Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Game Discussion => Early Dev => Topic started by: Rev_Sudasana on February 02, 2015, 10:41:12 AM
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Just finished a rough version of my RL based on the board game Patton's Best. Programmed in Python and libtcod. Feedback and suggestions are very much encouraged. Only the bare bones of the game are in place, but it's playable and sometimes quite fun!
I compiled it with py2exe and have (hopefully) included all required DLLs, including the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86).
Public download link: (removed) Edit: Download the most recent version at http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
Recent /r/roguelikedev thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/2u9tai/sharing_saturday_35/co6mhsb (http://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/2u9tai/sharing_saturday_35/co6mhsb)
It might take a bit of time to get used to the game system since for now it follows Patton's Best quite closely. I don't have any kind of tutorial in place yet, but most menus display a list of available key commands.
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Forgot screenshots!
Title Screen
(http://i.imgur.com/JybcLtn.png)
Campaign Map
(http://i.imgur.com/XzDRT8G.png)
Battle Screen
(http://i.imgur.com/9OCmGvi.png)
Tank Knocked Out, Rolling for Injuries
(http://i.imgur.com/xDdUF1y.png)
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First test of a procedural map generator:
(http://i.imgur.com/zz6q1dd.png)
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I previously saw your post on the /r/roguelikedev thread and come here to test it and have one question. is the Encounter in place yet? Because no matter where i go and, even if the ennemy resistance is supposed to be high, I see nobody and just get the VP for liberating a square without going to the battle screen.
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It is in place, but I may have left a testing line in the compiled version that disabled encounters! I will check tonight and upload an updated version if that's the case. There should be a good chance of triggering an encounter if the area resistance level is high!
Edit: Yup, I left a testing line in that makes it impossible to trigger an encounter. Fixed version uploading later today!
Edit 2: Fixed version is uploaded, same link as before: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha1.rar (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha1.rar)
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Alpha 2 available: improved campaign map, new hex location system for encounters, smaller screen size, and many bug fixes.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha2.rar (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha2.rar)
(http://i.imgur.com/JMS8Gt3.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/sa1dMGj.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/LbwfEXS.png)
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Alpha 3: Smoke 'em if you got 'em
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha3.rar (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha3.rar)
Biggest addition for this version is smoke. Throw smoke grenades from open hatch, fire smoke ammunition from the main gun, and contend with smoke screens dropped by friendly artillery. Smoke reduces chance to hit by half for each smoke factor between the firer and their target.
Also added Area Fire, which must be used with smoke ammo, and which may be used with HE ammunition to land a shell in the general area of a target, negating cover and target size bonuses.
Fixed a number of minor bugs, including incorrect display when an attack either has no chance of destroying a vehicle target, or if it is an automatic KO.
Image of smoke on the combat map:
(http://i.imgur.com/Vll6LKw.png)
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Hi there,
just blundered into this roguelike. Wow. These game mechanisms have their own immersion of ww2 tank combat. Please, push the development of this jewel forward!
And: Add German tanks ;)
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Please, push the development of this jewel forward!
And: Add German tanks ;)
Thanks! I'm slowly adding features to the base game. More player tanks will be added eventually! Luckily fans have already created alternate player tanks for PB, including Canadians, Soviets, and Germans.
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Wow, this is great. I have always thought that PB would be perfect for the PC because it's greatest weakness was simply all the charts and modifiers which kind of slowed down the whole process. I also kind of enjoy the "old school" feel of the program, kind of takes me back to a simpler time and some of my old SSI games. Flashy graphics will never trump the "theater of the mind". Thank you for taking on this project and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop.
Now to break out one of my two copies of Pattons Best and start to re-learn the system, again.
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Thanks! The advantage of using a character-based system is I don't have to try to use my minimal art skills, and the player can focus on the gameplay rather than on the graphics. Development continues when I have the time to work on it, please let me know any bugs or crashes you come across.
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I came across a small bug if you want to call it that. I had my gunner ordered to fire at an enemy unit. During the action phase that unit became unspotted and now the gunner could not highlight in blue the target. So there was no real order that could be carried out, the gunner was unable to fire and there was no way of backing out from the menu. The only option that was working was the ability to change where the reload was to come from. Not sure if there was a rotate and fire order or not, so I can't give the exact detail and not sure if it can be replicated. I quit and saved and returned to the same situation. I think I exited again and somehow I was returned to the main map and could continue from there.
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That's a weird one - enemy units should only change their spotting status in the spotting phase or in the enemy action phase. Remember that when you order your gunner to fire, or rotate turret and fire, there doesn't have to be any valid available targets in order to do so, so the target you wanted to attack might have been Hidden or simply Unknown when you gave the order.
What I'll do is add a notification to say if there are no valid targets for the main gun, and automatically continue to the next phase from there.
Note as well that you can always advance to the next phase with the End key, even if a valid target is available.
Thanks for the feedback!
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A great RL, I'm a big fan of Patton's Best but I feel like the numbers are a bit screwy in this. Enemies have never missed attacks on me and they ALWAYS crit. I don't know why this is happening but it's pretty annoying either way.
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I'm not sure why this is happening either, since enemy attacks can never score a critical hit on the player. I'd be interested in seeing a log from one of your encounters.
If the attack is coming from medium or close range, there's no smoke, and you are Stopped, then there's an excellent chance that the attack will hit. Use smoke, movement, and range to your advantage. There's only a 5% chance in any given turn that an enemy tank, SPG, or AT Gun will use its action to attack you. If you fired on a tank or SPG's front armour in the action phase, however, that chance goes up to 20%, so choose your shots wisely!
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Ah sorry, when I say crit I mean they are rolling 01. It might be that I'm not moving enough. Are you planning to add progression and new tanks? If so that'd be awesome.
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Yes, a full combat calendar is planned, but unlike PB there's going to be a random chance of different types of missions and resistance levels per day, to fit in with the random generation of Roguelikes.
Most of the suggestions in the PB rulebook still apply to AC, so if you can find a copy check out the suggestions for staying alive near the end. For now, AC is quite challenging since you're limited to the basic M4 Tank, but in the future once you can upgrade to a higher armour Sherman things will get a little easier.
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Is there a way I can change the key binding from the "END" key to something else? The only reason is that on my laptop It's kind of a pain due to location and the fact I need to use a Function key combo to use the END key. Otherwise I am getting very good at using the key commands without looking at the help.
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Sure, I'll add in the space bar as an alternate key to advance the phase in Alpha 4. Fully bindable keys will have to wait a bit, however.
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Finally did it! Really looking forwards to the campaign/growth features. Should make the game a lot more fun! Especially when we can turn the tables and fight back.
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Finally played through a whole day of fighting, lots of areas with no resistance and a few close calls otherwise I would say it was an "easy" day for my M4 crew. No bugs at all that I could see, very stable. Biggest thing to realize is that the M4 needs to get hull down ASAP before sending anything down range. When I first played the boardgame as a lad I never got that point, I wanted to shoot at everything.
Question: How difficult would it be to add some sounds? I'm thinking along the lines of the 8 bit type sounds like the ones from the old SSI Kampfgruppe type game? I remember hearing the simple "boom" (more like a BEEP) of the "cannon" sounds from that game and then reading the text "KILL 3 x T-34". Brings back such great memories.
Also just an idea, when the computer is working its way through the actions the list scrolls very fast and that leaves the player kind of catching up. Might it be possible that the player has to hit a key to scroll that way it kind ramps up the tension as each action is revealed?
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Sounds may come in time, I use libtcod which is (among many other things) a wrapper for SDL, and SDL can play simple sound samples quite easily.
Regarding the game messages, I've got a new feature in Alpha 4 that should address this!
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Sounds great, thanks for the reply.
question:
My tank entered an area without anything loaded into the main gun. The loader was given the "Load" command, all other crewmembers took no actions. HE was the chosen reload and the Ready Rack had 0 rounds with the next load coming from the general area. The loader did not load the main gun during the action phase and the chamber remained empty. The loader would not load the empty breach unless he was given a "change the gun load" command. Is this correct or should he have loaded HE simply by using the "load" command even though the gun didn't and couldn't fire?
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Normally the Load order means "reload the gun after it is fired". If the breach is empty, you would need to give the loader the "Change Gun Load" order and select a shell to put into the gun. I think this represents the fact that selecting a particular shell and loading it takes a little more time than simply slamming in another shell after the gun is fired, also the Gunner can fire right away in the latter case, whereas he has to wait for the new shell if the breech starts empty.
One thing I have planned is for Orders to be displayed in bright red if they conflict with something else in the tank, such as a Load order when there's no shell in the breech, or giving a movement order for the driver when the tank is immobile. I could also display the ready rack usage in red if the RR of the current shell is empty, to warn the player.
Also remember that you can load the gun in the campaign map view, before you enter a new area: press "V" to view tank, then "G" to change the gun load.
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Armoured Commander: The WWII Tank Commander Roguelike
Alpha 4: "Time on Target"
Dropbox download link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha4.rar (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha4.rar)
(http://i.imgur.com/GQOsziD.png)
Changelog for Alpha 4:
Note: Savegame files from previous alphas will not work with this version, although if you keep your old high scores file they should still be displayed as normal
- Beginnings of a help interface
- Basic artillery strikes, to be developed further in future
- Labels on campaign and encounter map
- Animations for when units move around the battle map
- Narrower campaign map, slight changes to its appearance but no effect on gameplay
- Pop-up notification if no target is available for main gun or machine gun attack
- If tank pivots, Hull Down is lost and tank is Moving; if pivot order given but player does not actually change tank facing, tank is Stopped
- Minefield attack random event
- For crew who are limited to spotting in any one sector, you can now select which sector they should attempt to spot in. Before it had defaulted to in front of your tank.
- Friendly advance random event, sector control gained is random but must be empty of enemy units
- Changed selected crew to a pointer rather than an index number, things work more smoothly and should not have any visible impact on the game itself, but there was a problem where the pointer didn't seem to work after reloading, so reloaded games start with the commander selected by default. Also required a little work to get replaced crewmen put back into the list properly
- Smoke now affects spotting checks properly
- Selected area in campaign day map stays after action is performed, unless you move into a new area; easier now to check an area and then move into it
- Can now rotate turret and fire co-ax MG; +10 penalty applies if either Sherman moved or turret was rotated before co-ax MG attack
- Can use Space Bar or End to advance phase
- WASD and Arrow Keys should both be available for input where appropriate
I think the next logical step is to start working on the Combat Calendar, which would mean that campaigns can span over several months. As always, let me know any bugs or suggestions for changes.
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I forgot to load the gun prior to moving to the new area, I was just not paying attention. The red text is a great idea.
Normally the Load order means "reload the gun after it is fired". If the breach is empty, you would need to give the loader the "Change Gun Load" order and select a shell to put into the gun. I think this represents the fact that selecting a particular shell and loading it takes a little more time than simply slamming in another shell after the gun is fired, also the Gunner can fire right away in the latter case, whereas he has to wait for the new shell if the breech starts empty.
One thing I have planned is for Orders to be displayed in bright red if they conflict with something else in the tank, such as a Load order when there's no shell in the breech, or giving a movement order for the driver when the tank is immobile. I could also display the ready rack usage in red if the RR of the current shell is empty, to warn the player.
Also remember that you can load the gun in the campaign map view, before you enter a new area: press "V" to view tank, then "G" to change the gun load.
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I really like the way you can now see the enemy units move and they're actions. The text might scroll a little fast at times but now it's much easier to really see how things are playing out. The only thing is that if you miss what the enemy unit just did there is no way of re-capping the action. Before we could see what was happening in the text scroll, maybe it can be added somewhere for reference or the enemy actions can be replayed?
The spotting sector mechanism works great.
I find myself really having to think through my actions. So many times there are easy targets close yet there is that one AT gun in the distance that we have to put as the priority by moving to Hull Down first. Of course you can risk it and go for the glory or do you live to fight the next day. Makes for great tension.
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In the next alpha I'll add a settings screen with options to copy the on-map label text to the message console, and to change the length of time that they are displayed before they disappear.
I get the same uneasiness when selecting orders; it's all about judging the likely threat of the units you know are there, choosing your actions, then hoping for some luck!
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There was a bug with the smoke display which I just fixed; Alpha 4.1 is now available at the same Dropbox download link.
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I was reading the General article called "Bettering Patton's Best" and under the FAQ they mention loading main gun ammo from general stores if you run out of ready rack ammo.
Q: If I exhaust my Ready Rack ammo supply while firing, but make my rate of fire roll, can I switch to reloading from the normal ammo supply-- or must I stop firing?
A: You may switch to using the normal ammo supply.
In AC it does not allow you to do this, it ends your fire without switching to the general stores.
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AC does allow you to change from RR to general stores while you still have RoF. I think what the article is referring to is: you have one remaining shell in the RR, you make your RoF roll, thus reloading the RR shell; after that, can you then switch to general stores? AC definitely lets you do this.
Otherwise it doesn't makes sense, since using the Ready Rack directly impacts the RoF roll result. You can switch between reloading from the Ready Rack and general stores in the middle of an attack, and you should do so if your RR stock for the selected shell type reaches zero. But I think you should have to make this choice before you fire, and thus before the RoF roll is calculated. Otherwise, you could always reload from ready rack and gain the bonus to the RoF, and then just grab a general stores shell after you make your roll.
What I might do is after a successful reload from the RR and maintaining RoF, automatically switch to General Stores reload if there's no more of the selected shell type in the Ready Rack. This way the player doesn't have to stay on top of this and can keep firing, albeit with a lower chance of maintaining RoF.
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I totally missed the fact that you could change the loaders order in between the shots if you maintain ROF.
I like your idea of having it automatically switch to general stores if the RR is empty for that shell type. I think it gets pretty exciting when you have hit a dangerous unit and maintained ROF and want to keep mashing that ENTER button. In the spirit of the game I don't think the player should be penalized by having to stop firing but of course will incur the ROF penalty and SHOULD be thinking of having the Assistant driver start passing the ammo.
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Could the source be made available, or a mac release (with py2app)? It's possible to pull the source out of py2exe releases, but it's a pain, and I'd really like to play the game on OS X.
Thanks either way!
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I'll make the source available for the next release, I just wanted to get it a bit more organized first.
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I'll make the source available for the next release, I just wanted to get it a bit more organized first.
Thanks!
I see now that the game has dependencies that mean it might not be trivial to run it on OS X, but I appreciate it anyway.
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The main one is libtcod, there's a project to provide OSX support here: https://bitbucket.org/KillerX/libtcod_osx/wiki/Home (https://bitbucket.org/KillerX/libtcod_osx/wiki/Home), no idea if it's been kept current or if it works at all.
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This is shaping to be a great game - and it`s a nice change from the usual cramped-and-dark dungeon fare (though tank interiors are not much different really ;) And yes, extra bonus in bringing back the style & atmosphere of board games and SSI classics - only now in RL flavour.
Progress from the first alpha is already huge and rather impressive. I`ve never played PB so can`t comment on mechanics - in fact still figuring it all out slowly, but that`s the fun part too. One term I`m still unsure of is "hull down" - what does that mean?
Also, any chance for more flexible resolutions/fullscreen? At the moment on my 1366x768 laptop screen the bottom text line or two disappear which is quite annoying.
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Basically Hull Down means that the tank is positioned such that only the turret is visible to the enemy, usually accomplished by driving the tank behind some type of cover such as a wall, or the crest of a hill. This lets the tank fire on the enemy while exposing only a small portion of the tank to return fire. In Patton's Best it's very important to try to get the tank into a Hull Down position since any shots that would normally hit your hull (and almost always penetrate) are now considered misses.
Also note that there is no guarantee that the driver can get the tank into a hull down position, it's only an attempt since maybe the available cover is just not present at that point in time. You can increase the chances of the driver finding hull down cover by giving the commander the order to direct movement, and also it helps if both the commander or the driver have they're hatches open.
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Question: I noticed that one of the enemy units shifted position yet they only moved to another one of the hexes that remained in the same zone and range. I thought that enemy units can only shift distance to our tank or to another zone? Also, is the facing of the unit taken into account at this time?
Really got frustrated engaging a Jgdpnzer 4 the other day, hit it several times only to watch the AP rounds bounce off. You can only imagine the frustration of Allied tankers as they find out that they're 75 just didn't have the power to deal with some of the German armor. Usually just a better idea to find hull down or full cover and let the 76 armed Shermans do they're job, or better yet the Firefly.
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Also, any chance for more flexible resolutions/fullscreen? At the moment on my 1366x768 laptop screen the bottom text line or two disappear which is quite annoying.
Should be possible, if it's only one or two lines, to bring the window height down to 768.
Question: I noticed that one of the enemy units shifted position yet they only moved to another one of the hexes that remained in the same zone and range. I thought that enemy units can only shift distance to our tank or to another zone? Also, is the facing of the unit taken into account at this time?
This is one of the changes that I'm starting to implement from the board game. In the future units will have more flexible move distances. At present their facing is not taken into consideration when they move, but it is re-rolled after the move, so they may end up with a different facing than before.
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A screenshot of part of what I've been working on:
(http://i.imgur.com/y4zEumk.png)
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The window size seems fixed, I can`t do nothing to it. A workaround is to put my task bar into auto-hide mode, that frees up enough space to see nearly the whole window.
I think the gfx in the game is actually awesome - you capture the "blocky late 70s " style very well and in my opinion it suits the game just right - hope it won`t change eventually.
As for the main window text & hexes are also completely sufficient - as one of the posters nicely put it earlier it`s the "theater of the mind" that provides the best visuals and atmosphere. And so, reading a terse message that my driver "burned to death" is much more hard hitting than any fancy graphics would be.
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M4A3E2(76)W NICE!
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Is the .50 AAMG going to be fitted to the M4's in the future? I didn't see an option for the commander to fire it, or did I miss something?
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There's still a ton of stuff to be added to this game, and the AAMGs are one of them. You'll also have the option of firing SMGs from open hatches at infantry too!
All of the Sherman variants from Patton's Best have now been added in. Lots of extra stuff that later sherman models have, like stabilizers and smoke mortars, haven't yet been added, but at least you can get the benefit of better armour, a loader hatch, and the 76mm main gun.
The original to-hit and to-kill tables from the board game are simply pre-calculated odds based on the core Advanced Squad Leader system, with some adaptations. If you've ever wondered why a roll of 1-3 is a critical hit, it's because the odds of rolling an unmodified 1,1 on a 2D6 are 2.8%. Most of the combat system for AC is now in a format where I can slot in new vehicles and units very easily. It was a lot of work, most of which is not visible to the player, but it does means that in the future, adding new player tanks and enemy units will be very straight forward.
I also just brought the window height down to 744px so it should fit onto a 1366x768 screen.
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I've got a page up at http://www.armouredcommander.com/ (http://www.armouredcommander.com/), not much there now but it's a place to keep screenshots and information as the project develops.
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Wow, you have been busy, that is a lot of work but it sounds like you've built a framework that will be much easier to expand upon. The potential for other tanks, campaigns etc is very exciting.
