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WinSPMBT version 7.0 Upgrade patch
6 New Scenarios
25 Revised Scenarios
4 Revised Campaigns
14 Revised Campaign files
1 New Map
130 New or revised Photos
106 New or Revised Icons
92 Updated OOB Files
25 New or Revised Icon Graphic files
14 New or Revised Text files
1 New Sound files
65 Revised picklists
Upgraded SHPEdit
Upgraded MOBHack
Upgraded Cost Calculator
Upgraded ScenHack
Upgraded Camo Map Editor
Artillery overload has been added. Over-spending on artillery will now credit your opponent with extra Victory Points as a penalty for doing so. When the artillery value of a force exceeds a specified amount ( see below ) the arty percentage on the purchase screen is shown in yellow as a warning that you have entered artillery overload. If this happens an amount of the overload is allocated to your opponent as Victory points, specifically 50% of the excess amount of points spent on extra artillery. (Hover your mouse over the Artillery Mode change button to see what free VP you have granted to your opponent should the percentage value go yellow due to artillery overload.)
In an assault your artillery points spend is unlimited. The advancing side in an advance/delay can have 30% of his points as artillery before overload applies. In a meeting engagement, both sides are allowed 20% of total points as artillery. All others are limited to 15% of total points to be spent on artillery before overload penalty.
Campaign cores do not limit artillery bought, but if you overload on it then you may well be handing points to the enemy especially when defending. Air units or ADA do not count as artillery points, only mortars, howitzers etc. that can fire indirectly. Ammo resupply units do count as artillery points, as they are a human use only unit against the AI. Artillery overload points are reported at the end of the first turn, and also on the totals screen at end game.
Artillery can no longer be plotted (including air transports and spotters) on turn 0, or 1 if the battle is a meeting engagement or you are the delayer or defender. A scenario designer can still plot artillery as he desires in his scenario, however. The AI may still plot fire as before. This is deliberate to penalise a human player who packs the approach roads. Note that the bombardment screen may still be entered to plot FDF gold spots, or toggle the blast radius display. The arty units just will not show up till post turn 1 if unavailable in the scenario for pre-game bombardment
Windows 8 changes have been made to the Game Options launcher programme. The Game Option programme should now report “Windows 8 or higher” if you are playing in Windows 8. In Win8 the windows Vista and 7 batch command file used to remove the aero interface in full-screen mode is not run as it is no longer needed in the newer version of Windows.
A new weapon class for HESH firing guns (Weapon Class 26) has been introduced. A HESH gun must be the slot 1 weapon. Any HEAT ammo given to a Weapon Class 26 gun is now HESH and that is how it will be reported on the unit info screen. HESH ammo is slightly more effective against plain steel than HEAT and HESH has a better HE effect than HEAT but with a slightly reduced blast radius. HESH ammo is not as good as an HE round due to lack of fragments. HESH is easily defeated by ERA of all types, but large HESH rounds may remove several tiles instead of just 1. HESH is very good against bunkers ( That is what the round was designed for). Laminated or spaced armour (Anti HEAT armour) greater than steel is extremely effective at defeating HESH. Armour against HESH is HEAT armour + ((HEAT-steel)x2), ie twice the difference of any spacing or laminate is added on top. HESH and HEAT for slot 1 weapons will now fire in Z fire (direct area fire), if no HE is available, and there are >4 HEAT (HESH) rounds available.
There have been revisions to the cost calculator algorithm regarding the way unit points are allotted that include reductions in the costs charged for Thermal Imaging as well as reductions in the costs associated with better firecontrol and ranger finders. Although it varies from vehicle to vehicle due to variations in vision, FC and RF ratings, older tanks like a post WW2 M24 Chaffee may have their costs reduced 10% or less but a high end tank like a M1A2 SEP V1 may be closer to 18 % less expensive than previously. These changes also affect infantry with vision ratings so those units are now less expensive as well. The cost reductions also extend to aircraft so an aircraft like an F-22 will be around 20% cheaper than before whereas a post war P-51 might be 15% less expensive . Of course, the in game costs my vary somewhat due to the calculation the game makes for national Experience and Morale values. The end result is a more compressed price structure than before which helps reduce cases where a third rate nations units were so cheap they could flood the game with units in a battle with a first rate nation.
