When?

[morgil]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
The WIF FE rules weren’t clear as what should happen when the Collapse of Vichy France causes Vichy France controlled minor countries to become owned by an Axis major power which has a unit present in the minor country. For instance, if Italy has a unit in Tunisia (which is controlled by Vichy France), then the rules state that Tunisia goes to Italy. But the rules say nothing about if there are both German and Italian units present. I decided to count the number of units and ‘give’ the country to the Axis major power with the most units present.

I dont think this is possible...

ORIGINAL: RAW

17.3 Units
Non-French units
The owning player moves every non-French controlled land and aircraft unit in a Vichy French hex to the nearest hex they can stack in controlled by its major power, or a co-operating major power, or their aligned minors.

Access to Vichy territory
No Axis units may enter Vichy controlled hexes while Vichy France is neutral (except to collapse her administration, see below).
While Vichy France is active, only units belonging to the major power which installed Vichy France may enter Vichy controlled administration groups, and even then must satisfy the foreign troop commitment rules (see 18.2) to enter each administration group.
If Vichy France is active and hostile to any major power, units controlled by the major power that installed the Vichy government can enter any Vichy controlled hex without having to satisfy the foreign troop commitment limits.

I could ofc be missing something, but it seems that when installing Vichy, all non-french units has to move out of Vichy, and if they move back in, Vichy is instantly collapsed, thus making this impossible..

Ohh and btw. AWESOME work [&o]

Edit;
Unless the unit that doesn't cause the collapse is a HQ ofc...
/duh me

[brian brian]

On the factories, I hope MWiF could make something consistent with the use of the words damaged/destroyed. I read a very, very early draft of Factories in Flames once and the whole thing was shot through with the problem of using those two words too loosely interchangeably. 'Damaged' implies it can be fixed, 'Destroyed' doesn't necessarily imply that it can't, but when you later see the word 'Damaged', you begin to wonder if a 'Destroyed' factory can be fixed. I would either never use one of the two or be very specific when using both words.

Using green factories for the built ones might become regrettable when MWiF 3.0 : Patton in Flames comes out some day as the PaTiF maps use green factories for some reason that I'm not quite sure about, not owning that game myself. I think it is just so you can use those maps playing 39-45 WiF and a computer version could just use standard red and blue...but perhaps there is some reason why they are different...and what happens when you want to take a 39-45 game on into PaTiF action? Maybe this isn't important, I don't know.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

On the factories, I hope MWiF could make something consistent with the use of the words damaged/destroyed. I read a very, very early draft of Factories in Flames once and the whole thing was shot through with the problem of using those two words too loosely interchangeably. 'Damaged' implies it can be fixed, 'Destroyed' doesn't necessarily imply that it can't, but when you later see the word 'Damaged', you begin to wonder if a 'Destroyed' factory can be fixed. I would either never use one of the two or be very specific when using both words.

Using green factories for the built ones might become regrettable when MWiF 3.0 : Patton in Flames comes out some day as the PaTiF maps use green factories for some reason that I'm not quite sure about, not owning that game myself. I think it is just so you can use those maps playing 39-45 WiF and a computer version could just use standard red and blue...but perhaps there is some reason why they are different...and what happens when you want to take a 39-45 game on into PaTiF action? Maybe this isn't important, I don't know.

I have taken pains to not change RAC when I copied it from RAW. Only really essential changes were made (e.g., flipping units).

Green factories in Patton in Flames are just for using the maps for both versions of the game (as I recall). If I ever get to Patton for the computer, I'll make all printed factories either red or blue, and keep green for newly built factories. That was a decision I made a long time ago when I decided on green for newly built factories.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: morgil

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
The WIF FE rules weren’t clear as what should happen when the Collapse of Vichy France causes Vichy France controlled minor countries to become owned by an Axis major power which has a unit present in the minor country. For instance, if Italy has a unit in Tunisia (which is controlled by Vichy France), then the rules state that Tunisia goes to Italy. But the rules say nothing about if there are both German and Italian units present. I decided to count the number of units and ‘give’ the country to the Axis major power with the most units present.

I dont think this is possible...

ORIGINAL: RAW

17.3 Units
Non-French units
The owning player moves every non-French controlled land and aircraft unit in a Vichy French hex to the nearest hex they can stack in controlled by its major power, or a co-operating major power, or their aligned minors.

Access to Vichy territory
No Axis units may enter Vichy controlled hexes while Vichy France is neutral (except to collapse her administration, see below).
While Vichy France is active, only units belonging to the major power which installed Vichy France may enter Vichy controlled administration groups, and even then must satisfy the foreign troop commitment rules (see 18.2) to enter each administration group.
If Vichy France is active and hostile to any major power, units controlled by the major power that installed the Vichy government can enter any Vichy controlled hex without having to satisfy the foreign troop commitment limits.

