Updating the beta tester waiting list

[Greyshaft]

[font=arial]All new testers were advised by email yesterday. We took two from this list[/font]
[font=arial][/font] 
[font="times new roman"]* Glen Felzien - [/font][font="times new roman"]gfelz@telusplanet.net[/font][font="times new roman"]  (he was the first to respond)
* Kendall Griffiths - [/font][font="times new roman"]kendallgriffiths@cox.net[/font][font="times new roman"] (wrote the MWiF Vassal module - bet he never expected it would pay off by getting in invite to the beta test and a free copy of MWiF)[/font]
[font=arial][/font] 
[font=arial]A few additional testers were accepted from other WiF environments.[/font]
[font=arial]Thanks to all those that applied. [/font]
[font=arial]Wish we could have you all[/font]

[Davidt]

[font="times new roman"]Just had to comment on [/font]
[font="times new roman"]" Glen Felzien - [/font][font="times new roman"]gfelz@telusplanet.net[/font][font="times new roman"]  (he was the first to respond) "[/font]
[font="times new roman"][/font] 
[font="times new roman"]So close............... but yet so far away [;)] [/font]
[font="times new roman"][/font] 
[font="times new roman"]Good luck to the new beta testers, and throw us some scraps when your able [:'(][/font]
[font="times new roman"][/font] 
[font="times new roman"]Best Regards[/font]
[font="times new roman"]David[/font]

[winky51]

Ive been reading some of the posts but not posting much myself. I really feel the success of this game is going to be based on the playability of the game. If the game is too hard to handle it will not do well. I design websites for marketing purposes and have a keen eye and feel for how to make things user friendly.

I would love to take a crack at computer WIF. Test out the features and how it plays.

I already thought of some suggestions for the map. I'm sure I am way behind here. I have not seen screen shots of the map in play though.

1. hover over a hex and see a popup of what units are stacked there in a bubble or maybe a side window. Perhapes show factors for appropriate combat type like air to sea in a naval box.
2. At the closest zoom level have a mini map of the whole board with at least color to represent pieces.
3. At a medium (40 hex width view) level have the mini whole board map and have a magnifiying glass section that shows a 19 hex section (5x5) magnified view of the board in the lower left corner lets say.
4. At the whole map view have a magnifying glass view of maybe 5x5 to 8x8 somewhere on the screen
5. Color code planes, ships and land units.
6. BIG easy to click and read buttons like WAW
7. Make going through a stack easy, perhaps right clicking shifts the units around so the rotate top to bottom.
8. I believe you already made the game internet playable in REAL TIME.
9. When selecting a unit darken all hexes it cant enter (like you have on WAW) also for sea zones darken all search boxes except those units (air, naval) can enter
10. highlight a hex when the cursor is hovering over it.
11. Allow players to remove or add features to map, resources, factories, partisan #, City names, units, so on.

I just dont want WIF to have the playability of War in the Pacific that
man I hated those tiny buttons. I spent more time aligning my mouse and finding buttons that playing the damn game.

[stretch]

ORIGINAL: winky51


I just dont want WIF to have the playability of War in the Pacific that
man I hated those tiny buttons. I spent more time aligning my mouse and finding buttons that playing the damn game.

I'm going to let others address the other points... but I was an avid WitP player when it came out and as a WiF beta tester I can assure you that this game feels totally different from the "click the small buttons all over the place" method of WitP (not that it really bugged me).

plus it doesn't crash to desktop every 10th time you exit the save game screen.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: winky51

Ive been reading some of the posts but not posting much myself. I really feel the success of this game is going to be based on the playability of the game. If the game is too hard to handle it will not do well. I design websites for marketing purposes and have a keen eye and feel for how to make things user friendly.

I would love to take a crack at computer WIF. Test out the features and how it plays.

I already thought of some suggestions for the map. I'm sure I am way behind here. I have not seen screen shots of the map in play though.

1. hover over a hex and see a popup of what units are stacked there in a bubble or maybe a side window. Perhapes show factors for appropriate combat type like air to sea in a naval box.
2. At the closest zoom level have a mini map of the whole board with at least color to represent pieces.
3. At a medium (40 hex width view) level have the mini whole board map and have a magnifiying glass section that shows a 19 hex section (5x5) magnified view of the board in the lower left corner lets say.
4. At the whole map view have a magnifying glass view of maybe 5x5 to 8x8 somewhere on the screen
5. Color code planes, ships and land units.
6. BIG easy to click and read buttons like WAW
7. Make going through a stack easy, perhaps right clicking shifts the units around so the rotate top to bottom.
8. I believe you already made the game internet playable in REAL TIME.
9. When selecting a unit darken all hexes it cant enter (like you have on WAW) also for sea zones darken all search boxes except those units (air, naval) can enter
10. highlight a hex when the cursor is hovering over it.
11. Allow players to remove or add features to map, resources, factories, partisan #, City names, units, so on.

