Initial Impressions

[Mantis]

Hello all, glad to be aboard for the beta.

Initial impressions:

I have all the SCs (except WWI) and the main menu screen and dialog boxes instantly brought back nostalgia, while also appearing more modern. It's sharper, more 'crisp' looking. Game installed with no issues. I'm going to start by saying I love the hexes - I have been waiting for them to make their return since the original game. Thrilled! The new map looks great, and I am very happy with the scale - it gives you a reasonable amount of front to maneuver in without being too big.

Oh - while I'm at the beginning of this, I'd like to inquire about the possibility of my biggest wish I've had throughout the series...

Hubert did a great job on the AI - I know it can play both the Allied and Axis sides with a reasonable level of competence (or a fantastic level, if you compare it to OTHER AIs...) Is it at all possible to separate the alliances into their base components? In other words, would it be possible to only play as the Russians, and set the Western Allies to AI? I think I would have played about 4x as many games of AoD/Gold/etc if I could have set the Chinese/Japanese/et al to AI once in a while. I understand that something is lost when a player does not control the entire alliance, but sometimes that is preferable to not playing at all. Just curious, and apologies if this has been brought up before.

Read about Ctrl-Z for undo in hotkeys section. Has the button for this been removed from the UI? (Just in case I am blind). I skimmed the first few pages of the Strategy Guide and saw a typo or two - do you want that stuff as well?

About to start crushing Poland. I'll be back to update after I take 'er out for a spin.

[Mantis]

Love the switch to allowing a unit to move but defer the attack until later in the turn. Allows a player to conduct a more fluid campaign, reacting to conditions on the battlefield as they unfold. More realistic in my opinion.

[Mantis]

Infantry Army in Tripoli not visible in close-up mode - only base appears. Icon appears when zooming out one level.

(Apologies if some of these are repetitious, but there are quite a few posts on this forum and I have not had a chance to digest them all so soon. I will confine my early observations to this thread so if I am beating a dead horse it will be easier to ignore!)



Edit: Quit out to desktop and reloaded from save - no change, and Tobruk unit is like this as well. I'll reboot soon if I keep seeing things to make sure Win 7 isn't in need of a kick itself. (Reboot didn't help).

[Hubert Cater]

Hi Mantis, thanks for the feedback and glad to hear you are enjoying the game... to quickly answer some of the points here, not all of the interface is completed yet, some old interface still being used as placeholders (the undo button will be added in soon once I wrap up more of the new interface implementation) and the 3D units are not all completed yet either... so what you are seeing there is to be expected for now.

[Mantis]

Hi Hubert - thanks for the quick reply, and the many years of gaming in this series. I understand it's a beta, forgive me if I'm being a little overzealous. I was only just invited in the past day or so, and am not quit familiar with the level of detail you want with regards to feedback. (I'm not sure if some things are bugs vs. placeholders, etc). This game is like TOAW for me - I've enjoyed it for so many hundreds of hours I can't help but want to contribute as much as I can. [:D]

I'll go complete the conquest of Poland and then go from there.

[sPzAbt653]

not visible in close-up mode - only base appears.

jpinard made a quickfix if you are interested:
tm.asp?m=4123906

[Mantis]

Thank you - I'll check that out!

[snowstorm]

I just became one of the new round of Beta testers over the weekend, and thanks to having a Physical Inventory to conduct yesterday, I could not start into this until now, but time has come finally to begin! [8D]
Anyway, my first impressions are the downloading needs to be simplified. The whole Filezilla thing seemed complicated and confusing, compared to using Steam as some other games have used.
Once I got it downloaded, the installation and start up of this game seems smoother than previous SC games, although for me it seems also to take just a bit longer for the game to begin. No bugs or issues found up to this point. I have not gotten more than a single turn finished yet, but my first impression of the AI is it is smarter and making better, more intelligent moves than previous versions, and I agree with Mantis, the map IS bigger, more detailed, but not so much to slow the game down much either. I would prefer however that the bases around units still contain a "ring" around the units when turned off, rather than be removed completely. This made it very difficult to determine the nationality of the unit (particularly the naval units) without turning the bases back on. Overall though, the overall look of the map is a significant improvement to me.[:)]

[xwormwood]

Welcome aboard, snowstorm!

[Mantis]

A couple of quick observations:

When you are in a screen such as research, and you need to click on the little up or down arrows, the highlighted or 'lit up' one is counter-intuitive. The one that is lit up should be available, not the reverse. Seems totally backwards.

Secondly, pressing escape doesn't bring up the menu (or exit a dialog box/report screen/et al), it switches to desktop. (And if you *were* in a D.E. box, it's now closed and I'm not sure which option it defaulted to... I have had to restart from autosave due to this one sooo many times).

I know these have both been in the SC series for years upon years, and I *do* adapt, but when I haven't played the game for a while I am bound to do both of these about a hundred times. (If I had a buck for every time I hit escape...) [:D]

I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I didn't at least mention these when I have the chance.

EDIT - Apologies, the escape button does exit from menu pop-ups.

[sPzAbt653]

I have no experience with the SC series so I use Esc all the time to switch to desktop. If I don't use Esc, how do I do it ? [just asking].

[Mantis]

In virtually all games (of all types) escape will pull up the menu where you can quit to main, quit to desktop, save/load a game, access settings, etc. You need to press the windows key or Alt-Tab to jump out of the game and view desktop, switch to the manual, etc. This is pretty much standard in the gaming industry. That doesn't mean you have to do it that way, but it is conventional.

[Mantis]

Another observation (don't know if this is a bug). If you happen to click during the AI's turn, 20 seconds later when the turn summary or such window pops up, if will zip past it because you already clicked.

[sPzAbt653]

ORIGINAL: Mantis
In virtually all games (of all types) escape will pull up the menu where you can quit to main, quit to desktop, save/load a game, access settings, etc. You need to press the windows key or Alt-Tab to jump out of the game and view desktop, switch to the manual, etc. This is pretty much standard in the gaming industry. That doesn't mean you have to do it that way, but it is conventional.

Ah, I see, I didn't know all that, thanks. I have no SC experience and didn't know about the Esc key at first. I wondered why there wasn't a Minimize button.