News From The Front
Greetings,
It's time once again for an update on what is happening within the Wargame Design Studio fold. Today we bring you several items:
1) Napoleonic Battles Updates
2) Status report on Panzer Campaigns
3) New Game Preview from the Musket & Pike series
So let's jump right in... (images can be clicked for full size)
It was our intent to be done with the Napoleonic series for a while after the release of the 4.03 updates in September. As luck would have it though, a significant problem slipped past our testing processes, namely Skirmishers were not receiving the reduction in losses (1/5 normal) they should have in a melee. This calculation exists to reflect the doctrine of skirmisher use - i.e. they fall back in the face for a formed opponent unless in obstructed terrain. Giving ground and snipping off casualties rather than standing their ground and holding out. We felt this was important to address right away. We did however leave the full casualty rate in effect if meleed by cavalry (not in charge mode).
But, as is our norm here at WDS, if we are going to release an update we want to give it a good bit of meat, not a single bug fix...so we have included several things that didn't make the 4.03 cut...and also uncovered a few other things that needed fixing along the way. Some details on that:
A new Toolbar has been implemented bringing in Buttons to control the speed of both A/I Play and Replay speed, but also activation for roaming mode. The speed controls coincide with the F5 - F8 functionality within the game.
Roaming Mode is a feature that has been in the game engine for many years, but is often over looked. When activated it allows you to use your mouse to skim around the battlefield, viewing the contents of various hexes without having to click on each one. The unit information is also updated in the Hex Info Area as you move around.
We are also introducing a new set of documentation. In version 4.01 the "General Help" document was appended to the end of the Users Manual, so all that info is now contained in one place. With 4.04 we begin the process of creating a more concise set of information and quick reference sheets to help make game play a bit easier. The image below is a page from the new document. If you click on it the complete new file will be opened in a new window.
Another game play enhancing change that was made was to the "Highlight" function. To make it easier to determine what units are highlighted the bases are "lightened" considerably, not just outlined with yellow.
And in 3D you will see a difference between the highlighted organization, and the specific unit that is selected.
All of these items are series wide and included in the 4.04 updates released today. Additionally, these updates can be applied to games in progress without causing any problems. Please see the Changelog.pdf file located in the \Manuals folder or linked on our website for a complete list of changes included in this round of updates.
All game updates can be accessed from our website under each product page or on the master Napoleonic Battles Updates Page. The full installer for each game has also been updated and is accessible from your Store account if you prefer that method.
As mentioned in our recent blog post, work is nearing completion for not only a new round of updates for the Panzer Campaigns series, but also a new game - Rumyantsev '43. Final programming work and testing is happening now and we have every confidence that Rumyantsev '43 will be out in November followed shortly by updates for the whole series. You'll see new features like the updated toolbar mentioned above, updated documentation as well as new features for the engine. We'll save the details there for the product release post though.
And that brings us to our new game preview from the Musket & Pike series:
The next title planned for release in the Musket & Pike series is Great Northern War covering the 21-year conflict between Charles XII of Sweden and Czar Peter I (the Great) of Russia...and many other nations over the course of the conflict. As of this writing we have 75 stand alone scenarios plus 5 campaigns included for many, many hours of gaming enjoyment.
Not only will this title bring new content to the M&P series, but programming work is also in progress to bring it up to the level of the Napoleonic Battles series with features, updated rules, new toolbars, file folder reorganization and graphical enhancements. Additionally, we plan to update the existing games in the series to the same level shortly after release.
Here are a few screen shots from the work in progress. Nothing is finalized at this point, but wanted the give you a taste of what's in the works.
And while we don't want to give specifics, we have several other projects actively under development in this series - so if there's a conflict you hope to see covered, there's a good chance we'll be doing it.
As of this writing we anticipate having Great Northern War out in the first half of 2023.
And that brings us to a close for todays news. Care to discuss it with others? Head on over to the official forums!
Enjoy!
A very welcoming updates .. i hope release in early NOV.
Programming AI to move 1 division (PzC) contain 10-12 individual batt/counter is ALOT difficult rather than 1 division 1 counter (WITE2) or 4-6 counter (TOAW). Plus its complex rule such as move/travel mode, disrupted at night travel etc.
Cannot compare PzC with Wite2/TOAW, its different beast.
Despite its AI, i played PzC,NP & WWC most of the time , compare to my WITE2,EU4,COMMAND,DC.
The map is another masterpiece.
My wish VST value is more sharp between road and non-road & the old scenario being rework (like Indragnir doing)
Cheers,
On the coming update fpr the PzC-series: will the Demo (Mius ’43) be included as well?
I agree with the other commenter. Panzer Campaigns takes so long to play with an opponent that playing against the AI is typical. Let’s face it, a real, general wargamer wants to command over the entire campaign of interest. Given all the updates and all the games produced, why not now take the time to work on a general AI system of the series. Computers now have the necessary computing capacity and memory; the real problem is finding wargamers/programmers who can develop robust AI (a very elite and handful of specialists). While your competitor’s “Operation Art of War IV” does have one which is better, the weird way a turn is tabulated time-wise, and time-scales and casualty percentages being set by a scenario setup file, make PC a much better simulation in general.
While many (if not all) companies have tried to develop their own game on the entire war on the Eastern Front, all have been poor simulations. “War in the East II” was a board game which simulated encircling actions very well with a mechanized movement phase, but had very primitive all or nothing supply. “War in East” and “War in East II” had a much better combat and supply system, but made encirclements very difficult with units having to move one at a time, and allowing the circled units to be all re-supplied if the ring wars broken in any place the opposing player’s turn, even by a small unit. If the Russian player would have to sacrifice a lot of truck units to do this, that would be tolerable. The WDS has actual experience designing two western theatre strategic campaigns; why not try the eastern one? All of these allow the Russian player to control weapon/unit production, while the German player doesn’t have any. Even worse, there are no “what ifs” given the German player a better chance, like early German total war production and mobilization, not declaring war on America, etc. The company is guaranteed to have lots of buyers.
REBHands up for a Spanish Succesion war in M&P, Franco-Prussian war and a WW1 covering the Galitzia campaign in 1914. Thanks!
As as WW1, I would like to see a game on the struggle in Galicia in 1914-1915.
Lots of maneuver.
As with WW2, a game in the Western Ukraine in 1941.
Keep up your great effort!
Dave
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