honkinberry
01-13-2005, 03:06 PM
I've weathered the crashes and the learning curve enough to really kick this game through its paces, and have come up with some suggestions. I know how difficult it is to produce a complete product that is so visually stunning and playable at the same time, so I applaud your effort (although I do anxiously await a patch to fix the nearly incessant Cx05 and Cx02 crashes...).
1. Technology purchases should not come from my production dollars, but instead from my Army Experience. I would put Technology as a default Special Operations button, and then just pretty much multiply all Technology costs by about 10. I might even go so far as to rename the Army Experience something like Strategic budget, as this is really how I think of it, the difference between Strategic dollars and Tactical Production dollars.
2. Custom battle. This is the most ill thought-out and broken part of the program. I find it is much easier to just start the WWII game, and play it quickly until I see a fun battle, and then do an RTS of that. SOOOO, why can't the Custom interface be exactly that? How cool would it be, you get a blank world map, it says to select the territory you want. Then, you slide on the number of units from each side you want involved in the attack. Finally, you click your starting money and experience to where you want it, add flags to cities that you want already held, etc. Essentially, make the Custom interface completely visual, the same exact interface as the gameplay, rather than the cumbersome and unworkable interface it is now.
3. Supply v. Replacements. It's too easy to send a couple divisions out to take a far off city, suffering far too great of losses, but then once they take the city, they get fully replenished. I'd like to see two types of supply lines - the existing Green line, where your existing units get replinished and repaired. But then another line, demarked by proximity to their divisional headquarters, that marks where they can replenish their lost units. Otherwise, it's just to easy for a nearly defeated unit to quickly resurface at full strength (which is just a little unrealistic). Further, how cool would it be if everybody has to keep moving their divisional headquarters around, surrounded by anti-air halftracks, it'd be cool to watch!
4. Finally, I think everything else really works, it's a playable interface after you figure out the undocumented stuff like how supply works, and to always use your divisions as a complete unit, stuff like that. There's a little bit of that annoying waiting for money to come in thing, but far less so than in other games, particularly the ones that come to mind are Imperium Galactica II and numerous SSI games. It basically gets to a point, where I'm ready to handle up to 60 units, 20 is getting pretty sparse, you know? I'm okay with putting 5 infantry regiments guarding each city, building a bunch of bunkers and such at each, while my core 20-25 units can handle attacking. Maybe once you get the bugs worked out, you can up the unit limit?
--Jeremiah
1. Technology purchases should not come from my production dollars, but instead from my Army Experience. I would put Technology as a default Special Operations button, and then just pretty much multiply all Technology costs by about 10. I might even go so far as to rename the Army Experience something like Strategic budget, as this is really how I think of it, the difference between Strategic dollars and Tactical Production dollars.
2. Custom battle. This is the most ill thought-out and broken part of the program. I find it is much easier to just start the WWII game, and play it quickly until I see a fun battle, and then do an RTS of that. SOOOO, why can't the Custom interface be exactly that? How cool would it be, you get a blank world map, it says to select the territory you want. Then, you slide on the number of units from each side you want involved in the attack. Finally, you click your starting money and experience to where you want it, add flags to cities that you want already held, etc. Essentially, make the Custom interface completely visual, the same exact interface as the gameplay, rather than the cumbersome and unworkable interface it is now.
3. Supply v. Replacements. It's too easy to send a couple divisions out to take a far off city, suffering far too great of losses, but then once they take the city, they get fully replenished. I'd like to see two types of supply lines - the existing Green line, where your existing units get replinished and repaired. But then another line, demarked by proximity to their divisional headquarters, that marks where they can replenish their lost units. Otherwise, it's just to easy for a nearly defeated unit to quickly resurface at full strength (which is just a little unrealistic). Further, how cool would it be if everybody has to keep moving their divisional headquarters around, surrounded by anti-air halftracks, it'd be cool to watch!
4. Finally, I think everything else really works, it's a playable interface after you figure out the undocumented stuff like how supply works, and to always use your divisions as a complete unit, stuff like that. There's a little bit of that annoying waiting for money to come in thing, but far less so than in other games, particularly the ones that come to mind are Imperium Galactica II and numerous SSI games. It basically gets to a point, where I'm ready to handle up to 60 units, 20 is getting pretty sparse, you know? I'm okay with putting 5 infantry regiments guarding each city, building a bunch of bunkers and such at each, while my core 20-25 units can handle attacking. Maybe once you get the bugs worked out, you can up the unit limit?
--Jeremiah