A couple suggestions for improvement

[Berkut]

Nothing gameplay related here, just logistical things:

1. I play this game PBEM almost exclusively. That means I open and close the game A LOT. It is very annoying that each time I get a turn and want to play it, I have to start the game, hit escape three times, select Load Game, hit the check mark to show PBEM games, then load the game I want. It would be really great if there was a way to start the game that would take me straight to the load PBEM game screen, and skip over all the stuff before that.

2. You guys have got to get rid of the bit that tries to sneak in the download service whether you ask for it or not when you order the game. It is unethical, annoying, and I know three people who won't order a Matrix product because they got pissed off trying to make it go away. Seriously, if people want the service, they will select it. Whatever incremental profit you make by tricking a few people into paying for something they do not want isn't worth it.

3. It would be nice if activate leaders appeared on the map differently some how, so you could see what areas have leaders that can engage in an attack in.

Still working my way through my first PBEM game. Great potential here, IMO.

[Joel Billings]

Number 3 is on our list for the first patch. Number 2 is something for Matrix (I don't even know what your talking about). As for number 1, I suggest you either rename the video folder in the /dat directory (of course this will keep you from being able to acces the tutorial videos) or just rename or get rid of the three intro movies from the /dat/video folder so you don't have to hit Esc three times.

[Crimguy]

Can't really address #1 b/c I haven't tried a pbem.  I've basically kept the game running nonstop for the past day or so.  Has a pretty small memory footprint for a game.  Can't just keep it running?

2) I'm only going to say that Matrix has in my opinion the best, least obtrusive download service I've come across.  You get a copy of the game, you can store it on any media you like, install it repeatedly without having to contact the mothership.  I also thought the extra couple dollars was worth it so that, if I do have some kind of loss on my system, I can get it back from findmyorder.com.

I am a little disappointed it costs money now.  I can still get WitP 4 years later.

3) I assume you mean leaders with initiative.  I agree completely.  I'd like a hotkey that shows regions with leaders that have initiative.

[Berkut]

Crim, I am not arguing the utility of the download protection, although I agree it ought to be free, just the ethics of adding to to peoples cart without them asking for it. That just isn't cool - if I want to buy something, I will buy it. Don't slip it into my cart for me.

Could you imagine that at a real store? Some manager just casually tosses some item into your cart before you check out? Sure, you can remove it, but if you don't notice...

And no, I don't want to keep the game running all the time - although I like the idea of renaming the video folder, that is cool.

Ideally, 2by3 could steal some ideas from SSG for implementing PBEM functionality...

[GShock]

Ah i understand the point but it's not from 2by3 or from any other DEV...it's about the publishers so this is stuff for Erik [;)]  (I agree with you of course)

[Berkut]

Good point - this isn't really about this game per se, it just came up in regards to this one.

[Vorsteher]

Number 3 is on our list for the first patch. Number 2 is something for Matrix (I don't even know what your talking about). As for number 1, I suggest you either rename the video folder in the /dat directory (of course this will keep you from being able to acces the tutorial videos) or just rename or get rid of the three intro movies from the /dat/video folder so you don't have to hit Esc three times.

And number 4 is the game editor ? [&o]

V.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Berkut
2. You guys have got to get rid of the bit that tries to sneak in the download service whether you ask for it or not when you order the game. It is unethical, annoying, and I know three people who won't order a Matrix product because they got pissed off trying to make it go away. Seriously, if people want the service, they will select it. Whatever incremental profit you make by tricking a few people into paying for something they do not want isn't worth it.

We originally offered this free, but due to increasing costs that could not continue. However, frankly more customers were upset if it was not offered by default and they found out two years later they could not re-download their game, but could have if they'd known to add some extra widget to their cart.

It's clearly presented before checkout. All you need is a single click to remove it and we offer it because the vast majority of our customers have shown in the past that they prefer to have it in by default rather than have to hunt for it.

Finally, we make extremely little money from that. The vast, vast majority goes straight to Digital River to cover their costs.

I'm sorry this bothers you so much, but based on past experience we'd get a lot more complaints after the fact if we removed it.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Crimguy
I am a little disappointed it costs money now.  I can still get WitP 4 years later.

When we had to start charging for it (we really had no choice in this, it was either start offering it for a small fee or remove it alltogether) we made sure that all past customers/purchases remained "grandfathered in" under our old system.

Regards,

- Erik

[GShock]

I'm happy i never had such a problem but it is indeed a difficult choice for the publishers and u can only understand it if you get there in their shoes and have to tell NO to the guy who comes after 2 years and says Hey i lost my cd-key.

