Campaign of '63: HQ

Version 1.0 beta

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:31:00 +0000

Our last round of testing on the new engine code came back clean, so we are very happy to announce that the 1.0 beta release is ready to go. We will post the new version of the Engine and UI (user interface) tonight 1/5/12 around 12:30 a.m. p.s.t (after today's turn is finished processing).

Major Improvements/Bug fixes to the Engine:

Reinforce (this is now a stationary order and will allow a unit to reinforce any player or friendly battles within a 1 hex radius, not including terrain restrictions, an unlimited amount of times within a turn). We took away the movement portion as we feel this makes the order require more strategic planning.
Overwhelming Odds (Small numbers of enemies will no longer stop your units from moving, though there will be a small delay while the larger force forms up and wipes the opposition from the map - reported as a regular combat)
Transfer Command bug (player that has temporarily transferred command to another player will no longer be removed from the game)
Encamp bug fix (One set of circumstances was disabling Encamp bonuses from distributing to units correctly)
Malformed Orders bug fix (very rare, but deadly error to our engine)
New daily engine reports (allows us to quickly identify and diagnose engine problems - viewable to Devs only)
New backup engine procedures (solution for the delayed turn processing)

Major Improvements/Bug fixes to the UI:

Reply added to incoming messages
Players may now send messages to all other in game commanders (not just their side)
Send to all CSA/USA button (for team games)
Incoming mail now has a button that will open the Web version of the Battle Map
Improved Battle Map - No orders yet indicator on Battle Map. Battle map now shows updated unit positions as you move units between Tactical Maps. Battle Map now shows CSA objectives. New legend added to Battle Map.
Improved Calendar page
Improved Victory status page

Jeff

Server down 8/10/11 - Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:23:00 +0000

Hi everyone,
Looks like our sever host has experienced a total system failure at their Dallas site, which is unfortunately where our server space is. There is no know ETA on a fix yet. Here is their latest rundown on the situation. This is one of those things that is unfortunately beyond our control. Thanks for your patience,
Jeff

Update: per our host @rimuhosting and the data center #colo4 the eta for bringing servers back up is approx 6:15-7:00 pm Central

Release 0.1

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 01:08:00 +0000

Gonna keep this post short. 1st attempt at the new game management features goes live tonight. We think we fully tested all the new features however game development being what it is and us being so small of a team, there might be a few glitches. If anyone runs into any problems tomorrow morning please let us know. Since these are core features we decided to release the new update in 2 parts. The first half of the update goes live tonight and includes only the game management features:

Player missed turn tracking
Victory point tracking and reporting
Automated removal of players that miss 3 or more consecutive turns
Transfer command (lets you temporarily give command of your troops to a team mate)
Quit (lets you drop out of a game prior to its official end *note that this will carry a penalty)

The second half of the update will go live once we feel that the game management features are stable and working properly.

Thanks for checking in,
Jeff

New version

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:38:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to post a quick update. We are currently testing out a bunch of new features that we hope to release as soon as they all check out okay. The new game management features are all server based (so these features will mostly be available in your "My Games" page) and will include:

Player missed turn tracking
Victory point tracking and reporting
Automated removal of players that miss 3 or more consecutive turns
Transfer command (lets you temporarily give command of your troops to a team mate)
Quit (lets you drop out of a game prior to its official end *note that this will carry a penalty)

We are also hard at work testing out a new version of the front end User Interface (this is what you guys would consider the game pages). These improvements will include:

Player Save system (this will allow you to save your orders in between play sessions)
Mail system improvements (All players will once again be available to communicate within game (Lee to Meade for ex) not just your side. Reply, Send to USA/CSA, Access to the map viewer page from within the mail page)
Objectives displayed on the Field of Battle map

So thanks for your patience while we test all these new features. As an added thank you to our subscribers we will be allowing them early access to all the new features once we feel ready. So subscribers stay tuned!

