Jump to content

Gold Demo Update


Recommended Posts

Hi Everyone!

I am pleased to announce an update to the Gold Demo that now includes DirectX support. This patch should fix the resolution/refresh rate/icon rearrangement problems etc. that have been reported by some of you with earlier versions of SC. For those systems not running DirectX 7.0 or higher, the game is still backwards compatible and will launch with the original setup.

The full demo package has been updated to reflect these changes and can be downloaded as per normal at

ftp://ftp.battlefront.com/pub/demos/stratcom/SC_Demo_Setup.exe

or if you would like to just apply a patch to your current version, please download the following zip file that can be extracted to your current demo folder. This patch includes the new EXE as well as an updated 'SC.ini' file

ftp://ftp.battlefront.com/pub/demos/stratcom/SC.zip

All changes included in the Gold Demo are as follows:

Changes Made For v1.01a (July 25th 2002)

- added use of DirectX 7.0 or higher to initiate resolution change to 1024x768,

appears to have eliminated desktop problems including: refresh rate issues, icon

rearrangement, and window resizing (backward compatibility still maintained for systems

not running DirectX 7.0 or higher)

- squashed rare research seed bug

- reduced AI tendancy to attack from cities when it is surrounded

- Soviet ports now included in 'Scorched Earth'

- added disbanding of naval units (max return 10% of purchase value)

- fixed minor FoW glitch during PBEM replay, showing of final destination of operated and

rebased air units eliminated

- eliminated anti-aircraft research bug, UK research values were included in Allied Minor

defence calculations during combat, now only applies to home country and occupied territory

- added text string "Facility" when describing Soviet destruction of "Oil" during

'Scorched Earth'

- fixed gamey tactic for Sub raiding in the Med. Double raiding positions eliminated

- fixed connected friendly resources bug, calculations now include all friendly hexes that

can trace a line to a friendly capital city, not just of consistent color from capital to

friendly resource (i.e. Italian Albania can now be fully supplied through a German

occupied Yugoslavia)

- fixed minor reorganizational issue with Allied AI once Germany surrenders

Enjoy!

Hubert

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As originally posted by Hubert Cater:

squashed rare research seed bug

Hate to see that little zero-eyed fella go, he made me feel... oh, Omnipotent! smile.gif

Now I have to do it the hard way, good enough... BTW, quick and efficient job on the fixes, Hubert. :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks good, however for the next patch you might want to look into fixing the balance for naval units.

Submarines, when used offensively against the enemy fleet, are much more effective than what is justified by their price. Also, Aircraft Carriers are far superior to Battleships, certainly more superior than the small price difference suggests.

In the game, with regard to building new naval units, I can see myself buying Subs and occasionally an AC, but I really can't see it as being worthwhile to ever buy new Cruisers or Battleships.

I think that lowering the costs of Cruisers and Battleships by about 100 MPP each could be a good solution. Hubert, please look into it. smile.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Ancient One:

Looks good, however for the next patch you might want to look into fixing the balance for naval units.

Submarines, when used offensively against the enemy fleet, are much more effective than what is justified by their price. Also, Aircraft Carriers are far superior to Battleships, certainly more superior than the small price difference suggests.

In the game, with regard to building new naval units, I can see myself buying Subs and occasionally an AC, but I really can't see it as being worthwhile to ever buy new Cruisers or Battleships.

I think that lowering the costs of Cruisers and Battleships by about 100 MPP each could be a good solution. Hubert, please look into it. smile.gif

I was under the impression that battleships were on their way out for this very reason. They are expensive to build, where a carrier of that time, was fairly cheap (all things considered), and the carrier was much more capable.

The expensive part of the Aircraft Carrier was the air units, and pilots. But even that was not so bad (again, for it's day)

I'd probably never buy a battle ship group in SC.

We'll see, once we have the full game.

Aloid

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks good, however for the next patch you might want to look into fixing the balance for naval units.
Ditto. We'll probably be haggling about this one for a while. Until we see the manual and play some campaign games, it's too soon to consider just what to tweak. Certainly will be an interesting discussion topic once we get into it.

How about the setups for neutrals in the game? This is an area we cannot change with the scenario editor. Some units, like the ones in capitals and the Finns on the Mannerheim Line, should probably start with some entrenchment value, like 1 or 2. I understand surprise, but still. Most every unit in the demo scenario starts out with no entrenchment except the Maginot Line units, and they only get 4/8. This probably goes way beyond an idea for a simple patch tweak, but entrenchment levels should be reconsidered at some point.

