DRG
March 19th, 2009, 02:23 PM
The 4.5 patch for winSPMBT will be released by the end of the month unless we find a problem in the next few days. Here is the list of changes ( in no particular order of importance..) to date. This may change between now and release
Don
-----------------
WinSPMBT version 4.5 Upgrade patch
25 New Scenarios
43 Updated Scenarios
84 New photos
96 New and Revised Icons plus terrain tile updates
3686 new Icon spots added
92 Updated OOB Files
10 Revised campaign files
29 New and Revised Graphic files ( including Terrain SHP's )
28 New maps
41 New or revised picklists
Upgraded Cost Calculator
Upgraded MOBHack
Upgraded ScenHack
1) A large number of OOB corrections and additions have been made since v4.0 was released. The completed " to do" list would print out to 117 pages so we won't detail everything that was done for every OOB but Russia and Iraq have had a lot of work done but really, every OOB has had some work done to it. A number of "Future weapons systems" that were cancelled or delayed have been removed or moved back in some of the OOB's. Scenario designers who may have scenarios not in the game but posted on various scenario depots on the 'net may want to check them over with ScenHack for unit/weapon errors. ESPECIALLY if they used the Russian OOB. The large number of updated scenarios in this upgrade are mainly due to OOB re-organization and it is a 99.8% certainty that any third party scenarios that are not included in this update WILL VERY LIKELY need to be revised by their designers. There was no way around this and we apologize for it but it's the price of improving the game. As usual with this game, OOB's are always a "work in progress" as new information is uncovered and also " As usual " we remind everyone that on going PBEM games WILL fail if this patch is applied while they are being played. You have been warned. As well, due to the large number of changes to the Russian OOB, saved games that use the Russian OOB, even if they are not PBEM, WILL BE affected.
2) 5 new fortified houses with "invisible" turrets for use with units that do not use an AT gun and are now capable of 360 degree fire. They are copies of existing houses in the game so blend right in . All OOB's that used fortified houses that did not have an AT gun have been upgraded to these new versions
3) Mobhack now underlines the name of any unit used as a formation template unit
4) Scenhack would not save changes to the game length correctly resetting the game to 90 turns has been fixed
5) Vehicles originally assigned to the AI were still, under certain circumstances, unable to move after popping smoke has been fixed
6) Helicopters would sometimes get "stuck" while retreating and just hover in place has been fixed. This was a large map issue and now all pathfinding code has been updated so this will no longer occur
7) The ' . ' (period) key can now be used to turn the hex grid on and off during deployment and while playing the game
8) "Golan" is now "arid" rather than "desert"
9) A bug with the map generator would not allow batloc zero to be entered has been fixed
10) Unit class #7 ( Automatic Grenade launchers ) did not generate a blast circle like MG sections do has been fixed
11) Changes have been made to the code so that if your vehicle kicks up dust due to movement then you can no longer undo that vehicle's action. (Note that this also applies for partial smoke that does not generate a smoke graphic in the hex).
12) In desert maps, hovercraft will kick up dust at any visibility
13) A new top attack inertial guidance weapons class added mainly for the MBT-LAW but useable for any infantry AT weapon that is top attack and is used by infantry squads rather than specialized AT teams. It has a built in boost for FC and RF
14) The weapon size no longer appears in the database, and 0 is inserted as well as having the field deactivated, plus a comment has been added that it is obsolete. "Weapon size" was not being used in the game but was causing some confusion with players who assumed it was .
15) Minelet artillery batteries are now no longer permitted to the assaulting player in a beach landings
16) Cluster munitions will now occasionally leave unexploded bomblets. These are treated as artillery mines.
17) On map rocket batteries with Cluster rockets are now treated as a greater warhead size than shown in the game for reloading from ammo carriers purposes ONLY. The game will ignore any warhead size entered for that class of weapon when reloading ammo and use a set value. Now two units using the same size rocket , one conventional and one CM will reload from an ammo carrier at the much the same rate which was not the case previously allowing CM rockets to reload too fast.
18) Naval artillery had a bit too much of a bonus for quick response. This has been toned down so they are only marginally faster than other off-map batteries.