Jeff

Quick update

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 01:10:00 +0000

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to post a quick update. Many of you have probably already noticed, but the My Games listing is sporting a new look. Instead of having a separate War Department page with game data for each game, we merged the existing My Games listing with the new War Department data. So the My Games page will now list commander data (player names now link to individual stats pages, current orders issued status, consecutive missed turns, and total missed turns), victory status (overall points, casualties per side, major objectives status) and the new Game Options (which should be coming online soon).
Some of you may also have noticed that the War Department has been replaced by the new My Options page in the Navigation bar. The new My Options page will be the primary place to view and change several new game features, however for now the only option listed is the new "email reminders" feature. This will allow you to turn notifications on or off, once we finish certification testing on all the features we are working on.
Thanks for checking in with us, and we hope to see you in a game soon.
Jeff

Aim, aim, aim...

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:40:00 +0000

"Ready, fire, aim: the fast approach to software development. Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim...: the slow approach to software development." - author unknown

Update for C63:

So as we've been putting together the new game features we have come to the (not so startling) realization that all of these systems are connected, and it would really be best if we managed to test them all at the same time. This means that rather than release each new game system as it passes certification testing (and there are several new features in this category), we need to test them all together. While this will lead to a much more stable and bug-free game, it has the unfortunate side effect of delaying your enjoyment of said game.

We hope to release a huge set of these new features to you within the next 2 weeks.

Thanks for checking in with us,

Jeff

User Experience re-evaluated

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:59:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

So over the latest round of beta testing several things have come to our attention that need to be addressed. Player match-making is more difficult than we initially planned. People (especially subscribers) are having a hard time finding games that people stick around to play. Our first take on the problem was the "accept command" step that was added to the game launch system. This was a good 1st step, as it greatly reduced the number of games that were launching with no players at all sticking around to submit orders.

Our next step was then to figure out a way to track and remove non-active players from games. This is where the new "war department" page comes in along with the new game admin features like, "quit", "holiday", and "pause". This is proving to be a bit more complicated than we anticipated, but a preliminary version should be available shortly.

So far so good, however we think we can do a bit better. There are a few more changes to the game that will be added over the next month or so. "Full" 5 vs 5 team games will soon be available to subscribers only. "Team" 2 vs 2 games will soon be implemented and also available to subscribers only. "Duel" games will continue to be available to all players (not just subscribers) and we started planning a single player version of the game (not just a demo) that will allow people to jump into a game right away (this will obviously be against an AI opponent, something we didn't want to do but is apparently necessary). We will also be expanding our ad placements within the website. Initially the ads will be viewed by all players however we hope to enable subscriber filtering, shortly after the ads are enabled.

Anyway that's all the latest news for The Campaign of 1863.
Onward to victory!

Jeff

Game Admin page AKA The War Department

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:46:00 +0000

Hi everyone,
I thought Id take a few minuets today to update you all on what we have been working on for The Campaign of 1863 over the last few weeks, the new "War Department" page. This new page will be accessible from the My Games page and will display helpful game data along with some key new game features.

The game data listed will include: current game date/turn, current objective held by status (Harrisburg - USA for example), casualty totals for each side. There will also be a listing of player/commander data for each player in the game which will include: current turn orders issued? (yes/no), number of consecutive turns missed, and the total number of turns missed.

The new game features will include:
Quit - This will allow players to abandon the listed game.
Pause - This will allow players to vote to pause the listed game. The game will only be paused if all active players vote to pause the game (with a specified resume date)
Holiday - This will allow players to voluntarily transfer command of their units to their Army Commander (with a specified date at which units will be automatically transferred back to the player)
After Action report (Evaluations) - This will allow players to evaluate their fellow players in a variety of categories.
AWOL commanders - This will not appear as an option for players. It will function as an automatic assumption of the missing commanders units by the Army Commander and will be triggered when a commander has missed a certain number of consecutive turns.

The new War Department page will be made available as soon as possible, however the new game features will come online and be made available on a case by case basis.

