TOAW IV Previous Version Scenarios

[gbaby]

November 15, one more day...

I'm still playing TOAW III with several other of my favorite titles. TOAW seems to never get old due to scenario variety.

I have a question on TOAW III scenarios not found in TOAW IV. I've read that you could take a TOAW III scenario, load it via TOAW IV editor and save, then it is playable in TOAW IV.

Should I do this? Yes, I would like to have the redone UI and play changes (timestamps, etc), but will the underlying IV game play mechanic changes be too much of a change that it impacts balance too much?

I don't mind a small imbalance and I feel that I would rather play all scenarios in TOAW IV, but if its too much, I then would rather keep playing it in TOAW III.

If I didn't have so many more scenarios not in TOAW IV, I wouldn't ask. But my treasure trove of scenarios must be one day experienced, either via III or IV.

Oh my, decisions, decisions.

[Tamas]

In theory there are two aspects that can affect playing a scenario made for previous games:

1. Naval changes: since earlier games didn't really have any navy-heavy scenarios (for obvious reasons), this exclusively manifests itself as coastal fortresses being too lethal against invading forces. Fixing this is an easy edit of a global scenario parameter, and we have done it for the scenarios that ship with the game.

2. Battlefield time stamps: in terms of the long term flow of a scenario I don't think these changes mix up things: you get to issue orders more times in a turn thanks to them, while you can't do exploits that let you get unfairly far like before with one move. So in my experience this more or less evens out on the long run, but results in a more fluid and realistic gameplay. However, I imagine if a scenario was very carefully timed, requiring players to be in exact hexes in exact turns for the balance to be ideal, this might be affected.

[gbaby]

ORIGINAL: Tamas

In theory there are two aspects that can affect playing a scenario made for previous games:

1. Naval changes: since earlier games didn't really have any navy-heavy scenarios (for obvious reasons), this exclusively manifests itself as coastal fortresses being too lethal against invading forces. Fixing this is an easy edit of a global scenario parameter, and we have done it for the scenarios that ship with the game.

Thanks for the response and info. So it sounds like any naval asset scenarios should stick to the original TOAW unless the scenario is changed to use with TOAW 4.

2. Battlefield time stamps: in terms of the long term flow of a scenario I don't these changes mix up things: you get to issue orders more times in a turn thanks to them, while you can't do exploits that let you get unfairly far like before with one move. So in my experience this more or less evens out on the long run, but results in a more fluid and realistic gameplay. However, I imagine if a scenario was very carefully timed, requiring players to be in exact hexes in exact turns for the balance to be ideal, this might be affected.

Understood, though I like the BTS system better. Never did like the exploit of having a non-combating unit using its full MP to block earlier in the move combat results. Delaying the combat to facilitate the exploiting unit's move is so much better (at least I hope it does this). I'm torn. I don't like to lose a scenario because balance is knocked off because I could not exploit the phased move system, but at the same time, TOAW IV phased play just seems superior (at least from what I read so far) that I can accept such balance loss because I may enjoy the "play flow" better. Hope that makes sense.

One more DAY!!!

[Tamas]

On the naval things: we have fixed all the amphibious-landing scenarios that were affected (I guess for Olympic you can argue it is still too strong, but it's up for debate).
If you find an old scenario with amphibious landings and coastal fortifications somewhere on the Internet, first of all I'd recommend you still try it with TOAWIV: it may work without any issues. If you find that those fortresses are too lethal on invading forces, it is an easy edit: there is a global scenario parameter called "naval attrition", increase that from 10 to 100 (or even 1000) and you'll be set, OR switch the fortresses to garrison mode to remove this issue.
Or post the scenario in the Community Scenarios forum that's going to be opened up tomorrow, and I am sure others will do the editing for you.


To be honest, I can see no reason to stick with TOAW3. Thanks to all the work the guys have done, TOAWIV is a clearly superior product, both in terms of usability, and features, and just overall fun.