I could ofc be missing something, but it seems that when installing Vichy, all non-french units has to move out of Vichy, and if they move back in, Vichy is instantly collapsed, thus making this impossible..

Ohh and btw. AWESOME work [&o]

Edit;
Unless the unit that doesn't cause the collapse is a HQ ofc...
/duh me

I think you are right. Only one Axis major power can have units present. I'll leave the code as is though (just in case).

[bk19@mweb.co.za]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

PBEM
Nothing new other than the decision to use the MultiPlayer++ system developed by Slitherine/Matrix Games for locating a PBEM opponent. This is the same underlying system used by the Private MWIF NetPlay Forum.

Hi,

I have just a brief comment to add to this remark. I have just been exposed to this PBEM interface as built within War in the East. A cool idea which works well in the main I think bar the following concerns.

Given the expected data volume of this game when playing a campaign :
1. Will the transfer time between the Multiplayer++ server not be inordinately long when fetching or saving game state?

2. Currently it appears that it is not possible to save a turn midway. Today I attempted this action and the game behaved as if I had pressed the end of turn button. This may not be such a cool feature when playing a large scenario of MWIF I would venture.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: bk19@mweb.co.za

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

PBEM
Nothing new other than the decision to use the MultiPlayer++ system developed by Slitherine/Matrix Games for locating a PBEM opponent. This is the same underlying system used by the Private MWIF NetPlay Forum.

Hi,

I have just a brief comment to add to this remark. I have just been exposed to this PBEM interface as built within War in the East. A cool idea which works well in the main I think bar the following concerns.

Given the expected data volume of this game when playing a campaign :
1. Will the transfer time between the Multiplayer++ server not be inordinately long when fetching or saving game state?

2. Currently it appears that it is not possible to save a turn midway. Today I attempted this action and the game behaved as if I had pressed the end of turn button. This may not be such a cool feature when playing a large scenario of MWIF I would venture.

I am unfamiliar with how this feature is implemented in other Matrix/Slitherine games.

For MWIF, very little data is exchanged and certainly NOT the entire game state (i.e., a complete saved game). In a PBEM game each email would consist of set of transactions (e.g., land moves), which requires sending the entire path for a moving unit, but that would be a quite small amount of data.

In an internet game each decision (e.g., move) would be sent as soon as it is completed. So the other players would be able to track the movement of individual units virtually simultaneously with the units being moved on the originator's computer.

As an example, as one player sets up his units, the other players would see on their monitors each unit being placed on the map, one by one.

The saved games would be kept on each player's computer. That they are identical will be assured through numbering each transmission, each group of decisions (a.k.a., transaction) and each individual decision (a.k.a., entry). When a group of naval units move as a stack, that would be one transaction with the movement of each unit an entry. Everything will be numbered to make sure nothing is lost in transmission.

[palad1n]

A clarification re units in vichy france. While clause 17.3 of the rules are as stated by Shannon, one needs to take the whole into account. Specifically, the second last sentence before clause 17.2. This states "French territories and minor countries already conquered by the Axis remain conquered by them." So, if Tunisia is conquered by Italy or Germany when Vichy is declared, they retain control of Tunisia and it is no longer a consideration for the Vichy dice roll determine control phase (clause 17.2). Vichy France only collapses when a unit from the contolling major power (usually Germany) enters mainlad Vichy. Axis units can enter any Vichy territory at any time without causing the collapse of Vichy France, but they must comply with the foreign troop rules - ie at least a HQ unit.

[michaelbaldur]

ORIGINAL: palad1n

A clarification re units in vichy france. While clause 17.3 of the rules are as stated by Shannon, one needs to take the whole into account. Specifically, the second last sentence before clause 17.2. This states "French territories and minor countries already conquered by the Axis remain conquered by them." So, if Tunisia is conquered by Italy or Germany when Vichy is declared, they retain control of Tunisia and it is no longer a consideration for the Vichy dice roll determine control phase (clause 17.2). Vichy France only collapses when a unit from the contolling major power (usually Germany) enters mainlad Vichy. Axis units can enter any Vichy territory at any time without causing the collapse of Vichy France, but they must comply with the foreign troop rules - ie at least a HQ unit.

it is not only the controlling major power that can collapse. any axis units can collapse Vichy

but the installing major power gets any BP saved in Vichy..

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: palad1n

A clarification re units in vichy france. While clause 17.3 of the rules are as stated by Shannon, one needs to take the whole into account. Specifically, the second last sentence before clause 17.2. This states "French territories and minor countries already conquered by the Axis remain conquered by them." So, if Tunisia is conquered by Italy or Germany when Vichy is declared, they retain control of Tunisia and it is no longer a consideration for the Vichy dice roll determine control phase (clause 17.2). Vichy France only collapses when a unit from the contolling major power (usually Germany) enters mainlad Vichy. Axis units can enter any Vichy territory at any time without causing the collapse of Vichy France, but they must comply with the foreign troop rules - ie at least a HQ unit.

