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Grog Friends and Affiliates => Schwerpunkt PC Wargames => Topic started by: Staggerwing on September 21, 2013, 06:11:57 PM

Title: What's the latest news?
Post by: Staggerwing on September 21, 2013, 06:11:57 PM
Ron, it's nice to see Schwerepunkt have a forum of it's own here. Congrats!

Could you give the boys and girls here a brief estimate of when we may be able to see the game unveiled?
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Bison on September 21, 2013, 09:58:08 PM
Good to see the Schwerpunkt forum.  Looking forward to some updates on World War II Europe .
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on September 21, 2013, 10:49:52 PM
Its good to be here.  I recognize a lot of wargamers on this site.

WWII-Europe is continuing development.  The maps have been fully digitized.  We have had two playtests, one focused on user interface and the second one on operations.  Many of the battles have been built.  Right now the focus is on the terrain array.  The game is a monster, with 434 x 360 hexes.  Terrain array contains the information about each hex.  I'm on column 322, but parts of the remaining columns have been done.  Once that is complete, then the next effort is the city array.  After that, complete the battles and the computer opponent. So, lots of hard work in front of me, but no showstoppers.

Strangely enough, if the government is sequestered, then progress will speed up on the game.

I'll post a list of all of the changes since RGW and AGW later when I have more time.  Just wanted to say hi to all of my old friends, and summarize the development status for now.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: GJK on September 21, 2013, 11:53:07 PM
Glad to hear that work progresses on this one Ron.  I've enjoyed both RGW and AGW but have not played in years.  I believe that I did a review of RGW a number of years ago for some site.  The details escape me at the moment.  That said, I had always thought that your games had the closest connection to their boardgame brothers.  The looks and the way they play were closer to boardgaming than most (all) other PC wargames I've played.  I know that probably the biggest "issue" with your first designs was with the interface and I seem to recall from some time ago, that overhauling the interface was one of your priorities.  Perhaps you could elaborate on that a bit.

Also, regarding WWII-Europe, I'd be very interested to hear about diplomacy, random events, pacts and neutralities - will those types of things be featured in the game and if so, is it handled by scripting it in, or is it an "anything goes" type thing?  I'll elaborate...every WWII ETO game falls into either of those categories; either the game is scripted to enforce historical-like outcomes, or it is unscripted and wide open yet can (and usually does) give some very radically different historical outcomes.  Preferences for how the game handles that vary; some like historical, some like being able to control either the Allied or Axis destiny totally.  In which of those will WWII-Europe fall?  Thanks!
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on September 28, 2013, 10:39:42 AM
Happy Saturday everyone!

The user interface of WWII-Europe is new and different from Russo-German War (RGW), Anglo-German War (AGW and Middle East (MDE).  It shows a continued evolution.  One of the first things players will notice is the Command Panel.  As you move the mouse over the map and units, it displays ground, air or naval units in detail.  This is done as fast as you can move the cursor.  If you hold the Ctrl key while moving the mouse cursor, the command panel displays the details of that hex.  No mouse clicks are involved in either of these displays.

Another thing that is quickly noticed is that players can configure the interface to their own personal choices.  During playtest, we have had several strong discussions over how a user interface should work.  For example, some favored a 4 step method for a move operation (select hex, select unit, select operation, select destination hex). Others preferred the AGW method of select the move operation once, then a 2 step method (select the top unit in the stack, select the destination hex).  Player gets to choose method desired once, and their choice is stored. In this case, select "Top Unit on" and "Locked Operations as Ground Move to Attack".  Both of these and more are available with the mouse right click.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: LongBlade on September 28, 2013, 10:45:25 AM
Thanks for the update, Ron!
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Bison on September 28, 2013, 06:05:53 PM
Sounds like it's coming along nicely.  Plus the screenshots on sugar free gamer look really good.
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: mirth on September 30, 2013, 12:44:58 PM
Quote from: Bison on September 28, 2013, 06:05:53 PM
Sounds like it's coming along nicely.  Plus the screenshots on sugar free gamer look really good.

+1 The screenies look great!

http://sugarfreegamer.com/?p=83493
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: spelk on October 19, 2013, 06:11:39 PM
Ron posted this over at Wargamer.

