Future Directions - Features

[Templer_12]

ORIGINAL: Templer

I want an option to stop the time running when a 'flash report' and/or an 'urgent report' message comes up.

I concretises.
Of course, I mean an auto-stop!

Sometimes I'm so absorbed by the game map and the counters, or even distracted, that I did not notice one or more reports.

So please an optional auto - stop.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

.....you want a bigger picture frame and you're volunteering to get the necessary larger public domain images.

As you can see on the screenshot dazkaz15 posted above, you have to quote the German Federal Archive ("Bundesarchiv") as source and add the signature of the picture (identification code i guess, eg. Bild 101I-127-0391-21, where "Bild" means "picture", plus you have to add the name of the photographer (last name is sufficient, if it's known). In theory, reproduction is allowed without permission, if the conditions above are met.

Also, with all the pictures and reels stored in the NARA archives, US governmental institutions are both pretty lax (when it comes to copyrighted material obtained in/from other countries) and pushy (by imposing their views on other countries), if it comes to copyrights of material that's more than 60 years old.
While US institutions boldly declare material that had been either confiscated (eg. in Germany, Japan, and other countries) or collected 60+ years ago to be part of the public domain pool, there still may be companies, institutions, or individuals who are still rightful/legal owners of the respective copyrights, according to European/German/foreign laws.
US companies that are incorporating such material into their products (for commercial use) often don't care about such foreign copyrights if their products are being distributed in the US only.
But since the Slitherine Group is active in the UK, thus inside European legislation, and since copies of Matrix Games are sold to individuals or resellers residing in the European Union, copyright limitations or special licensing (like for Bundesarchiv content) should be

• a) respected,
• b) researched,

before taking "bigger pictures" from the supposed "public domain" pool and incorporating them into a commercial product.

I still advise to contact the Federal Archive for infos regarding reproduction within a commercial product (like a game).

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: Templer
I concretises.
Of course, I mean an auto-stop!

Sometimes I'm so absorbed by the game map and the counters, or even distracted, that I did not notice one or more reports.

So please an optional auto - stop.

That's quite feasible, Templer and you're not alone requesting something like that

Regarding picture frames: I'm trying to wrap my head around some UI redesign. The idea would be to offset image placement in way it gets centered in the picture frame.

[Perturabo]

ORIGINAL: Templer

ORIGINAL: Templer

I want an option to stop the time running when a 'flash report' and/or an 'urgent report' message comes up.

I concretises.
Of course, I mean an auto-stop!

Sometimes I'm so absorbed by the game map and the counters, or even distracted, that I did not notice one or more reports.

So please an optional auto - stop.

Also, a customizable auto-pause - for example I would be interested almost exclusively in pausing on messages about air strikes.

And while we're at it, ability to customize auto-save (time and amount of files). I can't use the current autosave because it saves the game too often and in too many files.

[Brindlebane]

Got to agree with an option for variable auto-saves.I can see why it was added after reading through most of the forums.As a very latecomer to the dinner table though,the game seems absolutely stable in it's current form.I've played quite a bit of the game now and crashes are a total rarity.

[wodin]

I wouldn't want the UI expanded to much..only having a 19inch monitor means real estate is lacking..

[Templer_12]

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

ORIGINAL: Templer

ORIGINAL: Templer

I want an option to stop the time running when a 'flash report' and/or an 'urgent report' message comes up.

I concretises.
Of course, I mean an auto-stop!

Sometimes I'm so absorbed by the game map and the counters, or even distracted, that I did not notice one or more reports.

So please an optional auto - stop.

Also, a customizable auto-pause - for example I would be interested almost exclusively in pausing on messages about air strikes.

And while we're at it, ability to customize auto-save (time and amount of files). I can't use the current autosave because it saves the game too often and in too many files.

A customizable auto-pause when reinforcements appear!
How many times I have already starve my reinforcements. [:(]

[Perturabo]

ORIGINAL: wodin

I wouldn't want the UI expanded to much..only having a 19inch monitor means real estate is lacking..

Games usually do stuff like that in a separate options menu.

[wodin]

ORIGINAL: Templer

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

ORIGINAL: Templer


I concretises.
Of course, I mean an auto-stop!

Sometimes I'm so absorbed by the game map and the counters, or even distracted, that I did not notice one or more reports.

