4K and large monitors

[lansoar]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

SP3 was not a very good engine - I know, I was a playetester for SSI on that.

Did you playtest for SP2 by chance?

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by lansoar

Did you playtest for SP2 by chance?

No, not for that game

[lansoar]

[quote=Mobhack;852429][quote=lansoar;852426]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

No, not for that game

ah. Officially me neither. Cut my teeth on SP2 though. I bugged the historical consultant big time thus establishing my PitA credentials. Think his name was Jim Worth....might be wrong. I remember complaining about SAM ineffectiveness and how I'd double ACC to get something decent.....like Stingers with AC 110 in my mod. Also commented on how the singular weapons of SP2 had bad effects when going back in time.....classic example was the 105mm NATO L7. SP2 to WinSBT is a long evolution. amazing game. Used to play it night and day. Wish I still had that much free time!

In defense of WAW, a lot of good ideas were attempted, some more successful than others. Had development continued, it might be a contender to this day.....though I have doubts, mainly due to the seemingly inherent vulnerability of soft units in the SP3 engine of which WAW was based on.

Ultimately I think the game suffered from over-focus on armored vehicle combat.....the Hollywood stars of the show in other words. Thus more humble but vital elements, mainly INF were left with little to no modification from the SP3 engine. Europe and North African scenarios were the most popular so the Pacific scenarios where INF battles and limited armor support in unfriendly tank terrain suffered as a result.

[Mobhack]

Regarding monitors being too big - as and when I get a new 4K one I will be keeping the current 1080p one as a backup, and swapping it out for the humongous one, not just for our games but other ones that dont play well on humongous monitors.

One thing people might think of doing perhaps is to get an old 19 inch monitor (perhaps from a pawn shop say, not as new, but they are quite cheap even new). Use that for SP and swap out for the huge one for the tasks the huge one is suited for?.

I havent tried multi-monitor setups as yet, but if the game can be "cast" to use the smaller monitor and not the huge one that may work?. Interested to hear from any multi-monitor users what thier setup may be, e.g. having a smaller one alongside of a huge one.

[Mobhack]

Jim Worth

I sent him a few OOB requests back in the day when SP2 came out.

SSI had decided that every British AFV had to have the "FV" numbers as part of thier name. presumably because they were used to the USA using M113, M60 etc. Whereas we Brits never, ever used the FV numbers barring the FV432, because our American allies sniggered at its given name of "Trojan", I believe, why IDK! Also for the M109 and other USA supplied SP-arty. But for vehicles the "proper" name was always used. "Chieftain", "Fox" etc.

As one of the Permanent Staff Instructors told us back when I was in the TA, "Them numbers are for shiny-trousered stores clerks, train spotters and sad anoracks. This is called an SLR, not a f~~g L1A1". Followed by me doing three laps running round the drill hall with weapon held over my head shouting out "This is my rifle, This is my SLR!" or some such pithy phrase the PSI desired to get the point across.

So I requested a change from Jim Worth - but that never happened. I think SP2 got 1 or maybe 2 bug fixes. (One allowed PBEM replay if you had 1 MB(?) of memory, a huge amount then!). OOB data was not part of that IIRC.

Someone - forget who - had done an OOB editor for SP1, I contacted him to see if he was planning on making an SP2 one, but he wasn't interested. However he did pass onto me the offsets to the various data fields, and I used that for Kobhack, my SP2 OOB editor. Now I had UK OOBs with "Chieftain Mk 1" and no silly FV-numbers and "SLR" instead of "L1A1"!

My work on the editor got me an invite to be on the playtest team for SP3. I thinks I made an OOB editor for that game, but cannot recall. SP3 was not very good, I knew that from playtesting, and it seemed not to sell very well. Didn't stay on my HDD long after the release.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Someone - forget who - had done an OOB editor for SP1

Jim Bello

[lansoar]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

I sent him a few OOB requests back in the day when SP2 came out.

I didn't get much traction on the SAM thing either...though I note that WinSP has much much higher ACC values now and they are generally much more dangerous. (which I am thankful for....that and better Helicopter staying power....so annoying to have my birds go into retreat mode after a few bullets shot in their direction)

The Singular weapon issue that might equip tanks going from "modern" 1990s all the way back to the 70s did in fact get a responding email from Jim, acknowledging the problem. Because of the way the code works of course, the solution was and remains.....to create many different versions of the same weapon (like the 105mm NATO gun) with different sub designations and different PEN and other values. Made playing Warsaw Pact a lot more fun and less frustrating. I remember some players seeing even the strongest Soviet tanks of the 70s/80s eras being destroyed with ease at near max range by 105 armed tanks (using 1990s desert storm ammo values) as "proof" that Soviet equipment was junk....regardless of era.

SSI had decided that every British AFV had to have the "FV" numbers as part of thier name. presumably because they were used to the USA using M113, M60 etc. Whereas we Brits never, ever used the FV numbers barring the FV432, because our American allies sniggered at its given name of "Trojan", I believe, why IDK! Also for the M109 and other USA supplied SP-arty. But for vehicles the "proper" name was always used. "Chieftain", "Fox" etc.

lol. Have to admit, I struggle at times with the historical German language designations for units and groups in WinSPWW2. I tend to get lost after "Panzer".

anyway long story short....I moved into play testing for Matrix starting with WAW....then Uncommon Valor...then developer/tester/historical consultant for War in the Pacific and WitP Admiral's edition. Fun times for a period when I had far more time and energy for such passion projects. Now I just sit in my rocking chair and play WinSP along with a return to air Simms.

[DRG]

Just to interject this little trip down Geezer Memory lane.

"KOBHack" was your SP3 editor since SP3 used KOBxx format OOB's. MOBHack was the SP2 editor and used MOBxx format hence why both of these games still use "MOBHack" even though our OOB's use spobxxx and Obatxxx


You can find a copy here.. Post #5

https://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?p=834919

[Wdll]

So basically I was the only one on the planet who had fun playing SP3. Interesting.

[lansoar]

Originally Posted by Wdll

So basically I was the only one on the planet who had fun playing SP3. Interesting.

I did play it a little back in the 90s. It was interesting to play for larger campaigns but to be honest, it was stretching the game engine to the breaking point. Battles often just ended up being slaughterfests as firing exchanges of mass destruction as you watched tank units with big sets of numbers over them go from 12 down to 0 in a matter of seconds. Then there was the previous mentioned Firehose effect on soft targets with any weapon handy. The humanity!

Had some fun with large scale Arab-Israel engagements for a brief period but that was about it.