Research looks better. I can't say I've seen any more luck come my way, but I haven't noticed anything odd yet either. Thanks Hubert! smile.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Aloid:

I was under the impression that battleships were on their way out for this very reason. They are expensive to build, where a carrier of that time, was fairly cheap (all things considered), and the carrier was much more capable.

The expensive part of the Aircraft Carrier was the air units, and pilots. But even that was not so bad (again, for it's day)

I'd probably never buy a battle ship group in SC.

We'll see, once we have the full game.

Aloid

Interesting points, but Aircraft Carriers weren't that important in Europe. The Germans, Italians, and British built several Battleships during this period, there should at least be some incentive to buy them in the game. Anyway, I don't think Hubert really intended Cruisers and Battleships to be not worth buying.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Ancient One:

Interesting points, but Aircraft Carriers weren't that important in Europe. The Germans, Italians, and British built several Battleships during this period, there should at least be some incentive to buy them in the game. Anyway, I don't think Hubert really intended Cruisers and Battleships to be not worth buying.

Hmmm... in the scheme of things, other than submarines and anti-sub shipping, naval warfare using major capitol ships played a very small role. Sure there were some battles, and they were cause for concern, but the channel was ruled by the air. The Med was as well to a great degree. Battleships proved to be the Albatross...

Besides, I don't think the crew of the Bismark thought the aircraft carrier played a minor role... hehehehehe... :D

I really need to play this game...

Aloid

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are other things I'm worried about too, such as the fact that it's still possible to take Stockholm in one turn, and that if Sweden is conquered everything in Scandinavia rises to 8, so conquering Sweden actually increases your income per turn by 77 MPPs (greater than France - 64 MPPs), making the Norway/Sweden total rise to 112!

Sweden is just as attractive a target as ever, and just as easy to beat as it was before the "fix". :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Hubert Cater:

Hi Everyone!

I am pleased to announce an update to the Gold Demo that now includes DirectX support.

For info, the DirectX version seems markedly slower when the 'pop up windows' (such as the reinforcement menu, research menu and unit purchase menu are selected) - there is a definite pause before they display now.

I am running XP pro, with SC run as win 98/ME in compatability mode.

I will try running it without compatability mode to see if it helps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by husky65:

OK, I have found the problem - for some reason 'Refreshlock' (a refresh rate fix) introduces the pause that I mentioned.

If I turn it off the game works with no pause.

Turn it on I get the pause.

I don't know if this is the case with other refresh rate fixes, but is probably worth looking into at some stage.

At the moment it is an easy fix, just turn off refreshlock.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Bill Macon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looks good, however for the next patch you might want to look into fixing the balance for naval units.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ditto. We'll probably be haggling about this one for a while. Until we see the manual and play some campaign games, it's too soon to consider just what to tweak. Certainly will be an interesting discussion topic once we get into it.

How about the setups for neutrals in the game? This is an area we cannot change with the scenario editor. Some units, like the ones in capitals and the Finns on the Mannerheim Line, should probably start with some entrenchment value, like 1 or 2. I understand surprise, but still. Most every unit in the demo scenario starts out with no entrenchment except the Maginot Line units, and they only get 4/8. This probably goes way beyond an idea for a simple patch tweak, but entrenchment levels should be reconsidered at some point.

Research looks better. I can't say I've seen any more luck come my way, but I haven't noticed anything odd yet either. Thanks Hubert!

I agree that we should be able to ajust entrenchment values in the editor. Imho, the mannerheim line(god i love that name! :D ) Was much more affective than the Maginot line, so maybe we could add fortifications in the editor? I know this seems a bit too late, youve already made the best demo ive ever played, but how about adding this maybe in a future patch eh?

"Somehow he managed to mention the finns again"

"Finnish bastard. wish he'd get off that"

:D

Yours truly, the Baron Himself CVM.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by Carl Von Mannerheim:

...Imho, the mannerheim line(god i love that name! :D ) Was much more affective than the Maginot line, so maybe we could add fortifications in the editor?

CvM,

I believe you wanted to use effective there. Of course, affective would be the word of choice if you are comparing the emotional aspects of the fortification systems. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As originally posted by Hubert Cater:

I am pleased to announce an update to the Gold Demo that now includes DirectX support.

As I am very ignorant on how the software process works in your industry, I have a question:

Will the final edition game that we are to receive within the next week or so, also have the fixes that you announced on July 29, such as eliminating the rare Seed Bug, and disbanding naval ships and all the others?

Or, will we have to download a patch to have these included in the game? :confused:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...