Do you still buy from HPS?

[Don Czirr]

Or - since you experienced guys probably have most of the titles

would you by from HPS or JTS for games originally published by HPS.

So far, as I can see, there are 2 considerations:

1. Graphics : A lot of the JTS sold games are getting a face-lift that makes them look like the IPAD terrain etc (which isn't bad). But the HPS games can be updated with Jison's mods which look very good.

2. When updates are issued, apparently HPS games will get them 10 days - 2 weeks later?


Any other considerations?

For my next purchase - I am looking at NGP or Danube from Modern battles ....

[Nitram Draw]

If you go with Danube buy whichever version works with the Bolt out of the Blue mod. It is fantastic!

[Aces8]

I prefer buying from HPS because they are DRM free.

[Compass Rose]

Or - since you experienced guys probably have most of the titles

would you by from HPS or JTS for games originally published by HPS.

So far, as I can see, there are 2 considerations:

1. Graphics : A lot of the JTS sold games are getting a face-lift that makes them look like the IPAD terrain etc (which isn't bad). But the HPS games can be updated with Jison's mods which look very good.

2. When updates are issued, apparently HPS games will get them 10 days - 2 weeks later?

I can not answer the Jison mod questions, as I don't know.

As for updates, all updates originate out of JTS. JTS creates the first update for their JTS version. Next, they work on the HPS version. Once the HPS version is finalized, they send it to HPS for HPS to post it on their website.

We have seen some titles having both their JTS version and HPS version both being released within 7-10 days of each other. On the other hand, we had a Waterloo title that had a JTS update release on Aug31 and the HPS version was not available until Nov14. So there is no guarantee that both updates are released within a short time frame of each other.

If you live in the states, you can still acquire the CD versions of the HPS titles a little cheaper from NWS however, you have to mess around with storing your CD game disks. This is not a problem with digital download games.

If you live overseas, you are probably looking at the digital download versions of these games. If you plan on getting the DD version, I would suggest getting the JTS version as that is where the updates originate from, that is who supplies the tech support, and that is who releases the updates first, if there is an update to release.

Just my

[-72-]

The one thing to consider is that JTS has no direct control over when the HPS site publishes updates that have been provided to them. Some times too issues are discovered in testing that need to be addressed (that being said I don't recall anything specific on Waterloo).

With Jison's material, I know he has talked to me some about that; at this time I don't have any of the new PzC or MC titles from JTS yet (I anticipate getting some in the not too distant future) and I want to have a look. I don't think there should be an issue just because I have worked with similar graphic changes in some of the other series. If it is just the addition on a new coordinate on a couple of bmp files that point to elevation changes (and that is exactly what it is in NB), then all that needs to be done is to just not add that location on the specific image file where it is.

Anyway if that is the case, I am sure something can be worked out in due course.

[76mm]

A few months ago I bought sicily on the JTS site. The JTS version was painful to look at, and the mods from the HPS version DO NOT work with the JTS version, I don't recall the specific problem, but IIRC there was a strange border around hexes, or hexes were cut off. Whatever the case, the HPS mods were basically unusable with the JTS version, I was very disappointed.

[-72-]

Fwiw I said I suspect from a graphics perspective it is pretty easy to fix -because the outline that you are complaining about I am pretty sure is just a graphic for the elevation change...

All I said was I was not going to buy a title just to play with graphics because of a hunch. I expect I will get hold of one eventually (basically by doing the work to earn it) -and then I will have a closer look at it and deal with it then.

It might also just be that the hexes are a different shape now than they had been -don't believe me? No worries- try switching out the hexes from NB into CWB and see what you get ...it is more than just a border area ... like hexes that are only showing like half the hex -and you know why that is? It is because the hexes are not the same shape but the programming is looking at a specific coordinate set on the bmp images.

How do I know this? Fireworks and Photoshop tell you exactly where the X and Y axes are on a graphic file -been there done that (actually am doing that).

No worries. Trust me. Well maybe don't ... whatever... I am 99.9% certain that that all can be fixed -and that 0.1% will go away once I get a PzC title that has the newer graphic style or they update Kh43, M42, or T43 to the same standard (of which I have).

To be clear, though I never said there was not an issue -I only said that I strongly suspect that it can be fixed.

[Don Czirr]

Yep - I had pinged Jison on the graphics strangeness when I picked up Budapest 45 (after attempting to install his mod) and he had said there was some info on his site that stated his mods were not compatible with the JTS release and it was due to the various levels of upgrade the JTS titles were in.

I don't think the new JTS graphics are all that bad ... nice colors used - but look a little like Claymation terrain. I applied Jison's map mod to the Mius demo however and was quite impressed with the overall look and feel.