Great game but a few problems!

[philsublime]

Hello everyone, this is my first post in this forum!

I really love FG. It's an excellent game, offering a lot of possibilities in the future!

But there are a few problems:

1. The Bug already discussed, about "healing units" by using the hardware inspector
2. I noticed a strange thing yesterday: I loaded the BritishSteel scenario, which I started a day before. I already played like 10 turns, but when I loaded it, the clock and turns were all reseted, just like I started the scenario. Did this happen to anyone else? Another thing I noticed in this scenario, was that my advance before saving the game was underway pretty good. After loading the game though, I got wiped away in a matter of minutes. Is this just me or did the enemy get really strong all out of the sudden?
3. The last thing is the fact, that the AI is not the strongest I have ever seen. I'm not a pro wargamer, but I can beat the WP forcces on the highest difficulty setting without problems.

But besides this thing, I'm really happy with the game!

[IronManBeta]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the game.

Point #1 has been fixed and will come out in version 1.0.1. I am trying valiantly to finish it up but keep spotting just 'one more thing to change'. Then we have to test of course, and by then there are more things to consider changing.[;)]

#2. This is new to me. Are you absolutely sure that you restored the saved game and did not just start the same scenario all over again? If not, were the units all where you had last left them and only the clock and turn indicator reset? This is very odd behaviour and I take it very seriously!

#3. AI. Yes, no AI is every going to challenge a human for very long, but it is enough to get a person going and can provide a fun challenge. The AI is actually my area of greatest interest and I am watching this forum closely for more ideas. There is no end of things that I could add to it, but I want to use my time effectively and target the improvements efficiently. If you could change just one thing about it, what would it be?

Thanks, Rob.

[philsublime]

Thanks for your quick answers.

I rechecked on the issue number 2. I'm sorry, I was wrong. It was probably a little late that day... I just loaded the savegame again, and everything is allright. So no problem with this one.

If I could change one thing about the AI... Well, what I noticed in the first scenario (soviet tank rush) was, that the AI doesn't try to cross rivers. It's really predictable where the push of the WP is coming from. If the AI tried to cross rivers and generally would make more use of flanking and probing, this would be a much bigger challenge. The thing is, in my opinion, that the scenarios are actually pretty balanced, so I wouldn't change anything like the "strength" of WP forces. The AI should just take a little bit more advantage of certain situations. I actually played this scenario from the WP side and beat the AI as well. Then I played it against a friend (who is, just like me by the way, a tank platoon leader in real life) and we had an outstanding battle. This was the moment I really started to love the game. It's not perfect yet, but in wargames, I think it's all about potential.

So keep up the good work and thanks for a great game!

[sarjen]

for #3:

• Better or say use at all of helicopters.
• Don't lead with HQ but with recce units
• Coordinate moves and not attack piecemeal

As for flanking and not river crossing ... i can not second that. I have seen now 2 river crossings and a lot of flanking, sometimes even rounding so far that OPFOR attacked me from behind. I think it depends on how many units the AI controls. The more the merrier the moves.

[iberian]

Hi Rob, for #3 I would say:

- Give the ability to the defending force to stay put in their sectors. Maybe, have the AI launch some recon enemy to spot the enemy and use artillery and air-units against it, but leave the main force on hold protecting the objective.

- Give the ability to the attacking force of coordinating the attack, leading the attack with an entire battalion on an appropiate frontage. Avoid the current piecemeal attack of company sized forces at all costs.

- Never have the AI attack without using some recon units before. Once enemy positions are located by these, use the full power of artillery to dislocate and supress the defending forces. Use several turns of artillery treatment. Only then launch the attack as previously described.

- Try to avoid having the AI attacking through areas that are not very realistic for an armored force. In "Soviet Push" I had tank companies attacking through forested hills. Doesn't sound too orthodox for armored battalions.


As an additional note, I've seen the AI cross rivers, so that's not a problem at all.

[philsublime]

River Crossing: You might be right. I have played the game for a relatively short amount of time, so maybe I'm not really able to tell. But I haven't noticed any major river crossings in a reaction to finding an alternative assault route. (forgive my english, it's kind of stupid...)

But in any case, I can totally agree with your point on coordinated attacks and not piecemeal. The AI seems to lose a lot of momentum because of uncoordinated attacks...

[IronManBeta]

Lots of good ideas here. Keep them coming, I am cut and pasting them directly into my notebook.

Ta, Rob.

[Poliorcetes]

I'd like the movement AI to quit traversing minefields that are well marked. In my PBEM game both I and my opponent are having a devil of a time keeping our units from deliberately running into minefields. In one case my units diverted up 1 square (the waypoint was due west, they went NW) to follow a road into a minefield. Nato has repeatedly run into his own minefields despite him announcing to me he is trying to avoid them.

Poliorcetes