Were you aware that Avalon Hill had an advertisement in one of the General magazines a computer version of Patton's Best? I remember coming across it at some point and they actually had what looked to be a screenshot of the Sherman overhead profile. I don't have a clue how far it got but it always seemed that PB and possibly B-17 would make for very good PC games.
I didn't know that PB took some of the stuff from ASL, that is very interesting.
The Website looks great as well, I hope that the word starts to get out among some more wargamers and we start to see more interest in this thread as well.
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I had seen that advertisement, but as far as I know nothing ever came of it. There were also plans to do an ASL computer game, but I think when Avalon Hill went under they were either abandoned, or simply developed into the Close Combat series. Steel Panthers World at War is as close to computer ASL as we can get right now, but it's a very different focus from the solo, PB style.
I was actually thinking of recording a Let's Play of Alpha 5 once it's a little more polished. I changed a lot of the mechanics so there's a few new game-breaking bugs that have to be fixed. But once I can, any suggestions or requests for the LP? I was thinking of just playing through and discussing the different aspects of the game as they pop up in the campaigns and the battle encounters.
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Just a general play through would be sufficient, along with an overview of the sequence of play.
It might be a good idea to mention that in the game survival is the real goal for your M4 crew. Balancing being effective vs being dead is the real challenge for the tank commander. Some players might be put off at first when they can't figure out why they're mighty 75 doesn't seem to be able to knock out that Panther at long range.
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Let's Play of work-in-progress Alpha 5 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6aF8gK-oO0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6aF8gK-oO0)
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Just finished watching the video, very well done and I think you pretty much covered everything. A5 is looking great, you are moving along very quickly. Also interesting to note that you changed from the 2D10 of PB to the 2D6 of the ASL series. I also found it interesting how your divided up the sectors using the hexes. I had no idea that some of the hexes divided in two were kind of considered as both sectors. Obviously the board version had to simplify certain mechanics and it's great that you don't have many of those limitations and can increase some of the realism.
Just a couple of questions:
1) Would it be possible to get info on the enemy units by just using the TAB key to cycle through them (just as if you were selecting them for targets) vs having to move the mouse over each one of them? I was just thinking might be easier to keep hands on the keyboard vs. moving one to the mouse?
2) Is the loader able to spot even though he is loading the main gun? I know we can change his sector but does the game take into account his action of loading the main gun and negate his spotting attempt?
Thanks for the video update, keep up the great work, looking very much forward to trying A5.
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Thanks! Going to record another one soon that will move through a little faster, hopefully I'm run into some real resistance and get into some fun trouble.
I should be clear that my goal is not to recreate the board game, but rather to take the same basic experience and make it into an exciting and engaging RL. The board game was a great inspiration and set of basic game structures, but I think there's a lot more that's possible for the future!
Your questions:
1) Definitely. Might be easier to have the player use a command first, like [l] for look, and then you can tab through all enemies to get information on them.
2) In PB, the loader can continue to spot when on the 'Load' order. He can't while on Change Gun Load or Restock Ready Rack, however, and I think AC reflects this. There's a number of other orders that aren't implemented yet that prevent spotting, such as trying to repair the main gun. I think the reasoning is that reloading the main gun is pretty straightforward and the crewman has time to look out his periscope, but the other actions are more involved and thus he can't do spotting attempts.
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In regards to loading and spotting I found it under 8.31 under the definition of the load order. I came across it by accident the other night and don't remember playing the game using it but rather letting the loader help spot no matter what action they were taking.
As you said the great thing is that you can choose what design aspects to change or tinker with to make the game more realistic.
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I just checked, if the loader is on Change Gun Load order, his spot ability changes to None:
(http://i.imgur.com/m0bTrck.png)
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I was referencing 8.31 for the normal "load" command. "May spot normally unless the main gun is being fired. If the main gun is being fired the loader may not spot".
What I found confusing is that if you look at the "Load" counter it has the spotting symbol on it which means to me the loader can do both, however the description seems to contradict this.
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Ah you're right - I'll have to add in another check to see if the main gun was fired in the previous turn.
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I've been flipping through some old copies of GI Combat and the Haunted Tank, putting me in the mood to try Alpha 5! Lol.
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New LP here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuswbvf4Mn4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuswbvf4Mn4)
As mentioned in the video I have two more major features to add, then I'll set up a download link for Alpha 5.
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2nd video is also well done, you really cover a lot of ground in both of them.
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I've got a release candidate version of Alpha 5 ready for download:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha5_rc1.zip (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha5_rc1.zip)
I'm calling it a "release candidate" because I haven't had time to do much playtesting of the final additions, but everything I wanted to include in this version is there. Because I changed so much of the core code from Alpha 4, there's still a lot that can crash or otherwise go wrong, as you can see from my Let's Play video!
Feel free to try it out, I'll try to fix any bugs that pop up, and then do a proper Alpha 5 release on Friday night GMT.
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Quick bug report for A5. I tried to "view tank" right after picking a name for the tank, Crash. Here is the log:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "armcom.py", line 8272, in <module>
File "armcom.py", line 8173, in MainMenu
File "armcom.py", line 7749, in NewCampaign
File "armcom.py", line 7625, in RunJournal
File "armcom.py", line 7681, in GetJournalInput
File "armcom.py", line 7063, in CampaignViewTank
File "armcom.py", line 4926, in UpdateTankCon
NameError: global name 'battle' is not defined
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Just uploaded a new version, same download link, hopefully fixed this and a related problem with the rare ammo types.
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battle is the pointer to the object that holds all the information related to a particular encounter. Early versions of the game used only this, but since then I've added a campaign object and the battle object is created anew for each encounter on the battle map. When the program expects some information from the battle and there hasn't been one created yet, however, you get this kind of trouble. In this case it was trying to determine what info to print on the tank screen and couldn't figure out that there was no battle object yet.
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When the text is scrolling and showing enemy actions or friendly actions vs the enemy units it seems to have been sped up, or maybe it's just early in the morning for me and seems that way. Either way I'm having trouble reading it due to the speed, maybe an option for the delay of how long it takes?
Will try the new upload, man that was quick.
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I probably just sped it up just for my own playtesting, after playing it so many times I get impatient! Adding an options/settings screen is still on my to-do list, but in the meantime I'll increase the pause time before the label is cleared.
Edit: New version uploaded. In the future you'll be able to set slow, medium, fast speeds for the on-map labels, or have it so you have to press enter to clear each one manually. Should be able to accommodate a range of player preferences.
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Got a crash after attempting change the gun load (round type in the gun) while loading ammunition before the mission started (from view tank screen).
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Fixed! It crashed because it's looking to see which shells you can load into the gun, and if you haven't loaded any, it can't find any!
Same download link as before.
Keep these reports coming, this is stuff I probably never would have caught otherwise.
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I've a bug in Alpha 5 RC1 where I've thrown a track in my M4A1 (76)W Sherman. The driver is ordered to stop, but the tank is still moving and has been for multiple turns. In the upper left it reads "Moving, Thrown Track, Immobile".
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Fixed! This would only happen as a result of an unlucky movement roll, but I forgot to set the tank's moving flag to False.
Same link as before.
Edit: It shouldn't affect your game though, at the end of the battle the day is ended and your tank is repaired for the next battle.
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Another possible bug, still playing Alpha 5 RC1. My loader in the stock M4 with no loader hatch has been hit several times by small arms fire, not sure if that's supposed to happen.
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Two questions.
1) Is it possible that a unit that is spotted and Identified to later go hidden and become unidentified? I thought I spotted a Panther and it later was switched to unidentified but it kind of happened so fast I cannot verified that is what happened.
2) Are the other models of the M4 in this version?
One Comment.
I was firing on a Panther and decided that after my next AP shot I was going to fire a WP at it's position. The gunner changed the round but I was unable to maintain ROF due to the WP not being able to fire. I believe it's because WP can only use area fire but not sure? The next round after the WP was fired onto the Panthers position I had ordered AP to be reloaded. Again I was told that ROF couldn't be maintained due to the AP round not being able to use area fire. I don't think I was even given a choice of changing the area vs direct fire.
Maybe it's better to just have the type of fire changed automatically vs leaving it to the player to catch?
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Ran into another bug in RC1. Was in the middle of combat and it seems the next turn just didn't start or something. Tried saving and reloading, didn't seem to fix it: (http://puu.sh/gwetz/44cf8331e1.png)
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You can just hit End or Space to continue to the next phase, it should continue automatically but it doesn't for some reason. Will work on fixing it!
Edit: I think I fixed it. Now if you run out of MG targets it should proceed to the next phase automatically. I ran into this bug (and a few others!) in my playthrough just now.
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Two questions.
1) Is it possible that a unit that is spotted and Identified to later go hidden and become unidentified? I thought I spotted a Panther and it later was switched to unidentified but it kind of happened so fast I cannot verified that is what happened.
2) Are the other models of the M4 in this version?
One Comment.
I was firing on a Panther and decided that after my next AP shot I was going to fire a WP at it's position. The gunner changed the round but I was unable to maintain ROF due to the WP not being able to fire. I believe it's because WP can only use area fire but not sure? The next round after the WP was fired onto the Panthers position I had ordered AP to be reloaded. Again I was told that ROF couldn't be maintained due to the AP round not being able to use area fire. I don't think I was even given a choice of changing the area vs direct fire.
Maybe it's better to just have the type of fire changed automatically vs leaving it to the player to catch?
1) A unit that is spotted and/or identified can later become Hidden, but once it's identified it should remain so. You do need to spot it again to fire at it, however.
2) There are 3 versions of the M4 in Alpha 5, each with a different turret. Version 2 adds a loader hatch and smoke mortar, but I haven't implemented the smoke mortar yet. Version 3 also has a vision cupola for the commander, which allows him to spot in all sectors even if buttoned up!
Yes, WP has to use Area Fire, and AP has to use Direct Fire. I've been thinking about how to handle direct vs. area fire when maintaining RoF. My thinking is that the firing is supposed to be so fast that the gunner doesn't have time to switch between firing points, so if he's landing the shells nearby he can't switch to try to get a direct hit, at least not in the couple of seconds that a single main gun attack is supposed to represent. So my first instinct would be to not allow the player to switch firing modes while maintaining RoF, but I'm open to arguments on the matter. Maybe that can be one of the future Gunner skills?
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Another possible bug, still playing Alpha 5 RC1. My loader in the stock M4 with no loader hatch has been hit several times by small arms fire, not sure if that's supposed to happen.
Hmmmm - that should definitely not happen. The hatch has to be set to Open for them to be vulnerable to small arms fire. Can you please post a screenshot when he's next hit?
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I would say that since the gunner can choose between direct and area for HE that there should not be a ROF penalty for switching between differen't types of shells. Or is there a penalty to ROF if he chooses area vs direct when using HE? If there is no mention of a penalty in the PB rules then I say allow the change without penalty.
How does one aquire a new model of the M4? Do we have to have one shot out from underneath us first? If so maybe a way of choosing the model for those of us who are impatient, lol.
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New Let's Play Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPPHyutgvcE
I run into the MG Fire bug in the video, but I've since fixed it (hopefully!)
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How does one aquire a new model of the M4? Do we have to have one shot out from underneath us first? If so maybe a way of choosing the model for those of us who are impatient, lol.
For now you have to lose your tank - in the future you'll be offered a new tank during refitting and have the option of switching to the offered tank.
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During all my plays of PB I never made it to refitting so I just rolled on the tables for the replacement before I started, just to try out some of the other vehicles.
I would be interested to know how it worked in real life though. Did certain crews get rewarded with better mounts? Did the better crews get picked to man the 76 Shermans? Did the "lucky" crews get the Rhino's and lead the column?
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I would be interested to know how it worked in real life though. Did certain crews get rewarded with better mounts? Did the better crews get picked to man the 76 Shermans? Did the "lucky" crews get the Rhino's and lead the column?
According to the PB rulebook, crews were stuck with their tank until it was destroyed. I'm not sure if the historical materials would say differently, however.
I just uploaded a new version to the same location with the MG firing phase-trigger and a couple other bug fixes. There's still a known bug with sunset triggering the end of a combat day, but since it's cosmetic rather than game-breaking I'm going to fix it later. I also updated the main gun firing procedure:
- if you have "reload from ready rack" set but there's no shells of the selected reload type in the RR, it automatically switches to general stores. You don't get the benefit of the RR bonus, but at least you can reload
- if you reload with a shell that is incompatible with the current firing mode, it is switched automatically. You can't yet select firing modes while in RoF mode, but I may add that later.
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Just ran into a bug where I got the "Your tank explodes killing the entire crew!" after getting hit by a hidden AT gun. I was then given a new tank in the next screen with the same crew. Still trying to reproduce the Loader wounding bug.
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Zombie crew!
Probably not setting the right flags, should be an easy fix.
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Watched some of your latest video since I haven't had a chance to try out the game yet. Just wanted to say that AC is looking so awesome (and already six pages here on the forum, too! =p).
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Every now and then (not consistent), once entering the "orders" phase, I get defaulted to the menu of the assistant drivers' orders. This is independent of whether or not the assistant driver was previously given new orders.
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I assume this is a bug: the VP score for a tank crew that survives the entire campaign doesn't get added to the high scores page.
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Finally got that screenshot of the loader being wounded by small arms when not turned out:
Bah, was in the M4A3, was originally in the M4A1 when the bug happened.
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Every now and then (not consistent), once entering the "orders" phase, I get defaulted to the menu of the assistant drivers' orders. This is independent of whether or not the assistant driver was previously given new orders.
Yes, this has been a persistent bug. Every time I think I've got it fixed, it comes back. I think it happens because an Enter keypress remains in the buffer some time during the transition from the spotting phase, because it's the selected crew member for whom the issue order screen comes up. I've added in a bit of a kludge for now, maybe it'll help, but in any case I'll keep working on it.
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I assume this is a bug: the VP score for a tank crew that survives the entire campaign doesn't get added to the high scores page.
My fault! Now high scores are added when your commander is taken out, or you finish the campaign journal.
I hope the campaign was an enjoyable one, though!
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Watched some of your latest video since I haven't had a chance to try out the game yet. Just wanted to say that AC is looking so awesome (and already six pages here on the forum, too! =p).
Thanks very much! Feel free to try it out, maybe after 7DRL if you're participating!
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Alright, I've uploaded a new version that fixes most of the bugs listed recently. The orders bug might still be in there, only time will tell.
Edit: Tried to fix the end-of-day bug I encountered at the very end of my last video as well. Hopefully it worked!
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Watched some of your latest video since I haven't had a chance to try out the game yet. Just wanted to say that AC is looking so awesome (and already six pages here on the forum, too! =p).
Thanks very much! Feel free to try it out, maybe after 7DRL if you're participating!
Not participating this year because I've got something much bigger coming up with the pending release of Cogmind ::sad and happy face at same time::
Absolutely no game time whatsoever for the next couple months. I've played games for a total of about 10 hours so far this year, and the last time was probably a month ago...
If I had a "games I'm playing soon" list, this would be at the top, though! At least I am consoled by the fact that it can only get better by the time I do have the luxury ;D
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Heh thanks! This means a lot, I really enjoyed X@COM and Cogmind is coming along wonderfully.
Hopefully when you do get a chance to play it in a couple months, ArmCom will be in a more mature state.
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Oh, you played X@COM, too? :D
It's fun to follow along development for now, anyway, so just keep sharing! (I normally follow your progress over on /r/roguelikedev)
Are you getting a lot of attention from board game / strategy fans yet? I know RPS wrote that article and you might've gotten some attention from that crowd, too, in the form of player threads on other forums maybe?
And I like the abbreviation "ArmCom"
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Oh, you played X@COM, too? :D
It's fun to follow along development for now, anyway, so just keep sharing! (I normally follow your progress over on /r/roguelikedev)
Are you getting a lot of attention from board game / strategy fans yet? I know RPS wrote that article and you might've gotten some attention from that crowd, too, in the form of player threads on other forums maybe?
And I like the abbreviation "ArmCom"
I did! Actually a while ago I wanted to make a squad-based RL with z levels, but never solved the problem of reliable LoS calculation, so I liked that aspect of X@COM a lot. Part of the reason I've made such quick progress on ArmCom is that I've had a number of partly-developed RLs in the past which never got anywhere, so I knew the basics and could hit the ground running with this project.
I'm going to make a post on the BoardgameGeek forums after Alpha 5 is done, just a brief note and a link to see if any fans of Patton's Best are interested in trying out ArmCom. I'm adamant, however, about not making a direct adaptation of PB, but rather to take it and ASL as inspiration, and develop ArmCom into its own game. But there might be some fans there who would enjoy playing ArmCom.
I do think the Flare Path mention brought a lot of people to this thread, but other than that I haven't seen any mentions pop up, but it's still early days yet. Hopefully Tim will revisit the game later on, but RPS is pretty good about pacing their coverage of games in development, so it might not be for a while.
And yeah, I think I'll stick with ArmCom since AC is pretty much taken over by Assassin's Creed at this point!
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I did! Actually a while ago I wanted to make a squad-based RL with z levels, but never solved the problem of reliable LoS calculation, so I liked that aspect of X@COM a lot.
Funny that when I started the project, that was the absolute very first thing I made sure would work (spent a couple weeks on concepts and tests), because the entire game wouldn't be possible without it. Luckily I found a satisfactory solution :D
I'm sure you'll find a lot of interested players from the strategy/board game crowd, and of course you'll want to leverage the power of the PC to develop it into your own game.
I can see RPS covering ArmCom again once it's matured. You're obviously on their watchlist now, so it's only a matter of time and improving the game enough to be worth another mention.
ArmCom sounds cooler than AC anyway. Reminds us of cool games like XCom and SupCom ;)
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As a suggestion would it be possible to change the GUI so that when choosing orders you could cycle through the possible commands? For example using the up down arrows to select the crewman and then using the left or right arrows to cycle through possible commands? Might streamline things a bit.
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As a suggestion would it be possible to change the GUI so that when choosing orders you could cycle through the possible commands? For example using the up down arrows to select the crewman and then using the left or right arrows to cycle through possible commands? Might streamline things a bit.
That would be easy to add. The downside is you get less information about the effect of different orders, but if you want to see the full text you can always press Enter and see the menu.
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I think that after the players become pretty familiar with the commands available it would be a great help. It felt natural for me to try to do the side arrows as I scrolled down through the crew positions.
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I've ran into a bug where it seems Tiger E's are firing 75mm ammunition, and are stuck with a "Required to kill: Less than 2". I've survived about 5-6 hits from a Tiger in one engagement this way, each time the roll for the Tiger to hit me has been less than 2.
(http://puu.sh/gxqeH/0731d352b0.png)
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I've ran into a bug where it seems Tiger E's are firing 75mm ammunition, and are stuck with a "Required to kill: Less than 2". I've survived about 5-6 hits from a Tiger in one engagement this way, each time the roll for the Tiger to hit me has been less than 2. I'm luckier than Brad Pitt :u.
(http://puu.sh/gxqeH/0731d352b0.png)
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Double post.
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Ah - thanks for finding this one. I had forgotten to add a base TK number for the Tiger's 88LL gun, so it should print an error message in the exe log and default to a 2.