Probably, by making it so that the user has to deselect the option, it becomes evident if that happens it is because the user chose to and not because of Matrix games. Still...i don't understand, i generally burn the games along with the keys...i have dozens of PCs at hand and each has a dozen copies of all serials (it's the same file and the only place i haven't this file is on the cell phone lol). See...my HP had to be reformatted and all the serials were on one of the laptops [:D]

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: GShock
Probably, by making it so that the user has to deselect the option, it becomes evident if that happens it is because the user chose to and not because of Matrix games. Still...i don't understand, i generally burn the games along with the keys...i have dozens of PCs at hand and each has a dozen copies of all serials (it's the same file and the only place i haven't this file is on the cell phone lol). See...my HP had to be reformatted and all the serials were on one of the laptops [:D]

That's what I do too - I would de-select it personally, but it was pretty clear based on feedback when we tried it otherwise that the current option is actually the best one for the majority of our customers.

Regards,

- Erik

[Crimguy]

ORIGINAL: Berkut

just the ethics of adding to to peoples cart without them asking for it. That just isn't cool - if I want to buy something, I will buy it. Don't slip it into my cart for me.

They did that? Hmmm, maybe they'll attach a copy of Safari for Windows next time too [:D] I agree it shouldn't be on by default. Misunderstood you.

[Berkut]

So you are seriously trying to convince me that most of your customers WANT you to put things in their cart without asking? [:D]

OK then....

[dthornburg]

1) It would be cool if there was a way to set up your newly arrived units to auto-move to a specified area. A TC for example for militia units in their theater.

2) How about a way to completely get rid of just the opposition's cavalry raid warnings and misc turn reports.

3) Only show the cavalry combat options pop-up when you click on the combat icon on the screen, not just on mouse-over.

4) When you have a stack of like units that have different current movement values when you select the stack to move it it would be nice to have the computer auto-select the units that have the required movement points available to make the movement desired. I probably didn't do a good job explaining that one but it's a pain to search through a stack of units to find the one that you hadn't moved yet. I see this a lot when moving a CS into a sea area that already has a non-moved CS that I want to then move further down the coast.

[Javakamp]

Great game guys.

One suggustion I have is that you add an estimate of Blockade effectivness to the mouseover popup of sea areas. This would make it easier to spot areas that could use more ships.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Berkut
So you are seriously trying to convince me that most of your customers WANT you to put things in their cart without asking? [:D]
OK then....

What I'm saying is that most of our customer want to be able to re-download the game whenever they want. When we started having to charge for that and didn't include it in the cart by default, we got a lot more complaints than by putting it in and letting people take it out.

[rjh1971]

ORIGINAL: Javakamp

Great game guys.

One suggustion I have is that you add an estimate of Blockade effectivness to the mouseover popup of sea areas. This would make it easier to spot areas that could use more ships.

You can always press the e key and watch the report on the blockade percentage from the last turn, that gives you an idea on how well you're doing.

[Berkut]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Berkut
So you are seriously trying to convince me that most of your customers WANT you to put things in their cart without asking? [:D]
OK then....

What I'm saying is that most of our customer want to be able to re-download the game whenever they want.

Yeah, I don't doubt that, and that is really what this is about, I suspect. I still think placing things in people carts without their permission is unethical. I could not iamgine someone sitting in the checkout line at the grocery store dropping items in my cart and saying "Hey, we get complaints when we don't put things in people carts without asking them! Seriously!"

If you really think that people need to be aware that the $50 game they just bought won't be available to them to download in the future, just have something show up saying so, and pointing out the option of paying for the right to download the game they just bought. it is a subtle, but important difference, IMO.

[PyleDriver]

Hey guys, I'm sure this was a simple mistake. Matrix is a company that prides itself on good service. Any mishap is quickly taken care of...

[8D]
Jon

[Erik Rutins]

Berkut,

ORIGINAL: Berkut
Yeah, I don't doubt that, and that is really what this is about, I suspect. I still think placing things in people carts without their permission is unethical. I could not iamgine someone sitting in the checkout line at the grocery store dropping items in my cart and saying "Hey, we get complaints when we don't put things in people carts without asking them! Seriously!"

If you really think that people need to be aware that the $50 game they just bought won't be available to them to download in the future, just have something show up saying so, and pointing out the option of paying for the right to download the game they just bought. it is a subtle, but important difference, IMO.

We already tried it the other way, that was our first instinct of how to do it as well. We got a LOT of complaints (I'm not kidding) after the fact. There is nothing unethical about doing this when its clearly listed before checkout and a button is provided to remove it. Anything short of including it by default will probably lead to the same complaints we had before. We can agree to disagree on this, but if you want to continue the discussion please feel free to e-mail me at erikr@matrixgames.com.

Regards,

- Erik