I just dont want WIF to have the playability of War in the Pacific that
man I hated those tiny buttons. I spent more time aligning my mouse and finding buttons that playing the damn game.

Done already: 1, 2, 6, 7, 11
Will be included: 8, 9

With 8 levels of zoom and 3 resolution depictions for the units I believe 3 and 4 are not needed.

The units are quite distinct based on bitmap graphics, and there are a wide range of colors in use already. This makes 5 moot (there are 69 different unit types the last time I counted).

I don't feel 10 is important since if you can't tell which hex the cursor is in, then the hex is so small (zoom level 1) that highlighting it won't have any effect.

---

The 4th tutorial (on land units) has some graphics of Germans vs Russians, but they were intentionally done to only show land units.

[winky51]

Excellent I already like this programmer.  10 was the least important anyways.
 
8 zoom levels and 3 resolutions: Very nice that will give everyone the level of view they feel comfortable with.
 
I play (played since I moved to NC) in a group down in Fort Lauderdale Florida: Glenn B. and Lane B.  We discussed the up and coming PC game and you guys seem to have all the based covered for our concern.  Of course Lane wanted the capability of having an LCD screen the width of the actual map.  He's a picky SOB.
 
The internet play I feel will make a huge difference in the game.  without it I don't think I would even consider buying it for PBEM. 
 
Maybe this question is a little late but will there be an option to play with or without other maps?  aisa, africa, america?  DO you have an option for just off map boxes?
 
I also assume the computer will calculate convoy routes.  Perhaps a feature that highlights resources that are NOT being transported?  Like just make it stand out in RED if the correct map option is taken.  Figuring out resources in WIF can be tedious at times.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: winky51
Excellent I already like this programmer.  10 was the least important anyways.

8 zoom levels and 3 resolutions: Very nice that will give everyone the level of view they feel comfortable with.

I play (played since I moved to NC) in a group down in Fort Lauderdale Florida: Glenn B. and Lane B.  We discussed the up and coming PC game and you guys seem to have all the based covered for our concern.  Of course Lane wanted the capability of having an LCD screen the width of the actual map.  He's a picky SOB.

The internet play I feel will make a huge difference in the game.  without it I don't think I would even consider buying it for PBEM. 

Maybe this question is a little late but will there be an option to play with or without other maps?  aisa, africa, america?  DO you have an option for just off map boxes?

I also assume the computer will calculate convoy routes.  Perhaps a feature that highlights resources that are NOT being transported?  Like just make it stand out in RED if the correct map option is taken.  Figuring out resources in WIF can be tedious at times.

There is one world map that uses the WIF European scale - it is 360 wide by 195 high for 70,000 hexes total. There is a thread in the forum (somewhere) that discusses the map a lot. The revision of China took a long time and had dozens of forum members contributing - that has its own thread too (somewhere).

Try reading through the tutorial threads (Tutorials, #2, #3, #4, #5) and the Directory at the top of the forum for a retrospectif of MWIF.

[Snydly]

I have been lurking here for almost a year as a guest ... and I have watched progress regularly
 
I would love to help you with the testing ... I have an engineering /computer programming background ... although my current job does not use those skills much at all.
 
I am a methodical person and I like to test and break things related to code.
 
Let me know
 

[Greyshaft]

ORIGINAL: Snydly
I have been lurking here for almost a year as a guest ... and I have watched progress regularly
I would love to help you with the testing ... I have an engineering /computer programming background ... although my current job does not use those skills much at all.
I am a methodical person and I like to test and break things related to code.

Let me know

I would get at least one email, PM, post in this Forum etc per fortnight from people wanting to be in the beta test team. It is a noble ambition and I don't doubt that all of the volunteers would add a lot more valuable test hours to the program. Unfortunately, there is a limit on how many people we can effectively administer in the team and so it is limited to c. 20 people.

We've just added some new testers so there are no current vacancies. When there are new vacancies you'll read about it on this Forum first. Your best chance to be selected is to log in here regularly and post thoughtful comments.