Greetings

[Archy]

Hi everyone,

I have found this gem recently. Unfortunatly it's not out, but i have not played RDOA or HTTR ever. I have played games like HOI2 , wwiionline, and other similar games. I was a bit dissapointed not to find any demos of RDOA or HTTR, but i am sure the games rock solid. I live and montreal and was wondering if i could find those games around here maybe in a best buy (they just started building those here, next to future shops, why are they making competition to themselves?). I have been reading the Miniguide AAR and the previews and basicly this whole forum.

Basicly i had about 2 single questions, how is the multiplayer population ? is it easy to find a game or very hard ? I love single player but i can see the potential of this game in multiplayer scenarios. I dont know what to say i have kind of been looking for a game that has this ammount of strategy involved for a very long time. I am sold to this already even though i have never even played RDOA or HTTR. My second question would be related to multiplayer too. Is it stricly 1vs1 in mp scenarios or can you have 2 vs 2 scenarios or more ?

Thanks to everyone on this board already.

[MarkShot]

I have played EU2, Victoria, and just a little HOI1.

I think the thing you are going to like best about this game engine is the ability to delegate control to the AI (macro-manage) or totally micro-manage as you see fit. Additionally, you will find that the OPFOR AI and AI subordinates under your command do a very competent and believable job as military commanders. You won't be asking questions like "Do the Allies ever invade Europe in any serious way?".

Glad you found the mini-guides useful.

HTTR is still for sale from Matrix via download (although I have seen boxed versions new on the Web from NWS for around $19 USD).

[Archy]

Thanks you mark

Can you enlighten me on the multiplayer questions ?


Edit : thank you for finding the RDOA demo, i'm sure HTTR and COTA are much more improved. But i still will get a slight idea. Thank you again.

[MarkShot]

I never play MP myself. My impression has been that most of the community plays SP.

The RDOA demo ... well, I had emailed you so as to not be seen passing out links to the demo (meaning to do that low profile) ... oh, well ...

A decision was made after RDOA that a demo for subsequent games would not be produced:

(1) Feedback from the demo indicated that since many downloaders didn't instantly grasp the game and begin playing effectively that the demo was perhaps doing more harm than good in terms of sales.

(2) Producing a demo consumes resources which might have been used more profitably on developing new game features instead.

(3) By now the RDOA demo is no longer a very close representation of what the engine has to offer. Although it still illustrates the key features of the engine's lineage.

(4) RDOA was published by www.battlefront.com and not www.matrixgames.com.

In any case, have fun with the demo. Next time, I'll have to remember to mark my email as private.

[Archy]

Thank you for the information, I'm sorry about the whole demo thing it looked like a public page and had no idea it was private, or not to be divulged.
I am not an easy gamer to please , but i find myself coming back to the basics very often. I do not need fancy 3D to enjoy a game , at all.

What i see in RDOA demo is great already to me, the fact that it was published by some other company might have had an impact on the sales.
I find matrix games to have much more exposure since a few years. Sorry again about all that.

Oh i am also a music producer, composer, musician, sound engeneer, i own a recording studio and have worked many styles and genres. I would be pleased to compose a few military themes in the future to add to this gem. It really deserves it.

[MarkShot]

The demo is public ... it was just my email which was private.

Well, make sure to read all your email (private), there is more.

Thanks.

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Archy
how is the multiplayer population ? is it easy to find a game or very hard ? I love single player but i can see the potential of this game in multiplayer scenarios.

Hi,

First a word of warning about the RDOA demo - I didn't like it - it felt too small, too cramped, but I saw the engine had potential and HTTR made the leap forward that first convinced me, then hooked me.

MP : what can I say - I love it - it's one thing playing a smart AI, but playing MP adds a whole new dimension to the game. Going by the HTTR forum there's no shortage of players willing to play MP, but it's a bit dependant on your schedule and timezone. If you happen to live on Easter Island and can only play on Monday 1800-2000 hours you might have a problem

What follows is the best MP review of HTTR ever written - by Giftzwerg on UseNet's war-historical newsgroup - enjoy the read :

- Quote -

Got into a pretty wild little game the other night. In the "Deelen" scenario, my friend Bob took the Germans, and me the English, setting additional reinforcements for the Germans.

So. Down come my parachutes and gliders, and I march cheerfully into Arnhem. Not a German in sight. Nowhere. Nothing but British boots clattering on the cobblestones, and Dutch girls blowing kisses.