So please an optional auto - stop.

Also, a customizable auto-pause - for example I would be interested almost exclusively in pausing on messages about air strikes.

And while we're at it, ability to customize auto-save (time and amount of files). I can't use the current autosave because it saves the game too often and in too many files.

A customizable auto-pause when reinforcements appear!
How many times I have already starve my reinforcements. [:(]

And auto pause for when you have an air strike...Graviteam Tactics has a substantial amount of options for pausing or slowing down the speed of the game at certain events..something along those lines would be great.

[ComradeP]

I like the unpredictability of how battles will go, but I'd be interested in playing battles that start slightly earlier (by a few hours) than the ones in BftB. The reason is that in the current case, the opening can "feel" more like a puzzle than a battle when you have average quality units. My VG units tend to be a) cut down by the hundreds or b) make a clean penetration of Allied lines. I'm still new to the series in terms of how much time I've invested in it, but the above does seem to be the pattern.

Maybe victory points could also be balanced slightly towards inflicting casualties on the enemy being worth more points. I regularly find myself losing scenarios after destroying the enemy's capability to resist, just because I didn't capture a couple of villages on time (also because the capture system can be somewhat unforgiving as it is based on occupation time and not unit strength, the regimental mascot can theoretically capture a village as quickly as a battalion), villages that in the greater scheme of the Ardennes offensive would mostly be of limited value, whereas weakening the American or German forces could turn the tide in an entire sector.

The objectives themselves are not dynamic, so even though you can say "those were the historical objectives, so they should be captured at time X", keep in mind that the scenarios are not individual operations, but part of a larger offensive. If you destroy an enemy unit, it won't be there to defend objectives beyond those on the current map, so the timetable of the offensive might not be in jeopardy if you capture a village a day late.

Many wargames "forget" that, which leads to gamey last stands at objectives that would be largely irrelevant if you'd play a campaign game for that offensive. That, in turn, means I don't always have the feeling I'm participating in the offensive or the defense against that offensive.

Having slightly more time to position my forces and plan my own strategy would help me. Note that as the player's units would be further away from the enemy line at the start, this wouldn't give him a gamey advantage: the AI also has more time to prepare its defenses.

Just my 2 cents, however. I can see why people are very happy with the current state of the game/simulation, I can only comment on my own experience.

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

I like the unpredictability of how battles will go, but I'd be interested in playing battles that start slightly earlier (by a few hours) than the ones in BftB. The reason is that in the current case, the opening can "feel" more like a puzzle than a battle when you have average quality units. My VG units tend to be a) cut down by the hundreds or b) make a clean penetration of Allied lines. I'm still new to the series in terms of how much time I've invested in it, but the above does seem to be the pattern.

Maybe victory points could also be balanced slightly towards inflicting casualties on the enemy being worth more points. I regularly find myself losing scenarios after destroying the enemy's capability to resist, just because I didn't capture a couple of villages on time (also because the capture system can be somewhat unforgiving as it is based on occupation time and not unit strength, the regimental mascot can theoretically capture a village as quickly as a battalion), villages that in the greater scheme of the Ardennes offensive would mostly be of limited value, whereas weakening the American or German forces could turn the tide in an entire sector.

The objectives themselves are not dynamic, so even though you can say "those were the historical objectives, so they should be captured at time X", keep in mind that the scenarios are not individual operations, but part of a larger offensive. If you destroy an enemy unit, it won't be there to defend objectives beyond those on the current map, so the timetable of the offensive might not be in jeopardy if you capture a village a day late.

Many wargames "forget" that, which leads to gamey last stands at objectives that would be largely irrelevant if you'd play a campaign game for that offensive. That, in turn, means I don't always have the feeling I'm participating in the offensive or the defense against that offensive.

Having slightly more time to position my forces and plan my own strategy would help me. Note that as the player's units would be further away from the enemy line at the start, this wouldn't give him a gamey advantage: the AI also has more time to prepare its defenses.

Just my 2 cents, however. I can see why people are very happy with the current state of the game/simulation, I can only comment on my own experience.

There's nothing in the engine that prevents you from designing such scenarios, or changing existing scenarios to account for those concerns (which are very valid), ComradeP. I'd suggest you to take a look at the ScenMaker - knowing where you come from - I think you'll find it quite user friendly.

