I feel like a Beta Tester

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

?[&:]

warspite1

Some people insist on changing the thread title - which is really annoying as I think there is a new thread, go to read it and lo and behold its not. When this happens I put the title back.

[waltero]

ORIGINAL: Omnius

altipueri,
Sorry but I spent many years doing actual beta test and scenario design work, now I just want to play the games to enjoy them. When I pay for a game I don't want to waste my time and get frustrated with a buggy game. I do try to help by posting bug reports though when I see a bug.

Did you not love your work? Only now, you are paying for what you love to do.
Could be worse...no game at all (refrain- purchase of new games).

Sounds like you are needed around here. Maybe they put your name in the credits.

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Have you found it buggy? Is the AI any good?

I haven't lately. In the beginning, I found crashes due to memory leaks, but it always has been stable in PBEM. And the CTDs are gone,though
I save every few turns anyway.

The AI? Well, it isn't the best, and has done some strange things,(Really, Spanish horse artillery in Paris??)

It's a playable AI, but it still needs work. Especially when it sends small stacks hither and yon.

At least, you can focus your allied AI's attention on cities/regions.

And if you have to, by save and load you can do the moves for the other six majors before you run the turn.

[Speedysteve]

Hmm ok. Thanks. May be one for the future when I have more time after AE. I've always wanted to play a really good Napoleonic era game...

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Hmm ok. Thanks. May be one for the future when I have more time after AE. I've always wanted to play a really good Napoleonic era game...

Me, too.

[Omnius]

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

Try as I might, I don't see *anything* about it being hot seat.

AI? yes

PBEM? yes

1-7 players? yes

Hard to be a "phony hot seat" as it doesn't claim to be playable hot seat.

Aurelian,
You can "simulate" hotseat mode by choosing the flags when you go into select which country you want to play. You're not limited to the two leader pictures for selecting a country to play. So you can play Russia as Austria if you're playing Austria in the short 1805 scenario. Just save your Austrian plots, exit and then go back in selecting the Russian flag.

I'm going to do a video game series playing all 7 major countries PBEM. One advantage I saw for playing PBEM rather than "hotseat" is that in the AI moves section there's a setting that has all leaders look active at the beginning of each plot phase. Only when you go to the resolution phase will the program actually calculate which leaders are active and which are inactive. That better simulates planning as Napoleon certainly didn't know which leaders would perform as expected or underperform. Solo PBEM is so easy as all files are placed together so all we have to do is save each country's turn, exit to the menu then select another country flag or leader.

[Omnius]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Speedy

?[&:]

warspite1

Some people insist on changing the thread title - which is really annoying as I think there is a new thread, go to read it and lo and behold its not. When this happens I put the title back.

warspite1,
Guilty as charged. I change message title to be more relevant to the post I'm replying to or the subject of my new message.

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: Omnius

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

Try as I might, I don't see *anything* about it being hot seat.

AI? yes

PBEM? yes

1-7 players? yes

Hard to be a "phony hot seat" as it doesn't claim to be playable hot seat.

Aurelian,
You can "simulate" hotseat mode by choosing the flags when you go into select which country you want to play. You're not limited to the two leader pictures for selecting a country to play. So you can play Russia as Austria if you're playing Austria in the short 1805 scenario. Just save your Austrian plots, exit and then go back in selecting the Russian flag.

I'm going to do a video game series playing all 7 major countries PBEM. One advantage I saw for playing PBEM rather than "hotseat" is that in the AI moves section there's a setting that has all leaders look active at the beginning of each plot phase. Only when you go to the resolution phase will the program actually calculate which leaders are active and which are inactive. That better simulates planning as Napoleon certainly didn't know which leaders would perform as expected or underperform. Solo PBEM is so easy as all files are placed together so all we have to do is save each country's turn, exit to the menu then select another country flag or leader.

Well aware how it works. Does not change the fact that the game does not make any claim to be hot seat.

Thus it can't be a "phony hot seat".

BTW, been playing this since release day.

And I guess you missed this:

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

Hardly.

By the way, you *can* play hotseat..

tm.asp?m=4058960

[Werewolf13]

87 posts. Each one read.

And now! A product I was almost ready to pull the trigger on and buy regardless of the trashing its getting on STEAM...

I think I'll wait a year before getting WoN. IIRC that's about how long until CW2 was ready for prime time. I have fun with it now though I imagine the hardcore grognards here still find fault with it too.

[kev_uk]

I have played it for several months, had the usual CTDs, got it fixed, and am really enjoying it. Much depth here. I can understand though from the steam reviews (just a bad bad place to sell any game like this) that it would put you off. I am hoping for more patches, but it is an old engine and a very ambitious game. I like it a lot.

[IslandInland]

I've also read every post in this thread and I'll wait until the game is properly/actually fixed. I really want to buy it but right now everything I read about it says "No".

[waltero]

ORIGINAL: XXXCorps

I've also read every post in this thread and I'll wait until the game is properly/actually fixed. I really want to buy it but right now everything I read about it says "No".

This game is not fixed yet? I'll wait for the next great Napoleon game to come out. [&o]

[FrankieITA]

40 bucks on Steam to be a beta tester doesn't sounds like a good deal to me.

There are many community members who will buy it happily, but if this game wants to be sold on Steam it should have been in a better shape...
Newcomers to the community are irritated by some game-breaking issues, they happen sometimes even to post on the fora and all they get is an iper-supportive, always-defensive fanbase wich will ask them to download third party DDLs, hotfixes and multiple patches.
I completely understand why such a newcomer should shelf this game (or even ask for refund), if you look to other strategy studios you can see that their games, even as not immersive as Ageod's, are at least stable, polished and "working as designed".
It's sad to say that Ageod took a back track since CW2, they are exploiting their fanbase with DLCs and premature releases, at the same time not caring about newcomer's point of view...

As a member of the fanbase, I used to tell myself that a game about a certain period is way better than no game at all, but as years and bad releases comes by, I'm starting to regret on this.

And by the way, I keep wondering: "why wait for 6 months, wait for a steam release (and bad reviews), to get hotfixes that should have been made BEFORE publishing the game?"