A truly terrible game

[ubwart]

This has got to be one of the most tedious things and god-awful games I have ever played. It has all of the detail and much more of pacwar and none of the charm. PW had all kinds of tool to let you see where the battles were and so on. Not this dog, you have one battle report thing with 800 reports to wade through after each turn to find your one carrier battle.

Then take into account that carriers are generally not going to attack the other side even with reaction range of 6. No they would rather sit in their base and wait for the enemy to move away and attack your force with a much larger attack than the computer ever seems to mount for my carriers.

I paid 20 or so for it and it is not worth $1. No support no updates and Matrix still wants 79 for this old dog. I would rather pull my teeth via my ass than play this again. PW was about 50 times what this game is worth.
Someone please explain to me how my 3 carriers consistently get their asses kicked by one opfor carrier.
[:o]

[geofflambert]

Do you see how many posts there are on this forum? Obviously there's five or six legions of players who disagree with you. Go back to tic-tac-toe.

[ubwart]

Yea I see how many there are. The game design is awful and the UI is basically nonexistent. It is a truly terrible game. If 500 people think it is great that just means that there are 500 fools out there.

I have been playing matrix games since the place started and SSI for years before that. And this one is the worst I have seen.

[Tigrizzli]

Long time ago, I bought IL2 because I crashed for my 3 first takeoff with a Bf-109 (cross winds, engine torque, too rude on the commands...etc...). Other flight simulators were so much less realistic s... more like arcade games... This is what proved me its value and makes me love it.

Same with WITPAE, it's because you have to use your brain to get results which make me appreciate it.

.. Of course, you need a brain first...

[adarbrauner]

Dude, you are going to receive very heavy flak here for this post (or maybe simple lack of interest);

any how, this game is probably the one with the most populated, and still very active, forum among all of Matrix games, some reasons to that there must be.

You are right to lament the UI, but as you said, there's no rework of the game in sight, so we must do with what we have.

Still, this is the best navy focused (and Pacific war focused in general) game available commercially all over the planet;

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: ubwart

This has got to be one of the most tedious things and god-awful games I have ever played. It has all of the detail and much more of pacwar and none of the charm. PW had all kinds of tool to let you see where the battles were and so on. Not this dog, you have one battle report thing with 800 reports to wade through after each turn to find your one carrier battle.

Then take into account that carriers are generally not going to attack the other side even with reaction range of 6. No they would rather sit in their base and wait for the enemy to move away and attack your force with a much larger attack than the computer ever seems to mount for my carriers.

I paid 20 or so for it and it is not worth $1. No support no updates and Matrix still wants 79 for this old dog. I would rather pull my teeth via my ass than play this again. PW was about 50 times what this game is worth.
Someone please explain to me how my 3 carriers consistently get their asses kicked by one opfor carrier.
[:o]

You're 58 days early.

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: ubwart

Yea I see how many there are. The game design is awful and the UI is basically nonexistent. It is a truly terrible game. If 500 people think it is great that just means that there are 500 fools out there.

I have been playing matrix games since the place started and SSI for years before that. And this one is the worst I have seen.

Really! Some game styles do not suit everyone, this is yours. Perhaps its just a little too complicated for you, something simpler maybe.

[Ambassador]

I don’t remember how much I paid for this game twelve years ago, but the cost per hour of game time must be far under the cent. And it’s the only game I have played, and still plan to continue playing, twelve (12 !) years after purchasing it. I’m not the only one still playing it after twelve years either, so this should be testament to the quality of the game. That, and the number of posts & threads on this forum, as well as the number of ongoing AAR’s ...

But it’s not a game fo the average teen, gratification is not immediate and the brain is heavily solicited for hundreds of hours to finish one game.[8|]

[LargeSlowTarget]

@ubwart - I have played PacWar for years, then switched to each successor (UV, WitP, WitP-AE) without ever looking back at the older games. It was a gradual transition, but still a steep learning curve. In fact, veteran AE players call going from WitP to AE a learning cliff. If you jump from PacWar straight to AE, you are not facing a learning cliff, you are facing a voyage to a different planet. AE is not worse than PacWar, it's just WAY more complex and you will need to invest a lot of time to master the mechanics. In fact, even veteran players with thousands of AE turns under the belt are still learning. If you feel overwhelmed by AE, then maybe the old adage applies that "If it is too strong, you're too weak!"

Now, if you lose a 3-to-1 carrier fight, you have probably used suboptimal settings, there is probably a huge difference in airframe performance, pilot and ship crew experience, leader stats (air unit and TF leaders), a low detection level of the enemy TF, unlucky weather interference, FOW etc. Wise commanders know the circumstances under which to pick - or decline - a fight.

Concerning "No support no updates", that's simply not true, you just don't know the history of the game. The game has been supported by the publisher and then by a volunteer developper in his spare time for many years after the release, not only for bugfixes but actually adding many new features. I have sold computer games for a living for ten years, and I know no other commercial computer game which has enjoyed such support and updates for such a long time after release and for free.

