New GCM

[exp101]

Hey Everyone,
Since the GCM website went down the community of GCM players has begun congregating at a new Facebook site called "Friends of Scourge of War." It began as a way to keep this group of GCM veterans together which has been forged over the past decade. In it we explore alternative multiplayer opportunities, share news, arrange sandbox battles, and just keep in touch. If anyone here has an FB presence and would like to join, PM me with your email (the one known to FB), and I'll be happy to send along an invitation to join. At this writing we have 17 members.

There is also some exciting news for GCM'ers. Swinder and I (well, mostly Swinder) have taken on the challenge of creating a "new" GCM with many of the old GCM features (e.g., using Garnier's large random maps and the GCM system as embodied in the GCM mods). Some things will likely be quite different (after all, Garnier had years to develop the elegant features of original GCM), but the main thing is we hope to be up and fighting GCM battles again in the not-too-distant future! One of the positive differences we hope to see with New GCM (NGCM) is full compatibility with Windows 10 (I can't even guess how many eager players were turned away from our games through the years because all they had was W10).

So, if you are one of the dedicated group who think SoWGB multi-player is the cat's meow, join us on Facebook and stay in touch with developments. My crystal ball says there is much more Scourge of War multi-player action in our future!

Best,
Ron/Palmer

[States]

That's awesome news since I destroyed my Win 7 computer on an attempted bios update and will hopefully have a new Win 10 system soon for NGCM.

[exp101]

I just posted this on the Friends of Scourge of War Facebook site:

Big news on NCGM (Part 1). Swinder and I just successfully finished 2 NCGM random battles on W10 without problem. In the first, I hosted a 30 minute battle from my W10 platform while Swinder joined from his W10. In the second, I hosted a 90 minute battle from my W7 while he played all the way through on his W10 (a W7 upgrade) installation. He thinks the age old W10 problem for us was in how Garnier had built in a game dump at 15 minute intervals in all battles. This was fine in W7 but W10 didn't like it with its more intense focus on admin/security rights in saving files. Bottom line is NGCM takes these game dumps out entirely so it shouldn't matter which Windows platform you use.

Part 2) It looks like we may be in position to play the first NGCM full-test random battle sometime next week (perhaps Wed. or Thu). I'd like to tentatively schedule Wednesday at our typical game time (5:15 pm Eastern). At that time, I will take a roll call of whomever is on TS and wants to play. Since the game creation system is not as fluid as old GCM's Battle Queue, late arrivers will likely not get their own divisions, but would have to play someone's brigade or battery). I'd like to have at least 8 players, but we can accommodate more. In order to play, players will be required at that time to download and unzip the battle scenario created to their C:\Matrix Games\Scourge of War - Gettysburg\Work\Scenarios folder. You should have your usual GCM mods installed and active. We'll play one of the last batch of GCM Random Maps created (probably in the 1385 - 1409 range), so it will need to be present in your Random Maps 4 folder.

This will be only a test battle, but there's no reason we can't have fun getting reacquainted with our old friend GCM!

So, make sure you come ready to play with your SoWGB installed and patched to the latest (1.6100) version -- and your GCM mods installed and active.

BTW, the TeamSpeak address we use is: voice.gameservers.com:9175

[exp101]

*Note: Since we're now at our new website, there's a new place to find and download all the mods needed to play NGCM. Go to the NGCM website and choose "Hosts/Install" from the menu. Download, install and activate all the NGCM mods and while deactivating any the old GCM mods that may still be there (to avoid duplication).

[roy64]

I can't find your Facebook group a link would be handy & I don't have GCM Random Maps 4 so could do with them as well. Last question, can you play single player like the original mod. Thanks.

[exp101]

An invitation to join the FB page should be on the way (using the email address you PM'd me).

If you have less than a complete selection of Large Random Maps for the game, download and unzip "NGCMRandomMaps1" under Hosts/Install on the website. As with all SoWGB mods, this should be placed in C:\Matrix Games\Scourge of War - Gettysburg\Mods. When activating this mod be sure to deactivate GCMRandomMaps4 to avoid duplication. NGCMRandomMaps1 includes the latest 125 random maps from the archive, which is what we play.

PS NGCM does not include any support for single player stuff - strictly multi-player. But I don't see why single player scenarios can't be played using many of the GCM mods.

[JmCraz8]

Thank you so much Palmer I have windows 10 and now I can officially come back to this game without crashing haha Thanks for keeping the game alive. Just sent PM to join the group and start a brand new updated gcm!!! Whoops forgot to add is there a new teamspeak server the other one doesn't work for me anymore?

[exp101]

Hey Jim. Invitation to join the FB site has been sent. The new address for our TS is posted a few messages above. Good to have you back!

[exp101]

A few more details about how NGCM will likely be different from old GCM. When we move from beta testing to deploying to a permanent website, players will have their own divisions to maintain as in old GCM. But there will be some differences. There will not be any global or player turns to replenish losses. Rather, players will choose when they want to change out one of their depleted regiments for a historical (but random) regiment from the pool (the depleted one will be replenished once back in the pool). Regimental experience will have a broader range (perhaps even the full range of 0-9 that SoW allows). The twist here is that the balancer will take that into account when balancing sides i.e., If you're bringing a level 7 regiment, you or someone else on your team will likely be sporting a "0" to offset. We will only use historical units, but should always have plenty of these without duplication because players who are inactive for a period (say, 1 month), will automatically have all regiments and batteries in their division removed to the pool. In this way, we won't be burdened by buildup of inactive players. Players will have lots of latitude in organizing their divisions with more freedom to add brigade commanders and switch regiments between brigades (i.e., no action points needed). For beta purposes, all divisions will have 3 brigades and a set number of regiments, but once deployed, players will be able to set preferences for numbers of regiments they will bring to a battle. As for cost, Swinder is using PHP in constructing the NGCM database which allows for much reduced expense for domain and website. He guesses we'll pay ~$40/year for the domain and perhaps $5-10/month for the website. The beta NGCM is running now on my PC using a virtual machine environment. When it is deployed to our website, anyone will be able to create and host battles.

[exp101]

Don't forget today's battle at regular time (5:15p Eastern). If you plan to play but haven't said anything yet, please let me know. It will save time by allowing me to create player divisions ahead of time. Also, let me know what name you'd like me to give your division commander.
If anyone has a way to contact Jonesy, Mememaster, Willard, MJP or any of the others who've gone silent since the GCM crash, please fill them in on the latest.