19) A bug existed where if�*a core units AA radar was destroyed by an ARM it was not fixed in the repair has been fixed
20) A bug involving Thick Ice in winSPMBT only has been fixed
21) Missile units with stabiliser can now move a couple of hexes and still have shot(s). Previously any movement disallowed firing
22) Armoured car class now protects crew as APC in winSPMBT. This was a compromise because many APC's were being used by Armoured car classes and the infantry they carried were being treated as if they were riding outside the vehicle. Now any passengers carried by a unit in an "armoured car" class are treated as being in the vehicle and armoured cars that do not have inside carry capacity have generally been given zero carry capacity. There were actually very few true "armoured cars" in MBT with carry capacity anyway�*and this is more fair for the bulk of the units now using this class
23) Some units that should not have been on map were deployed on map in the PBEM long campaign has been fixed
24) A number of long standing issues with the ' W " shortcut key that allowed players to fire only one weapons have been corrected and the feature now works correctly. This had never really worked right but now it does. Information on how to used ' W ' can now be found in the Tutorial section of the game guide.
25) Gliders that land are now abandoned, not destroyed
26) The AIAdjustpercent INI variable now applies to generated battles, and for both sides if set to AI player control
27) A bug with all units of a side being destroyed leading to screen flicker has been fixed
28) A Bug with all units of a side being destroyed but the game did not end even if all objectives taken cleared has been fixed
29) Problems with the AI counter attacking too early in assaults and defends has been fixed
30) Problems with the core units not getting their smoke rounds back in the PBEM long Campaign has been fixed
31) A bug ( and serious cheat ) with arty command units and fire delays had been fixed by removing arty command units from units allowed to observe.
32) Cluster ammo costs for tubed artillery have been increased roughly + 50%. As a result a number of off map artillery units have had their cluster ammo reduced to keep them from exceeding the 999 points limit in the game
33) The delay for adjusting the fall of shot for both on and off map artillery landing out of the observing units line of sight has been increased and in most cases now means only one adjustment can be made without delaying the next fall of shot an extra turn.
34) A small bug fixed for generated and PBEM campaigns, where it was possible, if the campaign was set to run in the same year, to set an end month that was earlier than the start month ( or start month later than the end month ). The game would not run time backwards but it would only run the latest month
35) A new feature for CD holders only allows players to check the location on the map of the other units in a formation with a hotkey.
36) Crewed weapons such as AT guns, howitzers and mortars when loaded onto a paratroop transport for air dropping now split into the crew and uncrewed weapon which drop separately and you must now reunite the surviving crew and the unmanned weapon before being able to use it. This change also applies to vehicles and re-crewing is handled the same as any abandoned vehicle......the crew must be in the same hex as the vehicle when the turn ends and at the start of the next turn the two units will recombine. There is also a new one ( 1 ) vehicle per air transport limit in effect. This prevents players from overloading air transports with far more vehicles than was possible. This does not prevent more troops from being loaded in a vehicle carrying aircraft that may have more carry capacity though.
37) A PBEM campaign bug existed where on 3 failed attempts at entering the password a PBEM campaign ended the turn (and saved off the files) instead of aborting. Now the player is returned correctly to the main menu.
38) In Campaigns, core formations were able to cross-attach to non core formations. This has been corrected. You cannot now attach a core unit to a support formation.
39) A bug existed in PBEM Campaign Games where the turn 0 artillery was replayed before player 1 was asked for his password allowing player 2 to watch this turn on his machine has been fixed. Player 1 must enter his password in order to see the turn 0 bombardment. Player 2 cannot now run this turn.
40) A bug in PBEM Campaign Games has been fixed that showed the units of player 2 to player 1 during the pre-game ( turn 0 ) bombardment
41) A bug in PBEM Campaign Games where any unspotted player 2 units caused to retreat by the turn 0 bombardment were shown to player 1 was fixed.
42) Off map artillery will now have a chance of losing radio contact and when they do they will not appear in the bombard menu. However, if a fire mission has been plotted and you lose contact the turn before the fire mission is scheduled to go in the fire mission will go in as scheduled but because it dropped off the bombard menu just before it did you will not be able to cancel it or shift fire.
43) "Tank Riding" passengers now have a greater chance of more casualties if caught on the tank when they are fired on.
