THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, VOL. II™ Readme WARNING! The program requires you to have the OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, Vol. II™ CD in your computer's CD drive in order to be able to play the game. (Exception: once you have installed TOAW, Vol. II: FLASHPOINT KOSOVO™, you will need this CD in your drive in order to play.) To install TOAW, Vol. II: FLASHPOINT KOSOVO™, you need to have a Typical or “full” (i.e., both options selected) Custom installation of THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, Vol. II™ already on your hard drive. Make sure your monitor display is set for 16-bit color. The game was designed with 16-bit graphics, and displaying at a higher color depth could result in the game running much slower than normal. Displaying at a lower color depth (e.g., 256 colors) will prevent the game from running at all. INSTALLATION SIZES The following provides a guide to how many MB each type of installation will place on your hard drive. Compact Install: about 25 MB Typical Install: about 125 MB Custom Install: from 25 MB (no options selected) to 290 MB (all options selected) Installing TOAW, Vol. II: Flashpoint Kosovo™ will add about 17 MB to your existing installation. UNINSTALLING THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, VOL II™ To uninstall the game, use Add/Remove Programs in the Windows® Control Panel. Once the game has been uninstalled, you can delete any remaining files or program links left behind. It is highly recommended that you uninstall the game this way. Just deleting the files from your hard drive will not remove important information from your system. PRODUCT REGISTRATION To register your game, select the Register Now button from the registration prompt that appears following the installation of the game. Follow the instructions that appear on screen to register quickly and easily. If you choose to wait, you may register at any time by selecting the Electronic Registration option from The Operational Art of War, Vol. II program listing. Note: Please register your copy of The Operational Art of War, Vol. II before installing the Flashpoint Kosovo expansion pack. Once Flashpoint Kosovo has been installed, the electronic registration information will be updated to allow you to register your new product. BASIC TROUBLESHOOTING DirectX™ THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, VOL II™ uses Microsoft's DirectX™ application. Make sure that your system hardware (sound card, video card, etc.) has the latest DirectX™ compatible drivers. Most technical problems can be narrowed down to having a wrong or outdated driver installed. If you continue to have DirectX™ errors, you can also try to reinstall DirectX™ from the game CD. DirectX™ is located in the DirectX folder on the game CD. To install it, run "dxsetup.exe" and press the "Reinstall DirectX" button. Virtual Memory All Windows® applications require a Virtual Memory buffer that Windows® 95/98 will usually create and maintain. This buffer is created from available free hard drive space on your C drive. We strongly recommend that you have a minimum of 100 MB free on your C drive to create this buffer. 16 MB Machines THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, VOL II™ has a minimum requirement of 16 MB of RAM. Users who have this minimum will not have background music available and all sound mixing is removed. Further, users with 16 MB of RAM are limited to a maximum window size of 800x600. 640x480 Display If you are using a 640x480 display, you may need to reset your desktop properties to give THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, VOL II™ enough room to create its displays properly. The game will inform you with a startup message if you need to do this. In most cases it should not be necessary. To set the window borders etc., right-click on your desktop and select "Properties" from the resulting pop-up menu. This brings up the Display Properties dialog. Select the "Appearance" tab. Use the item field to select the following and try these recommended values: Scrollbar: Size 13 Active Title Bar: Size 18, Font Size 8 Active Window Border: Size 1 Inactive Title Bar: Size 18, Font Size 8 Inactive Window Border: Size 1 Menu: Size 18, Font Size 8 Selected Items: Size 18, Font Size 8 TALONSOFT UPGRADES The OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, VOL II™ CD contains upgrades for other TalonSoft games. Most can be installed via the Start Programs method, once you have