So you pay $50 for 5 modules and then in the next year if they upgrade the system you pay $75 to upgrade them all? Doesn’t sound like a good deal to me.
Well, limited-time $50 bundle each time they do a major engine upgrade. shrug
I don’t think “major” engine upgrades ever happened in Command Ops. At least since I played COTA.
Unless you consider “you can now rebuild a bridge” a major engine upgrade.
Did you read the link? There are some decent feature additions and enhancements in there - replay feature, graphical overlays for various element strengths, etc.
They are not free to develop so I don’t begrudge the team looking to get paid. Not sure the pricing model attracts me at this stage, but TBH I need to put more time into BftB before I would consider any upgrades anyway.
I can’t say I really like this pricing scheme much, but they’re free to do as they like, of course.
Like Sharaleo, I still have a ton of playtime to wring out of BftB, so I’ll probably hold off for a (long) while.
This video for World at War seems like an attractive digital presentation of the Lock 'n Load design:
Maybe it’s a little slow with a few needless animations (which I suspect can be disabled) but the information is presented in a much nicer way than the recent Heroes of Stalingrad game. Of course the question is, when will it come out?
Yes, but they have an history of announcing stuff that doesn’t come out for a VERY long time.
So if something has not changed it’s also possible that this new stuff won’t be ready for the next 5 years or so.
They’re looking to put out a pre-release beta before Christmas.
Yeah, that looks pretty cool. I recall WaW is a little lighter weight than the ‘Heroes of’ stuff, though, so maybe that comes through in the design of the digital version as well.
World at War is a fun system and I think it’s great for a digital version.
For anyone who’s following my Command Ops thing, #2 is done.
I’m also very much enjoying the War in the Pacific AAR at Something Awful I linked upthread. It simultaneous reminds me how much of an exhaustive-detail grognard I am and how little I would ever actually play a game of WitP’s scope.
Command: Modern Air Naval Operations is on sale right now on Steam (down to $50), and Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm is down to $30. If I wasn’t planning on getting Naval Action at the beginning of January, I’d probably be going for one of those.
Verdict on Flashpoint Campaigns: I liked it, I suppose. I enjoyed the setting, hardware, and the simple battle graphics and sound effects just like Command Ops. I appreciated the emphasis on taking out headquarters and using the terrain.
Unfortunately the game is a little slow and samey. Even on high turn speed, I had to wait for animations like artillery barrages. (I suggested on the forums they add an option to disable that.) It’s too slow to enjoy the ant farm effect. And even on medium-size maps there are so many units to control. It took me hours to get through a single small or medium scenario.
The missions felt very similar too, especially as NATO. They most involve waiting for a Soviet horde to attack.
Fortunately I think they can clean a lot of this up for the next game in the series. Maybe I will check back in a year or two.
Those are fair points. I love the game in theory. I sometimes enjoy playing it, but the pacing is really hard on me. Many, many turns involve, well, nothing but pushing the start button because I’ve already set the plans in motion, and it will take an hour for anything to happen. The turn sequencing simulates order delays and stuff pretty well, but it also is frustrating because watching things unfold is, well, boring, usually, and there is such a gap between order and execution that, however accurate, disconnects me from what’s going on in the game. In a board game like Assault (GDW’s 1980s vintage modern combat game series, which this game resembles in many respects), you have a lot more calculations and die rolls that you are intimately involved in, each turn, so it feels like you’re doing more. Here, it’s a bit antiseptic.
OTOH, the game does a great job of simulating the sorts of encounters it is meant to simulate, and is a great platform for future endeavors. Of course, one of the issues with a game on this theme is that, yeah, you are generally looking at a very limited variety of situations, involving as you note waiting for the hordes to descend. There are some counter-attack scenarios though, and I think the second game in the series should offer more variety.
It’s interesting how Command Ops never felt boring while watching things unfold. I could always turn up time acceleration.
The turn-based nature feels weird like you said. I call for an assault, then realize it won’t even begin until I hit the start button 2 or 3 more times. That feels more annoying than waiting for the same delay in a real-time with pause game like Command Ops.
I like what they did with space (hexes) though.
It’s all a compromise, in both games. Continuous pausable time gives you less down time and more feeling of control, but less actual control. The Flashpoint system gives you more or less precise control over some things, but it feels like less of a direct connection. Command Ops feels a bit distanced from the action for me, but I agree it’s more interesting to watch unfold. Visually, I find it easier to grasp Flashpoint as well, even though the maps aren’t necessarily as precise as those in Command Ops.
For me the maps/control hit the right level of abstraction. It wasn’t as precise as, say, combat mission, when you can see the AI break because of the extreme granularity, but it was granular enough for me to enjpoy the playback and be able to make small stories about the different units in my head. So it created the perfect suspension of disbelief.
It’s also easy to grasp enough that I felt I could dive into it without facing a learning cliff, which is huge when it comes to wargames for me (I’m not a grognard, just a hopeful).
You’re also right, I think; the level of abstraction is very graspable. My problem, and the reason I don’t play more Flashpoint, is that it takes real-time several minutes to process each turn, and it’s like watching paint dry. I have to do something else in between turns.
I wouldn’t say it takes minutes per minute. You can adjust the execution speed in the settings or press the - key (less is faster).
I also have to say I didn’t feel this way about it until almost 15 hours in. It has a pretty good Chick Parabola before then.
I’ve got it set at the fastest speed and it still takes forever, subjectively. And I’ve played it a lot–a lot more than 15 hours certainly. Again, I do like it, but my ADD tendencies make it hard to stay engaged with it.