Haven't seen or heard much from/about them in quite awhile...I was thinking about them in regard to the Matrix weekly sale and what a great idea it was. I wonder if HPS would consider doing something along the same lines?
You can get HPS games at the NWS online store for a lot cheaper than the HPS site every day
Quote from: challerain on October 12, 2013, 02:52:51 PM
You can get HPS games at the NWS online store for a lot cheaper than the HPS site every day
Thanks for the tip but that's where I've bought all my HPS games so far. I was hoping HPS would go the route of Matrix and maybe do weekly sales more in the $9.99-$19.99 range...many of their games are very, very old.
Some of John Tiller Software's more recent stuff has been turning up on tablets... more conversion than anything brand new..
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.johntillersoftware.pzc
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.johntillersoftware.map
I suppose HPS Sims are just trying to keep selling what they have the rights to, updating what they can. Are they getting new stuff now Tiller has his own outlet?
I'm pretty sure Tiller is still providing support for the titles that were sold through hps and they have been updating them to be downloadable titles.
The Tiller crew still supports the titles at HPS and they are slowly migrating them to digital download.
Depends on what you consider support. I bought North German Plain and Fulda Gap recently, go figure, and the manuals are unusable.
Good Hunting.
MR
They are supporting games that are over 10 years old with patches and upgrades. I'd call that support.
I'm glad it works for you. I bought games at full price that don't have working manuals. Their answer is they aren't that hard to learn without them. No intention of upgrading them.
It depends on your POV as to what supporting a game means. To me, if you are selling it a full price it should have a working manual.
Good Hunting.
MR
Download this http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=91 or the variant for your MS version. If you have an OS Vista or later, ms stop putting .hlp in the new OS. So you have to do a simple download and install to get the manuals to work. I suspect this is your issue.
Quote from: Mad Russian on October 12, 2013, 09:30:51 PM
I'm glad it works for you. I bought games at full price that don't have working manuals. Their answer is they aren't that hard to learn without them. No intention of upgrading them.
It depends on your POV as to what supporting a game means. To me, if you are selling it a full price it should have a working manual.
Good Hunting.
MR
Have you installed the latest patches? They now use pdfs for documentation.
Quote from: Mad Russian on October 12, 2013, 09:30:51 PM
I'm glad it works for you. I bought games at full price that don't have working manuals. Their answer is they aren't that hard to learn without them. No intention of upgrading them.
It depends on your POV as to what supporting a game means. To me, if you are selling it a full price it should have a working manual.
Good Hunting.
MR
It is windows help file issue? I ran into that at some point with an old title of theirs, and there is a program that will let you open them on windows 7.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=91
I'm surprised they didn't update to pdfs when they made the downloadable versions of the '85 games.
I looked at my copies of Fulda85 and NGP85 and both have PDF files of the manuals. Just make sure you have the latest updates installed. Also, always check at NWS for cheaper copies of HPS games.
IIRC all the updated manuals are available as downloads at the HPS web site.
MR, go here and see if you can get what you want:
http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/Updates/up_Modern/up_Modern.ASP
Most recent patches are there too.
Tiller's games may be old and ugly, but they continue to support them many years later!
I would definitely buy more of his games if they did a MatrixGames type sale periodically. There are quite a few that I don't feel $40-50 passionate about, but would happily drop $20 on.
Quote from: Toonces on October 13, 2013, 02:16:25 PM
I would definitely buy more of his games if they did a MatrixGames type sale periodically. There are quite a few that I don't feel $40-50 passionate about, but would happily drop $20 on.
Then you need spend an extra $9.99 and to go to the NWS Store's HPS section (http://yhst-12000246778232.stores.yahoo.net/noname.html) for lots of $29.99 Tiller goodness.
I generally like them and love their broad subject matter...but getting very tired of the ancient interface, and 20th century graphics. I certainly don't play them now as much as I used to.
Quotebut getting very tired of the ancient interface, and 20th century graphics.
This is not CoD and Tiller games have the advantage that if you can play one game of a given series (e.g. Panzer Campaigns) you can play all the others as well. I always considered them as board wargames played on the PC and I had no problems with the UI or gfx - just with the AI that always beats me ;D
i find the ai on tillers games good enough too for my liking - tough in every one i have and i ahve almost all the napoleons battles plus several ww2 and fulda gap 85.
HPS has been quiet recently i believe due to some matters involving people running it having sadly to deal with deaths in the family - although thats not related to Tiller himself, but rather others involved with HPS.
The Napoleonic Battles games are superb, of course not as realistic as can be but excellent as a wargame in any case and also i really think there is more potential for tiller to do some Modern Air Power games. - I got his free Ipad app for modern air power and it is pretty fun, great as a simple free game with a few scenarios. like an Ultra lite CMANO
I hope to get his WW2 Naval games eventually and the renaissance one too - but yes NWS is a good plae for getting them a little cheaper
The new Nappy titles sold at John Tiller Software have a lot of battles designed specifically for the solo gamer.
Interesting that agathosdaimon and grimnirsson find the ai in HPS games a challenge...and I agree completely, that's been my experience as well. Yet often on these forums I read how others find the ai braindead and no challenge at all. I guess wargaming is like sports; there are those who excel and those who struggle.
The HPS AI is decent in smaller battles, but is really lacking in the campaign or larger battles IMO. One thing I've noticed is that I tend to play to the AI moves, so they seem less boneheaded. Then you play a PBEM game and you learn that your tactics against the AI are about 99.9% likely to fail against a human opponent.
Quote from: Tuna on October 13, 2013, 09:57:34 AM
Tiller's games may be old and ugly, but they continue to support them many years later!
Yep. I'm irrationally fond of some of them: Tobruk '41, Moscow '42, and one that is quite amazing and pretty recent (well Moscow '42 is pretty recent) France '14. I usually get some improved imagery for them. that's all on the old machine far far down in the basement.
My impression is that with all the patches and the improved images, the games are still reasonably fun....though note that I haven't played one in over a year.
Every time someone makes reference to HPS/JTS games, I repeat my call:
REBOOT AGE OF SAIL!!
Begging you here.
The HPS/JTS games have some of the best MP out there and with the anniversary of Trafalgar approaching, STRIKE NOW, I say...
I think John's (I really should call him Mr. Tiller, I've only met him once) support of his software is nigh-unparalleled. We're getting patches for games that are long stable and released...he's even fixing things that are the results of our changing PC environments (witness the manual issue).
Well deserving of support...
Best,
Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)
Quote from: Mad Russian on October 12, 2013, 09:30:51 PM
I'm glad it works for you. I bought games at full price that don't have working manuals. Their answer is they aren't that hard to learn without them. No intention of upgrading them.
It depends on your POV as to what supporting a game means. To me, if you are selling it a full price it should have a working manual.
Good Hunting.
MR
WTF ARE you talking about ?
The games - the latest updates of which - (of which there have been many and he is still supporting games that are ten years old ) all have manuals in PDF format. Now in case you dont know what PDF format is - it is the most widely used document format in the world. So if you cant read the manuals its your issue not his.
If the 2D units for the TIller games weren't 10px x 10px in size, I'd enjoy these games much more. I was actually excited about the tablet demo game, which doesn't suffer from tiny icons that can't be zoomed upon, but found the unit movement and combat procedures kinda wonky on the tablet. I remember that TOAW got a make-over in which the unit icons were doubled or tripled in size and it didn't mean rewriting all of the code for the game, just some kind of magnification effect. I'd like to see this applied to the Tiller games. And no, Windows magnifying glass isn't a solution, it's a wonky a way to play as playing the tablet version of the game.
FWIW, I LOVE his Midway game. There can be an hour of nothing but search planes flying around but it is intense once you spot the enemy carrier fleet(s). Fun game and quite detailed without requiring a computer science doctorate to play (though you wouldn't think so the first time you play the thing).
Question:
Which of the "Modern Campaigns" titles do you guys recommend? I've been wanting to check out one of the '85 Fulda Gap, North German Plain, or Danube Front WWIII in Europe selections but dunno which one may be considered the best value regarding content.
I'll likely pick up Mideast '67 in addition to one of the above, or a later on.
Quote from: Nefaro on October 14, 2013, 06:41:36 PM
Question:
Which of the "Modern Campaigns" titles do you guys recommend? I've been wanting to check out one of the '85 Fulda Gap, North German Plain, or Danube Front WWIII in Europe selections but dunno which one may be considered the best value regarding content.
I'll likely pick up Mideast '67 in addition to one of the above, or a later on.
Get Danube Front - it covers West Germany from the Baltic to Austria so it's the best bang for your buck. You can check over at theblitz.org for scenarios and alternate files. NWS has it for $30.
Also, I'd recommend France '14. IMO - and having played Panzer/Modern Campaigns for a long time - it's the best of the series. It just seems to me that game system suits WWI combat best. I hope the guy who did France'14 does another WWI game.
Quote from: Al on October 14, 2013, 07:16:41 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on October 14, 2013, 06:41:36 PM
Question:
Which of the "Modern Campaigns" titles do you guys recommend? I've been wanting to check out one of the '85 Fulda Gap, North German Plain, or Danube Front WWIII in Europe selections but dunno which one may be considered the best value regarding content.
I'll likely pick up Mideast '67 in addition to one of the above, or a later on.
Get Danube Front - it covers West Germany from the Baltic to Austria so it's the best bang for your buck. You can check over at theblitz.org for scenarios and alternate files. NWS has it for $30.
Also, I'd recommend France '14. IMO - and having played Panzer/Modern Campaigns for a long time - it's the best of the series. It just seems to me that game system suits WWI combat best. I hope the guy who did France'14 does another WWI game.
+1 to both of the above. I played some Danube Front just last night. There's a scenario that covers the same area as the "A Time to Dance" scenario from Flashpoint Campaigns, at the company/battalion/regiment level. Pretty cool to be able to recognize the terrain around Bad Neustadt on the Tiller map from playing it in FPC.
Quote from: Bison on October 14, 2013, 10:50:39 AM
The HPS AI is decent in smaller battles, but is really lacking in the campaign or larger battles IMO. One thing I've noticed is that I tend to play to the AI moves, so they seem less boneheaded. Then you play a PBEM game and you learn that your tactics against the AI are about 99.9% likely to fail against a human opponent.
I guess i am not exceptional with my game playing but i am playing slowly the massive 363 odd turn Leipzig 1813 battle atm and the AI is still good, perhaps its just hte fact that they have some much artillery. But also the battle is really several small to moderate sized battles all at once on an enormous map - and being tha the the Allies were not always well coordinated with each of their armies plans,that it plays like numerous smaller theatres converging slowly slowly on Leipzig and my eventual retreat, seems realistic. aLSO THE AI is well scripted enough i think too - I have discover some making advances on my secretly behind a forested area that i neglected to worry about thinking it would be unlikely the AI would use this, but here they come and now i have another head of this hydra that i in vain will try to hold back.
Quote from: Al on October 14, 2013, 07:16:41 PM
Get Danube Front - it covers West Germany from the Baltic to Austria so it's the best bang for your buck. You can check over at theblitz.org for scenarios and alternate files. NWS has it for $30.
Also, I'd recommend France '14. IMO - and having played Panzer/Modern Campaigns for a long time - it's the best of the series. It just seems to me that game system suits WWI combat best. I hope the guy who did France'14 does another WWI game.
Quote from: panzerde on October 14, 2013, 07:43:25 PM
+1 to both of the above. I played some Danube Front just last night. There's a scenario that covers the same area as the "A Time to Dance" scenario from Flashpoint Campaigns, at the company/battalion/regiment level. Pretty cool to be able to recognize the terrain around Bad Neustadt on the Tiller map from playing it in FPC.
Thanks guys!
I'll pick up Danube Front sometime soon. I was also curious about the WWI title(s) HPS put out recently, so I'll definitely be getting one or both of those too! Good thing Xmas is coming.
First World War Squad Battles is a great game. Very challenging. I have France 14, but have yet put in the time I need to with that one.
For me Tiller games are my wargaming comfort food. I usually have one PBEM game going at a time. Over the years, I've just become accustomed to the UI and I continue to learn new things with every game. The one nice step they've taken at least with the PzC game and I believe they are in the process of doing so with the Modern Campaigns is added in the zoomed 2D view. This addresses in some measure my greatest complaint that over the years the games just did not scale well with higher resolution monitors. Of all the changes I'd like to see implemented, this is the one that I'd most like to see added across the board.
Re: 2D view
Yes, that was my gripe as well. If they go back and add 2D zoom to some of the old titles, I'd be all over that!
Quote from: Al on October 14, 2013, 07:16:41 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on October 14, 2013, 06:41:36 PM
Question:
Which of the "Modern Campaigns" titles do you guys recommend? I've been wanting to check out one of the '85 Fulda Gap, North German Plain, or Danube Front WWIII in Europe selections but dunno which one may be considered the best value regarding content.
I'll likely pick up Mideast '67 in addition to one of the above, or a later on.
Get Danube Front - it covers West Germany from the Baltic to Austria so it's the best bang for your buck. You can check over at theblitz.org for scenarios and alternate files. NWS has it for $30.
Also, I'd recommend France '14. IMO - and having played Panzer/Modern Campaigns for a long time - it's the best of the series. It just seems to me that game system suits WWI combat best. I hope the guy who did France'14 does another WWI game.
Yes, France '14 is a fantastic game. It is by far the best representation of the German attempt to crash through Belgium and roll up the French that I have ever seen.
Quote from: GJK on October 15, 2013, 07:16:00 AM
Re: 2D view
Yes, that was my gripe as well. If they go back and add 2D zoom to some of the old titles, I'd be all over that!
