Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Norm Koger's The Operational Art of War III is the next game in the award-winning Operational Art of War game series. TOAW3 is updated and enhanced version of the TOAW: Century of Warfare game series. TOAW3 is a turn based game covering operational warfare from 1850-2015. Game scale is from 2.5km to 50km and half day to full week turns. TOAW3 scenarios have been designed by over 70 designers and included over 130 scenarios. TOAW3 comes complete with a full game editor.

Moderators: JAMiAM, ralphtricky

Post Reply
User avatar
Oleg Mastruko
Posts: 4534
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2000 8:00 am

Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by Oleg Mastruko »

AGS Hungarian Campaign 44.

You know how very critical of TOAW3 scenarios I am, and that I am of the opinion selection was done extremely badly.

In my own personal selection 60% of scenarios that end in "Garbage" folder, end up there less than 60 seconds after I open them (OK call me idiot, I don't mind [8D] it's just me).

Some other scenarios, though, need to be played for a turn (A MERE TURN) or two turns before they end up in "Garbage", realizing they were obviously NEVER playtested beyond turn 1.

Case in question: AGS Hungarian Campaign 44. Strange name for a scenario, plus there are no air units at all. Still, no problem - perhaps it was designer's intent (not explained in documentation though). On turn 2 Soviet player (that is me) can see that his strongest unit on the map, some Tank Corps, has movement rate of 1, and is rated as unit with "very slow movement". A tank corps? My strongest unit?

OK I get the message. No one ever playtested this. Never.

AGS Hungarian Campaign => Garbage. Reason: blatant mistakes, obviously never playtested. 78th official TOAW3 scenario to end there (not counting Classic TOAW folder which I don't even open.). Phew. Next. 66 scens to go (not rated as Garbage, yet, in folders other than "Classic TOAW".)

Oleg
User avatar
Okimaw
Posts: 268
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2006 6:50 pm
Location: Land of the brave, home of the Cree

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by Okimaw »

You know, I've read a number of your posts about scenarios over the last little while and I've got a question for you. What are your top 10 scenarios and why?
I have returned
User avatar
Oleg Mastruko
Posts: 4534
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by Oleg Mastruko »

ORIGINAL: Okimaw

You know, I've read a number of your posts about scenarios over the last little while and I've got a question for you. What are your top 10 scenarios and why?

Uhmmmm, this thread is not intended for lists of good scenarios and happy thoughts [:D] [:D] [:D] This thread is here for WHINING [:@]

Wasting my time (and my honorable opponent's time) on such scenarios is just annoying. I won't play 60+ turns in a scenario that obviously no one (except this Elmer dude) ever played beyond turn 2.

I will list my fav scenarios somewhere else, some other time (no prob).

Menschenfresser
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: United States

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by Menschenfresser »

Odd, I'm looking at the scenario in COW. I see one or two German Tank Corps and they have 32 mp.
Make wargames, not war.
User avatar
Oleg Mastruko
Posts: 4534
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by Oleg Mastruko »

ORIGINAL: Menschenfresser

Odd, I'm looking at the scenario in COW. I see one or two German Tank Corps and they have 32 mp.

Try the Russian Tank Corps - this is one specific unit I am talking about.

BTW it is also the ONLY tank corps unit in the scenario (IIRC) - Germans don't even have corps sized tank units in this scenario (it's not an HQ, it a unit).
User avatar
DuckofTindalos
Posts: 39781
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:53 pm
Location: Denmark

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by DuckofTindalos »

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

I will list my fav scenarios somewhere else, some other time (no prob).

Should be a very short post...
We are all dreams of the Giant Space Butterfly.
User avatar
Chuck2
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:01 am

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by Chuck2 »

It could be that this scenario is still in beta version. The briefing states that this is version number .90. Perhaps version 1.0 would be the first non-beta version. The briefing also has subtitles for things like House Rules and Victory Points but no information is provided beneath.
Menschenfresser
Posts: 254
Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: United States

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by Menschenfresser »

Ah, I thought you meant German.
 