Demo Now Available

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:54:00 +0000

We are very happy to announce that a Demo version of The Campaign of 1863 is now available. The Demo game lets you preview the look and feel of C63 while dropping you straight into the action. Taking place on the Day (or a.m.) game turn of June 29th you play as commander A.P. Hill. You will be able to read correspondence, view your staff reports (combat, unit, and intelligence reports) and plan orders for your units however the Demo game will not process an actual turn, meaning you will be unable to "issue" your orders or send out any correspondence.

Situation Report for commander A.P. Hill:
Previously having taken heavy losses around Fredrick City General Lee has requested you to pull back. You now find yourself under heavy Union assault in Haggerstown while the rest of your forces are scattered. General Lee has now decided to make a last stand around Gettysburg and has ordered you to join him if possible. Can you push through the Federal brigades standing in your way?

New Games Available Now!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:08:00 +0000

Mutant Entertainment Studios is very happy to announce that we have a new set of Beta Testing games available for The Campaign of 1863. There are two "Full" 5 vs 5 games as well as several of the new "Duel" one on one games. Please feel free to jump into any available game you would like. Registration is free and gives you 1 game "slot". When your free game ends you are more than welcome to jump into another free game. Premium accounts are available to those wishing to play in more than 1 game.

Thanks
Jeff - Mutant Entertainment Studios

New 2 Player Game and Command Acceptance

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:27:00 +0000

Funny thing about team player games is that they require a team of players.

This became very apparent over the last month as we had many people sign up to play but fail to show up for the actual game. Frustrating for the players that actually try to play and frustrating for us as we try and build up enough of a player base to fill a few 5 vs 5 team games. So in the next few days we are very happy to announce a new 2 player version of C63: Lee vs Meade will be made available. This new version of the game will feature all of the strategic elements of The Campaign of 1863 while placing each player in charge of the entire Army of Northern Virgina or Army of the Potomac respectively.

A second feature we are happy to announce is the new Command Acceptance phase of a game. Now when a game is full (10 players for The Campaign of 1863 or 2 players for C63: Lee vs Meade) all players will be prompted to "accept their command". When all players have accepted the game is launched and we will send out notifications automatically that the game is ready and waiting. If other players fail to respond by the deadline (1 week after the game is full for daily games and 2 weeks after for weekly games) the MIA players are removed from the game and other players are free to take their place.

We have several other exciting new features planned, so stay tuned

Open Beta Announcement:

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:30:00 +0000

Beginning Monday October 11th, gamers will be able to experience the tense, strategic, team vs team gameplay that only Campaign of 1863 can deliver.

The Campaign of 1863 features one of the most important campaigns of the U.S. Civil War. With over 150,000 troops and the fate of a nation hanging in the balance, players will assume the role and responsibilities of one of ten historic military commanders. For each game turn, players will plan their actions, dispatch their orders and await the results.

Can you maneuver your forces to victory or will you suffer an inglorious defeat?

Enlist today!

New Features and Enhancements List

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:49:00 +0000

As we are busy gearing up for Open Beta Testing (check back for an official announcement soon) this post is just a quick run down of the new features and improvements that will be added to Campaign of 1863 in the near future.
(In no particular order):

Player save system
Entrench markers
"On Holiday" command (transfer control to Leading General)
Abandon command (promote units to Leading General. Note this will carry a penalty)
Mail System enhancements (reply, send to all, map, fwd action reports, sent mail listing, sent mail read by recipient indicator)
Explanation of orders on roll over
Leading General option to surrender (Note this will carry a penalty)
Automatic turn due reminder
Automatic missed turn email
Attach/Detach units
Transfer units
No orders yet graphic indicator for units

Please remember that while we are in Open Beta, all game features are subject to change and or removal.

