Commander - Europe at War 1.07 Public Beta Uploaded

[Greg Wilcox]

We've uploaded the Beta version of the 1.07 Comprehensive Update available to our Members Club. While we do final testing we figured we'd offer you a change to get it early as well. This is still a beta, but it's stable and solid as far as we can tell. See the change list list below for details.

You can download this as a Registered Download as long as you have registered your Commander - Europe at War serial number in our Members Club (click on the MEMBERS link in the top nav bar).

Changes
• New Features & Enhancements
o Sub and Strategic Bombers made cheaper
o Sub now get more surv and less naval combat through tech making Atlantic war more long lasting
o Changed the folder structure so all saved games and created scenarios now use user home folder in Windows to avoid file access problems more occuring after recent windows updates
o Went back to Java 1.5 which means performance will now be good for all players

• Fixes
o Fixed a bug with conquering Algeria with some units ending up in the wrong force pool

[sabre1]

Thanks Greg, much appreciated for the great support.

[pablomagno1]

can we continius with the old games?

[firepowerjohan]

You cannot load old games from previous versions.

[Long Lance]

Does this version run under Vista?

[firepowerjohan]

I run it from both my Vista machines.

[Long Lance]

ORIGINAL: firepowerjohan

I run it from both my Vista machines.

Thank you, that's good news!

[Toby42]

I remember reading the earlier posts that the AI pretty much ignored North Africa. I've done a search, but I can't find as to whether this has been corrected with any of the patches?? Has this been taken care of??

Thanks,

[YourAdmiral]

Am I stupid? Why can I not find the link for this? I looked all over the members download area and can only find the 1.06 patch. Can someone post a direct link to 1.07.

[Forwarn45]

I haven't downloaded the patch in part because I liked the last version and my PBEM opponent did as well. The sub changes sound good, but I'm not sure about making strat bombers cheaper. They certainly have their uses.

[KingHunter3059]

Greg - Could not find it in the members section - I did however find it on the Slitherine forum.

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=18

J

[firepowerjohan]

it is not the same beta, you cannot run Slitherine patches with Matrix version. Matrix has their own installers and their own patch.

[Long Lance]

Since it is beta, I'd like to ask if (presumably) and where to give a feedback?

[firepowerjohan]

You can give feedback here, no problem Lance [:)]

[KingHunter3059]

Ok - But since I installed that version - My issues have gone away. So where is the Matrix version?

[KingHunter3059]

I confess - I did not know that two versions of this game exists. I do have the silitherine version. I usually don't run into these situations often. ;-(

[Long Lance]

ORIGINAL: firepowerjohan

You can give feedback here, no problem Lance [:)]

Well, then I will do so

First off all: This is a very good game! It is fun, but one shouldn't expect a historic correct Simulation.
It's father is called Clash of Steel, it's brother is strategic command (SC). But it is in many things more refined as SC, so that it is a 'real' succesor of SC, whereas SC2 is disappointing IMHO.

If you don't mind too much about historic accuracy, but are interested in a WWII-strategy game that has perhaps 3 to 10 hrs. playtime, you won't make a mistake with this game.


Things I find worth reporting:

- Axis AI in Russia is rather good IMHO. But an early overlord, perhaps only to take and hold Brest, confuses the AI very much so that Barbarossa has no punch. Players simply don't do that, so no urgent need to imporve the game at this point.

- German AI does not really react to a 'real' overlord. 6-8 Divisions will roll up France, Low Lands and with the Forces from
the African Theatre Italy.

- German AI stops to build units when manpower is 'yellow'. 999 production points stored won't help if the red steamroll
advances through Eastern Prussia. This hurts...

- I played the game for perhaps 150 hours. It neverever crashed[&o] !!

- I had problems running this game under vista. It simply didn't start, because I wasn't Administrator. No messages gave
a clue to change these settings.

- HQs of nations at peace can't be deployed. Perhaps WAD, but a bug IMHO

- Which Capital really gives full supply? Rome to Italy and the Allies. Paris only to Allies? Capitals of smaller nations to
none? Not clearly defined. But ok as it is.

