When?

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Edfactor

whenever its ready

Warspite1

Indeed so.

[Kriegsheld]

I just stumbled across this as I was surfing the web for info about WIF. I played WIF when it first came out. I still have the original game. It's great to see that it is being carefully converted for computer play. If you are looking for new beta testers, I would be happy to see if I can get up to speed on the current version and help out.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Kriegsheld

I just stumbled across this as I was surfing the web for info about WIF. I played WIF when it first came out. I still have the original game. It's great to see that it is being carefully converted for computer play. If you are looking for new beta testers, I would be happy to see if I can get up to speed on the current version and help out.

Welcome to the forum.[:)]

Maybe we should put out a nice rubber mat flooring since there seem to be a lot of people who stumble into this forum.[;)]

We are not currently looking for more beta testers. If I decide that a few extra hands would be useful, I'll post a request and leave the solicitation open for 9-10 days. That's how I've handled it in the past. So, if you check in weekly, you won't miss that request.

In the meantime, feel free to comment on all that you see. I am always looking for both positive and negative feedback from the forum members.

[Kriegsheld]

Thanks, Steve. Will do. I hope your eyesight is improving.

Krieg

[Jeff Gilbert]

Hi All, lurker checking in

Also reread Steve's first (Aug 05) update ... wow, sure have come a long way.

Steve, glad you are on the mend. Don't push yourself too hard too fast. We'll all wait [:)]

I'll pop back up on my lurker perch and wish all the best for a speedy recovery and a bug-free winter.

[elxaime]

Having lurked here for some years, I just wanted to add my hope that, as this lengthy development process continues, Shannon and others take time away to ensure they remain rested and in good health.

Some of the postings in the last couple of years have started to remind me of passages out of Heart of Darkness, where the protagonist becomes so obsessed that they lose a sense of proportion:

"Never see him! I saw him clearly then. I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live, and I shall see her too, a tragic and familiar shade, resembling in this gesture another one, tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms, stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness."

Or Moby Dick:

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"

Or The Agony and the Ecstasy:

Pope Julius II: When will you make an end?
Michelangelo: When I am finished!

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: elxaime

Having lurked here for some years, I just wanted to add my hope that, as this lengthy development process continues, Shannon and others take time away to ensure they remain rested and in good health.

Some of the postings in the last couple of years have started to remind me of passages out of Heart of Darkness, where the protagonist becomes so obsessed that they lose a sense of proportion:

"Never see him! I saw him clearly then. I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live, and I shall see her too, a tragic and familiar shade, resembling in this gesture another one, tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms, stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness."

Or Moby Dick:

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"

Or The Agony and the Ecstasy:

Pope Julius II: When will you make an end?
Michelangelo: When I am finished!

Well, knowing that Steve is married, I think his wife will keep him in check. I know my wife keeps me in check if I'm doing things I shouldn't do...[:D]

[brian brian]

or Kafka's Castle

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: elxaime

Having lurked here for some years, I just wanted to add my hope that, as this lengthy development process continues, Shannon and others take time away to ensure they remain rested and in good health.

Some of the postings in the last couple of years have started to remind me of passages out of Heart of Darkness, where the protagonist becomes so obsessed that they lose a sense of proportion:

"Never see him! I saw him clearly then. I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live, and I shall see her too, a tragic and familiar shade, resembling in this gesture another one, tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms, stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness."

Or Moby Dick:

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"

Or The Agony and the Ecstasy:

Pope Julius II: When will you make an end?
Michelangelo: When I am finished!

I'll go with Michelangelo as my role model.[:)]

I would suggest for the readers of this forum "We're waiting for Godot."[;)]

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: elxaime

Having lurked here for some years, I just wanted to add my hope that, as this lengthy development process continues, Shannon and others take time away to ensure they remain rested and in good health.

Some of the postings in the last couple of years have started to remind me of passages out of Heart of Darkness, where the protagonist becomes so obsessed that they lose a sense of proportion:

"Never see him! I saw him clearly then. I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live, and I shall see her too, a tragic and familiar shade, resembling in this gesture another one, tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms, stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness."