Quote
Status on WWII-Europe:

1. Continuing to build the terrain array.  Tedious work, but I am making progress.  Now on column 365 (433 total).  After that, the last tedious piece of work is to complete the city array.  Then back to scenario development.

2.  More thinking and design on the air operations.  For a few of the battles which are primarily air units only (e.g. Battle of Britain 1940), we need to add some additional air ops.

3.  More thinking and design on the computer opponent algorithms.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Staggerwing on October 19, 2013, 06:37:10 PM
A BoB scenario? That could be interesting at this level. No worrying about individual missions, just allocation of resources...
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Grim.Reaper on October 25, 2013, 07:26:10 PM
Always been tempted on the Middle East game.......need a sale on it to make me bite since I am not sure if it is something I would like:)  Do these games ever go on sale?  Great way to bring new people in.
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on October 31, 2013, 09:08:57 PM
A sale?  We do need to think about that, as I have seen other companies do that.  WWII-Europe will replace RGW and AGW.  RGW is now 12 years old (that is why folks talk about the user interface).  AGW is 8 years old.  A close out sale on those two games to get rid of all of the inventory before we release WWII-E might be a really good idea.

For the Middle East game, I am tempted to take the WWII-E user interface and implement it for MDE, if the user interface is well received.  A sale then would be a good idea.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on October 31, 2013, 09:14:08 PM
Latest status on WWII-Europe is we are on column 374 of 434 for the terrain array.  Column 375 has Stalingrad in it.  It appears that Thanksgiving week will give me an opportunity to focus on game development.  My goal is to finish terrain and city array at the end of that week.  This will allow me to go back to building the rest of the battles, and get the play testers to start testing the latest game improvements and battles over the Christmas-New Year holidays.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Staggerwing on October 31, 2013, 09:28:27 PM
Cool! Can't wait to hear more.  :)

When the play testers start their 'work' don't forget to have some of them post a few snippets of an AAR (even just a few turns) to whet appetites.
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on November 22, 2013, 08:46:43 PM
Time for status on WWII-Europe development going into the Thanksgiving week:


1. Now on Column 391 out of 433 on the terrain array.  Hopefully will finish this by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.


2. Developed custom cursors for air and naval unit ops.


3. Developed a dialog box which allows the player to set six (so far) default user interface settings.  These include always choose the top unit in a stack, autoscroll off, game assisted cursor movement off, display uncalculated AF and DF, white air unit circles off, and minimize dialog boxes (supply checking and computer opponent).  The Game always uses these defaults.  Defaults can be changed at any time.


4. Plan to have another round of playtesting during the Christmas holidays.


Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Staggerwing on November 22, 2013, 09:47:08 PM
Cool! Looking forward to more...
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on December 21, 2013, 10:03:53 PM
Year End Status for WWII Europe development:


I could not be more pleased at the latest news.  I had some time off from my day job, and made lots of progress.


1. Terrain array complete.  434 x 360 hexes.  We store 25+ pieces of static information per hex, so this was a big effort.

2. City array complete.  WWIIE has 3735 cities and towns to fight over.  We store 6 pieces of information per city/town. This was also a big effort.

3. Two scenarios fully complete and usable. Saving Moscow (#54) and Bagration (#91) are the two.  8 more are close to completion.

4. Many small bug fixes and game improvements have been implemented.


The game plays well as is, but I'm sure the playtesters will have some suggested improvements as we test each scenario.  The items left on the "To Do" list are complete the scenarios, test, improve the AI, update the help pages and build the manual.  Everything else is ready.


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my wargamer friends.


Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Staggerwing on December 21, 2013, 10:28:29 PM
Thanks for the update Ron!

