OT-Frank- How is your Russian Civil War game coming along?

[Hanal]

I know you have been busy with Guns of August fixes and we are all grateful for your continuing efforts for such a fine game. I would like to digress for a minute because you had mentioned in an earlier thread that you were working on a Russian Civil War game... since my RCW mod for SC2 basically bombed (AI turns took too long), I am eager to play a game about the RCW from someone who knows what the hell he is doing. So, can you shed any light on this subject? Is there any chance of an '09 release or is it way too soon to know?....thanks

[FrankHunter]

The thing is I don't have a game where I know it'll be the next one. Instead I have a bunch of games I research and work on, going back and forth, and when one gets to the point its close then I work on it full-time. The closest game I have to being done is a Napoleonic game like Campaigns on the Danube although its not the one I'm working on right now because I'm waiting for a couple of books to arrive before I can finish the OBs. I'll have more info on RCW when the design is pretty much written in stone but at the moment I'm still trying different ideas and at the moment I don't think it'll stand as a full package on its own.

[Hanal]

Frank, have you considered making an expansion module using Guns of August as the gaming engine? I think anyone who bought GoA will find an RCW mod interesting enough to shell out the extra cash, and it might attract a fair number of new players to GoA to get their hands on an RCW expansion game. Perhaps I'm biased, because I have read a great deal about the Russian Civil War and find it one of the most facinating periods of history. And though my SC2 mod turned out to be a beast and therefore unplayable (unless you are a masochist) I felt that it had the elements to be an exciting gaming experience...if it was done right that is...[:)]

[lordhoff]

Seems like as good a place as any to ask you (Frank) this:

Where did you get the machine gun sound effects? Most use the faster firing WW II or later firings and your's sound authentically WW I with their slower fire rate. That was prior to sound recordings for the most part - perhaps you ventured to the USA and got a collector to fire some rounds that you recorded (or you acquired them from someone who did)?

[FrankHunter]

lordhoff, actually Matrix found that, not sure where they got it.

[FrankHunter]

JP Falcon, yep, I have considered an expansion. Since its a favourite period of yours perhaps I could bounce ideas off you when I get back to working on the RCW?

[Hanal]

Frank, I would always be willing to help, even if it  only meant to simply provide you with a bibliography of some of the books I used when I created my mod, some of which I would gladly let you borrow via post as some of them might be out of print or hard to find..... just to give you an idea of the direction I took with my SC2 mod, I have provided a link to the readme doc that I had included with the download file (I'm JP Wagner over at SC2). It is brief so perhaps someday you might want to read it at your leisure. I'm not sure every idea I had was a good one and it might have contributed to the unweildy AI turns but there might be a nugget here and there that might be of interest to your game design.
 
http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=83670
 
I hope I am not violating some protocol here by posting the link, my apologies if I overstepped my bounds.....

[FrankHunter]

Thanks JP, I'm going to go read that right now.