Joel Billings
Posts: 32265
Joined: 9/20/2000 From: Santa Rosa, CA Status: offline
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Just wanted to let everyone know that we've been working hard on a patch for the past month and we're close to releasing it as a public beta. Unless we find something that needs fixing in the next day or two, Matrix plans on making it available later this week. We've had a good group of testers playing it for several weeks so hopefully it won't take long to move from public beta to approved patch. Since we've pretty much locked in the changes for this patch, I though I'd list them so you know what's coming soon: · New Features 1. Map Change – The Mississippi R2 region has been made larger by extending it south into some of the area that used to be Mississippi R1 region. The impact of this is that Baton Rouge no longer is adjacent to the Mississippi R1 region, which means it will no longer be able to fire on amphibious invasions of New Orleans coming from the Mississippi R1 region. Although this map change will appear in the map art when you load an old save game file, in order for the impact on the regions to take affect you must start a new game. 2. Rule Change – On the player-turn on which Kentucky is first invaded, no overrun combat is allowed, and no amphibious invasions of Kentucky are allowed. At the end of this player combat will be immediately executed in all Kentucky regions containing combat units. 3. Rule Change/Exception – In order to support a ground attack on Fort Jackson (area 8) or Fort St. Philip (area 415), ships must be located in Mississippi R1a (area 404). Ships may no longer support attacks on these regions while in the Gulf of Mexico. 4. Rule Change – When a leader is hit in combat, he will continue to provide a combat bonus to units under his command during the rest of the combat, but the leader’s ratings will be reduced by 1 for the purpose of calculating these bonuses. 5. Rule Change – Attrition is now increased in swamp areas. During summer turns, all units in swamps must check for attrition, and the attrition is not divided by 4 as it is for other supplied units in the summer. The formula is also altered for units in a swamp to include a new variable P as follows: (((W+E)xS)+P)/T. P is set to one of the following values: 1 – For all units in swamp areas with at least one population or resource center. 3 – Confederate units in swamp areas with no population or resource centers. 5 – Union units in swamp areas with no population or resource centers. Examples: A Union Militia unit in Tampa in June would have a (((1+1)x1)+5)/2 or 3.5% chance of being eliminated. A Confederate Infantry unit in Fort Jackson in August would have a (((1+0)x1)+3/1 or 4% chance of being damaged. 6. Rule Change – Production of certain unit types are now limited to certain states. They are as follows: Artillery and Heavy Artillery – Only allowed to be built or repaired in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Texas (represents artillery brought in through Mexico). Cruisers – Not allowed to be built or repaired in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey. Ironclads – Not allowed to be built or repaired in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New England. The computer AI will try to abide by these restrictions. In addition, there may be some cases where units are sent to areas for repair that are not allowed, but when this happens, repair will be possible. 7. Rule Change – Whenever Lee is located outside of the Eastern Theater (see section 6.5), for purposes of leader illness (section 6.7); Lee will be treated as if he has a mortality rating of 9 (instead of 1). 8. Rule Change – Whenever the Confederacy wins a strategic victory in a northern state (not border states even if aligned or a permanent member of the USA), the Confederate player will be awarded 40 political points (instead of 20) and the Union player will lose 20 political points (instead of 10). 9. Rule Change – Heavy Artillery units that have moved during their most recent turn will have 3 subtracted from their die roll when they fire. 10. Rule Change – The Union player gains 5 Political Points at the end of any Union turn in which he has moved into any one of the following territories, if Confederate controlled, with at least 30 combat units: Manassas, Richmond, or any region adjacent to Richmond. These points are not gained if Richmond is Union controlled. 11. Rule Change – If the Union player does not move at least 15 combat units into Manassas on turn 1 of the Battle Cry of Freedom (1861 start) scenario, the Union player will lose 10 Political Points at the end of the Union turn. 12. Rule Change – Joseph E. Johnston no longer has initiative on turn 1 of the Battle Cry of Freedom (1861 start) scenario. 13. Rule Change – Units now check against the Scouted Level just prior to the Reaction Phase instead of just prior to the Combat Phase. 