44) A further 3686 new Icon spots added bringing the total number of available slots in both winSPMBT and winSPWW2 to 8383
Don
-----------------
WinSPMBT version 4.5 Upgrade patch
25 New Scenarios
43 Updated Scenarios
84 New photos
96 New and Revised Icons plus terrain tile updates
3686 new Icon spots added
92 Updated OOB Files
10 Revised campaign files
29 New and Revised Graphic files ( including Terrain SHP's )
28 New maps
41 New or revised picklists
Upgraded Cost Calculator
Upgraded MOBHack
Upgraded ScenHack
1) A large number of OOB corrections and additions have been made since v4.0 was released. The completed " to do" list would print out to 117 pages so we won't detail everything that was done for every OOB but Russia and Iraq have had a lot of work done but really, every OOB has had some work done to it. A number of "Future weapons systems" that were cancelled or delayed have been removed or moved back in some of the OOB's. Scenario designers who may have scenarios not in the game but posted on various scenario depots on the 'net may want to check them over with ScenHack for unit/weapon errors. ESPECIALLY if they used the Russian OOB. The large number of updated scenarios in this upgrade are mainly due to OOB re-organization and it is a 99.8% certainty that any third party scenarios that are not included in this update WILL VERY LIKELY need to be revised by their designers. There was no way around this and we apologize for it but it's the price of improving the game. As usual with this game, OOB's are always a "work in progress" as new information is uncovered and also " As usual " we remind everyone that on going PBEM games WILL fail if this patch is applied while they are being played. You have been warned. As well, due to the large number of changes to the Russian OOB, saved games that use the Russian OOB, even if they are not PBEM, WILL BE affected.
2) 5 new fortified houses with "invisible" turrets for use with units that do not use an AT gun and are now capable of 360 degree fire. They are copies of existing houses in the game so blend right in . All OOB's that used fortified houses that did not have an AT gun have been upgraded to these new versions
3) Mobhack now underlines the name of any unit used as a formation template unit
4) Scenhack would not save changes to the game length correctly resetting the game to 90 turns has been fixed
5) Vehicles originally assigned to the AI were still, under certain circumstances, unable to move after popping smoke has been fixed
6) Helicopters would sometimes get "stuck" while retreating and just hover in place has been fixed. This was a large map issue and now all pathfinding code has been updated so this will no longer occur
7) The ' . ' (period) key can now be used to turn the hex grid on and off during deployment and while playing the game
8) "Golan" is now "arid" rather than "desert"
9) A bug with the map generator would not allow batloc zero to be entered has been fixed
10) Unit class #7 ( Automatic Grenade launchers ) did not generate a blast circle like MG sections do has been fixed
11) Changes have been made to the code so that if your vehicle kicks up dust due to movement then you can no longer undo that vehicle's action. (Note that this also applies for partial smoke that does not generate a smoke graphic in the hex).
12) In desert maps, hovercraft will kick up dust at any visibility
13) A new top attack inertial guidance weapons class added mainly for the MBT-LAW but useable for any infantry AT weapon that is top attack and is used by infantry squads rather than specialized AT teams. It has a built in boost for FC and RF
14) The weapon size no longer appears in the database, and 0 is inserted as well as having the field deactivated, plus a comment has been added that it is obsolete. "Weapon size" was not being used in the game but was causing some confusion with players who assumed it was .
15) Minelet artillery batteries are now no longer permitted to the assaulting player in a beach landings
16) Cluster munitions will now occasionally leave unexploded bomblets. These are treated as artillery mines.
17) On map rocket batteries with Cluster rockets are now treated as a greater warhead size than shown in the game for reloading from ammo carriers purposes ONLY. The game will ignore any warhead size entered for that class of weapon when reloading ammo and use a set value. Now two units using the same size rocket , one conventional and one CM will reload from an ammo carrier at the much the same rate which was not the case previously allowing CM rockets to reload too fast.
18) Naval artillery had a bit too much of a bonus for quick response. This has been toned down so they are only marginally faster than other off-map batteries.
