ORIGINAL: morleron1
I have to agree. TOAW3 is still my favorite wargame, as it has been since its original release all those years ago by Talonsoft. That said there are some changes that would make it a better game. Here's my list of things that I would like to see changed listed in order of importance, from most to least:
- allow actual chain of command formation construction/management. It would be great within FiTE, for instance, to be able to call up the actual organization of Army Group Center and see how the supply/command chain is structured. It's ridiculous to have Corps HQs running around with no real function other than to help out with the chain of supply. It would be really nice to be able to attach/detach sub-units during the game to respond to changes in the tactical/strategic situation. This would require some re-working of how supply is handled, but shouldn't be too bad. Adding in higher unit commander/staff performance would be icing on the cake.
Creating a UI to handle it from scratch is the issue. It's being looked at for the next version.
- fix the air system to allow for different levels of effort for the different types of missions. This is modeled a bit with the loss tolerance system, but what I have in mind is more detailed in that a player would be able to decide to interdict specific points, if desired, along with deciding what sort of operational tempo should be maintained, which would have an impact on supply consumption/readiness. For instance, an air unit could be set to interdict all hexes within X of a certain location maintaining a minimum of Y planes in the air over the target at all times.
We may do a little with this in the upcoming patch, and more for the next version.
- fix the naval system to allow for interceptions, etc. As it stands right now the navy is not handled well, as I think everyone agrees. A modification of the air system would probably be an appropriate way to handle this.
We may do a little with this in the upcoming patch, and more for the next version.
- improve the AI to allow for a wider range of programmable options and events. I think the overall concept of the PO is very good, it just needs some work to take care of a few rough edges. Given the advances that have been made in game AI I suspect there are some things that could be adapted to TOAW particularly in the area of overall situational awareness. One thing that I've always liked about TOAW's AI is that, while it may not be the best at least it doesn't rely on cheating in order to win. A large portion of it's guts are open to inspection and modification by the gamer if so desired. Also, add a screen that would graphically display the chain of events/actions in a scenario. As it is now, it's very difficult to get a picture of how events interact in a large scenario with a lot of events.
There are some tools like ODD that should help some. In addition, I'm allowing exporting/exporting the entire scenario as XML in the next patch, and hopefully that will help stimulate some better tools. For the next version, I want to look into adding in a full scripting engine, that would allow the most flexibility. There are a lot of things that can be done with Elmer to allow him to better understand the situation. Many of these can also be overlaid on the maps to assist the player too.
- allow unused defensive works to deteriorate over time. With something such as FiTE it's ridiculous to be able to immediately reuse improved positions that may not have seen use for literally years.
Interesting idea, is it in the master wish list in the scenario design section?
- allow for infinite variability on the map zoom function. This is particularly needed for large scenarios on big maps.
We're looking at that for the next full version. I'll probably use a full 3D engine so that it will take advantage of the video card to allow for smooth zooming.
- allow for resizing/moving of information windows along with letting more than one at a time to be open.
We're looking at that for the next full version. Movable, dockable, tabbed windows should be possible.
- add unit readiness/supply information to the air unit mission assignment screen (the one which appears when one presses "a"). It's a major pain having to go from that screen to the map simply to check unit status for every unit. This is particularly true in scenarios such as FiTE which have a lot of air units.
I'll see what I can do. I may be able to add something easily to the info prompt line.
- I second the earlier suggestion that selecting a unit to be withdrawn on the Anticipated Reinforcements/Withdrawals screen takes one to the on-map position of the unit. I've been caught out a couple of times because I missed a sub-unit of a formation that was being withdrawn in a turn or two and left it in the line.
I'll see if that's practical.
- allow for a variable unit production system in long-running scenarios such as FiTE and others which cover significant periods of time. This would be a nice feature to have in that it would allow players to tailor their armaments production to battlefield needs. I know this is an area which could be an entire game by itself, but some sort of variability would be useful.
Next version, probably the version after. Next version may just add some events and allow tactical options to help instead. A full one is complicated.
- allow the game to take advantage of the higher screen resolutions that are available today.
It should, it definitely does under XP. There was a bug in the Vista video drivers that were giving back the wrong values. It's fixed in the next patch.
On the whole I think that TOAW does a very good job of allowing gamers to play games in a wide range of scales, time frames, and periods. To me that's always been its biggest attraction: it's literally hundreds of games in one. It is difficult to master and doing so will not be done by playing only a few games. It rewards study and those who are willing to take the time to actually read the manual and then experiment with the game will find that it is incredibly deep and, to my way of thinking, does a better job of simulating war than the vast majority of the glitzy 3D "eye candy" games that advertise themselves was real-time simulations, when they are nothing of the kind. Perhaps I'm dating myself, but I think that, for those of us who grew up pushing cardboard counters around, TOAW is a great game: one which emphasizes a player's ability to think about and analyze a situation, not a test of reaction times. It is, after all, a game about the operational level of warfare.
I agree, one thing it needs, though, is to make it more 'discoverable.' It shouldn't be necessary to read the manual several times once I get the UI updated.
As a last item. If TOAW is abandoned as a title under active development, whether patches or actual updates, it would be wonderful if Matrix would release the code under the GNU GPL Open Source license. That way, those of us who still play the game and would like to push it further would have the opportunity to do so at no cost to Matrix.
I've actually been working 20+ hours/week on it for the past several months. The rest of the team has probably been working even more than that. The new supply system turned out to be a lot more complicaed to program than I thought it would be.
Anyway, that's my $.02.
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And a nice email, thanks.
