Unity of Command II - this time it's 3d

Uh? I found Unity of Command’s supply system the easiest to understand from any game trying to model it (of course, games with no supply modelling are easier to understand :P)…

Supply sources connect to railway hexes. From a connected railway hex (uninterrupted railway line to your supply source, every railway hex in the line under your control), supply extends out to non-railway hexes a given range (defined by the source) in Movement points (so no supply tracing over unbridged rivers, mountains, etc). To extend supply, extend railways by controlling the spaces the line occupies. That’s prety much it.

Length of the railway line does not matter. If a hex is connected to a supply source through controlled railways, supplies extend from there.

All strategy games must have cards.

I didn’t even get a chance to read the link. I’m sure they’ve done a good job with it.

Unity of Command II now has a release date, and is taking applications for beta testers. The test is due to start October 21st.

I was in the beta for the first one. Application filed.

I was too. Or maybe a couple of the DLCs. I can’t remember.

I’ll wait patiently.

Yep I signed up.

Release date is November 12. It looks like I’m still on the PR list for review codes. (I snorted a bit when the form letter addressed me as a journalist.)

Debating whether to play now while I have time or wait it out to play with you all.


Bring on the 12th of November I say, for what I have seen so far looks quite good.

Out today, anyone grabbing this ?

I’m getting this. Their first game and focus on design convinced me it’s a day 1 purchase.

The previews are glowing and the feature list has the the right ticks. I’ll report back when I have had a run on it.

I assume the NDA is no longer in effect.

Just for background, I game on a laptop with native resolution of 1920x1080. Because of this and poor eyesight, I set icons to 175% on my desktop. That said…

I was in the beta and excited to play the game, When I first fired it up, I noticed resolution was set to 900x600. I was anxious to start playing, so I jumped in anyway. Starting my first scenario, I noticed that the right hand side of the screen was cut off. That is the side with the “next turn button”. Quitting and restarting, I thought I’d try adjusting the resolution. I couldn’t make the change until I switched from full screen to windowed. At 1920x1080 the menu screen is so magnified as to make the buttons inaccessable… I had to ctrl-alt-del to get out, and emailed tech support. The best they could do was tell me what file to delete to restore the game to the 900x600 default - which still left the problem of the cut-off controls.

I waited and waited for each build, hoping that my problem would be resolved, but it never was. Last week the developers posted that they figured out that the problem was having icons set to 175%, and if I dropped it back down that was going to solve the problem. They were right and it did. But by last week there didn’t seem to be a point to getting into the beta a week from release. Anyway, the devs said it was an easy fix and they would take care of it.

As of yesterday’s build, nothing had changed. I was going to look at it today, but beta keys were revoked before I could do so.

The point of this long-winded story is caveat emptor.

I dont get any strange artifacts as described.

Although it seems that the 175% icons setting may have something to do with the scaling issue.

@Sonoftgb does bring up a good point, playing in window mode, the text is a bit small for my eyes. I can just make out the text. I have an Ultrawide 1440p monitor so I though I’ll change the UI scale to better let me see the text.

But the UI Scaling only affects the Gameplay elements like units, and cards. The Menus and Text in briefings retains the small sizes. It’ll be hard on the eyes if you guys are myopic like me.

Otherwise, the game is very polished and well done. I’m trying out the game systems. Looks like a keeper. You play the Allies in the Campaign. =)

Edit: After @Sonoftgb’s comments I tried adjusting the settings.

In Windows Display → Change the App Text Size to 150%
Start the Game → Options → UI Scale 100%

And now the text and menu as well as all UI elements becomes larger.

I do not have missing or truncated buttons. But I’m in fullscreen 3440x1440 display mode. I changed it to 1920x1080 window to test and am happy to report that at Windows 150% Text Magnification and Game UI Scale at 100%, it works as expected!

I would as I loved the first one, but trying to stay on target for the year money wise. I will get it at some point, unless you guys say it’s horrible 😀

If CMO wasn’t coming out this week I would have!

Cranky Men Online? Coalition of Mighty Organization? Combat Mission: Overlooked? Crazy Mermaids vs Otters?

Would it kill you people to use words? :)

-Tom

CMO is actually the French acronym for Fuck You Chick!

Is this UoC less of a puzzle game than the first one?

So far I’ve also completed the 1st mission in the campaign in Easy Mode.

I’m liking it so far! It’s less “puzzley” in the following ways I feel.

  1. The main objectives have no Time Limit. (So you are guranteed some Prestige Points as long as you dont get defeated)
  2. The side objectives have time limit that rewards you with prestige points. At easy mode, it’s quite generous.

The key game play mechanics.

  1. The Prestige points are used to upgrade your “HQ” which allows you to acquire special actions on a Campaign screen. It introduce an RPG element, not sure how this pans out. I basically pumped it into movement because of “Blitz” in Blitzkreig!
  2. Prestige points also does the usual like deploying specialist steps into your units like the last game.
  3. Supply is still crucial and it retains the fingernail biting element of wondering if you had over stretched yourself and an enemy is coming to cut off your supplies! The key to victory is still very much manuvering and destroying enemy logistics. I get the same feel good sense of executing a flank, cutting off the supplies of massed tanks and seemingly impenetrable defences, and destroying them 2 turns later when they run out of supplies!

I’ve yet to start the next scenario and so does not know how the dynamic campaign tree will play out. But I must say, the campaign screen looks real good and polished. I am amazed at the efficient way they tell the story without usage of expensive CGI.

The 3D UI does need some getting used to. The supply line is not as obvious as the first game. And the new HQ element is still a bit weird. For instance, I could not figure out why some of my units were unsupplied, it seem like they should, as I had the HQ connected to the roads that my forward units had access to. But I think this a 3D UI issue. There is perhaps some disconnect somewhere in the supply network.

I am also unable to fully utilize my HQ. I do not understand their function and utility in the tactical overlay and so they just sat there in my whole scenario.

Sometimes, less is more, I think 3D contributes nothing to a wargame like this, and only serves to obfuscate the game mechanics. It cost more to make and program, and serves no purpose apart from eye candy.

Still, I’m enjoying this. It’s really well made. And I’m liking the game systems a lot while learning.

What is CMO?