Most of it is headcanon anyway, but it is more that a gay guy in that era would be guarded too, which only really means my mc is unlikely to volunteer much details, which in this case just makes him as unlikely to “open up” as the rest of them, so in that way I guess he fits in perfectly with the rest of the crew.
But, again, as long as there is the choice for gay mc’s in particular to be justifiably guarded and redirect or deflect any girl talk in particular I’d be happy.
I do suppose that his life experiences, in my headcanon, do make my mc here more fond of looking forward than back and that would be reflected in what he asks the boys about in that he would be much more likely to asks them about hopes, dreams, desires, aspirations or ambition for their future than delve deep into their pasts.
Well…I suppose that is where the “career” stat might come in handy, eh?
A bug: after we gain control of the control tower, we select two of the three choices: cannibalize the wrecked M3A1 Stuart, repair our tank, or search the French tower. Choosing to repair the tank as your second choice does not advance time; you can still select to repair your tank (which still doesn’t advance time) or you the other option you didn’t select at first.
In upgrading the radio, could we get the option to send transmissions right away? I had a playthrough with a single radio part, and I think the ability to send transmissions is more valuable than the others (also, I find it strange if, for example, aircraft can send us messages but we can’t reply. That would make requesting air support challenging). Here’s a screenshot of the available options:
When trading medical supplies, I had the option to purchase the company medical kit even if I have 0 invasion script. (my current medical supply is the standard tank kit). Here’s a screenshot:
I was able to buy that, and Sgt. Ray acts normally. I think this is a bug, and this scene shouldn’t happen.
When making trades, we can only ask our fellow crew members for their invasion script once, right? Because I selected the option to make trades, and asked the crew to pool scripts, then I spent it all; then, I reported to Lt. Driscoll, and I was able to ask the crew to pool scripts again.
In our rations, do French rations also refer to actual, fresh food (like what Abdallah sells)? I traded K rations with him, and the stats page show me French rations now.
I think I may be overthinking this, but Abdallah sells eggs, chicken meat, and camel meat, right? Because after I traded with him, the text says this:
Dinner is a delicious assortment courtesy of the French. Relatively fresh bread, doughty sausages, dried lentils and a bit of rice that Nelson takes to cooking with gusto. The only questionable item is a can of ‘Madagascar’ meat. ‘Monkey meat’, Owens suggests and by common acclaim, the can remains unopened.
I got this text just before we moved out with Driscoll’s platoon:
However, there is one bright spot. A private slips you a report that lists suspected German units in and around Tunis. There’s a lot of tanks, most of them labeled medium but some are indicated to be ‘heavy’.
Lowered the entry cost on sending transmissions. It was two parts, but now it is one.
As an aside note on send/receive capability; yeah, it was strange to read the accounts and flip through the manuals concerning the radios of that era and find that most sets could not transmit. Or that the frequencies were so limited. There thinking was that, firstly, it was expensive to equip every tank with it. Secondly, undisciplined units would jam up the channels with chatter. Thirdly, that crews would have to undertake additional training for maintaining the expanded units and using the radio. Fourthly, well, you get the idea.
So, a tank unit couldn’t radio an infantry platoon or company directly. Only forward observers could contact airplanes and that was later in the war. Usually you’d have to send a message to battalion and battalion might be able to contact the tank units. If not, they’d send to regiment or try the armored force’s HQ, which would then send a message back down to the tank platoon.
It was worse with the Army Air-Force, and a lot worse with the American navy (To say nothing of the British radio nets).
Which tells me that we need at least one scene where the crew bitches about what you just indicated, that the radio situation sucks.
Medical supplies. Yep, totally didn’t attach a script minimum to that. Good catch.
Excellent catch here too. Yes, I forgot the needed divert here to lock out the first-time-through gosub.
Yep, I coded in two “french_rations” variables by accident. This has since been corrected.
Another good catch. Accidentally set the variable check to =0 rather than =1.
Thanks again for this hard work. That’s six I missed and might not have caught those until the second or third edit, if at all.
If you’re interested I can help you with Casablanca
I’m Moroccan
And also a quick note in WW2 Casablanca wasn’t really called that, most of the inhabitants called it Anfa under the protectorate of France
The pleasure’s mine; it was enjoyable playing through the game (to clarify: I’m not saying war is enjoyable, but rather I like how we can do a lot of things and how there’s different ways/choices to follow your orders and to get tank equipment and how each of us has unique skills).
