SITREP

[*budd*]

Happens to the best of us

 

[MarkShot]

just hit replay on the main window and it should open up a box to select your replay.

I have done that, but I don't see any VCR controls or sliders by which I can do anything? What am I missing? Thanks.

 

[Ripppe]

MarkShot: I believe that the replay function is not so much as a "video playback" but actual replay. You use the normal CO speed controls, so you can't go backwards. Everything should go exactly as it did when you played the scenario. However, at whatever point you can step back in and start giving new orders -> replay becomes a new play.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

Exactly so - thanks Mark.

 

[MarkShot]

Mine gets out of sync immediately (Dave, I already reported this.)

I would be cool to run forward and backward and to just input a day/time.

Dave, maybe you could do the above by simply running the simulation with no screen updates other than "Processing - Please Wait".

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

Mark I have fixed the out of sync bug but you don't have the fix yet.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Sunday 6 Dec 2015

Hi all,

I am pleased to say that we have two programmers joining the team on a part time basis - Dan Dennison and Pavel Voilov. We have spent some time on preliminaries, like converting our dev environment and adopting to a new task tracker software so we can better coordinate tasking. We have also begun the process of finalising the features we will be working on for this next engine update.

Pavel is going to focus on Mounted Ops. I will focus on Sequential Tasking. I have yet to confirm with Dan but I am hoping he will assist me with the active graphics we need to support the sequential tasking. There are a swag of other features that are all worthy but I am being bloody minded here and limiting the focus to those required to model east front operations. If perchance we knock over these two tasks before our deadline, then we will put our heads together and see what other features we can squeeze in.

As to the deadline. I am aiming for a release of the CO2.2 update by end of March 2016.

 

[DerGrenadier]

Just awesome Dave

 

[kipanderson]

Dave,


Good to have Eastern Front as priority. It is the one I have mindlessly been hoping for.


Just to do what you implied we shouldn’t .


Tweak to AI to cope with holding lines/sectors. Then some attention to the ease with which artillery is thrown around and the related assigning to support battalions.


Both matter to make Eastern Front really work. Particularly the ability to slightly better hold a line. In the more claustrophobic environment of NWE and low destiny of forces in North Africa point defence can work. Not really on the Eastern Front.


You would know, I can only guess but small tweak to the invisible AI markers may do the job. Wishful thinking on my part of course. As small teak may happen. Big tweak less likely before release.


Lucky to have COps at all,

All the best,

Kip.

 

[Kurt]

Great , something to look forward to in the new year

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Friday 0800, 11 December

I had made good progress this week on fixing the outstanding issues.
I was ready to start the build last .night when our internet dropped out. Got an electrician out but it looks like the modem has gone. So I'm going to have to wait for our ISP to come out. Last time that took a while. So may not get the build out today.

 

[Ripppe]

Cheers Dave. Any news on the sitrep front, I wonder?

 

[GoodGuy]

SITREP Sunday 6 Dec 2015

Pavel is going to focus on Mounted Ops. I will focus on Sequential Tasking. I have yet to confirm with Dan but I am hoping he will assist me with the active graphics we need to support the sequential tasking. There are a swag of other features that are all worthy but I am being bloody minded here and limiting the focus to those required to model east front operations.

Nice. The missing dismount option kept me from getting those modules, as the lack of such option AND the fact, that wheeled/armored units can't cross certain types of terrain anymore (since COTA), pose a level of historical inaccuracy that's killing the fun for me. It also restricts the user to certain strategies or play styles, as the tactical movement is hindered by unpassable terrain and confined routes on quite a few maps.

Anyways, in my books, the Russian module will need main features, like

• a dismount feature,
• and doctrines
  • the Russians had mastered their push doctrine - I would not call it "deep thrust", as they never managed to fully implement that "deep thrust" (or "deep penetration") doctrine - by early 1944, but they had used it as early as 1942, already
  • artillery doctrine, as it was combined since (IIRC) late 1942 and acting as Corps (reserve) asset supporting such thrusts exclusively, usually across a wide front
  • tactically, and on the defense, the Germans were superior, resulting in the Germans being able to rectify situations and to keep mobile defenses (in the main, at least)
  • even though the Russians lacked the initiative and leadership within their (green) NCO pool, the Russians could compensate such deficiencies at the operational level.
  • the Germans used their (very) fast recon vehicles employed in the Aufklärungs-Abteilungen (Recon Bns) to scout in advance, and small inf patrols, the Russians made excessive use of patrols (even behind German lines) and had a halfway working aerial recon going (more than often just combat planes, which often did not have sufficient radio range to report observations during flight, but which tried to contact nearby ground forces, too) - so, small units (German scout vehicles or Russian patrols) will have to be rendered, with their respective speeds

and as secondary features

• the Germans were able to triangulate Russian radio calls (which forced Russian patrols or manoeuvre forces to stick to simple and short radio sitreps, eventully), so that the Germans could compensate the general lack of aerial recon - to some extent, maybe until around 1943
  
