your dreams about witp 2 :)

[wdolson]

Before anyone starts raising money on kickstarter or any other group sourced funding sites, a team for developing this should be put together. The AE team is largely unavailable now. Life got in the way for many of us. Even if there was enough money there to pay me to develop WitP2 as a full time job, I don't have the free time, I'm fully committed to a major software project.

On top of the software, there is need for art, map development, organizing the OOB (even if the same OOB is used, someone needs to convert the data to the new formats).

Bill

[btd64]

How about just using the game as is and adding the ETO, the med, the USSR, north sea, Atlantic, etc. Start in 12/07/41. Thats when the game engine starts anyway. I believe. Convoys across the pond. Ground war in USSR( although the ground part of the game may need just a little work) Naval and air battles in the med. Airbourne assaults on crete, etc.[8D]
Cheers

[zuluhour]

I dream enough about this version.[8D]

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

Before anyone starts raising money on kickstarter or any other group sourced funding sites, a team for developing this should be put together. The AE team is largely unavailable now. Life got in the way for many of us. Even if there was enough money there to pay me to develop WitP2 as a full time job, I don't have the free time, I'm fully committed to a major software project.

On top of the software, there is need for art, map development, organizing the OOB (even if the same OOB is used, someone needs to convert the data to the new formats).

Bill

Hi Bill,

As far as getting it set up so the Axis can have multiple nationalities, would it involve a major rewrite of the code to add one or two nationalities to the Axis side? Or, at the very least, can it be set up in a future patch so that IJA and IJN can have different base icons? I know there are many people who would like to apply the WitP engine to other theaters of war and this one tweak would be a major help for that. Thanks. [:)]

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

I dream enough about this version.[8D]

I don't think there is anything "wrong" with AE. It's just a fact that there are several constraints to it that make it difficult to apply it to the ETO. There are only so many scenarios one can create for the PTO before things get redundant. Being able to apply the WitP engine to other theaters of operation or even other wars of relatively the same time period would breathe a LOT of extra life into the game. I would think a few decisive tweaks to the game could open a LOT of new doors for modding. Modding is the life blood of almost any game. For some of us, tinkering is playing.

[berto]

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Because it is essentially a DOS era GUI.  The things which one commonly finds in Windows based GUI, utilising the full range of windows tools, are just not possible with this GUI.  A completely new engine would be required.  That was completely out of scope for AE development...

The graphics and interface are fine IMO. Graphics sizes could be increased just a little maybe and perhaps improvements to the "spreadsheets" available to the gamer could be done. WitP is a classic and a very elegant design. It really gets to the basics of wargaming I think. I don't think it can really be improved upon in terms of the GUI, without making it an entirely different gaming experience. Most of us don't want a radically different game experience, we just want to see WitP live on and get better. [:)]

+1

All I ask for is the ability to drag and drop UI windows out of the way. Too often UI windows center over the area of current map interest. Solve that problem, and anything else is just icing on the cake.

[wdolson]

In at least some cases you can move the screen under the popup window by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen. It isn't 100%, but it helps.

Bill

[berto]

I do that. It helps. But you're right. It isn't 100%.

[Czert]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

Before anyone starts raising money on kickstarter or any other group sourced funding sites, a team for developing this should be put together. The AE team is largely unavailable now. Life got in the way for many of us. Even if there was enough money there to pay me to develop WitP2 as a full time job, I don't have the free time, I'm fully committed to a major software project.

On top of the software, there is need for art, map development, organizing the OOB (even if the same OOB is used, someone needs to convert the data to the new formats).

Bill

Well, having team which developed with to develop witp2 will be great bonus, but i think even if completly new team will develop game, it will have enough of guarding dogs to preven it to go wrong way .

[jmalter]

to return to the 'wish list' idea, hear are a few of mine:

- Map - provide black hexsides to approximate some mapping aids. Say, 180^ west longitude & the longitude-lines 60^ east & west of it, also the Equator & the Tropic meridians (Cancer & Capricorn). The current map has a v. unusual projection, & I think it has permanently distorted my notions of Earth's geography!

- SubTFs - add the ability to rank targets in a desired 'order of priority', between escorts, combatants, transports & tankers. Also, add at least some minimal improvement to combat capabilities of multi-sub 'wolf-packs', maybe only for late-war USN boats, & of course dependent on the TF commander's skills.

- LCUs - add a factor to combat formations that helps them when in command-range of their parent HQs. This needn't mess w/ their ability to draw supply, but should definitely affect their combat performance, target-training, & ability to receive replacements & TOE upgrades.

