, something to consider for maybe a future version Hubert

I think that a Pacific Theater game would be the next good choice but it's still all up in the air for me right now, first things first kind of thing Hubert

I agree it's a good idea and could work, but I think that if someone is really determined it doesn't matter what you do, they will always find a way around it. I have added a few things for PBEM play and I think these options will work out well, not perfect mind you, but nothing really will be unfortunately. Thanks for the idea Jon! Hubert

Too funny! I think it beats your previous one about lack of Japanese to run Italian subs or something like that Hubert

You've got to run the gauntlet That was an idea but the answer here would be no Hubert

Allowing manual setup for units at the start of a game was actually considered at one time, but I felt it would be against the point of having historical campaigns. Including the 'Campaign Editor' will somewhat do this and allow you to tweak the Campaign setup however you like. Manual setup for DoW would (I feel) get a little messy in terms of game play, but I have tweaked some of the gamey strategies (notably for Italy and the US) as well as slightly adjusted a few nations as suggested including Switzerland, Sweden and Turkey so all in all these areas should play out fine now.

Hint: If you reduce the UK port of Gibraltar to strength = 0 then you can pass Italian ships through. It's an option where you don't always have to invade Spain in order to get Axis ships out of the Med.

Each country has an HQ pool, with Germany and USSR having the largest pool each, once they are gone, they are gone Hubert

Sorry to say but these gamey strategies have been tweaked already (enjoy it while it lasts!) expect more detail when the gold demo is announced Hubert

From the programming standpoint I pretty much agree, despite this I have added a few surprises to the AI and I strongly believe that I've managed to eliminate the 'gameyness' reported so far. For example surprise attacks on the US and Italy have been adjusted, still an option though but at a little bit of a higher risk within reason and working from the current design etc., as well as many others. I'll post in more detail all of the tweaks made once the Gold Demo is officially announced As you've pointed out it's a matter of balancing the game play with historical accuracy. One idea was to increase the US and Soviet production capabilities over time, but I wanted to stick with the what you see is what you get, i.e. all income can be counted from resources on the map and it works out about the same in the end. I know that 180 does not seem much wrt to Soviet income, 180 is half of US total as you've mentioned but also consider the higher Soviet income reflecting the huge manpower (almost infinite it seemed to the Germans) they could call upon and overall lower production costs they had during the war. Some other games have lower costs for Soviet infantry but it's still a matter of pushing the right numbers around to get the right balance. In the full campains 180 MPP per turn puts the US in about the historical position, where they can still send lots of men/tanks/air units over to the European Theater, but leaves them hobbled a bit if they want to try something different which would be pretty much realistic. Also depending upon how you play, by the end of the game (and I would say in in most cases) I've found the US with much more equipment than they actually had during the war in the european theater so I think it balances out pretty well. Very interesting idea, another one for me to add to my list of things for the future Thanks!

For anyone else who has encountered this one: Edit: Try using an actual 'Hz' setting other than 'Optimal' for your current refresh rate and this should eliminate the problem. Thanks to Jon for helping me track this one down. Hubert [ June 08, 2002, 01:34 AM: Message edited by: Hubert Cater ]