SCENARIO: American Civil War Full-Release Version

In which I indicated possible interest in playtesting the 240x240 version Procifica is making.

You may notice I did not indicate any interest in participitating in the actual development of said version, nor made any statement what future involvement in other versions I will have, nor pledged loyalty to Procifica or anyone else.

Version and version, by the way; Procifica is essentially saying he's making a new scenario.

A split will see me going with Misfit and our planned ACWN4.0, provided he is still interested in pursuing it. But I don't see that would mean I could not playtest Procifica's "ACW2".

I believe it is in everyone's interest that this thread be split. I can just imagine what people outside this immediate discussion must be thinking.

Procifica's requests regarding notifications / credits seem quite reasonable to me and I strongly urge anyone interested in variants of the base ACW scenario to follow them.

Here is my suggestion for the new thread setup.

I'll start with the first post and place the current v3.9 ACWC3C build there. If I could get Rocoteh, The Last Conformist, dreadnought, Nolodan and Procifica to each post once after the initial post with only the word "reserved" in their post.

My thinking is that it will allow us to manage the first page of the new thread such that as people enter / exit the project whomever the current "manager" of the revision is has the ability to control the most recent uploads of the revision. Thus (for example) if I were to leave some months down the road and Last Conformist were to take over, I would erase my first post text and leave only the word "reserved" and Last Conformist could then, in his first post, put in the current versions of the scenario. (In Procifica's case he might embed a URL Link to the new 240 x 240 Civil War thread he talked about).

That way ANY new user wanting to find the most current version of the scenario need only go to the very first page to find what they want. I think that would be considerably more user friendly than the 101 page monster we have now.

It would also allow us to manage the posting of variants off the base scenario (ie like dreadnought has been working on).

Again the whole point of this is to move into a ACW Conquests only scenario and to manage the posting of revisions in a far more user friendly method.

I'd like to wait until Rocoteh & Last Conformist (who are in Europe), dreadnought (don't know location) and Procifica (who is on the West Coast of the U.S.) gets a chance to read this, before I take any further action. We are spread out all over the world so some feedback from people would be useful if we are to setup the new thread and improve upon the old one.

Let me know what you think.

Regards
Misfit

Misfit: That sounds like an excellent idea.

Misfit_travel,

I think its an excellent idea, and you have my
support for it. I would only like to add that I abstain
from my place. I have really closed the ACW-book for good.

I only wish 2 things for the future with regard to ACW:
1 That you give me credit as Co-creator of ACW
2 That you give me credit as Creator of ACW3.9C3C

Once again I think the idea is excellent and I hope
Thunderfall will consider it conerning my question
about new shared threads.

Misfit_travel and The Last Conformist,

I wish to thank you for the time we worked together.

I am wishing both of you a good future and all the best.

Thank you.

Best Regards

Rocoteh

Originally posted by Misfit_travel
I believe it is in everyone's interest that this thread be split. I can just imagine what people outside this immediate discussion must be thinking.

Procifica's requests regarding notifications / credits seem quite reasonable to me and I strongly urge anyone interested in variants of the base ACW scenario to follow them.

Here is my suggestion for the new thread setup.

I'll start with the first post and place the current v3.9 ACWC3C build there. If I could get Rocoteh, The Last Conformist, dreadnought, Nolodan and Procifica to each post once after the initial post with only the word "reserved" in their post.

My thinking is that it will allow us to manage the first page of the new thread such that as people enter / exit the project whomever the current "manager" of the revision is has the ability to control the most recent uploads of the revision. Thus (for example) if I were to leave some months down the road and Last Conformist were to take over, I would erase my first post text and leave only the word "reserved" and Last Conformist could then, in his first post, put in the current versions of the scenario. (In Procifica's case he might embed a URL Link to the new 240 x 240 Civil War thread he talked about).

That way ANY new user wanting to find the most current version of the scenario need only go to the very first page to find what they want. I think that would be considerably more user friendly than the 101 page monster we have now.

It would also allow us to manage the posting of variants off the base scenario (ie like dreadnought has been working on).

