Safe to Finally Play this Epic Game?

[jcorbin]

Folks,

I was one of the first people who purchased the full version of this game with the beautiful manuals. I waited literally 2 years after hearing all of the horror stories about show stoppers, etc. Simple question: Two years later, is it finally "safe" to play this epic game with the latest 2.1 patch? And please no BS. Just give it to me straight. I would love to get started.

JC

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: jcorbin

Folks,

I was one of the first people who purchased the full version of this game with the beautiful manuals. I waited literally 2 years after hearing all of the horror stories about show stoppers, etc. Simple question: Two years later, is it finally "safe" to play this epic game with the latest 2.1 patch? And please no BS. Just give it to me straight. I would love to get started.

JC

I'm not sure what you mean by "safe". I don't believe this game will cause you any "harm" except for the loss of sleep.

Now if you're asking if this game is stable then that would depend on the mode you wish to play. I'd say that solitaire is very stable and this mode can be used to play solitary (obviously) or against another opponent as demonstrated by a number of on-going AARs.

Now if you're asking if this game is true to rules of WiF to the Nth degree then I'm not qualified to answer as I've never played or owned WiF.

My opinion is if you wish to play solitaire then go ahead and play as you already have the game.

For me this game has been giving me endless hours of fun since I bought it over 18-months ago. However, I play solitary and I'm not burdened with knowing anything about WiF prior to purchasing MWiF.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

ORIGINAL: jcorbin

Folks,

I was one of the first people who purchased the full version of this game with the beautiful manuals. I waited literally 2 years after hearing all of the horror stories about show stoppers, etc. Simple question: Two years later, is it finally "safe" to play this epic game with the latest 2.1 patch? And please no BS. Just give it to me straight. I would love to get started.

JC

I'm not sure what you mean by "safe". I don't believe this game will cause you any "harm" except for the loss of sleep.

Now if you're asking if this game is stable then that would depend on the mode you wish to play. I'd say that solitaire is very stable and this mode can be used to play solitary (obviously) or against another opponent as demonstrated by a number of on-going AARs.

Now if you're asking if this game is true to rules of WiF to the Nth degree then I'm not qualified to answer as I've never played or owned WiF.

My opinion is if you wish to play solitaire then go ahead and play as you already have the game.

For me this game has been giving me endless hours of fun since I bought it over 18-months ago. However, I play solitary and I'm not burdened with knowing anything about WiF prior to purchasing MWiF.

warspite1

+1 No one is going to 'BS' you. Just let us know what is important to you e.g. solitaire or netplay/PBEM and whether you are new to the boardgame or not and we can tell you where the game is and what to expect.

[paulderynck]

Is it safe?

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

Is it safe?

"The Marathon Man", with Dustin Hoffman.

I pretty sure I'm right. Am I?

Of course the "dentist" in the cap isn't Dustin Hoffman but he was the main star (if I'm right).

[Jagdtiger14]

Hey! What's my dentist doing in this pic?

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: rkr1958

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

Is it safe?

"The Marathon Man", with Dustin Hoffman.

I pretty sure I'm right. Am I?

Of course the "dentist" in the cap isn't Dustin Hoffman but he was the main star (if I'm right).

warspite1

'The "dentist" in the cap?' You mean one of the finest actors of that or any age? ........ wow.....

[paulderynck]

Yup, the scene from The Marathon Man where Laurence Olivier tortures Dustin Hoffman, while repeatedly asking him: "Is it safe?"

It's amazing that only two years after that terrifyingly malevolent performance, Olivier gets horribly miscast as the good guy in The Boys From Brazil opposite Gregory Peck as the bad guy. WTF?

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

Yup, the scene from The Marathon Man where Laurence Olivier tortures Dustin Hoffman, while repeatedly asking him: "Is it safe?"

It's amazing that only two years after that terrifyingly malevolent performance, Olivier gets horribly miscast as the good guy in The Boys From Brazil opposite Gregory Peck as the bad guy. WTF?

warspite1

WTF indeed.....

[bo]

ORIGINAL: Jagdtiger14

Hey! What's my dentist doing in this pic?

Well Jagd when you signed up for Obamacare this is the typical care you get [:@]

Shame on you [:(]

Bo

[Centuur]

In Europe we believe that Obamacare was long overdue in the States. You call yourself a "civilized" country, but if someone gets a medical situation which costs a long time to heal, you used to throw away the insurance of the patient. I consider that to be an affront to civilized society.

Now, that isn't possible anymore and that's a very good thing...

[Shannon V. OKeets]

No politics, please.

[CrusssDaddy]

Haha Bo comes out of the woodwork to drop an ObamaCare cherry bomb! Bo, just make sure you brush your teeth after eating all your Halloween candy then you won't need to see the dentist.