New features for Beta 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:33:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give you all a quick update on the new features currently being added to C63:

Save system. Allows you to temporarily save a set of orders.
Friendly/Enemy unit info. You may now mouse over friendly/enemy units and receive some info about them.
Staff report page. You will now receive more detailed info on your leader status. It will include a summary of wins, loses, draws for each combat type; A summary of casualties inflicted and incurred for both the last turn and the campaign; And a list of maps that you currently have intelligence on.
Basic Fog of War. Maps will now appear slightly grey-ed out to indicate that you have no info on them.
Enhanced Lee/Meade leader view. The Lee/Meade roles now receive intelligence on all subordinate commander units. All Friendly and 'sighted' enemy units appear on maps, unit reports, and combat reports.
Mail In fixes. You will now be able to receive unlimited messages. Letter displays now open and close.
Various User Interface fixes/enhancements

Panic in Baltimore

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:37:00 +0000

"There are reports of panic in the streets of Baltimore as Rodes' Division of Ewell's Second Army Corps is poised before the city with no Union forces seen moving to protect the threatened citizenry. Consternation has been expressed by several Senators over the fighting continuing outside of Rockville just north of Washington where General Imboden's Cavalry has battled units from General Pleasonton's Cavalry Corps and General Reynolds' Ist Corps infantry for two days.

South of Harper's Ferry, just west of Clark's Gap where Union forces under General Hancock have faced Southern forces under General Hill in the rough terrain for over a week, it has been revealed that General Lee's headquarters was nearly over run by General Pleasonton's 2nd Division 1st Brigade Cavalry and Captain James F. Huntington's 3rd Volunteer Brigade; many of General Lee's senior staff are rumored to have been killed or gravely wounded in their escape to the hills east of Hillsborough but General Lee is said to have survived unwounded and moving to his forces in the gap to concentrate on Leesburg. North of Leesburg, heavy fighting continues between General Ewell's Southern forces and Union units under command of Generals Hancock, Pleasonton and Reynold around Adamstown and Urbana south of Fredrick City with no clear outcome. General Ewell has pressed the Union forces hard on this front with the Union Generals seeming not to coordinate their defenses of Maryland."

And so concludes our first Beta test period. We would like to heartily thank you all for participating. You generated some very useful feedback and helped us dig up some not so obvious bugs. We are going to take a short amount of time to implement some changes to the game, many of which were requested by you and some that are scheduled to go in before the second round of Beta testing. The second round will begin as soon as possible once a few key features are implemented.

Once again thank you, and we hope you will join us for the second round of Beta testing soon.

Jeff, Kate, and Clarke
Mutant Entertainment Studios

Campaign of 1863 - Friends and Allies Closed Beta Testing Announcement:

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:25:00 +0000

Mutant Entertainment Studios is proud to announce our second round of closed Beta testing. This round of testing will be limited to family, friends, and allies (those already signed up on the Campaign63 website). The Beta period will run from June 1st to approximately June 8th, 2010. There will be a limited number of games, with a limited number of command positions available. To ensure a spot in this round of testing make sure to sign up by June 3rd. Those that are accepted will receive an email with instructions shortly after the Beta testing period begins.

Countdown to Beta...

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:02:00 +0000

Well the push is on. We are working feverishly on some bug fixes to the User Interface and a few mission critical items for the game engine. Im not going to post a date or deadline for Beta launch, since Im sure it would trigger an automatic jinx, but as long as nothing crazy happens we should launch a small round of public Beta testing very soon. In the meantime here are a few concept art sketches done by the wonderful and talented Lindsey Anderson

Coding while sick and random thoughts on command structures

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:01:00 +0000

Ugh....
I meant to post an update here last week, but I came down with some kind of bug. So since Im finding it hard to focus on the code I should be writing Ill try and be at least a little productive here. Thats the thing about working for yourself... no sick days. Anyway the Order Of Battle is almost finished. We spent the last few days trying to nail down where exactly to shift a few units that were bunched into groups of more than 4 on a hex (our rules only allow for 4 units to occupy a hex). So a few units had to be moved to adjacent hexes or when possible lumped into its parent unit. While we were doing this we noticed an interesting difference in the command structure between the North and South. Lee had very few units under his direct command, while Hooker (who was replaced by Meade just a few days after the start of our Campaign) had lots of men under his direct command. The obvious assumption is that having less men under his direct command freed Lee up to concentrate on the overall strategy of his offensive, while Hooker and/or Meade were bogged down with the day to day operation of the troops. Im no expert, so this is just conjecture on my part, but I just wonder how much an effect this might have had on the perception of Lee's superior command ability and Hooker's failings?
Jeff