Welcome to the forum![:)]

The rules on Vichy France are one of the biggest nests of confusion in the game. Many have tried to elucidate them with at best partial success. I count myself among that number. Cad908 (Rob W.) has performed yeoman's work testing every facet of them. Just for chuckles, here is what I still have remaining on my task list concerning Vichy France rules. Most of these are from Rob.

Just to be clear here, Aaron's spreadsheet shows I fixed 13 Vichy bugs in the period from August 1 - November 1, 2011. And I fixed a lot more before that and at least 3 more this month. It's an infestation!

===

1003 Vichy Posts #105 & #106 Rob W. #60 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Commonwealth naval and air units in minor countries aligned to France when Vichy is declared and the minor subsequently conquered are correctly overrun, but the overrun can not be performed because the units have no viable hexes to which to rebase.
Files: zipped with GAM, 2 jpg
1004 Vichy Posts #112 & #113 Rob W. #61 & #62 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Assuming Spain is aligned to Germany and then conquered by France, the declaration of Vichy results in the disposition of Spain depending on the administrative roll for “All other territories and minors”. However, regardless of the die roll, Spain goes to Free France. On lower die rolls it should become aligned to whichever Axis major power the major power installing Vichy chooses. The same thing happens to Libya.
Files: 2 jpg. Also see RobW Summary.txt.
1005 Vichy Post #114 Rob W. #63 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Assuming that Portugal was aligned to France and Vichy declared, if the administrative die roll is low for “All other territories and minors”, the installing Axis major power chooses which Axis major power conquers Portugal (in this case Italy conquers Portugal). That proceeds correctly but the control of individual hexes in Portugal is computed incorrectly. A previous controlled German hex should become Italian controlled. Also, the hexes occupied by Commonwealth units should become controlled by the Commonwealth.
Files: 1 jpg. Also see RobW Summary.txt.
1006 Vichy Post #115 Rob W. #64 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Assuming that Spain was conquered by France and Vichy declared, if the administrative die roll is high for “All other territories and minors”, Spain show to go Free France. That proceeds correctly but hexes controlled by the Commonwealth should become controlled by the Free French.
Files: 1 jpg. Also see RobW Summary.txt.
1007 Vichy Post #117 Rob W. #65 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Message for Allied major power Destroy French Units when Vichy is declared could be made easier to read.
Files: 1 jpg
1009 Vichy Post #125 Rob W. #68 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Lending build points to Vichy France by the installing major power is only possible after a delay (e.g., restoring a saved game). The way to fix this is to examine the code for what variables are controlling whether the installing major power can/cannot lend to Vichy France. One of the conditions is not being satisfied as soon as Vichy is installed, but becomes satisfied by restoring a saved game. That should be enough information to identify and fix this bug.
Files: 1 jpg
1010 Vichy Post #129 Rob W. #70 09.02.05 12/3/2001
French New Caledonia Territorial, on-map in New Caledonia, is not processed correctly when Vichy is Declared. It should be processed as part of the administrative group “All Pacific Ocean Minors and Territories”. The Dakar Militia unit is also processed incorrectly; it should have gone into the Free French force pool because it is a militia unit.
Files: 1 jpg
1011 Vichy Post #130 Rob W. #71 09.02.05 12/3/2001
French land and air units located in Allied controlled hexes after Vichy has been declared can not be moved into administrative groups that have gone Vichy (e.g., Syria). The problem here is that the check for the destination country not be neutral has to be by-passed (i.e., add a conditional clause). Locate the error message about Neutral Country and backtrack to the place in the code where it is generated.
Files: 1 jpg
1012 Vichy Posts #131 & #137 Rob W. 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Convoy units at sea are not split into individual units in advance of the Move French Units At Sea subphase of Vichy France creation. The solution here is to enable the player to use the popup Units Menu to split the convoys. That is normally possible but there must be a conditional clause that is preventing that from occurring during Vichy formation.
January 3, 2012 - There appears to be a problem with displaying the Naval Units menu. A similar problem occurs with the Splitting convoys in the Setup tray at times.
1013 Vichy Posts #132, #139, #140, #141, &#146 Rob W. #51, #72, & #75 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Assuming that the Netherlands, aligned to France, is incompletely conquered and chooses France as its new home country, during Vichy creation Netherlands naval units in Occupied France should be forced to rebase. That does not happen. The program logic should include these units in a forced rebase because they are Allied units in German controlled hexes. Note that if these units were stacked with a Commonwealth land unit, the hex would be controlled by the Commonwealth and the units would not have to rebase. There is an existing bug similar (identical) to this for Belgian naval units (Rob #51). See point #4a and make sure that NEI goes to an Axis major power if the stated conditions occur. The same point occurs in a slightly different form in posts #140 and #141.
Files: 2 jpg (#72 and 75)
1014 Vichy Posts #133 & #138 Rob W. #73 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Allocation of pilots in production by France when Vichy is declared is based solely on the air unit in production. It should include those in the Reserve Pool and the major power declaring Vichy France should be able to select to which air units the pilots are assigned. Any excess pilots (more than there are available air units) should be lost. It appears that the pilots available to France are not being processed here but instead are simply being passed along to Free France, which is completely wrong.
Files: 1 jpg
1015 Vichy Post #143 Lars 09.02.05 12/3/2001
Iraq oil is going to Free France after Vichy is declared, even though Syria went Vichy.
1016 Vichy Post #147 Rob W. 09.02.05 12/3/2001
PM 7.12.10 state that French Oil Points should go to Vichy, but go to the installing major power instead. This might be ok. It should depend on who controls the hex in which the oil point resides.