Fixed in the latest version. Watch out for those Tigers now!
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Alright, I've put up both the Alpha 5 Windows binary and the source.
Binary Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha5.zip (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha5.zip)
Source Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha5_src.zip (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha5_src.zip)
I won't be able to update ArmCom for a few weeks because of travel, but hopefully there are no major bugs in Alpha 5, and people enjoy it!
I've released the source under the GNU GPL. I would be more than happy for anyone to fork the source and do whatever they want with it, but ideally we would work together if you have ideas on how to improve ArmCom!
Happy hunting.
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Your source zip appears to be missing libraries.
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You may need some of the libraries from the binary archive - you'll at least need to download libtcod. Do you get any specific libraries listed as missing?
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You may need some of the libraries from the binary archive - you'll at least need to download libtcod. Do you get any specific libraries listed as missing?
I was thinking about that maybe source download should in general include the libtcodpy.py, libtcod-mingw.dll and SDL.dll
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Added all three to the source archive.
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May want to rephrase "your tank has entered a minefield" random event to something along the lines of "allied squadron enters the minefield". Damage never happens to me but frequently blows allied tanks.
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May want to rephrase "your tank has entered a minefield" random event to something along the lines of "allied squadron enters the minefield". Damage never happens to me but frequently blows allied tanks.
Done for Alpha 6!
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Have safe travels and thank you for all the work you've put into AC.
Not sure how far I will get but I'll take a crack and looking under the hood with the source code and see how things work.
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I'm not sure how un-board-gamelikey it would be awesome to have the projectiles flying using the libtcod's line function.
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I'm not sure how un-board-gamelikey it would be awesome to have the projectiles flying using the libtcod's line function.
Animations are definitely on the to-do list, including explosions, projectiles, and light weapons attacks. Will also change it so that destroyed vehicles stay on the encounter map as wrecks.
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Just updated http://www.armouredcommander.com/ (http://www.armouredcommander.com/) with Alpha 5.1 binary and source. Changelog as follows:
- Added player tank info screen to encounter and campaign day interface
- "Brew up" roll after player tank knocked out now takes into account wet stowage and better ammo protection of later M4A1 and M4A3 Sherman models
- Roll for player movement has been updated to a 2D6 system; previously motion forward or backward should have had a chance to change enemy facings but didn't, that has been corrected
- HVSS has a chance of being on tank models that historically had it, gives a positive modifier to movement
- Hits on the turret of the player tank are applied based on turret facing; previously only the hull facing was taken into account.
- Lead tank mechanic added. If player is not a Jumbo, then they will never be Lead Tank two combat days in a row. Jumbo tanks have much greater chance of being put in the front.
- Player will now be offered a new tank model during refitting periods
- Extended combat journal through the first month of 1945; note that weather effects are still not implemented so no snow over the winter!
- On the encounter map, changed sector shapes and sizes, no more hexes that straddle two sectors, and more likely that units in medium range will be in hull front sector
- Fixed a bug where rotating the turret and firing the co-ax would not properly identify targets for the attack
- If an enemy AT Gun is moving, it must spend a turn emplacing itself before firing
- Updated Spotting roll to use 2D6 system
- Vehicle info, including armour levels, now displayed after right-clicking on enemy unit
- During ambush, enemy units are more likely to fire rather than reposition themselves
- Smoke factors now apply a +2 modifier to hit and to spot
I was quite pleased to have tracked down a few features and aspects of the game that I had left out during development. Ambushes should be quite a bit more deadly, and now you get a chance to upgrade your tank during refits.
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In PB unidentified tank was Panther/Tiger, the A/T gun was 88 and the SPG was something also nasty - is this the same in this game?
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I was going to ask the same thing. In PB the player had to assume that unidentified units were 88's, Tigers, etc, this was partly because in a solo system there wasn't any other way of doing it and partly to increase the importance of sighting and IDing units asap.
Of course now with the computer acting as an umpire does it still need to be that way or does the computer use the actual units stats of the unit without the player knowing what is going on behind the scenes?
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In ArmCom unidentified units already are what they're going to be when they're identified, they don't act as Tigers or 88s. In PB this was a useful mechanic because the solo player needed to know what stats to use when attacking or being attacked by an unidentified unit, and it adds a bit of excitement in the rush to identify. But in ArmCom the game can keep track of everything behind the scenes, so I felt it wasn't right to use this mechanic.
For now at least, you still don't know if that unidentified tank is a Panzer IV or a Panther, but when it fires at you or you at it, you should get some idea since you'll see either the gun caliber or the armour rating. In the movie Fury, I remember there's a scene where they can't see an AT Gun firing at them, but the commander knows it's firing a certain calibre of ammo just from the sound of the shells whizzing by.
There's still room to add in a new mechanic to do with unidentified enemy units, I just haven't thought of a good one yet!
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SO...we're to "TRUST" the computer that it isn't cheating :o
Sounds good to me.
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SO...we're to "TRUST" the computer that it isn't cheating :o
Sounds good to me.
You can look through the source code yourself and see exactly what is going on behind the scenes. No trust required.
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Great game -- I really can't wait to see how this progresses. I have extremely fond memories of playing PB many many years ago.
I have two suggestions:
1) Make it easy to change the next round to be loaded (or maybe I'm missing how to do this). It should be very easy to toggle next round type to be loaded. Right now, it appears the mechanism is to change the round in the gun. I'd prefer to see the actual firing order procedure modelled: "Gunner, Shot, Tank, Fire" -- even if the Gunner as HE loaded, they'd fire the HE round and the loader would just reload with AP, loading from Storage if nothing was at hand in the RR. As a note, the Army FM 17-12 from 1964 notes that "The tank commander will not normally correct an error in the loaded ammunition element after the gun is loaded; instead, he will allow the gunner to fire the chambered round." I expect doctrine was the same in WW2.
2) I noticed in the Python source, you were using integer values for armor that abstract 'protection'. Personally, I'd be really interested in seeing a more sophisticated penetration modeling based on round type and velocity, angle of incidence and armor thickness and steel type. I expect that would be a lot of work to code, but the complexity can be hidden from the player, and the high fidelity of penetration ballistics could in-turn enable high fidelity damage modeling. But... I'm not coding this,. :)
Keep up the good work!
(edits for clarity)
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Just hit 'a' to cycle though the ammo type to reload! You can totally fire off an HE round at an armoured target just to get it out of the gun, and have AP ready for the reload. You gotta hope you make the RoF roll, but if you do, you also get the benefit of aquired target.
A full armour penetration model is definitely possible, but I'm not going to be the one to do it! This system is about as complex as I'm comfortable with right now. It will eventually incorporate improvised and appliqué armour, though. Someone could write a complex AP module to fit into ArmCom, however, and I could include it as an optional mod.
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Hi, new here. First I would like to thank you for sharing this, and for the effort you put into developing such a good game. I loved PB and always wanted to have a pc version of it.
Of course it's your decision, but I think you should add a "donate" button in your web site. I would like (and think others would also agree) to help you in some way.
Really hope to see Armoured Commander getting bigger and full of new additions.
Alejo
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2) I noticed in the Python source, you were using integer values for armor that abstract 'protection'. Personally, I'd be really interested in seeing a more sophisticated penetration modeling based on round type and velocity, angle of incidence and armor thickness and steel type. I expect that would be a lot of work to code, but the complexity can be hidden from the player, and the high fidelity of penetration ballistics could in-turn enable high fidelity damage modeling. But... I'm not coding this,. :)
This would be a mistake. It is a common misconception in WWII wargames for some odd reason - Steel Panthers had one derivative work that went down this path. Combat Mission also made a similar mistake. There are two problems, both showstoppers.
The first is fundamental game design, you have an abstract system that resolves a large number of approximations into a historically statistically realistic result. Now you decide to take one factor out of dozens, examine only one small cross section of that factor, and resolve it to oh lets say +/- 0.0001. Now every thing else is still integers, by how much have you reduced any error? If you had two factors, both integers and made one a float calculated to the nth degree, at best you've only cut the error by less than half. The error sources are additive, not multiplicative and in most game systems there are far more than two factors to consider. Worse, if you assume you've gotten all the errors out of one case, you'll actually screw up the formulas behind the abstraction.
The second is, well the Aberdeen proving ground tests are only averages for one thing, and that's about your best source of information on WWII ordinance. Of course those tests don't agree with the Russian tests, or the UK tests. Then consider logistics, some guns had bad rounds but the lots went to different theatres, mostly. Factor those in where necessary. Same goes for armor, some factories produced armor that was better than others, some supposedly face hardened wasn't, some was brittle. Now consider the various flaws in different vehicle designs. Consider maintenance. Oh and angle of incidence - highly dependent upon terrain, speed and suspension, relative altitude, even Combat Mission's vaunted 3d model was flawed in those regards. Factor in the effects of that tree branch that deflected the round by 0.01mm.
It sounds good, but it is flawed reasoning and can actually hurt the game.
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2) I noticed in the Python source, you were using integer values for armor that abstract 'protection'. Personally, I'd be really interested in seeing a more sophisticated penetration modeling based on round type and velocity, angle of incidence and armor thickness and steel type. I expect that would be a lot of work to code, but the complexity can be hidden from the player, and the high fidelity of penetration ballistics could in-turn enable high fidelity damage modeling. But... I'm not coding this,. :)
This would be a mistake. It is a common misconception in WWII wargames for some odd reason - Steel Panthers had one derivative work that went down this path. Combat Mission also made a similar mistake. There are two problems, both showstoppers.
The first is fundamental game design, you have an abstract system that resolves a large number of approximations into a historically statistically realistic result. Now you decide to take one factor out of dozens, examine only one small cross section of that factor, and resolve it to oh lets say +/- 0.0001. Now every thing else is still integers, by how much have you reduced any error? If you had two factors, both integers and made one a float calculated to the nth degree, at best you've only cut the error by less than half. The error sources are additive, not multiplicative and in most game systems there are far more than two factors to consider. Worse, if you assume you've gotten all the errors out of one case, you'll actually screw up the formulas behind the abstraction.
The second is, well the Aberdeen proving ground tests are only averages for one thing, and that's about your best source of information on WWII ordinance. Of course those tests don't agree with the Russian tests, or the UK tests. Then consider logistics, some guns had bad rounds but the lots went to different theatres, mostly. Factor those in where necessary. Same goes for armor, some factories produced armor that was better than others, some supposedly face hardened wasn't, some was brittle. Now consider the various flaws in different vehicle designs. Consider maintenance. Oh and angle of incidence - highly dependent upon terrain, speed and suspension, relative altitude, even Combat Mission's vaunted 3d model was flawed in those regards. Factor in the effects of that tree branch that deflected the round by 0.01mm.
It sounds good, but it is flawed reasoning and can actually hurt the game.
I'm not suggesting a higher fidelity model makes for inherently better game play. But it certainly might do so, and while there's some variation (as you noted) between armor penetration testing results, that largely comes down to differences in how the measurements were taken. Obviously this can't be a 'true' simulation without modeling 3D space, vector, drag blah blah. A lot of the variation you suggest (bad rounds, precise AOI calculations, small variations in armor thickness or weak spots such as view ports) can be handled appropriately by RNG.
I'm only suggesting that being able to model more factors, and with greater fidelity, might in fact make for a more interesting game even if the overall outcomes are often similar.
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Its awesome to see this being made. Patton's Best was a neat game, but all the manual book keeping made it a bit of a chore to play (I guess I'm just not cut out to push chits around a board). I think the inclusion of some ASL elements/mechanics and changing the battle board to a hex field are some good changes. I'm eager to see how this progresses and evolves beyond Patton's Best.
Looking forward to Alpha 6 when you come back from traveling. Though can I make one hopefully simple (but knowing programming, who knows) request? When you add in the ability to rename the commander and his nickname (as you mention in your first video) can you let us give nicknames to our tank crew (or completely rename them)? Its always more fun in games like this when its your friend or room mate who nearly gets killed instead of random dude. X-com is a good example of that.
Anyways, once again the game is quite awesome. Thank you for working on it.
[edit]
Actually I have a bug (I think) that I can report. During a game this evening I fired on a moving SPW 251 with HE. The first shot reported immobilizing it, but a subsequent shot still got a "target moving" penalty. Now this is kinda understandable, but it was also listed as moving next turn (including a moving penalty when I fired at it).
[edit2]
Another interesting potential bug. I had my latest career end when a PaK 40 hit my turret, causing the following result.
(http://i.imgur.com/ydY1C7g.png)
However, the game said my character was sent home due to injuries, even though I was under the assumption that he was killed in the tank fire, as it says he was unable to bail out. Either this is a bug or other crew members were able to rescue him (a feature from Patton's Best) before the tank brewed up. If the latter is the case, it could probably be clarified better, perhaps "rescued by fellow crew" instead of "unable to bail"?
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Thanks for the comments!
When you add in the ability to rename the commander and his nickname (as you mention in your first video) can you let us give nicknames to our tank crew (or completely rename them)?
You'll eventually be able to select your commander's name, and set nicknames for each of your crew.
During a game this evening I fired on a moving SPW 251 with HE. The first shot reported immobilizing it, but a subsequent shot still got a "target moving" penalty. Now this is kinda understandable, but it was also listed as moving next turn (including a moving penalty when I fired at it).
The first part is not a bug; all shots from the player's main gun have to be fired before their effects are worked out. So if you get two hits and the first one turns out to immobilize the target, the second one has already hit and won't benefit from the target no longer moving.
The second one is definitely a bug; the moving flag wasn't reset properly when a target was immobilized. Just fixed it.
Another interesting potential bug. I had my latest career end when a PaK 40 hit my turret, causing the following result.
However, the game said my character was sent home due to injuries, even though I was under the assumption that he was killed in the tank fire, as it says he was unable to bail out. Either this is a bug or other crew members were able to rescue him (a feature from Patton's Best) before the tank brewed up. If the latter is the case, it could probably be clarified better, perhaps "rescued by fellow crew" instead of "unable to bail"?
I haven't yet added crew rescue attempts to the game, but the result you got was a weird one. Will do some testing and check it out.
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The first part is not a bug; all shots from the player's main gun have to be fired before their effects are worked out. So if you get two hits and the first one turns out to immobilize the target, the second one has already hit and won't benefit from the target no longer moving.
Yeah, I figured that was the case and it makes complete sense. Speaking of Rate of Fire and shooting the same target repeatedly, would it be possible to have an option to willingly cease fire even if Rate of Fire is maintained? I had one turn where I ended up shelling an AT gun with a surprising 6 HE rounds (4-5 of which hit) thanks to a well stocked ready rack and my assistant driver passing ammo to pick up the slack when the rack ran out. It ended up feeling a bit excessive and wasteful of ammo.
Also, I ran into another potential bug. During a battle encounter I exchanged shots with an AT gun. It returns fire at me the first time I shoot at it, but spends the next two rounds shooting at other tanks (while my own Tank lives up to its name), on the fourth round it shoots at me again and, surprisingly, has an acquired target bonus.
Basically events went like this (you can see some of it in the log):
1st round: Pak 40 fires at me.
2nd Round: PaK fires at, and destroys, lead tank
3rd Round: PaK fires at new lead tank, but misses.
4th Round: Pak 40 fires at me, has acquired target bonus.
I assume the PaK's acquired target bonus should've been cleared when it shot at different targets.
Screenshot:
(http://i.imgur.com/pX4yNhk.png)
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You can always hit End to advance to the next phase if you don't want to continue firing with RoF. This will move immediately to resolve any hits you've already scored.
Thanks for spotting the acquired target bug! Just fixed it in 5.3. I'll do a new release soon since there's been a few fixes and additions since 5.2, but a lot of stuff (like weather effects, counterattack scenarios, etc.) won't yet be working.
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I never added a note to the firing instructions that you could finish the Main Gun firing phase by pressing End - added that in 5.3!
Just uploaded a windows binary for 5.3, not too many changes from 5.2 but it should fix most if not all of the bugs reported by GalagaGalaxian and others recently. As mentioned, although there is a Weather Conditions display in the battle encounter screen, there's no effect on gameplay yet. I'll add this in the next version. Biggest addition in 5.3 is probably the extension of the combat journal through to April 18th, 1945.
Download from http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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Found some more bugs from my latest playthough, now using 5.3. Several of these have screenshot links.
- * While reversing, the message indicating enemies may have moved to new positions says “forward” instead of reverse. (Possibly only in reverse to hull down? That is what I used)
- * Move on to a new area message displays even if End zone is the final zone captured just before sunset. (http://i.imgur.com/4TOCNCB.png)
- * The Commander directing Co-Ax MG fire doesn’t seem to actually give a bonus-to-kill. (http://i.imgur.com/23V39iD.png) May be the same for bow MG fire?
- * Maybe not a bug, but shouldn’t the player’s tank being knocked out count as a Friendly Tank lost on the encounter results screen displayed after the game finishes resolving the player's KO?
- * In the process of losing several Berlin Expresses, I got a few tanks with HVSS equipped. In Patton’s Best, tanks may not have HVSS suspension before Nov,’44. However the effects of HVSS are extremely minor (2% bonus to movement chances, 5% chance to avoid being bogged down) so this is an extremely minor nitpick I’m mentioning only because you seem to be working on weather effects (which potentially includes bogging down in mud/snow)
- * An emplaced AT gun* was not listed as such in the battlemap when moused over. (http://i.imgur.com/pB2wYVi.png)
- * Some crew members seem to be surviving the tank burning up even if they failed to bail out. (http://i.imgur.com/PQo3HpS.png)
Also some minor feedback and suggestions that popped into my head while playing:
- When loading shells into your tank, it would be convenient to have a button key to load shells 5 or 10 at a time (Shift+U/I/O/P maybe?) This is a minor thing though.
- It may be helpful to beginners to specify what the loader can fire is his orders screen is a *Smoke* Mortar (even if the mortar is called a smoke mortar in the F2: Tank Info screen)
- Currently you may not select what shell type to reload when selecting a target and picking between area fire and direct fire. You can specify between General Stores and Ready Rack though, so why not let us pick what to reload? Is this to prevent firing mixed volleys? If so, why not allow ammo type choice only before firing the first shot?
* Unrelated, but never think to yourself "oh its just a PaK 38, and I'm hull down. It'll be fine."
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Thanks for this! Fixed nearly all of these just now in Alpha 5.4 and put it up for download! http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
Two things:
- "Friendly" units refer to allies of the player that are handled by the AI. In the future, the player will have more control over the specific units in the player battlegroup, but for now, the player's tank being KOed doesn't count as a 'friendly' tank lost
- I will eventually add the option to move stacks of shells at once, it's just a little fiddly and not as easy to implement as the other bugfixes
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No problem! This game is very entertaining and certainly challenging, and if I'm gonna be playing it, I might as well help point out any bugs I encounter. I'll probably give 5.4 a play tonight (maybe I can finally last longer than a month!) so we'll see if I find anything else.
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Ended up not playing this weekend, but I did just play a quick game and I noticed one probable bug, plus one thing that stood out to me.
