What's coming in the next public beta version

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West 1943-45 is the most ambitious and detailed computer wargame on the Western Front of World War II ever made. Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasions of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings you all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to your plan.

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Joel Billings
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What's coming in the next public beta version

Post by Joel Billings »

With 1.00.29 now official, we're close to releasing the next public beta version that we've been working on for the past 7 weeks. We hope this will be made available to download within the next week. The full list is below. Aside from bug fixes, the major changes are:

1) Map changes, primarily adding polder terrain to parts of the Netherlands that has the same effect as bocage. Although clearly different from bocage, they primarily gave advantages to the defender yet wasn't particularly harder to travel through given the road system. By making it similar to bocage, we were able to add it without having to add a new terrain type, which would have been much more difficult to do. This is something we had been wrestling with since before release, and given the historical difficulties of attacking through this terrain, we felt the change was desirable.
2) New game option that allows players to adjust the no beachhead penalty.
3) Reduced AFV attrition for very long distance moves (moving many hexes, say 15-40 in one turn was doing too much damage to AFVs).
4) Many tweaks and adjustments to the air game, many to improve combat results (see details below). Along with this are some aircraft data changes.
5) Many tweaks and adjustments to the naval game. Some involve naval interdiction values and others impact loss of transports and the troops on board.

We continue to try to improve the system as we receive feedback. Thanks to those that have provided bug reports and saves that allow us to test and improve various aspects of the game.




Change History:
V1.00.37 – 7 May 2015
• New Features and Rule Changes
1. Revised Map - Changed terrain in Africa in all scenarios (added some impassable hexes in several areas and new rough and impassable terrain near Tripoli). Renamed bocage terrain to bocage/polder terrain, and added bocage/polder terrain to the Netherlands. Although polder terrain has a different look on the map than bocage terrain, they have the same effects on movement and combat. These terrain changes will only exist in newly started games. Old games will retain the old terrain.
2. New Game Option - Added No Beachhead VP to the game options screen so these may be set by the players. This allows the player to adjust the victory points lost for failing to have the required beachheads as of February 1944 and July 1944. If the cumulative penalty box is checked, then the player can enter VPs lost each turn for each hex less than 10 in the required beachhead. In this case, the penalty becomes the maximum penalty possible for each requirement. The standard penalty is 400 for Feb 44 and 1000 for July 44.
3. New Rule - Isolated units will try to resupply themselves from depots to avoid isolation damage.
4. New Rule - Isolated units are not eligible to be sent to the East Front.
5. New Rule - When the defending force is less than 1 regiment (1 or 2 battalions), the battle is never stopped due to poor odds (i.e. the range will close to minimum range in every battle). The Torch expansion will have some on map battalion sized units.
6. Formula Adjustment - Reduced AFV attrition to units making very long distance moves.
7. Formula Adjustment - Made a change to displacement/rout movement priorities to try to limit rout movement of units from Africa to Europe.
8. Changes to Air game:
a. New Rule - Flights flying from size 1 airfields in poor and average road system hexes with light mud and heavy mud can get canceled. When planes fly from these bases they have higher chances for operational damage.
b. New Rule - Added chance for the extra flight disruption when aircraft gets damaged.
c. New Rule - Added extra damage effect to overloaded air fields that are bombed which increases with size of aircraft (engine number).
d. Formula Adjustment - Made AS interception more coordinated.
e. Formula Adjustment - Adjusted flight detection code.
f. Formula Adjustment - Adjusted AS interception and AS vs AS air combat routines.
g. Formula Adjustment - Added extra flight disruption when damaged by flak fire.
h. Formula Adjustment - Reduced damage done to aircraft on airfields (also increased importance of recon).
i. Formula Adjustment - Enhanced air base replacement code so it would replace evenly based on supply priority.
j. Formula Adjustment - Adjusted air base supply requirements - should check pilot crews available instead of aircraft.
k. Formula Adjustments – Adjusted day and night air combat routines. Slightly reduced damage done during air combat.
l. Formula Adjustment - Removed camera device modifier when calculating default load values.
m. New Interface - Added a pop-up message when air transports are not able to fly freight due to a lack of nearby freight to carry. This will come up after transports are selected and the launch button is pressed. The message will appear instead of a combat window and will state: Not Allowed! – freight shortage at transport air bases. Freight must be either at the base, or able to be moved to the base from depots (using previously unused vehicles if needed).
n. Revised Interface - Removed air execution messages when executing enemy's AD.
o. Increased interception resolution speed on high AD execution detail level.
9. Changes to Navel game (including aircraft created naval interdiction):
a. New Rule - Made fighter naval values reduce total naval interdict values, not only from the auto naval missions as before but also during air superiority flights.
b. New Rule - Naval interdiction can damage amphib HQs.
c. New Rule and Formula Adjustment - Increased interception effect of Amphib HQ. It will add naval interdiction. Both will be reduced when Amphib HQ gets damaged.
d. Formula Adjustment - Slightly increased efficiency for the naval type load out (mines, asw, torpedos).
e. Formula Adjustment - Increased effect of naval radar on naval interdiction.
f. Formula Adjustment - Made harder to generate high naval interdiction values.
g. Formula Adjustments – Adjusted cargo and troop ship losses. Changed naval move attrition formula (done by hex basis). 60% of affected unit personal should get damaged instead of disabled.
h. Interface Changes - Changed text message from "SUNK" to "HIT" when a transport is hit and removed from play. Added messages for men disabled (damaged) and lost (killed).
10. Map art - The hex data art file that sets terrain art is now loading only in editor or when starting a new scenario, so once a game is started, changes in the terrain art will not take place (map text changes will appear in old games as that file still gets loaded with each save).
11. Editor - Added new air group data fields to csv export (air insignia).