Vehicles which have moved are less likely to turn in response to enemy fires the further they have travelled, especially non-turreted or those turreted vehicles which have exceed their stabiliser value in hexes moved. Turreted vehicles which have moved too far to turn the hull to face may still turn the turret to face the enemy firer, however.
Small HEAT warheads are now less likely to perform above average. This chiefly affects the little 40mm and similar grenade launcher warheads.
Units with Laser Range Finder (20+ RF) and higher fire control (30+ FC) can get critical hits out to 1 KM as opposed to the rest that have a 500m limit.
France Vs Mujahideen January 2013-Dec 2020 battle location changes. Such battles now occur in Western (sub-Saharan) Africa or the Sahel (Southern Sahara). (Mali and environs). Nigeria now also uses this set of battle locations V Mujahideen, 1946-2020 for the African force to go to Mali or just as Tuareg and other irregulars.
French expeditionary AI Pick list produced for selection of forces against various enemies that are more infantry-centric. Includes Mujahideen, Viet Cong, Cambodia etc. Expeditionary list is more infantry-centric and tends to use armoured cars rather than tanks. In early days, uses "goumiers" as generic local supporting forces.
Chile Vs Argentina had some extra battle locations added (Patagonia). Mainly for the 1978 war that almost occurred. This provides some flatter terrain than the previous Andes that was the main battlefield.
RPG type (Weapon Class 2) weapons firing AP/HEAT on moving vehicles (2+ hexes moved) at 4 hexes or greater are reduced in accuracy. RPG at any vehicle targets over 6 hexes is also reduced in accuracy. Moving targets beyond 1KM also bring a reduction. This last also applies to weapon class 3 and 26 recoilless guns.
HMG's (50 cal and 14.5s) at 300m or less firing HE ammo are slightly more effective in AP penetration value.
Cluster Munitions HE penetration values have been reduced. HE Penetration is the ONLY value the game looks at to determine if and how much CM penetrates armour.
Vehicles will no longer spin and face to the right when firing at enemy in their own hex
Vehicle smoke dischargers now make 1 "chuff" sound and deploy all 3 smoke bursts simultaneously (no sequence of 3 separate firings and noise sequences as before).
Infantry popping smoke when pulling back or treating now do so at full smoke value, rather than the partial screen they laid previously.
Buttoned vehicle movement cost is increased by 1 per hex.
AAMG’s are now reduced further than other weapons if suppressed, but they will longer go straight to 0 shots if suppressed.
AFV suppression effects are now reduced. Only AAMG shots are reduced by being buttoned. (An “AFV” is considered a vehicle with hull steel armour of 1 or more all round for this piece of code).
Cultivated fields now cost one MP per hex more to traverse, so are no longer the same as clear terrain.
A weapon Sound Byte has been added to the weapons data in Mobhack. It overrides any sound entered in the unit field and will make adding new sounds for weapons much easier than having to apply them to each unit.
Infantry assaults now require 2 free MP. If there is insufficient MP the unit fires at the tank instead of close assaulting. As well, a failed infantry assault on armour can now result in casualties to the assaulting infantry element.
A new Movement Class for snowmobiles (8) has been added. This makes any unit given that M/C move as the snowmobile unit class currently does over snow.
A hit on a vehicle which does not have protected passengers (soft vehicle, non-APC AFV) does not now always cause a dismount event with attendant possible casualties. It will now force a dismount only 70% of the time.
Map vision algorithm changes have been made. The game is now more likely to produce both high (70-80 hex visibility) sunny days and also some night (1-4 hex) visibility conditions. Rooster trails of dust from moving vehicles in deserts and dry summer conditions etc. have been adjusted upwards by 10 hexes to allow for the higher typical visibility. (Previously the game tended to produce too many low visibility days of 20-40 hexes maximum visibility, i.e. an overcast day).
Woods and orchard hexes now cost 2 MP more for vehicles to traverse. Vehicular travel through woods was too easy before.
