Huzzah!
What do the floating UI windows add to the game? Do those windows scale to higher resolutions this time around?
Well, I downloaded the “core game” to try it out. The “tutorial” is not a tutorial, just a small scenario. And the “core game” apparently only comes with the first 34 pages of the manual… which tell you nothing about how to play the game. AND the UI is the typical wargame “here are a bunch of buttons with cryptic abbreviations and no tooltips”.
So this game is basically impossible to figure out. Saved myself $50 I guess.
Sounds like LocknLoad is doing everything possible to shoot themselves in the foot.
Yeah I’m not sure about this …
The free base module needs a serial and has a 10 download limit. Odd.
The same St. Vith tutorial scenario in Cmd Ops BftB runs a lot better, with much smoother scrolling.
The old game’s fixed UI arrangement was fine, wasn’t it? The new one pops everything up on top of each other in the top left corner, requiring you to manually arrange all the windows before playing.
The windows do not scale at all, so you can’t drag the OB window out to show more of the unit list at once. Why free floating windows if they’re not sizeable?
I’m not sure if there’s much new content for my $50, but so far it’s all looking a bit underwhelming.
That said I’ll probably still buy it, and play it when they polish it up a year or two from now - just before selling v3. :P
Oh yeah I saw on the forums that the manual isn’t ready. You can watch the old videos on YouTube. They explain all the systems and get you through the first day of the tutorial scenario I believe.
I think they mentioned moving windows to second monitors and stuff. But yeah, lack of resizing seems unfortunate.
They probably wanted to rush something out with the new publisher and scare up a little income to put toward developing new scenario packs.
I have to echo most of the comments here. In terms of UI, it seems like a major step backwards. I haven’t put hardly any time into the old game but I far prefer the old information bar on the side. It was quite an elegant way to display information. Now anytime I want to see something I have to click a button and and a large window pops up. All of the windows are different sizes as well and for some reason can’t be resized. In order to display the same amount of information as the old game I’d need to have windows completely covering the game screen. Who thought this was a good idea? They don’t even snap to the sides which means if you’re OCD like me it will drive you nuts if you can’t get your windows to line up and be in line exactly with the edge of the screen. And yes, the older game scrolls much more smoothly. At this point, what are the advantages other than having a couple more icons next to the unit chits (and the fact that you don’t have any other choice but to buy the new version).
The Med mod for Command Ops looks interesting. Hmm. Maybe I’ll try it.
Sorry I didn’t reply earlier. I think you were asking why I have “War in the West” and “War in the Pacific” on my top-10 list, but not WiTE. I liked WiTE, but War in the West has much better air and logistics systems.
I’m new to Command Ops so can’t comment on current vs previous performance and UI options but i do find the detachable windows very useful on my dual monitor setup. The game remembers your window locations even on the 2nd monitor so when i reload my game i just have to click each window ‘on’ via the main game menu and they all appear in their arranged positions on my 2nd monitor. This leaves the main monitor with full view of the map while giving me access to all the other windows at a glance. If i were using a single monitor i would definitely not like this arrangement though as it would be incredible fiddly opening/closing/moving windows constantly due to lack of screen real estate. The lack of documentation has been a disappointment but i have gotten a pretty good grasp of the game via the previously published game concepts and tutorial videos. I find it strange that there is no easy way to obtain the full manual from the previous versions just to get a better grasp on some of the finer details of the simulation and interface (with the understanding that some things have changed with the new release). The games forum at Lock and Load also doesn’t seem have much activity so researching stuff there is hit and miss at best.
For any first timers wanting to try the game out i would strongly recommend watching the game concept video first, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjrIhOWXXAw , to get a better understanding of the core ideas behind the simulation/interface then actually load up the St. Vith scenario (it is NOT a walk-through or teaching device) and play along while watching the 7 part tutorial series on Youtube. This should give enough help/info to get a good grasp of the game for now and allow for decent progress in the included free scenarios. I think there is definitely enough ‘free’ game play provided to allow a potential customer to decide if they like the core game system enough to make a purchase of the other scenario packs.
Personally i find the game a bit too…abstract…in the way it handle things and presents info/results, but to be fair, most of my play time so far has been prior to watching those videos and getting a better understanding of the macro/micro/delegation and AI systems that i was largely unaware of. I want to give it some more play time now that i have a better appreciation of whats possible in the game before making a final purchasing decision.
I put another entry up in my Command Ops AAR, while we’re on the subject.
Vormithrax, you’re right that it can be pretty abstract. I put in maybe six orders besides bombardments in the eight hours above. A lot of it is trying to get ahead of the opponent–making your next move while the other guy is still responding to your last one.
I hope this is ok to post here, I did a three video collection of an AAR for Piercing Fortress Europa, running through the 16 turn introductory Sicily scenario. It’s more of a discussion of decisions, than any tutorial, but it should give folks an idea of how the game plays and what mechanics are involved.
Part1
Part2
Part3
I’m afraid its my first attempt at free speaking whilst recording the game, and I’m a bit nervous, sniffy and erm a lot, but hopefully it is tolerable. I’m sure as I do more of these things I’ll become more confident and used to it. Whilst its all out there for show, not edited, and a raw stream of consciousness - it was a lot more fun than spending hours screenshotting, cropping, composing and writing up an AAR thats for sure. Besides all the youngsters nowadays are doing Lets Plays! :)
Your voice is very relaxing and quiet. It was triggering ASMR a little. Makes for a nice soothing video so roll with that. Just clean up the tsks and sniffing. There might be some editing you could do or a maybe a better microphone would help. I don’t know.
