Someone Please Update/Revise/Mod/Patch/Refresh/Revise

Time of Fury spans the whole war in Europe and gives players the opportunity to control all types of units, ground, air and naval. Not only that, each player will be able to pick a single country or selection of countries and fight his way against either the AI or in multiplayer in hotseat or Play by E-Mail. This innovative multiplayer feature will give player the chance to fight bigger scenarios against many opponents, giving the game a strategic angle that has no equal in the market. The game uses Slitherine’s revolutionary PBEM++ server system.

Moderator: doomtrader

Post Reply
User avatar
Hairog
Posts: 1587
Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2000 8:00 am
Location: Cornucopia, WI

Someone Please Update/Revise/Mod/Patch/Refresh/Revise

Post by Hairog »

This was so close to working. Just a few more tweaks.

Some smart bunch of programmers should mod or reissue this almost classic. It's maddening how close this was to being the definitive strategic level WWII game.

Use for example Strategic Command series. It's doing very well as Strategic Command Three. Lots of mods, interest and sales from what I can see.

There has got to be someone in the mod community or the original developers who can bring this excellent simulation back to life. If they can do it for SC3 someone can do it for ToW.

I'll pay another $50. There doing it with Operational Art of War too.

IL2 - 1946 was written eleven years ago and the mod community has created a master-piece with B.A.T and VP not to mention the continued official updates.
WW III 1946 Books
SC3 EAW WW Three 1946 Mod and Naval Mods
WarPlan and WarPlan Pac Alpha and Be
User avatar
Rasputitsa
Posts: 2902
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2001 8:00 am
Location: Bedfordshire UK
Contact:

RE: Someone Please Update/Revise/Mod/Patch/Refresh/Revise

Post by Rasputitsa »

There is still a lot of mileage in ToF, but it is hard work keeping the game going. The surprise discovery of the Matrix v1.06 recently, not previously issued, has generated a spark of interest. However, in line with the previous history of this title, efforts to fix some problems have introduced new ones. v1.06 seems to have dealt with the CTDs at start-up, at least in the configuration and scenarios which I am using, with complete reliability opening the game. Both STEAM and Matrix v1.06 have thrown up a new error, in that the 'armor in city' combat modifier is being applied in all attacks against armoured units, whether in a city, or not. The 'armor in city' modifier cuts down armoured units by 50%, which is a big hit if applied in all defending odds, although this can be edited to a lower figure, or eliminated completely at the cost of losing the city effect on armour.

Also in v1.06 the game has started to refer to divisions as corps and corps as armies, not a game breaker, but irritating after all these attempts to fix the game, one step forward, ??? steps back.

I prefer the Fall Gelb scenario, as having the most variation possible and the AI has little problem in simulating the Western Allies and the Soviet Union during 1940/41/42 and if the Axis is not on the way to winning by 1942, then the game's up for them anyway. There has been a bug which crashes the scenario when the US tries to enter the war sometime in 1941, but now in v1.06 in several test games the US bug hit in 'Fall Gelb' turn 2. The solution is whilst playing the Axis, keep the US under human control and out of the war, except for manual PP transfers to the other Allied Nations (Lend/lease).

I have decided to stay with v1.05, which has the 'Fall Gelb' US bug, but usually much later in the game, or it may just be fate, but either way, the fix is the same.

All versions of the game since v1.01 have not been applying Terrain combat modifiers (except for Poland) and the fix is to move these modifiers from the main scenario 'consts.ini' file into each 'country_consts.ini' file, with the added advantage that now terrain effects can be applied separately and varied for each nation (e.g. Switzerland gets an advantage in mountains, etc.)

Moving Command features into 'country_consts.ini' file could introduced more varied and historical C&C capabilities, but it is not clear how much of the commander modifiers the game is actually applying.

I have overcome the CTDs at start up in v 1.05 (fixed in v1.06) by a start routine of loading smaller scenarios first, then moving on the load bigger scenarios, or a saved game. The game seems to choke on the amount of data it has to load, so I have cut down the 'units images' folder from over 1000 images to around 600 and this seems to help.

The greater use of the 'country_consts.ini' file opens up the possibility of more variation in national performance, more accurately reflecting the differing performance of each nation, so in these files, with simple editing, lie many game fixes and potentially additional features for the game.

What I am describing is not a solution to the game problems, but more a way of managing them to keep the game running and improve the effects, whether this can be taken further into properly developing the game is unclear.

How much is wrong with the actual game system and how much is the result of scenario design and 'events' conflicts is debatable.