That was informative, on the radio. Thank you. Standard doctrine on the radio would make it difficult to coordinate with nearby units (like how, when attacking the airfield with Driscoll, nobody noticed if you put up signal flags).
As for the crew bitching on the radio, maybe it could be in the optional technical scene? Maybe Nelson could explain it there? (This is subjective, but I love that scene. It tells the players about the tank and its equipment. That was also where I began to actively be on the lookout for tank gear; that scene makes you realize that while the M3 Stuart is good, you could always look for things to make it better).
Alternatively, how about the scene where the bomber crashes, just before we decide to investigate or not? Maybe the MC could lament how it would be nice to have air support, then Nelson would explain how the radio can’t do that and needs upgrades first?
On to more feedback:
My tank ran out of gas after destroying the FT17, and the MC and the crew abandoned the tank. Then an R35 and Lt. Knox’s tank killed each other. Did we recover our tank? Because on the next chapter, there was not really a mention of the MC getting a new tank. And our stats carry over.
Not sure if this is a bug, but if the MC gets wounded in the first chapter, we don’t heal up in time for the second chapter. Our health is still reduced; but any wounded crew gets back to perfect health.
If your tank gets destroyed in the first chapter, the stats show “Tank: Destroyed,” yet in the next chapter, even if we get a new tank, our stats still show it to be destroyed.
@NJG - Those are some interesting ideas. Bringing up the subject organically at the bomber site would certainly fit. In fact, it makes a good prelude to upgrading the radio.
The three bugs you indicated were all excellent ones that needed attention. My attempts to playthrough have been more focused on tempo and text over detailed content. All too easy for me to miss a variable or two. Sigh.
Change log 1.0 as of 10/23/2021- This is the first changelog, because I’m disorganized on this front and had to be pushed to do this by @Aditya_Baishya
Chapter 5, 1st draft, sent to playtesters.
Fixed error in stat screen involving the radio and its capabilities. (Thanks @NJG )
Fixed error in Chapter 4 with duplicated speech at the airport. (Again, NJG)
Fixed error in Chapter 1 involving not meeting Stern but text not coinciding. (Once more, NJG)
Finally gave Mendoza a first name, he’s Ricardo or Rick. (Thanks Brittany!)
Received immense input on Chapter 2 from @Adil_Saidi and @Eiwynn .
It is indeed helpful. I think you should put the changelog in the very fist post which contains the demo link. That way, we will be able to see the changelog whenever we visit the topic in the forum.
Further, I read the new update. I didn’t found any flaws in the new chp. The new chp is good.
But in the previous chp, in chp 4. I was not able to get the option to collect the scripts from my crew mates even though I was able to get them with the same choices which I took in this new playtest. I would appreciate if you can look into it.
Apart from that, I will only have a personal opinion that there should be an option to exit from the betting game of scripts when we want to. Because right now, if we become the shooter, we can only get out of the betting game if we lose which I personally don’t like. Further, there should be an option if we would like to pass a turn just as we have in cards. But I don’t know much about the game which the players play due to which I won’t suggest it if that’s a rule in the shooter game.
The changelog is very useful for identifying things to keep an eye out for, so thanks for that.
The opportunities for scavenging in Chapters 4 and 5 made a change from the earlier chapters, and I think for the better. It felt there was a bit more variety in the descriptions, notably the appearance of Pervitin when looking for a first aid kit at the airfield (for a very unscrupulous PC, would Sgt Ray buy any if you could loot some?). The wounded tanker in the Stuart and the postcard in C5 gives more of a face to those you’re looting, and it reflects the intensity of the combat scaling up too.
I don’t recall if the French rations got unique snippets in earlier versions, but that was a nice addition and gave a bit more character to the tank crew that the other rations don’t show, namely the snippets about the mysterious meat and the brandy. The combat upgrades could get a bit more flavour though; I’ve only noticed the binoculars, radio upgrades and the rations affecting the text. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that you’ve a gyrostabiliser or the telescopic sight, but those are minor things.
