Scourge of War: Waterloo! announced

[panzerde]

Looks like some ingenious soul has figured out a way to get 1:1 sprite to troop ratio working:

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterloo-modifications/68724-11-sprite-ratio-revealedsandbox-friant-vs-cooke-sr1#68724


So what do you experienced SoW-ers think? Is Waterloo worth getting now, or do you advise waiting for a few patches before purchasing?  I'm still on the fence.

That's actually been done by RebBuglar, part of the dev team (and the guy that did all of the bugle calls in-game). And, while you can play it, he did it as much to illustrate why you don't want a 1:1 SR in this game as anything else. It does give a better picture of the size of units, but is no doubt a bear to actually command.

Waterloo is definitely worth getting if you are interested in the era. Continued development and modding will polish the rough edges off of the game. It is not the ACW in Napoleonic skins, but rather an actual Napoleonic game. As such, there are things that don't work the same way as they work in SOWGB, and that's as it should be. I think there are easily as many hours of entertainment in SOWWL as I've derived from SOWGB over the years.

Waterloo is not my favorite battle. I'm very much looking forward to expansions that cover some other battles of the period, which I honestly think will be more interesting.

[sandman2575]

Thanks, panzerde. 1:1 sounds great in theory but I see the shorcomings. What might be ideal (in my mind) would be something like a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio but without the 200-sprite cap. I really dislike that cap more than anything else. 

I'm tempted ... maybe this weekend. Really the only thing holding me back is the steep learning curve and knowledge that it's hard for me to find time these days to master a game of this complexity.

[Pete Dero]

Nice (french) review : http://www.wargamer.fr/test-de-scourge-of-war-waterloo/

One minor annoyance : the names of cities and towns.  They seem to be a combination of english, french and dutch names with no real logic behind it.

Our capital city Brussel (or Bruxelles) is in english (Brussels), some flemisch (dutch language) towns have their french name (Mechelen=Malines, Aalst=Alost, Leuven=Louvain, Dendermonde=Termonde).
But also some flemisch towns have english names (Gent=Ghent, Antwerpen=Antwerp).

Really nothing to serious but it is rather distracting when you live in the area.  Other people probably want even notice it.

We do make it hard on foreigners to find their way around.   I once had to explain to someone on the train he was about 50 km from his intented destination.
He left Brussels for Tienen and ended up in Dendermonde (the directions in Brussels he reveived were in french and then you get : Tienen=Tirlemont and Dendermonde=Termonde).

[Asid]

The first official patch for Scourge of War: Waterloo is now available.


This patch fixes a number of crashes as reported by the community.


The patch can be downloaded using the automatic updater tool or by going here:
ftp://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/ScourgeOfWarWaterloo/ScourgeOfWar-UpdateComp-v10006.zip


V1.0006

Bug Fix Patch Release
Fixed runtime crash.
Fixed crash on replay
Fixed crash on loading high scores screen and on opening modifications screen.

[jomni]

In Tsarist Russia, we Waterloo you!

KS mod bring Russian troops to Waterloo.
http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterloo-modifications/68731-russians-at-waterloo

[Cyrano]

KS MOD!!!

Whiskey? Check.

Sandwiches? Check.

Proximate WC? Check,

Gentlemen, I will be in my biodome...

[Boggit]

In Tsarist Russia, we Waterloo you!

KS mod bring Russian troops to Waterloo.
http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterloo-modifications/68731-russians-at-waterloo

Nice! One of my favourite Napoleonic armies. O0

[Asid]

The long awaited full WL SDK. Released.

In addition to what we included in the beta release is a very full manual. The work that went into this thing is pretty crazy. We are all very lucky to have Jim on this team as he is very thorough and you can see the manual to understand. But it's all there.

Tim wrote a scenario editor and has put a ton of hours into it. He is going to work with you guys on these forums to get it to a place where it gets everyone writing scenarios. Only our team has seen it so far and we have tunnel vision by now. It's pretty cool and has a ton of helpful features that should make the process much more fluid.

All of the MYGUI tools and resources as well as the source for the AI DLLs (including the campaign), all of our csv data and scenario files. It's all here.

