Patch news (3.5)

[Oberst_Klink]

ORIGINAL: Telumar

A bit off topic, but related:

ORIGINAL: Lobster

http://www.operationbarbarossa.net

Your signature...


They're building a 2.5 km / hex map of European Russia with TOAW (given the map size with the beta):

http://www.operationbarbarossa.net/mass ... rossa-map/

If only I could get hold of the parts of the map for my Kharkov '43 @2.5km....

Klink, Oberst

[Lobster]

1. Download the map sections you'll need from the Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas Libraries site.

2. Using a program like Paint Shop Pro from Corel, set the transparency to all white.

3. Using floodfill make the borders the transparant color.

4. Switching to the paint brush tool, white out the black borders using the same transparancy color as above.

5. Make a new image that equals the vertical and horizontal measurements of the map sections you are going to use, but after they are joined.

6. Make the first map section you want to apply to the new image the active image.

7. Using Edit copy the above image.

8. Make the new image from 5 the active image and paste the copied image from 7 into the new image placing it so everything you want for your Kharkov map will fit.

9. Repeat 6 through 8 until all your map sections are applied to the new image created in 5. WARNING: The number of sections you can paste into one new image will depend on

your system memory.

10. Once you've completed 9 then save your new image as a .bmp file.

11. Open the Opart Design & Debug program by Curt Chambers.

12. Click on Map Tool.

13. Import your newly created map image into the ODD map tool.

14. Click on the little hex in the menu bar at the top. The Scaling Toolbar will appear below.

15. Click on the Set Scale button on the bottom left.

16. Using the mouse left click on a section of the map and while you continue holding the left mouse button down click on a second section of the map. This process should be

made from one point to another point whose distance is accurately known. The AMS maps have a grid whose sides are 10km. Very handy, eh?

17. The Set Scale function will automatically produce the number of pixels from the first point to the second point and put the number in the box that is followed by the word

pixels=.

18. The next box is where you enter the distance in kilometers that pixel quantity equals. 10 for the AMS maps.

19. Skip over Starting X and Starting Y. These will be filled automatically.

20. The next box is where you enter your map scale per hex. For Klinks Kharkov map it would be 002.5. That's 2.5 km per hex.

21. Click on Draw Grid. The magic happens.

22. Save your newly grided map by clicking on Export.

23. Open Paint Shop Pro by Corel.

24. Load your newly grided map. Now the fun begins. Not really.

25. Start tracing roads, railroads and rivers through your map.

26. Determine which cities you want on the map and mark them.

27. Determine which hexes should be hills using the topo lines as guides.

28. Determine which hexes should be forest, woods, marsh, swamp, etc.

29. Once you have your map all marked up save it, close PSP by Corel and open TOAW by Matrix. Start the editor and load a new scenario.

30. Hex by hex copy each and every terrain, road and city hex type onto your new scenario.

31. Voila, you have a nice new shiney map for your new scenario.

Was this difficult? Nah. It was just a huge pain in the ass that would seemingly take forever for a measly four map sections for a Kharkov scenario. Now, how much time do you think it would take to do all of the Soviet Union and parts of Poland and Romania west of the Volga and north of the Black sea and Caucasus, over 208 map sections at 2.5 kilometer per hex? Bloody forever, that's how long. But now everyone knows how to do it themselves and can experience the fun and joy of working countles hours making accurate and nice looking maps.

My friend Panama always said time is a non renewable resource. Give me $10 for working an hour but can I take that $10 and go to the store and buy an hour? No. Once it's gone, it's gone forever. Not all the money in the world can get it back.

DISCLAIMER: All lunatic ravings are my own and do not reflect the views nor opinions of any other raving lunatic.

Klink, I would give you what you ask but it is not mine alone to give. Sorry bro.

[BigDuke66]

[:D] I bet that is no problem for zee Oberst, sounds like a cakewalk.

[Oberst_Klink]

I am not skilled in all the tedious map-making procedures I am afraid. Those days are long gone... remember me doing it for hours and days with Wargame Construction Set, Europe Ablaze, etc. back in the 80s.
What you could do for me is, well... ask the creator My guess is Kamerad Rick done bits of it or Goran? Anyway. I am busy atm sorting out the situation here on the rock (Cyprus), but will push my Kharkov '43 project back on the agenda soon )

Klink, Oberst

[nilgirip]

Sorry but am I the only one who got a boner when he saw that huge map?

[BigDuke66]

No, like all men I simply like the huge things too.

[Jo van der Pluym]

ORIGINAL: ralphtrick

Patch 3.5 is being actively developed again. We're making some good progress, and I'm hoping we can release it in the January-March time frame.

