Poll - War In Spain

[RangerJoe]

I think the game is in a bad state regarding UI/UX. To the point where I cannot really play it because it is so painful. The choice of conflict is not the problem, maybe not so much naval action is going on, but the problem is the engine itself.

Here are the things that bother me the most:
(1) Font is bad. It is heavily pixelated (or was.. it's now blurry) and it is very hard to read. It's possible that you are trying to scale a smaller font onto a bigger "texture" and thus we see scaling artifacts. Fixing font, maybe even providing an ability to replace it with concrete font sizes would go a long way.

(2) There is no button feedback. I want to see a button highlighted when I click it. In WiTP:AE color and sprite change when you hover/click a button and it is a very important feedback.

(3) Ground war management is exhausting:
(a) LCU List is excel-like: there are no icons, it is hard to read and it is flickering constantly. The is no confirmation that the unit started (or failed to start) moving after you click move.
(b) Lack of on-map info: there is no path prediction (and ETA, maybe even time estimation for every hex in path) when you are trying to set a destination for a unit.
(c) Lack of on-map info: It is generally very hard to read the unit disposition since there are almost no icons and color coding of values. Also I am now trying to see that path that my unit is going to take but I can't for some reason. I remember that there was a way to see it - but it's not working right now for some reason.
(d) There is no indication of units moving when having the "modern" overlay that shows AV values. And there is very little indication of when using "legacy" WiTP:AE view. Reading the movement situation is very problematic right now.

(4) LCU List is often stealing focus from the map when I am trying to move camera left.

(5) Proper font scaling is needed. Fonts are too small right now for many resolutions.

My own preferences. I don't claim they are real problems, just maybe useful considerations/my thoughts:
- You should be brought back to port/task force/previous panel and not the map when pressing escape when viewing a ship.
- Tooltip should disappear the moment I am not hovering over the target. Like it currently works in WiTP:AE. It feels much snappier and satisfying.
- Tooltip details feel more organized in WiTP:AE, at least for bases (LCU details are horrible..). I don't know why, maybe that's just habbit. Maybe there should be a single piece of information per line. Right now there are often two: fuel/supply, oil/coal, etc.
Maybe some spacing between categories will be useful..

The game needs a lot more polish. But I am happy that we have a new WiTP-like game. Hopefully we are going to enjoy the Western Front like we enjoyed the pacific. Because the engine is there, it just needs a decent UI/UX.

I don't have issues with the font or scaling but I am not using a large monitor. You may have to adjust your settings for that.

As far as things flickering, it may also be your settings. You can see the paths that the ground units should take, this includes known enemy movements.

[coach3play4]

I bought the game and i dont regret purchasing (because its important to support efforts like this) but at my age etc. it is just too overwhelming. I wish there was a simple basic step by step tutorial and a way for ai to take over elements of the game.

[coach3play4]

sorry - i found the ai control for air ops. dont know if it does a god job, but its there so my poll comment is wrong

[zebrazwo]

Wow. Been following the launch of this for a while.

It sure seems like the number of posts in this forum has fallen drastically over the past few weeks.

Not having played the game, I can't express any opinion about it, except that it seems the most irritating part of it is the UI. Let's hope things get ironed out.

[GoodbyeBluesky]

Scorched Earth needs some sort of feedback. I have no idea if it did anything. Did it fail badly? Was I close to accomplishing it? Do I even have a chance to do it?

[johnnyboy00]

I'm on Version 01.65.53.01. Here are my thoughts after a few weeks of playing through the tutorial and the longer Belearic Island Campaign. I voted for bug fixes, although UIUX improvements would also be helpful, as outlined below. I would suggest holding off on new wars, campaigns, etc. until the engine and UI are in a better state. Let me start by applauding the heroic effort to recreate this extremely complex game engine. I can only imagine how much effort has been put into it, and the attention to detail is impressive. Love the subject (Spanish Civil War), and the map is beautiful.

My most annoying bugs at the moment concern naval operations. I have set several patrol zones with patrol boats and torpedo boats. The TFs seem to forget the patrol instructions and reset every turn (running dailies), returning to their home port. Max react resets, the patrol route is forgotten, and even changing to "Remain On Station" has no apparent effect. This is annoying enough that I don't really want to play. Other issues that may or may not be defects (they are to me): had an xAK damaged severely returning to home port with no explanation of why. Probably a torp from a sub. The ship survived, so the crew would certainly know that they were hit with a torp and that no aircraft were attacking. As mentioned in a prior bug post, this ship probably should have sunk, but it didn't. The threat evasion to aircraft seems excessive and screws with amphibious assaults that would likely push through any defense to make the landing. Then, at other times, ships are excessively damaged by bombing near misses. When consolidating LCUs, there is a lot of clicking around to find components and send them to a common location. The "Back" button often forgets the path back through child and parent units, forcing a restart of the process.

As for UIUX, I have a few comments. To enjoy this game, you have to really love the WITP:AE engine and UI. I always thought the land combat there was tedious, so I was interested to see how it has been interpreted for a land-heavy campaign like the Spanish Civil War. The developers have produced a faithfully accurate interface. The WITP:AE engine (IMO) was designed for heavy air/sea operations with land combat as a secondary matter. Great for island-hopping across the Pacific; less great in China. There is a reason the developers moved away from this engine for WITE/WITW.

