Historical accuracy & victory conditions

[PJL1973]

Have been reading up on the whole forum on this game today. From what I've read, it sounds like it's shaping up to be a game with a lot of potentials, comparable to the Strategic Command series in scale, but offering a better supply & logistics model. I've read elsewhere that the initial starting forces will be historical, which is good, but what about the economics of each side? Is this intention to give the Axis some buffs for them to able to achieve what they couldn't do historically, and thus set victory conditions to reflect that. Or is the intention is to make it such that by merely surviving to the historical endpoint W of May 1945, the Axis can claim a victory? I would be intereseted to know what the intention is from the devs.

BTW, any timescale on when this will be released? Given that it's a one man project, it seems unlikely to be released before the end of the year, or even early next year.

[Fred98]

My preference is that the historical result is treated as a draw. Any other result is a minor or major victory for one side or the other.

In that way PBEM players will fight to the end.

[Michael T]

@Fred98, are you familiar with GMT's A World at War?

[Fred98]

No, just A3R

[Michael T]

I am going to PM you.

[AlvaroSousa]

September is the release date currently barring any delays.

The 1st couple weeks we got a lot of bugs out with the testers and added some new features. Now I am more on focusing on making sure the scenarios are correct and the A.I. works decently. The latter is the hardest thing to do with a game of this scale.

The forces are historical starting.
Production is historical as of now based on a mountain of research I did. In WarPlan the Germans do have the greater army experience. So their losses should be less to compensate for their lack of economy.

Victory system currently is experimental. You gain points throughout the game the better you do. So not only do the Axis have to survive but they have to do at least slightly better than historical to win. A side wins if it has one major power left and enough victory points.

So by definition an Axis victory is having more points and surviving.
An Allied victory is complete conquest by August 31st 1945

The score you get can be compared with other people. So the Italians can score high and still be taken out and win or lose the game.

But this needs to be tested. If it is too complex or doesn't work right I have a backup standard victory system.

I do think this victory method provides some interesting situations to motivate players to be a little more aggressive and strategic.

[PJL1973]

Surprised it's going to be as early as September, I certainly would be fine if it gets delayed by a couple of months to give the game a better polish and balance.

Good to hear about production being historical as well, and sounds like you're aiming for at least historically plausible victory conditons which is good to know. Perhaps I'm wrong, but you seem to hint that points will be determined to how long you hold objectives (a bit like the victory pont system in the classis Ageod games). If so, that would give an incentive to be more aggeressive and conversely a disincentive to run away too quickly (thinking Soviets in 1941 here).

[Michael T]

September, nice. I hope it makes it. But please don't rush it. A bad first experience might put players off.
This is the most anticipated game for me since WITE. Yeah 2011.