Dec 19, 2018

JTS/WDS Christmas Present #2

It’s time for our second lot of releases to tide you over the holiday season!

We had problem with our ‘blog’ notifier yesterday. If you missed present #1, the release of the new Normandy ’44 Gold and Bulge ’44 Gold updates, go here! WDS Christmas Present #1

After a truckload of work, we’re happy to release the next two upgrades to previous Civil War Battles titles.

Campaign Gettysburg Product Page; Gettysburg Product Page

Campaign Franklin Product Page ; Franklin Product Page

Very importantly, for Gettysburg we have had to separate the 8 largest 3D maps from the patch, so you need to download two files to get the complete package that is shown in the screen shots below. This is not the case for Franklin whee we were able to fit all the 3D painted maps into the patch.

For all that are wondering, here is what is in these updates;

Implemented Settings > Alternative Unit Symbols.
Introduced the new Variable, Asymmetric, Turn-Based Victory Points System. [Available, but not really used yet.]
Standardized weapon and movement values. Soon to be rolled out across prior and future titles
Auto Defensive Fire has been adjusted so that artillery is set at "Min." This change will enhance play against the A/I, and will help conserve overall artillery ammunition supply levels. This setting can be changed by using the following hot key: Alt + F, or look under the A/I window during gameplay.
Added to the Manuals Folder: Standard Toolbar Reference Guide
Made the on-map elevation/coordinates/terrainmod font sizes a step smaller.
Tweaked the in-game weapon descriptions.
Fixed a damaged bridge crossing bug.
Fixed a word-wrap bug in cp_start.exe.
Implemented a true, large (4X) 2D map view, the new 2D Normal View, aka Zoom2D100.(Unlike before, where the largest 2D map view was achieved via software auto-magnification.)
Greatly expanded and redesigned the Standard game engine Toolbar, now with 70 buttons. (The Classic Toolbar is retained.)
Implemented: Settings > Toolbar > None/Classic Small/Classic Large/Standard Small/Standard Medium/Standard Large.
Implemented dozens of new hot keys. Just about every menu option and game feature has been assigned a hot key. (This necessitated a number of hot key reassignments.)
Hot keys are now documented in-game, in the menus, in the Status Bar and in Toolbar button tooltips.
Reorganized the files and folders, such that everything is not stored in one big heap in the top-level game folder, rather is stored by file type and purpose in an expanded file folder hierarchy.
Implemented a full-featured logging system, to aid in code development, debugging, and user support, among other purposes.
Added the Extreme Fog of War optional rule. When Extreme Fog of War is in effect, the Visibility highlight only displays from friendly occupied hexes. Also, for enemy units in obscuring terrain (e.g., Forest), enemy force counts will only display as XXX instead of, for example, 3XX.
For artillery (and with the Manual Defensive Fire option toggled OFF), changed the Auto Defensive Fire default value from Max to Min.
Implemented: Settings > Hex Highlights > Hex Outlines/Hex Shading.
Implemented: Settings > Map Contours > Colors.../Widths...
Implemented: Settings > Hand-Drawn 3D Map.
Implemented: Settings > Unit/Leader Boxes > Color/No Color.
Implemented: View > Map Elevation/Map Coordinates/Map Combat Modifiers.
Implemented: View > 2D Map Slopes.
New 3D hand-painted maps including settings toggle
New 3D units (with customized regimental flags, etc.)
New 2D terrain graphics
Changed the brigade combat colors to display on counter edge (not on counter face).
2D counter redesign including all counter symbology
New unit card colorization for all formations including leaders (includes refreshed B&W images)
Standardized naming in OOB's to be rolled out across prior and future titles

A lot has been done and you will notice more options to switch graphics on and off as well as additional graphic sets. The Old Banshee team have closely collaborated and provided their excellent work in theses patches and map updates.

Beyond thanking Frank and the Old Banshee team, Berto our resident (overworked and part-time) programmer has taken a lot of what he has learned updating the Panzer Battles system and applied it to the Civil War Battles set. Rich Walker who authored many of the previous releases along with John Ferry have done all the tough hack work to rewrite order of battle and verify the titles scenarios and overall infrastructure. A lot of the current updates required some very deep reviews of the existing data and these two gentlemen have been tireless in getting through mountains of work.

All credit to this team of gentlemen for the time put in and the time still required to get the remaining Civil War Battle titles updated.

Here are some screen shots from the new builds (all images can be clicked for full size);