AE Download Question

[LargeSlowTarget]

OT, but...

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

[...]AE is just immense. It was built to withstand the direct impact and fallout of the WITP forum's constant nitpicking (although there will be plenty of that regardless).

You think WITP makes your brain hurt? Wait till you try to dock and unload too many ships in a port that is rated too small to handle a fraction of them. You'll be pulling your hair out plenty trying to get your ships unloaded before KB comes calling. And just when you think you've got KB ready to quash the American carriers only to find out your TF has run out of torpedoes to equip your strike planes with...you'll be cursing. But that is all the reality of war in a SIMULATION designed to reproduce realistic results.

OMG - what have we done? We should have listen to the old proverb "Be careful what you wish for - you may get it!" [:D]

But we're also talking about a very, VERY, wee, little, niche of gamers in relative terms.

The few, the proud... [;)]

[byron13]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: byron13
Am I correct that purchasing and installing AE is nothing more than (i) buying AE on-line and downloading and (ii) when installing, the loader will check to see if I have WitP already loaded? Am I correct that the only bad thing that will happen by not having my secret agent ID log-in info is that I won't be able to download the manual in advance?

That's correct. As long as you have WITP installed, you're all set.

Contact our Help Desk at www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk for assistance with your account.

Regards,

- Erik

Thanks for such a quick response on a Sunday. I guess your monitoring the sh**storm on the forum. It'll be a tough couple of weeks for you all but, once released and everyone starts gushing about the game, it'll all be over. Until, of course, people start nitting about the art on the Queen Mary showing too few lifeboats. All a way of saying that the stuff now is just a tempest in a teapot or, as my company commander used to say, these folks are pole-vaulting mouse turds.

[byron13]

ORIGINAL: LargeSlowTarget

OT, but...

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

[...]AE is just immense. It was built to withstand the direct impact and fallout of the WITP forum's constant nitpicking (although there will be plenty of that regardless).

You think WITP makes your brain hurt? Wait till you try to dock and unload too many ships in a port that is rated too small to handle a fraction of them. You'll be pulling your hair out plenty trying to get your ships unloaded before KB comes calling. And just when you think you've got KB ready to quash the American carriers only to find out your TF has run out of torpedoes to equip your strike planes with...you'll be cursing. But that is all the reality of war in a SIMULATION designed to reproduce realistic results.

OMG - what have we done? We should have listen to the old proverb "Be careful what you wish for - you may get it!" [:D]

But we're also talking about a very, VERY, wee, little, niche of gamers in relative terms.

The few, the proud... [;)]

Would you have it any other way? For the true grognard, the bigger and more complex the better. Anyone here play Campaign for North Africa where gasoline evaporated and the Italian Pasta Rule required the Italalian forces be supplied with extra water to cook their pasta? And this was tracked on paper - not a PC. Now that's my kinda game. i'm just waiting on the expansion for WitP that will add the rest of the world, making it the first game to cover WWII on a global scale at this level of detail. Ground combat's going to have to be re-worked a little bit as are some other things, but . . .

[Shark7]

I'm probably going for the physical + download myself. I won't have any problem downloading, but I do like having the game burned on disk in case anything happens that causes me to lose a HD etc. It's easier to have the disk to reload than having to DL it again. Plus you get a nice color manual in hands as a bonus.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Shark7

I'm probably going for the physical + download myself. I won't have any problem downloading, but I do like having the game burned on disk in case anything happens that causes me to lose a HD etc. It's easier to have the disk to reload than having to DL it again. Plus you get a nice color manual in hands as a bonus.

Physical + DL is my favorite method as well for the same reasons you state.

[kirk23_MatrixForum]

Finally, it is to our benefit to have both WITP and AE on the market. First, while we love AE and believe it will do well, there is always risk. Taking WITP off the market, with its smaller scale and greater initial accessibility as well as increased scenario selection didn't make a lot of sense to us. Pricing AE at $100 or more stand-alone in this economy also seemed likely to provoke a knee jerk reaction (at this point, I think frankly we were going to take heat whatever we did). More importantly, WITP and AE both fund ongoing development - WITP primarily is a help to funding 2by3 and AE primarily will help fund ongoing development of the WITP series.

Hi Erik,
Regarding the WITP series mentioned above,is it to early to give us a clue on what future releases are planned. Coming from Britain as I do, I would love to see an Atlantic European version or even a holly grail version covering the whole world,massive or what. Britain,Germany,Italian,Russian etc conflict covered as an official release and not just us gamers modding. I have only been buying Matrix games since 2008 and I personaly can't get enough of them,I just love anything tactical that makes me use my old grey matter.

My personal interest is in the period from Napoleonic - present day.

[John Lansford]

Does the mentioned price cover both the download and the physical copy?  Or is that option a higher price?