And release day is projected to be... ? *holds breath*
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on December 31, 2013, 01:35:49 PM
I am holding my breath also.  WWII-Europe is a huge effort, but release date really depends on my day job.  Having said that, my goal is September 2014 in time for the next Christmas season.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Bison on December 31, 2013, 01:37:09 PM
Well that's good for me.  I've got a serious backlog of games to catch up on!
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on January 07, 2014, 09:22:43 PM
More WWII-Europe development status:

1. A total of 9 scenarios have been converted to use the complete terrain and city arrays.

2. Additionally, I developed scenario #8 Sealion 1940.  Interesting scenario.  I have been play testing it.  The Germans can get a foothold in southeast England, but the Home Fleet sorties and cuts off supply.  Significant battles as the Ju87 air units attack the Home Fleet.  England prevails in every playtest, with the British naval and air losses being the only variance.  I really like the custom cursors which allow you to switch between ground, air and naval unit display and selection  seamlessly.

3. I have spent some time documenting design notes for WWII-Europe in general, and for each scenario.  This will be part of the WWII-E manual.  You guys will like this.  Why did we choose attack factors, defense factors, move factor and training/experience/morale numbers as we did?  This will get you into the details of how we develop a wargame.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Staggerwing on January 07, 2014, 09:26:08 PM
Thanks again for the updates. September seems so very far off!
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: BanzaiCat on January 07, 2014, 09:58:31 PM
Great to see this going, Ron. I believe I covered RGW many years ago back at WG. You're still in Texas, correct?

In any case this is fantastic news and indeed a long time to wait.
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on January 08, 2014, 10:01:38 PM
@ Staggerwing.  September seems so close to us!  So much playtesting to do.  It is fun though.

@ Banzai_Cat.  I remember on RGW.  We released that game in 2001, and it is still selling.  WWII-Europe will finally replace it.  And yes, we are still in Texas near Houston.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: spelk on January 09, 2014, 05:50:19 AM
Great news to hear that we have a projected release date for WWIIE! Good luck with the remaining development and playtesting Ron!
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: BanzaiCat on January 09, 2014, 08:18:24 AM
Quote from: rdockal on January 08, 2014, 10:01:38 PM
@ Staggerwing.  September seems so close to us!  So much playtesting to do.  It is fun though.

@ Banzai_Cat.  I remember on RGW.  We released that game in 2001, and it is still selling.  WWII-Europe will finally replace it.  And yes, we are still in Texas near Houston.

Ron

Yep, I'm the guy that lives just north of Houston. Never moved. :)

Glad you're still going strong, sir.
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on January 21, 2014, 09:53:14 PM
WWII-Europe status:

1. Completed Battle of Britain scenario.  Added some new code to allow for this battle.  77 targets (airfields, Chain Home radar sites, and manufacturing/population centers). Goal of the scenario for the German is to bomb these targets, while England fighters is to knock the bombers out of the sky.  Rewards given for destroying targets.  Best to maximize the destruction of one of the three.

2. Scenarios 2 through 8, 43, 44, 54 and 91 are now ready for playtest #3. Scenarios 10, 15, 29, and 37 are almost ready.

3. Completed code that allows the map to be centered on a city picked from a list for each scenario. Right click, select City Locator, then left click on city name.  Really handy when performing long range air and naval operations.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on February 10, 2014, 09:10:42 PM
Continuing development on WWII-Europe.  Scenarios 2-8, 10-16, 43,44,54 and 91 are now complete.  Updated the help files.  Designers Notes section is particularly interesting with all sorts of information about how the scenario is modeled, where the OOB came from, special rules, etc.
Updated some of the graphics to have a classier look.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Staggerwing on February 10, 2014, 09:28:39 PM
Classy is good! I am really looking forward to this.
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: jnpoint on February 12, 2014, 04:07:35 PM
Will the games in future be available as digital download?
and are there no videos with Schwerpunkt games-gameplay?
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: BanzaiCat on February 12, 2014, 05:32:39 PM
Quote from: Staggerwing on February 10, 2014, 09:28:39 PM
Classy is good! I am really looking forward to this.

+1
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on February 12, 2014, 09:35:43 PM
Two good questions.  We are looking into an option to purchase the game via download without the paper manual that will come with the other ways of purchasing.

As for music, we will have something.  Probably like RGW, but that has not been decided yet.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: jnpoint on February 18, 2014, 10:26:05 AM
Quote from: rdockal on February 12, 2014, 09:35:43 PM
Two good questions.  We are looking into an option to purchase the game via download without the paper manual that will come with the other ways of purchasing.

