FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm is a grand tactical wargame set at the height of the Cold War, with the action centered on the year 1989.

Moderator: MOD_Flashpoint

Post Reply
User avatar
MaximKI
Posts: 1847
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2022 12:29 pm

FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Post by MaximKI »

Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm v.2.1.1.7018.
Maple Leaf Update.jpg
Maple Leaf Update.jpg (78.17 KiB) Viewed 1193 times
Hello everyone,

A brand new official update for Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm is out now!

You can download it HERE

This update includes a brand new campaign, featuring the Canadians, a host of bug fixes, and a number of UI additions.

Here's the detailed changelog:

•Beta #1 had a text scaling issue in several areas of the game due to a missing Manifest setting. This was found and fixed and all fonts sizes behave as they did in the original release again. Thanks to everyone who helped us troubleshoot this one.
• The Main Map has a Flyout Panel that shows all the individual units and map markers in a hex in a side-by-side format. Beta 1 was changed to show a little hint message over the various map markers to identify what they were. These hints have been made to operate more reliably in Beta 2
• Sometimes friendly and enemy units in the same hex would stop fighting unexpectedly. The combat weights to keep them engaged have been increased. We are still working on this area, so please post any odd cases with save games for us to review. Thanks.
• Thermal Sights appeared not to be seeing through smoke as expected. In fact, they were, but the LOS overlay itself was not showing the correct numbers. The overlay has been fixed for single-unit LOS, multi-unit LOS, and single-unit SOP ranges to show the correct numbers from all sensors.
• The US and Soviet national data files have been updated with small user-suggested tweaks to names and capabilities. Thanks for the information!
• A recent change to the scenario editor resulted in new forces showing as “on-map off-map” instead of waiting to be “Deployed”. This was very confusing and has been fixed.
• When firing FASCAM artillery rounds, the threshold for creating a new minefield was announced as 40 rounds but was 41 rounds internally. It is now 40 rounds internally.

New Content and Features
New Scenario
• One new standalone scenario by Mike Johnstone called “Cross Checking”. It has Canadians facing Soviet forces.

New Campaign
• A new campaign: “Canadian Campaign – Opportunity Knocks” by Mike Johnstone. This is a four-scenario campaign featuring the Canadians.

New UI Features
• Hex Grid Overlay. There is a new menu item under “Options, Show Hex Grid” for players who prefer to see a hex grid over the main map. This preference is remembered from game to game.
• Mission Graphics Transparency. There is another new menu under the Options, Mission Graphics Transparency Option, that allows you to reduce the default 50% transparency used on the mission graphics that can be imported from the Staff Menu. The other options are 25 or 10%.

Updated Documentation
• Revision 2 of the Game Operations FM
• Revision 2 of the Tutorial Operations FM
• Update of FPC Hotkeys – 26Jan23
• Revision 2 of the SITREP: Southern Storm operational area guide

Data and Scenarios
• An updated campaign. “Big Red One” by Alex Schwarz (American forces facing Soviet and Czech forces) with multiple tweaks to enhance gameplay.
• Updated weather files. We have extended our spotting model to use starlight on moonless nights as some sensors of the era were able to take advantage of it. This will render the Warsaw Pact units (and some NATO units) somewhat less blind in scenarios like Regulars Forward.
• Data Files and Unit Images. Miscellaneous tweaks were made to data files for spelling and formation corrections and subunit silhouettes (better upscaled unit images for many units).

User Interface
• Subunit Inspector. Formerly it showed only unique subunits, and this made it impossible to see the details of subunits that had different ammo packages. We have adjusted the display so that all the ammo package variations for a specific subunit can be browsed.

User Mission Graphics.
• Both the Mission Briefing and Threat Assessment overlays can now be loaded over the main map at any time from the Staff Menu.
• The old system to limit each side to just one user-created overlay per scenario has been scrapped and now each side can have as many different user-created overlays as desired. Each one is saved under a name the user specifies. Be advised, nothing is stopping the other side from browsing your custom overlays!
• TOC Scenario Info Report. The game allows asymmetrical victory point values to increase the variety of outcomes. In
particular, a hex may be very valuable to one side and worth nothing to the other should the scenario author so desire. A VP location worth zero is not drawn on the map for that side - it is meant to be a surprise – but they were listed on the Victory Status & Condition screen and this gave away the surprise. This has now been suppressed but note that the player for whom it does have value will still see it in this report IF the player secures it. Once the game is over then that 0 VP location will show in the final report for both sides.

Unit Counter Spotting Dots. To assist the newer players, a small white dot was drawn on the bottom edge of the counter towards the right when a unit was spotted. Very often this information was either redundant or gave away too much information. The new rule is:
• If the Difficulty Settings for a side has "Enemy Units are Always Visible" enabled then the spotting dots will be shown as before. This is intended to help new players distinguish between spotted and unspotted enemy units in the introductory settings. It will tip them off when their own units are spotted, which is potentially unrealistic, but worthwhile if this setting is enabled.
• If that visibility option is NOT checked then the spotting dots will NOT be drawn. With this setting disabled then any enemy units being drawn must be spotted by definition, and the player is left guessing as to the status of his own units, as the player should be.

“Show All Friendly Movement Paths During Turn Resolution” This user preference was broken and did not work. It has now been fixed.

Game Mechanics
PBEM++ Connectivity Errors.
• There was a problem with PBEM++ games sometimes throwing a web service error when uploading a turn causing the player to lose the most recent orders.
• The game has been changed to create and save a special recovery file immediately prior to accessing any of the PBM++ web services so that the player can easily reupload the turn if there is a connectivity problem.
• If this happens then the player will be shown a detailed list of steps to follow. In brief, the player logs in, goes to “Upload…” button on the Games in Progress tab, and selects the recovery file to use to try another upload. If this upload is successful, then the player is back where he or she would have been originally.
• The “Upload…” button is enabled only if there are any recovery files waiting to be used. When the new upload is successful then the recovery file is erased. The recovery files are given a name that makes it easy to pick out the right one if there is more than one present. The saved game .PBM file and the recovery .INI file are both get in the usual \Saved directory where the other saved games are kept.

