M44 Online Beta 15 January 14, 2011
Dear Memoir '44 Online Officer:
We are happy to report that we released the Beta 15 version of the software.
This version brings lots of bug fixes (over 35!).
What's New?
- We finally found a workaround to resolve the white or black screen of death some players were experiencing when launching the application on Windows PCs equipped with certain nVidia drivers and video boards. So if you had this problem before, here is your chance to try the game at last! Download the new version and have fun!
- We have introduced not just 1, but 3 new official scenarios: "Gallabat & Metemma", "Tunisia" and "Twin Villages". The last one features a Winter board with winter terrains. Enjoy!
- We fixed the bug that was blocking the promotion to Major (a tricky DB issue, thanks for your numerous testing trying to achieve that rank ;-)). If you qualified for this officer rank but were not promoted up to now due to this bug, you will be automatically promoted upon the completion of your very next game. So make sure to play at least one game with someone else!
- Likewise, we resolved the issue that prevented deserving players from receiving the Armor Specialist achievement. Try again, it should now work!
- We can’t show it to you quite yet, but we made excellent progress on solving some the nasty issues that prevent us from releasing the Expert Mode yet. If all goes well (this is still beta software), we should be able to release the Expert mode to anyone who purchased a qualifying Pack (ie Captain or Major) in an upcoming release (see the "What's Coming Next?" section below for additional details).
- Many strategic improvements were made to the robots' behavior of both Johnny and Hermann.
What's Coming Next?
First of all a BIG DISCLAIMER: This is development Software, and what is worse, Beta Software. So while we believe what follows to be the most accurate description of our development plans and status as of this date, some things might still go wrong: as a result there could still be a difference between what we plan to do and hope to accomplish at any point in time, and what we will actually be able to deliver over the next few months, in terms of timing and features…
# 1. With many bugs already fixed and more features added in, our plan is to release the Expert Mode into beta, along with a number of scenarios specific to it (ie scenarios that haven’t been coded for rules yet) in either the next release (b16) or the one that immediately follows (b17).
# 2. Assuming this works out as planned, the next related task will be the release of a new version of the Memoir '44 Editor to allow you to playtest your very own personal scenarios available in Expert Mode, and make them available for others to play with if you wish to.
# 3. Another top priority for us is to continue releasing new scenarios on a regular basis. This is always a difficult trade-off, as time spent fixing bugs and developing other features ends up competing for our attention with the new rules required for some of these scenarios.
# 4. The version just released (b15) comes 3 weeks after the prior one, but now that the Holiday season (and hopefully the nasty flu viruses that hit members of our team during that period) are behind us, we plan to return to our regular 2 weeks interval between releases. So if all goes well, b16 will come in two weeks, with yet many new improvements!
In the meantime, enjoy the current release and keep those reports coming!
How to upgrade?
It is very simple, just launch the game. After you log in, it will detect the new version and offer to download it. Make sure you do so. Then follow the instructions that appear on your screen.
If you have problems, you can always go to
http://www.memoir44-online.com and download the software again. Nothing will be lost, since all your profile is stored in your DoW Online account.
Details of improvements and bug fixes:
- 3 new Standard Scenarios, including one with a winter board (Twin Villages)
- White or black screen of death with Nvidia drivers 260.89 and 260.99 is fixed
- Thread deadlock could crash the server
- Corrected an important server-side memory leak
- Major officer rank was never awarded
- [Achievement] Armor Specialist was never granted
- Implement desert and winter boards (but no Desert or Winter rules yet)
- [Sainte-Mère-Église] Plane could remain during the whole game
- [Resume] was still proposed even when the game had reached the AAR screen
- [Ambush] You should be able to activate it right away if you want to
- [Ambush] Re-compute activation conditions after each attack
- [Ambush] correctly evaluate all equally probable combat situations
- [Robot] should switch to a more defensive strategy when about to loose
- [Robot] now checks if it's not cutting its own retreat when attacking
- [Robot] Retreat flag not ignored, when it should have
- [Robot] was not ignoring flags when in hedgehogs
- [Robot] took ground, although it was attacking a cliff
- [Robot] is sometimes stuck, and then passes
- [Robot] obviously likes to swim, so it could move into the sea rather than toward the beach
- [Robot] attacked Artillery in a forest rather than a 1 fig infantry in an open field
- [Juno beach] Map preview could show "Classified"
- [Japanese Windows] App does not install on Windows with Japanese locale
- [Japanese Windows] Japanese date format would crash the application
- [Turkish Windows] Game does not launch on Windows with Turkish locale
- Typo in Russian officer ranks
- Support multiple medals on same hex
- Other various fixes
And as always:
A big THANK YOU to everyone who play and/or send us bug reports.
Make sure you stay tuned on the Memoir '44 Online forum:
http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/thread/?frm_id=71 And above all, have fun!
The Memoir '44 High Command at Days of Wonder Headquarters