My two wishes for version 3.5

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My two wishes for version 3.5

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Norm Koger's The Operational Art Of War III >> My two wishes for version 3.5

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My two wishes for version 3.5 - 4/22/2015 1:49:04 AM

X.ray

Posts: 35
Joined: 4/18/2009
Status: offline

I know it's probably too late, but I figure I still want to at least say it now, because I'm not sure if I can see patch 3.6 in my life time.

Overall I think TOAW III is a perfect war game, with little room to improve. For me two things will be important in addition to the better Naval unit support and support to bigger map size that Ralph is working on (and various debugging):
A) the timepiece system need to be changed from a global impact to a regional / OOB impact. I'm talking about the timepiece check after each battle to decide when your turn ends or not. I like the timepiece system, really. It adds unpredictability to the planning and fun, and makes it more real. But it is not real if your whole OKH stopped functioning when one division goes into an unexpected tough battle in Minsk. My suggestion is that the timepiece system for the part of determining whether the relevant units will exhaust all their MPs should only affect all units under the nearest HQ (in terms of hierarchy), including the HQ itself, provided majority of the units owned by this HQ participated this battle or in the hex where units participated the battle. If only 1 out of 3 units owned by the HQ participated the battle or in the hex where units participated the battle, then only that unit should be frozen after the battle. And,
B) to have a 64bit version in order for the game to continue to live for the next then decade

. I'm not a programmer so don't know if it's something easy or not, but hope this is just like clicking a button

Am I obsolete?

In any case, thanks for the great work Ralph, and I'll continue to support you even if you ignore my asks

Post #: 1

RE: My two wishes for version 3.5 - 4/22/2015 2:39:05 PM

ralphtricky

Posts: 6685
Joined: 7/27/2003
From: Colorado Springs
Status: offline

X.ray,
Thanks for the feedback.

The current system could be better for the larger scenarios. It's not on the roadmap at the moment but it will need to be addressed eventually. For now being able to set the maximum rounds per battle will have to do.
64-bit will probably happen sometime. There are several issues with it right now.

CONS:
Some people are still running XP and 32-bit windows which don't run 64-bit programs.
Neither the compression library I'm using or the sound library have 64 bit versions, so it isn't a simple compilation switch. The sound library would be particularly complicated since it uses callbacks. I would have to convert them to use a new sound library and compression library and provide tools to upgrade the existing scenarios.
64 bit pointers take more space than 32 bit ones so they are often slower than the 32 bit counterparts.
TOAW isn't even close to bumping up against the 2 GB limit of 32 bit programs.

PROS:
MS may eventually deprecate 32 bit programs. After the windows 8 fiasco, I don't expect that to happen any time soon.

SUMMARY:
Eventually I'll migrate to 64 bit, but right now I don't see any compelling reason to and a lot of reasons not to.

(in reply to X.ray)

Post #: 2

RE: My two wishes for version 3.5 - 4/23/2015 4:01:37 AM

X.ray

Posts: 35
Joined: 4/18/2009
Status: offline

Thanks Ralph. I didn't expect such a quick feedback from you so I figure that as a good sign for patch 3.5

In any case thanks for your great efforts in improving this game. To me this is the most perfect war game I can find in the market. There are also other great games out there like Gary Grigsby's War in the East / West series, which have many great ideas (and I like to play them), but I feel TOAW III is the one that achieved the best balance between simplicity and complicity, while being versatile enough to simulate what could happen in reality at different times and under different situations. The vast base of user created scenarios is a good evidence which you don't see for other games.

So please continue your good work and we are all waiting for your good news

And I'll also wait for the update on patch 3.6 then, or maybe 4.0

< Message edited by X.ray -- 4/23/2015 5:02:54 AM >

(in reply to ralphtricky)

Post #: 3

RE: My two wishes for version 3.5 - 4/23/2015 8:32:33 PM

larryfulkerson

Posts: 39932
Joined: 4/17/2005
From: Tucson, AZ
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: X.ray
Thanks Ralph. I didn't expect such a quick feedback from you so I figure that as a good sign for patch 3.5

Ralph has been really responsive for a while now. We've got a Ralph that cares and it shows.

quote:

ORIGINAL: X.ray
In any case thanks for your great efforts in improving this game. To me this is the most perfect war game I can find in the market. There are also other great games out there like Gary Grigsby's War in the East / West series, which have many great ideas (and I like to play them), but I feel TOAW III is the one that achieved the best balance between simplicity and complicity, while being versatile enough to simulate what could happen in reality at different times and under different situations. The vast base of user created scenarios is a good evidence which you don't see for other games.

I agree with your assessment of TOAW. I've also played the War in the East/West and I too came back to TOAW. It IS the best
balance of complexity and ease of play. I've been a long time player now and I still wouldn't play anything else except maybe
Empire Earth once in a while. Okay, twice a day but that's an exception.

quote:

ORIGINAL: X.ray
So please continue your good work and we are all waiting for your good news

Yeah, Ralph, please continue your work and surprise us with your product.

quote:

ORIGINAL: X.ray
And I'll also wait for the update on patch 3.6 then, or maybe 4.0

I'm on the beta team and have some insider info about a couple of things but I hope you don't read anything into what I'm about
to say. If I were you I wouldn't wait for the patch or the 4.0 version either one. I found TOAW by stumbling upon it many years
ago and got many many fun hours out of it. So jump in there and go for the gusto. I can't imagine you regretting it.

EDIT: Oh, and I wanted to comment about your noticing the huge base of scenarios. A lot of those are products of players like
yourself and once you manage to get a handle on the mechanics of how to use the editor you can change whatever you would
like in any scenario to make it more "realistic", or "easier to play" or both. I've done that to Barbarosa '41 and made a better
scenario from it. You'll find that B'41 scenario in the classics folder along with many many more. Just imagine a situation that
has happened in history or a situation that might happen in history and a scenario can be constructed for it. In most cases. Your
milage may vary.

< Message edited by larryfulkerson -- 4/23/2015 9:38:47 PM >

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(in reply to X.ray)

Post #: 4