• the Germans could detect Russian artillery units (if in range) with their sound detection devices and performed a lot of counterbattery missions, which forced the Russians to position their artillery units out of range of the German arty pieces (which sometimes worked out, as the max ranges of the German heavy field guns were 2 - 7 km (depending on the gun) lower than the ranges of the Russian heavy pieces.
• German artillery was way more accurate
  
• mines - both, the Russians and the Germans placed mine belts wherever possible. The Russians made extensive use of mines during the German onslaughts in 1941 and 1942, the Germans placed giant mine belts on stalled fronts (Leningrad front, Northern theater in general), and placed belts where they to tried to slow down the Russian pushes between 1943-1945.
• medium range aerial recon for ALLIED players/AI, short range aerial recon for the Germans (rare, tho)
  
• general movement:

while German tanks received winter tracks (with almost triangular track extensions) since 1942, they still had a serious disadvantage (if compared to Russian tanks) during mud season in spring and autumn: their tracks were not wide enough to support driving in Russian muddy terrain, so that many vehicles kept getting stuck and that the movement of vital formations often stalled (a random "stuck" generator would be nice). The Germans tried to solve this problem with the "Ostketten" (tracks for the East, issued in 1944), but couldn't solve the problem completely, as these makeshift tracks were wider now, but the extensions were still protruding on the outer side of the wheel bases (that's why ppl keep mixing up these 2 different tracks), with most of the weight / pressure still resting on the inner parts of the tracks, and with the outer parts offering less or even no (additional) traction. A complete wheel base and hull side redesign on most tanks would have been needed to manage solving the problem once and for all. The Russian T-34 design had taken into account that mud seasons and harsh winter conditions called for wider tracks and had left enough room for wide/centered winter tracks (with wider wheels?) that would support acceptable movement rates under such conditions.​

in order to create realistic settings for a Russian module.

At the begin of the Russian campaign, the Germans had 168 Panzer III Ausf. H (U) and a number of Panzer IV (U) at their disposal - submersible tanks, which weren't just capable of fording, but capable of actually driving on the bottom of a river that was 6 to 15 meters deep - where some of them were used by the 18th and the 6th Panzer-Division to cross the river Bug without engineer support.
So this should be considered as a minor feature when it comes to German tactical movement abilities across minor and even major rivers in a Russian setting.

 

[Kurt]

Great material as always mate

 

[kipanderson]

Dave,

have lost track and cannot find the post, if there is one.

But roughly, what is the schedule for Eastern Front?

Is it CO 2.2 at end March?

We are all no doubt well hardened to realizing things can and will change. All veterans of many releases from the top end wargames developers. And sympathetic to "events.." intervening.

But roughly, if things were to go smoothly.

Great game, the ultimate operational game.
All the best,
Kip.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

"Smoothly" now wouldn't that be nice. Things haven't exactly been smooth of late. Dan Dennisson who was going to be working on the Sequential Tasking has had to bail for now. He got a RL project down in Mexico. So I am currently reviewing the next update. I hope to finalise a revised plan by next week. Stay tuned.

 

[JArraya]

Dave,
Just wondering, is anything happening with game development these days? It's awfully quiet in the forums!

 

[simovitch]

We are working on the next release which will finish up the Westwall battles with the fighting in the Lorraine and Vosges regions. the bottleneck right now is producing a new set of estabs which will include the Free French and open the way to create the other minor Allied forces that fought on the West Front in 1944, like the Polish and Canadian forces. I need some programming help to do this and some RL issues with our tech staff came up that is slowing this task down a bit. The Data Design team is working on the maps in the meantime.

My time is also limited by work schedule and airbnb guests lodging in my mancave...

 

[Guy Miller]

thanks for the update

 

[kipanderson]

Dave, or Simovitch, any of the team free to answer..

How is my much anticipated Eastern Front looking... ?

Not too good or we would have heard no doubt. Am nagging I suppose.. but very keen to be separated from my hard earned dosh for this one. Have been waiting for an Eastern Front version since first shots fired years, and years ago.

So a little nagging from me is just down to me being human ..

All the best,
kip.