I'm not 100% sure, but I think all PzC/MC title & France14 have been updated to include the 2D zoom.
Quote from: Al on October 15, 2013, 09:44:10 AM
Quote from: GJK on October 15, 2013, 07:16:00 AM
Re: 2D view
Yes, that was my gripe as well. If they go back and add 2D zoom to some of the old titles, I'd be all over that!
I'm not 100% sure, but I think all PzC/MC title & France14 have been updated to include the 2D zoom.
Danube Front has definitely been updated to include it, as have all of the PzC titles I own. I wish the Civil War series would all be updated.
Quote from: panzerde on October 15, 2013, 06:48:18 PM
Quote from: Al on October 15, 2013, 09:44:10 AM
Quote from: GJK on October 15, 2013, 07:16:00 AM
Re: 2D view
Yes, that was my gripe as well. If they go back and add 2D zoom to some of the old titles, I'd be all over that!
I'm not 100% sure, but I think all PzC/MC title & France14 have been updated to include the 2D zoom.
Danube Front has definitely been updated to include it, as have all of the PzC titles I own. I wish the Civil War series would all be updated.
I imagine it will make it into those as well in the next round of updates.
All I really want is some love for the French and Indian War and 1776, but I suspect it'll be quite some time down the road before I see magnified 2D in my two favorite games.
From what I've seen, the new "Zoom In" view looks terrible. Better than nothing at all, though.
I don't know that I'd call them terrible, but the counters were clearly not designed originally to be displayed that large on at high resolution. They are very functional and greatly increase the playability of the games for me. I'm not sure how much more one could expect short of a complete rebuild of the game.
I wanted to tell you guys thanks for letting me know that they have put the rules on pdf. Now that Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm has been released I might actually get some time to play them and use them for research like I intended when I bought them.
If I'm not mistaken there is new content on the horizon for the game coming very soon.
I appreciate the comments and help.
Good Hunting.
MR
Quote from: Nefaro on October 15, 2013, 07:22:18 PM
From what I've seen, the new "Zoom In" view looks terrible. Better than nothing at all, though.
I usually use MapMod or one of Philippe's graphics mods to knock off the rough edges. Makes the 2X view a bit easier to take.
Quote from: panzerde on October 16, 2013, 05:51:58 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on October 15, 2013, 07:22:18 PM
From what I've seen, the new "Zoom In" view looks terrible. Better than nothing at all, though.
I usually use MapMod or one of Philippe's graphics mods to knock off the rough edges. Makes the 2X view a bit easier to take.
Agreed, MapMod is very good, and he did a fine one for WiTE too!
Yeah, that map he did for WITE is amazing. I love his work for Tiller games as well. I'm hoping he was given some work by Matrix after the WITE map. I know they wanted to chat with him.
Quote from: Tuna on October 16, 2013, 07:47:59 PM
Quote from: panzerde on October 16, 2013, 05:51:58 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on October 15, 2013, 07:22:18 PM
From what I've seen, the new "Zoom In" view looks terrible. Better than nothing at all, though.
I usually use MapMod or one of Philippe's graphics mods to knock off the rough edges. Makes the 2X view a bit easier to take.
Agreed, MapMod is very good, and he did a fine one for WiTE too!
Any links to the map mod for WiTE? Thanks.
Quote from: Rayfer on October 16, 2013, 08:55:39 PM
Quote from: Tuna on October 16, 2013, 07:47:59 PM
Quote from: panzerde on October 16, 2013, 05:51:58 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on October 15, 2013, 07:22:18 PM
From what I've seen, the new "Zoom In" view looks terrible. Better than nothing at all, though.
I usually use MapMod or one of Philippe's graphics mods to knock off the rough edges. Makes the 2X view a bit easier to take.
Agreed, MapMod is very good, and he did a fine one for WiTE too!
Any links to the map mod for WiTE? Thanks.
http://mapmod.hist-sdc.com/
Quote from: panzerde on October 16, 2013, 05:51:58 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on October 15, 2013, 07:22:18 PM
From what I've seen, the new "Zoom In" view looks terrible. Better than nothing at all, though.
I usually use MapMod or one of Philippe's graphics mods to knock off the rough edges. Makes the 2X view a bit easier to take.
Cool. I must look into this next time I fire one up.
..
Dayum! Those are nice!
I just stumbled upon this forum post and I couldn't help but chime in. I'm actually new to this forum, but I've been playing HPS games for quite some time now. I agree that the new "Zoom In" view might not be the best, but it's better than nothing, right? Personally, I've found that using MapMod or Philippe's graphics mods really helps to smooth things out and make the 2X view much more enjoyable. I know there are a lot of options out there, but I'm always a bit hesitant to try out new games without some input from other players.