- Airgroups - As I see it, the current pipeline produces newb pilots w/ basic air-skill qualifications in 'trainer-type' planes. But their subsequent transfer to training in high-performance airframes was a big transition, and the current game does not adequately model the high losses of airframes & pilots in training accidents. The phrase "One a day at Tampa Bay" comes to mind. I can see where assigning training groups to low altitude & range=0 reduces their fatigue build-up, but my training groups only rarely suffer damage to an air-frame & never lose a pilot. In actuality, training losses were huge. The game should better model these losses, taking into account the mid/late war improvement to USA pipeline pilots, as well as the IJ's deterioration of same. IMO, training losses should put an additional, higher strain on a player's aircraft & pilot pools.

- 4E bomber repair - my B-29s (service level 5) just don't repair their damaged/maintenance planes. Even when 'stood down' at lvl9 airfields w/ >twice the number of needed airsupport, each sqn has a number of hangar-queens that won't repair. If I transfer a sqn to another base, its left-behind damaged planes will gradually repair - but nearly all other damaged planes won't repair, even those w/ an estimated 1-2 day delay. Rant!

[sherlock1]

Would like to be able to construct roads, rail lines, and also to be able to bomb them too. Priority targets for naval attacks. Better coordinated air attacts. Still WITP AE is one great game

[LargeSlowTarget]

My current wish list

- TF / LCU "awaiting orders" jump lists
- additional ship class "Misc" for modding purposes
- restrict coastal craft (like barges, HDML etc. anything under say 100 tons) to coastal hexes - no ocean movement (> routing orders "coastal" default)
- additional TF "Local ASW" for YPs, HDMLs etc.
- make it easier to distinguish between Local TFs and CS Convoys vs. ordinary TFs > either distinct icons (e.g. different color of ship symbol) or option to toggle display of local TFs and CS convoys on/off
- separate sets of aviation support etc. by side or even nation > lower build rates for Japan than for Allies (in current game Japan fields the same number of aircraft mechanics as all the Allies combined)

[Misconduct]

My only request is WITP be renamed to War on the Logistics. (I still hate that damn first turn)

[LeeChard]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Because it is essentially a DOS era GUI.  The things which one commonly finds in Windows based GUI, utilising the full range of windows tools, are just not possible with this GUI.  A completely new engine would be required.  That was completely out of scope for AE development.

Just about everything which people regularly clamour to see in a WITP II cannot be done without writing a new engine.  The cost in both development dollars, time and labour would be astronomical and most likely not recoverable from sales, let alone leaving any surplus for profit.  That is why Gary Grigsby recycles so much old code in his games.

Alfred

In many cases you can get to the area by clicking on the subject in a list already. For example you can do it from a task force in the task force button, a ship from the ships button, etc.
But maybe doing the same from an ops report is different because of it's coding. I know practically nothing of how those wizards accomplish such wonderful things[&o]

[mind_messing]

WitP 2, for me...


Essential improvements would be:

- clampdown on clicking, or the advance of automation: the ability to create, save and load templates for the altitude and mission settings of air units. The ability to set up training groups to graduate pilots when skills pass a threshold set by the player. Overhauled auto-convoy system, based on the players requirements versus computers interpretation of shipping demand - "Create Cargo TF of ten Aden Cargo's and 2 Ansyu C PB's at Taiko." would route the nearest 12 unassigned ships matching requirements.

- better accessibility of statistics: want to know the statistics of a IJA Rifle Squad? Right click on it in the LCU popup window. Want to know the effect of a 4 pounder AT gun? Right click it in the LCU window. What are the statistics of the Type 284 radar? Right click on the ship window.

-overhauled UI: mouseover windows are your friend. Want to know what Inspiration effects? Hold your mouse over it for a few seconds. What does support do? Mouseover. Stacking limits? You get the idea.

What would be nice:

- new ground combat model: based on frontage. In a 46 mile hex, you can only squeeze so many troops along a frontline, so mega-stacks would only have a handfull of units actually taking part in combat while the rest are in reserve. Units would be fight, be withdrawn and replaced with units already in the reserve, only then to be commited to the defense later on in the battle and so forth. This would go a long way towards making ground combat more historical (eg a Japanese division commander destroys his division because his high aggressiveness made him keep up a forlorn attack, or poor the poor Land skill of a Chinese corps commander means his attacks aren't co-ordinated) and move the results of mega-stack battles from short term affairs to longer term affairs.

- dynamic PP system: if Okinawa is under threat, Japanese High Command shouldn't care if the crack IJA division sitting idle in Shanghai is part of the Chinese Expeditionary Force or not. On the other hand, the Allies should be penalized if Austrailian industry is shutting down for lack of fuel