[palad1n]

Some interesting points. For France to control the Netherlands means that the CW refused control; as an aside the Netherlands is generally always a incompletly conquered country until/unless the Japanese take out NEI. The probability of Spain and/or Portugal being aligned/conquered by France approaches the infitisimal. France has far too much on its plate to worry about these minor countries. These are events that may only occur if Germany decides to not invade France. I have only played one game where this happened and Spain/Portugal were still not anywhere the game plan - sort of WWI all over again.

Want to see the game being played? The Australian WiFCon starts late Feb (24th Feb to 4 Mar). E-mail Robin Walters auswifcon@gmail.com for details. Harry will be there.

Seeing is believing.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: palad1n

Some interesting points. For France to control the Netherlands means that the CW refused control; as an aside the Netherlands is generally always a incompletly conquered country until/unless the Japanese take out NEI. The probability of Spain and/or Portugal being aligned/conquered by France approaches the infitisimal. France has far too much on its plate to worry about these minor countries. These are events that may only occur if Germany decides to not invade France. I have only played one game where this happened and Spain/Portugal were still not anywhere the game plan - sort of WWI all over again.

Want to see the game being played? The Australian WiFCon starts late Feb (24th Feb to 4 Mar). E-mail Robin Walters auswifcon@gmail.com for details. Harry will be there.

Seeing is believing.

Welcome to the forum.[:)]

Yes, the whole issue with France aligning/conquering countries is obscure at best. But if the product is released to thousands of new players, they are going to do really unusual things vis-a-vis DOW et al. The code has to handle those circumstances. Even experienced players might leave France alone and take on the USSR first, which gives France little to do, except get into trouble somewhere.

When starting a new game from scratch only takes 10 minutes to set up all the units, the penalty for trying out really dumb things is a lot smaller. Add the ability to restore saved games from any point you desire in under 10 seconds, and the likelihood of players going far afield from what is usual/reasonable is going to happen a lot.

The MWIF beta testers have proven this to be true over the years, and there have been only 100 or so of them.

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: macgregor

I know this much; somewhere Harry Roland is smiling down on this. I find it fascinating to the degree matrix WIF has avoided trying to make a game based on wif -using whatever advantage the computer would offer to redesign it with more detailed combat and events, and instead, making wif; the boardgame experience on the pc. I'm hoping for a virtual beverage(coke no ice) and maybe some virtual non perils(though pistachios would probably make for better graphics with sound.)
[:D]

They learned their lesson from EiA, where they tried to make an EiA-based computer game and ended up with poo on a plate.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

February 1, 2012 Status Report for Matrix Games’ MWIF Forum

Accomplishments of January 2012

Sorry for the delay in posting this but I have been hip deep in reinstalling Indy10 for the past couple days.

Project Management
I monitored all the threads in the MWIF World in Flames forum daily.

My retina specialist says there is measurable improvement in my eye: the melanoma has shrunk by 20%. Enough of the excess retinal fluid has been reabsorbed that the before and after pictures show a clear image where previously it had been cloudy to the point of being opaque. While all of this is definitely good news, I still can’t really use my left eye for much except avoiding walls. And it still messes up my ability to see out of my right eye. As for my other malady, I sent off a new sample to Chicago for urinalysis, so I should know in the next couple of weeks if the changes I have made in my diet have eliminated the risk of a second kidney stone. Life without chocolate is just so sad.

Hardware and Software
I have discovered bugs in the Indy10 library when sending HTTP requests that include cookies. Specifically, Indy10 successfully captures the cookie returned by the HTTP Server in the response to the first request, but does not insert the cookie into subsequent requests to the HTTP Server. This has caused me difficulty in trying to access the Netplay Private Forum for World in Flames. There is more on the later below.