The victory hex placement routine will now try to avoid houses as well as lake and impassable terrain when placing tiles. This is chiefly to avoid the AI disabling vehicles by crashing into houses.
The delayer now gets 36% of the advancing sides points (was 40% before).
Blast circles are now shown in green on winter maps as that is more visible on a white background.
New game screen borders and backgrounds have been added. We have found the new background helps make the screen text easier to read.
The Map editing shortcuts have all been redone and some that had always been missing have been put into the game. As well, the shortcut key has been added to the text description that appears at the top of the map. Some shortcuts keys are the same as they always have been but many are changed. All changes are noted in the game guide and in the text files that can be called up for in game help.
X/Y hex co-ordinates now show all the time. Previously the map co-ordinates disappeared as soon as you moused over a unit, which in many cases, was exactly when you needed to know what hex a unit was in.
National Morale and Experience numbers have been reviewed and in many cases revised based on new information. In some cases there is little change, in others, considerable. Previously the code only went to 1990 and beyond. We have added two more decades on top of that meaning that now winSPMBT nations have an experience and morale evaluation every decade.
45 pages of suggested OOB changes and/or corrections have been reviewed , researched and applied to the game along with a number of changes we made to enhance OOB accuracy and / or completeness. A lot of work has been done to the USMC OOB both units and formations including all US army / USAF aircraft removed.
New Full (CD) Game only Features:
We have expanded the information displayed when you pass the mouse cursor over a hex for the CD version of the game. Previously, the only information about a hex was Height and the terrain types in it. The new display includes ground height, obstacle height , total height and Terrain Density displayed like this :
Ground Height / Obstacle Height / (Combined Height) Density XX
And might look something like this in the game for trees
Height 1/18/(19) Density 26
Ground Height and Obstacle Height are self explanatory but Terrain Density , while being an old concept for the game, it will be a new one to most players. Terrain Density or just “Density” for short is a value the game uses to determine how solid or transparent a bit of terrain is. For example, trees block Line of Sight (LOS) to the next hex when they are greater than >30 density. If they are under 31 LOS is deemed not fully blocked and you can see into the hexes beyond that hex.
Density is cumulative for purposes of LOS. A hex with trees that have a density rating of 20 will not block LOS to the hex beyond it but if that hex has trees that are also have a density rating of 20, LOS will be blocked beyond that hex. Theoretically you could have a number of sparsely treed hexes in a row before LOS would be blocked but typically in the game the maximum would be two but please note those two hexes do NOT have to be adjacent. The game has worked this way since SP1 was first released, we are just displaying to players for the first time.
While Ground Height and Obstacle Height might be self explanatory, how the game utilizes them together with Density requires some explanation.
Ground terrain ALWAYS blocks LOS 100% and it blocks LOS when it is more than 3 “units” of height above the level your unit is on. For example, if your unit is standing on a hex that is base ground level ( i.e. zero elevation ) that units LOS will be blocked by ground that is 4 units or greater high.
Obstacle Height combined with density also blocks LOS and once again it is cumulative. For this I will use tall grass as a general example. Tall grass is 2 units high and has an average density in the game of 10. If the ground the grass is on plus the grass itself is greater than a total of 4 units high LOS will be blocked when enough density is accumulated to do so. In some cases this might take quite a number of hexes to achieve if the terrain between each >3 units of total height hexes are <4 units of height high.
Each "unit" of height in the game is now considered to be roughly 24 inches ( 61 cm ) so each 10 unit level of elevation in the game represents roughly 20 feet ( 6 meters )
The game now defaults to showing the formation IDs. This saves pressing the 5 key to turn the feature on each time you start the game. The 5 key can still be used to toggle the feature off and on if so desired.
The Game Options launcher programme now allows you to easily edit the INI value for the AIAdjustpercent variable on the Misc Tab. Set at 100% for the default points, 120 to give the AI a 20% points advantage and so on. (Free game users can see this value but not edit it unless they manually do so in the INI file as described in the Game Guide section on AIAdjustpercent).
Non-vehicle units with 2 or more MP remaining can now voluntarily take cover to break enemy line of sight at a cost of 2MP by pressing the ‘ C ‘ key. Taking cover especially if close to the enemy is not a guarantee that they will break LOS.