The 52nd Division lands. Still no contact. I'm holding all the relevant objectives, Arnhem, bridges, objectives ... and sending out patrols to pretty fair distances, but still no Germans. Oh, I glimpse a few here and there, exchange a little long-range fire with my scouts, but nothing. The only Germans I've really had any contact with are the
few immobile garrison-guys stuck in town and quickly wiped out. So I hunker down in a big pocket around all the objectives, dig in deep, and wait for Bob to send some attacks my way.

Ha-ha. Who's better than me? Toppa the world, Ma!

Except. Days go by. I'm thinking, "What the fuck is he up to? Am I going to see, like, a huge wooden horse trundling up to my frontlines?"

On Day 5 (!), as I'm swilling a martini (literally) and knitting a banner to welcome XXX Corps (figuratively) ... my picket line picks up some Germans directly north of Arnhem.

<blinks> More than a few Germans, actually.

<frowning> Really a goodly number of them.

<nervous laughter> In fact, rather an alarming gaggle of Germans.

<panicky> Can that be two whole divisions of 'em?

[I'm imagining a scene were a runner dashes up to General Urquart and Urquart asks, "Germans, you say? How many of them?" and the messenger blurts: "Looks like *all of them*, sir!"]

As I try to arrange The Mother Of All Hasty Redeployments, this huge wedge of Germans - Bob had actually gathered up every single last German unit that could walk, roll, or crawl - crashes into the two brigades of the 52nd holding the northern flank. The little brown "speed bumps" held briefly ... then disappeared under a roiling ball of explosion
graphics and black/grey squares.

Both systems are chugging like crazy and the minute counter is updating sloooooowly; I'm imagining the casualty meter spinning like an odometer gone mad. There had to be ... I dunno ... 20,000 Germans packed into a space of two kilometers square, running for the Rhine.

Well, anyhow, so much for the entire 52nd Lowland Division; they're a grease spot with a hobnailed bootprint on it. <skirling of bagpipes>

The other four brigades (counting the intrepid glider pilots...) have now gotten themselves sorted out - turned around, actually, since the headlong German advance bounces off the Lower Rhine and is now firmly fixed between two neat red rows - and are starting to pound the Germans mercilessly. My "brilliant" contribution to the affair is to give them
all "attack" tasks inwards, onto the German mass which is now pretty much surrounded ... but still blazing away with everything they've got.

Whoa, Mohammed.

At this point, the two PCs have gone bananas, what with all the little "blings" and pages of scrolling text as the game systems record units routing, units surrendering, and units disappearing forever. My laptop's fan is making a sort of strained groaning sound, and heavy graphics load has got the hot air coming out feeling like the defroster
on an F450 truck up full.

[Bob goes, "Uh, we outta save this off, dude, in case one ... or both ... of your PCs goes tits-up on us..."]

There are so many Germans packed into a tiny little space next to the bridge, and so many Paras surrounding them, that the graphic on the screen looks like a child's drawing of a demented, twitching 8-ball soaked in blood.

It's like, 10:00 AM. Only.

There's really no semblance of command (where are we gonna go?), just hundreds of units set to "Fastest/Quickest/Max/Rapid/Max" blasting the fuck-all out of each other. Neither side dares to try and turn away,
since that would invite complete disaster...

...so, uh, it pretty much ends up in "complete disaster" for both sides. As dusk falls, the smoking, radioactive embers of each force disengage. And there ain't many of 'em left. I've got a battalion of Poles, pretty
much undamaged, holding the railroad bridge, and Bob has a big flock of artillerymen up north. So I send the poles to stand on the mountain of souvenirs that used to be about four divisions of troops.

Ha. I "win."

I go, "Well, that turned out to be the stupidest friggin' game we ever played."

Bob sniffs, "Well, next time I'll make my Klingon Attack-Wedge wide enough to squash your *whole* force. Important Safety Tip."

Cool. Let's go again!

- end quote -

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Archy]

Hehe, sounds like a massacre for both sides Nice reading.

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: MarkShot
A decision was made after RDOA that a demo for subsequent games would not be produced:

(1) Feedback from the demo indicated that since many downloaders didn't instantly grasp the game and begin playing

I can concur...I downloaded the demo - but hated it...just didn't understand it. A year later, and (I think) £10 cheaper and I bought it retail and fell in love.