After looking around on the web and asking for help, I learned the Indy10 version that ships with Delphi 2010 is 10.5.5. The most recent version is Indy 10.5.8, so I am in the process of upgrading to that, since the routines for handling cookies were substantially rewritten early in 2011. Yesterday I downloaded over 300 files, one at a time - arrgh. I’ve got clean compiles on the 5 libraries and was able to add them to the list of MWIF project packages. But when I try to compile MWIF itself, I get an E2202 fatal error: Required package not found (IndyCore). I’ve got a request in to the person who has been helping me with this. Hopefully he can tell me how to circumvent this error.

The open items for Theme Engine remain unchanged: (1) scroll bars for the detailed map, and (2) its inability to display detailed listings of file directories (i.e., the dates and stuff when opening or saving a file).

Beta Testing
I released versions 9.03.02 (11 fixes), 9.03.03 (9 fixes), 9.03.04 (1 fix), 9.03.05 (7 fixes), 9.03.06 (19 fixes) and 9.03.07 (9 fixes) in January. I have version 9.04.00 ready to go (12 fixes), once I successfully install Indy 10.5.8. That’s 7 new versions and 70 fixes for the month. One of my changes in 9.03.03 caused the Land Combat Resolution phase to be skipped, so I hurried out the new version 9.03.04.

I spent a lot of my time on NetPlay. The fixes were scattered over the places in the code that have a history of being problematic. Here is where I fixed more than 1 bug:
• Naval combat - 11
• Reinforcements - 5
• Naval movement - 4
• Air rebase - 4
• Land combat resolution - 3
• Supply - 3
• Vichy - 3
• Conquest - 3
• Surrender - 2
• Victory - 2
• Reserves - 2
• DOW - 2
• US Entry - 2

Rob W. ran a complete set of tests on air missions involving carrier air units (with the optional rule for them both On and Off). Basically, he went through Rules As Coded section 14.4 and tested to see if the code performs in accordance with those rules. For the most part it does. I fixed some of the problems he found and I have about 10 left to do.

Saved Games
I fixed one bug that I discovered in restoring a game - it hadn’t occurred in any of the beta testers games.

Map, Units, and Scenarios
I fixed a couple of odd setup issues. But mostly this code remained intact.

Optional Rules
Nothing new.

Rules Precision
With the quasi-consent of the beta testers, I set the maximum production multiple for the US at 2.25. According to RAW it could get higher if the US enters the war early and the game goes past 1945. This limit prevents the US production from getting astonishingly high.

Player Interface
Private NetPlay Forum. This form is used by players to find opponents for NetPlay (i.e., playing over the internet). It is only available to players who have purchased the game, and is accessed from the Opening MWIF screen. It’s also used for each game session, letting players start/restart/join a game in progress. Because this form performs so many tasks, I split it into 5 layouts. This is a common design solution choice by me to deal with busy forms. The player simply clicks on one of the radio buttons in a list of 5 and the form is transformed into the selected layout.

Registration and posting a new request for Seeking Opponent are two of the layouts. The others are for: sending and receiving messages from other players, reviewing the post in the Seeking Opponent database, and reviewing games-in-progress. The last serves a second purpose: starting/restarting/joining a NetPlay game.

Internet - NetPlay
I did a lot of work on the World in Flames NetPlay Private Forum. The paragraphs that follow are from my current draft on the documentation for that. Following the text are screenshots of the Registration and New Post forms. All these sections currently work except for posting to the Seeking Opponent database. For that I need to get Indy10 Cookies to function correctly. I would welcome comments on my draft. This is complicated stuff and I would like the text to provide a lot of help for players who have no experience playing games over the internet.

Introduction
Matrix Games/Slitherine Games provides a dedicated server to host a private forum for World in Flames NetPlay games. Herein the abbreviation NPF is used to reference the NetPlay Private Forum. The purpose of NPF is to enable players to find opponents, chat with other players about NetPlay games, and begin NetPlay game sessions.

Besides the obvious advantage of encouraging the creation of a community of World in Flames internet players, the NPF also simplifies setting up an internet session by automating some technical details. For example, the players don’t need to type in their own or other players’ IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.

The NPF is only accessible by clicking on the button labeled Private WIF NetPlay Forum on the Opening Splash Screen. When you click on that button, the program validates your serial number. The first time you log in, the program then displays the registration form.

Registration
Registration is required for using the NPF. It is a fairly painless process since the program looks up the serial number. Note that the serial number data field can not be edited.

Be careful when choosing your user name and password, since you will not be able to modify them later. The program records all the registration information in the data file NetPlayRegistration.txt so you do not need to type it in each time you access the forum. You can always call up the registration form (using Change Port, described in the next section) to modify the other 3 data fields: residence, email address, and port number. Getting back to the user name and password, very few special characters are permitted. You may only use: a-z, A-Z, _ (underscore), and 0-9. Specifically, blanks are not allowed. The user name must be between 4 and 20 characters and the password between 5 and 20.

The tricky data field is the port number. To start with, MWIF sets it to a default value of 5950. Try using that. If you are able to receive messages from other players, then you can forget about the port number and ignore all the information in the next section. If you do change the port number, please use a value between 5950 and 5959.