Two big items are a more complete Naval model and more units, etc. to allow for larger map sizes.

More detail will follow.

It's now more then a year later. But theres is still no news about the new patch. Now I am currious after the details and when can I expect the release of it?

[BigDuke66]

Or more can we expect anything at all?
I can understand when the patch is not done but I can't understand after all this time that we basically still have no clue what is really up with the game.

[Lobster]

The age of the Universe:

Big Bang-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now

When the 'patch' is done:

Big Bang-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Universe Ends---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------New Big Bang-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Patch Is Completed


Then there's the thing about, given enough time Fact becomes legend, legend becomes myth. Are we in the legend or the myth part? [:D][:D]

Just kidding of course. It will be done when the fat lady sings. Given that the world is trending towards obesity I'm kinda wondering exactly which fat lady because I'm pretty sure at least one of them has sung a song. [;)]

[BigDuke66]

Unacceptable, clean up after new Big Bang will take so long that we will surely be unable to play.

[ogar]

@Lobster,

Thanks for the detailed specs on map-making. All that time I sweated over 4 simple AMS sections for mapping Kutuzov, and I kept thinking I was doing it wrong. And I wasn't !! Thanks for the re-inforcement. Of course, I was screwing things up while map-making... but that's par for the course.

That Barbarossa map-making effort is magnificient. You have my admiration and my compliments. And I am glad that all the effort Panama put into his mapping did not simply vanish.

Getting this post back OT :
and simply for the fantastic projects like FItE2 and this Op. Barbarossa, I hope that TOAW 3.Real_Soon_Now actually does manifest in this universe.

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: Jo van der Pluym

ORIGINAL: ralphtrick

Patch 3.5 is being actively developed again. We're making some good progress, and I'm hoping we can release it in the January-March time frame.

Two big items are a more complete Naval model and more units, etc. to allow for larger map sizes.

More detail will follow.

It's now more then a year later. But theres is still no news about the new patch. Now I am currious after the details and when can I expect the release of it?

Ralph worked on it steady till 8/16. That was his last post. He still logs in regularly, though - last doing so yesterday, as of this post.

[Lobster]

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

Ralph worked on it steady till 8/16. That was his last post. He still logs in regularly, though - last doing so yesterday, as of this post.

In your opinion, how close to public beta is this?

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: Lobster

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

Ralph worked on it steady till 8/16. That was his last post. He still logs in regularly, though - last doing so yesterday, as of this post.

In your opinion, how close to public beta is this?

Unfortunately I can't talk about anything like that. Erik will have to make an announcement, and I doubt he will have anything to say until Ralph resurfaces.

The latest version still has some bugs but works well enough that games can be played with it with few problems (as a few posted AARs have shown).

[wodin]

I thought Ralph came back awhile ago???

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Lobster

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay
Ralph worked on it steady till 8/16. That was his last post. He still logs in regularly, though - last doing so yesterday, as of this post.

In your opinion, how close to public beta is this?

John Fogger and I are using 3.6.0.88 in our FITE game and I'm keeping an AAR on it. I haven't run into any game stoppers yet and
if I were in charge I'd release the 3.6.0.88 as the official beta to the TOAW gamers. But I'm not in charge.

[Lobster]

@Bob and Larry. This is very encouraging news indeed. Maybe a nice Christmas or New Years present. [:)]

[quertice]

so a patch before or later sure will be released?

I'm unsure if to buy toaw3 like christmas gift for me, but if I'll know in sure way that a cool patch will be released I won't doubt and I'll buy toaw3

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay
ORIGINAL: ralphtrick

Patch 3.5 is being actively developed again. We're making some good progress, and I'm hoping we can release it in the January-March time frame.

Sorry, but after all this time it is pretty difficult to take this seriously at all. You would think that Ralph and/or Erik could surface every couple of months with something to report.

One of the reasons I usually support Matrix is that MOST of their developers are very active on the fora, so the ones that are not make a very negative impression...

[BigDuke66]

Yea well that post was from last year so basically were are almost 1 year overdue.

What again irritates is that the Patch seems to be far enough developed to do a public beta but still we are left out.
A public beta now would come very handy for the current sale as people will like the holiday price but will likely hesitate to buy as long as a very much needed patch is still somewhere behind the horizon.
It's not only that, if all the big changes of the patch are really coming that lifts TOAW III to a new higher level that what would give even more reason to buy.
But with a patch that is need but that may or may not come they could also simply wait till next years holiday sale or the year after or the year after or the year after....