[jcorbin]

By "safe" (great pic and movie, BTW), I think most can read between the lines:

Am I going to get dozens and dozens of hours into this only to have it crash and burn when I go to proceed to the next (Axis or Allied) turn?

And yes, I have very limited experience playing the original board game years ago, so no built-in expectations there. Also love playing either solitaire or hot seat; could really care less about lack of AI.

Just looking for a terrific WW2 game I can play a full campaign through.

[gw15]

You will have great fun!

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: jcorbin

By "safe" (great pic and movie, BTW), I think most can read between the lines:

Am I going to get dozens and dozens of hours into this only to have it crash and burn when I go to proceed to the next (Axis or Allied) turn?

And yes, I have very limited experience playing the original board game years ago, so no built-in expectations there. Also love playing either solitaire or hot seat; could really care less about lack of AI.

Just looking for a terrific WW2 game I can play a full campaign through.

In solitair mode, the game is running stable. But there are still bugs around (mostly minor ones). Game stopping bugs sometimes happens (think about one in every three hours of play). But with the autosaves you are quite allright.

One very annoying bug (which seems to freeze the game, but it doesn't) which is very difficult to catch (and pops up a lot) is during air to air combat. Sometimes forms are hidden. For that, there is an easy work around. Simply press F10 and close that form. That forces the hidden form to come up and you can continue.

Use the latest public beta (which is a good one) and you should be OK.

Netplay isn't fixed totally at this moment (but we are getting there very slowly)...

[jcorbin]

"Centuur"

Very helpful feedback.

I used to work in the computer games industry "back in the day." If anyone can remember the long defunct Looking Glass Technologies, which became Looking Glass Studios ("System Shock" and can you civilian aviation simulation enthusiasts recall "Flight Unlimited ! and II") and , I know what a pain the a$$ it is to get monster games tested and off the ground.

And BTW, I played the original Tactics II Avalon Hill board game back in the seventies. So not a exactly a newbie here.

KUDOS TO EVERYONE INVOLVED FOR GETTING THIS GAME THIS FAR ON WHAT I AM SURE WAS A SHOESTRING BUDGET!

Looking forward to a great game!

JC

[Extraneous]

[X(] I played Stalingrad (A/H) in the 60's (there are still a few of us alive today). [X(]

[:D] So you are a Newbie (j/k about you being a newbie). [:D]

[Jagdtiger14]

My first board game was Tactics II as well. No hexes, squares. Awesome game!

[juntoalmar]

Hi,

I can give you my personal experience, and hopefully it can help you to decide if it's worthy to spend your time and effort into learning how to play and getting into a game.

I had no previous experience with board game WiF. My favorite game (until date) was Avalon Hill "Rise & Decline of the Third Reich" (please, no comments about "beer & pretzels" we could spend lot of time in another thread talking about it). So, I really like grand strategy games, where you set your own objectives and work for them. I like the fact that as German you can decide to go for Britain and Gibraltar, or go quick for Russia, for instance. Operational games when you have to be on X city before X date, are kind of limited to me, but that's a different story.

MWiF gives precisely that kind of freedom that I love. There are so many options (should Japan commit in China, Manchukuo or go for SW Asia), that makes the game replayable infinite times. The fact that covers the whole world is an amazing feature too, although I would love half map scenarios some time.

The game is big (huge) but has fantastic manuals and tutorial videos, so I think it's the best documented wargame I've ever seen. The fact that it's based on a boardgame means that you can easily trace results of combats (you can check tables, dice results and so) and understand why that invasion didn't work as you expected. It will take a while to learn how to play, and a lifetime to master. In my opinion is totally worthy and a lifetime game for a wargame lover.

I have played solitary and "hotseat online" through TeamViewer and Google Hangout and I haven't got any major problem. It is true that I rely on the computer applying the rules, so if something happens differently on what I thought it should be, first I think that I didn't understood the rules well (and that's true 98% of the times). But maybe I'm hitting into some bugs without even knowing it. Like, "that submarine should be able to intercept again after having had intercepted already in the impulse" kind of thing. Maybe I didn't even noticed… If you don't have previous experience with MWiF, many of such minor bugs will be unnoticeable to you. First games I'm just training myself and learning how to play. I will stay there for a few months/years, so when the moment arises I can get annoyed by such bugs, many of them will have been solved anyway.

Many people argue this game is expensive. Is it? It all depends how many hours will you play. After one year of buying it, I'm probably under the 1$/hour balance, and "this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship", so it will probably be one of the "cheapest" things I have ever bought. I have bought 20$ wargames that haven't even finished a game, that's expensive!

So, to summ up. The game is not finished, and if you have to have an IA and fully working NetPlay experience, the game is not there yet. Solitary & Hot seat mode are working good (good enough for me). It will probably take months to learn it and have your own training games before you play agains someone else, which will give more time for the game to improve.

For me it has been a great experience, so I would recommend to anyone with the same interests as me.

I hope it helps!