This game is a little too niche for me but if you want to play other wargames on your channel, I’ll tune in. Feel free to post about them.
Thanks for the kind words, I had to look up ASMR! Video 1 was a bit nervey so I think I went quite soft spoken, and a bit slow paced to be honest, but I was just trying it out. By Video 3 I picked up a bit, I felt. I’m looking into getting a better headset and mic, the amount of odd noises that come out of me whilst I’m talking is quite alarming. Sniffs, wheezes, clicks and what not.
Cool, I plan on doing some more. Not sure what really, but I often tend towards the more niche titles.
I only chose Piercing Fortress Europa because I wanted to see a video AAR of it and I found out there wasn’t one! It had come out a while back, but I only give it the briefest of looks then. And then it was forgotten. But there is some excitement to be had in its sparse, boardgamey nature. And the resource management stuff is interesting, limiting your offensive capabilities. I totally messed it up, so my later turns having almost next to no combat supply to spend.
You’re doing good work. I’m also alarmed when I can’t find a single gameplay video of an obscure or old game. It’s the most efficient way to make a purchase/play decision these days.
In obscure/old game news, I’ve been playing the some-years-back Matrix Games free re-release of the 1992 classic Gary Grigsby theater-command-'em-up Pacific War. I’ve been reading a War in the Pacific day-by-day AAR, which is awesome, but not something I could ever do. (I suspect I would never actually finish a game of WitP.) I had a look at my alternatives, and remembered I had a copy of Pacific War on my hard drive, so I fired it up, went to the forums, asked a ton of questions about the rules, and got going.
My first impression was that it’s a very 1992 gaming experience, beyond the presentation. The interface is bafflingly inconsistent: right clicks and left clicks do vastly different things at different times, there are at least three separate buttons which close screens in some cases, but don’t in others, hotkeys change based on context, and lots of other stuff. Add to that some organizational things that must have seemed like a good idea at the time: combat ships destroyer and smaller, and all civilian ships, come in ‘ship units’ of multiple vessels. There’s a ship pool to which you can transfer individual members of ship units, but you can’t make new units from things in the pool, so if you have ships in the pool and no units of the same type on the map, well, you’re out of luck.
With those caveats, I’m really enjoying it. The turns don’t take happen in modern-Grigsby time. I can knock them out in 20 minutes or so, if it’s a busy one, and a lot of that is remembering what I’m up to. (I’m keeping notes, and that helps.) That and the week-per-turn timescale make the war go quickly, which is what I was looking for. It gives me a sense for the flow of the real thing: the desperate first few months, and the stemming of the tide. (Theoretically. I’m no further along than that, at best.) Modern wargames can get bogged down in the details. I feel like Pacific War couldn’t, because of the limitations of its time, and that makes it as good an experience as the most excruciating game we’ve produced today.
Edit: I also picked up Command Ops 2 the other day, because I am weak. I might dive into it some this upcoming weekend. There’s a very interesting hypothetical scenario about an Australian invasion of Italian-occupied Malta.
I’m surprised to not see more discussion on Brother against Brother: The Drawing of the Sword as it’s releasing next week, so I’m going to try to fix that ;-)
First, have a look at the game:
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/505/details/Brother.Against.Brother
Now be sure to also look at the amazing battle maps, battle histories and OOBs we’ve released. They’re linked in the product page above, but I’ll link one in directly here:
First Manassas/First Bull Run Battle Map: http://www.matrixgames.com/amazon/art/BrotherAgainstBrother/BaB_BattleMap.jpg
Battle History and OOB: http://www.matrixgames.com/amazon/art/BrotherAgainstBrother/First Manassas Map and Book.zip
We’ve also just posted the first battle report, covering Wilson’s Creek. In this report, GWgardner plays against the AI in this exciting battle from the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Surprise attacks, flank marches and desperate fighting! Read more here:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3833438
Be sure to grab the Wilson’s Creek Battle Map, OOB and History from the product page links above as you read along with the battle report!
Thanks for your time.
Thanks for the reminder, Erik, I had forgotten this one was so close…
Can I ask a non-game question? I’ve tried researching this but I have not figured it out:
What (exactly) does a “mountain” infantry unit do that is special? Are they skiers? People who have the skills and equipment to repel down cliffs? I’ve played games with mountain infantry - in game terms, they effective in mountain terrain - but I do not understand where they derive this from.
They specialize in rugged/rocky/arctic terrain.
For example, the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division, which is a light infantry division. Light infantry meaning that it doesn’t bother with anything heavy and tracked (regular US Army infantry divisions have hundreds of main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers). But tanks and APCs are useless when you’re, say, going after Taliban 15,000 feet up in the mountains of the Hindu Kush.
Passing this along:
“I cannot consent to place in the control of others one who cannot control himself.” (R. E, Lee)
After years of development, Brother Against Brother will be available in 48 hours! In order to shorten the waiting time and introduce the main features of this new wargame from the Western Civilization Software team to you, we’ll stream the game tomorrow, 15th of April at 20 CEST/2pm EDT.
Follow us on our official http://www.twitch.tv/slitherinegroup Twitch Channel! <— I’ll be doing this one, btw, my first Twitch stream! Wish me luck.
And it’s not over!
We have more news to share with you! The map and booklet about the Battle of Williamsburg is available!
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/505/downloads/
And if you want to see how this battle can be fought in Brother Against Brother, you can read this detailed AAR http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3835927, in which Zakblood – one of the most loyal Beta Testers of the game - plays on both sides using historical guides to better show you how accurate and challenging this game can be!
Get more information about the game here: http://bit.ly/1AEkdLD
Also a new interview with the developers here: http://www.wargamer.com/Article/10102