This game has a strong supporter base for a reason, and the only fool around here might be you.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: ubwart
Someone please explain to me how my 3 carriers consistently get their asses kicked by one opfor carrier.
[:o]

Sudden Carrier Loss Syndrome is real. Don't worry, you'll get better soon.

Maybe you should not have parked your CVs in your own base, there are penalties for doing that

[Maallon]

I don't really understand what your ruckus is all about.
If you don't like the game, you bought a game that doesn't suit you. I am sure this has happened to everyone here at some point.
Just get over it and play a different game. All sales on Matrix are final so there is sadly no option for refunding.

WITP:AE is loved by a lot of people because of its complexity, but that also means that you need to spend an awful amount of time in simply learning the game.
The game has shortcomings, but the positives things far outweigh the negatives. If you don't like the concept of it, then you have simply bought the wrong game for you.

There is certainly a reason why your carrier battle went the way it went and it is likely that it is your own fault and not the fault of the game.
Also Carrier Battles are brutal in general, this is also true for real life history. Just take a look at the Guadalcanal and Solomon Campaigns or even just Midway.

For a better overview of combat Reports, there is actually a third party tool here on the forum that can help you get a better picture of the wall of Texts that is the Combat and Operations Report.
The Tool comes also with a map, so you can also see with one click where the stuff happened.

[Maallon]

A more constructive approach would have been to simply post the combat reports here on the forum and explain the situation, preferably with Screenshots of the map and your Taskforce settings.
There would have been a lot of people here who would have literally jumped from their chairs to help you understand why the results are as they are and how you could have done better.
It is okay to be frustrated at times, but I can assure you that there is always a reason why things happen in the game like they happen.
And the community here is generally very helpful and supportive as long you are polite, respectful and willing to learn.

[LargeSlowTarget]

No they would rather sit in their base and wait for the enemy to move away and attack your force with a much larger attack than the computer ever seems to mount for my carriers.

GetAssista is right on track:

Manual Page 167/168:

7.2.1.13.2 AIRCRAFT CARRIERS IN BASE HEXES
Air operations by aircraft carriers are limited if the aircraft carrier is in a base hex. Aircraft launching search, CAP or strike Missions from a carrier in a base hex will only launch 50% of the normal amount they would have launched. If the CAP is reinforced by fighters on the ship due to the raid being spotted in time, only 50% of the fighters on the ship will reinforce the CAP.

The reason is that a base hex means landmass which means restricted searoom for maneuvering the carrier, which as you may or may not know was necessary for carrier ops of the day since carriers had to head into the wind in order to conduct flight operations.

Sometimes the good old "RTFM" advice should be heeded. The problem is not the game, but truly terrible reading skills [;)]

[btd64]

That said. Try checkers. Might be more your speed. Oh by the way, I bought WPO and WITP before AE and I joined the forum just after I bought AE. I had been reading the forum for years and with AE I needed some help and support. I asked all the wrong questions and sometimes a brief spanking. You just joined the forum and broke the rules. Your first few posts should of been questions. Not an attack on something a lot of people love. Think about that for a while....GP

[Randy Stead]

Truly a waste of breath talking to this guy. I think he has taken his ball and run home, never to return.

[stretch]

I love it when people tell us that the thing we love is really awful. Glad you have an opinion ubwart, guess what: we didn't need to hear it. In general, in life, when you hate something that many many other people love, that's fine but consider keeping that to yourself or your close circle of friends (if you have any) that may care about your feelings; because no one here is going to ever ever ever change their mind based on your little ignorant 2nd grade emotional diatribe.

[Andy Mac]

Should I be offended given I released updates for scenarios what 6 months ago - so 10 years after release inclduding updated AI scripts...

[Phoenix100]

Mmm. Where can I find those updates, Andy, the most recent ones?

[Ambassador]

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

Should I be offended given I released updates for scenarios what 6 months ago - so 10 years after release inclduding updated AI scripts...

You’re above that. You’re a higher spirit, safe from the petty insults of the crawling cockroaches.[;)]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Ambassador

ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

Should I be offended given I released updates for scenarios what 6 months ago - so 10 years after release inclduding updated AI scripts...

You’re above that. You’re a higher spirit, safe from the petty insults of the crawling cockroaches.[;)]

Speaking of higher spirit, we could be teaching the OP a bit about patience by ignoring his diatribe about the game and just offering to help change his mind. For starters, I suspect the OP jumped into the Grand Campaign without trying the smaller scenarios to find out how to use the User Interface. Even starting with those simpler scenarios I had to restart them a couple of times to overcome my mistakes in settings and strategy. Persistence will win but it means keeping positive in the face of many failures.

Having said all that, Ubwart, if you are expecting a game with a pedigree running back 15 or more years to show you all the CGI flash of current games, you will never appreciate this brain-expanding monster. Twenty bucks to learn a bit about your preferences is an inexpensive life lesson.