Bitter Glory

[doomtrader]

Generic can be of course renamed.
But personally I still prefer generic names with a little bit of imaginativeness.

[Lützow]

You could take names from mythology of the respective nation or culture. Par example germanic gods as Thor, Odin, Loki and so on.

But this would make a very long list if you got to do this for every involved nation in a WW2 game.

[Widell]

ORIGINAL: doomtrader
If you would like to go strictly historical in Bitter Glory there is no problem with that. (And AI will try to act historical)
But when you will be customizing a new vehicle you can choose two ways. First one is choosing historical design and another option is to compose it by yourself. You thought that Panther was perfect tank then go ahead and produce it, but if you think it should have bigger engine or different catterpillars type, you can change it.

I think that the never ending discussion about historical vs less- or un-historical will not be solved by neither HoI3 nor Bitter Glory. I recommend giving the players the freedom to choose which type of game to play either by setting options, or by modding. I also believe you need to be very careful in requesting the player to get involved in the design choices of equipment for some players will lead to unbearable micromanagement, while others will like it a lot. Again, give the player a clear option to choose at what level to be involved and you will be all right.

[doomtrader]

Here is the first part of Bitter Glory's Development Diary:
http://forum.wastelands-interactive.com/viewtopic.php?t=1306

[doomtrader]

Here is the second part of Bitter Glory's Development Diary:
http://bitterglory.com/index.php?option ... &Itemid=67

Playing on the Edge

[doomtrader]

And here we got part three of the developers diary called "Mines of Gloria"
http://bitterglory.com/index.php?option ... 67&lang=en

[madgamer2]

Well at leat they got there name right...it DOES say it all

Madgamer

[doomtrader]

Could you be more specific?

[DominoDeja]

[:-]It's like mass effect crossed with CCD4????

[Missouri Rebel]

I for one welcome any and all new war games. Will I buy many of them? No, but it is nice seeing our genre expanded. Does Matrix have a policy concerning games from other developers appearing on their site? That I am unsure about, but I would hope they do not as my initial visit to their shores was from a link at anothers forum.

Still, their house, their rules. I will not try to upset my host.

p.s.

It looks a LOT like HoI from the screenshots I have seen. Very much like it as a matter of fact.

mo reb

[doomtrader]

And here is next part of our diary:
http://forum.wastelands-interactive.com ... php?t=1408

[Missouri Rebel]

What would be nice for real-time games such as these (and cota, BotB for that matter) would be for the game to stop at the beginning of a predetermined time. i.e 1 day, 3 days, 1 week etc. One that would allow it to be changed in-game for solitare play or switched if/when both parties choose so in multi-player. This would create a CM style strat game where you would essentially be 'watching' your turn unfold. Of course real-time would also be an option. I know that you can pause these already, but why not let the system handle watching the clock? Seems like it could really help out multiplayer games for those that like to micromanage. Another feature might be a pause limit between turns as to control the flow. Certain events would keep the game from resuming in between 'turns' though such as Declaring War/mobilization, large scale initial encounters, quartely intensified nation building etc.

Thinking of the possibilities, each player would be able to view his 'turn' at whatever speed he wanted to, rewinding to view hot spots again.
I really don't know what it takes to code such things, but it seems like many of the elements are already in place.

Or am I not thinking this correctly. I guess that many choices would require a bit of information to be calculated and exchanged prior to executing the turn causing possible load times???

I did like many things of HoI, but the clickfest was more than I could handle. The possibilities of player defined turns would lesson that frustration for me.

mo reb

[Anraz]

I did like many things of HoI, but the clickfest was more than I could handle.

I used to change flow of time to fit my own needs Combination of "very slow" and "pause" can ease any pain

[wosung]

Yup,

although I do play HOI2 mods, I still think going real time, or "continually pausable" like the fanboys like to call it, is just a bad design decision for 20th century based grand strategy.

Too many things going on.

The engine, originally designed for pre-industrial era land combat, doesn't fit with modern naval and air combat.

Hoi2 with Armageddon and all, is best when playing only on one land front, choosing countries like Russia or Germany.

That's a pity, because IMO, for WW2 Britain/Commenwealth offers the most interesting strategic choices.

Anyway considering Paradox forum I suspect, that a majority of players are Germany fanboys (and about 10 years younger than people over here).

To make 20th century based RT grand strategy work, it needs a lot of work on preconditioned rules of engagement for all sorts of AI assistents. I know they try to work it out for Hoi3, but...

Regards

[Anraz]

I still think going real time [...] is just a bad design decision for 20th century based grand strategy.

Classic turn based games are very attractive, but also have some limitations and flaws and what is most important - sides cannot move simultaneously, and therefore gives benefit to the side which moves first. A designer may find some way to balance the issue, but it always is far from reality, as in real war both sides act at the same time.
If a game won't allow a player to follow its flow, I think the problems is out of real-time itself, but in game design. In case of real-time ones the problem lies within the cycles which are to rule the game. If some of them happen too often the amount information to analyze and action to perform may pin down a player. If a player got some help, if there is an active pause and some atomization and cycles (I mean fight and move, economy and production, diplomacy, etc) are properly set, real-time is a better choice. I'm not saying it is easy to build such a game, but in my humble opinion it is the future.

[Anraz]

We have made a stand alone application to show to anyone a bit of our “self-made” game:







If you wish to get to know more just go to http://forum.wastelands-interactive.com ... 2828#12828 where you will find the newsest part of my diary, the one named "Plooton” - read the text and download it

[doomtrader]

And here we are with the next part of our diary.
http://forum.wastelands-interactive.com ... php?t=1438

We are really hoping for some comments from people who are playing strategy games a lot.

[sullafelix]

Well from what I've seen and read you've somewhat cured my erectile dysfunction. I'm not a fan of realtime either but I can deal with it.

[benpark]

Real time is going to be a very hard sell for me as well. This is a global game! I don't want to be spinning the globe constantly and missing events.

This may be a "strategy" vs. "wargame" game-play issue. I never liked the Paradox RT games ("Hearts of Iron", etc.), but enjoy AGoD's turn based games at nearly the same scale immensely. Is your target audience the people that like the Paradox type of game play?

How has the computer opponent been improved in regards to your last game (which still leaves much to be desired, even after patching)? I realize they are two separate engines-but the hand of the maker(s) I assume to be the same? If it has, please post concrete examples of the AI in action in the future.

The game certainly LOOKS interesting. I have a new standing rule, however. If a developer hasn't completely made good on their last game (patching the AI, etc.), I won't purchase any more from them. I think you are working on making RtV better, but there's still lots to be done before I consider this new one.

[doomtrader]

I realize they are two separate engines

Yes, you are right.

but the hand of the maker(s) I assume to be the same?

Yes, and no.
Wastelands Interactive has got very limited impact on the shape of RtV before it's release. We have started to improve the game after release and currently working over another major update.