>MajorH, can you give us an idea what the upcoming version of TacOps will
>have that the current versions don't have?
Lets say "next" rather than "upcoming". A retail v5 is too far away to call it upcoming.
The thread titled "TacOpsMC v5 Accepted by USMC" mentions some of the items that are different in the USMC's v5. The jury is still out on what if anything else will get added over the next month before TacOps ANZAC v5 is delivered. The USMC features and anything new for the Australians will almost certainly appear eventually as a retail v5 but I don't expect that to happen until late 2004 and I can't guarantee late 2004.
The top priority for the next retail edition remains a scenario creator/editor that will allow the user to create scenarios that can be played against a computer opponent. I thought I would have that done by the end of 2003 but it didn't happen. I installed a good foundation for it and it looked promising for a while but its just not right. The main problem is that the process isn't intuitive enough - it is too hard to use and it requires the user to learn and remember too much trivia.
However, if I don't make some real progress on reworking the scenario editor by the middle of the summer I may table it and turn to other things that are high on the wish list such as changes in the map engine or adding UK order of battle. I can't really afford to go past 2 years without incrementing the major version number. It was a real disappointment to me to not get the retail v5 done in time to link it to the March 2004 tenth anniversary of TacOps.
>Are the new features being
>driven by user feedback or by the requirements of the military?
Both, although the military work gets the highest priority because the military can be depended upon to pay for what they ask for.
