MC Desert Fox observations

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MC Desert Fox observations - 8/3/2004 8:53:11 PM

Skotty702

Posts: 14
Joined: 2/6/2004
From: Vegas
Status: offline

Having purchased the new Generals MC package, I would like to share a
couple of oddities I have observed so far.

1) Lewis MG crews show up as halftrack icons
2) Some SAS squads show up as Sherman tanks. When you shoot them, you get
vehicle type damage messages, "front hit by MG34" and the like. You also get
vehicle sound effects when said units are hit and are moving and blown up.
3) Some of my PZIII and motorcycles weapons change from battle to battle. I have
had motos with 37mm AT guns in slot one, and some PZIIIs with Soviet 7.62mm BMGs.
4)In the amphib landing optional battle at Gazalla(sp?), you have a battery of
Small Naval guns. I only got to use them for one fire mission. This was because
they emptied ALL 36 rounds per gun(4 guns) in one salvo! At least I targeted the UK HQ when this happened. Has anyone else see this type of naval hyper-barrage before.
4) The mission briefing naration wavs don't play.

I have all the options on except C&C.

You know, after dropping almost $200 into Matrix's coffers over time, these type of things get a bit annoying. Especially the OOB errors in the MC.

Regards,
Scott

Post #: 1

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/3/2004 9:03:28 PM

Voriax

Posts: 1719
Joined: 5/20/2000
From: Finland
Status: offline

Howdy

OOB bugs are essentially results of oob changes, just about every major version of SPWaW has had them. Short of checking and rewriting all MC scenarios there's very little you can do. Desert Fox being done with version 5.0 it actually works rather well and has relatively few bugs.
Those narrations often start when you go to the battle option screen and then return to the briefing screen. Although I'm not 100% certain that all battles have a audio briefing.

Voriax

_____________________________

Oh God give Me strength to accept those things I cannot change with a firearm!

(in reply to Skotty702)

Post #: 2

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/3/2004 10:29:38 PM

Skotty702

Posts: 14
Joined: 2/6/2004
From: Vegas
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Voriax

Howdy

OOB bugs are essentially results of oob changes, just about every major version of SPWaW has had them. Short of checking and rewriting all MC scenarios there's very little you can do. Desert Fox being done with version 5.0 it actually works rather well and has relatively few bugs.
Those narrations often start when you go to the battle option screen and then return to the briefing screen. Although I'm not 100% certain that all battles have a audio briefing.

Voriax

I understand what you are saying here. However, since this seems like a known OOB error that has existed for couple years, is it out of order to fix it? Or does Matrix consider this an acceptable level of error in their QA of a for profit product? I guess so. :(

The narations have never played at all for the entire MC from the start. It played fine in my old stand alone version of Desert Fox.

(in reply to Voriax)

Post #: 3

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/4/2004 12:55:26 AM

rbrunsman

Posts: 1837
Joined: 1/31/2002
From: Phoenix, AZ
Status: offline

I don't think you should expect the new OOB revisions to be harmless to old MCs. I am running MCDF in v7.1 right now and I have had no problems. If you are running MCDF in v8+ or H2H, I would expect to see unit abnormalities pop up. It's the price you pay for all the hard work the teams put in to the OOBs to make them better. You can't honestly expect perfect backward compatability.

If you have the room on your hard drive, just load a pre-v8.0 version of SPWAW on your computer and you are all set to run Desert Fox problem free.

rb

_____________________________

Everyone is a potential [PBEM] enemy, every place a potential [PBEM] battlefield. --Zensunni Wisdom

(in reply to Skotty702)

Post #: 4

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/4/2004 1:25:08 AM

Jcatarino

Posts: 14
Joined: 10/26/2000
Status: offline

There's a little problem...

How do I install the MC in a 7.1 (or whatever) version if the General's Edition as all the MC and v8.2 included in one setup file? The MC should be made available as a separate install for GE owners.

(in reply to rbrunsman)

Post #: 5

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/4/2004 5:42:02 PM

Skotty702

Posts: 14
Joined: 2/6/2004
From: Vegas
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: rbrunsman

I don't think you should expect the new OOB revisions to be harmless to old MCs. I am running MCDF in v7.1 right now and I have had no problems. If you are running MCDF in v8+ or H2H, I would expect to see unit abnormalities pop up. It's the price you pay for all the hard work the teams put in to the OOBs to make them better. You can't honestly expect perfect backward compatability.

rb

I can honestly expect that when I pay about $80 for an "updated" set of MC's, I honestly expect that 2 year old OOB incompatiblites in the MC's be corrected.....period.

(in reply to rbrunsman)

Post #: 6

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/4/2004 6:56:03 PM

Voriax

Posts: 1719
Joined: 5/20/2000
From: Finland
Status: offline

Just a question. Where did you get this 'updated' set of MC's? The purchase page at least does not mention it. General edition is just SPWaW 8.2 and all 4 MC's on one CD. And with less price than buying 3 MC's separately.

