TacOps v3 Change Report - Public

v3.0.4 Patch released 24 June 2000.

User request.  Mac & Win. Added a new type of map to TacOps - the Type2 map - to facilitate the creation of new maps by users. A Type2 map has its artwork and data segments stored on disk as two separate files and in common data formats that will facilitate the creation of map making utilities - either by myself or others. Type2 maps are fully crossplatform for Mac and Windows.  The artwork for a Type2 map is stored as an ordinary bmp file.  Thus Type2 artwork can be created and modified by using various popular art programs.  The non artwork data (the terrain coding) for a Type2 map is stored as an ordinary binary data file and will require a map editing utility to produce (I have both Mac and Windows map editing utilities in testing).  The artwork for a Type2 map has the following naming convention:  'Map' + 'three digit number' + 'c' + '.bmp'.  The non artwork data for a Type2 map has the following naming convention:  'Map' + 'three digit number' + 'c' + '.dat'.

User request.  Mac & Win. A Type2 map may also optionally have an associated Map Legend text file.  This text file may contain up to 20,000 characters of plain text.  The contents of this file (if present) will be displayed to the user in a scrolling text box when the Map Legend menu item is selected.  To allow crossplatform usage of the same text file whether the file was created on a Mac or on a PC, the Mac version ignores linefeeds (if present) in the text file and the Windows version adds linefeeds (if missing) in the text file.  A Map Legend text file has the following naming convention:  'Map' + 'three digit number' + 'c' + '.txt' and must be saved as plain text.

User request.  Mac & Win. Moved the optional unit name text (if present) to the front of the title line of the Unit Orders Window.

User request.  Mac & Win. Added optional drawing of unit names alongside the unit marker on the map.  The drawing of the unit names can be turned on and off by using the Tab key or by using a menu item.

User request.  Mac & Win. Reorganized the major text reports to show info in a more consistent manner.  Also widened the reports windows.

User request.  Mac & Win. Situation Report,  Logistics Report,  Ammo Report, Support Report - if a line in these report windows contains a unit id number in the format 'ID:x', then that line can be double clicked on so as to automatically open the Unit Orders window for that unit.

User request.  Mac & Win. The Logistics Report and the Ammo Report now mark units with asterisks that have 50% or less of their ammunition remaining.  These reports used to only highlight units with 10% or less ammunition remaining.

User Request. Mac & Win. Ammo/Logictics Report now shows a statement at the beginning of the report, rather than at the end, as to whether any units in the report are below the 50% ammo level.

User request.  Mac & Win. When loading a saved game file, the program will start its automatic search for the associated scenario file and  map file by looking first in the directory where the saved game file is located.  This simplifies game startup and file organization (i.e. allows one to easily isolate similarly named saved game files and orders files) for players who prefer to create a special named folder for each PBEM and CPX game in progress into which they have placed copies of the scenario file and the map file for that game.

User Request.  Mac & Win. In solitaire games in previous versions, the Red AI computer opponent selected its opening moves for off-map units in the game setup phase as soon as the scenario was loaded.  This prevented the Blue player from saving and reusing his starting setup for future replays of that scenario because doing so would mean that the Red AI computer opponent would always use the same opening moves for off-map units.  The new startup logic is as follows.  If you are in solitaire mode, and if the Red force has units that enter the map after the setup turn, and if you save the game before running the first combat turn, then when that saved game file is reloaded the Red force units will usually (but not always) select a different opening move from what was used in the last game.  This only applies when all of the above stated conditions are met and it only applies to Red units that enter the map after the first turn.  If you are playing a scenario where the Red force starts out already setup on the map then you will continue to be stuck with only that particular Red setup whenever that saved game file is reloaded.

Misc Info.  Mac & Win.  Shortened the Report Menu list by five items by eliminating menu list distinctions between blue reports and red reports.  Program can now deduce which force to display reports for.

Bug fix.  Mac & Win. If a player interrupted the orders phase of a game session by saving the game and exiting TacOps, then when the player next reloaded that saved game file and resumed giving orders, the shift point restrictions for ongoing artillery and mortar units were sometimes ignored.

Bug Fix.  Win only. Program double printed optional unit name text in the ammo/logistics report.