Or Moby Dick:

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"

Or The Agony and the Ecstasy:

Pope Julius II: When will you make an end?
Michelangelo: When I am finished!

I'll go with Michelangelo as my role model.[:)]

I would suggest for the readers of this forum "We're waiting for Godot."[;)]

I prefer "Waiting for the Sun" myself. It's much shorter. [:D]

[Shannon V. OKeets]

November 1, 2011 Status Report for Matrix Games’ MWIF Forum
Accomplishments of October 2011

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

Aaron has been set up as a second moderator for the World in Flames forums (both open and development). Way back in the beginning of this project, Graham was serving in that role but his real world issues have severely limited his availability.

No new surgery for me in October - a good month. My kidney stone is passed and past. I have an office visit with that doc scheduled to determine how to change my diet based on the lab’s urine analysis. The probability of a second kidney stone jumps to 20% (from 10%) after you have the first one. I really want to avoid that, even if it means not eating chocolate ever again. My left eye continues to improve after its surgery, although that doc says it will take another 4 months (at least) until it reaches its new normal. The new normal is likely to be 40% good vision and 60% partially occluded. The occluded vision includes the focal point, which is bad. Right now I have retinal fluid between the retina and the choroid, which causes a flickering image of constantly moving gray amoebas outlined in yellow light to appear in the occluded portion of my left eye. The flickering is also ‘seen’ by my right eye, so reading text is difficult. Once the natural, small ‘pumps’ within the eye remove the fluid, the flickering should go away - that is where the 4 months comes in.

Hardware and Software
Delphi 2010 is still misbehaving. When I get a chance, I’ll submit a full report on what is wrong to Embarcadero (which currently owns Delphi). I have the choice of paying them to fix their product, or merely asking them to do so. The latter choice comes with no guarantees that they will. But then neither does the former really.
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). Neither of these is important. Fixing Delphi has a low probability of fixing the problems with Theme Engine.

Beta Testing
I released versions 9.01.06 (27 fixes), 9.01.07 (12 fixes), 9.01.08 (8 fixes), 9.01.09 (11 fixes), 9.02.00 (24 fixes), 9.02.01 (5 fixes), 9.02.02 (10 fixes), 9.02.03 (16 fixes), 9.02.04 (3 fixes), and 9.02.05 (12 fixes) to the beta testers last month. This totals 10 new versions and 128 fixes, which is above my average numbers for a month. My improved effectiveness is due to good health and the help I get from Aaron and the beta testers (a new a capella group?) in fault isolating bugs, reporting them in detail, and providing saved games so I can recreate them.

About half the new bugs are due to recent changes I make. As always I have to decide when to stop reading over the code and quit running tests. I can’t afford to spend excessive time checking my changes or else I would get very little accomplished. On the other hand introducing new bugs is a pain for everyone; “com ci, com ca”.

Most of the remaining bug reports are due to: (1) rigorous testing how the program performs under a variety of obscure circumstances, and (2) going over the rules with a fine tooth comb. See the Rule Precision section below for specific details.

Saved Games
Aaron and the beta testers are building up a large library of saved games for testing purposes - that’s a big help to me.

Map and Units
Rob and Jimm continue to send in new and/or updated naval and land unit writeups. Aaron keeps the master files and sends me replacement files periodically.

Scenarios and Optional Rules
I fixed ancient bugs in setting up game data for Day of Infamy, so New Caledonia now goes to Free France and Vichy France gets French Polynesia and aligns Madagascar. Japan is able to align Madagascar as long as Madagascar is controlled by Vichy France. What was so difficult about getting this code correct (almost a full day) was that Vichy France doesn't officially exist in the scenario. I need to add code for the external/European event of Germany collapsing Vichy France occurring at a fixed point in the game.

I still need to make modifications to the code for the Transfer Pool in the half map scenarios Fascist Tide and Day of Infamy.

I added the +2 penalty when trying to intercept auxiliary cruisers (Convoys in Flames). This was a bear to get correct because of the complexity of the rules concerning search roll modifiers and search numbers.