Chapter 5’s early parts definitely helped to connect with the crew, the eating/Thanksgiving discussion especially. It was also nice having the potential for the PC to talk about their own background here too; sometimes it does feel like the PC’s an especially blank state. Arditi Allesandra was a surprise, though I feel like the options where the PC is uncertain are undercut somewhat as nobody else in the scene buys into what Alessandra’s saying, which subtly imply that they’re the “incorrect” options and that the player would be wrong to pick them. Are the crew’s responses here affected by the PC’s success in anyway, if any of the crew have low morale?
I really enjoyed the battle scene in the pass, especially the variety of results you can get, both hits and misses. The imagery, especially when you hit one of the tanks and the jerry cans detonate, really brought it to life, and the in-combat dialogue among the crew set it apart from earlier combat scenes, which could feel a bit sterile. Also, even if it isn’t entirely realistic, the option for the PC’s tank to just zip around and unload onto the Germans and, if the dice are lucky, become a tank ace in a day, was just fun. Reminds me of the story during the Battle of St. Vith, when an M8 Greyhound allegedly took out a King Tiger. I also managed to get my PC wounded for the first time due to my habit of always being unbuttoned, which was appreciated.
For immersion it would be nice if Driscoll (or the crew with low leadership) tries to get you back in line over the radio when you attack by yourself. He’d previously ordered the tanks to hold fire until they’re in range, so it felt a little odd that the PC could just charge by themselves without acknowledgement. Him bringing it up after the battle was a nice touch regardless, though I felt that he’d be a little more disappointed given his more by-the-book nature - at least initially. Also I would have liked more opportunity to use terrain if possible (as in the duel with Staudenmeier) but the battle scene’s probably complex enough to code anyway.
That said, I think it’s a little too easy to go on a spree during the pass battle if you charge, especially given the difficulty in fighting Staudenmaier and the Semovente in Chapter 4. Staudenmaier was a major threat at the end of Chapter 4, but by the end of Chapter 5, the player can kill 6+ Panzer IVs, which weakens the threat they pose. After Chapter 5, it almost felt like fleeing the airfield was protecting Staudenmaier rather than the PC et al, due to the relative ease in which Panzer IVs can get KO’d in open combat. I understand that’s partly due to balancing, but I only missed once in the valley. Part of me’s inclined to suggest that the PC could have at least 1 shot bounce regardless of stats, just to show that the Panzer IIIs and IVs are a class above their own and that they’re playing with serious armoured forces now, not just isolated, outdated tanks. The rounds being practice rounds could still be left down to an observation check or to repeated bounces.
Perhaps this also be helped by giving players the option to unload more rounds into tanks they’ve hit? For all the PC could know, the tank could still be operational (unless they see it brew up or the tank crew evacuate), so they might want to pump another round in. Or, the allied tanks could get more involved in the firing sequences (currently they only show up in the interludes between firing rounds) so it’s not clear whether the PC got the kill or not? Play into the fog of war a bit more, perhaps?
While I did enjoy it, I also felt that overall, Chapter 5 was a bit rushed. First you’re rushing to get to Blade Force, then you’re there and there’s a battle, and then the chapter’s over. The other chapters have a bit of “down time”, and while there is some when you choose to rest your crew/listen to the radio, it still falls under the need to get to Blade Force quickly. Time seems to pass unevenly. The sirocco, which takes up significant amounts of time in-universe, feels like it’s over quicker than the radio conversation.
Perhaps the post-battle scene could be extended a bit, a more lengthy time to take stock? If the PC has been particularly lucky thus far, it might be the first time they’ve seen multiple allied tanks get taken out in short succession, so that might be room for reflecting just how outmatched they are. It’s also the first time the Allies are on the defensive, so potentially room for reflecting about their enemies? I get that all of this might be restrained time-wise due to historical events. I would also like the option to scavenge after reporting to Driscoll first, but I guess there have to be trade-offs for choices.
The snippet at the end with the faulty rounds was an interesting addition. I guess it could be related to Sergeant Ray back in Chapter 4, or it could just be a mistake, as these things do happen. Certainly the PC’s seen enough stuff among his fellow Sergeants that aren’t regulation, from Spanswick to Ray. I wonder how that’ll all play out, if at all. An interlude’s been a long time coming, given the frenetic pace of the prior chapters, and it’ll be good to talk to the crew more substantially and upgrade the tank.
