Battle of Omaha Beach about to come out. So get ready
with your flippers.
Correct. If you have a mad compulsion to wade up a beach
while machine guns are blazing away at you, get ready.
It's coming. It will be a great beginner, freebie game.
Also, it seems that quite a few more of you have turned
up in the last month or so, wanting to try out your skills
and tactics in our very new environment that makes
our games easier and easier. And that is, I suspect,
because word has already got out about our;
New and improved system for cancelling games when someone
doesn't put in their turns.
Basically this has been a source of some upset over the
past few months. That is, players would propose interesting
public games, inviting others to join. Which they would.
The problem was that a number of players would join, put
in one turn and then disappear.
This, of course, would affect everyone else who wanted
to play a serious game. They would, quite rightly, get
upset that their game had been ruined and their money
wasted. They wanted to play against a human but instead
get our dumb ai (hey, it is "artificial" intelligence".
A bit like saying a bowl of jello is intelligent).
What will happen now is this. Whenever anyone in a
game misses either of their first two turns (yes, this
applies to players whose first two turns are not the first
two turns of the game), the game will automatically cancel
and everyone will be given a refund of their tokens. Also,
an email will be sent to everyone in the game,
saying who caused the game to cancel (if these
players then wish to put said player on their blocked
list, it's up to them).
Hey, we have no problem with people not wanting to play
our games. All we're asking is if someone joins, please
play the game. It's a real bummer when you don't, and
wrecks the fun for everyone else.
Because of this;
Tournaments took a slight rest because we were waiting
for the above system to be deployed.
But now this new cancelling-game system is going, and
seems to already have been well received, we are going
to get back to our tournaments. And if a tournament game
is cancelled by one player, the other player will be declared
the winner with a score equal to 100 and the loser equal
to 0.
On a long term note, we want to announce perhaps one
of the most exciting things we have done for years. We
have always dreamed of letting all our members be actively
involved in growing the site because, as we all know,
wargaming is a hobby that many people want to be actively
involved in.
So, today Tower Games announces that
Open Source scenarios are coming.
What this means is if you want to create scenarios
for Lightning War, our WWII divisional game, you will
soon be able to do just that.
What we will do is publish the data structure of the
Lightning War scenarios. Then all you have to do is find
a good xml editor and away you go. You will be able to
create whatever battles of WWII you want. We will provide
a database of equipment types, terrain types, nationalities
and weather patterns that your scenario may need. If we
don't have exactly what your scenario requires, like a
specific type of tank, Free French units or terrain etc.
then you will be able to submit your design to us and
we will modify our database or suggest alternatives, depending
on the situation.
Some of you might even be keen enough, and able enough
programmers, to create some really cool editors. If you
do, it would be great to spread them around so others
can use them. Naturally this will be up to you.
So, what are you waiting for? Start researching the
battles you have always dreamed about fighting. Find
out what units were there, what weapons they had such
as tanks, artillery and air power, weather, strategic
events, etc, etc. all in preparation for the big day when
we release all this.