[GoodGuy]

It would be desirable to detach long range scout elements as well as to consider radio ranges in the game.

Historically, if a unit had moved out of radio range, it had to return to a position within the radio range boundaries or dispatch a messenger (Krad), in order to get reports about sightings/enemy movement to HQ.

So, if the game engine would consider radio ranges, a unit getting out of radio range (on large maps) would neither be able to contact artillery units to call in arty bombardments, nor would it be able to call in air strikes or report enemy positions to HQ. That would also mean, that such unit would not be able to contribute to the intel, means enemy sightings/positions gathered by such unit would not show up on the map until it returned to the radio range, or until the time needed for a motorcycle-messenger (up to ~95-100 km/h) to get back to player controlled territory had passed.

It would be interesting to have another feature where a deep recon unit would "freeze", means where the commander (player) then would not be able to control the unit anymore, once it would leave the radio range boundaries, so that friendly intel would only report the "last known position". Corresponding to the aggro level (say min.) and route (say avoid enemy), such unit would then have to make it back to friendly lines on its own (using a tiny routine), reporting

• a) spotted enemy units/positions along its route
• b) back to HQ (which would put it back under the player's control and which would reveal it's actual position )

only AFTER it had returned to player controlled territory or to the radio range boundary[/b].

The post, where I outline deployment and use of armored recon vehicles (ARV) and their dedicated long-range radio sub-versions ("Funkwagen") in the German Army, can be found here:

tm.asp?m=3369206#3370214

[Templer_12]

I would like to see, that you could optionally place the control bar on the right side of the screen.

As a right-handed I feel a command bar on the right side of the screen more comfortable - ergonomically simply more natural.

[wodin]

What would be cool is if someone went through all the requests and then made a poll. That way Dave will know the ones we all really want.

[DanOppenheim]

Has anyone mentioned drawing on the map yet? Both freehand and text would be excellent. Throw in some NATO symbols and I'd be one happy staff officer.

[dazkaz15]

yeah, its my number one requested feature as well.
Take a look at Hearts of Iron web site to see how it can be done.
Dave has mentioned that they are looking into it for Command ops 2, in a previous post somewhere.
Planning graphics and zones of control I think he said.

Edit: The links are here;

tm.asp?m=3306175&mpage=1&key=NAI&#3306203
tm.asp?m=3310918

[DanOppenheim]

Thanks for the links!

However, the features listed seem to be mainly about additional layers provided by the engine, i.e. information overlays and graphics related to triggers and the like.

I think we both want to be able to do our own drawing, to draw out our plans on the map as though on a transparency.

[jimcarravall]

ORIGINAL: DanO

Thanks for the links!

However, the features listed seem to be mainly about additional layers provided by the engine, i.e. information overlays and graphics related to triggers and the like.

I think we both want to be able to do our own drawing, to draw out our plans on the map as though on a transparency.

How about a utility to export the current map situation to an image (BMP, JPG) file that can be exported as a graphic for planning?

Instead of burdening the software with maintaining an "current" and a "planning" cache in real time, the "current" can be exported to a separate program for planning purposes.

It's little different from what goes on in a combat operations center where real time graphics are pinned to a wall and tactical / strategic specialists move pins around on the map to determine the best options for progressing from the last known deployment of friendly and enemy forces.

[Arjuna]

It is our intention to head in this direction - ie allowing a free form draw layer. Not sure when we will get there, though.

[DanOppenheim]

ORIGINAL: jimcarravallah
How about a utility to export the current map situation to an image (BMP, JPG) file that can be exported as a graphic for planning?

That would also be great. I do sort of do this myself sometimes, via screenshots and a paint program, but it would be great if it was possible to do this in-game.

Instead of burdening the software with maintaining an "current" and a "planning" cache in real time, the "current" can be exported to a separate program for planning purposes.

It's little different from what goes on in a combat operations center where real time graphics are pinned to a wall and tactical / strategic specialists move pins around on the map to determine the best options for progressing from the last known deployment of friendly and enemy forces.

Hmm, I'm not sure I'm entirely clear as to what you mean here, sorry. Do you mean dynamic planning? I'm only talking about static drawing on a map, preferably with some predefined brushes (arrows, shading areas, NATO symbols) and text. The sort of thing I'd normally do in my head or on a bit of paper. It doesn't need to be anything more complex than that.