Welcome to the forums!
Quote from: MorgenRios on May 03, 2023, 05:20:14 AMI just stumbled upon this forum post and I couldn't help but chime in. I'm actually new to this forum, but I've been playing HPS games for quite some time now. I agree that the new "Zoom In" view might not be the best, but it's better than nothing, right? Personally, I've found that using MapMod or Philippe's graphics mods really helps to smooth things out and make the 2X view much more enjoyable. I know there are a lot of options out there, but I'm always a bit hesitant to try out new games without some input from other players.
Welcome to the forum!
Have you tried out the updated/new Tiller titles from WDS? I think you'll find there are many significant upgrades to the graphics, both 2D and 3D and UI elements on many of the old HPS titles.
I also find the AI much more enjoyable to play against than the old HPS titles.
Great Northern War is their newest release and is bang up great so far.
We have a few forums on WDS that are active and the WDS devs pop in from time to time.
You two realize you just welcomed a bot, right? :tophat:
All that post did was necro a 10 year old thread by re-using the various phrases from the last few replies.
(https://media0.giphy.com/media/IDGNYvFLkJKLK/200w.webp?cid=ecf05e478codb118u6xnij4td0pnl1z5ab0y8c7jt3amvtef&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.webp&ct=g)
I realized it :knuppel2:
Quote from: Sigwolf on May 03, 2023, 09:35:05 AMYou two realize you just welcomed a bot, right? :tophat:
All that post did was necro a 10 year old thread by re-using the various phrases from the last few replies.
(https://media0.giphy.com/media/IDGNYvFLkJKLK/200w.webp?cid=ecf05e478codb118u6xnij4td0pnl1z5ab0y8c7jt3amvtef&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.webp&ct=g)
I was 99% sure, but gave it a shot anyway. Hence the drop of the WDS redirect.
That bot is more articulate than some posters I've seen here. :tongue:
Quote from: Geezer on May 03, 2023, 11:23:20 AMThat bot is mor4e articulate than some posters I've seen here. :tongue:
I literally just ran a webinar this morning on ChatGPT and AutoGPT in publishing. It's amazing how good they're getting.
Bots need love too. At least I think they do. I hope they do. That's what they tell me anyway. But they are bots so...Who knows? :cylonA:
Quote from: Sigwolf on May 03, 2023, 09:35:05 AMYou two realize you just welcomed a bot, right? :tophat:
All that post did was necro a 10 year old thread by re-using the various phrases from the last few replies.
(https://media0.giphy.com/media/IDGNYvFLkJKLK/200w.webp?cid=ecf05e478codb118u6xnij4td0pnl1z5ab0y8c7jt3amvtef&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.webp&ct=g)
Really? That's impressive!
Quote from: Sigwolf on May 03, 2023, 09:35:05 AMYou two realize you just welcomed a bot, right? :tophat:
All that post did was necro a 10 year old thread by re-using the various phrases from the last few replies.
(https://media0.giphy.com/media/IDGNYvFLkJKLK/200w.webp?cid=ecf05e478codb118u6xnij4td0pnl1z5ab0y8c7jt3amvtef&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.webp&ct=g)
Sig...I'm a long time poster on these forums, I'm not a bot. But I'm dumb when it comes to understanding these bot things. What was the purpose for this, what does the person who did this get out of it? A funny prank, some financial angle I don't get?
Quote from: Rayfer on May 04, 2023, 06:50:47 AMSig...I'm a long time poster on these forums, I'm not a bot. But I'm dumb when it comes to understanding these bot things. What was the purpose for this, what does the person who did this get out of it? A funny prank, some financial angle I don't get?
Most of the time they change the post after a couple of days to include some spam links.
If I understand this correctly the more a website is mentioned somewhere the higher it will show up on a search engine. It is the only reason I can come up with.
Quote from: Rayfer on May 04, 2023, 06:50:47 AMSig...I'm a long time poster on these forums, I'm not a bot. But I'm dumb when it comes to understanding these bot things. What was the purpose for this, what does the person who did this get out of it? A funny prank, some financial angle I don't get?
Motivation or purpose is not always clear. As Pete said, they'll usually be edited later to add links, which can boost search engine hits or attempt malware delivery. Sometimes I think they are created by people that just like to mess with things.
They're not always that easy to spot, but this one hit all the triggers... low or no previous post count, resurrect years or decades old threads, treat what is being discussed in said ten year old thread like it was just released yesterday, and finally, offer not a single new thought or idea on the thread by just rehashing or exactly copying previous posts.