- Not critical, really not. But I'd like to know why the Hurricane is a symbol for a more advanced Fighter as the Spitfire.

- Around Cairo, there are some Hexes that offer only a supply of one instead of three.


All in all, a non-crashing (!) game, that has no critical bugs (perhaps except of the german AI stopping to build units) . Of course it sacrifices very much historical accuracy for playability, but dot think it is quite challenging! I'm happy I bought it, even though I waited long, too long, to finally play it.


And there will really be no CEaW II??[&:]

[firepowerjohan]

"I'm happy I bought it, even though I waited long, too long, to finally play it."

Thanks Long lance!
By curiosity, what did make you wait that long then?
I could answer some of the questions you had.

- HQs of nations at peace can't be deployed. Perhaps WAD, but a bug IMHO

Answer: This is to delay the organisation of countries not at war, their units wont have leadership support. You can in force pool click a unit to put it further back the queue, so this does not block any units from deploying.

- Which Capital really gives full supply? Rome to Italy and the Allies. Paris only to Allies? Capitals of smaller nations to
none? Not clearly defined. But ok as it is.

Answer: Major countries give full supplt, So Rome, Berlin, Paris, London, Washington, Moscow.


Another point about historical accuracy. The game system itself is very realistic but playing vs AI despite if it is good in many ways and have weak spots will never be the same thing. IMO the historical accuracy in multiplayer is very high if accuracy is what you are after then I recommend you try PBEM and TCPIP [:)]

[Long Lance]

I didn't mean to critisize a lack of accuracy. But compared to a game like War in the Pacific with the 271st Daitai consisting of 7 A6M2-N Rufe and the Pilots called ..., there is much fewer detail. Or you have 1 Fleet representing the whole Kriegsmarine. You don't have the JG1 and the 1. Panzerdivision etc., you have some more or less abstract units in Corps-size level. Which is no Drawback, this simply is the level of detail of this game.

Another point regardings historical accuracy: Production points favor the axis side are compared to the Allies- but this also is not a bad thing. This is IMHO one of this points where it is right to sacrifice historical accuracy to game playability. It is a game covering WWII, and does this very well, but it is too abstract to be called a simulation.

I agree to your statement regarding AI. Every AI has weak spots, and AI in the long run will be beaten human players always, unless it cheats. And esp. the GER Barbarossa AI is strong.

Moskau, London (not sure) Washington do not give full supply to an Axis-player, but Rome does so for the Allies, so not all major capitals give full supply to every fraction.

Two things I forgot: I think the statistic for units on the map is faulty (and/or could include units in production?)
A real bug (agreed to the HQ rule, I didn't think about that) is that German U-Boats simply stay in ports you already have conquered and even repair there (Genua, Bordeaux, Brest).

The answer why I waited so long to play CEaW: I buy some games of which I feel they have 'deserverd' it, but having a job, a wife and two little daughters does not leave you too much time for gaming, especially if you like time-killers like the Herats of Iron series and WitP. During 2008, due to health problems, I had time to play and so I started to get into CEaW. Meanwhile, time is short again, but health problems are nearly completely gone. Just to those who won't believe it: There are things even worse than having no time to play computer[;)]

A long post, only two things to follow:

The German AI stops building units, is this known, is this deliberately?

There is atm no intention to make a CEaW2, or CWitPac or CWordlatWar?[;)]


EDIT: Fgured out the supply 1 around Cairo thing I wrote about: Desert always gives max. 1 supply. Don't know if it's written in the manual

[MemoryLeak]

I have hated your method for delving out patches/updates since the first day I was forced to use it. And everytime I have to write and ask for help. I am an owner of this game. I just want the beta patch but cannot find it. THis is typical. I went to the members area, I logged in and I found Commander but it said register. I clicked on that eventhough I already registered it a long time ago. The reply is (Key already used). No kidding, that is because I already registed it. Maybe we can take up a collection for you guys and have someone just post the damn updates where we can get them without so much frustration. I have put several game producers on my blacklist and this is one of them. I will never willing subject myself to this crap. I am too old to put up with these juvenile processes.