******* Allied Corps RC *******

[Rudankort]

Hello All!

Just a quick note on the changes included in the RC. This version is similar to beta 4, but I have tried to put in a few more suggestions. So, here is what's new:

- Final tweaks in maps, scenarios and units.
- Allied campaign structure added to Library.
- Full german and russian translation included.
- Added buttons to pause/resume, fast forward and rewind replays. Let me know what you guys think about the new Replay controls!
- Added advanced options tab to game options.
--Added controls to configure custom difficulty level.
-- Added option to play with new or old game rules. Every individual rule change is also configurable via gamerules.pzdat file.
-- Promoted reform units, chess and dice chess cheats to advanced UI options.
- Added one more new MaxShots parameter to gamerules, to cap shots which units can fire in the game.

This is it for Allied Corps 1.20. We can no longer add/change existing features or fix and tweaks minor stuff. But if you spot a serious bug, please let us know asap, so that we can fix it before the release.

Thanks to everybody for participating in this beta. Your feedback has been very useful and really helped us to improve the game!

[monkspider]

Reform Units as a UI option? Thank you, thank you!

[monkspider]

Actually, I just looked at the new ädvanced rules section, absolutely amazing! I know Deducter is going to be thrilled, this is exactly what he has been asking for.

[deducter]

The many new options in the gamerules.pzdat file are awesome, and most of my requests have been added, so I am super pleased. However, there are a few minor things that I've noticed:

1. Replays

The rewind, pause, fast forward all seem to be working quite well.

However, replays of MP games, seem to be somewhat problematic. This could be because I reloaded an older saved MP game from v1.20beta3, but basically, it only showed things from the Allied perspective, even when it was the German side's turn, and that when the player chooses to "abandon truck" or to "end multiplayer turn" those popups still appear, which they shouldn't in the replay.

I was planning on disabling fog of war via cheat codes, except of course there are no cheat codes in MP.

For replays, especially MP, it would also be nice to have a global fog of war toggle, along with seeing the play from both perspectives. Sort of like how replays work in Starcraft or other modern RTS. At the very least, in PzC the FOW should change to the side that is active during its turn.

It would be a good idea to change these issues with MP replays at release or soon after, otherwise, there might be some confusion from many MP players.

2. I am very happy about the option for the capping of shots. However, my understanding is that right now the cap is affected by ROF. So, for instance, a unit with ROF = 12 at STR = 10 will have 10 dice roll. I was hoping that the system works by basically ignoring all strength points over 10, then multiplying by ROF, so that a unit with ROF = 12 at STR = 10 will still have 12 dice rolls, but this unit at STR = 15 will also still have 12 dice roll.

Although a small change in formula, this is very important for this concept to work correctly, since ROF is an important modding tool in balance.

I hope the change in formula can be done sometime in a patch after release, or if it's really easy to change, maybe in the release candidate itself.

3. Advanced Options UI

Advanced Options are awesome.

It would be good to have tooltips to explain some of the options. For instance, I assume you have to click "custom difficulty" to enable the sliders. This might be confusing to some players without a tooltip saying so.

[deducter]

One thing I was surprised to not see in the new gamerules file is the absence of the uncoupling of OS with experience level that showed up way back in beta1. While it was not good for game balance then, this system could actually work well with the dice roll cap rule.

So if the code still exists, would it be possible to add that back in as an option in the gamerules file?

[Razz1]

Very good!

I see you added the word limited to dice chess.

That should help people understand it better.

Very clever of you.

[fsx]

In the next update it would be nice Alex, if you add the preset for custom difficulty level.
If I select Field-Marshal and after that switch to custom difficulty settings, I expect the preset for Field-Marshal as starting settings.

For the older mods I would use a standard difficulty level and only change the rules to 1.14.

But the chance to adjust the difficulty level is TOP!

[Delta66]

Those improvements are most welcome.

The replay buttons are very good. The possiblity to display a number count for the actions, something like 23/165, and the ability to jump to a specific action number would make the replay function even better. It would be helpful when you want to replay to a specific point in the turn to study a specific action, especially in the bigger scenario

[billmv44]

Love the changes! The customizable difficulty levels and game rules are great. Of course now this means I'll have to play each version all the way through on each game rules - in the name of research of course!

[Tarrak]

In the next update it would be nice Alex, if you add the preset for custom difficulty level.
If I select Field-Marshal and after that switch to custom difficulty settings, I expect the preset for Field-Marshal as starting settings.

I can only support what fsx wrote. It would be great if the difficulty settings assume the position of the selected preset difficulty level and allows so for easier fine tuning.

[Kamerer]

I noticed when starting a game, there's no mouse-over to explain the bonus difficulty levels (patton, etc.) The player has to guess and deduce from game play it appears. Would be good to get the explanations back.

[jyves974]

I still notice that the screen is flickering from time to time when a unit has been killed. I'm using an Asus Notebook G73Jh + Radeon HD 5870 (driver 8.683.0.0) + Win7/64 bits

While playing the V2 Rocket scenario, the Turn X windows lost its normal background and became black. The game crashed later once I requested the objectives. I could not find a way to upload the dump file.

[Kamerer]

While playing the V2 Rocket scenario, the Turn X windows lost its normal background and became black. The game crashed later once I requested the objectives. I could not find a way to upload the dump file.

That happens periodically when the game has been left running a long time (several scenarios or more). It's been around a little while. The trick is to just quit to the desktop every few scenarios, or if the game has been left open in the background a day or two. Reload the autosave and you'll pick up where it ended.

[reddog000]

Very nice additions indeed. The more user customization you allow the more playback value the game retains. And this my friends is NEVER a bad thing. Keep striving and making better iterations from player feedback such as this and you will eventually create the holy grail of PC war-gaming

Thank you again for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful project. Good luck in the future.