Norm Koger Speaks About His Future Plans

Norm Koger released a statement on the SZO forums explaining what he is currently working on and a brief summary of his future plans. His post answers some important questions about the extent of his involvement with the planned update of The Operational Art of War game engine.

Koger was the original developer of The Operational Art of War (TOAW for short) series back in his days with Talonsoft. Matrix Games recently announced it has acquired the rights to many of Talonsoft's classic wargames, including The Operational Art of War: A Century of Warfare. Matrix posted a press release announcing that it has reached an agreement with Norm Koger to assist in updating the game engine to Windows XP standards, including some fixes and tweaks for issues that have become known since the last major release His post clarifies that his role will be limited one.

The post also talks about Koger's upcoming titles from Storm Eagle Studios, Distant Guns and an operational level game codenamed "Ivan":

I need to clear few things up. This is going to be a bit long. Bear with me.

Back in my USAF days, I ran a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Every weekend, a bunch of GI's would get together on SAC hill at Griffiss AFB. We used to play just outside the vault where the 416th Bomb Wing's sealed war orders were kept. My Russian friends would probably be horrified. Our beer was stuck in the snow outside the door to keep it cold. A refrigerator is an optional purchase if you live in upstate New York. If we'd ever suddenly gone "toe to toe with the Ruskies" on a Saturday evening, my friends and I would probably all have ended up behind bars until our various squadron chief NCO's came to round us up. It was a strange time and place. One evening, in part to cover a small oversight in an area of one of my scenarios that my fearless adventurers were wandering through, I spontaneously dropped a little detail in the description of a door. I mentioned a handprint. Just a little thing, it seemed. Then I sat back and watched in wonder as the players began speculating on the meaning of the handprint (there wasn't any - it was just a handprint). Within ten minutes, this normally stable, sane group of people had concocted a complete mythology about "Demons from Space" who were now after them. (No drugs were involved. This was one of the most secure locations in the United States after all, and we weren't that crazy.) Like any good DM, all I did through this was smile enigmatically while contemplating the dynamics of a group mentality. From time to time for months thereafter, totally unrelated things would spark new speculation about the Demons from Space whenever we played.

Hey, SAC hill guys. You were a great group. But there never were any Demons from Space, and they certainly weren't after you.

I have not been posting much here over the last couple of years. It's not that I haven't wanted to. Long timers here know that Norm does like to talk... But while I have been working, some of the critical details regarding the results of my work have been up in the air. How would my next game be published? Who would be involved? I couldn't say, because nothing was nailed down. Most of the last couple of years, I've been in an "if you build it, they will come" mode. I really don't worry about finding a publisher these days, and I'm more concerned about getting things right than hitting a deadline. I've been playing with my friends, and taking pains to avoid saying or doing anything that could burn bridges I might later need. (I do try to do that, even if I don't always succeed.) So I couldn't post much regarding the things gamers most wanted to know about what I've been doing. Things have been happening. Youbetcha. I just didn't feel I could talk about them.

A few weeks ago David Heath called, informing me of his plans for the Take-2 game properties and asking if I'd mind helping out in the transition for TOAW. He graciously offered to provide support if I wanted to resume serious development on the title, but I had to decline. I appreciated the offer. But I'm just not in the position to handle it right now. TOAW "Classic", as I've come to think of it, was my baby. I'd love to see it still in circulation. So I agreed to assist, with some pretty serious constraints. David asked if he could mention my agreement to assist, and I said yes. Why not?

Being a bit snowed under right now, I didn't make any public comments of my own - even though I was encouraged to do so. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake. Remember that handprint on the door? "Demons from Space": all it takes is a bit of silence. The enigmatic smile is apparently unnecessary. It was funny 25 years ago. Now I find it may have happened again, and not everyone is amused.

To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, "sometime a handprint on a door is just a handprint on a door."

Here's what's really going on with Norm: The Russo-Japanese title is a real game. It's sharp, I'm proud of it, and it's pretty much ready to go out the door. It has generated very encouraging test feedback from some of the guys associated with the Russo-Japanese War Research Society. Jim Rose (the founder of Talonsoft, and a personal friend) and I will be publishing the game as Storm Eagle Studios. The title is to be "Distant Guns: The Russo-Japanese War at Sea", and it covers the naval battles of 1904-1905 on a tactical level. We plan to follow this title reasonably quickly (not just data and art, considerable additional coding will be required) with WWI and WWII period releases. An operational-campaign element is in the works, on the side, as an eventual add-on. We also have an operational land campaign engine ("project Ivan") at an advanced stage of development. It's nowhere near as ready as the RJW title, but it's coming down the tracks - and while it is quite different in many respects, it could be considered a competitor to Classic TOAW. When the time comes, you can be the judge. Everything I'm doing these days is real-time and 3d based. The same kind of attention to what I consider fundamentals (...if a shell of a certain weight flies in this way, at this velocity, and strikes a target with this amount of armor of this particular type at this point, at this angle, does it penetrate or bounce off? etc...) is there, but now that is accompanied by things like specular lighting considerations and Doppler effects for sounds emitted by moving objects. The engine is designed to work, with variations, for both naval and land games, operational and tactical, or even a mix of the two.