Port Number
To set the value for your port number, you need to understand how MWIF uses ports. Unfortunately, that requires understanding some background information. Perhaps you already know a lot about port numbers, but for those readers who haven’t acquired that knowledge, I am going to go into some detail here. I have found that the best way to communicate technical information is by example. So, for explaining about port numbers, I am going to describe how I set the port numbers for my home computers.

I own 3 computers: a desktop running Windows 7, a laptop running Vista, and a Mac running the Mac operating system. Those systems go through my router to connect to the internet (via my phone’s land line). Although it doesn’t have a mouse, keyboard, or monitor, the router is also a computer. These 4 computers form a LAN (Local Area Network), with the router in charge of transferring messages between the computers. Because the router is my only access point to the internet, it handles all outgoing and incoming messages between my computers and the internet.

Each computer on my LAN is assigned a LAN address by the router. The router always uses 192.168.0.1. The other 3 computers get a similar LAN address, with only the last digit changing: to 2, 3, or 4. Which computer gets which LAN address depends on when they are powered up: first come first served. The important point here is that the LAN address is dynamically set by the router as computers connect/disconnect. The laptop usually gets either 192.168.0.3 or 192.168.0.4.

When one of my computers sends a message out to a website on the internet, the router notes which computer did so. That lets the router take the website’s response and send it back to the correct computer. As long as the connection originates from one of my computers, the router knows what to do with the response messages it receives. But if a message arrives unexpectedly from somewhere in the world, the message itself has to have sufficient information for the router to know to which computer to direct the message. That is where port numbers come in.

A port number is comparable to an extension on a phone line. When a message comes into the router, the router uses the port number to identify which of my computers should get the message. If I only had one computer, then I would not need a specific port number to play MWIF over the internet. The default port number would be fine. But because I have multiple computers, I need to have a different port number for each of my computers. The port number is associated with the LAN Address. I set those up using my router’s software. After I have the associations between port numbers and LAN addresses in place, the router can translate a port number into a LAN Address, and knows to which computer to send the incoming message.

Each LAN Address has its own set of port numbers for MWIF. I’ve assigned ports 5950, 5951, 5952, and 5953 to 192.168.0.2 (a LAN Address), ports 5954-5956 to 192.168.0.3, and 5957-5959 to 192.168.0.4. Theoretically, I could assign just 1 port number for each computer on my LAN. But since I have 10 available, I used them all. If I buy another computer someday, I’ll have to revise which port numbers are associated with which LAN Address.

Continuing the analogy of a port number being an extension, the router’s IP (Internet Protocol) Address is comparable to a phone number. When my router is turned on, it connects to my ISP (Internet Service Provider) which assigns my router an IP Address. The value of the IP Address is dynamically assigned, so I can not depend on it being the same from day to day. Because all my computers go through the router, they have the same IP Address. In order to play MWIF over the internet, the players’ computers need to know the IP Addresses and port numbers for the other players’ computers. The IP Address acts as the phone number and the port address acts as the extension. This combination lets the Internet direct the message to my router (using the unique IP Address) and the router to direct the message to the correct computer (using the port number to look up the associated LAN Address).

Mercifully, NPF takes care of figuring out everyone’s IP Address so you never need to worry about that.
NPF records each player’s IP Address every time he logs in and stores the current value as part of the data it has for the player. Although IP Addresses can be dynamic, NPF always has on hand each player’s current IP Address when a game session starts. It sends that information out to all the players automatically: no typing required.

You might need to change your port number from time to time (see section 6.1.3.7). I do that when my laptop LAN Address changes. If it has the LAN Address 192.168.0.3, I use port number 5955. When it is given the LAN address 192.168.0.4, I use 5957. Clicking on the Change Port radio button lets me do that easily. After I change my port number, MWIF logs me out of the NPF and immediately logs me back in again, sending my new port number to the NPF so its data about me is up-to-date.

Messages Layout
After you have registered your game, (and when you log in after you have registered), MWIF brings up the NPF form so you can see what if happening in the forum. There is a slight delay at this time while the program connects to the forum and downloads data on the current status of the forum. Figure 6.3.1.C shows the layout for sending messages and reviewing those that you have received. The program will also ‘ping’ the NPF every 2 and a half minutes so the NPF doesn’t ‘drop’ you from the list of on-line players.

You can create a new message at the bottom of the form and then click on the Send Message button to send it to all the players currently on-line. The list of players currently on-line is displayed in the upper left. You might want to refresh that list from time to time. Whenever you desire, you can clear all the text from the New Message and Messages Received panels by selecting all the text (Ctrl-A) and then pressing Delete on your keyboard.