Stuff we are working on

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:56:00 +0000

Rather than my usual posting of vague generalities about things progressing and what not. I figure Ill lay things out a bit more for you all. We put the finishing (at least for now) touches on the User Interface a while ago. For those of you that participated in the first round of testing things will pretty much look the same however there were some deep structural changes under the hood, so to speak, thanks to your feedback. With the UI done for now I recently started working on the scheduling system. Basically the game was originally intended with a weekly turn system. After gathering some feedback it became apparent that more people would want to play with a daily turn system. The difference between the two is actually pretty minimal, but the trick here was figuring out that it was going to alter the overall data flow slightly (scheduler->serverScripts->DB->serverScripts->game->serverScripts...and so on) and exactly how I was supposed to let users (you all) choose between schedule types. So after some research we settled on jQuery (a javascript library) which has some pretty slick hide and show functions. So you can now see the results on the start a game page. It doesnt look very impressive, but that page is where the data flow for a game originates and there is some mildly complicated stuff in there.
So now that the schedule system is done Im off and running on what we call "the backend" (or the actual game engine). The backend has been in production since our inception with Clarke doing the heavy lifting, but since we are in the sprint to the finish now its all hands on deck (except for Kate who is launching into our post-game evaluation and points distribution system).
Anyway thats the current state of things, thanks for checking in.
Jeff

We need your feedback

noreply@blogger.com (MesDev) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone,
Things are moving right along. We ran into a few small snags with the order of battle. Mainly the game mechanics versus actual troop locations and strengths. So while we make some decisions on that I was hoping to get some feedback from you all for the schedule scripts I am currently designing. I posted a poll here at the DevBlog asking how often you would like to play. If there is a scenario that you want to see that I failed to include just post it to the comments here. Thanks for your input

Yikes

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:04:00 +0000

Okay, well our plans for frequent updates kind of fell by the wayside after the first round of alpha testing opened. So I guess Ill just jump back in here and tell you all what we are currently working on. The User Interface (that so many of you were kind enough to help us test) is now complete, feature wise. There are a few more graphics that need to be added but all the major features are implemented. You also might have noticed that the website is still evolving (the "links" page for instance is currently being constructed). Anyway thanks for dropping into Campaign '63 HQ and stop by again soon.
Jeff

Free Trial Period

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:00:00 +0000

In celebration of Mutant Entertainment Studios first release we are happy to offer a three week free trial period. The trail period will end on November 1st. So in the meantime please join or start a game and check back here soon for announcements regarding pricing.
Jeff

Ready for Testers!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:01:00 +0000

Hey everyone. We are ready for testers, so just sign up here. Then join the test game that is set up
here. There are only 9 spots on the first test round, so sign up early to make sure you get to poke and prod our work. Thank you so much everyone and we'll see you soon.
Jeff

Eye Candy

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:01:00 +0000

Things are moving right along. Test accounts will be open soon. In the meantime here is some eye candy for you

WANTED: T-shirt Wearing Volunteers!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:40:00 +0000

So, if you're going to be in the Fresno, Calif. area over the weekend of Oct. 3-4, have we got a great job for you! We're looking for friends, family, strangers, dogs, horses, and whatever else can fit in a size large t-shirt to attend the Kearney Park Reenactment and wear Campaign of '63 t-shirts to give us some cheap, yet eye-catching advertising. These shirts will be free for our volunteers who attend (tickets to get in will NOT be free: $10 per adult, $5 per child 6-12) and the event is sure to be fun! I went last year with my sister to the reenactment near Mariposa, Calif. and we greatly enjoying the sword fighting cavalry men, and of course the great drama of the dying soldiers. :)

Here is the link for more info:
http://www.valleyhistory.org/civilwar2009.html

Email us at info@campaign63.com for info on getting ahold of a t-shirt.