Armoured Commander: WW2 Tank Commander Roguelike

[Rev_Sudasana]

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.

[GalagaGalaxian]

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.

[Rev_Sudasana]

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!

[GalagaGalaxian]

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.



Essentially, its a poor man's SPG.

[Rev_Sudasana]

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:



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

[GalagaGalaxian]

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.

[Rev_Sudasana]

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.

[Rev_Sudasana]

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

[GalagaGalaxian]

Hah, I suggested switching ammo type reload command to R completely forgetting the Ready Rack already had that key. Whoops.

[Rev_Sudasana]

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?

[Rev_Sudasana]

That was an epic battle encounter!

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.

[Rev_Sudasana]

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

[Rev_Sudasana]

Whew - uploaded Alpha 7 release candidate 1: 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

[GalagaGalaxian]

Looks like some good changes, but does this mean AT guns can no longer be abandoned by getting double stunned like vehicles?

[Rev_Sudasana]

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.