Seeking Opponent Layout
Players who are seeking opponents can post information about what they would like to play, where they live, and when they would like to play. Let’s call this ‘Requests’. Those requests are collected in a database and remain active for 1 month, or until they are removed by the original poster. The complete list of Seeking Opponent requests is displayed in a grid in the upper right of this layout. See section 6.3.1.5 for a description of each of the fields in this grid.

By clicking on a request in the Seeking Opponent grid, you can review all the replies to the request in the bottom right corner (see figure 6.3.1.D). You can send your own reply by entering it in the lower left corner and clicking on Seeking Opponent - Reply. If you want to review the proposed optional rules from the original post, click on the Optional Rules column in the Seeking Opponent grid. That will bring up the standard Optional Rules Help form (see figure 6.3.1.E).

New Post Layout
When you want to add a new post to the list of Seeking Opponents, click on the radio button labeled New Post. That brings up the form shown in figure 6.3.1.F. The data fields for this form are described fairly well in the form itself. Please only enter the name for one of the scenarios. If you have an interest in playing other scenarios, then create a separate post. The program stores the values you type in, so the next time you access this form, the form is preloaded with the values you used last time.

Side is the side you want to play. If you have no preference, you should enter Either in that data field.

Optional rules has a label that provides a general description of the optional rules you want to use. The purpose of the label is to communicate quickly to other forum members how you would like to play the game vis-a-vis optional rules. If you want to use a lot of optional rules in the Advanced Set, then that is what you should enter. Novice players will then know to avoid playing against you. But more experienced players may express an interest in being your opponent.

You can craft exactly which optional rules you want to use by clicking on the Specific Optional Rules button and using the Optional Rules Help form (see figure 6.3.1.D). Notice that this form has 4 buttons on the middle right which let you start from something close to what you want to use: Novice, Standard, Advanced, and Personal. From those starting points you can tweak individual rules On/Off by right clicking on them. Left clicking on an optional rule brings up a description of the rule; it is the same text that appears in the Players Manual. Your Personal Set of optional rules can be created using the Start New Game form (see section 4.3).

Days of the week is simply when you would like to play. This is a free form field so you could type in: “any day except Mo or Tu”. Hours per session is simply how long you want to play each time you start a session with your opponent. What you enter in these two fields has no effect on the game itself. Their sole purpose is to start a discussion with your prospective opponent about when and for how long you would play.

PBEM
Nothing new.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Nothing new.

Rules as Coded (RAC) & Player’s Manual
I uploaded a half dozen changes to RAC for the Matrix Games Editor. These were all clarifications from Harry that I hadn’t inserted into RAC previously. A couple were recent, from November, but most were from the first half of 2011.

I wrote my first draft of section 6.3.3 (see above), which describes setting up a NetPlay game. Because of the introduction of the NetPlay Private Forum (NPF) into that sequence, most of the text and the screenshots are about the NPF.

Tutorials, Training Videos, and Context Sensitive Help
I decided to eliminate the one missing page in the Picture and Text tutorials. It was suppose to describe bidding for major powers, but that topic is a little too complex to describe in a half page of text. I simply cut it off my task list. Other than that, nothing new here.

Historical Video, Music, and Sound Effects
Nothing new.

Marketing
Nothing new - unless you count the After Action Report that Aaron worked on diligently throughout January.

[Taxman66]

Thanks Shanon, that's a big help in regards to understanding the port numbers and their association to the dynamic IP Addresses. But where do you assign the ports to the IP address? And how do you determine your own base IP address (if that's necessary).

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

Thanks Shanon, that's a big help in regards to understanding the port numbers and their association to the dynamic IP Addresses. But where do you assign the ports to the IP address? And how do you determine your own base IP address (if that's necessary).

Well, there is a smaller second button on the Opening Splash screen, right next to the one for going to the NPF. The 2nd button goes to Test NetPlay Communications. That form lets you find your computer's IP Address and also its LAN Address. You can then test sending and receiving messages to/from another player. The purpose of the Test form is to let players see if the default port number works, and to try others if it doesn't. A later section of the Players Manual (6.6 I think) describes how to use that form.

---

You don't assign a port to an IP Address; you assign it to a computer. The router (I am assuming you have a router here) has to assign the port numbers to the LAN Address. It also assigns the LAN Address to the computers - dynamically.

The process for assigning port numbers to LAN Addresses probably varies depending on the router manufacturer. I can only tell you what it is for my NETGEAR router, but all the other routers have to be doing something similar. The vocabulary they use might differ.

[I'll add the following to the Players Manual, but right now I am not sure exactly where.]

I access the router (remember it is a computer) using IE Explorer or Firefox by typing in the LAN Address for the router (192.168.0.1) where I typically type in a WWW address. That brings up the NETGEAR Settings page. There's a lot of stuff there. One of the indices is for Port-Forwarding/Port Triggering. Using that I add or edit a Service to assign port numbers to LAN Addresses. The screenshot explains it better than I can.