installed THE OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, VOL II™ itself. However, the WEST FRONT™ v1.02, EAST FRONT™ v1.08a, OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, VOL I™ v1.06 and PRELUDE TO WATERLOO™ v1.04 upgrades must be handled differently. All follow the same general procedure given for the EAST FRONT™ upgrade below, with one major exception: If you are installing the WEST FRONT™ upgrade, before pasting the upgrade file into the main WEST FRONT directory (Step 3 below), find the file called "Wf.icd" in that directory and delete it. If you do not delete "Wf.icd", the upgrade will fail to work properly. (However, if you installed WF but have not yet run it, "Wf.icd" will not yet exist, in which case you can ignore this exception altogether.) IMPORTANT: In order for the upgrade to work properly, the original game needs to have been installed using at least a "Typical" installation. If it was not, you must reinstall it before attempting the upgrade. For example, to install the EF v1.08a upgrade you must copy it into the main EAST FRONT directory on your hard drive, change its properties so it is not 'read-only', and then run it. If you're unsure about how to do this, follow these steps: 1. With the OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, VOL II™ CD in your CD-ROM drive, click on the Start button in the Taskbar, move the cursor to Programs, and select Windows Explorer. 2. Click on your CD-ROM drive in the Windows Explorer, then double-click on the "Toaw2" folder. Next, double-click on the "Upgrades" folder, and left-click on the "Ef_upgr" folder when it appears. Right-click on the file "Ef_108a.exe" and select "Copy". 3. Now find the main EAST FRONT directory on your hard drive (its default location is C:\Program Files\Talonsoft\East Front). Right-click on it, and select "Paste". 4. Once "Ef_108a.exe" is done copying, left-click on the East Front folder, right-click on "Ef_108a.exe", and select "Properties". Left-click in the "Read-only" box so that the check-mark disappears, then click "OK". 5. Now double-click on "Ef_108a.exe", and the upgrade installation will begin. Once it is finished, you may leave "Ef_108a.exe" where it is, move it to another directory, or delete it. Should anyTalonSoft upgrade fail to run properly, you should uninstall the game, reinstall it using a Typical installation, then repeat the above steps to run the upgrade again. Note to Kosovo Users: The updates mentioned above are installed as part of the original TOAW II program. To access these updates, you will need to have original TOAW II CD in the drive. All other links, including the game demos, can be accessed from the Flashpoint Kosovo CD. Since we are constantly striving to improve our products, it is recommended that you stop by our website (www.talonsoft.com) periodically to obtain the latest updates and news. OPART 2 300 "Opart 2 300.exe" is a special version of the standard game/editor program. It uses data structures designed for larger scenarios and has higher memory requirements than the standard game executable (opart.exe). Opart 2 300 can load and edit or play any scenario. It is identical to the standard OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR executable (opart 2.exe), except for the following items: • Max map size: 300x300 hexes • Max number of place names: 800 • Max number of units: 4000 (2000 per force) • Max number of formations: 400 • Max number of supply points: 36 per force • Max number of objectives: 39 per formation • Opart 2 300 uses the following new file name extensions: *.sal, *.pbl, *.mal, *.ool. These are "large" (Opart 2 300) versions of *.sav, *.pbm, *.map and *.oob For reference, the standard limits for opart 2.exe are… • Max map size: 100x100 hexes • Max number of place names: 200 • Max number of units: 1000 (500 per force) • Max number of formations: 100 • Max number of supply points: 9 per force • Max number of objectives: 19 per formation Because the data structures are so much larger, you will probably notice that Opart 2 300 does not run quite as fast as the standard Opart 2 executable. This is particularly true on systems with less than 32MB of RAM-which might not be able to run Opart 2 300 at all. While most scenarios will load in a matter of seconds, some larger Opart 2 300 scenarios may take several minutes to process all the necessary data. This extended load time is not an indication of a problem with your installation, it is simply necessary to process the larger size and/or content of