Download SDK here (17.1MB): http://www.norbsoftware.com/Downloads/SOWWL/SowWLSdk.exe

A couple of things that we had to put off for now so that we can move on with the patch.
1. map editor is not ready for prime time yet, we have a lot of requests and we want you guys making maps, it's just that we need to clean it up some more as anyone that has used our map editors knows that they are very rough and take a lot of time to master.
2. we expect that once Tim is ready, we'll release the source for the scenario editor as well

Scenario editing forum section:
http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/scenario-editor

[AchillesLastStand]

Scourge of War Waterloo will be coming to Steam next week on the 19th of Nov. Almost purchased this but have always put it off for w/e reasons. Looks like I might have to pull the trigger, hopefully this adds more players to the fanbase as ive heard multiplayer is great fun.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/369390

[Grim.Reaper]

Lost complete sight of this game after release even though I own it.....has any updates ever been released for it or is any planned with the Steam release?  Any news of any kind of expansions?  This one kind of went quiet pretty quickly for some reason.

[jomni]

I felt that it died based on Matrix forum. But I'm sure the SOW forum is quite active right?

[Grim.Reaper]

I felt that it died based on Matrix forum. But I'm sure the SOW forum is quite active right?

That's the problem with Matrix games, so many different forums to look for information:)  You have Slitherine forums, you have matrix forums, and then in some cases you have specific developer sites like Norbsoft...too many places, with too little time:)

I did take a quick peak and looks like patch soon....breakout of what kind of stuff included....

50% Ai improvements
20% reported bug fixes
10% gameplay changes
10% performance improvements
10% UI edits

and something else big which will not be in the patch but will follow on shortly afterwards.

[Skoop]

The sandbox mode needs some serious work, it's by far the most unique feature added but it's totally unfinished.  I had to stop my sandbox campaign because every time I generated a battle it was the same map with the same start positions. 

Once it gets some love, sow wl will be a great game.  I've shelved it in the mean time.

[jomni]

   I've shelved it in the mean time.

Same

[Cyrano]

Patch up, some of which will dramatically improve sandbox battles, I think me, but the sandbox meta seems here to be little addressed.  Still, good work on the core game -- which was terrific out of the box, may I note, if occasionally wonky:


V1.0043
• Patch Notes
• Fixed a bug with building "best" detail level on MP map Options settings.
• Fixed a tooltip text error on the Status item in popup.
• Fixed language errors in WL03 text.
• Fixed the La Haye Sainte occupy bug reported for WL04.
• Added missing units in the scenario introduction text for WL01
• Fixed the bug where Probe button was in an incorrect location on the toolbar.
• Added missing unit status tags in languages other than English.
• Fixed a bug where the end of scenario time for MP02 was missing.
• Fixed a bug in cavalry column reserves formation.
• Fixed the bug with some missing cavalry division ammo wagons.
• Fixed errors in about-face flags for some LVL6 infantry and cavalry formations.
• Fixed the bug that caused the "Compose Courier Message" screen to close if a courier message is received.
• Added two corps level formations per army. Corps movement is now possible through the in-game context menu or via the movement map. The error messages in SOWWL.log are of no significance.
• Added an "Additional Details" option to the OOB screen in main game. This is also used to see the unit summary at the end of battle.
• Changed the "Compose Courier Message" screen so that full names can be seen.
• Changed tooltips to dynamically re-size courier window.
• Added a courier message "Send" button to the OOB window.
• Added the full manual in Italian.
• Corrected uniform usage issues with Dutch commanders.
• Implemented a new Line-of-Sight battle starting formation.
• Increased the starting distance for LOS Sandbox battles and road battles in the Sandbox campaign.
• Restricted the advance of scripted French officers in initial stages of WL06 so they don't approach too close to enemy lines.
• Changed the scripted formation for skirmishers at beginning of certain Waterloo scenarios.
• Amended some cavalry parameters to reduce unrealistic results in cavalry vs. cavalry melees.
• Updated the Windmill model.
• Fixed the spelling of a number of officer, unit and map names.
• Reduced the stance auto-activation distance to 150 yards from the enemy for all troop types. The player has maximum control at this setting. The player must decide if and when to activate the AI full control without using TC by choosing a stance which provides for greater control over cavalry and artillery.
• Improved cavalry movement, edited attack distances and damage calculations.
• Improved infantry combat maneuvers, square formation\leaving square and unit overlap when near the enemy.
• Improved square vs. cavalry dynamics: squares can be formed at smaller distances, but now cavalry can try to break them if they are still in formation phase (when there is at least one sprite in movement) and at short range.
• Improved skirmisher behavior and reduced the maximum number per brigade.
• Some improvements to the combined arms unit strength calculations in the campaign AI and also retreat/regroup time.
• "Hold to the Last" stance now forces fewer autonomous movements by the AI for infantry and cavalry.
• Changed artillery wagon AI to auto supply batteries at divisional level.
• Updated the "Full French" mod to include corps fixes.
• Added a fix for the British/Prussian artillery wagon sprite clash.