First, some crew still seem to be surviving when it seems like they shouldn't be. In this case, two crewmembers who were incapacitated managed to bail out of the tank. (http://i.imgur.com/r4wtZdn.png)
Secondly, at one point I ran into a Panzer V. The first turn I tried to get hull down while rotating the turret and loading 75AP, and it just shifted position. Next turn I moused over it and saw it was moving in the open and on a side facing. Figuring this was a decent chance to take it out, I opened fire, only getting off one shot, which hit the turret, but failed to penetrate. It then took its second turn, firing at the lead tank. When I moused over it again at the start of my (third) turn, it was now hull-down on a forward facing.
Is enemy tanks being able to change facings and hull down status while making attacks intentional? I honestly can't remember how it works in Patton's Best. Even if they are allowed to turn to face you, I don't think they should get to be able to achieve hull down as bonus. Much like your own tank (without a gyrostabilizer) I kind of feel like the enemy tanks should be allowed to shoot OR move, but not both. Rotating the turret and firing I'd be fine with (assuming they took a similar penalty) but being able to theoretically instantly snap from a rear facing to facing forward, hull down AND shooting at you is a bit much. In addition I guess this would mean SPGs could only fire at you if they were already on a front facing. (I'm rather fine with that though, as things are already dangerous/lethal enough, the player's poor Sherman needs every advantage it can get)
I guess its a simplicity vs detail issue though. If you start tracking enemy turret facings and requiring stuff like Move Or Shoot you have to decide how many clauses to include in the enemy's otherwise random actions (Similar to how they are more likely to target you if you fire at them if they're facing you, or reposition if they're not facing you). I unfortunately don't know how complex such things would be, but I'm sure they're not extremely simple. Still, the situation stood out to me, so I thought I'd mention it.
[edit] Actually thinking back, I think I may have run into another bug in that at one point I may have retained my own hull down status after pivoting the tank.
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Just a quick reply, but as per rules clarifications, in PB crewmen who are incapacitated can still attempt to bail out. It just means they can't do any actions inside the tank.
I'll check out the position changes when firing upon friendly units. There's a The General article called Improving Patton's Best that suggests some changes to enemy facing and action procedures, and I'll likely implement something similar in the futuure.
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I added a section to the AI action function so that if an enemy tank or SPG rolls an attack action and is not facing the player, it pivots to face the player instead. It will still maintain Hull Down status if it already had it.
Regarding pivoting and losing Hull Down, you can pivot your tank to face any direction in the Pivot action phase, but if you end up facing the same direction as you started, the program knows this and does not take away any Hull Down status, nor does it grant you Moving status. Only if you actually pivot to face a new direction will it remove any Hull Down and grant Moving status.
I've made some good fixes and changes for Alpha 5.5, hope to upload it in the next few days!
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Just uploaded Alpha 5.5 to http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
Highlights are weather effects, weather changes, bogging down, and corrected handling of Area Fire HE hits. Full changelog is in the readme.txt in either the binary or source archive.
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A little preview of what I'm working on at the moment for Alpha 5.6:
(http://i.imgur.com/4mF8zML.png)
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Just uploaded binary and source for a new version I'm calling Alpha 6 release candidate 1, since it adds a huge aspect of the game: experience points and skills!
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
There have been a few minor changes to the game, and there are still a number of known bugs / missing features, but I wanted to put this version up to give people a chance to try out the skills system. In particular, I'd like to players' reactions to the following:
- are any of the current skills either under- or over-powered?
- are there any obvious skills that I should add right away?
- is the experience point progression for gaining levels too fast/slow? When you view your crew, the exp required for their next level is shown in parentheses.
- should there be a pop-up notification when a skill is activated? Right now there is just a text message in the message console.
The layouts and design of a lot of the windows is a little buggy since I'm trying to make the entire interface more consistent, and have moved to a standard-sized console for most in-game menus and windows. I'll fix this up before the final Alpha 6 release.
I think there also might be a bug with the driver not being able to access the "unbog attempt" order after your tank is bogged down. IF you run into this, save and reload, and it should be fine. This is another issue I'm looking at fixing before Alpha 6.
Tons of stuff in the game is still missing - still no Counterattack mission type, campaign action times are not increased as they should be for muddy/snowy weather, etc., but it's coming along! As I posted on r/roguelikedev, I had a hairy moment a few days ago when I ran into three AT Guns at once. Just now I got exploded by a Panther when I took a risky shot on its side armour while it was hull down and I was not!
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Starting to add some "bells and whistles" to the game - sounds, images, and animations. Here's the bare-bones beginning of a large campaign map. Eventually each location in the campaign will have a coordinate so it can be displayed on the map.
(http://i.imgur.com/1J6gIjF.png)
Edit: These features and more can be seen in the new Alpha 6.1:
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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Just uploaded Alpha 6.2; the biggest addition to this version is a set of campaign options: full freedom to select your Sherman model, and whether you want to keep playing if your Commander is killed or seriously injured. Since both of these options reduce the challenge significantly (with casual commander replacement you can keep playing through to the end of the campaign no matter what happens to your crew), they are noted beside your final VP score in the high scores display.
This means, if you manage to play through the entire campaign with standard tank options and permadeath for your commander, it will be evident from looking at your score.
The campaign calendar itself is now set via a CSV file, which will make it much easier to modify in the future, and also easier to add in entirely new campaigns to the game. It also means it's extremely easy to 'cheat', just by editing the file and writing yourself an easier campaign. So I'm not sure if in the future the standard, included campaigns will be made harder to modify or not. In the end, anybody could download the source and add their own cheats, so I don't think this is a big issue.
Still working on a ton of features, but if you run into any bugs or crashes in this version, please do let me know. I've improved the Py2Exe script a fair bit, which has brought down the size of the main executable by about half!
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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Alpha 6.3 is now online at http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
Changes include nicknames for crew, some minor bug fixes, and a new crew injury system that should be more clear than the previous one, which was too closely modeled on the (somewhat unclear) Patton's Best system.
In a future version, crew that take serious injuries will be sent to recover and will be available again later in the campaign. For now, as long as they are not very seriously injured or dead, they recover at the end of an encounter. Once I have a better way to display crew wounds, they will persist until the end of the campaign day, giving them modifiers to any other to-wound rolls that day.
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In 6.2 I noticed a potential error with enemy shot math and another possible bug/display error.
http://i.imgur.com/x1qLlRS.png
http://i.imgur.com/3aJRt8I.png
In both these rolls, the dice don't seem to add up. First one is 2+1 = 5? And the second one is 4+3 = 4? I only noticed these after the fact so I dunno how many other shots were off (I have one screenshot, taken before the other two, but in the same battle as the Panzer IV screenshot I believe, where the math works fine (http://i.imgur.com/m50i3cn.png)). For the die roll math, can I suggest inserting a "+" between the two rolled numbers? Just to make things more clear to the user its a additive roll (maybe mention its 2d6 somewhere).
As for the other problem, that third screenshot mentions my Sherman being struck by a 75 AP round from a Pak 38, which it lists as a 50L gun (the Pak 38 being a 50mm gun historically). I'm unsure if this is a display error, and its firing 50AP or its a display error and its firing 75AP. One is a minor display error, while the other is a much more dangerous (for the player) error.
I also have some thoughts regarding crew skills, but I'll wait until I get some more games in before making any firm opinions there on if some need adjustment.
[edit] Just had a JdgPz IV report firing a 76 AP shell at me even though the tank is listed as carrying a 75L. Thankfully that shot, whatever it was, glanced off the turret!
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The weird math in the screenshots is a result of a display error; the total was indeed 5 in the first one, and 4 in the second, but the individual die results were not being displayed properly. Fixed in 6.4, and I've added a plus sign in between to make this clearer, as well as a mention that it's a 2D6 roll.
In the third screenshot, it's also a display error. The base TK number for a 50L gun is 13, while for a 75 it's 14. The display was actually showing you your own gun type due to a bug! Explains the JdgPz IV shot described in your edit too. Also fixed in 6.4.
Keep 'em coming, I'll keep squashing them.
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Another possible bug. When trying to fire both the Co-Ax MG and the Bow MG at the same time, when the results of the Co-Ax MG finished, the bow MG was seemingly skipped. This was attempting to fire on a close range target in the front arc, so the bow MG should've had a valid target.
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Were you Hull Down? Can't fire the Bow MG when Hull Down. That got me several times.
Edit: Also, if the Hull and Coax MGs are both valid attacks, you will be given the choice as to which one to fire at a given target.
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Unsure, but that was probably it, as I actually do recall being given the option to select which MG to fire in the past. I'll keep an eye out for it though.
Though speaking of Machine Guns, when does the commander get his .50cal AA MG? My command needs that Ma Deuce so the gunner doesn't hog all the kills. :P Also, do you plan to eventually include tracking .30cal/.50cal ammo (it was an optional rule in Patton's)? Though the feature I miss most from Patton's Best is advancing fire, it'd be useful for moving into those areas of "heavy" expected resistance.
I'll keep an eye out for more bugs, but for now, sleep!
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The AA MG will find its way into ArmCom eventually - beware that you are very exposed while firing it, however!
I'm not sure that tracking MG ammo adds much fun to the game; it might mean you lose a gun during combat and have to call in resupply afterwards. It's not hard to do, however, so I will add it, likely as a campaign option, eventually.
Finally, advancing fire is definitely on my to-do list, and should probably be higher up since it helps with areas of heavy resistance as you mentioned. It will probably be more automatic than PB, however. You select AF, expend a random number of HE shells, and as soon as enemies are spawned on the board you can a chance at an automatic attack on each of them. This can be combined with an arty attack to really lay down some fire before enemy units even get a chance to ambush. I do plan to limit the number of arty attacks that a player can call in per day, however. It will function like a pool, with each successful request reducing the chance of later ones.
Very interested to read what you think about the skills. Right now they are not too useful until you start upgrading them to the second or third level, but after a few upgrades I see a lot of those blue messages indicated successful skill checks popping up in the message window. There's a ton of possible skills that could be added, these are just a sketch.
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Yeah, I wouldn't care much if you decided that tracking ammo for the machineguns isn't worth it. If I remember right, they had boatloads of ammo anyways and typically were only consumed in large amount during advancing fire and the morning ammo expenditure roll. The exception was the .50cal AA MG, which only came with 6 boxes of ammo (compared to the 30+ of the Co-Ax). But overall tacking MG ammo and replacement periscopes (both optional rules from Patton's) is probably too much detail for too little gain. Main cannon/MG Malfunctions might be worth including though.
Advancing Fire being planned is good, its a very useful tool. I also agree with your idea to simplify it down to just a chance-to-kill on all enemies rather than Patton's method of selecting up to 6 zones with markers. Not sure if you want to emulate Patton's rule of advancing fire weakening as more friendly tanks get knocked out over the course of the day, but if so, you could simply model it as a penalty to the chance-to-kill roll for every 3 or so friendly tanks destroyed.
As for skills, intial thoughts without having played much is that the activation percentages might be a bit too low. Mostly the 3%/5%/7% ones feel a bit low but like I said, I haven't played much with them yet, so I could be wrong. The one that stands out to me is scrounger. Scrounger has decent odds 10/25/40% but at the same time I think to myself that I almost never have to resupply during most missions, so the idea of putting points in that for how much you get out of it feels like a waste. Once advancing fire comes in, though, that could change as I'd be expending a lot more HE shells. As a suggestion, maybe scrounger could instead give a bonus to sourcing more HCBI or HVAP shells each morning? (or a similar skill that does the same).
I admit I practically never use smoke rounds*, but the idea of potentially getting more HVAP rounds is pretty appealing if I'm in a 76L armed Sherman.
* I almost never use WP/HCBI smoke rounds because my two options are wasting a turn changing the gunload (Which is bad because I'm usually in a tight spot if I want smoke!) or firing a damaging shell at a target to clear the chamber and hope RoF kicks in to load the smoke round. This means the enemy unit will probably shoot back because I attacked it and I might not get my smoke if the RoF fails! Easier just to use the smoke mortar if present and, if not, just have the commander throw a smoke grenade and sit tight and hope the enemy is low on ammo and that I don't look worth the AP shell.
In a different topic, you put the campaign calender to an external, editable file. That is cool, looking at the format I think I understand it and I'm tempted to create a version that covers an alternate combat calender from an old Avalon Hill Magazine that features a Canadian Tank unit. However I think I'll wait for now as you might change the format at some point and I'm lazy about manual data entry. :P
(http://i.imgur.com/P5DZrsM.jpg)
To be honest, it looks like a "hard mode", I mean look at those activation percentages! It seems you'd see a lot more combat on average than the default US 4th Armored Division campaign. That said, they do get access to the Firefly with its 76LL gun, which is cool. I mean, who wouldn't want a tank that always starts a fight hull down and has a gun that basically fires HVAP as standard ammo, punching through anything short of a King Tiger or Panther's front hull armor with ease (and for those you get APDS rounds, which are super HVAP)? I mean, other than the Firefly having a special rule that replaces most of the "Enemy fires at lead tank" action results with "Enemy fires at you" because they're terrified of that 76LL gun and concentrate fire on Fireflies when IDed.
Of course, my big dream would be getting to drive the M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer, the ultiamte in "High Risk, High Reward" Panther/Tiger killers. But, I'm rambling at this point, so I'll just shut up. :P
[edit] You don't get XP if you don't finish the day of combat? Ouch, teach me to throw a track an hour before sunset! I think it'd be fair for the surviving crew to still get XP, maybe apply a penalty though, like halving it.
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Just uploaded Alpha 6.4, which fixes the roll display errors you discovered, a couple more bugs, and adds awards for VP and EXP on days when your tank is destroyed or immobilized.
I don't think I have ever resupplied during a mission, but as you say once advancing fire is added, the player will be spending a lot more HE rounds so perhaps then it will matter a lot more. A skill that increases the number of rare ammo supplied per day would work really well too. Perhaps they could be combined?
I only use HBCI rounds when I run into 88s or Tigers early in the game, then I change gun load while dropping a smoke grenade, then lob off smoke as fast as I can and hope that my friends can handle those guys!
The Canada's Best calendar is a good start, but to be fair the campaign should be quite a bit different from the PB one. I've read that the Canadian 4th encountered very few AT guns in the latter part of their campaign, by which time resistance was mostly tanks and infantry, so the activation tables should be different. Also, they were fighting through terrain that had been flooded by the Germans, leaving very narrow causeways between flooded fields. That would make for an interesting campaign day map! Anyway, I do have plans for this, being Canadian myself, but I'm thinking about adding a fair bit more to the game than simply an extra calendar and a restriction to M4A4s and Fireflies.
I would add TD as tank options right now, the only problem is that they introduce some complications to the system as it stands. The Hellcat doesn't have a hull MG (what did the assistant driver do?), the Wolverine doesn't have an assistant driver at all (ditto for the Firefly), they were open-topped so crew are always at least partially exposed, and as you've written elsewhere they should enjoy modifiers to movement and getting a side/rear enemy facing since they are fast tanks. Also I would imagine that the types of missions should be different too: instead of advancing through territory, you might be called to advance to a specific map area to help take out some enemy tanks. Again, definitely something I want to add, but I'd like to do it right so it might take a little while!
Hopefully 6.4 will be stable enough for your Let's Play plan - if you run into anything before then let me know and I'll try to push out a quick update to fix it.
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Oh yeah, thats all just "one day stuff", I'm quite happy with Shermans right now.
Had something strange happen to me. Combat encounter started with a Panther dead ahead, close range. Being stupid I decided I'd fire an AP shot at it and load my single HVAP from the ready rack for the follow up shot. Except for some reason, the HVAP round didn't get loaded! Coincidentally, I actually recorded a gif of it (http://i.imgur.com/w4DVqZ5.gif) since I was trying to work on a bit of intro action for my LP.
After playing a bit more, it is really weird, but I may have discovered the reason! This was a save I loaded from 6.3, so my loader was still set to the "Load" action, I just noticed the command has been renamed to "Reload". Could that possibly be it? Could explain why earlier shots never achieved RoF...
Ok, played even more, that is very likely the problem. Took a shot at another target later, AP with AP set as the reload, got the "no shell loaded" message again. Gunner was defaulted to the "Load" action at the start of the encounter.
http://i.imgur.com/PKVupGG.png
http://i.imgur.com/0nBBzUZ.png
Also since switching to 6.4 (4 or so encounters) I have yet to achieve Rate of Fire. Could be horrible luck, could be an error.
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Yep, your Loader's default order is still Load, which doesn't exist any more! Sadly a lot of these updates require starting a new campaign, since so much of what's being saved is being changed.
Keep an eye on the RoF weirdness, though I have gained RoF in my 6.4 games.
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Figured it out, your lack of RoF is also related to continuing with a saved game from an older version. I'm afraid if you want to keep playing in 6.4 you'll have to start a new game, as it's also related to the change in order name from "Load" to "Reload".
I think I'll add a check in the LoadGame sequence to prevent loading saved games from a previous version - for now at least, there's just too much that can be incompatible across saves.
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I should've considered that as a possibility, and starting a new save is no big deal.
I have a question, I noticed you added enemy crews getting stunned by hits (and even abandoning their vehicle/weapon if stunned again while still stunned) which is a pretty cool touch. What are the conditions for triggering it? It seems pretty rare so far (save the one time I caused a StuG crew to bail). Just going off memory from the rare times it happens, you have to roll an [X] exactly where [X] is the number you need to roll under to score a hit, though not all such rolls I scored seemed to cause stunning.
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As in ASL (I believe) you can stun an enemy armoured fighting vehicle if you roll exactly the number required to destroy it. For now this only works on tanks and SPGs, although in the future it will be possible to pin and/or break infantry units as well.
I'm also going to change the AI for AT guns so that they move around a lot less, which I think is more historical. I read that to set up the British 17 pdr AT gun took the better part of a day, so to have medium and heavy AT guns running around the map is not very realistic!
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I swear I've stunned AT guns, actually. And good call on limiting AT gun mobility, being able to haul one around so fast did seem a bit silly.
Speaking of mobile AT guns, if you ever feel particularly malicious when it eventually comes time to add more enemy units, you should consider adding in the Sd.Kfz 251/22 "Pakwagen", which was a standard SPW 251 with a Pak 40 mounted in the troop area.
(http://i.imgur.com/567omim.jpg)
Essentially, its a poor man's SPG.
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Yes! One day I'll also add in more detail about your allied forces too. The player will be able to recruit specific types of units to help with friendly attacks, such as the American equivalent of the Pakwagen, the M3 GMC:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/75mm_M3_GMC.jpg)
Just uploaded Alpha 6.5, saved games from 6.4 will probably work, since most of the changes are cosmetic, but no promises.
Biggest change is that there are no longer separate orders for rotating the turret and and firing, and simply firing. You just give the order (Fire Main Gun or Fire Coax MG), and in the firing phase you choose whether or not to rotate the turret. To-hit penalties are applied automatically, and there's a grey turret indicator to remind you what your turret facing used to be. This will avoid the problem where the player might forget to issue the correct order and lose out on a shot. You still can't rotate the turret after maintaining RoF, however.