the scenario. Examples of scenarios with extended load time are Bulge 2000, Middle East 56, and Middle East 67. The Opart 2 300 executable will load and edit or play standard scenarios, but the standard Opart 2 executable will neither load "large" scenarios created using Opart 2 300 nor display such scenarios in the game load screen. While we do not recommend the use of Opart 2 300 for beginning scenario designers, you need not fear that scenarios created using the current Opart 2 300 will "break" with future builds. If you decide to create large scenarios using the current Opart 2 300, your work will load properly into future versions. TOAW, Vol. II: FLASHPOINT KOSOVO The OPERATIONAL ART OF WAR, Vol. II: FLASHPOINT KOSOVO™, will upgrade your game to version 1.03 and may install DirectX™ 6 on your machine. As noted under "WARNING!" above, once you install FLASHPOINT KOSOVO you will need to have this CD in your CD drive in order to launch the game. The new (as opposed to revised original) scenarios provided in FLASHPOINT KOSOVO ™ can be played only if the TOAW, Vol. II: FLASHPOINT KOSOVO ™ CD is in your CD-ROM drive. They will not even appear in the "Select New Game" screen (nor in the scenario editor) of the original game. The new scenarios are: • Bulge 2000 • Grenada 83 • Hungary-Romania 2000 • Kuwait 91 • Libya-Egypt 2000 • NATO-Warsaw Pact 78 • Russo-China 2000 • Seoul 2000 • US Civil War 2008 • Vietnam Invasion 69 • Yugoslavia 99 (Kosovo) TOAW, Vol. II: FLASHPOINT KOSOVO CREDITS Producer: Brian M. McGinn Production Aide: Tim Beggs Programming: Norm Koger Production Manager: Steve Langmead Product Manager: Melissa Farmer Production Materials: Chrissy Lagna, Kurt Miller, Peter Muench Art Director: Tim Kipp Additional Graphics: Steve Estes, Tim Kipp, Brian Weber Chief Creative Officer: Jim Rose Executive Producer: Tony Farmer Production Coordination: John Davidson, Linda Wratchford Channel Marketing Manager: Mark Moon Public Relations Manager: Mike Gathagan Director of Business Development (Take-Two): Chris Mate Technical Support Supervisor: Phil Santiago Technical Support: Ashton V. Fletcher, Matt Kreager, Lisa Nawrot, Frank Runge Scenario Designers: Pete Abrams, Doug Bevard, Eric Larsen, Trey Marshall, Matt Moyer, Jeff Riddolls, Erik Rutins, John Schettler Playtesters: Joe Baratta, Bill Braddock, Bryan Corkill, Barron D. Gray, Brian Heard, Matthew Heider, Carl Keenan, Steve Knowlton, Bill Lott, Tim McBride, Tom Padgett, Keith Patton, Ron Peterson, Tim Powers, Troy Ritter, E. Mark Smith, Steve Smith, Christopher Stoner, Carrington Ward, James Wood A Special Thanks goes out to Bob McNamara for all of his help during the project. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VERSION 1.03 10/99 Equipment Database The equipment database values have been updated to reflect new information, revised data, and a more detailed treatment of all armored vehicles. Armored vehicles are now rated internally for size (volume enclosing hull and turret, exclusive of weapons and small cupolas) and geometry. The effect has an impact on defensive strengths as shown and used in the game. Anti-armor targeting now includes a target cross-section bias. For details, please refer to the new "TOAW II Weapons (Word 95).doc" file located in the game’s Docs folder. The armor shown for tanks, in equipment displays, has been modified to reflect enhanced armor effects. This gives a better sense of how the vehicles actually perform in combat. Previously, the raw defense strength was shown. This is an information presentation change only. There is no effect to game play. Scenario Editor Force editor options for force characteristics settings (force proficiency, force supply stockpile, etc.) have been moved to the Edit/Modify Current Force menu. Improvements have been made to AM/PM settings in half-day turns. The caution regarding divided units in the deployment editor (Players Guide page 110) is now enforced by the scenario editor. Any force editor action that can collide with divided units is now locked out. Only those forces with divided units are affected. If any units of a force are divided: Unit and formation cut, copy, and delete options are not available for that force. Formation unit assignment options are not available. Authorized equipment in force units cannot be reduced to 0. Editor map dumps are now written in Targa (TGA) format, instead of the previous EMF files. It is also now possible to dump maps within the game. THESE CAN BE VERY LARGE FILES - PARTICULARLY IN LARGE 3D