Typos, Errors
Chapter 1
While trying to reload an earlier save at the dunes (saved in Chapter 1 when you arrive at the tower after helping out the infantry), I get this error:
Error: WW2_Armored_Warfare_Chapter_1 line 1558: invalid line; this line should have a scene name followed by an error message: *hide_reuse #Listen to the radio to determine if Colonel Wilbur has issued any orders.
In general it seems like trying to save and load throughout the game (including later chapters) has a likelihood of throwing up an error somewhere or another. I can’t find any particular trend associated with it, but it feels like “hub” scenes are most prone to causing it.
Chapter 3
A shout rises up as you prowl between rows of crates. Nearby, a band of brightly clad French soldiers ceases their work on a broken down car and hurry off toward a slit trench.
“That’s interesting, sarge,” Nelson says. “Opportunity is just a seized upon chance.”
I went to steal a telescoping sight with Owens, but there’s a continuity error where Nelson shows up instead for this specific page. The previous and following ones correctly refer to Owens.
Also, when your tank is looted after the air raid, are you meant to keep all your upgrades? I’d consistently assumed that the gyrostabiliser was lost since it wasn’t mentioned until I checked the stats page.
Mendoza has already lined up the shot. He pulls the trigger. The cannon cracks out. The enemy erupts in smoke, then flame. Burning figures spill out the back and fall to the ground, rolling in agony until, mercifully, they stop. The accompanying trucks wisely reverse and motor off, the sound of their engines diminishing until the steady crackle of flames from the assault gun takes over.
With nothing more to accomplish, you order Owens to head out.
Suddenly there is a gray ribbon of road ahead. The treads bite in and you clatter right along.
A thump on the turret draws your attention.
“Well done, my friend,” Sergeant Baume says as he leans against the cupola machine gun. With a practiced flick of fingers, he offers you a cigarette from a badly crumple pack. With the tank in motion, lighting up for either of you will have to wait though. "I enjoyed the flames that consumed the bomber very much. Indeed, I am happy that there are fewer foes, and one more step to liberation."
Continuity error. I hid my tank to ambush the Semovente, then took aim, then fired when its barrel turned towards me, killing it. I didn’t destroy the bomber or anything.
Also I know it’s not in the changelog, but the Italian infantry ambush is still non-functional.
“En Avant!” Baume calls out. His men give a little groan, but as the Sugar Pie motors down the road, they quiet back down in their own wind roughed way.
Mud. A whole road worth of it stretches before you and fountains out the back as the treads of the Sugar Pie do their best.
Think there’s a missing page break here.
Chapter 4
I don’t know if this is intentional, but I took a look at the code and the label chapter_4_crossroads_prelude_to_the_hub.
*set crossroads_time +1
triggers not only when you return to the hub through a sub-scene, but also when you arrive at the crossroads camp for the first time.
If you choose the option “Take stock of things here”, it ends with the command
*goto chapter_4_crossroads_prelude_to_the_hub
Which, as above, has *set crossroads_time +1.
Consequently, if you arrive at the crossroads camp and immediately take stock, you gain 2 units of crossroads_time, allowing space for only 3 activities before the story moves on. I don’t know if this is intentional or not. If it is, it might be worth noting that, as otherwise “take stock” seems like another “meta information” choice which previously has tended to be a free action.
Also, I don’t think it’s possible to curry enough driscoll_trust to successfully ask him for favours.
If you go gambling and go on a winning spree, you can’t back out unless you lose. I initially thought this was why I didn’t have time to do anything else until I looked at the code.
Medicine, and medical supplies, are in their own special place.
They’ve got plenty of tank equipment here. They have plenty more tank equipment here.
A duplicate “They’ve got plenty of tank equipment here.” shows up while trading for the first time, after taking stock.
You stay upright, and exposed. The airfield The field is their chaos and your mayhem. Magenta shifts fire to another smoking airplane. It’s tracers carve into the frame until it is pyre.
The airfield The field. Perhaps an error with an *if statement?
Also at the end, “its tracers… until it is a pyre.”
Chapter 5
Alessandra’s name is inconsistently spelt as “Alessandra” and “Allesandra”.
Stats
In “Review my tank”, Location: doesn’t seem to work after chapter 3.
Still, it was great to get an update, thank you again.
