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Old March 21st, 2019, 04:04 PM
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Default Re: winSPMBT V13 ( 2019 ) Upgrade-WIP

The release of these upgrades to winSPWW2 and winSPMBT marks 21 years we have been producing the games (1998 - 2019).

Normally as we do our final preparations for release we have already discussed in part what we will do for the next years release. However, this year is a bit different as these two upgrades are not only large but have also been unusually stressful to assemble and both Andy and I have agreed that we need a break from this and therefore have no plans for next year beyond perhaps getting through a winter where virtually all our spare time is NOT spent getting game patches ready. After 21 years it will be a hugely refreshing change that we are both looking forward to as we are both burnt out and in serious need of a break from what has been over two decades of never-ending game development. Therefore, there are no plans to release a 2020 upgrade. Once we have had some time away from development and the stress caused by it, we may, or not, consider to continue development but if we do it will be on a much more limited basis focusing on code and existing game improvements and FAR LESS on OOB changes.

OOB work on winSPWW2 is frozen. Over 20% of the existing scenarios in winSPWW2 had to be rebuilt this year in one way or another to keep in sync with the OOB changes made this release and as they stand now is the way they will continue to be in the foreseeable future. We are not going to continue to re-work and re-issue scenarios and campaigns for OOB changes that have very little real effect on the way the game plays. Far too much of the time we have available to actually develop the game is spent on OOB change drudgery and the spin-off impact of those changes and it makes it all the more tedious knowing that all that work will have next to zero impact on how the game actually plays. Some may disagree and that is to be expected but all the tools to edit the OOB's have been included with the game with every release so anyone who wants to can adjust the OOB's to suit what they consider "correct". OOB work on MBT may continue but I will not be constantly re-adjusting in service dates for tanks that are constantly under development but never seem to reach troops. When one actually enters service we are interested but the latest delay in their production we do not care about at all. We have found with MBT trying to stay on the cutting edge of equipment only means a lot of rewriting of OOB's over and over.

The bottom line is that game development has not entirely ceased but it will be greatly scaled back after these updates and there are no plans at this time to release in 2020. Since 1998 we have released at least one upgrade for at least one game every year and in some years there were 2 updates a year for both of the two games but there were also 2 open heart surgeries, Andy in 2010 and myself in 2015 then a month later I had a stroke, but through all that, updates for these games were produced. There have been increasingly very long stretches in front of the computer and more than a few sleepless nights that can greatly disrupt normal day to day life. As well this year we had to contend with a full HDD failure of Andy's main computer. We were fortunate we had backups but it still meant two weeks of code work had to be redone and as the computer failed just before Christmas we lost an additional 10 days waiting to find out what was wrong so both Andy and I feel we are entitled to a bit of a break from all this and we fully intend to take one.
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Last edited by DRG; March 22nd, 2019 at 01:46 PM..
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