19) A bug existed where if�*a core units AA radar was destroyed by an ARM it was not fixed in the repair has been fixed
20) A bug involving Thick Ice in winSPMBT only has been fixed
21) Missile units with stabiliser can now move a couple of hexes and still have shot(s). Previously any movement disallowed firing
22) Armoured car class now protects crew as APC in winSPMBT. This was a compromise because many APC's were being used by Armoured car classes and the infantry they carried were being treated as if they were riding outside the vehicle. Now any passengers carried by a unit in an "armoured car" class are treated as being in the vehicle and armoured cars that do not have inside carry capacity have generally been given zero carry capacity. There were actually very few true "armoured cars" in MBT with carry capacity anyway�*and this is more fair for the bulk of the units now using this class
23) Some units that should not have been on map were deployed on map in the PBEM long campaign has been fixed
24) A number of long standing issues with the ' W " shortcut key that allowed players to fire only one weapons have been corrected and the feature now works correctly. This had never really worked right but now it does. Information on how to used ' W ' can now be found in the Tutorial section of the game guide.
25) Gliders that land are now abandoned, not destroyed
26) The AIAdjustpercent INI variable now applies to generated battles, and for both sides if set to AI player control
27) A bug with all units of a side being destroyed leading to screen flicker has been fixed
28) A Bug with all units of a side being destroyed but the game did not end even if all objectives taken cleared has been fixed
29) Problems with the AI counter attacking too early in assaults and defends has been fixed
30) Problems with the core units not getting their smoke rounds back in the PBEM long Campaign has been fixed
31) A bug ( and serious cheat ) with arty command units and fire delays had been fixed by removing arty command units from units allowed to observe.
32) Cluster ammo costs for tubed artillery have been increased roughly + 50%. As a result a number of off map artillery units have had their cluster ammo reduced to keep them from exceeding the 999 points limit in the game
33) The delay for adjusting the fall of shot for both on and off map artillery landing out of the observing units line of sight has been increased and in most cases now means only one adjustment can be made without delaying the next fall of shot an extra turn.
34) A small bug fixed for generated and PBEM campaigns, where it was possible, if the campaign was set to run in the same year, to set an end month that was earlier than the start month ( or start month later than the end month ). The game would not run time backwards but it would only run the latest month
35) A new feature for CD holders only allows players to check the location on the map of the other units in a formation with a hotkey.
36) Crewed weapons such as AT guns, howitzers and mortars when loaded onto a paratroop transport for air dropping now split into the crew and uncrewed weapon which drop separately and you must now reunite the surviving crew and the unmanned weapon before being able to use it. This change also applies to vehicles and re-crewing is handled the same as any abandoned vehicle......the crew must be in the same hex as the vehicle when the turn ends and at the start of the next turn the two units will recombine. There is also a new one ( 1 ) vehicle per air transport limit in effect. This prevents players from overloading air transports with far more vehicles than was possible. This does not prevent more troops from being loaded in a vehicle carrying aircraft that may have more carry capacity though.
37) A PBEM campaign bug existed where on 3 failed attempts at entering the password a PBEM campaign ended the turn (and saved off the files) instead of aborting. Now the player is returned correctly to the main menu.
38) In Campaigns, core formations were able to cross-attach to non core formations. This has been corrected. You cannot now attach a core unit to a support formation.
39) A bug existed in PBEM Campaign Games where the turn 0 artillery was replayed before player 1 was asked for his password allowing player 2 to watch this turn on his machine has been fixed. Player 1 must enter his password in order to see the turn 0 bombardment. Player 2 cannot now run this turn.
40) A bug in PBEM Campaign Games has been fixed that showed the units of player 2 to player 1 during the pre-game ( turn 0 ) bombardment
41) A bug in PBEM Campaign Games where any unspotted player 2 units caused to retreat by the turn 0 bombardment were shown to player 1 was fixed.
42) Off map artillery will now have a chance of losing radio contact and when they do they will not appear in the bombard menu. However, if a fire mission has been plotted and you lose contact the turn before the fire mission is scheduled to go in the fire mission will go in as scheduled but because it dropped off the bombard menu just before it did you will not be able to cancel it or shift fire.
43) "Tank Riding" passengers now have a greater chance of more casualties if caught on the tank when they are fired on.
44) A further 3686 new Icon spots added bringing the total number of available slots in both winSPMBT and winSPWW2 to 8383