MajorH TacOps Developer Posted August 9, 2002 Share Posted August 9, 2002 Reposted from another forum ... >I've got TacOps 2 and still occasionally play it. I didn't get 3 >because after dl'ng the demo I couldnt' tell the difference between it >and 2. And now I can't tell the difference betwee 2 and 4. Same >scenarios, same graphics, etc. No slam intended - if you didn't see a difference between v2 and v3 that was meaningful to you then v4 may not tempt you either. It is ultimately a matter of taste. V4 will definitely not appeal to a consumer who prefers to spend his scarce gaming time with brand new and very different products. I don't have a problem with that. Still, it seems to me that there is bound to be something different in the 311,000 additional lines of code that justifies my pulling another $25 out of the wallets of some users. My market niche for the retail version of TacOps realistically consists of (a) people who have never heard of TacOps before [the size of this group continually amazes me given that the game has been on the market since 1994], ( people who play TacOps irregularly during lulls between other brand new titles but who are willing to pay a few bucks every year or two to keep TacOps working despite Mac & Windows OS changes, and © TacOps enthusiasts who want a continuing stream of incremental improvements. A good number of the last group buy a new CD every year even when they could download a patch as a free update. >WHAT'S DIFFERENT? There are many differences - some significant and many trivial. - - - - - The trivial changes on the road from v2.0 to v4.0 included several thousand unit data base tweaks, user interface tweaks, minor new features, responses to Mac & Windows OS changes, and bug fixes. The game engine source code increased from 65,000 lines to 137,000 between v2.0 and the v3.0. The code increased to 376,000 lines between v3.0 and v4.0.3. - - - - - The most significant changes between v3.0.5 and v4.0.3 are ... Multiplayer teams (i.e. more than two players) mode of play via TCP/IP LAN and or Internet with spectators as well as players. The multiplayer teams mode of play allows an umpire and up to 19 networked players/spectators to participate in the same TacOps battle via LAN and or Internet. The players can be on up to 8 teams, and the optional Friendly Fog of War feature replicates the challenges of coordinating friendly forces in combat by allowing players to see only those teammate units that the player's own units can see. The hobby/retail version is limited to 20 players. The military version allows more. Two player network mode also now works via TCP/IP LAN and or Internet and can also have spectators. Two player network mode does not require an umpire and is very simple to setup and use. Eight team/force marker colors instead of only two: Blue, Red, Green, Gray, Ivory, Orange, Gold, and Yellow with optional variable rules of engagement for each possible color vs color relationship. The six new colors and the variable rules of engagement were added to allow the gaming of complex situations involving a mix of combatants, armed and unarmed civilians, media, aid organizations, and multiple paramilitary factions with varying and changeable loyalties and varying and changeable levels of belligerance to the primary combatants as well as to one another. The addition of civilians on the battlefield, both combatant and non-combatant including: ambulance, Car, firetruck, trucks (with and without weapons), civilians (unarmed), civilians (w concealed weapon), dignitary, fireman, government, media, medical, NGO (Non Government Organization), PVO (Private Voluntary Organization), police (armed and unarmed), rescue, paramilitary/militia (with a variety of small arms), bomb portable (user definable), and bomb transportable (user definable). A more modern/colorful user interface with custom windows/dialogs (but still no eye candy). The Mac and Windows versions look and act the same now with a hybrid appearance that is slightly more Macish than Windowish. The windows and dialogs still cooperate politely with other applications so that you can do other things without having to quit TacOps. The main map window continues to be resizeable and continues to be presented without any screen wasting border decoration or arcane icon tool bars. The appearance of game windows and dialogs is less "business like" in v4 but the maps have not changed and the markers have not changed (except for their color). TacOps will never provide a photo realistic display for terrain or units. Eventually some battle maps may look and work much more like real world military paper maps but I am not there yet. 200 more unit types. The current unit type total is 506 consisting of 22 Australia/New Zealand, 92 Canadian Forces, 173 U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, 12 German Army, 151 OPFOR (Former Soviet Union, China, North Korea, etc), and 56 civilian and paramilitary. The arty support and air support dialogs are no longer limited to only six entries. On-map arty and mortar units are now also listed in the arty support dialog along with off-map arty units. Additional engineering functions and detail related to the laying and breaching of mines, creating and breaching user definable obstacles (wire, ditch, and barricade), permanent and vehicle deployed bridging, and helicopter landing zones. Optional friendly/team fog of war in multiplayer teams mode. In other words, the Blue player controlling Alpha Company can not see the markers that belong to the Blue player controlling Bravo company except when a clear line of sight exists between their markers. Added many time and motion saving shortcuts linked to the right button on a two button mouse. Clicking on a stack of units now opens a small, fitted window that displays all of the units in the stack with separation between each marker. Previously, clicking on a stack of units expanded the stack in a zig zag method across the map. Full support for multiple monitors including the ability to simultaneously have the normal scrolling map window that only shows a portion of the battle map on one monitor while showing on another monitor a miniature version of the map that shows the entire map. Thus you can now simultaneously have two views at different scales into the TacOps battle. Also most windows and dialogs now remember where they were last positioned by the user so once you get things the way you want them then they will stay that way from game to game. "Export Order of Battle" and "Import Order of Battle File" menu items. Intended to (a) allow an umpire or scenario designer to transfer order of battle info from one scenario (saved game file) or map to another scenario or map ( to provide a work around for those occasions when an incremental change to the game engine makes it impossible to load saved game files from earlier versions of the game engine. More special powers and situation editing flexibility for an exercise umpire. Improved map making utility. The optional French game interface and French documentation has been disabled. - - - - - The most significant changes between v2.0 and the final edition of v3 (v305) were ... A second type of map was added named the 'Type2 map' and a map utility was added to allow users to create their own maps. More US unit types and a lot more Canadian unit types – ending at around 300 (506 in v4). Tweaked unit and weapon characteristics. 100 megabyte reference library consisting of 20 U.S. Army field manuals in Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF format. This was a tactics oriented subset pulled from the larger (167 manuals) Military Reference Library CDROM. Enhanced amphibious capabilities. Added four sizes of amphibious landing craft and some extra maps with coastlines. Added the future USMC Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle and the Osprey Tilt Rotor aircraft. Long filenames were added to the Windows version. Ported code to W95/98/NT4 32 bit base. Dropped Windows 3.x compatibility. 20 extra maps for custom scenarios including a low fidelity interpretation of NTC Ft. Irwin, an area near Ft Knox, an area in Korea, an area in Germany, and some Canadian training areas. Addition of more CPX (Command Post Exercise) umpire support features and umpire tools including printed reports. Addition of a complete current and near future ORBAT for Canadian Forces as provided by the Canadian Army. About 60 of the US scenarios were duplicated and converted so that they started up with Canadian order of battle instead of US. Optional French game interface and French documentation (disabled in v4). - - - - - [ September 11, 2002, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: MajorH ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MajorH TacOps Developer Posted September 9, 2002 Author Share Posted September 9, 2002 Pop. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treeburst155 Posted September 11, 2002 Share Posted September 11, 2002 Wow! This is gonna be good! Are you ready, Henk? Treeburst155 out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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