Again the whole point of this is to move into a ACW Conquests only scenario and to manage the posting of revisions in a far more user friendly method.

I'd like to wait until Rocoteh & Last Conformist (who are in Europe), dreadnought (don't know location) and Procifica (who is on the West Coast of the U.S.) gets a chance to read this, before I take any further action. We are spread out all over the world so some feedback from people would be useful if we are to setup the new thread and improve upon the old one.

Let me know what you think.

Regards
Misfit

Click to expand...

Hi, Yes Of course this if fine by me (east coast) , just let me know when and where to reserve a spot and Ill be glad to give any thoughts I can from time to time. I plan to play my variant for this game and also a variant for the ww-2 pacific conquest for a while and am planning no more variants at this time.

To sum it up.....Its time to kick back and play some as we go through the holidays but I will keep an eye on this thread for developements.

Regards....dreadknought

Originally posted by zorven
Is there a known sound problem or is just me? I get no sounds for any battle, land or sea, but seem to get every other sound.

Click to expand...

I noticed some sounds of some units are muted but Im not sure why but other units sound fine. I have also noticed this at times in other games so it may be a conquests issue.

dreadknought: Some pages back, Rocoteh posted some posts re: the sound problem. To my knowledge no-one has found out the actual reason yet. We'll try and track it down when we can.

Rocoteh: My best wishes. I've appreciated working with you.

Yes, I have it too, as described above.

Meanwhile:
1862 - Week 48
In my CSA game the Union (AI) actually launched
an effective counterattack!! What a suprise, I had
to pull back from Terre Haute all the way to Vincennes
and hunker down for defence, or else one of my
best divisions would have been surrounded.
Will wonders never cease?

Originally posted by Misfit_travel
Zorven asked:

1) Was there a reason for having the opponents territory unexplored at the beginning of the game.

Misfit: This was a design decision that was made before my time with ACW. The "fog of war" does make exploring much more interesting though.

Click to expand...

Originally posted by Procifica
Fog of War isn't possible to adjust in vanilla Civ3 editor.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't referring to Fog of War, but that the map is not completely revealed at the beginning of the game. Anyway, I went into the Conquest editor and found the checkbox to reveal the map, so I just did that for my copy.

Thanks...

I have been reading this thread the last few days with a feeling of disappointment. It seems a shame that the team that produced such a quality scenario is "breaking up". But then, a group dynamic is just that: dynamic. It changes over time.

With regard to the concept of a *shared thread*, VB doesn't allow any such thing. I don't know if it will be possible in VB3 or not, but I doubt it. Bulletin Board software isn't normnally designed around the concept of allowing other people to change *your* posts. Misfit_travel's idea of having a *Reserved* post for each participant at the beginning is probably the best solution to the problem. The only other method I can see would be to PM a moderator when things needed changing in an absent originator's post.

eric_A: Why does the AI never do such things in my games? It's so unfair!

zorven: I think Procifica was refering to the unrevealed parts of the map - the term 'Fog of War' has at least two different meanings in strategy gaming - because that's what changed between Vanilla and PTW; you can have the map explored at start via the checkbox you found.

Last Conformist: You've been playing ACW too long and have learned all the AI tricks. That's why your not surprised anymore. eric_A is still on the learning curve. If you want a real surprise challenge a human player. Poor whizkid got his head handed to him attacking a human Union player. I'm looking forward to his defensive strategy (heh, heh)..... Maybe we should give PBEM a go over Christmas. Between the two of us (and Rocoteh) we've perfected alot of the quick kill strategies. Time to invent some new ones.

Zorven: I really like the blacked out areas of the map, since annoying little things like the indian villages and exact city locations remain a bit more of a mystery. From my point of view it adds something to the scenario by not having everything nailed down for you to see right from the get go.

Regards,
Misfit

Those who have reported the problem, please supply the following information:

1) What version ACW you are playing (ie v3.01, v3.8, v3.9)

2) What version of CIVIII you have. (ie vanilla CIVIII, PTW, or C3C). Please also specify the country version you have (ie US, UK, Spanish etc.)