A delete button has been added to the main screen options to allow the deletion of no longer needed save games.
A facility to change all units of a type in the campaign rebuild screen has been added. Set the button to change all and the change from one type to another will be for all such units in the core. For example, select one of your T34/76 and change it to a IS-2 after toggling the change all mode. All your T34/76 will now be changed to IS-2 provided you have sufficient repair points. NB - if some tanks are same name, but different Unit Classes (e.g. centurion (CS MBT unit class) and centurion (MBT unit class), only the ones of the selected unit class will change.
In the deployment only, a new button is added to the Formation Menu to allow the fixing of the formation leader. If the platoon leader has been moved to a unit other than the 0 index, he will be exchanged back into place with that other leader. This is chiefly useful for repairing platoons in long campaigns. It is a manual and not an automatic function since some people will probably like the current leader assignment.
General Support and Direct Support off-map artillery types have been added for off-map artillery purchase.
Direct Support is less responsive than normal arty, General Support even less so. The delay is longer for calls for fire, other than onto gold spots or as a pre game bombardment (their main use). Shifting fires costs a little more for these type of batteries and they are less likely to be in radio contact as they are theoretically shared with other formations than yours. As well, they are less likely to fire counter battery fires if left idle. Strike air types may be bought in general or direct support mode if desired.
Direct Support costs 75% of a full Under Command battery and General Support costs 50% of a full Under Command battery.
A button on the purchase menu cycles between artillery types. If General Support or Direct Support purchase is active, then only the appropriate formations are filtered to show on the arty page and the miscellaneous page (for strike air). Cycle this back to Under Command artillery to see the filtered-out formations again. General Support and Direct Support off-map artillery cannot be purchased for your core in a campaign
Timed objectives have been introduced.
A button has been added to cycle through the possible values and then back to no timed objectives. The values start at 3 and increment to 30 then reset to 0. The button is available at game set-up in the battle and campaign generators and in the scenario editor.
In a meeting engagement the victory hexes start accumulating a timed score from turn 3 onwards.
In an advance mission, the defender gets timed scores from ¼ of the game length onwards. In an advance the attacker wants to clear the enemy as fast as he can.
In an assault, the defender gets the standard victory hex score credited from the halfway point onwards, and double from the thee-quarter point on. Scoring this way allows the attacker some time to clear defensive obstacles etc.
The attacker does not get any timed hex score credit. He removes any potential future score from the defender by taking the victory hex as early as he can. Scenarios can be built with timed objectives, this includes those built into user campaigns but these will only be of use for full CD game owners. The last turn and accumulated scores for timed victory hexes are reported at the end turn phase once they have started to be credited for the battle type. The total is also now reported on the end game score sheet.
The standard 7 hex cluster of "non-shotguned" victory hexes will now be spread about in a wider “splatter” pattern approximately 1/3 of the time rather than being in the traditional tight cluster. This produces a more open objective cluster that may need more than a scout car to take and also defend than the “normal” close clusters do but less than the “shotgun” type clusters.
The standard roster button has been added to the deployment menu.
The display of wrecks In the game map can now be toggled on and off as with Victory Hexes in order to allow a less cluttered view of the map if needed. The “|” key (above the “\” key ( That is the Victory Hex toggle on/off shortcut on a US/UK keyboard) is assigned to the function.
Obstacle height and density can now be adjusted in the map editor and extended map using the ‘ < ‘ key to adjust Obstacle height and the ‘ > ‘ key to adjust Obstacle density. This will be of use to map and scenario designers who wish to create sparsely treed hexes or areas of really tall grass or underbrush. We had planned to allow adjustment to building height ( to block LOS ) but the house code is more deeply entwined with other aspects of the code than trees or grass and we ran out of time this year to make and test the changes properly. We hope to have it implemented next year along with the ability to adjust the building code to allow the ground under buildings to be raised up so troops in them have the ability to overlook the surrounding terrain.
As usual we remind everyone that on going secure PBEM games WILL fail if this patch is applied while they are being played.
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