Also added a LoS display to the targeting display, and two new skills: 'Keen Senses' for the Commander, and 'Cautious Driver' for the Driver.
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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Seems like a good little change. Another one you may consider is having the Loader's "Change Gun Load" action default back to "Reload" when completed. That one has caught me up a few times.
[edit] Found one little mistake with your change to rotating the turret on the fire command, the Turret can be rotated using A/D or Left/Right, however the A button is also what is used to determine what the gun will be loaded with after it is fired! MAybe switch that commander to "R" for Reload?
Also, the Rotate Turret command is still in, but seems to do nothing. I tried to use it several times and the Gunner's action was simply skipped.
[edit] Are Counterattack type missions in yet? I honestly haven't encountered them yet, mostly because I have yet to survive to where they are frequent.
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Aw crap
Will fix the commands - R for Reload is a great idea.
Also just realized that my changes removed the rotate turret phase completely! Will fix it late today.
Counterattack missions are in - the first one isn't triggered until Sept. 12th though. Most of October is Counterattacks. If you open up default_calendar.csv, any line with a C is a counterattack day.
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Just uploaded Alpha 6.6, fixing the rotate turret bug and the command key conflict you discovered. Full changelog follows:
- Unlimited tank model selection now restricted to tank models that have a rarity factor of at least one; means that player cannot select a tank model that was historically unavailable during that month
- Uncovered and fixed a bad re-use of a global variable name
- If animations are disabled, on-map labels appear all at once rather than being drawn gradually
- Rotate Turret phase has been fixed
- Changed command for toggling Ready Rack usage to T - was in conflict with the new commands for rotating the turret while in Fire Main Gun mode
- Edited the command explanations for Main Gun Fire slightly
- Crew orders will now reset to their default order at end of turn - eg. Loader will go on Reload order, Driver on Stop, etc.
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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Hah, I suggested switching ammo type reload command to R completely forgetting the Ready Rack already had that key. Whoops.
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There's not enough keys! Or at least, there's too many commands use A or R. I chose T because it's right next to R and easy to hit when changing the reload shell type; maybe it can stand for Toggle?
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That was an epic battle encounter!
http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=22833 (http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=22833)
Reading through it though I realized there was a pretty serious bug. Enemy tanks and SPGs that were immobile could still turn to face the player when attacking. I've changed that, but because enemy tank turret facings are not tracked yet, even if the tank has a turret it can't turn to face the player and attack when immobile. I'll add enemy tank turrets in later, but for now I'm uploaded Alpha 6.7 to fix this.
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Uploaded 6.8, which adds Panzerfaust attacks!
This version will work with saved games from 6.6 or 6.7, as long as you load into the campaign map rather than the encounter map. If there are any enemy LW squads on the encounter map from an old save when you load up 6.8, ArmCom will likely crash.
Details on how PF attacks work, which is a bit different from Patton's Best:
- LW units have a random chance of being armed with a PF when spawned. This chance is slightly higher in 1945.
- Whether or not an LW unit has a PF is not known to the player until it attacks
- If a Panzerfaust event is rolled on the Random Events table, any LW unit that is in close range, has a PF, is neither in a building nor a fortification, and is neither hidden, pinned, nor broken, has a chance of firing a PF at the player
- PF attacks have a greater chance of happening during or after December 1944, if the player tank is moving, if it is the lead tank, and if the attack comes from the rear three sectors of the tank. They are more likely in Advance missions, and much more likely during Battle missions
- If an attack is triggered, the LW must pass a to-hit roll. DRM are +2 if player tank is moving, and smoke DRM apply as normal
- If the attack hits the hull or turret of the player tank, it is destroyed. Hull Down and Thrown Track results apply as normal.
- There will only be one PF attack per Random Event if the attack misses
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Whew - uploaded Alpha 7 release candidate 1: http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
I'm hoping that after some testing and some bugfixing, I can leave Alpha 7 up to be the stable version of ArmCom for a little while. In the meantime I'll work on polishing things behind the scenes, looking forward toward a beta version where all the major components of the game are present and working reasonably well!
As with the last update, if you load a game that was saved in the Campaign Calendar or Campaign Map in a previous version, it should work. Most of the variable changes have been within enemy units, which are spawned anew during each battle encounter.
In this version, I've added a few important things and fixed some bugs I discovered:
- Fixed a bug where stunned enemy vehicles would still act as normal
- Fixed a bug where every day would start cloudy
- Fixed a bug where immobile enemy units at medium or long range in fog or falling snow could move closer to the player
- Orders now reset each turn only for Driver and Loader, other crewmen will keep their order until the end of the encounter or circumstances make their order impossible
- Changed the odds of enemy morale values slightly
- Made spotting and identifying enemy units slightly more difficult
- All enemy AT Guns are assumed to be emplaced; this means they always get a +2 terrain DRM to hit, or to kill with an area fire hit. If they are in a fortification, they get the +3 DRM instead.
- AT Guns are never set up moving, and will not move during a battle encounter
- Their only actions are: Do nothing; fire at friendly tank (player if fired upon in previous turn); fire at player tank; fire at lead tank
- AT Guns have a facing set at spawn, and which can be changed if player tank moves
- If an AT Gun rolls an attack action and is not facing the player, it rotates to face the player
- Any critical hit on an AT Gun, whether direct or area fire, will automatically destroy it
- Enemy infantry units (LW, MW, AT GUN) can now be Pinned:
- if an infantry unit is hit by HE but not destroyed, they must take a morale test; if they fail, they are pinned
- if a TK roll on an infantry unit is exactly equal to the number required, the target is automatically pinned
- pinned units can only do nothing or move away as their action
- pinned units can test to unpin at the end of the encounter turn by rolling against their morale level
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Looks like some good changes, but does this mean AT guns can no longer be abandoned by getting double stunned like vehicles?
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That's right, they just get pinned. Next step is to add Broken status to units, so you can Break AT crews and force them to flee.
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Depending on how often the double stunning happens in the game I may tone it down a bit - force them to take a morale test rather than automatically abandoning the vehicle. As you've noted in your LPs, the idea is that even very tough tanks can be forced to stop or have their crews bail out if they are hit by enough fire, even if they are not destroyed. In the same way, if an infantry squad or gun team is hit enough times they will either hunker down or retreat.
Adding the facings for AT guns has made it pretty interesting - if you spot a gun on a side or rear facing, you know you have one turn to hit it before it can shoot back. Do you take the chance with an 88?
I've noticed that Hidden units tend either to do nothing or to move, which eventually gets them destroyed by friendly action. I'm going to work on the AI so that Hidden units will more often try to get into a position where they are no longer hidden and can thus try to attack the player. Maybe also add a modifier to give them additional protection from friendly action; if they are in an area of the map where you have no line of sight on them, they are likely harder to see for your allies too.
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The bug-squashing continues with Alpha 7rc2. I've updated the system for Pinning and Stunning enemy units, the last major feature I plan to add for Alpha 7. I'm not going to add a system for Broken units: if they break, they're considered destroyed. Changelog follows:
- Updated key commands in the campaign tank view to match those in the encounter tank view: R for Ammo Reload Type, T to Toggle ready rack usage
- All crew will now have their orders reset to default after an encounter has finished
- Fixed a bug where the asst. driver's skill activation and either the gunner or the loader's could both have an effect on the RoF roll; now only the best modifier applies for any single roll
- Fixed an ancient bug where PSW/SPW units would not actually do anything!
- Decreased chance of triggering a possible weather conditions change to 10% per 15 mins
- Using Tab to select a target map area on the campaign map, you can now hold Shift to move selection in opposite direction
- After triggering a minefield attack that disables your tank, the driver's available orders should now be immediately updated
- Hidden units that roll an attack action will now re-roll first; if another attack action is rolled, unit does nothing. Should mean that Hidden units move more often and do nothing less often.
- If unit positions change due to player tank movement, this will now reset spotted and hidden status, as well as any target acquired level on all enemy units. Also, the map display is now updated more quickly to show them in their new positions
- If there are no live enemy units on the map, the Friendly Action Phase will be skipped, as will the random events Friendly Artillery and Flanking Fire
- Fixed some rendering issues with opening the Help, and Tank and Crew Info windows in the campaign calendar view
Updates To Pinning and Stunning Enemy Units:
- Enemy infantry units (LW, MW, AT GUN) can be Pinned, and enemy vehicles can be Stunned:
- If an infantry unit is hit by HE but not destroyed, they must take a morale test; the difference between the TK roll and score required is added as a positive modifier. If the morale test is failed, they are Pinned.
- If a TK roll on an infantry unit is exactly equal to the number required, the unit is automatically Pinned.
- If an already Pinned unit is pinned again, they must pass a morale test or be destroyed. Any terrain DRM for the unit is added as a positive modifier for this roll.
- Pinned units can only do nothing or move away as their action.
- Stunning works like pinning on vehicles, except that if you fail to destroy a vehicle with AP, they aren't subject to Stunning. The only way a vehicle can be Stunned is by rolling exactly the number required on a To Kill roll.
- Pinned and Stunned units automatically test to recover during the enemy action phase, but if they recover they do no other action that turn. If they don't recover, infantry units can still move away from the player as their action, but remain Pinned. AT Guns can't move, so they can only do nothing if Pinned.
- Each time a unit recovers from pinning, its morale level is reduced by one to represent fatigue, to a minimum of 2.
- An original roll of 12 on a morale test is always a fail, regardless of modifiers.
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Uploaded Alpha 7 a couple days ago, now tearing apart the campaign map and improving it for the next development release. Writing up a bit of this on the new development blog:
http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/ (http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/)
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I am back to panzer drivin'. Love how it develops over the time! Go on with this!
PS: Will you add the possibility to play as a German also?
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Absolutely! There are a few periods that would work really well for German campaigns. There's a lot to do on the core game before I can start thinking about expanding the scope, but it's in the plan.
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As I am playing on my Thinkpad with 1680x1050 - would it be possible to implement a fullscreen mode for AC?
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Fullscreen mode is no problem at all, the tricky bit is getting the display resolution scaled up correctly for the player's screen. I could implement a fullscreen mode that keeps the same display size and blacks out the rest of the screen, but that's not really helpful. I'll see what I can do, though!
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I tried you roguelike and... It's impressive. I see that you have still a lot of work on this project, but unprecedented setting/mechanics and good implementation make me 'hungry' for more advanced versions. Good luck!
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Thanks very much! Doing some work on it today, will hopefully get the core battle mechanics a little more polished and add a few things as well.
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As I am playing on my Thinkpad with 1680x1050 - would it be possible to implement a fullscreen mode for AC?
I've added a full screen mode to Alpha 7.3, one of the resolution options is 1680x1050. You'll need to enable it every time you load a saved game, but in the future it will remember your preferences and switch to full screen on load if that's what you've set it to. Let me know how it looks - the full screen functionality is a little wonky; sometimes all it does is display the window centered on a black screen. If it doesn't work I'll keep working on it.
Lots of other updates in 7.3 too - new orders, better interface, etc. No new animations or sounds, but those will be added in time.
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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Hm, can you make based window size slightly less height? 5-10 px less should be good. Now, window does not fit for my 1366x768 screed and a little fragment is missing.
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Hm, can you make based window size slightly less height? 5-10 px less should be good. Now, window does not fit for my 1366x768 screed and a little fragment is missing.
Should not be a problem - I can remove one column which would make the interior window (i.e. not including the window title and borders) 732 px high, removing 12 px of height.
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732 px high, removing 12 px of height.
Should be ideal.
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Just uploaded Alpha 7.4, has the shorter screen size as well as remembering your full screen setting across saved games.
Also tracks several gameplay stats over the course of the campaign and displays them either as a menu during the game, or as a final screen when your campaign is over. Will be adding a lot more detail to this in the future.
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Fits perfectly, thank you so much! :)
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Fits perfectly, thank you so much! :)
You're welcome! I resized the display consoles to fit the new screen size, and most of the rendering code already takes into account the screen height, but if you spot anything that doesn't render properly please let me know.
Unfortunately I keep changing campaign object variables, so savegames can't be transferred to newer versions of the game, but I think these are valuable changes, so for the near future if you want to play a long campaign you'll have to stick with the same game version and forgo updates for a bit.
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Fine! I think with the fullscreen mode you get a plus of immersion while playing. And the text is better readable. Can't wait to start a new game of ArmCom. 8)
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Some small issues (not connected to screen size).
Still is possible to load more than max cap of ammo in preparing screen. In game, amount of ammo are replaced by another value, but - still not correct value. I loaded more than 70 ammo in general slot (maybe 77?...) then move 6 of them to ready rack and cannot load more to RR slot (then, maybe, 71 in general... I check it later). When I moved to campaign screen, in ready rack I had 6/6 ammo, and in general slot I had 61/65 ammo. It's a bit strange...
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The ability to load up to 30 extra rounds of main gun ammo above your max was just added in Alpha 7.3 - note that the more extra ammo you have, the more likely it is that your tank will explode when knocked out, killing all your crew!
As for the strange numbers in the campaign screen, note that you always expend a random amount of time and HE shells heading to your start area in the morning. There is a screen telling you how much of each has been used up just before you enter the campaign day map.
I've gotten into the habit of loading about 15-20 extra HE shells, knowing that I will likely use them before I take a hit.
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Just uploaded Alpha 8, full changelog is available on the project development blog:
http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/ (http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/)
Download: http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
Also, just noticed: I've made over 100 posts! This project has come a long way since February.
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Alpha 8.2 is up for download, now featuring completely new sound effects and a number of changes and/or improvements. One big change is that the game will no longer permit loading savegame files that were created with previous versions of the program. This should prevent a number of bugs and crashes that are simply the result of me changing the variables stored in game objects all the time. In future releases, if an older savegame would be compatible, I'll mark it as a subversion and the game will know to let you load the old savegame.
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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Thanks for directing me here Rev_Sudasana. Something about counterattack missions gives me just the right feeling of, "Come on, set already! I hope this is their last wave...." and it sounds like you are going in the right direction with this.
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Thanks! My plan for counterattack missions for the future is to have the enemy actually advance into the map, taking over friendly map areas, and allow the player to fall back to another friendly area if they become surrounded. If the other map areas around you are all enemy-controlled, then you'll start battles with no controlled sectors and will have enemy units spawning in all around you. Also you'll lose VP for every area lost, but this will be balanced by bonus VP for holding areas successfully. You'll also need to keep a path open to friendly lines to be able to resupply.
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Alpha 8.3 is now available for download. This one has a lot of changes behind the scenes, as I have moved to an XML storage system for campaign information, preparing for the future addition of more campaigns to choose from. Full changelog is available on the dev blog. Now that the main campaign data has been moved to an external file, I'm closer to being able to implement additional campaigns for the game, the first of which will follow the Canadian 4th Armoured Division through France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I still have some work to do before the 'Canada's Best' campaign is ready to go, however.
The next few updates will be more 'sound and vision' in nature (animations, graphics, sound effects), so I should have more interesting screenshots to show for those. Luckily these shouldn't break compatibility with the core 8.3 branch, so players can continue their campaigns with additional features and don't have to start over with each new release.
Download: http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
Dev Blog: http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/ (http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/)
Edit: There was a CTD bug in Alpha 8.3, fixed in Alpha 8.31, does not break saved game compatibility if you had already started a new campaign.
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Alpha 8.32 is up! New animations, sounds, bugfixes, and images for some (but not yet all) in-game units.
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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Alpha 8.32 is up! New animations, sounds, bugfixes, and images for some (but not yet all) in-game units.
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
Keep up the good work. Why did you leave reddit? Was it to do with the people being banned for hating on fat people and that being censorship? Are you back there yet for sharing saturdays?
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Keep up the good work. Why did you leave reddit? Was it to do with the people being banned for hating on fat people and that being censorship? Are you back there yet for sharing saturdays?
We do miss you over there. :) ArmCom is really impressive and you wrote great SS write-ups about your progress. But, if you felt like you had to go over what happened, I can respect that. Just wanted to chime in that you're definitely missed.
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Not sure if mentioned yet, but there's a typo on the mission description for day August 4th, 1944. You wrote "signla" instead of "signal".
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Not sure if mentioned yet, but there's a typo on the mission description for day August 4th, 1944. You wrote "signla" instead of "signal".
Thanks, fixed!
Keep up the good work. Why did you leave reddit? Was it to do with the people being banned for hating on fat people and that being censorship? Are you back there yet for sharing saturdays?
We do miss you over there. :) ArmCom is really impressive and you wrote great SS write-ups about your progress. But, if you felt like you had to go over what happened, I can respect that. Just wanted to chime in that you're definitely missed.
I left because I just didn't want to interact with the site any more. I wasn't involved in any of the banned sites but I felt that it had a chilling effect on the kind of discussion environment that the site was originally intended to support, at least in my understanding. Unfortunately deleting my account meant I couldn't participate in /roguelikedev. It's a shame, but honestly that subreddit is the only thing I miss after leaving.
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I left because I just didn't want to interact with the site any more. I wasn't involved in any of the banned sites but I felt that it had a chilling effect on the kind of discussion environment that the site was originally intended to support, at least in my understanding. Unfortunately deleting my account meant I couldn't participate in /roguelikedev. It's a shame, but honestly that subreddit is the only thing I miss after leaving.
Thirding that we miss you. I keep imagining you might pop up some time even though you'd already explained your departure :(
I only ever use Reddit for /r/roguelikes, /r/roguelikedev, and the occasional /r/gamedev. In fact, I haven't even "subbed" to these--I just go there directly. (Well, I guess I have my own sub now, too...)
The problem is, that's where everyone is, and that's not an easy thing to change. Voat will never be a perfect alternative, because it will encounter the same issues that come with scale. Not now as a fledgling site (Reddit was fine for so many years!), but at some point in the future. It's inevitable.
(Not to derail your thread here with discussion of this issue, but we enjoyed your participation over there, and it gets more traffic than the Temple...)
Anyway, back to making roguelikes!
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As much as I despise reddit I've found it the best way to socialize with other developers.
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Just uploaded Alpha 9.0, which changes quite a few things in the core game objects and thus is not compatible with older saved games or highscores files. I've recently added some more animations and sound effects, and am slowly filling in missing help topics, tutorial text, and unit images. Full changelog is on the development blog.
I think my next big project is to work on the crew system to make them a little more interesting and individual. I'm thinking portraits, traits, stats, and personalities. Now that the core of the game engine is pretty well developed, I'm looking for ways to make the larger campaign more interesting rather than the daily grind of armoured warfare in a new town. I'm also going to add some new abilities to armoured cars and APCs, and there's always the Canadian campaign to work on as well!
http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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I haven't been following AC that close due to my job commitment but just downloaded 9.01 and WOW I am amazed at the progress that has been made since the last installment I downloaded a few months back. You have done an amazing job, and I can see you have responded to a lot of the suggestions presented on this forum, thank you.
I'll try to get a few campaigns in and give you what feedback I can in the next few weeks.
Thank you again for your hard work, you are doing an amazing job.