As for music, we will have something.  Probably like RGW, but that has not been decided yet.

Ron

I only buy download these days, so I'm pleased to hear that it might be possible in the near future.
A few questions though:
- are there music in-game?
- what level of complexity is there in this game - basic, intermediate, advanced?
- are there really no videos of gameplay, really?

thanks.
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on March 04, 2014, 10:13:08 PM
Oh yes, we definitely plan on making videos of gameplay and posting them, perhaps on this site.  I have a list in mind.  It is such a great way to show how to move a unit, create a battle, execute a combat, and so on.  I think the ones that last one minute or less are the most effective ones. It covers one topic, and is a "rifle shot" instead of a "shotgun" approach to communication.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on April 22, 2014, 08:04:14 PM
Status for WWII-Europe:

1. Completed Scenario #24 Kasserine Pass.  Started #25 which completes the North Africa battles.
2. Playtest #3 starts when #25 battle is built.
3. Collected all of the comments received from playtesters so far, and made my change list.

The plan is for PT#3 to continue through the summer to complete the game.  I am a little concerned that even with install software that compresses the code and data, I may still be looking at a two CDROM game.  There is a lot of information in this game!  I may be forced to implement game downloads, and sell paper manuals and reference cards via postal mail!

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Staggerwing on April 22, 2014, 08:18:02 PM
What about offering a DVD instead of CD as an alternative to downloads? That way you could keep both a complete box option and a complete D/L option. You could even offer both together as an option for a few dollars over box price. It's not exactly unheard of.  ;)
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Boggit on April 26, 2014, 09:06:09 PM
I'm really looking forward to this. I have AGW, and MEW and both are excellent, although the AGW interface is a bit of a struggle...
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on June 30, 2014, 10:50:53 PM
WWII-Europe development status:
1. 34 out of 102 scenarios built and in playtest
2. Just connected the AI.  Enhanced the air AI, and am now working on the ground AI.
3. Plan to release in October.  Not all scenarios will be built, but they will be completed and made available for free as downloads.

Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: Staggerwing on July 01, 2014, 05:09:33 AM
Thanks for keeping us in the loop Ron.  :)
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: rdockal on October 14, 2014, 08:41:27 PM
Status for WWII-Europe development:


1. Scenarios developed is now at 45.  I am now focusing on the Blitzkrieg East Front 1942, which covers the Spring-Summer of 1942.


2. Playtest 3 is continuing.  Based on the PT#3 comments, I have improved the PBEM and Computer Opponent sequences of play, put in a "Back" key to return display to last source hex of a move operation, and addressed 6 bugs found.


3. Continuing to post screen shots on Facebook.  Follow/Like us on Schwerpunkt PC Wargames.


Ron
Title: Re: What's the latest news?
Post by: pzgndr on October 23, 2014, 07:19:49 AM
FYI, from Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com/forums/posts.asp?t=589376 (http://www.wargamer.com/forums/posts.asp?t=589376) a few days ago:

QuoteHello,

I did some analysis and planning to see what WWII-Europe will look like on Dec 1st.  If I go any later than that, then release will be September 2015 with all scenarios completed.

On December 1st, I will have 51 scenarios completed:
#2-7. Blitzkrieg 1939-1941 (7)
#10-25. North Africa 1940-1943 (16)
#27-32. Italy (6)
#35,#37. France 1944-1945 (2)
#43-#51. East Front Blitzkrieg 1941 (9)
#53-#56. East Front Winter Offensive 1941-1942 (4)
#58-#63. East Front Blitzkrieg 42 (6)
#91 Bagration

After release, I envision some additional changes (that is normal for all games).  I also pledge to complete the remaining 51 scenarios and make them available for free download as they are build and tested.

So, I want to get your opinions.  Is it best to release the game in that state with a promise to complete the other 51 scenarios and make changes as the community gets a consensus on items?  Or is it best to wait until September 2015 and release the completed game at that time?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.  As always, I value the opinion of the wargaming community here at The Wargamer.  Final decison rests with Schwerpunkt.

Ron.

If interested, provide your thoughts to Ron.