Integrating some additional quality of life improvements, like the Commander's Report and OrBat from WITE2 would be a great start. There are 1,000s of little LCUs that make up more integrated units (columns) that can be assembled and separated, retaining their original identity, which is really cool - an improvement on WITP:AE where regiments lose their identity once assembled into parent divisions. There is a ton of clicking around to consolidate columns into viable fighting units. I appreciate the thought behind Ground Unit Planning, but I have always felt it was too limiting and not really clear about the benefits. In island hopping, it works ok because usually the island is the target, but in an overland campaign, is the target the ultimate goal (i.e., Palma) or the landing beach, or each intermediate town and pueblo along the way?

[Zakhal]

I cannot finish even single turn in main campaign scenario 1. So I think you need to focus on bug fixes. Games like this need to be very stable consider how big time sink they are. I played single witp game for many years and never had issues like this.

Othervice the game is really great. Its definetly my top favorite and I hope it becomes an entire series.

[Gunner98]

Bug fixes will happen over time. I look forward to them as they come. UI/UX is at least as good as WiTP and will probably improve with suggestions.

My vote is for a WW2 in the Med expansion. As a standalone (I assume) or a DLC, that theater has not received the attention it deserves in the gaming world, in my opinion.

[asday9]

I'm on Version 01.65.53.01. Here are my thoughts after a few weeks of playing through the tutorial and the longer Belearic Island Campaign. I voted for bug fixes, although UIUX improvements would also be helpful, as outlined below. I would suggest holding off on new wars, campaigns, etc. until the engine and UI are in a better state. Let me start by applauding the heroic effort to recreate this extremely complex game engine. I can only imagine how much effort has been put into it, and the attention to detail is impressive. Love the subject (Spanish Civil War), and the map is beautiful.

My most annoying bugs at the moment concern naval operations. I have set several patrol zones with patrol boats and torpedo boats. The TFs seem to forget the patrol instructions and reset every turn (running dailies), returning to their home port. Max react resets, the patrol route is forgotten, and even changing to "Remain On Station" has no apparent effect. This is annoying enough that I don't really want to play. Other issues that may or may not be defects (they are to me): had an xAK damaged severely returning to home port with no explanation of why. Probably a torp from a sub. The ship survived, so the crew would certainly know that they were hit with a torp and that no aircraft were attacking. As mentioned in a prior bug post, this ship probably should have sunk, but it didn't. The threat evasion to aircraft seems excessive and screws with amphibious assaults that would likely push through any defense to make the landing. Then, at other times, ships are excessively damaged by bombing near misses. When consolidating LCUs, there is a lot of clicking around to find components and send them to a common location. The "Back" button often forgets the path back through child and parent units, forcing a restart of the process.

As for UIUX, I have a few comments. To enjoy this game, you have to really love the WITP:AE engine and UI. I always thought the land combat there was tedious, so I was interested to see how it has been interpreted for a land-heavy campaign like the Spanish Civil War. The developers have produced a faithfully accurate interface. The WITP:AE engine (IMO) was designed for heavy air/sea operations with land combat as a secondary matter. Great for island-hopping across the Pacific; less great in China. There is a reason the developers moved away from this engine for WITE/WITW.

Integrating some additional quality of life improvements, like the Commander's Report and OrBat from WITE2 would be a great start. There are 1,000s of little LCUs that make up more integrated units (columns) that can be assembled and separated, retaining their original identity, which is really cool - an improvement on WITP:AE where regiments lose their identity once assembled into parent divisions. There is a ton of clicking around to consolidate columns into viable fighting units. I appreciate the thought behind Ground Unit Planning, but I have always felt it was too limiting and not really clear about the benefits. In island hopping, it works ok because usually the island is the target, but in an overland campaign, is the target the ultimate goal (i.e., Palma) or the landing beach, or each intermediate town and pueblo along the way?

I am by no means a game designer, but I do have to ask if using the War in the East 2 UI wouldn't have been the better choice? Its a headache even to see what unit is attached to whom, War in the East 2 had lines and color coding depending on HQ. Using that as the basis and then simply copying the War in the Pacific UI for Task Forces and such I think would have produced a more, how to say, "visible" UI. Though honestly, perhaps a new UI that takes inspiration at most would be much better since the UI's of both games are quite old and by no means ideal. Though I much prefer the War in the East 2 one for a land war. In War in the East 2 you can see unit sizes and their position in the OOB at a glance, often without clicking, in War in Spain I feel like I have to shake the game down for the same information. As of now all you see on the map is a display of Assault Value.

My next gripe is the Operations report that desperately needs at least a way to filter messages. Its filled to the brim with messages that are just no relevant all the time and if you want to check by hand what units arrived where, you have to open it, scroll to the bottom, click on the unit, check it out and then open it again and scroll until find your previous position (at least if you remember what unit you last clicked on - sounds stupid, but I at least get confused with the names and just don't have a great memory when it comes to things like that).

And the sidebar - I believe there could have been more elegant solutions. I am not quite sure why it wasnt baked into the UI and is instead that floating window thats also in the way most of the time since its obstructing whatever its floating over.

Bottom line is that the game desperately needs ways to more efficiently display information and to especially filter said information. I am the commander in chief after all who has to micro manage the entire Spanish civil war on his own with no subordinates to delegate all this to - I dont want to fight the game's UI all the time. Especially because its a game I'd love to succeed. This could be THE game on the Spanish civil war.