Rule Precision
What the beta testers and myself are spending a lot of time on is ascertaining precise definitions of some WIF FE rules. Here is what we worked on this past month:

• If France is liberated while Vichy France still exists, the major ports previously held by Vichy are undamaged when converted to French control. Usually when a major port changes control from one side to another, it becomes damaged. The problem our rule interpretation avoids is having newly acquired French naval units overstacked in, say, Toulon.
• When the US player has the option to move, or not to move, markers from the Entry Pools to the Tension Pools and there is more than one marker to be moved for an entry option, he has to either move all the markers for the entry option or none. The US player gets this choice when US Entry Options are made automatically after the US goes to war with Axis major powers.
• The movement of Commonwealth naval units out of Northern Ireland, when the US occupies Northern Ireland is a ‘relocation’ to the nearest port, rather than a rebase.
• I changed the test for conditions under which the Nazi-Soviet pact can be broken. Specifically, setting up or moving units within one of the countries listed for breaking the pact (e.g., Turkey, Sweden), no longer qualifies for breaking the pact, regardless of to whom the minor country units are aligned. Basically, as long as the only units you move in the specified minor countries belong to the minor country itself, then the conditions for breaking the pact are not met. But if you move a unit from a different country into one of the listed minor countries, then the other side can break the pact. For example, if the USSR DOWs Turkey, which is then aligned to Germany, and Germany moves the Rumanian HQ into Turkey, then the USSR can break the pact. However, moving an Italian unit into Turkey would not affect the status of the pact, since Italian units are not controlled by Germany. This applies not only while setting up units, but throughout all phases of the game (e.g., including air units returning to base).
• Any carrier air units aboard a captured carrier are destroyed, along with their pilots.
• Allied units in Italy that count towards the conquest of Italy garrison value must be controlled by a country at war with Italy.
• Vichy France can not build pilots or offensive chits.
• Overrun naval units in iced-in ports, although having rolled well and being permitted to escape, are instead destroyed.
• Which major power decides about continuing to fight or abort from a naval combat is redetermined at the end of each round and is awarded to the major power on each side that has the most units still capable of fighting in the sea area.
• The requisite conditions have to be met before the US can occupy Greenland and Iceland even when that US Entry Option is ‘automatically’ selected due to the US going to war with both EuroAxis major powers.

I am still mulling over what to do with Belgian convoys in Brest (Belgium aligned with France) when Vichy is declared. As French controlled units they should rebase to the nearest Free French or Vichy French port - which one is the choice of the major power controlling Vichy France. But if they go to a Free French port they are likely to violate the Foreign Troop Commitment restrictions since they would belong to one minor country aligned to France and be moving into a port owned by a another minor country aligned to France. That almost forces them to move to a Vichy French port, where (I guess) they would become owned by Vichy France. Murky waters.

Player Interface
I created a small new form for the Liberation phase. All it does is ask a player if he wants to liberate, revert, or ‘neither’ when he controls the capital of a country that was on his side originally. The change here is to include the option to revert. Liberation of a minor country means it is aligned to its liberating major power. Reversion means it is aligned to the major power to which it was originally aligned. If you do neither, then it is conquered by the major power controlling the capital. This is a ‘nag’ form, since if you choose neither, then you will be asked the same question again at the end of the next turn. I really dislike having ‘nag’ forms in the sequence of play but I couldn’t come up with another solution and still remain true to WIF FE, where you can liberate/revert a minor country during a later turn if you so desire.

Remaining on my to-do list is figuring out how to visually indicate when a factory has lost a production point.

Internet - NetPlay
Nothing new last month but I will start work on NetPlay this coming week.

PBEM
Nothing new.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Nothing new. I need to finish checking the names for the Areas of Operation and Land Regions so they conform to the ‘standard’ I am trying to establish.

Player’s Manual
I have a handful of small edits waiting the Matrix Games editor. He should begin working on the Players Manual and the Rules as Coded documents at the end of November. Currently he is busy finishing up editing material for the new games Matrix Games is releasing this Christmas season.

Tutorials, Training Videos, and Context Sensitive Help
Nothing new.