Unit Relocation.
• We improved the unit relocation behavior due to SOP, distinguishing between short-range scoots and (new) longer-range withdrawals.
• Units that need to relocate due to hostile fire or stand-off range violations will now attempt to withdraw to new locations outside their SOP's stand-off range. And, units now are quicker to recognize a withdraw destination being compromised due to enemy movements, in which case they will try to pick an alternative location to withdraw to.
• A withdrawing unit will show a "W" orders indicator in the bottom right corner of the counter. Note: "Withdraw" (like "Scoot") is not an order you can explicitly give a unit. When withdrawing, the unit will prefer paths that minimize exposure to hostiles.
• Units with a larger stand-off range will be a lot better at maintaining that stand-off range and will pick better paths when withdrawing. Recce units will try harder to find concealing locations that maintain line-of-sight to threat at stand-off range.

Night-time Illumination and Spotting.
• New: Soviet and M60 night vision equipment can function with *starlight*.
• We have upgraded the weather data to honor starlight (no moon and limited clouds) next to dark (overcast night) and bright (moonlight and limited clouds) conditions.
• The game now supports filtering in ScenEdit on 'partially dark' (starlight) weather.
• The Regulars Forward scenario has a lot of moonless night hours and the Soviet forces will now be much less blind as a result.

Morale Loss. Morale is gained and lost in a variety of ways. In cases where the unit suffered what should have been catastrophic losses, the Morale rating did not drop by a reasonable-looking amount. This has been examined and the Morale penalty for subunit losses has been significantly increased.

Cross-Attaching Units to Change Setup Areas. There was a worry that cross-attaching units gave units access to the target unit setup hexes and this could be unfair. This would not be the case very often, and cross-attaching units is normal and expected, but in extreme cases it could be abused. We have added a new option in the Scenario Editor in the Unit Parameters editor so that resubordination to an HQ during the game setup phase can be denied by the author of the scenario. If the scenario author has not disallowed a certain unit from receiving resubordinated units during game setup then it is allowed. Approximately ten of the standalone scenarios have had this new option used in them. In most cases, recon units are stopped from receiving cross-attachments so that tanks and mech infantry from other units cannot be dropped in unrealistically.

Miscellaneous Fixes and Improvements
• Helicopter crash animations were not playing before, but does now.
• QoL Suggestion: Show the name of the marker in the main map flyout panel as the mouse is rolled over it. For example, "Improved Position", "Minefield", "Nuclear Contamination", etc.
• The MCOO Legend dialog has a bit more explanatory text added to it.
• Map scrolling: Improved game edge scrolling by not requiring the mouse to be inside the game window.
• Rename “User” speed button on the bottom toolbar to “Mission” to be consistent with menu captions under Staff using “Mission Graphics”.
• Map zoom behavior with scroll wheel: when using scroll wheel and map expanded beyond window: zoom around mouse position, not hex cursor.
• Default map zoom: when restoring saved zoom setting, restore the zoom setting as soon as possible
• When a unit is killed its Ammo, Morale and Readiness will drop to zero, zero and one respectively in any reports.
User avatar
DukeBannon
Posts: 80
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2020 4:28 pm

Re: FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Post by DukeBannon »

Excellent and thanks! Is it okay for players in the midst of PBEM++ battles to apply this update or should we wait until the battle is complete?
User avatar
CapnDarwin
Posts: 9510
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 3:34 pm
Location: Newark, OH
Contact:

Re: FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Post by CapnDarwin »

It should be okay to update, but that said both players need to be on the same version.
OTS is looking forward to Southern Storm getting released!

Cap'n Darwin aka Jim Snyder
On Target Simulations LTD
caygraph
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2022 11:53 am

Re: FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Post by caygraph »

Great work!
Jarosak
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2022 11:37 am

Re: FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Post by Jarosak »

Thank you Devs! I hope French will get more scenarios soon
adrazz
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2018 11:34 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Post by adrazz »

awesome stuff!
User avatar
Shadrach
Posts: 762
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2001 8:00 am
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Post by Shadrach »

I guess the January Update turned into the March Update! :mrgreen:

Great work though, I can finally read the text again without eye strain! :D
OUW (Order of the Upgrade Wars)
Image
There are folks out there with way too much time on their hands.
- Norm Koger
User avatar
CapnDarwin
Posts: 9510
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 3:34 pm
Location: Newark, OH
Contact:

Re: FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Post by CapnDarwin »

Yea, more work than we thought. Still more to come.
OTS is looking forward to Southern Storm getting released!

Cap'n Darwin aka Jim Snyder
On Target Simulations LTD
GregTaylor
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2022 2:01 am

Re: FC: Southern Storm - v.2.1.1.7018 Official Update Available Now

Post by GregTaylor »

Appreciate the new Canadian scenarios but unit names are incorrect. Brigade level is 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (4 CMBG) or abbreviated 4th Cdn Mech Bde Gp. Two units, RCD and a battalion from PPCLI, rotated back to Canada in 1987 and 1988 respectively so shouldn't be in the scenarios. In 1989 the tank regiment is 8 CH (8th Canadian Hussars) and infantry battalions are either 3 RCR (3rd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment) or 1 R22R (Iere Battalion Royal Vingt-duexieme Regiment).
Post Reply

Return to “Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm”