Comme cela avait été annoncé au printemps dernier, l’équipe de WDS travaille sur la refonte de nombreux titres de JTS / HPS, particulièrement ceux de la série Panzer Campaigns concernant le front de l’est. A savoir quand même onze titres, dont le premier est disponible depuis le week-end dernier. Les autres suivront peu à peu, le studio souhaitant d’abord vérifier que tout fonctionne bien.
Au registre des améliorations, de meilleurs graphismes, de nouveaux sons, l’intégration des scénarios packs déjà parus, un scénario jouable en PBEM, ou encore une meilleure interface ainsi qu’une optimisation générale du code.
A noter que les possesseurs des anciennes versions doivent pouvoir obtenir gratuitement un patch effectuant la mise à jour en version Gold. Attention, à partir de cette version Gold il n’y aura plus de support technique pour la version parue initialement chez HPS.
Quant à ceux préférant d’autres théâtres d’opérations, sachez que le travail sur les titres concernant le front ouest et le front nord-africain devrait débuter plus tard en 2018.
Pour plus d’informations sur Panzer Campaigns – Smolensk ’41, voyez le communiqué ci-après, ou par ici sur le site de Wargame Design Studio, puis cette page chez l’éditeur.
Communiqué
Panzer Campaigns Smolensk ’41 Gold Released
As mentioned last April, we have been working with John Tiller Software to relaunch the Panzer Campaigns series of games. All 11 games covering the Eastern Front have been updated to the Gold standard and will be progressively released shortly. We want to ensure there are no issues before releasing all of the titles and Smolensk will allow us to determine if there are any problems.
The titles that updates have been completed for are listed below;
Panzer Campaigns 01; Smolensk ‘41
Panzer Campaigns 03; Kharkov ‘42
Panzer Campaigns 06; Korsun ‘44
Panzer Campaigns 07; Kursk ‘43
Panzer Campaigns 09; Rzhev ‘42
Panzer Campaigns 14; Moscow ‘41
Panzer Campaigns 15; Stalingrad ‘42
Panzer Campaigns 16; Budapest ‘45
Panzer Campaigns 17; Minsk ‘44
Panzer Campaigns 19; Kharkov ‘43
Panzer Campaigns 21; Moscow ‘42
Panzer Campaigns Demo; Mius ‘43
All these titles will come as either a new game replacing the existing Panzer Campaigns title for purchase or will be a free patch to existing owners. We have to go through a fairly convoluted process due to both the HPS and JTS communities, but essentially anyone with the JTS 2.00 version will get the patch and any HPS upgraders will get the brand new JTS installer and an applicable key.
The new Gold version of Smolensk includes the following updates and upgrades;
- The game code will now be standardized on the JTS codebase. There will be no further support for the HPS version
- All new 2D & 3D map graphics
- All new unit graphics and counters on map
- All new unit cards
- All new in game sounds; weapon, explosion, background and miscellaneous
- All the expansion pack scenarios previously released for Smolensk ’41
- All released Volcano Man scenarios
- A single balanced play by email scenario from the Blitz.
- A brand-new master Map – this impacts all scenarios and there is a lot more detail on the recrafted Smolensk map.
- New ‘modern’ toolbar icons
- Code update – disruption no longer halves movement during the day and is reduced by one third at night.
- Code update – reinforcement ‘place all’ has been migrated across from the First World War Campaign series.
As shown, we have been focused on completing the Eastern Front games first. This has sped up the process as it’s quicker to reuse graphics across associated titles. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to work on the Western and Mediterranean games until later in 2018. With the Eastern Front done, we must double down on the North African Panzer Battles title as that has languished slightly while first the American Civil War title, Petersburg was released followed by these Eastern Front updates. We will move onto the other theatres after North Africa is released.
…
This has been a big project and like everything taken longer than we expected. The Eastern Front covered more games than any other theatre and we knew we would get the biggest bang for the buck doing this series first. We really hope that we can breathe more life into the Panzer Campaign games as they are such a strong series. We really wanted to put the time in and update them to be more aesthetically pleasing both graphically and aurally.
Expect to see the aforementioned titles being released very soon…
Additional product information is here Smolensk ’41 Gold Product Page
If you already have the JTS 2.00 version of Smolensk ’41, please get the 2.01 Gold patch from here JTS Update Page
If you own the HPS version and would like the Gold version then email JTS support for your game key Support@johntillersoftware.com
