could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

You know, like Chinese or Japanese
I'm a Chinese and i wish to popularize WinSP in my country.However, not all of us know much of english, so I tried to translate it, at least the scenario part.
It seems that double-byte characters are not supported in WinSP. I attempted to change the words directly in scenario text but after that I found Chinese words could not be displayed during the game process. It depresses me.
So, may I ask that if there is any plan to made it display the double-byte characters. That would helps me a lot.

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

It would require a total rewrite of the game from the foundations on up to do such a thing.

The game is written for US/UK standard 8 bit ASCII only, and has crash problems with 8 bit foreign text code pages - no umlauts, graves etc allowed in any text fields.

Cheers
Andy

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

RedGuard, have you considered going old school with it? I mean have the instructions and tutorials in a rtf or pdf or some other text format?

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

I see, maybe I should find another way to popularize it. Sorry if I did make a wayward request:(

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Yes, that's what I have done, some simple instructions and tutorials, even AAR with pictures for promotion. But one would never content with current situation, right?:D
For now I am translating the game note but have to say, I mean no offense, words usage almost drives me mad.:doh: with so many unfamillir slangs or something else, writers seems didn't plan to make people like us understand...

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

I think in many cases it's a matter of assuming knowledge of NATO style military terms, procedures, and jargon.

If you run into anything you can't figure out feel free to PM me.

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

I once helped another Campaign designer clean up the their text. I would also be willing to help you out. PM if you want.

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Thanks a lot!

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Thanks.
Wow, before posting I didn't expect there are so many people who are willing to help:)

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Well, sorry for another question...
Is current game mechanism of op-fire really reasonable? I mean to any enemies who just moved the op-fire is provided by every available defender.
I found some comments about it in SPWaW. They said in WaW op-fire is limited by two random defenders. IMO that would be better, for during a fierce firefight one could never react to every moving enemies who in sight of him, right?

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Is there some reason that having spotted an enemy that you wouldn't shoot at it? Likewise you wouldn't notify all of your friends to do the same?

It does work out well once the art of artillery suppression, smoke screens, etc come into play.

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

yeah, it's something like "I see the enemy firing but I am engaging with another enemy squad so I'll leave it to my teammates to deal with it.":p

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Yea, in real life that will most likely not happen (all op firing). But given the game system is turn based IGOUGO which makes result readily available to players, this is the only viable opfire rule. You just need to think of it as alleviating the problem with turn based system. So far I find no problem with that given the TB system.

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

But also, you need to know that the Op fire phase IS NOT actually the other player's phase! You have your own phase of action, and so does your opponent. And op fire is NOT really a phase.
That said, your enemy can actually pick up and shoot what is moving at his will when it is HIS OWN phase. So that's quite realistic also.

Sometimes we need to posses philosophical thinking ability to understand how TB games work compared to RL.

Cheers,
RightDeve!

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Opfire kind of represents that it is a constant firefight.

It does depend a bit though: Lower experience units shoot less often, suppressed units shoot less often, and it seems that after taking multiple shots they'll "wear out" and shoot much less frequently during a turn.

Make sure to use long range suppressing fire first though, before engaging with infantry at close range.

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

I might be totally insane but I've always thought they have exactly the same number of shots during OPFire that they have during their turn, minus whatever suppression effects cause.

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

I read all the replies above and have to say that I've been persuaded. Frankly speaking I encountered no problem with that opfire rule. Just try to make it a better game

About the promotion, WinSP has attracted several friends, we play PBEM everyday and the number of us gradually grows. Golden age of WinSP in China!

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Err - nope, not at all.

Guaranteed Opfire Shots = any unused shot opportunities left over from your phase. (i.e. after any voluntary firing, movement, and suppression)

GOS will be reduced if they receive any further Suppression, damage or adverse morale results in the enemy phase of course!.

Once GOS are reduced to zero by opfiring/other effects in the enemy phase, then an experience/suppression/morale test gets taken when a new opfire opportunity arises. If that small chance, but significantly better for unsuppressed experts test passes, then an extra opfire shot is allowed. That is over and above the original SSI code, and was specifically designed by us to stop the "teasing out opfire shots" tactic. In the original SSI version, once you had made the Tiger expend its shots then you were guaranteed a free ride. Now in our system, you are not. Plus in our code the Tiger tends to prioritise opfire shots to avoid the cheap trucks etc and concentrate a bit more on dangerous stuff.

----

So - if you think the enemy will be frisky enough to require lots of opfire, then do not fire voluntarily in your phase, so leaving GOS high, do not move, and reduce any bad S by rallying.

----

I quite often leave the rifle line unfired, when defending or otherwise expecting there to be a bit of a firefight - firing only support weapons from the rear area behind the line (MMG/AGL into clumps or stacks of enemy grunts, snipers at depleted squads or AT teams or MMG or any spotted enemy sharpshooters, etc).

Rifle platoon HQs I usually leave just behind the rifle line as well - those are almost always left unfired even if the rifle line fires, as security (and to stop enemy putting S on my commanders :)). HQs should never take the point...

Cheers
andy

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

OMG Thanks for clearing that up with the details!

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Andy,

Don't suppose you'd give us a vague idea of what kind of odds we are talking about?

Exp 70, Morale 70, Suppression 1?
Exp 100, Morale 70, Suppression 1?

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

No - find out from experience of combat, like normal troops do.

We don't tend to give any details out, especially specific numbers, for many reasons. For one thing, they are subject to change, and for another it gets us into detailed circular arguments with the rivet-counter a-retentive types.

The SP type games are not "chess type" games with guaranteed pre-ordained results from given actions, so everything is subjected to a bit of randomness. It's a "Monte Carlo" type simulation. That was how SSI designed them, and how we have continued. Real life is somewhat random, unlike chess or whatever. Real life is more of a roulette game really. perhaps the best approximation of most of the code routines is a pinball type affair. Sometimes a flipper can be triggered that rebounds the code down an unusual branch of the sprawling tree of routines. It is not a deterministic set of tables in any manner of speaking. There are "dice rolls" all throughout.

So for whatever data point you are wanting to examine, then the real way to find out what happens is to set up an exactly repeatable test scenario and then repeat that test a statistically significant number of times. Probably at least 100 iterations.

Even if you had the source code to hand, that would really be the best way to exactly figure out what happens :)!.

Cheers
Andy

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

I wasn't looking for the exact formula :)

Just you know... a hint... 5% 15% 25%?

Great now you having me counting rivets thinking about what kind of scenario I would have to create to generate a reasonable experiment:doh:

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

About the opfire rule, there's an idea came to my mind right after a shower yesterday:D

I know it may be impractical or difficult to do so, but I'm still gonna bring it up. If it's not a viable way, perhaps you can get some other ideas to perfect WinSP from that.

Let's come to it in WinSP rules. The core of the matter is that you could only order one single unit to shoot at another single unit at a time, but then you get multiple shot. So how about this:

You make your units select their targets first by "T" key. Then press a new function key to activate all the attacks simultaneously, and the opfires would drop on the attackers randomly, or according to some simple rules.

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

i don't think that's possible(or practical) as the game treats every unit separately. There could be a way to select targets, then give a "master fire" order, that makes every unit fire one after the other(much like arty, spotters and airborne units)
A way to avoid having everyone op-firing at the same unit would be: fire, use another unit to fire(no matter the target), then keep cycling through your units as you fire, until you come back to the first one, then start over. That's how i do it, it's a pretty fast way to play. :)

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

And this has precisely what to do with double byte characters?

- please don't drift threads off-topic.

Andy

Re: could it be possible to display double-byte characters?
 

Sorry, it won't happen again