Is Matrix dying?

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: wodin
Check your Six, Chain of Command and GG Steel Tigers are all future games I'm really looking forward to and hope to review on my blog. However I'm surprised they don't have a forum yet. The coming soon forums are looking abit thin on the ground at the moment.

+1. Indeed, I'm a regular visitor to this forum and have never heard of Check Your Six or Chain of Command. And the "Under Development" forum is also very underpopulated, including with TOAW IV (which used to be "Coming Soon") and Combined Arms, which has been there for what, ten years?

[jack54]

I don't say it's dying but it certainly is changing.... I'm re-evaluating my purchasing habits. I've always wanted the shinny new thing but with a few new items the beta patches were 'Steam' only... so two months and I'm not playing. I don't blame anyone it may make perfect sense but I worry it could be the handwriting on the wall.

Yet IMHO Several developers continue excellent beta support here on matrix and I feel confident, 'almost' obligated, with a day one purchase ... they've earned it in my book.

Oh one of the good changes over the years.... remember 'download insurance'.[:D]

[Gilmer]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

ORIGINAL: H Gilmer

On the War in the East forums they said they are working on WiTE 2 right now.

My perception as a long time developer of serious wargames is that Matrix is alive and well. The combining of Matrix and Slitherine has led to what was hoped, a place producing many different kinds of games, where they can continue to build a market for all kinds of generally more serious strategy games. Slitherine has a better developed marketing department, while the core management of the combined company includes people that like and play serious wargames and more playable strategy/war games. Keeping this going, growing, and paying the bills is not an easy thing to do, but so far Slitherine/Matrix seem to be making as good an attempt at it as anyone. Things can always change, but from my viewpoint, it's so far so good.

As for 2by3, we are currently working on Steel Tigers and War in the East2, while also actively supporting WitW (and with great help from some of the community, WitE1). These are big projects, and they will take time. Steel (tactical WWII) is being done with the help and involvement of Matrix development staff. At it's core, we want this to showcase Gary's talent with game design, combat and AI logic, along with Matrix/Slitherine's talent with art and interface. If we get it right, it will be, like the original Steel Panthers series, something that will interest die hard wargamers and casual wargamers alike. War in the East2 is also going forward, and we feel it will be an improvement over both WitE1 and WitW. At the moment we can move both projects forward. At some point we may find that one will be delayed by needed work on the other, but we're trying to keep that interruption to a minimum. We are mostly limited by the fact that at the moment we have 2 core programmers (not counting Matrix support, which is a major plus on Steel), one of whom is part time, and these are big projects.

Of course both of these games also depend on a legion of dedicated hobbyists that provide the data that drives the games. This is where the Matrix forums and community have helped us over the years find those talented individuals that enjoy working on these projects. As far as I'm concerned David Heath did the wargame industry a big service when he started Matrix and began building this community. I thank him for that, and with luck this community will continue to grow.

Wow, I received a very long and nice reply from Joel. Thank you. I am glad you confirmed a WITE2 again. It will be a must buy. Steel Tigers, I'll keep my eye on. I had Steel Panthers, but it just did not hold me as well as some of the others seem to have been held, but that may be because I didn't understand it as well as they did.

I also learned that the most recent patch on WITE had new units? Nice for an old game to still be getting patches like that.

[IainMcNeil]

We are a bit behind on the coming soon and in development forums. The way the press has changed means we need to be careful about talking about things too soon. We need proper assets and logos and box art before we can talk about them and this often happens late in the day for our type of games. We cant release alpha screens as these get posted as final by press and never updated so we have to be sure anything we releases is close to final quality which tends to be near release. We've also announced some games too early and suffered a lot of negative feedback from the community as a result when development takes much longer than expected so are wary of announcing too soon.

We have over 30 titles in development (not including DLC's, new platforms etc) of which you probably only know about a handful. Of these I'd estimate half of of interest to the more hardcore and wargame Matrix audience and half the more strategy game Slitherine audience. Development times are around 2 years but obviously some take longer than others. The rest we will announce as soon as we can but the world we live in requires us to have all our eggs in a row before we do. We'd love to be able to tell you everything that's going on!

[aaatoysandmore]

Can you tell us (besides Steel Tigers) are there any "tactical" games in the works similar to maybe Panzer Command?

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: Missouri_Rebel
And a WitP-2? Has there ever been a wargame with such a dedicated fan base? Maybe it wasn't as commercially successful? I never got far into it but it seems like it is a very active forum especially considering when it was released.

There is already a WitP 2: WitP AE or admiral's edition. Released in 2009. The original had been released in 2004. Not an expansion, a truly new game with many new features absent in the original game.

[operating]

ORIGINAL: Iain McNeil

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Please don't change the layout of this forum.

Its not about layout its about the engine it runs off (Moving everything to phpBB). Layout may be adjusted at some point because the number of games is so big that finding things is an increasing problem especially for new users. We're not sure what the solution is right now but maybe some kind of custom view that lets you set the forum up the way you like. That's a longer term plan though! We'll bounce some ideas around when we get to that point.

Iain,

Honestly, I do agree with Warspite a 100%. Have done numerous postings here which included full-size screenshots, ect.. which worked like a charm, can't say the same about the Slitherine forum, which requires resizing for just about everything (a PITA). Also, I have to say: The avatars here give this forum a lot more personality overall vs the generic meaningless commercial avatars used at the Slitherine forums...

IMO, Operating

[Gilmer]

ORIGINAL: operating

ORIGINAL: Iain McNeil

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Please don't change the layout of this forum.

Its not about layout its about the engine it runs off (Moving everything to phpBB). Layout may be adjusted at some point because the number of games is so big that finding things is an increasing problem especially for new users. We're not sure what the solution is right now but maybe some kind of custom view that lets you set the forum up the way you like. That's a longer term plan though! We'll bounce some ideas around when we get to that point.

Iain,

Honestly, I do agree with Warspite a 100%. Have done numerous postings here which included full-size screenshots, ect.. which worked like a charm, can't say the same about the Slitherine forum, which requires resizing for just about everything (a PITA). Also, I have to say: The avatars here give this forum a lot more personality overall vs the generic meaningless commercial avatars used at the Slitherine forums...

IMO, Operating

Well said. By the way, have you ever eaten at Rino's on Saratoga Street? Excellent.

[operating]

ORIGINAL: H Gilmer

ORIGINAL: operating

ORIGINAL: Iain McNeil




Its not about layout its about the engine it runs off (Moving everything to phpBB). Layout may be adjusted at some point because the number of games is so big that finding things is an increasing problem especially for new users. We're not sure what the solution is right now but maybe some kind of custom view that lets you set the forum up the way you like. That's a longer term plan though! We'll bounce some ideas around when we get to that point.

Iain,

Honestly, I do agree with Warspite a 100%. Have done numerous postings here which included full-size screenshots, ect.. which worked like a charm, can't say the same about the Slitherine forum, which requires resizing for just about everything (a PITA). Also, I have to say: The avatars here give this forum a lot more personality overall vs the generic meaningless commercial avatars used at the Slitherine forums...

IMO, Operating

Well said. By the way, have you ever eaten at Rino's on Saratoga Street? Excellent.

East Boston is loaded with Italian restaurants, The North End is also a mecca for Italian food, it's the place to be during the Saint Anthony's festival. To answer you question: I'm not familiar with Rino's, however you did get me to look it up.[:)]