Yes, I see that. There are actually two Russian tank corps. One that starts at 66,33 and the one you're referring to in the front lines. The problem seems to be that the front line unit has no trucks of any kind. Also the briefing says that all German units east of the Tisza can't move until the Russians capture some town. They don't start immobile at all. I thought it might be an honor rule, but there's a blank section labeled "Honor Rules" in the briefing, so obviously this is another mistake.
 
This one probably should not have been included. As part of the scenario selection team, I can only say that we waded through a lot of scenarios with similar problems.
Make wargames, not war.
User avatar
Captain Cruft
Posts: 3749
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2004 12:49 pm
Location: England

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by Captain Cruft »

The actual problem with the unit (5 Gds Tank Corps) is that it has no transport for its numerous arty and AT pieces. Not a single truck. EDIT: Oops, posted before I saw the previous post.

This is obviously just an oversight by the designer, and easily fixed. Now, things like this don't particularly bother me, since I have very low software quality expections (globally, not just with this game). However, it's a bit of a pain in the ass if you have to check through each scenario before you play it.

User avatar
nemo69
Posts: 326
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2004 11:31 am
Location: Nowhere to be seen
Contact:

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by nemo69 »

ORIGINAL: Menschenfresser

Ah, I thought you meant German.

Yes, I see that. There are actually two Russian tank corps. One that starts at 66,33 and the one you're referring to in the front lines. The problem seems to be that the front line unit has no trucks of any kind. Also the briefing says that all German units east of the Tisza can't move until the Russians capture some town. They don't start immobile at all. I thought it might be an honor rule, but there's a blank section labeled "Honor Rules" in the briefing, so obviously this is another mistake.

This one probably should not have been included. As part of the scenario selection team, I can only say that we waded through a lot of scenarios with similar problems.
The problem with the mobile German formations at the beginning is that the formation orders used to freeze them ('wait' and 'fixed') are only effective for the PO, not for a human player. This should either be fixed (as with the transport assets of the now infamous Tank Corps) or that part of the briefing put into the House Rules section.
Fais ce que dois
User avatar
Industrial
Posts: 143
Joined: Mon May 29, 2006 5:24 am

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by Industrial »

ORIGINAL: Nemo69

The problem with the mobile German formations at the beginning is that the formation orders used to freeze them ('wait' and 'fixed') are only effective for the PO, not for a human player. This should either be fixed (as with the transport assets of the now infamous Tank Corps) or that part of the briefing put into the House Rules section.

It might also be due to a bug in TOAW III, on SZO Ralph just posted that he had found some bugs whith importing events for Pl 2, here is his post:
Here's the issue, the following event types weren't converted correctly for P2 in some scenarios. Editing an existing scenario, may make this problem worse.

WITHDRAW_UNIT_EFFECT
DISBAND_UNIT_EFFECT
WITHDRAW_ARMY_EFFECT
SET_FORMATION_ORDERS_EFFECT
UNIT_DESTROYED_TRIGGER
SET_OBJECTIVE_1_TRACK

I'm hoping that the next upgrade should be able to fix these. The plan is that it will fix them, and write out a text file to the scenario directory about what it did so that people can verify that the scenarios are converted correctly..

http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=541392&postcount=145
"The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose."

Henry Alfred Kissinger

<--- aka: Kraut
User avatar
ralphtricky
Posts: 6675
Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2003 4:05 am
Location: Colorado Springs
Contact:

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by ralphtricky »

ORIGINAL: Industrial

It might also be due to a bug in TOAW III, on SZO Ralph just posted that he had found some bugs whith importing events for Pl 2, here is his post:
They're unrelated.

These bugs affect a few scenarios that were included in the initial release. We've also detected a few that appear to have been broken in COW also.

This bug is more likely to affect someone that's creating a new scenario or updating one, than someone playing a current scenario.

Ralph
Ralph Trickey
TOAW IV Programmer
Blog: http://operationalwarfare.com
---
My comments are my own, and do not represent the views of any other person or entity. Nothing that I say should be construed in any way as a promise of anything.
PDiFolco
Posts: 1195
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:14 am

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Post by PDiFolco »

Oleg is a whiner but he has some good points : were the scenarios really playtested ? All of them ?
I've no problem if Matrix says "there was just too many we just made sure they work" but that's not real playtest...
&nbsp;
PDF
Post Reply

Return to “Norm Koger's The Operational Art Of War III”