Version 1.0 beta

Our last round of testing on the new engine code came back clean, so we are very happy to announce that the 1.0 beta release is ready to go. We will post the new version of the Engine and UI (user interface) tonight 1/5/12 around 12:30 a.m. p.s.t (after today's turn is finished processing).

Major Improvements/Bug fixes to the Engine:

• Reinforce (this is now a stationary order and will allow a unit to reinforce any player or friendly battles within a 1 hex radius, not including terrain restrictions, an unlimited amount of times within a turn). We took away the movement portion as we feel this makes the order require more strategic planning.
  
• Overwhelming Odds (Small numbers of enemies will no longer stop your units from moving, though there will be a small delay while the larger force forms up and wipes the opposition from the map - reported as a regular combat)
• Transfer Command bug (player that has temporarily transferred command to another player will no longer be removed from the game)
  
• Encamp bug fix (One set of circumstances was disabling Encamp bonuses from distributing to units correctly)
• Malformed Orders bug fix (very rare, but deadly error to our engine)
• New daily engine reports (allows us to quickly identify and diagnose engine problems - viewable to Devs only)
• New backup engine procedures (solution for the delayed turn processing)

Major Improvements/Bug fixes to the UI:

• Reply added to incoming messages
• Players may now send messages to all other in game commanders (not just their side)
• Send to all CSA/USA button (for team games)
• Incoming mail now has a button that will open the Web version of the Battle Map
  
• Improved Battle Map - No orders yet indicator on Battle Map. Battle map now shows updated unit positions as you move units between Tactical Maps. Battle Map now shows CSA objectives. New legend added to Battle Map.
  
• Improved Calendar page
• Improved Victory status page

Jeff

Server down 8/10/11 - Update

Hi everyone,
Looks like our sever host has experienced a total system failure at their Dallas site, which is unfortunately where our server space is. There is no know ETA on a fix yet. Here is their latest rundown on the situation. This is one of those things that is unfortunately beyond our control. Thanks for your patience,
Jeff

Update: per our host @rimuhosting and the data center #colo4 the eta for bringing servers back up is approx 6:15-7:00 pm Central

Release 0.1

Gonna keep this post short. 1st attempt at the new game management features goes live tonight. We think we fully tested all the new features however game development being what it is and us being so small of a team, there might be a few glitches. If anyone runs into any problems tomorrow morning please let us know. Since these are core features we decided to release the new update in 2 parts. The first half of the update goes live tonight and includes only the game management features:

• Player missed turn tracking
• Victory point tracking and reporting
• Automated removal of players that miss 3 or more consecutive turns
• Transfer command (lets you temporarily give command of your troops to a team mate)
• Quit (lets you drop out of a game prior to its official end *note that this will carry a penalty)

The second half of the update will go live once we feel that the game management features are stable and working properly.

Thanks for checking in,
Jeff

New version

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to post a quick update. We are currently testing out a bunch of new features that we hope to release as soon as they all check out okay. The new game management features are all server based (so these features will mostly be available in your "My Games" page) and will include:

• Player missed turn tracking
• Victory point tracking and reporting
• Automated removal of players that miss 3 or more consecutive turns
• Transfer command (lets you temporarily give command of your troops to a team mate)
• Quit (lets you drop out of a game prior to its official end *note that this will carry a penalty)

We are also hard at work testing out a new version of the front end User Interface (this is what you guys would consider the game pages). These improvements will include:

• Player Save system (this will allow you to save your orders in between play sessions)
• Mail system improvements (All players will once again be available to communicate within game (Lee to Meade for ex) not just your side. Reply, Send to USA/CSA, Access to the map viewer page from within the mail page)
• Objectives displayed on the Field of Battle map

So thanks for your patience while we test all these new features. As an added thank you to our subscribers we will be allowing them early access to all the new features once we feel ready. So subscribers stay tuned!

Jeff

Quick update

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to post a quick update. Many of you have probably already noticed, but the My Games listing is sporting a new look. Instead of having a separate War Department page with game data for each game, we merged the existing My Games listing with the new War Department data. So the My Games page will now list commander data (player names now link to individual stats pages, current orders issued status, consecutive missed turns, and total missed turns), victory status (overall points, casualties per side, major objectives status) and the new Game Options (which should be coming online soon).
Some of you may also have noticed that the War Department has been replaced by the new My Options page in the Navigation bar. The new My Options page will be the primary place to view and change several new game features, however for now the only option listed is the new "email reminders" feature. This will allow you to turn notifications on or off, once we finish certification testing on all the features we are working on.
Thanks for checking in with us, and we hope to see you in a game soon.
Jeff

Aim, aim, aim...

"Ready, fire, aim: the fast approach to software development. Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim...: the slow approach to software development." - author unknown

Update for C63:

So as we've been putting together the new game features we have come to the (not so startling) realization that all of these systems are connected, and it would really be best if we managed to test them all at the same time. This means that rather than release each new game system as it passes certification testing (and there are several new features in this category), we need to test them all together. While this will lead to a much more stable and bug-free game, it has the unfortunate side effect of delaying your enjoyment of said game.

We hope to release a huge set of these new features to you within the next 2 weeks.

Thanks for checking in with us,

Jeff

User Experience re-evaluated

Hi everyone,

So over the latest round of beta testing several things have come to our attention that need to be addressed. Player match-making is more difficult than we initially planned. People (especially subscribers) are having a hard time finding games that people stick around to play. Our first take on the problem was the "accept command" step that was added to the game launch system. This was a good 1st step, as it greatly reduced the number of games that were launching with no players at all sticking around to submit orders.

Our next step was then to figure out a way to track and remove non-active players from games. This is where the new "war department" page comes in along with the new game admin features like, "quit", "holiday", and "pause". This is proving to be a bit more complicated than we anticipated, but a preliminary version should be available shortly.

So far so good, however we think we can do a bit better. There are a few more changes to the game that will be added over the next month or so. "Full" 5 vs 5 team games will soon be available to subscribers only. "Team" 2 vs 2 games will soon be implemented and also available to subscribers only. "Duel" games will continue to be available to all players (not just subscribers) and we started planning a single player version of the game (not just a demo) that will allow people to jump into a game right away (this will obviously be against an AI opponent, something we didn't want to do but is apparently necessary). We will also be expanding our ad placements within the website. Initially the ads will be viewed by all players however we hope to enable subscriber filtering, shortly after the ads are enabled.

Anyway that's all the latest news for The Campaign of 1863.
Onward to victory!

Jeff