It's not going to be money (it's not going to be enough), but someone, or some group, with skills, prepared to take the interest in what could have been a great game.

Meanwhile, with a lot of intervention and tweaks there is still a good game to be had out of what is left. [:)]
"In politics stupidity is not a handicap" - Napoleon

“A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything” - Napoleon

“Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress" - Napoleon
gwgardner
Posts: 6909
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:23 pm

RE: Someone Please Update/Revise/Mod/Patch/Refresh/Revise

Post by gwgardner »

Wastelands once said that there would be a Time of Fury II, with a new underlying engine. Unfortunately, that statement was several years ago and I think the vision has died.

I thought about taking on the programming of bug fixes myself, but realized that whatever code language was used, the programming comments and design notes would all be in Polish.

I am currently enjoying modded Strategic Command 3, but it is on a smaller scale than Time of Fury. ToF remains for me the best WWII in Europe PC game available. With Rasputitsa's analysis and fixes it is superb solo, but a bit difficult to manage PBEM (ie coordinating the fixes with another player).

The same comments could be said about Storm Over the Pacific.

User avatar
Rasputitsa
Posts: 2902
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2001 8:00 am
Location: Bedfordshire UK
Contact:

RE: Someone Please Update/Revise/Mod/Patch/Refresh/Revise

Post by Rasputitsa »

ORIGINAL: gwgardner

Wastelands once said that there would be a Time of Fury II, with a new underlying engine. Unfortunately, that statement was several years ago and I think the vision has died.

I thought about taking on the programming of bug fixes myself, but realized that whatever code language was used, the programming comments and design notes would all be in Polish.

I am currently enjoying modded Strategic Command 3, but it is on a smaller scale than Time of Fury. ToF remains for me the best WWII in Europe PC game available. With Rasputitsa's analysis and fixes it is superb solo, but a bit difficult to manage PBEM (ie coordinating the fixes with another player).

The same comments could be said about Storm of the Pacific.

I am not sure how many of the problems are in the game system and how many are in the scenario design packages. I suspect that the game system is quite good, 'Fall Weiss' plays well with no real problems (except the terrain bug, but the fix is easy), however, the other larger scenarios seem to have conflicts and bugs which hit as the game progresses.

The USA CTD in 'Fall Gelb' is now happening almost immediately, within the first few turns, which means the USA has to be keep in player control and just managed as a background PP reserve for the Allies. F12 is invaluable in taking countries in and out of AI control during a game, also constantly game saving so that a scenario can be re-started, with different parameters, after a crash.

I wish I understood more about 'events', because I think solutions could be found in streamlining this feature.

The game can be managed in solo against the AI, by applying fixes and modifications as the game progresses, but that will not be adequate for a mass market.

I looked at SC3, but I can't get a 'feel' for it, the naval game seems wooden and it doesn't have the depth that ToF has (when it's working well).

It's like owning an old classic car, you know it can't be pushed beyond certain limits, it takes endless tweaking and hours under the hood, it leaves you stranded at the roadside in clouds of steam and puddles of oil, but when it's running sweetly it's magic and you forgive everything. [8D]

"In politics stupidity is not a handicap" - Napoleon

“A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything” - Napoleon

“Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress" - Napoleon
User avatar
ncc1701e
Posts: 10276
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:50 pm
Location: Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards

RE: Someone Please Update/Revise/Mod/Patch/Refresh/Revise

Post by ncc1701e »

ORIGINAL: Rasputitsa

I have decided to stay with v1.05, which has the 'Fall Gelb' US bug, but usually much later in the game, or it may just be fate, but either way, the fix is the same.

Now that I have resolved my CTD issue, do you have a link to the 1.05 version?
I have found 1.04 in the official download page for the product and 1.06 in another post.

But, looks like this link does not exist:
http://ftp.us.matrixgames.com/pub/TimeO ... e-v105.zip
Chancellor Gorkon to Captain James T. Kirk:
You don't trust me, do you? I don't blame you. If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it.
gwgardner
Posts: 6909
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:23 pm

RE: Someone Please Update/Revise/Mod/Patch/Refresh/Revise

Post by gwgardner »

...


User avatar
ncc1701e
Posts: 10276
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:50 pm
Location: Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards

RE: Someone Please Update/Revise/Mod/Patch/Refresh/Revise

Post by ncc1701e »

Thank you very much Sir!
Chancellor Gorkon to Captain James T. Kirk:
You don't trust me, do you? I don't blame you. If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it.
Post Reply

Return to “Time of Fury”