This is the biggest flaw in the mod,. It would be solved best with a 3R type solution kimiting SRs (which in the game is a renamed and aletred “Operate function”) to a set number based on the Great Power’s BRP level. That however looks like a code ssue that the editor wouldn’t handle.
Other than that the game was a blast. I won our first match with Sealion, and @Panzeh conceded in 1/42.
This loss was a classic “Big Germany” 3R loss. I won a lot of small minors and conquered the Middle East but didn’t get Turkey or Spain. @Panzeh had a great variant (larger UK Forces structure) which adde 2 4-5 Armor and some infantry. So I was a bloated beast with too much territory to defend. Add in a Barbarossa that was rushed (for surprise…not) And then bad weather except for two two week turns in '41 and you have a recipe for disaster! It was a blast!
Oh man, I totally didn’t realize that’s what you were playing! I have that exact box on my bookshelf.
Panzeh
4668
It’s an adaptation of the game to SCWW2, not a port.
Oh man… the memories. As a kid, I found RD3R (maybe the original version?) on a clearance at a bookstore (remember when?). Ends up that “14+” was um… optimistic, in my neck of the woods. Never did play it, outside of a couple turns to see how the mechanics worked. I remember the rule book being a fascinating read (all the “what ifs”).
This mod has those, the variants really make things interesting and keep you on your toes in this one. You never know what Yugoslavia is going to do, for instance. It’s more “historical” in the Grand Strategic sense to have that uncertainty.
The two things that this mod doesn’t have that are classic 3R-isms are double turns and SRs based on base economies. I can live without the first. The second likely could be tweaked by the mod designer.
Code-wise, if the engine was reworked to allow stacking…I think you’d have a fantastic 3R and a an amazing :“blank canvas” for a multitude of Strategic and Theater ww2 options.
I have my own share of disappointments and disagreements. Over the years I have figured out who I can work with and who doesn’t deserve it. And I still haven’t given up.
You playing Windows 11?
whoah man, you blast my mind.
I am not going to make an excuse, but rather explain a situation. This is an issue that has hit particularly hard computer war games that relied on exposing tabulated data to their players, as this removes from the programmer/designer a great degree of control on how things get displayed. You can get truly intractable combinations, and this is pretty much by design.
To aggravate this, the genre followers comprise people of a certain age, there’s a constant stream of players that get left behind as they can’t scale up fonts to be able to read the text on the screen, without breaking the layout of the user interface.
Games which are especially data intensive - CMANO, Flashpoint Germany, Command Ops (still) and WITE/WITW - or try to mimic the operating system standard look and feel (both from a perspective of usability and development economy, as it cheaper to use the provided system libraries for the user interface graphics rather than building them from scratch interacting with the low level 2D or 3D APIs) have issues with DPI scaling. Some have managed to work around it, others have been pretty much thrown under a bus.
Rewriting/redesigning from scratch the UI is expensive… but the games are expensive too. Their lifecycle is also different, as it is their audience. I won’t either excuse any exceptionalism in the “genre”, as it is sometimes a self-inflicted wound. This criticism can only be copped up to be honest, and try to learn the lessons for the future.
But that’s what it is. :)
Sorry for my typo, I obviously meant Windows 10. DPI becomes an issue not only when your eyesight gets bad, but when you are using a larger monitors (as I do, and more of the “not in a closet” PC Gaming public does). And I’ll add only Grigsby, Tiller et al (the ancient “simulators”) suffer from this. And charge exorbitant prices for their wares (Steam won’t even carry Tiller). And they all claim Genre-exceptionalism. Plenty of other fine makers of wargames with offerings on Steam do not try to charge 90 dollars for a 9 year old engine with a few updates on it. Their complete failure to learn from both the Boardgaming and the PC Gaming industries and marketplaces at large is quite stunning. Ignoring the cardboard and digital worlds at the same time, is quite a feat. :)
Finger on refund button. The first thing on V2 I’ll look at is DPI scaling. I may refund 3 minutes after install.
If that issue isn’t solved by 2020…then it’ll be, what 15 years, since the base engine was overhauled?
In Tiller’s case I know for a fact its been 20.
Hmmm, okay, thanks for listening.
No sweat. I’ll tell you what,: if you are interested, I’ll certainly play you an A3R game of Strategic Commander WWII: WiE. PM me if you want aid with the DLC and whatnot. @Panzeh and I are playing a mirror of the A3R mod designer’s v1.1 with some fixes from the Official DLC release. Available here (these you do have to drop in your “Campaign” folder.
Available in the first two posts (respectively) here:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4424310
Thanks for the offer, I am taking it. PM on its way.
Panzeh
4676
If you need any advice on playing the A3R scenario, let me know, there are some significant differences from vanilla.
Got it working, I figured out I need to put it into my “User/XXXX/Documents/my games/Strategic Command” folder.
I took the Allies on my first game, as is usually the easiest side for less experienced players in most strategic games (not because of low complexity of the gameplay, but because of the strategic depth). We’ll see how well this incarnation of A3R captures that :)
On the topic of going over old reviews, and ongoing private discussion with @Navaronegun about “universal wargame toolkits” and one possible future of wargaming, here’s a piece by Tim Stone at RPS wrote last weekend which I think the folks here will find interesting.
PS: if this was posted above in the thread, sorry to the poster for not checking
I am tendering interest in a Strategic Command World War II: War in Europe A3R Tournament here at Qt3 in the below thread. If you are interested, please respond there.
SamS
4681
Forcing people to buy a new game instead of letting them download the one they spent $60+ on is a new low, even for Battlefront.
vyshka
4682
I’m still able to download my orders of CMSF1 by going to the orders history. I do hate the constant nickle and diming they do to get engine improvements though. I wasn’t playing enough to justify continuing to pay them.
Brooski
4683
The saddest thing for me about this is that instead of making a “Combat Mission WWIII” with real NATO v Warsaw Pact gameplay, they decided to try and shoehorn Shock Force into an asymmetrical warfare situation which isn’t even very interesting. And it wasn’t a very good game. And now they’re upgrading a bad game.
Time to pull out Flashpoint Campaigns again.
vyshka
4684
I think that would sell a lot better than remastered Shock Force.
I really need to have another go at that. I still haven’t come to grips with how to play the NATO side; the Russian approach is much more natural to me.
