Matrix Games Forums

For a game of this magnitude you all should be thankful it has a workable AI at all. It's worth the money for the PBEM game alone really. This is just one of those gems in the rough and those that are specifically solo players should really give this one a try in multiplayer mode. This is one of those games of "Don't do as I do, Do as I say" Once you've experienced the multiplayer game of this you'll find it hard to go back to playing it solo imho.

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

For a game of this magnitude you all should be thankful it has a workable AI at all. It's worth the money for the PBEM game alone really. This is just one of those gems in the rough and those that are specifically solo players should really give this one a try in multiplayer mode. This is one of those games of "Don't do as I do, Do as I say" Once you've experienced the multiplayer game of this you'll find it hard to go back to playing it solo imho.

This is exactly what I'm thinking.

Ditto[:D]

Gaming pushes hardware and software development like nothing else.  So in 15 yrs, we can all look back as even older gamers and talk about how the AI at the turn of the century had to walk 2 miles up hill to make a good decision.
 
Still, playing is fun, which says it all. 
 
yamma

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

For a game of this magnitude you all should be thankful it has a workable AI at all.

THAT's for sure! I tried porting just the map for this game several years ago (so we could store the locations of the chits, and thus be able to put the game away between sessions). I gave up after about a month of coding.

Now, some of the interface stuff is easier than the map was, but still, there's a PILE of stuff in this game that has to be coded to make it work. The map alone would be child's play compared to the whole game, but I got myself stuck on just doing the map!

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

For a game of this magnitude you all should be thankful it has a workable AI at all. It's worth the money for the PBEM game alone really. This is just one of those gems in the rough and those that are specifically solo players should really give this one a try in multiplayer mode. This is one of those games of "Don't do as I do, Do as I say" Once you've experienced the multiplayer game of this you'll find it hard to go back to playing it solo imho.

I agree completely. And, I would suggest that, after the first round of bugs gets worked out, that a couple of PBEM games be set up via this forum. We should probably specify that the purpose is to shake out bugs, not to win, right up front. That will avoid some odd end-cases in the first pass at this.

As the game progresses, a "secretary" could give play-by-play analysis on two fronts:

1) Game and UI mechanics, plus
2) strategy and tactics, including how they worked.

I could personally not care less whether I win the first (second? third?) game I play or not. I would rather play that one with open strategizing of some kind:

GB: Hey, Russia! I'm thinking of attacking Sweden and seeing how a war works if you get control and decide to fight me over it. How do you think it will work out?

Russia: I think France and I will clean your clock, but we'll never get you to surrender except informally.

GB: Possibly.

Russia: Yeah, but then you would get to keep Sweden!

GB: I was hoping you wouldn't notice that little detail.

Anyhow, you get the idea. A game not for gaming's sake (winning and losing), but one for learning.

I have to say (not sure why I have to say it, but it sounds good) that I am really impressed with the quality of the game. I have bought several games here (Forge of Freedom, Guns of August to name 2) and loved them, but they all required corrections of a couple of bugs when they initially came out. (again, not to be critical, I love those games, and I accept that a couple of bugs will slip through the testing process)

Thus far I have played 4 games without any significant bug/crash/problem. It took me a little while to familiarize myself with the UI, but the few things that I thought were bugs, were just me doing things incorrectly. I have to give a lot of credit to Marshall and the rest of the team for putting out a remarkably clean game.


Alex

there is no reason to really complain about any games, best one can do is, come with suggestions about possible fixes, that will give the game designers possible new insights on flaws, bugs and improvements.

The AI is weak but this is a multiplayer game and is most fun played with other humans. Humans got emotions and are unpredictable and not always logical, that makes for a much more varied and challenging game. What makes this game so great is the human interaction, the shifting alliances and different territorial goals of the players. And I must say that I found this game remarkably stable out of the box, not crashed once for me and as far as I see all core stuff works, it is however hard to get information, especially dipolomatic updates and where is Kingdom of Italy and Westphalia? I'm really happy that the game was finally done for computers since it is hard to find 6 other people in real life that can play regularly, even if that adds alot to the game I'm not really going to miss all the times the counters been tossed around the map (even if they looked nicer :p)

This game is really stable and for pbem i sense this will be a blockbuster.
 
However a correct and enjoyable AI will be really appreciated not only by gamers but for the game itself, raising its appeal to a wider range of audience; because this game, with a decent AI will be attractive as it was Europa Universalis years ago or even Imperialism years and years ago [:)].
 
I am sure Matrix will take a look on feedback and will work on it [;)]

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

For a game of this magnitude you all should be thankful it has a workable AI at all. It's worth the money for the PBEM game alone really. This is just one of those gems in the rough and those that are specifically solo players should really give this one a try in multiplayer mode. This is one of those games of "Don't do as I do, Do as I say" Once you've experienced the multiplayer game of this you'll find it hard to go back to playing it solo imho.

[X(]Now that says alot coming from ravinhood...are you a fanboy ravinhood?[:'(][:D][;)]
Those are my thoughts to the letter and i must say that there are no major bugs/ctd's stopping us from playing this monster, just learning an advanced games' rules. The fact that people who've played the boardgame have been playing all along just points out how much the developers goal has been achieved. My frustration is with myself and my dwindling attention span these days...i will persevere as soon as my manual gets here[&o].