Scourge of War Update

Threads discussing NSD news items from the front page.
Destraex
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by Destraex »

A little excited about this. I own the game on steam but really never enjoyed it but loved the concept of courier messengers, multiplayer sub commanders HITs etc. It would have been the perfect napoleonic game except;
Why? Because the ground textures being such large blocks compared to the sprites made it hard to look at because of the contrast of what looked like ground maps made that would have made soldiers 100x the size of the sprites look more at home on.
The other thing was not being able to appreciate the terrain because the trees were not drawn in even at fairly close distances on the best settings (I tried all the suggested tweaks off the forums way back).

Is the engine getting overhauled to support multi-threading? Or does it already?

Will owners of the current steam version have to re-purchase? Not that I mind too much if the game becomes playable. Just curious.

So just my 2c. 07 guys and great news. Don't stress and enjoy the process.
fffff
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by fffff »

I will buy the game again without any problems. With these changes, SoW will become the best of the Napoleonic games. Fans are waiting for a new release
Cleaburn
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by Cleaburn »

Waterloo first why
DarkRob
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by DarkRob »

Cleaburn wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2023 7:35 pm Waterloo first why
Because it's the better game, from a technical point of view. It corrected alot of issues with the civil war games, even though it created some of its own, it's still the best place to start. I think their aim is to combine both into one united system.
Martin James
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by Martin James »

Can you go into a bit of detail on why you think Waterloo's a better game from the technical point of view please, DarkRob. Our group mainly plays GB, although we have very recently been experimenting with a few Waterloo games.

Thanks in advance.

Martin
BankSixdeis
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by BankSixdeis »

Hey Norb :)

I just wanted to come on here and post some more encouragement for you and your team from a person and a player whose life you are impacting in a very positive way.

For the first time the other day, I finally tackled Antietam in the older SOW: Gettysburg Collectors Edition game.

Went right for it. Fuck it. Full 11 hour battle simulation as the underdog CSA army.

Grognard difficulty, but for the free roaming camera and no couriers (custom settings). Since I’d finally learned the SOW system (I’d always gotten overwhelmed before), I was finally confident enough to give it a go.

What I was able to simulate and experience that day — brought me to tears, Norb. And today, three days later, I’m sitting here at 6:18 a.m. on a Sunday STILL marveling at it.

And that was the old game….

From 05:00 in-game (or whenever) until it was done —- it was pure brain power and adrenaline and fun and craziness….but when it was over and the carnage lay there before me as I’m sure it did in real history…I cried…

What you are doing here makes me so proud. And it makes me hopeful somehow.

Not only is the simulation intense, stressful, fun — thrilling — devastating at times and ALL of that (from the perspective of a commander), but from the perspective of an historical observer…you are helping people see what all those poor bastards in the ranks had to deal with in a full day’s pitched ACW battle.

At times, with a little imagination employed (over the graphics and functionality) I could finally see what it must have ALL really been like out there. The WHOLE spectacle. All of it.

And that was the old game.

Thanks for this, Norb. For me, Waterloo and Napoleonics is fun —- but ACW is personal. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
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norb
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by norb »

Yes, repurchasing the game will be required as our plan now stands. It will be worth it. Not everything is getting overhauled, but the visuals will be. As of now the engine is not changing, but we should get some better implementation out of it. We are going to fully integrate with Steam for MP, etc. As soon as we can we will have an early access version so everyone can help test and make suggestions. Working on the store page currently.

We hope to have just one exe that will support everything. We will expose much more for modders. Building x64 means we can support a lot more uniforms and up the resolution of our maps.

I understand how some people would not be happy to purchase again, but it will be a different version a no one is required. The Matrix version will run fine for years to come. We have a big team that is giving up their time to enhance the game. Although no one ever gets rich working on the games, it is great to send out checks. All our games are royalty based, so everyone that significantly contributes to development receives a cut.

We could have just left it alone, but too many people kept pinging me wanting to do more. I have things that I've wanted to try. So we made the call.

I did have very wimpy multi threading in there, I am adding a lot more where possible. It's tough with the game design, but since our goal is enhancement, we have the time to focus.

Destraex wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 10:57 am A little excited about this. I own the game on steam but really never enjoyed it but loved the concept of courier messengers, multiplayer sub commanders HITs etc. It would have been the perfect napoleonic game except;
Why? Because the ground textures being such large blocks compared to the sprites made it hard to look at because of the contrast of what looked like ground maps made that would have made soldiers 100x the size of the sprites look more at home on.
The other thing was not being able to appreciate the terrain because the trees were not drawn in even at fairly close distances on the best settings (I tried all the suggested tweaks off the forums way back).

Is the engine getting overhauled to support multi-threading? Or does it already?

Will owners of the current steam version have to re-purchase? Not that I mind too much if the game becomes playable. Just curious.

So just my 2c. 07 guys and great news. Don't stress and enjoy the process.
DarkRob
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by DarkRob »

I'm happy to throw more money at this game because I believe in it, I always have. What I'm really hoping, and maybe this is just fantasy, but what I really hope for is that if enough people get behind this, that it could lead to future Scourge of War games.

To go through the work and effort to upgrade and enhance a system to then only use it to re-release an 8 year old game and a 14 year old game, to me seems like just going halfway, like it wouldn't be enough payoff for Norbsoft to justify the work.
Waterloo and Gettysburg are both great games, but a redone reissue of those games is really only going to appeal to people like me, hardcore devotees of the game. The people that played the game casually back in the day probably aren't coming back for a reissue of an old game.
What will get those people to come back is a new game using the new enhanced system, and that seems to me to be a payoff worthy of the work being put into upgrading the system.

Just my 2 cents of course, I won't say I'm unbiased about it because yea, it's my dream that one day there will be a new Scourge of War game, but I still think in the long run, a new game will really be what pays off for the work being done now.
52ndOx
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by 52ndOx »

I discovered SOW quite late, but still enjoyed the game a lot, and even spent time learning how to build maps and create custom scenarios.

It's great that the devs seem keen on improving the game, but to really get my interest the engine would need to be changed.
I don't care that the graphics are not super realistic, I love the feel of size and history that the game has, but it is super frustrating to have low performance in the application while a whole GPU and 7 cores of the CPU are just twiddling their thumbs.
pag
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Re: Scourge of War Update

Post by pag »

Thanks for the update norb!
I also discovered the SOW games a bit late. SOW series has really grown on me. As already said its the overall size and “taking command” feel of the gameplay that works for me.
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