• Bug Fixes

1. CTD in air phase due to the big number of flights in single AD. Fixed.
2. An invading unit unable to make it to shore due to over-stacking in the invasion hex warped to a land hex far away. Fixed.
3. Escort planes could be adding to naval interdiction. Fixed.
4. Fixed naval radar assignment.
5. Wrong air doctrine values are used when intercepting by AS flights. Fixed.
6. AS can get canceled when intercepted by auto intercepts. Fixed.
7. Fixed completion of AS flights when attacked by another AS flights.
8. Fixed load out selection for the escorts. It will try to pick DT-only load out.
9. Fixed nationality pool mismatch when replacing Allied air base ground elements.
10. No supplies are being flown in even when the combat window shows up listing planes flying air transport. Fixed.
11. Fixed pilot/plane clearance routine.
12. Fixed 0 plane flights due to the bug in aviation support routine.
13. Planes from inactive air groups (delayed) can show up in losses list (written off planes). Fixed.
14. Fixed Air Superiority battle reports.
15. Airborne unis can be air transported when on rail or ships. Fixed.
16. Fixed a bug where fort units that were frozen were being given movement points when they unfroze.
17. VWeapon/VWweapon-launch counted as AFV in AD target priority screen. Fixed.
18. Flak regiment that has a delay of 989 shows up in rollover. Fixed.
19. Interception can get too big regardless of doctrine settings. Fixed.
20. Fixed Air Directive tab messages during air execution.


• Data and Scenario Changes

1. Added new terrain tiles for terrain changes.
2. Fixed some town spelling issues in the map text (and data) and added some additional map text in Africa.
3. Generic data files adjusted for map changes.
4. Added several new aircraft and leader photos.
5. Added an updated Go145 air icon.
6. Several new British air leaders and minor leader changes.
7. National morale for British ground units now goes up to 65 on Oct 1 1942 instead of Jan 1 1943.
8. OB changes for future Torch scenarios.
9. Scenario Changes:
a. Breakout and Pursuit:
* Allied Airfields on the temporary beach ports are now set to 100% MAX TOE
* Some missing airfield units were added (Witchford, Oakington, Graveley, and Lympne)
* Removed railyard damage in numerous locations in England
b. 1943 Campaign:
* 5th (Pz Grp West) now arrives on Turn 29 (22 January 1944)
* Production Fixes
c. June 44 Campaign - Production fixes
d. May 44 Campaign - Production fixes
e. Westwall - air group changes
f. Bulge - minor changes
10. Wfac.dat changes as listed below:

# Air Profiles #
Both Hungarian profiles - equivalent to Flight is named "Raj"
HU Fighter:
New air group sizes of 4-12-24, valid from 1/1943 (adoption of German-like organization)
HU Bomber:
Reduce default group size from 27 to 18 - 3-sqn groups were not used for a long time
New air group sizes of 4-12-24, valid from 1/1943 (adoption of German-like organization)

x New x
FI Generic
SOV Generic
SOV Fighter
SOV Bomber
SOV Ground Attack


# Aircraft #
All weapon set effects recalculated to take changes to recon cameras into effect
All aircraft exports to Slovakia end in 8/44
Endurance recalculation based on a more economical cruise speed: Ju 87, 88, 188 (all variants)
He 111H-3 and foreign variants - endurance +90 to 475
He 111H-6, H-11, H-16, H-20 and variants - endurance +75 to 445
Ju 88D-1 and variants - max alt + ~500 to 30k

0048 Go 145 - some data changes inclusive speed profile
0211 IAR 38 Rcn - renamed IAR 39 Rcn, adapted to IAR 39 performance stats, available as conversion from IAR 39 in 6/43
0225 Ju 52/3m (HU) - ends 5/44 now (to block imports in later scenarios)
0242 Bf 109G-10/U4(HU) - import -10 to 90 (~10 were G-10/R2 recons, added to G-8)
0247 Bf 109G-8(HU) - import +10 to 22 (~10 G-10/R2 recons)
0252 Bf 110G-4(H) - available some months earlier in 1/44
0257 He 46C (HU) - renamed He 46E-2 (HU), add two fwd MGs, maxspeed +13 to 174, cruise speed +3 to 140
0261 Ju 87D (HU) - ends 10/44 now
0262 Ju 88A-4 (HU) - ends 5/44 now (to block imports in later scenarios)
0263 Ju 88D-1 (HU) - ends 5/44 now (to block imports in later scenarios)
0266 Re.2000 Heja - reduce imports by 20 to 50 (~20 already in Hungary by 6/41)
0269 WM 21 - renamed WM 21 Solyom, production ends in 8/42 now
0279 Bf 109E-3(SL) - available some months earlier in 7/42
0281 Bf 109G-6(SL) - cut imports in half to 15
0287 Fw 189(SL) - ends 3/44
0289 Ju 87D(SL) - reduce imports by 10 to 30
0441 Bf 109G-6/AS - ends two months earlier in 6/44 due to availability of G-14/AS in 7/44
0690 P-47C - change to Fighter-Bomber, add bomb option, add 75 USG drop tank option available in summer 43 and 110 gal DT available in autumn
0691 P-47D-5 - replace 1000lbs bomb by 250lbs bomb - 1000lbs bombs only under wings but not in belly mount (lack of ground clearance)
0692 P-47D-15 - maxload +500 to 3000, some changes to droptank weapon sets
0694 A-36 Apache - upgrade changed to P-51B-1 Mustang (factory-only upgrade, unit upgrade handled by .exe induced path)
Fixed the A20B upgrade

Added more date overlaps to remove usage delays (only extensions shown below), multiple others had their availability date moved forward by a month.
0010 Bf 109G-14 - extended one month to 9/44
0550 Spitfire IX - extended one month to 7/43
0555 Spitfire PR.XI - extended one month to 3/45

x Type change x
0213 IAR 38 - reclassify as recon, upgrades to renamed IAR 39 Rcn

x Slot moves x
0015 Bf 109K-4 - delayed to 1/45, moved to slot 456, replaced by new Bf 109G-14/AS

x New x
0015 Bf 109G-14/AS, G-14 with high alt engine with performance as G-10, available 7/44 with build limit 33, upgrade to new 109K-4 location in 1/45
0271 Do 215B (HU) - Hungarian LR recon version
0272 He 111P (HU) - Hungarian LR recon version
0273 Ju 86K (HU) - K-2 Bomber converted into transport


All understanding comes after the fact.
-- Soren Kierkegaard
User avatar
Gettysburg
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:21 pm

RE: What's coming in the next public beta version

Post by Gettysburg »

Thank you Joel[:)] for this quick information.
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Rommel76
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Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2014 8:53 pm

RE: What's coming in the next public beta version

Post by Rommel76 »

Great!!
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Gettysburg
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:21 pm

RE: What's coming in the next public beta version

Post by Gettysburg »

No New beta patch today?[&:]
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