AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Norm Koger's The Operational Art of War III is the next game in the award-winning Operational Art of War game series. TOAW3 is updated and enhanced version of the TOAW: Century of Warfare game series. TOAW3 is a turn based game covering operational warfare from 1850-2015. Game scale is from 2.5km to 50km and half day to full week turns. TOAW3 scenarios have been designed by over 70 designers and included over 130 scenarios. TOAW3 comes complete with a full game editor.

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kmitahj
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AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by kmitahj »


* What is the AA patch?

The 'AA patch' fixes a well known bug in TOAW v3.4 (version 3.4.0.202 to be precise) that allows only units with the Anti-Aircraft (AA) icon to fire at aircraft.


* How to install it:

Unzip and then drop the "AAA2Opart 3" executable in the TOAW folder, make a shortcut to the desktop and double click on it. It will start a version of TOAW with the latest v3.4 that also includes the AA-patch.


* Where it comes from:

This patch is a home made, unofficial modification of the binary "Opart 3" exe file (version 3.4.0.202) made in an effort to find a fix for the so-called AA-bug. It is the result of modifying (or hacking) the latest official TOAW exe file (by me) and as such has nothing to do with regular software development process in general, nor with MATRIX Games company. Matrix was NOT INVOLVED in creation of that patch, it DOES NOT SUPPORT it in any way and is NOT RESPONSIBLE for any possible problems you may encounter if you decide to use the patch. As it is in no way associated with Matrix one may rightly ask what is Matrix's position regarding this patch. That is good question no doubt - and the one for which I don't know the answer yet. Given current situation I hope that Matrix won't take issues with it (nor me personally - if I didn't hope so I certainly would not post it on Matrix official forum after all!) Once Matrix restarts the official development of TOAW, the need for such binary patch will go away as it will be superseded - hopefully soon - by an official release of version 3.5 or similar.


* History

This project started when I looked for a way to improve gameplay in one particular WWII scenario I was interested in. I wanted to play it with version 3.4 but I wanted also to cure the AA problem. For reference (most people reading this know it better then me) the AA problem existing in version 3.4 means that no units other then those with a AA icon ever use their AA-capable equipment to defend itself (and/or their neighbour units) against air attacks. Having some programming background and being crazy enough, I decided it was worth to try fixing it and thus some time later I got working on a first version of the patch. Then I posted timidly a note about the patch on the forum and a few guys responded with interest to try the patch. Some were even kind enough to spend some time testing it and thanks to their help and positive feedback a second, improved and hopefully final version of AA patch was created. This version is the one that avoids Air units to participate in AA fire and is the one that is now distributed.


* How it works

It is fortunately a simple matter: in the original program (version 3.4) a procedure responsible for calculating total low-altitude AA-fire strength when looking through all units in the attacked hex (and sometimes also through units from neighbour hexes depending on map scale) was explicitly checking if given unit belongs to AA-unit class and was skipping all units which did not. That is why only AA units were contributing to 'Flak' fire. The patch changes that behaviour so that now that same procedure allows all units to participate in anti-aircraft fire (as long as they have any AA-capable equipment of course) with the exception of AIR units (without explicit exclusion of AIR units there would be a very ugly effect where air units would participate to AA fire twice, an effect dubbed by players testing the first version of the patch as "SAM effect" or "SAM I-16").
You can verify the simplicity of the patch yourself by using any tool capable of making binary comparisons between files. Comparing the patched file with the original "Opart 3" you should find only three bytes of difference between the two. Yup, only three bytes flipped amongst over 26MB (much ado about nothing one can say!). This is worth to underscore as it may ease somewhat fears of people concerned about security.


* Is it good enough?

Thanks to testing made so far I'm reasonably sure that it works as I intended from a technical point of view (well, because of mentioned above simplicity of the patch there is not that much that could go awry really). However, I'm only a beginner TOAW player and have literally zero scenario design experience so I'm not in position to make a judgment. Feedback of experienced scenario designers gives me enough confidence to think that it may have some good chance to be a solution, if a temporary one, at best until TOAW v3.5 comes out.
However if you are an experienced player or designer, you can decide yourself if the patch is good enough for you and/or for the scenario you're playing or designing. And if you don't feel experienced enough I think you shouldn't consider using the patch unless the designer of a specific scenario you're about to play advices that it is worth doing so.


*** DISCLAIMER ***

Despite all the testing, please remember that I CAN NOT give you any guarantee regarding the patch, and thus I hereby declare that I take no responsibility for any damages or problems (technical, legal or of any other nature) which may result from using the patch. The patch is only shared "as is", so if you have any doubts about it, stay away and don't touch it even with 10-foot pole! Your choice, your risk.
All I can say is that if you find an actual problem with the patch, you can contact me and I will TRY to help and/or to make a fix.


* Availability

So far I've sent final version of the patch to a few interested parties under the name "AAA2Opart 3". Not the best name to be sure but because I've already used it I think to avoid confusion it's better to stick to that name no matter how silly. Of course if you decide to distribute the patch (with your scenario or otherwise) feel free to adjust the name as you see fit, but please provide either these notes or in other way make sure to explain to potential players the nature of the patch and that it is not supported or endorsed by MATRIX company.
If you have read carefully all the above (particularly the Disclaimer section!) and nevertheless you are still willing to give it a try you can get the final version of the patch from following location: https://www.dropbox.com/s/joedmf8xlfm86 ... rt%203.zip


* Checksums

To make it easier to verify the identity of the patch (thus avoiding any mistakes or possible malevolent fakes reposted as the original patch) below are checksums of the (final) patch version:

MD5: 4887107d99e08db5888c48746ae27319
SHA-1: 36a1b3de471b12dde2a78d7a5324069c404374e4
SHA-256: 2f9496d54f6139798c8f32a2b75efb1b07cd78f77f75ed6e858d324aee30b4a3

You can and should take your time and verify patch identity before using it. There are many freely available programs which can help you doing just that (example: WinMD5Free, or google: "free md5 checksum program").