JC
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I haven't been following AC that close due to my job commitment but just downloaded 9.01 and WOW I am amazed at the progress that has been made since the last installment I downloaded a few months back. You have done an amazing job, and I can see you have responded to a lot of the suggestions presented on this forum, thank you.
I'll try to get a few campaigns in and give you what feedback I can in the next few weeks.
Thank you again for your hard work, you are doing an amazing job.
JC
Thanks very much! The bug in 9.0 was very annoying; I'm going to start playtesting every major release before it goes out to try to avoid these sorts of things. Just about all the major bug reports have come in from players though, so I'm quite fortunate that there's some helpful people out there.
The good news is that I've re-written the way that campaign info is stored for 9.1, so that in the future saved games will be able to take advantage of campaign updates. Right now all the campaign info is recorded in the saved game, so that even if the campaign file is updated, nothing will take effect until you start a new campaign.
Also changed the AI subroutine for APCs, and added a nasty feature to them that should keep tank commanders on their toes :O
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Just uploaded Alpha 9.1 to the ArmCom website. Keeping my fingers crossed that there's no serious bugs that kill the campaign like in 9.0. I've changed a great deal in this version, one important improvement is that campaign data is loaded from the source xml file each time a game is loaded, so in the future I can issue updates just for the campaign data, rather than having to push an entirely new version.
One of my favourite aspects of 9.1, however, is that your crew will now speak up and offer their impressions of different events in the campaign day map. These are pretty limited at the moment, but the system is in place to greatly expand it. I think it goes a long way to making your crew more of a presence in the game beyond just cogs and gears that run the tank the way you, the commander, deem best.
Enemy personnel carriers are also a lot more tricky now, as they can spawn enemy infantry as well as attack your tank and allied infantry.
As always, report any bugs either here or to the dev email address on the front page of http://www.armouredcommander.com/ (http://www.armouredcommander.com/)
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Hm, interesting news. I am glad to see that you are particular about flavours - like 'speaking crew'. It's not as common stance as should be.
9.1 downloaded :)
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Thanks! I'm trying to add a little more flavour to the game, especially to the campaign map, where things are usually pretty dull until a battle breaks out.
Just uploaded another update, trying to fix a couple tricky bugs that don't show up too often but which still should be squashed to avoid crashes to desktop. Alpha 9.12 is the most recent version right now.
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9.12 is yesterday`s news...I see 9.13 is here already. Your work rate is frightening...
It was great watching this game grow so much in space of just few months. Congratulations!
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The quick pace of updates are just because there was a tricky bug in 9.1 that I tried to fix and ended up making things much worse! Hopefully 9.13 will be stable enough to play for a while.
Edit: For anyone who's had trouble with recent versions, the current Alpha 9.14 seems to be fairly stable. I have a few fixes ready to go for 9.15 but since there's no serious crashes right now I'm going to hold off and update when I have more to contribute.
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Just now uploaded Alpha 9.15, contains a number of bug fixes and improvements.
Had a hair-raising playtesting session yesterday when I was ambushed by a couple AT Guns and my driver was killed by small-arms fire as he had an open hatch, stranding me in the open without Hull Down. Rather than abandon the tank and bail out I just kept firing back, even after three more AT Guns appeared. Finally got them all taken out, but it was a close round.
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Hey. :) Started a campaign in the Alpha 9.17 version today. :) I don't have any real experience with military sims, for the record. Playing in the properly "evil" settings (I don't remember what they were called, but they boiled down to: you get what tank you get, and if the commander dies, it's over.)
Action Day 1: Things started out easy enough. The Ferret I was called up to advance through an area of light resistance. The first encounter was a lengthy affair involving over a half-dozen enemy units, but ultimately went pretty well... I... guess? I mean, I came out with 14 VP, but I feel like my allies had to babysit me a little more than a tank should require. :P (Then again, this may be my ignorance talking. :) )
(http://i.imgur.com/MzNoZ4s.png)
There were a few light encounters after that... and then a disastrous one where the tank was hit and breached, killing one crewman and injuring pretty much everyone else. Luckily, other friendlies cleaned up the responsible party quickly and the remaining crew was pulled out.
Action Day 2: Onward, with the the Ferret II! This time, the orders were to advance through an area of heavy resistance. Sarge decided there was probably a better way of going about this than just merely checking each hex before advancing in, and developed a policy of calling for artillery or air support on any cell coming up Medium or Heavy on the check. This seemed to limit the actual encounters in those areas, and was a big help: the Ferret II managed to get to the exit of the first map, and was well on its way to the exit of the second map when the advance was halted on account of insufficient sunlight. :)
The stats so far, at the end of the 2nd day of action:
(http://i.imgur.com/bLOrFl3.png)
I'm a little surprised given I'm not a military sim player, but I'm having fun playing. :D My usual approach to new games is to dive in blind, then go back and read the manual, so I'll be doing in depth that before I start Day 3. :D The only thing that I really felt like I didn't grasp quickly without the manual was the differences between the ammo types and what they were for.
Anyway, short version: Good job sir, this is a fine game. :)
P.S.: The sound effects are a nice touch. :D Between ArmCom and Cogmind, I'm starting to wonder if I should look into some for Demon. :D
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Thanks for the after action report (AAR)!
So your tank is certainly outnumbered and outgunned, at least at the start of the campaign. The M1 Sherman was much lighter and had a weaker gun than most German tanks it would face in France. Thus, just like real-life tank commanders, you have to use numbers and tactics to survive. Sounds like you did quite well!
Calling in arty or air support is exactly the right thing to do, especially on areas of medium or heavy resistance.
Ammo types are explained in the Help (F1) interface, and the difference between HE and AP is an important one, so you should definitely check this out before you start day 3.
Later on in the campaign you can upgrade to a Jumbo, which has super heavy front armour, and then you can start being much more brave in terms of taking on enemy tanks. Watch out for those Tigers though!
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I've uploaded Alpha 9.2 but am not making it the default download yet, since I suspect there might be some bugs related to the new minor damage modeling system. Intrepid tank commanders are free to download it from the following direct link:
http://www.armouredcommander.com/download/armcom_alpha9_2.zip (http://www.armouredcommander.com/download/armcom_alpha9_2.zip)
but I won't be able to make any updates to it from Thursday for about 10 days due to travel. Please do report any and all bugs, either to armouredcommander@gmail.com or to this thread, and I'll get to work on them when I return.
Edit: Fixed a bug with the repair system. If your game would crash at the end of an encounter turn when there was tank damage, re-download 9.2 and try it out!
Full changelog follows:
- The game now keeps track of how many enemy reinforcement units have arrived into a battle encounter. If there have already been one or more reinforcements, the game rolls a D6. On a 1 the unit arrives, otherwise if the total of the roll plus the number of reinforcements is equal to or greater than 7, no random event occurs this round. So if one enemy reinforcement has already arrived and the random event generated is another one, it will arrive on a roll of 1-5. If two, 1-4, etc. to a minimum of 1.
- The number of rounds in battle encounters is now recorded and displayed at the top of the encounter map console.
- Fixed a bug where the "very serious" wound level was not actually being used at all
- Tank console is now updated after every crew wound
- Added a simple display of enemy unit terrain to their depiction on the encounter map
- Reorganized the tank console display slightly to make room for a damage report
- Changed the effect of the Fire penetration result: one minor damage result, one possible collateral damage wound for one randomly chosen crewman
- Added minor damage: can result from light weapons attacks or a penetrating hit that does not knock out the player tank. Crew can attempt to repair most types of damage, but some is permanent and will only be repaired after an encounter ends or at the end of the combat day
- An original roll of 12 on an MG to-kill roll does no damage to target and causes a malfunction in the fired MG
- New Skill: Mechanic. If activated, adds a bonus to repair attempt roll. Most useful for the Loader but all crew positions can take this skill.
- Added some checks to make sure HVAP is treated as an AP round (eg. no damage to infantry units)
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Cant download Armoured Commander Alpha from your dropbox. I am interesting to play it.
Never mind. I found the link on page 14. I was trying to download from a link on page 1. Sorry!
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Glad you found the link! I'll edit the first post in this thread with a link to the download page.
Just updated the official release version to Alpha 9.2, no new changes other than those listed above.
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Added a new blog post on changes coming in Alpha 9.21. I think that the new ammo management menu will be a welcome addition to the game, especially for new players.
http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/2015/09/24/alpha-9-21/ (http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/2015/09/24/alpha-9-21/)
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I've uploaded Beta 1.0 as an unofficial release, as always please report any bugs you discover in the new release.
Download here: http://www.armouredcommander.com/download/armcom_beta1_0.zip (http://www.armouredcommander.com/download/armcom_beta1_0.zip)
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I didn't try new unofficial beta version, but I noticed one small issue. You have ico file in game folder, but your icon isn't displayed. I checked it closely. Icon is included to armcon binary file, but it is not in use. I had recently same problem, and I would suggest you to use Resource Hacker to fix it.
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I didn't try new unofficial beta version, but I noticed one small issue. You have ico file in game folder, but your icon isn't displayed. I checked it closely. Icon is included to armcon binary file, but it is not in use. I had recently same problem, and I would suggest you to use Resource Hacker to fix it.
Thanks! That's been bugging me for a while but I never got around to fixing it. Just uploaded an updated version with icon working.
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Just made Beta 1.0 the default download. Now the game will also record essential info about your campaign and output it as a text file after your campaign is over. Example follows:
*** Armoured Commander Campaign Journal ***
Program Version: Beta 1.0
Campaign Started at 01:23PM on October 04, 2015
Campaign Name: Patton's Best
Unlimited Tank Selection: Off
Casual Commander Replacement: Off
Starting Tank: M4 Turret A "Blood & Guts"
Commander: Sgt. Joshua Laird
Gunner: Cpl. Dmitry Edwards
Loader: Pfc. Stephen Navarro
Driver: Pvt. Spencer Navarro
Asst. Driver: Pvt. Angelo Scott
******
July 27th, 1944: Cobra Breakout
Action Day:
Mission: Advance
Expected Resistance: Light
Battle encounter triggered at 7:45, Fields terrain
Joshua Laird was wounded, result: Serious Wound, Stunned
Stephen Navarro was wounded, result: Light Wound
Dmitry Edwards was wounded, result: Serious Wound, Stunned
Stephen Navarro was wounded, result: Light Wound, Stunned
Spencer Navarro was wounded, result: Light Wound, Stunned
Player tank knocked out, action day is over
Joshua Laird awarded new decotation: Purple Heart
Dmitry Edwards awarded new decotation: Purple Heart
Stephen Navarro awarded new decotation: Purple Heart
Spencer Navarro awarded new decotation: Purple Heart
New player tank: M4A3 Turret B "Cobra King"
******
July 28th, 1944: Coutances
No Action Today
******
July 29th, 1944: Countryside south of Coutances
No Action Today
******
July 30th, 1944: Avranches
No Action Today
******
July 31st, 1944: Countryside near Avranches
No Action Today
******
August 1st, 1944: Countryside south of Avranches
No Action Today
******
August 2nd, 1944: Rennes
No Action Today
******
August 3th, 1944: Countryside southwest of Rennes
Action Day:
Mission: Advance
Expected Resistance: Light
Battle encounter triggered at 8:30, Fields terrain
Campaign Over: Commander was killed in action.
As always please let me know of any bugs you come across. I suspect that the VP thresholds for rank promotion and decoration awards will need to be adjusted, but I haven't had time to do a full playthrough so suggestions on these would be very helpful!
Edit: Just noticed that there's a typo in the campaign journal, will fix in Beta 1.1!
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ArmCom will be the featured game in this week's Feedback Friday thread on the Roguelike Development subreddit. People will (hopefully) be downloading, playing, and offering their feedback on the game. If you have a Reddit account you can join in on the commenting, the thread will appear in the morning GMT on Friday October 9th at https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev (https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev)
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I didn't play beta version yet, because I think that in this game player need some / a lot of time to 'catch' into game; especially fresh, noobish player ;) and my playing time isn't so long.
Just some thoughts.
Did you think about gameplay documentation (more detailed than 'general tips')? ArmCom isn't traditional roguelike with 'gaining knowledge by YASDs' paradigm; your game is more like simulator so tutorial-like documentation could be... licit. And very helpful in first steps.
Minor issue about README.txt file. First - I don't know if it's intentional, but 'general tips' fragment is hidded; changelog takes a lot of space and I think that very few people scrolls/reads changelog to finally see these tips.
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I have an online manual at http://www.armouredcommander.com/manual.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/manual.html) as well as in-game help accessible via the F1 key. It's not an easy system to learn but hopefully the manual will help.
And the general tips in the README file are hopefully out of date; I will replace them with something better for the next release!
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in-game help accessible via the F1 key. It's not an easy system to learn but hopefully the manual will help.
Yup, I know it :) But I think this is more like 'encyclopedia' than 'help'. In-game help is lack of information about phases of turns, etc. Online manual is more that what I have in my mind, but would be good if you provide this in game archive as pdf or as standalone html with dependent files.
Btw, while in campaign map, text of topics and entries in in-game help is moved to the left. While in preparing screens, everything works.
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And the general tips in the README file are hopefully out of date; I will replace them with something better for the next release!
Yes, more comprehensive tips about tactics would be most welcome. I haven`t played a serious tank sim since M1 Tank Platoon on Amiga and that was a while ago.
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in-game help accessible via the F1 key. It's not an easy system to learn but hopefully the manual will help.
Yup, I know it :) But I think this is more like 'encyclopedia' than 'help'. In-game help is lack of information about phases of turns, etc. Online manual is more that what I have in my mind, but would be good if you provide this in game archive as pdf or as standalone html with dependent files.
Btw, while in campaign map, text of topics and entries in in-game help is moved to the left. While in preparing screens, everything works.
I'll do my best to have that ready before the final version of the game. Part of the problem is that it's changing so often!
The bug with the in-game help text alignment wasn't something I'd seen before, fixed in Beta 1.1, thanks very much!
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Feedback thread is live! https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/3o2l8r/feedback_friday_3_armoured_commander/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/3o2l8r/feedback_friday_3_armoured_commander/)
Latest version is Beta 1.2, which fixes a few minor bugs from 1.0
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Just uploaded Beta 1.4, as usual it includes bugfixes and interface improvements, as well as a new ability for enemy Armoured Cars that should make them more of a threat to the player tank.
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Just uploaded a brief blog post on the future of ArmCom at http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/ (http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/), I've copied it here for anyone interested in what's in store for the game:
The current version of ArmCom, Beta 1.5, appears to be fairly stable and is getting over a dozen new downloads per day. I'm really happy to see how many people are enjoying the game, and am encouraged by the amount of suggestions and requests for future features.
After fixing some of the more minor bugs over the past few weeks, my plan is to start a new Beta 2 version in which I can start adding a number of new features that, unfortunately, will break compatibility with previous saved games, simply because they introduce significant changes to the structure of the game. These include:
- New crew system with more character, detail, and flexibility. Crew will have more types of injuries, may need medical attention both in the tank and after the battle, and will be more flexible in terms of recruiting and swapping out crewmen to a reserve pool. KIA crewmen will be memorialized in the main menu screen.
- New campaign calendar; right now this is far by the flattest aspect to the game, and doesn't really make sense for how the game has evolved from its roots. The new calendar will focus on the most important events in the calendar, and will give the player a better sense of where they are within the campaign.
- New random events and optional missions on the campaign day map, which make moving across the map more interesting and give more choices to the player. These will take the form of radio transmissions from HQ giving the player the chance to fulfill a task for bonus VP.
- Overhead views of tanks and other vehicles, with an animated display of penetrating hits.
- Better 'tutorial' messages. I've already made changes to the start of the game that will make it easier and more clear for new players to understand how to set up their tank and crew, but these types of pop-up messages will become a standardized feature that can be disabled by more experienced players
- Better, more detailed season effects and colours on the campaign day map. Right now these are pretty basic, with seasons always starting on the same calendar day, but there's room for some more randomness in how seasons are triggered and displayed.
- Finally, the introduction of a new campaign and the beginning of more flexibility to add different types of campaigns in the future.
I figured it made most sense to start on all of these at once, since many of them will required players to start a new game anyways. So I don't anticipate releasing a new update to ArmCom for some time, but when I do, it will be an unstable test release with most if not all of these exciting new features in the game.
In the meantime, please keep enjoying ArmCom and keep those suggestions and bug reports coming in.
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The game is evolving so fast, it is great to see. I especially like the idea of more detailed crew information and the ability to swap crew around. Thanks again for all the effort you are putting in, I am enjoying the game very much.
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Glad to hear it! I thought it was time to work on some of these larger projects and implement them all at once. Hopefully it'll only keep getting better.
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Yup, your pace of work is impressive! When when I thought it was time to check out beta 1.0 it turned out that most recent version is beta 1.5... :)
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The main number just indicates saved game compatibility; a lot of 1.1 - 1.5 was just fixing minor but annoying bugs that players identified. I really should have adopted a more conservative version numbering system but I didn't know what I was doing when I started, so here we are!
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Really enjoying 1.5, I especially like the sound effects, they are perfect. I like the 8 bit retro sound, takes me back to the classic SSI sims.
Had some very intense encounters, had myself ducking a few times my tank was fired on. It's heartbreaking to follow a crew through tough encounters and wounds only to have them all lost with one shot from a hidden ATG.
no crashes or issues, very stable.
The interface is very smooth, easy to play without having to hunt and peck for awkward keystrokes. Using the Enter or Spacebar for most tasks is great vs say the END key which is a pain to use on my laptop keyboard.
The only suggestions I have are mostly cosmetic.
1) The text line that shows the Sherman's current position or movement ie. Stopped, Hull down etc. Maybe this can be changed so that when the
Sherman has achieved Hull Down the text is shown in Green? It's kind of hidden in the grey and maybe showing Hull Down in green will encourage
new players as to the importance for survival and also serve as an easy reminder that we have achieved it during the heat of battle.
2) I like that terrain the enemy vehicles occupy is shown next to the icons. Is there a way to have an icon next to it that shows it's facing? maybe a "< > V " type thing. Could help quicken the process in deciding whether to shoot at that Panther if it's facing away or backup for the hull down if it's facing towards.
3) For the ATG, the symbol is an X. The X reminds me of the Nato icon for infantry. Maybe something more like an "Y" symbol?
Really enjoying it, thanks again for the hard work.
JC
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1) The text line that shows the Sherman's current position or movement ie. Stopped, Hull down etc. Maybe this can be changed so that when the
Sherman has achieved Hull Down the text is shown in Green? It's kind of hidden in the grey and maybe showing Hull Down in green will encourage
new players as to the importance for survival and also serve as an easy reminder that we have achieved it during the heat of battle.
2) I like that terrain the enemy vehicles occupy is shown next to the icons. Is there a way to have an icon next to it that shows it's facing? maybe a "< > V " type thing. Could help quicken the process in deciding whether to shoot at that Panther if it's facing away or backup for the hull down if it's facing towards.
3) For the ATG, the symbol is an X. The X reminds me of the Nato icon for infantry. Maybe something more like an "Y" symbol?