Historical Video, Music, and Sound Effects
I have gotten the music and sound effect files from Dave and they look/sound good. I am missing one sound effect (truck engines) and a couple of the music pieces (for China and Italy), but Dave is working on filling in those holes. I should be able to get the sound effects implemented this month. For more details on sound effects, see the attachment below.

Marketing
Nothing new.

Communications
Nothing new.



Sound Effects for MWIF

The list below are actual files (WAV). In practice they will sometimes be combined and oftentimes run in a loop. The simplest use is a single Click when a player selects/picks up a unit. If he is picking up a group of units, then a single Stack Click is heard.

Looped sounds (i.e., continuous play) occur most often when moving the cursor over the map. Depending on the terrain type and the weather, different sounds are played if there are no units “in hand”. When the player has a unit or units “in hand” and is repositioning them on the map, the sounds depend on the type of unit and phase of the game. Note that no sound is played if there are no units in hand and the cursor is over water. The same is true most of the time a form is open for review or decision making.

When the combat resolution forms are open, the sounds depend on the type of combat and may be combinations of individual sound effect files. For instance, ground strikes combine the dive bombing sound of a Stuka with explosions. I want to spend some time playing around with this to decide on combinations and the duration of each sound segment.

Of course all sound effects can be turned off. Historical videos are used for invasions and paradrops (rare occurrences) and major events (e.g., conquering a country). Once I get the sound working the way I want, I’ll add in the videos and the music.

1. Click Selecting a unit
2. Stack Click Selecting a stack of units
3. Fine Examining non-jungle land hex during fine weather
4. Jungle Examining jungle hex during fine weather
5. Snow Examining land hex during snow
6. Blizzard Examining land hex during blizzard
7. Rain Examining land hex during rain, or sea hex during rain/snow
8. Storm Examining land hex during storm, or sea hex during strom/blizzard
9. Morse Code Sending messages to other players
10. Tanks Moving Armor/mechanized units in hand
11. Trucks Moving Motorized units in hand
12. Boots marching Foot infantry in hand
13. Hoofbeats Cavalry in hand
14. Partisan Attack Partisan in hand.
15. Aircraft Engine Light Aircraft (other than strategic bomber) in hand
16. Aircraft Engine Heavy Strategic bomber in hand
17. Ships Moving Through Water Naval unit in hand
18. Trains Moving Units in hand during rail movement phase
19. Artillery Fire Land combat, ground strike, and ground support resolution if artillery participates
20. Tank Main Gun Firing Land combat resolution if armor participates
21. Machine Guns Land combat resolution with 2 or more units on both sides
22. Rifle Fire Land combat resolution with only one unit on at least 1 side
23. Aircraft Diving Ground strike resolution if no artillery participates
24. Air Raid Sirens Strategic bombardment resolution
25. Bombs Falling Ground support resolution if no artillery participates, port attack, naval air, and naval surface combat resolution
26. Bombs Landing Port attack, strategic bombing, carpet bombing, ground strike, ground support, naval air, and naval surface combat resolution
27. AA Fire Land Anti-aircraft fire resolution over a land hex (not a port attack)
28. AA Fire Sea Anti-aircraft fire resolution at sea and during a port attack
29. Naval Hunting Sub ASW combat resolution
30. Splashes Port attack, naval air, and naval surface combat resolution
31. Dive Dive Dive ASW combat resolution
32. Clanging During production
33. Fanfare Declaration of war and aligning another country
34. Production Orders During production planning
35. Trade Agreements During lending

[brian brian]

what to do with minor country convoy points has annoyed WiF players ever since Convoy in Flames came out. Before that, you just used the counters from the controlling Major Power and this 'issue' didn't exist. While everyone likes the colorful minor country counters, surely the one type of WiF unit that could be exempted from Foreign Troop Commitment and even Cooperation rules would be merchant ships, who would regularly deal with language and social issues in other countries in peace time. It is also worth noting here that in the 2008 Annual, a new ADG sanctioned Optional rule for players to use specifically exempts TERRitorial units from FTC rules, due to similar frustrations, although I'm not sure how I feel about that one as Territorial troops around the globe could easily cause problems in other parts of the various empires that have them in the game, though there are also historical examples of that happening (East and West Africa divisions in Burma, forex)

But I think you could easily make an executive decision to do that for minor country convoy points, and everyone would be happy with that. with only the Ships in Flames Major Power convoy points, they were definitely "considered Major Power units for all purposes".

aside from that, keep on keepin' on. that vision thing sounds tough, I wish your health problems weren't so impactive on something you seem to enjoy so much, working on Matrix World in Flames. thankfully they don't seem to have anything to do with vocal chords, on time for I would think a lot of holiday singing?