3) What units you notice the sound problem with (ie Union Volunteer, CSA Militia etc.)

4) What computer OS you a running under (ie Windows XP Home, XP Pro etc.)

With the above information we should be able to nail down the problem quickly and then see about resolving it.

Thanks
Misfit

Originally posted by Misfit_travel
Those who have reported the problem, please supply the following information:

Click to expand...

1) What version ACW you are playing (ie v3.01, v3.8, v3.9)
3.9C3C

2) What version of CIVIII you have. (ie vanilla CIVIII, PTW, or C3C). Please also specify the country version you have (ie US, UK, Spanish etc.)
C3C

3) What units you notice the sound problem with (ie Union Volunteer, CSA Militia etc.)
I am playing as the US, and have not heard any battle sounds for any unit. For bombardment, I do hear the "shell hit" but not the shell being fired.

4) What computer OS you a running under (ie Windows XP Home, XP Pro etc.)
Win XP Pro


I have only played 2 other games in Conquests and did not notice any issues in those games.

Misfit: Re: AI tricks, that smiley was intended to indicate I was not being entirely serious. I'd love to try a PBEM game against you, but I don't see myself doing it over the holidays; better start when I'm back here in Germany, that's to say after the 5th of January.

Regarding the map, Revealed is my prefered option; big unknown areas feel wrong in the mid-19th C. I might add I tend to studiously ignore the Native Americans; the damage they cause pillaging the odd fort simply isn't worth the effort of dealing with them systematically.

I've checked the build that zorven is playing (which based on the information provided should be v3.9).

I too when playing the Union do not hear sounds for attacks and movement for the following units:

UnionVolDiv (Union Volunteer Division)
Union Sloops
Union Frigates
Skirmishers

I've checked the config files for these units and they appear to be using the correct links for the sound files (for instance the UnionVolDiv uses the Rifleman sounds from the original CIVIII game).

Zorven can you confirm that you do not hear any sounds from units (ie movement, fidget, attack, death, fortify) or that you only do not hear sounds when these units are moving or attacking.

The distinction is a subtle one, but there is a difference in the sound files used for actions like fidget or fortify than there are for movement and attack.

Anybody else out there running C3C and ACW v3.9? More feedback as to whether you are having sound problems would be helpful.

Thanks
Misfit

Ok, I am playing now.....I hope this makes sense:

I hear movement for my Union ships, Union Militia (small), artillery, milita, transport, but not cavalry, union volunteer (or div), US Regular (reg & small), Union Skirmisher

I do hear ships sink, and infantry "cock" their rifles, and the sounds when units die, and fortify sounds.

I do not hear any sounds during a battle, except: I did hear a Confederate "rifleman" shooting when he attacked me, and I do hear my militia shooting.

I think this has been mentioned, but my worker has the build airfiled and build outpost options (not sure what an outpost is though)

An outpost is a kind of "map revealer" - it counts as a unit with radar for the purposes of FoW.

The options were news in PTW, and has probably been accidentally introduced during the conversion from Vanilla; some other odd things are known to happen during that. The Airfield should be removed, of course, but I guess there's no pressing need to do away with the Outpost; someone might find it useful.

I've fixed the engineer / slave units in my current Alpha build of v4.0 so they don't have the build airfield option anymore. Sure enough it was a flag that was added as the scenario got migrated from CIVIII to PTW to C3C.

If this is a big problem for anyone I can issue a patch to v3.9.

As for the sound problems.....

It is definitely looking like the *.amb files are the culprit. (For those that are curious), navigate to the Art/Units folder of one of the units like UnionVolDiv and then click on the configuration file for this unit type. Scroll down to the bottom to the section labeled "sounds". For sound type "run" and "attack1" the sound files are *.amb, but for all the others (which are the sounds we can hear) they are *.wav.

Now that there is a general idea about where the problem, solving it requires more expertise than I have at the moment, so I'm going to have to hunt around to see if anyone else has run into and fixed this issue.

Regards
Misfit

Might the type of sound files for the standard units (eg Rifleman) have changed between PTW and C3C?