Haven’t got this far in yet. But when trying to talk to Nelson he apparently has plans to start a company? And he tells you if you gesture to the bottle, except he doesn’t volunteer anything if you do that but after that somehow, telepathically the mc seems to know all about Nelson’s grand plans for the future.
So I think something went wrong there and either that choice wasn’t meant to come to that outcome or there is a whole chunk of exposition text missing there.
Loved the little chat with Owens about books, talking to that boy is always a pleasure for my mc. The other two are more challenging but rewarding in their own ways…and Baume, well I won’t talk about that on an open channel too much of a spoiler.
I guess next up is the first intermezzo chapter, unless you still plan one in Casabla too eventually.
So I guess coming up is the first (uncomfortable) letters to and from home we’ll get to see for the mc and the boys?
And a simple error here:
That’s a pretty radio you acquired there, $!tank_nickname}," Driscoll replies. “Stay off it, ears only, don’t fill up the channel. Driscoll, out.”
Yep. That’s a subtle one. Would have missed it for this draft, or even the next. Thanks.
@Thfphen110 - Wow. Excellent list of things to improve and fix. My list for this would be quite long, so I’ll be brief.
Yep, the text for scavenging and acquiring certain items has been improved in later chapters. That’s common with my writing, not knowing quite how to properly describe things until more of the story plays out.
Will have to take a look at the penetration numbers against the enemy tanks. It is supposed to get easier the more you fire on a tank, but apparently you were managing kills right out of the gate… and likely so would other players. While there is text for doing so, I may have to make things a little harder since the armor on the Panzer III’s and IV’s was no joke. On the other hand, the Germans were trying to shatter Blade Force outright and believed that American light tanks would be readily defeated, which led to the engagement as indicated.
I like the idea of not knowing if the enemy tank is knocked out or not. Will have to see if it can be coded in somehow. Or maybe the tank becomes damaged and tries to withdraw, forcing the player to choose between a kill and targeting another, more active enemy.
Will also reconsider the pacing for chapter 5. That’s something that is easy to overlook since I don’t really play my own games but rather check to see that everything is working…
Your error messages will be addressed in the change long. Many thanks for such a fine, detailed effort.
The question of what comes next is a good one. It’ll probably be what it was historically; IIRC that Blade Force was essentially dissolved as a unit, the armored forces that participated went into reserve for a while and were almost forgotten except to be penny-packeted out to help other units. General Anderson was the man who did most of the operational dispositions and some his deployments in North Africa of British, Commonwealth, American, and French forces were odd to say the least.
Will fix Nelson’s continuity error. Glad to hear that the characters interest you. Will try to make certain they keep developing over time if the PC talks with them more and more. Tricky to program… but not if that is better organized.
Managed six enemy tank kills with an only lightly damaged tank and lightly wounded Sarge (due to Sarge staying upright to keep oversight for most of the battle). and most importantly all the boys are completely fine.
I wonder will there be an actual medal in the cards for that, eh?
Yeah, I got this tidbit from Wikipedia:
After the disastrous Battle of Kasserine Pass, the U.S. quickly followed the British in disbanding most of their light tank battalions and reorganizing medium tank battalions to include one company of light tanks, where the Stuarts mostly performed the traditional cavalry missions of scouting and screening; for the rest of the war, most U.S. tank battalions had three companies of M4 Shermans and one company of M3s or M5/M5A1s.[27]
Well seems the rest of our tank’s role during the war will be as support for either the medium tanks or the infantry boys. Where it seems our potentially kitbashed with German parts radio may be a huge advantage in that we potentially have one of the very rare modified tank radio’s that can actually talk to the infantry. Which, to my surprise is a highly non-standard modification even today.
Though I did find indeed find a few (anecdotal) stories of individual tank commanders sometimes modding their radio’s, including to do that.
Although the most notorious radio modders of armoured vehicles today seem to be militarised police departments acquiring surplus armoured vehicles, sadly including tanks. Which I suppose makes sense as they can afford to take out some military equipment to make more space for it.
Really? I mean it only seems to be very minor cuts and bruises…admittedly due to the position Sarge stands in some may actually be to the face, but still doesn’t purple heart seem excessive for that?
I mean, yeah, I’ve looked at the code a bit now, so I know just how badly wounded or dead Sarge, the boys and the tank can get there if you’re not careful. Still it was my impression earning a purple heart was extremely hard.
