Keep The Home Fires Burning

[SirRodneyOfGout]

Why do I get the feeling that GoA isn't going to be home for Christmas this year? There hasn't been anything official posted recently, no screen shots, no site, no beta test AARs, nada. And developing the new approach to AI isn't going to be easy - my project management "spidey sense" is tingling on this. [X(]

So Frank, is it stuck in the trenches, or is it going over the top soon? I'd rather wait for a good, finished product, but the silence is ominous...

[wodin]

I asked at the begining of the summer if I can expect this from Father Xmas. Things looked very hopefull.

However Frank had some problems and things were delayed.

[FrankHunter]

Well, its not looking good that's for sure. On the bright side, its ready to test as soon as the graphics are in. I played it this evening and got beat, just barely. The AI played the Central Powers. Never attacked Belgium, just garrisoned the front with France. Austria lightly garrisoned the Serbian front and both countries threw all they had against Russia. Due to not invading France and Belgium the British economy is "limited" for a year. Russia was hit pretty hard. Within 6 months all of Poland had been lost and Russia was getting close to cracking. In the west I was throwing the French army against the German fortifications and was losing a lot of troops. I didn't have the "Barrage points" to keep my artillery fed so I lost a lot of infantry. Early in 1915 I concentrated on Barrage points and by the summer began to reduce the German forts and trenches. With the Brits I really screwed up. I deployed some troops to Alexandria and following that launched an invasion south of Constantinople (Gallipoli). I had forgotten to deploy enough transports to the Med to supply them though and so they were immediately out of supply and eventually were lost. The only positive was that when I ended the game in 1916 the Germans were redeploying troops to the west and Austria had moved forces to Serbia and had taken most of it except Skopje in the south which took the pressure off Russia. I didn't see any bugs unless you count forgetting the sea supply rule.

[SirRodneyOfGout]

Wow, an AAR from the developer. Thanks Frank!

It sounds great. An AI able to select between vastly different strategies is well worth waiting for. My concern was (is) that the testing, and then tweaking, of this AI could take longer than testing a typical one-track AI approach.

I for one don't really care if it isn't released until sometime in 2005; I just didn't believe that an Xmas 2004 release still seemed reasonable.

Cheers!

[MisterX]

Some notes tough are there events like peace treaties ? I mean shouldnt Russia beg for peace if they lose Poland.

[FrankHunter]

There are no peace treaties. Countries keep going till their national will breaks. In the real war Russia lost Poland and did not ask for peace. Even little Belgium fought on after losing all of its major cities.

[Dirtdog20]

ORIGINAL: FrankHunter

There are no peace treaties. Countries keep going till their national will breaks. In the real war Russia lost Poland and did not ask for peace. Even little Belgium fought on after losing all of its major cities.

So we are to assume that once casualties and loss of lands drive a nations morale to a certain point the military forces are affected also? IE: 17 Mutany and the 18 Naval Mutany and the 17/18 revolutions in Russia?