1) Can do, will add in the next version
2) I will give that a try and see how it looks. My only concern is if the encounter hex map gets too confusing with too many symbols being displayed at once. My goal is to keep it as clear as possible, but I'll see how it works in practice.
3) Problem with this is that the character for the enemy unit has to work no matter what its facing is. A "Y" would kind of make it look like the gun is facing downward, which is true in many cases but not all. I will try out some alternate characters, however, and see how they look.
Thanks for the feedback!
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Just curious and maybe I missed this in a previous discussion but might there be a future possibility showing the stats for crews that were lost on previous campaigns?
I know I can see high scores and date of KIA but it would be very cool to see how that crew did up to that point, with types of kills, awards, etc. Kind of a memorial but also a way to judge how your current crew is stacking up the achievements of others.
Also in the same way we can choose to start in other tank types maybe a choice to start at a later date in the campaign, could simulate replacements and they're experiences later in the war.
Just thinking out loud.
JC
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After reading some more into things using the readme text (duh) I see that the Combat Journal has been introduced. This is pretty much what I was thinking in my previous post. I guess it's necessary to copy the journal file and save it under another name because when you start a new campaign it starts to overwrite the previous crews actions.
Very cool feature.
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I guess it's necessary to copy the journal file and save it under another name because when you start a new campaign it starts to overwrite the previous crews actions.
Hmm - when you finish a campaign, either because of the commander going out of action or reaching the end of the calendar, the game should save your combat journal as a text file, stamped with the current time and date, so older journals should not be overwritten. There's currently no way to view the journal unless you end your campaign, but that will change in the future.
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My Bad, I made the error thinking it was my current tank on campaign because the tank names were similar. Also I changed the crew names at some point during the first campaign and they didn't match the ones shown at the start which confused me. All makes sense now, and it's a very cool feature.
Had my first main gun broken result and had to leave the battle group for the day. It felt like I was letting the rest of the team down.
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Had my first main gun broken result and had to leave the battle group for the day. It felt like I was letting the rest of the team down.
I wonder how they fared! In the future the rest of the units in your battlegroup will be individually tracked, so you'll get a report on just how many of them survived the day.
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That would be great, as of right now the player has little concern for the other friendlies other than losing some VP and maybe some fire support. However it is fun to rip up MG and LW units knowing they won't be taking out friendly infantry squads.
It does make for some interesting moments when you have to consider balancing keeping your tank safe (using smoke grenades, finding hull down cover, firing at ATG, etc) vs supporting the infantry units that are part of the battle group.
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Copied from my dev blog post of today:
I’ve uploaded a preview build of Beta 2.0; it doesn’t include all the new features that I had hoped to include, but I think it’s a marked improvement over the Beta 1 branch.
I’m particularly interested in feedback regarding the campaign day missions and the new procedure for Counterattack mission days. I’ve tested everything a little but there’s bound to be bugs, so please report any crashes or other strangeness to me.
Direct download link is here: [link removed]
Edit: Official Beta 2.0 is now available for download: http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
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My Roguelike experience being relatively limited, I didn’t expect much when I picked this up, but boy was I blown away. It can be unforgiving, yes, but that’s part of the fun. You’ve created a historically accurate roguelike that’s accessible (quite a feat) and entertaining; it’s detailed without being clunky. And, of course, the game play is brilliant.
On the most recent patch:
Has the call-up roll got the axe? It seems your crew fights in every battle. (Not a complaint, I’m just not getting as far into the far into the year as I used to)
The new counterattack mission seems cool. The enemy taking ground does give the feeling that you are actually helping to repel a significantly sized offensive. Ultimately, I played it like the old version—sitting and awaiting attacks. Am I doing it wrong?
The new in-battle missions are great. The transmissions from HQ are awesome, and the other random events (ammo trucks, ground being taken/re-taken, etc.) really add something to the atmosphere! Any additions to these mechanics in the form of different missions/events would further enhance the experience.
In general:
The 8.8cm Flak 18 (most famously, though incorrectly, known as the Flak 88) would make a great addition to the AT gun lineup. With a production figure of over 21,000 (compared to the 2,100 of the Pak 43), it saw relatively widespread employment in the anti-tank role, including during a number of famous battles on the Western Front. As an 88L, it could strike fear into tankers in game much as its iconic counterpart did in real life.
Random events between battles might add something to the campaign interface. Some could just be for flavor (A la “Hundreds of bombers passed over in formation just as we were finishing breakfast”), while others might provide a bonus like a few extra HVAP shells, and others could in the future be tied to crew personalities. An occasional ambush (which would send you straight to the tactical interface with a panzer to your side or rear) could keep tankers on their toes!
I don’t know if it’s plausible, but representing the various field modifications seen on Shermans during the war would be cool. Sandbags could provide protection from panzerfausts, while appliqué could give a little boost to the tank’s protection against AP rounds. Both would be at the cost of increased weight, leading to a negative modifier of movement roles and increased chance of bogging. On historical usage, appliqué armor in the form of spare track sections and salvaged German plate was relatively common, though its hard to verify exact figures. Sandbags piled on the hull were found effective in pre-detonating the shaped charge rounds of panzerschrecks and panzerfausts, so much so that they became nearly standard for tanks of the 14th armored.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the time I’ve spent with Armoured Commander and wish you the best as you continue to develop it!
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Has the call-up roll got the axe?
Yes, from Beta 2.0 onward, the calendar has been edited down to 68 days, and every day is an action day. I've tried to include the most important battles of the campaign while not leaving too many long gaps between days in the campaign calendar. I think it plays a lot better, and should keep things interesting. I went through the activation chances and on average a player would see about 60 days of battle over the course of the campaign, so this is actually more than average action.
The new counterattack mission seems cool. The enemy taking ground does give the feeling that you are actually helping to repel a significantly sized offensive. Ultimately, I played it like the old version—sitting and awaiting attacks. Am I doing it wrong?
You can of course continue to play as before, but you should know that the encounter enemy resistance level is based partially on that of adjacent map areas, so if you have a Heavy resistance area next to you, you're going to see more Heavy battles. In the future, moving around will sometimes be required, as you shouldn't get cut off from the rest of your defending forces. Resupply will be affected by this as well.
Any additions to these mechanics in the form of different missions/events would further enhance the experience.
Now that the mission system is in place, it's easy to add new types of mission in the future. Random events that let you choose how to proceed (eg. "You spot what looks like an abandoned fuel dump. Do you investigate it further, or leave it be?) would also be a positive improvement, I think. They would not show up too often, but enough to break up the monotony of battle encounters all day.
The 8.8cm Flak 18 (most famously, though incorrectly, known as the Flak 88) would make a great addition to the AT gun lineup.
Definitely a great addition to the game. I think for the moment I've made an error with the stats for the in-game Pak 43, since it's listed as having a 360 mount, whereas it was the Flak 18 that had that mount. I'll have to differentiate the two guns better in a future update.
I don’t know if it’s plausible, but representing the various field modifications seen on Shermans during the war would be cool. Sandbags could provide protection from panzerfausts, while appliqué could give a little boost to the tank’s protection against AP rounds.
Improvised armour is definitely on the longer-term to-do list, as are other modifications such as hedge cutters.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the time I’ve spent with Armoured Commander and wish you the best as you continue to develop it!
Thanks very much! Hope to have the official Beta 2.0 version uploaded soon, after that I'll work on some more cosmetic improvements before doing another big update that adds more stuff!
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Ah I figured it out. The PaK 43 in the game is on a cruciform carriage. So as an AT gun pretty similar to the Flak 18 except it's a 88LL rather than an 88L gun.
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Thanks for responding!
Equipped with the knowledge you provided, the new counterattack mission really did seem more engaging and dynamic. A brilliant addition. My one question would be: Is there any incentive to "hold the line," or are we cowards off the hook? ;D That you can easily add in-battle missions is great to hear--I can't wait to see what you come up with. It'll be awesome to watch the Flak 18 fighting beside its big brother in the cruciform carriage Pak 43. Anyways, I eagerly look forward to the new patch. Thank you for your work! :)
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My one question would be: Is there any incentive to "hold the line," or are we cowards off the hook? ;D
Right now the only thing at stake is increased threat to your tank, but in the future I hope to change this. Re-positioning during a counterattack just means you're trying to better place yourself to help defend against the attackers. In some cases you might be urgently needed as reinforcements for allied forces operating nearby, who could use some firepower. Actually in the future I might add an extra level of detail so you can get a sense of our your allies are holding up across the line. That way the mission would be even more dynamic, as you have to fight a flexible defense across the line.
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The official release version Beta 2.0 has now been uploaded here: http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html (http://www.armouredcommander.com/downloads.html)
I've also updated the online manual to reflect changes in the newest version. Manual now located here: http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/online-manual/ (http://www.armouredcommander.com/blog/online-manual/)
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When I get the chance I'd like to add a full AAR, but for now just a quick and rather vague bug report. My tank having been knocked out in the explosion-kills-all-occupants manner, I exited. To my puzzlement, I found the same campaign still resumable when I booted up AC later in the day. Hitting C to continue, I was greeted with the names of the now deceased crew who were each being given a purple-heart (with the "posthumously" tag, of course). Then, despite commander replacement being set to realistic, I received, well, a replacement commander.
Edit: Just to add that my replacement commander proceeded to receive the Distinguished Service Cross for "extraordinary heroism" despite not yet having engaged in combat. Lucky guy!
Edit 2: Later, a message displayed spontaneously halfway through an encounter awarding me 2 VP for capturing a zone, despite enemy units still being in the vicinity. Subsequent encounters are terminating randomly and early, with VP awarded before I've destroyed all enemy units. These are not things I've encountered before, so this particular campaign might be in some way corrupted.
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It must have had trouble erasing the saved game, which should happen when you finish a campaign. If you continue that game later on, all bets are off, since variables won't be reset properly at the end of that day.
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The diagnosis seems spot on: A re-install, for 2.03, and everything runs perfectly :)
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Great! The big mystery is why it was unable to erase the saved game. Might have to build in a pre-check for loading saved games in the future.
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I'm finally doing a full playtghrough of the entire campaign, noting rough areas and making minor fixes as I go. Doing fairly well so far, got the Bronze Star!
(http://i.imgur.com/J0JQVmB.png)
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As a minor suggestion, how about tracking the stuff destroyed by the player and friendlies separately on this screen? Also tracking tanks/SPGs separately from lighter, less dangerous vehicles.
(http://i.imgur.com/sfD6crdh.jpg)
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Should be possible to add this in the next major update. It'll break saved game compatibility, so I'd rather save it for an update that will be doing that anyway.
Any thoughts on the new campaign calendar system?
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How you've reduced it to 68 guaranteed combat days instead of months of random chance? I think I like it. It makes things a bit more predictable while the random chance of the daily map and random chance of battles keeps plenty of Roguelike Randomness. It also meant I finally managed to get into a counter-attack scenario.
The fixed calendar system might also make producing alternative campaigns/calendars easier. Still hoping for for Canada's Best and Panov's Best one day (though Panovs is probably a far off thing, given the modifications that would be required for the Eastern Front).
I also like the reduction in size of both the daily map and the map sectors. Given how brutal fights can be, less individual fights is not necessarily a bad thing. Most of my games rarely last until September and far too many end in the first 1-3 days. I mostly blame myself for that, I wonder if my playstyle is too passive/cautious, I often just hunker down and take opportunistic shots while cursing my 75mm AP's impotence rather than try using my movement options more to get myself side-shots on enemy armor.
It has been a while since I played ArmCom (last version in my folder before 2.3 was Alpha7rc2) and I'm really loving all the additions since then. Keep up the good work!
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Yeah I think Canada's Best comes first, since there's not much new to be added. I think the next big addition is overhead views of the player tank, then more detail on friendly forces, and somewhere in there I can shuffle things around to make alternate campaigns possible. The basic infrastructure is already in place: info for the Patton's Best campaign is already loaded from a separate file, but there's a couple things that need to be changed to make it more flexible.
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I can't keep up with your updates, you are moving so fast! :)
Great job though, you are pushing PB far beyond what the cardboard would have ever been able to achieve. So great to see such a niche title get so much attention.
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Thanks! I'd like to think that the game has far outgrown what was in PB, but I guess it'll always be part of ArmCom's game DNA.
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Quick bug report: On a fresh install of b2.05, movement times displayed on the left side menu are consistent with the new standard (i.e. 30, 45, 60); however, the (y) or (n) dialog box that appears when a move is selected still uses the old times, and indeed the time subtracted (from the time left in the day) is the old number not the new. The map shortening/move-time lengthening seems a good change, by the way :).
I like the zoom-to-battle animation. It helps contextualize the interface you see next.
The overhead diagrams of the tanks are great. Is there a reason why the m4a3(75)W has a shorter gun than the plain m4a3 (and all other 75mm armed tanks for that matter)?
Gratuitous ask: (It would be great to have the m4a1(76)w, just for completeness :P, as many of the early Sherman 76's deployed were of that model)
Keep doing whatever you're doing - a great game keeps getting better ;D
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Fans of this game, or, perhaps, Rev Sudasana himself, might find this website interesting:
http://www.theshermantank.com/
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Excellent resource, thanks very much for posting it here!
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Just had a hidden tank take a shot at me. I thought if an enemy tank was hidden it could not fire at my tank and I cannot fire at them?
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Excellent resource, thanks very much for posting it here!
Well, here is hoping it positively influences the game a little. :D
It definitely has a point, IMO, about the Sherman's undeserved reputation in popular culture.
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Just had a hidden tank take a shot at me. I thought if an enemy tank was hidden it could not fire at my tank and I cannot fire at them?
Perhaps either you or the other tank moved after it went hidden? Either of these would make it lose its hidden status, and afterward it might have not been spotted, making it Unknown which means that you can't attack it, but it can attack you.
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Not sure how to post images to this forum but from the screen shot I took it doesn't look as if my tank or the enemy tank moved. My tank was stopped and hull down.
The sequence was as follows:
Unknown Tank is now hidden.
Hidden Tank doesn't appear to do anything.
(my tank was firing at light weapons infantry)
Hidden Tank doesn't appear to do anything.
Hidden Tank is hit with smoke from friendly units.
No results from spotting attempts.
(my tank was firing at light weapons infantry)
Light Weapons infantry shifts it's position.
Friendly Sector Control Lost.
Hidden Tank fires at you!
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That's disturbing! Will go over the code and try to figure out what's happening. Unfortunately the system for unit status has been layered up over time rather than being designed at all once. I bet something has slipped in that allowed this to happen. Will report back what I find.
Thanks very much for this!
Edit: You can send a screenshot to the armouredcommander gmail account, that might help.
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Quick bug report: On a fresh install of b2.05, movement times displayed on the left side menu are consistent with the new standard (i.e. 30, 45, 60); however, the (y) or (n) dialog box that appears when a move is selected still uses the old times, and indeed the time subtracted (from the time left in the day) is the old number not the new.
This is fixed in b2.06, will be uploaded later today.
The overhead diagrams of the tanks are great. Is there a reason why the m4a3(75)W has a shorter gun than the plain m4a3 (and all other 75mm armed tanks for that matter)?
I'm not sure! I'm basing it off of the Patton's Best tank cards, where that model has a shorter barrel. I'll do some research and make fixes if required.
It would be great to have the m4a1(76)w, just for completeness :P, as many of the early Sherman 76's deployed were of that model
(http://i.imgur.com/yeIS3DB.png)
The M4A1(76)W is actually already in the game, but I had only activated a later version which was quite rare and available only from October onward! It will be now be available from the start of the campaign from b2.06 onward, and if you choose unlimited tank selection, you can start in it from the beginning.
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I have more time finally, so I can check latest beta now :)
Crew skills and activation levels, wooow!
One minor issue. When I choose skill, prompt for confirmation appears. This y/N looks like case-sensitive and... yes, it is case sensitive, but 'N' reacts when 'n' is pressed, not 'N'. I think this capitalized n is for indication that options is 'default' as in many games.
After one moment I relized that crew skills are awesome, but some of them are un-flavourish, rather for fantasy or just action setting than for tan commander game.
[alt] in Main Gun Ammunition Menu is a bit counter-intuitive for me. It would be more comfortable if clicking [alt] would switch between un/loading ammo.
On campaign map... One more interface issue. Switching areas by [tab] is a bit weird. For example, I started 'surrounded' by 4 areas.
11223344
11SSSS44
11SSSS44
s - starting area
1 - first area
2 - second
3 - third
4 - fourth
In which order they switches? 2-3-1-4. Maybe would be better using arrows (left/right) instead of [tab]?
And last thing for now - it's strange for me if area-under-mouse is descripted instead selected, highlighted area. I know advantages of this solution, but seriously, I ever thought that this description in left-down panel is about highlighted area :)
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One minor issue. When I choose skill, prompt for confirmation appears. This y/N looks like case-sensitive and... yes, it is case sensitive, but 'N' reacts when 'n' is pressed, not 'N'. I think this capitalized n is for indication that options is 'default' as in many games.
This was a known issue; I've nowgone through an enabled capital-letter input throughout the game for the next major version (Beta 2.1). The engine always treats different-case letter input as distinct, so this took a bit of time but was well worth it!
After one moment I relized that crew skills are awesome, but some of them are un-flavourish, rather for fantasy or just action setting than for tan commander game.
As much as I am trying to stick close to the history with ArmCom, in the end it's about fun and exciting narrative rather than a strict simulation. In real life, a book in your pocket will not save you from mortal injury, but in the narrative world it makes sense to have something that can save your crewman from death. Luckily, if a player is unhappy with these skills they can choose not to buy them for their crew.
[alt] in Main Gun Ammunition Menu is a bit counter-intuitive for me. It would be more comfortable if clicking [alt] would switch between un/loading ammo.
Changed in 2.1; works much better, thanks for the suggestion!
On campaign map... One more interface issue. Switching areas by [tab] is a bit weird.
I think I can improve this so that the tab key moves the selection clockwise around the player location. I've already changed the procedure for determining which nodes are linked, so this will be a good change to make as well.
And last thing for now - it's strange for me if area-under-mouse is descripted instead selected, highlighted area. I know advantages of this solution, but seriously, I ever thought that this description in left-down panel is about highlighted area :)
What I could do is have the description change to the highlighted node when the player is in that mode, but I'm worried that it will become a little confusing. I might add a highlight under the mouse cursor that disappears when a map area is selected; let me try a few things and get back to you.
Thanks as always for the feedback! Glad you're enjoying it, having seen it grow up so much these past few months.
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I have been having a little trouble with the "rescue" missions. Every time I've run into them (only twice, for the record), the rescue destination is too far away for me to reach in the allotted time.
Can't wait for the Firefly, by the way! :D
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I'll try to fix the rescue missions in the next release, although I might end up just removing them altogether since they are so similar to Capture missions anyway.
The Firefly has been fun to play! The long range capability is a big change from the 75mm gun. I haven't had very much time to work on ArmCom recently, but hope to get a big chunk finished over the holiday.
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It is a pleasure to discover the newest developments on ArmCom. I want to make a Let's Play on YT about this.