MODE. Example: Dumping the Arab-Israeli 73 map in large 3d mode will create a 46MB TGA file. The space in the scenario briefings has been increased from 8k per item to 16k per item. This will allow much longer briefings. It is now possible to save standard order of battle files from the "huge" editor. Press F11. The OOB will be saved in standard form, all units undeployed and formations intact. It is recommended you wait to dividing units until after saving the OOB's. Improvements have been made in event list synchronization, unit cut / paste operations in the force editor, and in some deployment editor functions. Combat It is now possible to specify an airfield attack when launching an air strike on an enemy location, with both air and ground units. Any ground units in the location will still provide defensive benefits, but attacking aircraft will concentrate their attack on enemy aircraft if ordered to attack airfields. The airfield attack option has no particular effect if no ground units are present - the strike will proceed normally. Armored equipment making penetration checks during air attacks now defend at 1/3 their usual defense. This only affects penetration checks. Armor attack and defense strengths are unaffected. There is a new "weight of shell" modifier for artillery firing at locations with defensive positions. Heavier weapons fire as if the entrenchment level in the defending location were lower. The actual strength of the artillery is not modified, but defensive positions will offer less protection as the weight of shell of the firing artillery increases. An advanced high/low anti aircraft capability has been added for some modern surface to air missile systems. These systems are now more effective against aircraft attacking at low altitude (most tactical aircraft). Improvements have been made to the handling of equipment losses by out of supply units. Static (requiring transport to move) equipment attrition during retreats has been increased. Overruns have been revisited to better reflect complex weapon interactions. Infantry - Rate of Fire Infantry is now treated as static equipment for rate of fire purposes. MAXIMUM RATE OF FIRE, PER ROUND OF COMBAT EQUIPMENT CHARACTERISTICS ATTACKING DEFENDING MOTORIZED, LONG RANGE,HELICOPTER 3 shots 3 shots STATIC, FIXED, OR INFANTRY 1 shots 2 shots EVERYTHING ELSE 2 shots 3 shots Defense The unit defense strength calculation has changed slightly. Armored equipment defensive contributions are now based on raw armor per vehicle rather than the original adjusted value. This will result in lower unit defense strengths for units equipped with very tough tanks. Penetration checks during combat are not affected. The practical effect of this change is to decrease the original suppression of anti armor fire against lighter vehicles in heavy armor units. Movement Airmobile movement through territory not "observed" or "noticed" by the enemy is safer than in earlier versions of the game. Helicopter units no longer retreat into enemy occupied locations. Map edge reinforcements can now enter in enemy controlled locations, as long as the enemy does not currently occupy them. Armored Troop Transports The contribution of armored troop transports (APC, MICV, etc.) to unit strength is now based upon unit loss tolerance. Minimize Losses-25%, Limit Losses-50%, Ignore Losses-75%. The exposure of these vehicles to losses during anti-armor combat is also multiplied by the same amount (except in flank attacks, where losses are not modified). Bombardment Combat inventory management during bombardments has been improved. Artillery (bombardment combat) is now more lethal against high target density locations, and bombardments of armored units should be more predictable. Very heavily armored equipment no longer "soaks up" artillery fire (bombardment combat), protecting non-armored equipment in the location. The armored equipment itself is still about as tough vs. artillery as always, but non-armored equipment in the location is now more vulnerable to enemy bombardment attacks. Artillery may now be used to bombard airfields. This makes missile units much more useful in some scenarios. Air strike bombardments of airfields have been revisited, improving the balance of lethality for attacking and target units. Bombardments now last only one "round", and will no longer force a turn to end if no other attacks are performed. Improvements have been made to the popup windows related to bombardments. News Reports News reports are now presented with a