ATG - Best wargame of all time

[GaryChildress]

ATG is probably my most favorite wargame of all time. I find myself coming back to it again and again for just one more go. There are always new tweaks or things I can do to make the game seem fresh. And the random game generator gives it the replayability of Civilization.

However, one aspect of wargames that I REALLY like is the ability to name individual ships. For some reason it gives more character to a game when I can see ship names and/or assign ships names. To me it makes naval warfare a more immersive experience. I don't know if Vic ever plans to do a AT Platinum or and AT II but I for one would really like to see naval warfare expanded on in the game, including the ability to design ships in a custom ship designer and name them, ether manually or from string lists which could be written specific to classes. If Vic were able to incorporate a more immersive naval experience then I think AT would be even better than it already is. More detail in the implementation of naval warfare is the one component I feel is missing in the game.

[danlongman]

Yes Gary I am a huge fan as well. Thousands of hours in play and I can barely use the editor.

[cpdeyoung]

I too would love individual ship names, not counters, but a hover over tooltip telling me the task force was the :

Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu
Tone, Chikuma
Haruna, Kirishima
Nagara
Kazagumo, Yugumo, Makigumo, Ajigumo
Isokaze, Urakaze, Hamakaze, Tanikaze
Arashi, Nowaki, Hagikaze, Maikaze
Kyokuto Maru, Shinkuto Maru, Toho Maru, Nippon Maru, Kokuyo Maru

would be so cool.

This would also require keeping track of losses by ship, and allowing transfer by ship, etc.

Many of you will recognize the task force described. If you don't, turn your computer upside down for the answer.

Chuck

[Bombur]

To create individual ships would be a great improvement, but it would need a completely new system for tracking damage and replay for sea units, it also would need more slots for each unit. It would make the game similar to the 1st Pacific War (1992), for a better simulation of naval battles a simultaneous turn resolution also should be implemented. As the game is, it is able to simulate naval warfare at strategic level, but not at operational and much less tactical level.

[lion_of_judah]

I don't know if I would say ATG is the greatest game of all time, but it is a very good game. I would say dccp is better than ATG, but not by much.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: lion_of_judah

I don't know if I would say ATG is the greatest game of all time, but it is a very good game. I would say dccp is better than ATG, but not by much.

I haven't done too much with the DCCP engine. Is it as versatile as the ATG? Can you mod it as much?

[lion_of_judah]

I find dccp much easier to make cards and bring in reinforcements than ATG is, as in ATG all this must be programmed using the events section which is hard. I feel it is very modifiable and easy to use. The new libraries which add more realism I'm finding hard to program, but overall dccp has many pluses than ATG

[lion_of_judah]

Gary
I think this link will answer many questions for you

http://www.vrdesigns.net/atwiki/doku.ph ... ary_editor

[ernieschwitz]

The DC:CP editor is as powerful as the ATG one, but there are certain aspects it does better and certain it does worse. For instance, there is no research in DC:CP, so you have to abstract it somehow (perhaps using cards) if you want to make a scenario that has research involved. Also there is no production, but there is a workaround, that is to make every city type owned produce an amount of PPs each turn, and then let them use that to buy units.

DC:CP however is much better at the OOB aspect of the game. Also DC:CP has a layered editor. That is,you can use a simple and friendly one that allows you to make scenarios, that are pretty good, without ever programming a line of code. But if you want to, you can go that level lower, and program stuff too.

Overall, if I wanted to do a strategic scenario I'd probably use ATG, while if I wanted to do a standalone, battle, or mini campaign, I'd use DC:CP.

[lion_of_judah]

I agree with this as ernie said it better than I did. I think dccp can do strategic as well though and hope Vic adds corps graphics so we can do a truly strategic level scenario. I think it would be interesting to see GD1938 in dccp