Which, despite being late, got six Panzer IVs without any injuries.
Having played the Chouigui battle again from the other routes, I don’t think it’s such a big issue now. Holding in the pass is a death wish, while rushing to get there early enough to flank the enemy usually results in having to stop mid-battle due to running out of gas, or having a reliability failure and thus taking casualties. I could get at best 3 KOs with the other routes before being KO’d in turn, 6 with the “arrive late and charge” route.
One thought I had was to bring in the decreasing quality of German armour due to resource shortages and use of slave labour, but given the practice rounds conversation at the end that might just be too much technical stuff for the chapter. Perhaps it could tie into the field manuals you can get from one of the knocked-out Panzers – say, as a memo tucked into the pages which some time later some staff officer manages to translate? Alternatively, if the German forces at Chouigui were relatively new and untested, that might explain their inflexibility in dealing with the PC.
I hope we’d get involved in Kasserine Pass even if it doesn’t make historical sense. We potentially distinguish ourselves as one of the few US units that put up especially substantial resistance given our prior experience, which others might lack. Perhaps even Arditi Alessandra could give us a shout-out!
Things also don’t really go to plan in war, so we could randomly end up in an assault role because we’re in the wrong place in the wrong time. There are plenty of stories of US tank destroyers being used in ways they’re not meant to be, especially as assault guns.
One could argue that given the lack of importance given to it, senior staff wouldn’t see such a radio as actually being useful, so it the PC would still remain under-utilised despite what.
Honestly, I figure the field telephone at the back of the tank’s more useful than talking to the infantry, since a glance at searching through Osprey book previews shows that any radios they might have (if they do) are largely in the hands of company and platoon leaders, who might not be willing to listen to a mere sergeant of the Armored Force, and the field telephone was found to be more useful in immediate combat:
Tidbits from online sources
…the armored infantry had no man-portable radios capable of talking to tank radios. Man-portable radios were not authorized for Al units at all until November 1944, and these could not communicate or “net” with vehicle-mounted radios and were strictly used for communicating between ground troops. These sets were mostly issued in December 1944 and January 1945; one backpacked SRC-300 “walkie-talkie” FM radio was authorized for the company HQ…for communications with battalion The company CO and each platoon leader was authorized a SCR-536 “handie-talkie” used only for internal company communications, and this small handheld AM radio could not net with the “300.” In order to communicate with the infantry’s SCR-536s, another was mounted in each platoon leader’s tank. A bolt was removed from the commander’s hatch rim providing a hole for the antenna, and a short piece of rubber hose was placed around the aerial to keep it from grounding. The radio was modified so that the tank commander could use a throat microphone and operate the switch with an improvised extension.
A means was needed to enable accompanying infantrymen to voice-communicate with tanks, and an effective method was to place an EE-8 field telephone inside the turret with a flashlight fixed next to it. A 20ft length of four-strand electrical cord was run to the rear of the tank and an EE-8 handset fitted, the handset switch being modified so it could trigger the flashlight inside the turret, alerting the tank commander of a call. Often the infantry commander simply carried the handset rather than leaving it attached to the rank, where it could be damaged by fire. Some units mounted the handset with an extension cord inside a .50cal ammunition can welded to the tank’s rear…These additions were not fitted on all tanks, but on platoon and company commanders’.
The SCR 190/195/300 series backpack radios, termed Walkie-Talkies, were used at battalion and company level and had a range of about five miles. The hand-held SCR 530 or ‘Handie-Talkie’ was used at platoon level, with a range of about a mile (under good conditions - sometimes it was said to be easier to just shout).
Theoretically if you were engaging in long-range fire, the infantry could help observe where your rounds are landing by using the phone. Also it would be safer than requiring people to climb aboard your tank, which could expose them to enemy fire.
Are there any future plans for changing tanks in the future updates?
like the main tank was destroyed and you have to make do with what you have?
It would be nice to see the M3 Lee in action, Or you could commandeer tanks
from the British or French.
Also, Do you have plans to include D-day?
I’m ecstatic to see my PC first tracks in the front lines in Normandy.
Loved Tin Star btw, out of everything I’ve read, It’s my favorite. Keep doing what you’re doing man.