14. Data Change – Increased the transport cost of Heavy Artillery from 5 to 12. 15. Data Change – Increased the Defense Rating of George G Meade to 4 (was 3). 16. Data Changes – Changes to setup of Battle Cry of Freedom (1861 start) scenario. Moved the Union fleets in the Gulf further from the Mississippi River so they cannot attack the forts in Louisiana on turn 1. Added leaders DuPont and Goldsborough and removed leaders Alden and Ward. Removed two Union transports from area AC7 and added a gunboat in production to Philadelphia. Norfolk is now at Fort Level 1 in all scenarios. 17. New Feature – Fort icons will now show up in regions with enemy ghost (unspotted) symbols. · Bug Fixes 1. Bug Fix – Cavalry and Mounted units were incorrectly being allowed to scout or raid after moving strategically. This has been fixed so that units that move strategically may not raid or scout on the same turn. 2. Bug Fix – Supplies were not getting built automatically in the area where a factory was being built on the turn of the factory’s completion. Factory completion will no longer interfere with supply production. 3. Bug Fix - Heavy artillery was not getting the benefit of artillery sub commanders (i.e. says the corps is missing sub commanders for HA units even when there are arty commanders available). Heavy artillery will now get help from sub commanders. 4. Bug Fix – Unit’s not attached to a leader prior to combat were in some cases not getting the combat benefit of the automatic attachment to an available leader in the area. Now unattached units will get a combat benefit if they are able to automatically attach prior to the combat. 5. Bug Fix – In some cases ships in combat were being treated as if they had been fired upon earlier in the turn when they hadn’t. This should no longer happen. 6. Bug Fix – Units in an area not on a supply grid were sometimes not auto-foraging, as they should have. They will now auto-forage if there are resources in the area. 7. Bug Fix – In some cases, leaders were only giving combat bonuses to friendly firing units but not friendly defending units. Leaders will now always help out with both firing and defending when they help a unit. 8. Bug Fix – After Kentucky had become a permanent Confederate state it was incorrectly possible for the state to become Union aligned after the EP was declared. This will no longer happen. 9. Bug Fix – In some cases population would improperly accumulate in parts of Kentucky that were Union controlled when the state was a Permanent member of the Confederacy. This has been fixed. 10. Bug Fix - Units used to incorrectly be able to damage infrastructure in enemy areas. This is no longer possible. The area must be friendly controlled in order to damage infrastructure. 11. Bug Fix - When op-fire happened against naval units with sub commanders, sometimes the sub commanders got shot at instead of some of the ships, and those ships get left unmoved. This has been fixed. 12. Bug Fix - Artillery firing at units in the artillery fire phase were not spotting the units fired at. They will now cause spotting to happen. 13. Bug Fix - Sub-commanders could be named as acting army commanders in a battle. This will no longer happen. 14. Bug Fix - Army commanders that get initiative should always have amphibious initiative, and now they will. 15. Bug Fix – South Carolina was incorrectly being treated as being in the Western Theater for Leader Activation. It is now part of the Eastern Theater. 16. Bug Fix - With FOW on, and the Show No supplies and infrastructure off, supplies in some areas would not show up on the map. This has been fixed. 17. Bug Fix - Fixed a rare display issue where a leader could be listed as a Unit Commander in a battle in the detailed combat report screen even when the leader was not in the combat region. 18. Bug Fix – It was possible for the Union blockade value in a region to become negative when playing with Sub-Commanders, and this could increase the Confederate free trade. This can no longer happen. 19. Bug Fix – Fixed a data bug that prevented movement from Washington to Manassas (but not the other way around) in the 1862 and 1863 scenarios. 20. Bug Fix – Leaders that could not trace a rail and/or transport link to a Theatre Commander were not getting help with initiative from the TC even if within six regions. Now leaders just need to be within 6 regions and do not need to have a rail or transport link. 21. Bug Fix – In some rare cases units not on a supply grid were still getting supplied. This should no longer happen. 22. Bug Fix – In some cases naval leaders were being blocked from moving on land. This has been fixed. · AI Enhancements 1. Improved AI – The Union AI has been improved to produce slightly more supply and should be less likely to over produce artillery.
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