[jhdeerslayer]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: byron13
Am I correct that purchasing and installing AE is nothing more than (i) buying AE on-line and downloading and (ii) when installing, the loader will check to see if I have WitP already loaded? Am I correct that the only bad thing that will happen by not having my secret agent ID log-in info is that I won't be able to download the manual in advance?

That's correct. As long as you have WITP installed, you're all set.

Contact our Help Desk at www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk for assistance with your account.

Regards,

- Erik

Maybe a silly question but can WITP be uninstalled after AE is installed? Just trying to minimize HD space if WITP is truly not needed after AE install.

[Flying Tiger]

Maybe a silly question but can WITP be uninstalled after AE is installed? Just trying to minimize HD space if WITP is truly not needed after AE install.

good question. I for one cannot see myself playing stock when i know AE is sitting right there on my HD. To be honest i've hardly played stock ever since the original AE announcement - thus the severe withdrawal symptoms!

[Erik Rutins]

At present, it requires that WITP remain installed.

Regarding future releases, guys that's totally up in the air. All I can say is that we want to do it and if AE does well that will significantly increase the probability of it happening. Right now our focus is releasing AE and after its release, supporting it and making sure you are all happy with it.

Regards,

- Erik

[Durbik]

Read this whole thread for the first time, and I can see:

Sorry, Mr. We Get It Cheaper Here in Our Former Communist Sh1thole Because We Don't Care if Matrix Goes Tits Up.

Shithole you say? That's rather... funny, from the guy who is using a nick made out of a polish surname. Funny you can't use the "N" word in the US, and you can call country a sh*thole and be happy about it!

FIY: nobody here in Poland is happy that Nicholas Games isn't a reliable partner. This is what courts are for. But we bought the game with a benign will, and as long as it's not consider illegal to have a copy distributed by NG, we should be in the same position regarding getting our copy of AE, or product support. And we are! Matrix Games is fair here.

[jjax]

ORIGINAL: Durbik

Read this whole thread for the first time, and I can see:

Sorry, Mr. We Get It Cheaper Here in Our Former Communist Sh1thole Because We Don't Care if Matrix Goes Tits Up.

Shithole you say? That's rather... funny, from the guy who is using a nick made out of a polish surname. Funny you can't use the "N" word in the US, and you can call country a sh*thole and be happy about it!

FIY: nobody here in Poland is happy that Nicholas Games isn't a reliable partner. This is what courts are for. But we bought the game with a benign will, and as long as it's not consider illegal to have a copy distributed by NG, we should be in the same position regarding getting our copy of AE, or product support. And we are! Matrix Games is fair here.

If you read the whole thread then you know that this issue has been delt with. You are now just fanning the flames.

[Durbik]

I did. It just made me very angry, causing a reaction. But you're probably right, sorry.

[emorbius44]

I have had WitP for 5 years now. I have NO personal gain what so ever from AE needing or not needing WitP. But hearing that AE in no technical way needs WitP in order to run but that it is required in order for it to run sounds like a complete and total money grab.

I don't think many people (even here) appreciate just how much work goes into these games or how much of a gamble they can be financially. I can't speak for Matrix or the development of AE but I did do a year of playtest on the original Pacwar (or WITP as it was called then) from before the playtesting got started until it was finished. I got to know Dave Landrey (head of playtest) pretty well and Grigby somewhat well and during a geat deal of the development it was touch and go as to whether it would ever see the light of day. Grigsby was under a lot of pressure to dump the game from SSI, the game was taking WAY longer to develop then it was supposed to (I once asked Grigsby if he had to do it all over again would he and the answer "NO" came back in about 1 millisecond. Obviously he had a change of heart or a short memory . ) , and as Landrey pointed out Grigsby could have done three games in the time it took to do Pacwar. Given the amount of time they have put into this and the amount of time I get out of playing these games (and this one in particular) I don't have a problem with their financial plans. I've seen computer wargaming come close to the brink of extinction on several occasions and, let's face it, most of the people who will buy this game already have WITP and won't have to guy both copies. From everything I've seen and read here AE is a major upgrade and worth the price and distinction of being a stand-alone game. I've seen many sequels come down the pike that didn't have 10% of the amount of change or improvement that this game will have (Earl Weaver II comes to mind if anyone goes back that far, a classic EA ripoff.) When one considers that wargames were priced $40-$60 back in 1983 when I started playing them on my Atari (Carrier force was my first) AE is the encyclopedia Brittanica in size and scope compared to a present day copy of Newsweek Magazine (maybe we shouldn't call it a magazine anymore but more like a Newsweek News Letter.) Back in those days games could be knocked out by one to three people and these guys could put out three games a year (not having many more people work to put out one game in three years as can happen today) Any way you slice it the game is worth the price they are asking.

Bob