slight difference in the news display. On the first news item of a new turn, the date appears as a separate string. So rather than, for example, "2/15/1956 Something has happened." we should see two lines: "February, 15th, 1956", followed by "Something has happened." Bridges & Railroads Blown bridges now block rail supply traces. Railroads now extend across "distant" hex sides for supply purposes. Improvements have been made to the AI’s usage of bridge rebuilding, offensive, and engineering placement. Graphics A NATO flag has been added to the scenario editor. The standardbuttons256.bmp file has been revised to eliminate a "white outline" problem with game buttons on some 24-bit displays. A minor graphics problem, in the scenario editor’s order of battle display, has been corrected. Miscellaneous Improvements have been made to the reinforcement entry of guerilla units. There is now a "time remaining" notification following combat. The intro cinematic will no longer be replayed if you elect to automatically swap to Opart2 300 from the regular Opart2. The sea borne transport system has been improved to prevent player reported abuses. Improvements have been made to airborne drop attrition. VERSION 1.02 6/99 Scenario Display & Launching The standard (opart 2.exe) game program now shows huge scenarios intended for play using the "huge map" version of the program (opart 2 300.exe). If you choose to play one of these scenarios, the huge-map version of the program will automatically take over and start the scenario. Displays More memory is reserved for graphics displays, allowing more "3d" equipment icons to be loaded for very large scenarios. After-action battle reports are no longer limited to what can be displayed in one dialog box, and are scrollable to allow examination of the entire record of even very complex battles. Additional information is available for some equipment in equipment display dialogs. Combat Resolution Combat resolution has been improved, with more detailed and realistic treatment of air-to-air, air-to-ground, and anti-armor fire. Equipment Database The equipment database has been updated to reflect new information and to support improvements in combat resolution. The updated database is documented in the new "TOAW II Equipment Word95.doc" file. Map Editor Map editor "border" drawing has been simplified. It is no longer necessary to click on both sides of a border to draw a "thick" border. Any single click now draws a thick border in the location. Programmed opponent logic has been improved in some areas. Miscellaneous A number of airmobile-movement, theater-option and supply issues have been addressed. VERSION 1.01 5/99 Helicopters HQ, attack and recon helicopter units with recon-capable helicopters improve the reconnaissance capabilities of friendly units within range. The reconnaissance bonus is based on the strength of the helicopter or HQ unit and declines with range. This reconnaissance bonus is also applied in disengagement and combat. Details: The exact amount added is equal to the helicopter unit's reconnaissance capability  (unit recon range  range to aided unit)  unit recon range. The unit's recon range is equal to the range of the recon helicopters in the unit. In many cases this will be identical to the unit's bombardment range since most recon helicopters also have a bombardment strength. Advice on using recon helicopter units: Keep them near but not on the front lines. This will improve your other units' ability to gather intelligence on enemy forces while limiting your recon helicopter unit's exposure. It is now possible to add helicopters only to attack, transport or recon helicopter-not to HQ-units. HQ units using airmobile movement cannot be ordered to disembark in an enemy controlled location. Event Engine Force Replacement Rate Multiplier effects will not reduce a non-zero replacement rate to less than 1 unless the multiplier value is 0. While decimals are not retained, multiplier calculations are "fuzzy". That is, if the multiplication results are not a whole number, the fractional remainder is used to randomize the end result. Example: 566% = 3 (66% chance) or 4 (33% chance). VERSION 1.0 4/99 A Special Thanks goes out to Capt. Tim Powers for composing the intro-video dialog. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Uses Smacker Video Technology. Copyright (c) 1994-1998 by RAD Game Tools, Inc. SmackPlw.exe is Copyright (c) 1994-1998 by RAD Game Tools, Inc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.talonsoft.com