This is where ALL of my effort is going right now.

Things might have been different, but the fact of the matter is that I had to move on and I am no longer free to tinker endlessly with TOAW. Even if I were, there would be an obvious conflict of interest considering my newer projects. Does this mean that I'm contradicting the news from Matrix? No, not really. But I do want to tone down some of the speculation other folks seem to be tossing around in the general gaming community. One bout with Demons from Space is enough. I do want to see Matrix succeed with TOAW and the other Take-2 titles they have taken on, and I wish them well. I have agreed to help them to the extent of replacing Talonsoft references in the game with Matrix references, dropping their copy protection into the mix (trivial, it took about 2 minutes), looking at a list of reported issues (no promises on actions - I think everything is OK in 1.07) and answering questions to the limits of my memory if their programmers call. I have a soft spot for TOAW, and would like to see it in good shape when I hand the reins over. I didn't promise the moon. It's been years since I really spent much time in the TOAW code, and to some extent their guys will be on their own when they start doing their own tinkering. I do know that the combat problem spotted in v1.06 was corrected in the v1.07 update (never officially released), and that there was some additional work as well. But for the life of me, even I don't really remember what v1.07 brings to the table over v1.06. I can't find my notes: embarrassing but true. I'm not sure what Matrix' plans are for changes. At a guess, I think they may be replacing some portion of the graphics (not hard, since it's all in bmp format, and potentially rewarding) and flexing their independent programming muscles to do things like expanding the number of events available in the event engine. I also suspect they have some fairly nice new or updated scenarios in mind.

I've actually encouraged them to avoid being too ambitious with changes right off the bat. I really do wish them well, but their task won't be easy. Even I don't really know my way around the TOAW code any more. I've pulled a few comments out of recent postings in this newsgroup for specific responses:

>"David Heath confirmed on Matrix's boards that Norm Koger is working on TOAW: The Matrix Edition...."

Technically true, but it can be interpreted to imply quite a bit more than is actually the case. I've agreed to provide assistance to the extent that it does not impact my other projects in any way. That's mostly a matter of helping them get started (mostly done already) and trying to answer as many questions as I can without spending a bunch of time digging around when they start their own tinkering. I do not currently plan to implement any new features in code.

>"I distinctly remember something about Norm Koger having a patch for TOAW with new features and bug-fixes that was never even released by Talonsoft."

True. This was the 1.07 update. It is the basis from which the Matrix guys will be putting together their edition of the game.

>"Wait, wait... (sits down and breathes) would this mean that SUPPORT FOR TOAW WILL RESUME???"

I think so, but it will be on Matrix' shoulders. Some of the guys there are pretty good.

>"The latest patch released was 1.06, but that broke some features and the wargaming sites I've seen recommend sticking with 1.04."

Yep - and that annoyed the Hell out of me. The thing I most wanted done in 1.06 actually broke part of the combat. Fortunately, it was easy to fix once I was made aware of it. The enhanced combat system envisioned for 1.06 works perfectly in 1.07.

>"It runs fine under WinXP for me, although some people still report problems."

The reported problems have to do with the copy protection system used. I still play the game from time to time, and there are no problems on my system - XP of course. The Korea 50-51 scenario really calls to me. If anything, I can't honestly say for sure now how well the game runs on systems with _earlier_ versions of Windows.

>"Norm Koger kept tweaking things in the patches, which is nice that he was trying to improve it but it played havoc with some of the earlier scenarios."

Unintended consequences: That's one of the reasons I can't really tinker with it any more. I just can't take the time to deal with all the side effects of even the best implemented possible improvements.

>"I think it's great that Matrix is doing this. Matrix as a publisher >sticks it's neck out financially to obtain the rights to these games and suffers the upfront cost of QA testing and marketing."

I agree, and there's plenty of room in the pool. We're a long way from having too many game buying choices for wargamers, aren't we?

>"I wonder what ramifications this has for the TOAW improvement Norm K. implied were already pretty much in the can?"

They weren't so much implied as actually stated, if I remember correctly. V1.07 really is quite good. The last set of changes, working the way they were designed to work, should at last see the light of day. Who knows what the Matrix guys may have in mind for the future? I expect good things from them.

>"Hexside rivers en route?"

Not from me- too much work. But feel free to lobby Matrix with your favorite wish lists. I think they'd be pleased if you guys respond with a list of wonderful changes to implement.

>"HOWEVER, should Norm decide to radically improve TOAW (TOAW: The Next Gen, chough chough) be assured that I will pay full price for it."

Hmmm... Hmmm... Er... Oh... Jeez. There's something called "project Ivan". I wish I could say more... I know: "There's this handprint on the door..."

>"Maybe they can get norm koeger out of retirement."

Norm is nowhere near retirement. He's having too much fun to retire.

>"Here's hoping, though, that updating TOAW doesn't mean RJW stays in a vaporware state."

Nope. 1) Distant Guns has absolute priority. 2) I don't really plan to do anything in the way of adding new features to TOAW (though Matrix probably will). 3) Distant Guns was never vaporware, and won't be under wraps much longer.

>"BTW will MG publish Norm's long awaited RJW now that we're at it?"

No. Jim and I have decided to use it as the lead product for a new company.