[Centuur]

Ah, the minor countries CP... If playing with Convoys In Flames (and the whole area of ASW units in there), Convoy Points aren't military units anymore (the inherent ASW factors form Ships in Flames aren't there anymore). They are merchant vessels and should be treated as such IMHO. The part of the FTC rules seems to prohibit them from even entering aligned countries. Which is historically absurt. F.ex.: Dutch merchant vessels were operating around the world during WW II, and there were no restrictions at all about entering friendly or neutral ports for them. IMHO Convoy points when playing with Convoys in Flames should be allowed to enter any friendly or neutral port. The overrun rule could than be used if a neutral is aligned to the other side, while the CP are in ports of that neutral.

However, RAW doesn't support this at the moment. Personally, I think this is an oversight on the part of the developers.
RAW does allow German Surface Raiders to enter neutral ports, but don't allow CP to do so? Strange, very strange...

[jomni]

Nice to hear some progress (as usual). Given the time taken to release this and the depth of the game... will it ba priced at $100?

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: jomni

Nice to hear some progress (as usual). Given the time taken to release this and the depth of the game... will it ba priced at $100?

Setting the price is beyond my pay grade.

[Kham]

so.. when?

two years? five years?

[Red Prince]

To quote a line from Stargate SG-1, "It will take as long as it takes."

[Kham]

With all due respect this open-ended approach does not seem to have given results so far.

It would be nice with a renewed commitment to actually have this thing go into production. From Matrix.

[Red Prince]

ORIGINAL: Red Prince

To quote a line from Stargate SG-1, "It will take as long as it takes."

ORIGINAL: Kham

With all due respect this open-ended approach does not seem to have given results so far.

It would be nice with a renewed commitment to actually have this thing go into production. From Matrix.

I apologize, but I really like that quote, along with another from that series: "The very young do not always do as they are told."

My point, I guess, is that a decision was made in 2009 not to speculate on release dates, because setbacks can cause quite a bit of anger. Since that time, all that we can really tell you is what you see in the Monthly Reports. They do show a lot of progress, particularly if you try to read them all the way from the first to the most recent (not an easy task, I admit). If you care to make your own estimates from that, you are welcome to speculate, but it is beyond our abilities to tell you any of the following:

• The date of the Apocalypse
• The year the Cubs will next win the World Series
• How many matches AIK will win next season
• Exactly when MWiF will first be installed on your computer

I'm sorry about this, but it's just the way things are.

We are doing our best to show you where things stand (Global War AAR, among others), as well as tell you where things stand. But sometimes things get in the way: Steve's eye surgery and kidney stone, my pneumonia, troubles with Delphi . . . . the dog eating our homework . . . you name it.

I swear to you that if I told you right now that this game would be released on Date X of Month Y in Year Z . . . . there isn't a chance that Lloyds of London would give any odds at all. Not because I'm wrong, but beause things are too dynamic. It might end up being Month M insetead, and all would be happy. Or, it could be Year Z+2, and everyone would scream bloody murder. Lloyds wouldn't like that. [;)]

Please believe me when I tell you we are all doing our best to get this game on the shelves as soon as humanly possible. To quote once more from that series, Stargate: SG-1: "It's what we do."

-Aaron

[Klydon]

Obviously everyone wants it sooner rather than later, but in my mind, there has been proof of significant progress here lately with the two posted AARs. When they start posting AARs, you know the game is up to the point that it is at least in a workable format for the most part. Consider it like a ship being launched from the slip. It is floating, but much work remains to be done before the ship will be ready to go.

Even when this game is released, if any of the other games are to be a measure, there are going to be issues with it, despite the best efforts of the staff and testers (WITP, WITE to name two examples).