PS: I want a German campaign! What about the tough fights on the Eastern Front in 1944? Or maybe some action in the Normandy? GUDERIANS BEST 8)
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I've used Open Broadcaster Software and it's worked perfectly for me every time. I run my videos through Handbrake first though to decrease upload time to Youtube.
I assume you already know about the Guderians Best module since you mentioned it! The next version is really going to start opening things up in terms of creating new campaign modules, starting with the Canadians.
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Is there a way to start ArmCom under Linux? With Wine it was too slow after a short time. I am no Linux crack I must tell.
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Running from source should works good. Only what you need is python interpreter (2.7 if IIRC) installed.
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Is there a way to start ArmCom under Linux? With Wine it was too slow after a short time. I am no Linux crack I must tell.
You should be able to run the source Python script under Linux. You'll need to install libtcod and pygame first, though, and I don't have any experience in doing this.
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:) Does anyone know how to execute the source?
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Rev_Sudasana should know more than I, but if I'm writing first, I try to help you.
Check if you have python interpreter installed already (python is preinstalled on most of major linuxes). If not, install it (I'm not the linux guy, but instructions here (http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/install/linux/)). Later install pygame ('Unix distribution' paragraph here (http://pygame.org/download.shtml)). Next you have to put your libtcod files (download on github, official source disappears from web IIRC, but there are a lot of forks/mirrors (https://bitbucket.org/libtcod/libtcod/downloads)) into game (source) folder. I think that these files are: libtcodpy.py, libtcod.so, SDLlib.so. Also you (probably) need to get data+asset files from 'general' standalone archive, so terminal8x12_armcom.png, data.zip (?) and data folder.
I'm not sure if whole ArmCom code is compatible with Linux, but... You can try. Post tracebacks if you encounter any problems :)
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Sounds a bit difficult. So, yesterday I have tried Manjaro Linux - which runs very fast on my T61 laptop. I think I'll have to stay with Win 7.
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SOLUTION: HOW TO RUN ARMCOM UNDER LINUX
1. Download libtcod from the website:
https://bitbucket.org/libtcod/libtcod/downloads/libtcod-1.5.1-linux.tar.gz
or for x64:
https://bitbucket.org/libtcod/libtcod/downloads/libtcod-1.5.1-linux64.tar.gz
extract libcod into the game directory. Change the name into "libcod" to simplify it. Then change the armcom.py in the "src"-directory:
##### Libraries #####
import sys
sys.path.append("/INSERTYOURPATH/libtcod/")
import libtcodpy as libtcod # The Doryen Library
You don't have to arrange all paths. Simply copy the content of the "src"-folder into the main folder of ArmCom. Also copy the "libtcod.so" from "libtcod" into the main folder.
2. Change to the ArmCom folder and run it via the terminal command: python2 armcom.py
Thx to the guys at de.manjaro.org for their kind help.
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Is there any way I can add something to the source python script to make this even easier? For example, add a command line option to set the libtcod path?
Thanks for figuring this out, I will add a guide to running ArmCom under Linux to the website and give you and manjaro.org credit.
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First: Happy New Year! 8)
Second: I don't know if you can add something to the script. The directory is unique for every single user - as far as I can see. I have asked in the German forum. Link: https://de.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=4893.0
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Is there any way I can add something to the source python script to make this even easier? For example, add a command line option to set the libtcod path?
I don't know if you have to enter WHOLE path to libtcod, maybe it's possible to make it relative just as
"/libtcod/" instead of "/INSERTYOURPATH/libtcod/". If it's not possible, you could check user's operating system and later use or %CURDIR% for Windows and PWD for Linux.
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Hey there! I've been playing a ton of 2.06 and using old Patton's Best documents for reference. I'm very fond of this game but (like anyone who plays and makes games, I suppose) I have some criticisms and suggestions for improvement on top of some bug reports and questions.
Found/Possible bugs
- If there is 1 or less to hit, and I get a 2, it counts as a Critical Hit and kills the enemy.
- I have had Days where the Resistance will be "Heavy" and then every sector I check is Light or empty. It might be because I'm sticking to roads, but even when there are farmhouses or forests this still happens.
- Sometimes enemy units will Shift Positions and end up overlapping. This wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't for the fact that tabbing through enemies does not give their description in the little message box under the combat visualization window.
- I was asked to capture Marshland, which I cannot enter.
- Sometimes after battles (I haven't figured out what the conditions are for this) I will have a crewman who will be labelled with an open or closed hatch who cannot spot at all (even if they should be able to, given their current action). Changing the Hatch status fixes this; not sure if changing the Order does.
- I have destroyed all resistance with my starting attack, but then still had to pass a turn (and then have random encounters rolled for, which may include an enemy unit joining the fight, continuing the encounter). Not a big deal, but it does mean that the message doesn't mean too much (other than "wow!", of course :P).
Questions
- I can't switch between Direct or Area Fire. I assumed I'd be able to pick one for HE and get different to-hit results or something (or, at the very least, be able to Area Fire upon unspotted units), but I cannot. I assume this is by design, and area/direct fire just refers to smoke/gas shells having an easier to-hit table?
- Does anything happen when my tank is Spotted by an enemy light vehicle? I was under the impression that my tank always has a 5% chance to be fired at by enemy units (up to 20% if I attacked them that turn).
- As it stands I have no idea what Sector Control is supposed to do. I assumed it would increase/decrease the chance of Friendly Actions, but Patton's Best rules do not suggest that this is true (or that it has any effect at all).
Criticisms
- As far as I can tell, all of Patton's Best rolls are d100s. The 2d6 conversion isn't really getting in the way or anything but I do like my d100s. :P Is this a sort of copyright-avoidance thing, and/or to encourage yourself to build your own game as much as possible?
- I really like the idea of Rescue missions but they are often difficult or impossible to reach in time given random placement on the map. Perhaps limiting the distance from the player platoon's current location could improve things?
- It's a bit hard to tell what (if anything) you're supposed to do during a Counterattack. Is there ever a reason to leave your map location? instead of repeatedly Awaiting Enemy Attack?
- Counterattacks also feel like the longest phases in the game. I'm not sure if this is because not enough time passes between attacks, or if it's just because combat phases generally take longer when you've found cover and any larger vehicles approach to attack and you're as cautious as I am. :P
- Perhaps most significantly, I feel like there's a bit of a "rock and a hard place" problem in the game's structure with Strict crew control. Armoured Commander is largely composed of dead-or-not possibilities, which is realistic and enjoyably tense, especially given how the player can mitigate many of those risks both by better play and by exchanging combat effectiveness for safety. However, many of the risk-taking choices present an unfortunate problem with the 89-day-long(!) campaign - there are many situations where completely reasonable combat actions could still result in a game over, well into the (extremely long) campaign. I have opened the hatch with my Commander to help destroy an enemy tank (the last enemy unit on the board), only to have my Commander killed by enemy small-arms fire after the attack, despite the absence of "nearby" (on-the-board) infantry. This ended a 9-day run, and the only way I could have avoided it would have been to take more crew safety perks or to ignore the possibility of using the Commander to assist other Crew rolls. At any rate, I am playing through a game with Casual rules for the Crew, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I believe the structure of the game with Strict tank selection and Casual crew works well with the "high score" setup of the game.
Suggestions
- Unsure if you're interested in adding in-game text that could further obfuscate the rules, but the game would become more atmospheric if "destruction via friendly action" were put into more detail (even if it were just random choices per enemy type in a hex on that turn.) "Enemy Tank destroyed by friendly Tank Destroyer fire; Friendly field guns failed to penetrate Unidentified Enemy Tank; Friendly artillery missed MG squad;" etc. it'd be more opaque than "friendly action" is right now, but it'd be cool to read. (It'd also be nice to see Advance Fire's effects through this text; ie "Advance Fire destroys enemy squad" or what not. That would make the benefits of Advance Fire clearer to newer players.)
- I would diversify the possible random events, including deadlier effects. As it stands there is almost always the possibility of instant death, and I would be interested to see this extended to mines and enemy artillery. (Related suggestions below.)
- It seems strange to me that artillery can only kill infantry squads and not tanks (or, of course, the player tank). Of course, all of this would increase the instances in which the player and/or their tank/crewmen could instantly die, but it would not necessarily hinder Casual mode.
- I notice that Panzerfaust attacks are not currently in the game. Perhaps they could be worked into giving Light Arms squads a way to pose a threat to your tank beyond attacking exposed crew members.
- If Sector Control has no effect on the game at the moment, it would be nice if Sector control was more relevant. Changing the aggressiveness of enemy units based on sector control (especially if infantry are given attacks that can threaten your tank) and/or modifying the Random Action board would be my suggestion.
- Related to the Panzerfaust suggestion, it would be interesting if excessive Sector Control by Germany would open the possibility that Light Arms squads engaging in short-range attacks on your tank (ie, satchel charges), instead of simply "peppering it with small arms fire". (Perhaps attempts towards this would generally fail, and/or possibly result in the squad being destroyed by allied fire? Many possibilities here.)
Thanks a lot for reading all of that, and best of luck developing this awesome game further!
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Thanks for this! I have one general response and then I'll address your points one by one:
ArmCom was indeed started as an adaptation of Patton's Best, but it didn't take long before I wanted to develop the scope of the game further. I like to think that it's its own game now, and that while having experience with Patton's Best will help, there's a lot about ArmCom that doesn't fit into the system of the board game any more. Have you taken a look at the online manual page? It's still incomplete, but might be helpful.
Bugs
- I originally kept this in to always give the player a chance at a critical hit, but I'll change it so that the shot must be possible to get a critical hit
- That's just a matter of chance; even on Heavy resistance days there's a chance of light resistance, and there's always a chance of having no encounter after capturing an area
- I found this bug too, and hopefully it's fixed in Beta 3
- This was a bug with all mission types; fixed in Beta 3
- Not sure why this is happening; spot ability should be re-calculated at the start of every battle encounter. I'll do some testing and check it out.
- I think it's still good to walk the player through what's happening, otherwise the flow of the battle can quickly become confusing. Using arty and advancing fire is a tactic choice, and the benefits of making this choice should be clear to the player when they happen.
Questions
- You can only switch between direct and area fire with HE, and only before you start to fire. If you've maintained RoF, you can't switch modes. I'll do a write-up on the to-hit calculations for the manual eventually, but with area fire you have a much better chance to hit at medium and long ranges, but the dice roll modifiers are applied to the to-kill roll instead, so you've more likely to pin rather than destroy the target.
- Any other AT fire on your tank while an enemy scout car is Spotting your tank gets a -1 bonus to hit. This modifier is listed in the to-hit roll display when such an attack happens.
- Sector control is a bit weird, and it might be something that I simply remove in the future. The number of sectors controlled applies a modifier to friendly attacks, and enemy units cannot spawn in a friend-controlled sector. You're right though, it's quite unclear what they do, so it's something I'll have to figure out for Beta 3.
Criticisms
- So the d100 scores and modifiers in PB are actually all pre-calculated odds from the Advanced Squad Leader system. If you look up to-hit rolls and modifiers for ASL, and calculate the odds of success on 2D6, you come up with the percentile scores in the Patton's Best charts. When I realized this I decided to make just about everything in ArmCom use a 2D6 system. This is because the odds of 2D6 results are not linear, but produce a pyramid-shaped 'bell curve' centered on 7. When you start stacking multiple modifiers, their effect on the final chance of success doesn't calculate the same if you use a 2D6 system versus d100. In any case, with ArmCom the game calculates everything for the player, so there's no need to simplify things into tables.
- In Beta 3, all mission locations will be maximum two map nodes away from the player's current position.
- Counterattacks are changed too in Beta 3. The actual resistance level you face in a Counterattack battle is determined by the level of adjacent map nodes, so if you're next to a Heavy node it might help to reposition yourself. In Beta 3, however, you'll be forced to move if you are cur off from friendly forces, so moving around a bit will be helpful.
- With Counterattack you're fighting a lot more during the day. You always get a bug bonus to start Hull Down and ambushing your enemy, however, so make the most of it! There's not a lot of Counterattack days in the calendar, either.
- Strict Commander Replacement was something I added to provide the option of playing with permadeath for those who wanted it. If you want to play through an entire campaign, it makes sense to choose Casual and just replace your Commander as needed, but just as in history, crew death in ArmCom can be sudden and unexpected. I don't think it's ever unfair, however, since the player is aware of all the dangers they face. There's always a risk in every action, the key is to balance risk and reward in how much you expose your crew to danger in order to complete their mission.
Suggestions
- The suggestion to flesh out Friendly Action is very well-received. The way you describe it is definitely something I've been thinking of: making game messages more narrative in tone, even if they don't add anything materially to the game. It's on my to-do list, anyway.
- There's a huge scope for random events in the game, but I'm not sure how much I want to add to this incarnation of the game. More on that later.
- Arty affecting only infantry is a hold-over from Patton's Best. I think I'll leave it for now, however, since losing tanks is a huge VP hit.
- Aha - Panzerfaust attacks are indeed in the game! It's a random event, but there has to be an infantry squad in close range armed with a PF for the event to trigger. Be glad you haven't been on the receiving end of one of these. It's not pretty.
- Regarding sector control: I might just end up removing it altogether; especially since the player can't do anything directly to affect it. It's nice to abstractly model what's going on around the player, but if it has a significant impact on the game and is totally outside of player control, it can get frustrating.
Anyway, thanks again for your comments! I should mention that I have a to-do list of major features for ArmCom that is slowly getting shorter, but once I have everything on that list implemented I'm going to be shifting the game into a maintenance / bug-fixing mode. Hopefully all the major stuff will be done in 1-2 months, and then I'll keep working on polishing the rough corners of the game for a while.
After that, however, I'm planning on starting ArmCom 2, which is going to break away completely from the model of Patton's Best to become its own game system. I've learned a ton over the past year, and want to start from the ground up on a new tank commander roguelike. I'll keep supporting ArmCom 1, and if someone wants to fork the project to develop it further they are more than welcome to!
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Thanks for the response, and good luck on both of these projects. I look forward to Beta 3!
PS: As a final note on my own experience, I've quit playing for now, though I got to September 15th, 1944 with the Casual rules. This is partially because I found the campaign a bit repetitive by that point (no special events being the cause, I suppose? I also poured hours a day into it, mind you) and partially because I got myself hooked on WoT again.
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After that, however, I'm planning on starting ArmCom 2, which is going to break away completely from the model of Patton's Best to become its own game system. I've learned a ton over the past year, and want to start from the ground up on a new tank commander roguelike.
This is great to hear! Amazing how far it's come already, and I'm sure the next one will be even better :D
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Aaaand congratulations, ArmCom just got another mention in RPS (https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/01/08/the-flare-path-simple-pleasures) ;D
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Aaaand congratulations, ArmCom just got another mention in RPS (https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/01/08/the-flare-path-simple-pleasures) ;D
!
Tim was very kind to focus on the exciting and fun parts of the game rather than the persistent bugs and crashes, most of which, however, should be fixed in the next major version.
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Great to hear you`re planning a sequel - think this should happen more in roguelike world, instead of people endlessly tweaking one game which sometimes is counterproductive.
Bit off topic, but if anybody fancy watching a rather exciting "live" tank battle, there`s one going on at battlefront.com community (http://community.battlefront.com/topic/121389-cm-final-blitzkrieg-axis-attack-beta-battle-report/?page=1) (devs responsible for uber-realistic Command Mission series). Stumbled upon it kind of accidentally but now I`m hooked - it`s two experienced "grogs" duking it out in play-by-mail mode for the new CM beta - sounds dour, yet is anything but :P
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Just compiled a preview version of Beta 3.0 for the intrepid and patient. As will all preview versions, there's likely to be bugs and crashes, so please do report these either here or via email and I'll do my best to fix them for the official release version.
Download here: [removed - see official release]
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Beta 3.0 is now the default download on the ArmCom download page. Caught two serious crashes in the preview release thanks to player feedback!
Note that the online manual still needs to be updated to reflect new and changed features in the game.
Edit: Fixed a crash that occurred when replacing tank crew, current version is now 3.01. If you started a campaign you can update, savegame is compatible.
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I've made a couple updates and the current Beta 3.04 version appears fairly stable! If you'd experienced crashes earlier, now might be a good time to give ArmCom another try. At present I'm working on adding a campaign map for the Canada's Best campaign:
(http://i.imgur.com/V68KqBb.png)
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wow. this is incredibly awesome and in depth. I am encountering a bit of a bug. Even if I set the game to fullscreen, it will not start in full screen. And I cannot switch to full screen mode within the game if the setting starts as on. Meaning the only way I can play in fullscreen is if I turn fullscreen option off, quit the game, then restart the game, and switch fullscreen back on. If I quit and restart after that, the game starts in a window and I must do the whole thing over again. Also, the resolution settings seem to have no effect.
Using winxp sp 3 32 bit.
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Thanks!
I do happen to have a WinXP machine handy so I will see if I can replicate this problem. Unfortunately, everything to do with window/screen resolution and fullscreen mode is handled by SDL via the libtcod library, so if there's an incompatibility between either of these and WinXP, then there's little I'll be able to do about it. Normally, fullscreen and resolution settings should persist between savedgames, but I will look into that as well.
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So I tried it out on a Win XP machine and changing the full screen and resolution settings for me has absolutely no effect. Seems to be that the version of SDL that I'm using can't normally instruct Win XP to change these. I don't think I can do anything about this incompatibility, unfortunately, until and unless I upgrade to a newer version of the libtcod library that runs on SDL2, and if SDL2 is able to handle these things better on Win XP.
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This isn't an issue with SDL. The problem would be with libtcod itself. That is, if it's really a problem--you might be able to circumvent it, but only with C/C++? Not sure about the libtcod side of things (esp. Python), but I use the same old version of SDL that libtcod does (tens of thousands of games use this version of SDL :P) and there are no issues with fullscreen. With SDL you have complete control and can even change the desktop resolution if you want to, irrespective of Windows version.
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Hm - ok I'll give it a shot. Python should be able to pass commands to SDL without going through libtcod.
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Sorry, this wasn't meant to put you on the spot :P. Just trying to clear up where the problem might lie, but it may very well be problematic for libtcod to handle this.
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Perhaps a feature request for the next update? Better control over resolution and fullscreen, plus multiple window support if /r/roguelikedev is anything to go by!
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Heh, multi-window support would probably be a pretty big can of worms, but better fullscreen/resolution control should be fairly easy, yeah.
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Haven't been able to address the resolution and full screen issues under WinXP yet, but I have made some minor changes and bugfixes for the Beta 3.07 version. Also uploaded a short Let's Play video featuring the Firefly here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-lpD3KcYF8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-lpD3KcYF8)
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Just uploaded Beta 3.08 to the website. This is the final content update, only bugfixes remain before it moves to a stable release.
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Made a couple small changes, and just uploaded preview 1 of the stable 1.0 final release version. Interested players can download it here:
http://www.armouredcommander.com/download/armcom_1_0.zip (http://www.armouredcommander.com/download/armcom_1_0.zip)
This version is compatible with saved games created under the Beta 3 branch, so feel free to update if you are in the middle of a campaign. I'll leave this up for a bit while I finish updating the online manual to see if any further bugs shake out.