Voriax

_____________________________

Oh God give Me strength to accept those things I cannot change with a firearm!

(in reply to Skotty702)

Post #: 7

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/4/2004 7:35:16 PM

Procrustes

Posts: 633
Joined: 3/30/2003
From: Upstate
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Voriax

Just a question. Where did you get this 'updated' set of MC's? The purchase page at least does not mention it. General edition is just SPWaW 8.2 and all 4 MC's on one CD. And with less price than buying 3 MC's separately.

Voriax

Hi Voriax,

Are you saying that the General's Edition comes with a version of SPWAW that is incompatible with the megacampaigns that accompany it? What good is it then?

Curious...!

P.

(in reply to Voriax)

Post #: 8

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/4/2004 8:15:09 PM

chief

Posts: 1660
Joined: 9/28/2000
From: Haines City FL, USA
Status: offline

Did you check about updates/patches for the Megas ??????

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"God Bless America and All the Young men and women who give their all to protect Her"....chief

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Post #: 9

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/4/2004 8:20:39 PM

Skotty702

Posts: 14
Joined: 2/6/2004
From: Vegas
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Voriax

Just a question. Where did you get this 'updated' set of MC's? The purchase page at least does not mention it. General edition is just SPWaW 8.2 and all 4 MC's on one CD. And with less price than buying 3 MC's separately.

Voriax

I guess I made an assumption that this new release would be updated to work with 8.2 without some OOB errors. I really don't care that they are cheaper than the separate MC since I already puchased 3 out of 4 of them anyway. At end of the day, it's not a show stopper and this edition is a good value, but if IMO a product is re-released with known OOB incompatiblites, that pisses me off a bit. I feel like I bought a used car and didn't read the fine print in the contract. Guilty as charged I suppose. :)

(in reply to Voriax)

Post #: 10

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/4/2004 8:38:50 PM

Voriax

Posts: 1719
Joined: 5/20/2000
From: Finland
Status: offline

Skotty, I do understand your frustration.

One thing to keep in mind is that megacampaigns are actually a volunteer effort and Matrix Games is a distributor. Wild Bill was the coordinator for each MC and bunch of _volunteers_ did the design and testing work. So in order to fix these MC's each designer should revise his scenarios, then these scens must be tested again and then a new MC version compiled. Now Desert Fox is originally 5.0, Lost Victories 6 or 7 (can't recall) Watchtower is 7.x and Screaming Eagles is 8.0. So DF would have needed at least 3 fixing rounds so far (actually more as there has been more oob fixes than the major version numbers would indicate).

Perhaps it should be clearly stated in the stores page that MC's are originally made with older SPWaW versions and may contain oob errors.

Procrustes, they are not incompatible but also they are not 100% compatible either. I am currently playing DF with 8.01 and besides these 'halftrack lewises' it has worked quite well. Reason why I play with 8.01 is that my 'Generals edition' which I Matrix folks gave to me as a testing reward for Screaming Eagles has 8.0 + all megas. And I considered it lesser hassle to keep 8.2 and 8.01 separate than manually copy MC files from 8.01 to 8.2

Voriax

_____________________________

Oh God give Me strength to accept those things I cannot change with a firearm!

(in reply to Skotty702)

Post #: 11

RE: MC Desert Fox observations - 8/4/2004 11:05:34 PM

Procrustes

Posts: 633
Joined: 3/30/2003
From: Upstate
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Voriax
Procrustes, they are not incompatible but also they are not 100% compatible either. I am currently playing DF with 8.01 and besides these 'halftrack lewises' it has worked quite well. Reason why I play with 8.01 is that my 'Generals edition' which I Matrix folks gave to me as a testing reward for Screaming Eagles has 8.0 + all megas. And I considered it lesser hassle to keep 8.2 and 8.01 separate than manually copy MC files from 8.01 to 8.2

Voriax

I see. I was under the impression that the megacamps and/or the OOB's had been appropriately updated for v8.x so that there wouldn't be any OOB problems with the General's Edition - I'm surprised and disappointed to find otherwise. I think that this bit of information should be noted on the buy screen - it makes the GE much less appealing. I understand that SPWAW is a bit of shoe-string operation, but I don't think that is really apparent to anyone that hasn't hung around here playing the games for a while. I also doubt it is apparent to anyone who is just looking at the $80 price tag for the GE.

(I bought them all separately when they came out - later wedged DF into V7 and then V8, but was planning to buy the GE so that I could get a comprehensive and cohesive collection. Glad I spotted this thread first!)

Thanks,

Procrustes

(in reply to Voriax)

Post #: 12