Bug Fix.  Mac & Win. Windows version would sometimes crash or begin to display garbled graphics or begin to fail to draw some graphics if there were large numbers of small smoke clouds on the map and if two or more of these clouds were located consecutively in memory and if two or more of those consecutive clouds were removed from the map in the same 15 second combat pulse.  The same bug existed in the code for the Mac version but it did not cause a problem on Macs.

Bug Fix.  Mac & Win. When loading a saved game file, the program failed to automatically look for a needed scenario file in a factory folder with the same name as the scenario.  Example:  when looking for 'Task Force Craig.sce', the program would fail to extend its search to include the factory folder named 'Task Force Craig' and would then stupidly ask the user to locate the scenario.

Bug Fix.  Mac & Win. The program failed to disable the check box line titled '9  No Enemy OOB Reports' in the Options/Preferences window when displaying a CPX map overlay file in which at least one side was protected by an overlay password and the creator of the overlay had set the overlay to not show enemy order of battle reports, 

Bug Fix.  Win only. The program would sometimes crash while drawing the Order of Battle report when displaying a CPX map overlay file when the creator of the overlay had set the overlay to not show enemy order of battle reports.

User Request.  Mac only.  Sped up initial appearance of 'Add One Unit' window by precalculateing and then hard coding its alpha sorted unit name arrays.

Misc Info.  Mac & Win. The current automatic file searching rules are shown below.

Automatic search order for a scenario file:  
	folder containing saved game file (if a saved game file is being used),
	then folder Battles\US,
	then folder Battles\US\folder name same as scenario file (minus '.sce'),
	then folder Battles\CA,
	then folder Battles\CA\folder name same as scenario file (minus '.sce'),
	then folder containing the TacOps game engine.

Automatic search order for a Type1 map file:  
	folder containing saved game file (if a saved game file is being used),
	then folder containing scenario file,
	then folder Battles\Maps,
	then folder containing the TacOps game engine.

Automatic search order for a Type2 map file:  
	folder containing saved game file (if a saved game file is being used),
	then folder containing saved game file\folder with same name as map (plus '.dat'),
	then folder containing scenario file,
	then folder containing scenario file\folder with same name as map (plus '.dat'),
	then folder Battles\Maps,
	then folder Battles\Maps\folder with same name as map (plus '.dat'),
	then folder containing TacOps game engine,
	then folder containing TacOps game engine\folder with same name as map (plus '.dat').

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v3.0.3 Released April 2000 only to Canadian Army. Patch not released.

Bug fix.  Mac & Win. If a unit was towing a damaged vehicle and if the towing unit lost a strength point, the towed unit would be instantly released/placed on the map with its damage repaired.

Bug fix.  Win only. If a unit had five weapon systems, the Unit Ammunition Resupply window failed to show the correct maximum possible ammo load for the fifth weapon system.  The window incorrectly repeated the maximum possible ammo load for the fourth weapon system.

Bug fix.  Mac & Win. Deleted French accent over the 'e' character in 'Guide des scenarios.pdf'.  The accent mark caused installation problems for Chinese and Japanese language versions of Windows.

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v3.0.2 Released on CDROM April 2000.  Patch not released.

User request.  Mac & Win. Added more terrain info to the text shown in the info line at various places in the program.

Misc info.  Mac & Win.  Changed code in several places to remove certain developmental level compiler warnings.  Unknown if the reasons for the compiler warnings were actual bugs or not.

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v3.0.1 Patch released March 2000

Bug fix.  Mac & Win. Program would sometimes wrongfully refuse to load more than one item on a landing craft.

Bug fix.  Win only. Symbol spacing was sometimes off in the Unit Preview Window.

Bug fix.  Mac & Win. Program would wrongfully remove from play a non amphibious unit that was stationary on a bridge, if the bridge was coded as road + water.

Bug fix.  Mac & Win. Changed lift capacity of CH53 helicopter from 33333 kg to 14515 kg.

Bug fix.  Mac & Win. Changed light anti tank weapon on Canadian Taurus ARV from AT4 LAAW to M72 LAAW.

Bug fix.  Mac & Win. If a helicopter or a landing craft was carrying an APC which was in turn was carrying an infantry unit and if the user duplicated the helicopter or landing craft, the program would fail to duplicate the infantry unit inside the APC.

Bug fix.  Win only. If the user selected a group of units and if the user then selected the Setup/Unload Unit menu item, the program would stop unloading the list of selected unit markers as soon as it encountered any marker that was not carrying troops.