* Acknowledgments
A well deserved "thanks" to all these who expressed their interest in the patch. Without such interest there would have not been any reason for me to polish its first version. I would like to thank specially Fabio Governato and Colonel Klink who both invested their time and knowledge into testing of the patch providing invaluable feedback and words of encouragement. Fabio, Klaus it was fun and pleasure - thank you!


ColinWright
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by ColinWright »

Good stuff. Thanks.
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by LLv34_Snefens »

Looking forward to testing it.
I named my file TOAWAAA, pronounced with a Schwarzenegger "get to the choppa" accent :)
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Silvanski
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by Silvanski »

Fine job. Will carry out some tests with scenarios I'm very familiar with
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by Oberst_Klink »

ORIGINAL: Silvanski

Fine job. Will carry out some tests with scenarios I'm very familiar with
Try Boonie Rat's VCO! Uncle Ho's boys take on the 'chopppaaaassss...';)

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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by josant »

I do a simple test scenario and those are my conclusions:
The scenario have many units:
-the unit A: this unit is with AA icon and is equiped with Patriots
-the unit B: this unit is with infantry icon and is equiped with Patriots
-the unit C: this unit is with infantry icon and is equiped with Patriots
-the unit D: the attacking unit equiped with ouragan airplanes
The scale is set to 25Km so the patriots have a range of 2 hexes.


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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by josant »

In the first test D unit attack A unit and the result was this:


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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by josant »

the second test was attack unit C (a non AA icon unit) and the result was:


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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by josant »

And the third test was attack a unit near the B unit to check if the unit participate in combat (it have a range of 2 hexes)


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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by josant »

The conclusión is that the patch work very well, units whit no AA icons also participates in AA combats (within their range)

kmitahj, has done a good job, thanks [&o]
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by Oberst_Klink »

ORIGINAL: josant

The conclusión is that the patch work very well, units whit no AA icons also participates in AA combats (within their range)

kmitahj, has done a good job, thanks [&o]
Hurrah, it confirms all my hours of tests with post-WW2 scenarios! Viva Kapitan Kloss; who's now on a little holiday he surely deserves!

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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by mllange »

Very nicely done, drinks all around!
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by PRUSSIAN TOM »

Excellent...now Manstein can get back on track demolishing my troops!

Thanks for the fix! [&o][&o][&o]
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by Silvanski »

Seeing is believing. The Wehrmacht can reap the benefits of their 88mm Dual Purpose Guns, as was intended. Good job [&o]

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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by Catch21 »

Agree with all, brilliant job, thanks!

But it's surely a sign of the state of the TOAW system (and its development) as a whole when we have to stoop to modifying binary exes rather than the traditional route. Couldn't MG permit someone (kmitahj?) to modify the source code (and in what would seem to be in the final analysis such a simple fix) given no-one else has been around to do it for years now?

But yes, sir kmitahj
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Catch21
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by Catch21 »

Since I duplicated a post in error- and apologies- might as well use it- any news on TOAW Development or clever interested parties like kmitahj being given access to source code?

LATE EDIT: Ah, I see: tm.asp?m=3364185&mpage=1&key=
Tactics are based on Weapons... Strategy on Movement... and Movement on Supply. (J. F. C. Fuller 1878-1966)
captain10
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by captain10 »

I have a problem when I open the AA patch. I unzip it, and drop the "AAA2Opart 3" exe in the TOAW folder, I make the shortcut to the desktop, but when I try to open it I have a windows vista message that says:

"There is an error with your serial number as entered. Please contact supprt@matrixgames.com for assistance. Error Code: 2" [&:]

Any idea why this happen and what could I do to open it properly?

kmitahj
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by kmitahj »


Hi,
first I'd like to take the opportunity to say thanks to all testing, playing or posting comments on the patch. [:)]
Second:
ORIGINAL: carlos2012
"There is an error with your serial number as entered. Please contact supprt@matrixgames.com for assistance. Error Code: 2" [&:]

Any idea why this happen and what could I do to open it properly?
I'm in the middle of holidays and away from my PC so going here from my memory only: when TOAW starts there is indeed serial code check and the message you quote suggests that Matrix - for whatever reason - does not like the serial number it sees. The real thing to wonder here would be to me why the version you used so far does not raise any problem. It is delicate issue so I would prefer to refrain from guessing here. Normally the right course of action would be to follow the message advice and contact Matrix support. However we are talking here about UNSUPPORTED program mod so they would have good reason to turn you away. Second before contacting Matrix I would make sure that program you used so far is original indeed - especially if you got it not directly from Matrix but bought it from second hand source (easy way to check would be to get checksum of your "Opart 3" and then compare it with similar checksum from any reliable source).

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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by r6kunz »

I, for one, have not had a problem...works fine.
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RE: AA Patch - unofficial and temporary.

Post by Shazman »

ORIGINAL: carlos2012

I have a problem when I open the AA patch. I unzip it, and drop the "AAA2Opart 3" exe in the TOAW folder, I make the shortcut to the desktop, but when I try to open it I have a windows vista message that says:

"There is an error with your serial number as entered. Please contact supprt@matrixgames.com for assistance. Error Code: 2" [&:]

Any idea why this happen and what could I do to open it properly?


I had this message long ago. I can't recall why or how I resolved it. The AA patch works fine for me too. I renamed the original exe Opart 3 original.exe. Hopefully you kept it too. Maybe see if the original works.

Maybe uninstall and reinstall.
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