[Joseignacio]

Steve, sorry to come up with the dreaded question but, after so many months from a predicted date, I cannot see the end close.

I know you wont give a date. Could you speak about a certain year as a prospective date?

I am pretty shy to ask this, and I totally understand if you are still not prone to do so. Just I was wondering, in order to check the advances of the game as frequently or less frequently (if it's going to last for several yers still).

Glad to hear your health improves, I hope Red Prince is also 100% recovered.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

Steve, sorry to come up with the dreaded question but, after so many months from a predicted date, I cannot see the end close.

I know you wont give a date. Could you speak about a certain year as a prospective date?

I am pretty shy to ask this, and I totally understand if you are still not prone to do so. Just I was wondering, in order to check the advances of the game as frequently or less frequently (if it's going to last for several yers still).

Glad to hear your health improves, I hope Red Prince is also 100% recovered.

I'll go out on a limb here and say before July 1 of this year. As to what will be included in the first release - I will not comment on that at this time.

[bo]

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

Steve, sorry to come up with the dreaded question but, after so many months from a predicted date, I cannot see the end close.

I know you wont give a date. Could you speak about a certain year as a prospective date?

I am pretty shy to ask this, and I totally understand if you are still not prone to do so. Just I was wondering, in order to check the advances of the game as frequently or less frequently (if it's going to last for several yers still).

Glad to hear your health improves, I hope Red Prince is also 100% recovered.

Jose, ole, ole. How are you. Are you playing adg's WIF or should I say using it to gear up for MWIF? Tough to play yourself isn't it. Good question for Steve[;)] glad I didn't ask it[:-]
Just emailed Red and he is starting to feel a little better but it has been a rough winter for him. Please send over one of Madrid's finest doctors and get Red up and going again because Steve sure could use him [ not a dig Steve its the new me[&o]] Read his Feb report and I did not fine it encouraging but his answer to you picked up my spirits somewhat. Hurry Steve so I can stop playing this stupid COD2 because I am getting crushed by 10 year olds.

Bo

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: bo

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

Steve, sorry to come up with the dreaded question but, after so many months from a predicted date, I cannot see the end close.

I know you wont give a date. Could you speak about a certain year as a prospective date?

I am pretty shy to ask this, and I totally understand if you are still not prone to do so. Just I was wondering, in order to check the advances of the game as frequently or less frequently (if it's going to last for several yers still).

Glad to hear your health improves, I hope Red Prince is also 100% recovered.

Jose, ole, ole. How are you. Are you playing adg's WIF or should I say using it to gear up for MWIF? Tough to play yourself isn't it. Good question for Steve[;)] glad I didn't ask it[:-]
Just emailed Red and he is starting to feel a little better but it has been a rough winter for him. Please send over one of Madrid's finest doctors and get Red up and going again because Steve sure could use him [ not a dig Steve its the new me[&o]] Read his Feb report and I did not fine it encouraging but his answer to you picked up my spirits somewhat. Hurry Steve so I can stop playing this stupid COD2 because I am getting crushed by 10 year olds.

Bo

I happen to know who the 10 year old is, and I think you're going easy on him. [;)] (I did the same with my niece when she was younger -- she hates to lose [:D] )

[bo]

ORIGINAL: Red Prince

ORIGINAL: bo

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

Steve, sorry to come up with the dreaded question but, after so many months from a predicted date, I cannot see the end close.

I know you wont give a date. Could you speak about a certain year as a prospective date?

I am pretty shy to ask this, and I totally understand if you are still not prone to do so. Just I was wondering, in order to check the advances of the game as frequently or less frequently (if it's going to last for several yers still).

Glad to hear your health improves, I hope Red Prince is also 100% recovered.

Jose, ole, ole. How are you. Are you playing adg's WIF or should I say using it to gear up for MWIF? Tough to play yourself isn't it. Good question for Steve[;)] glad I didn't ask it[:-]
Just emailed Red and he is starting to feel a little better but it has been a rough winter for him. Please send over one of Madrid's finest doctors and get Red up and going again because Steve sure could use him [ not a dig Steve its the new me[&o]] Read his Feb report and I did not fine it encouraging but his answer to you picked up my spirits somewhat. Hurry Steve so I can stop playing this stupid COD2 because I am getting crushed by 10 year olds.

Bo

I happen to know who the 10 year old is, and I think you're going easy on him. [;)] (I did the same with my niece when she was younger -- she hates to lose [:D] )

No Red not my grandson but every other 10 year old in Cod2, I swear they have 9 fingers on their left hand to do the fantastic moves they do, my computer is about a full one half second behind because the server is 3000 miles away in San Jose. Thats San Jose California, Jose, not Spain.[;)] I shot at one of them yesteday and he jumped left and spun and my bullets went under him and he spun again to the right and blew me away and I got a hehe from him on the screen. STEVE HELP!

Bo