Eventually!!

[desert dawg]

I say leave the sounds and skins to the modders. Erik you just keep improving the mechanics of the game. For CM the modders have done INCREDIBLE jobs with sounds and skins. And, as you say, the core game should be left alone so that the lower end computers can play and we, the gamers, have an increased amount of players to play against. My 2 pennies.

[PDiFolco]

I'm more disappointed by Buildings textures than vehicles. They really look bad from close, it reminds me of CMBO before mods...

About arty, I'd also like to be able to adjust fire manually. But a bigger problem to me is that arty is weak : a Nebelwerfer, Katyusha or 150mm barrage doesn't not even pin much infantry running in the open, the kill radius seem very small.

[Capitaine]

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco

About arty, I'd also like to be able to adjust fire manually. But a bigger problem to me is that arty is weak : a Nebelwerfer, Katyusha or 150mm barrage doesn't not even pin much infantry running in the open, the kill radius seem very small.

That could well be true, especially when using artillery on offense (being weak). Thing to me is, though, that if artillery is made more effective it could be absolutely determinative of the battle. In some sense, I don't think artillery fits well in this game except providing smoke to the attackers. Using artillery is very, maybe too simple. There are no spotting rounds and correction process that we all remember from ASL. Once called, forget your LOS to the target. Also, you have unlimited missions.

If truly effective artillery existed, how unbalancing would it be?

I like realism, but duelling artillery barrages is not much fun.

[Mraah]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
During development, we actually imported a Theater of War Sherman with textures into Panzer Command and guess what? It looked just as good as it looks in TOW, but it was (IIRC) a 6,000 poly model with a high res texture and ours are 1,500 polys. That means that for your average system, you can have three times as many tanks in a battle in Panzer Command as in TOW before your machine cries "Uncle!". Our goal was to both make lower end systems (which are common among wargamers) work well with Panzer Command and also to allow big battles to be realistically possible. We did have to make some compromises to achieve that.

Erik,

If and when you raise your poly count, please keep the old 1500 polys available.
Create an option in the config menu to allow the user to load which set of models he prefers ... such as

1. LOW = 1500
2. MED = 3000
3. HIGH = 6000

or whatever. I know you'd have three different directories of models but you'll be able to keep your target audience for both high and low ends machines. Plus, if someone with a high end machine wants to run a huge battle he can drop it down to MED or LOW to maintain the frame rate without sacrificing game play. Even a toggle during the game would be nice.

Thanks,
Rob

[Mobius]

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco
I'm more disappointed by Buildings textures than vehicles. They really look bad from close, it reminds me of CMBO before mods...
About arty, I'd also like to be able to adjust fire manually. But a bigger problem to me is that arty is weak : a Nebelwerfer, Katyusha or 150mm barrage doesn't not even pin much infantry running in the open, the kill radius seem very small.

Rocket artillery probably would be much stronger if it were to arrive all in one turn. But it generally takes about 10-15 minutes to reload a rocket battery so that is about 8 turns between calls at the very least.

Artillery calling and radio contact is abstracted even from the table top rules. There the target importance is a factor in both receiving artillery support and the duration of the barrage.

There are enemy counter-batteries out there. If your artillery was called for trivial matters of just knocking out one anti-tank gun a counter strike on your battery might cost it several 105mm howitzers for bagging that one 76mm gun. Everytime your artillery fires it just doesn't cost shells. It may expose itself and be forced to relocate thus denying artillery support to other units for a considerable length of time.

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

NefariousKoel

I think Erik said that is already in "to a degree" and performed by the AI.

I certainly noticed that the 105mm arty I used in the second bootcamp mission pretty much stayed on top of the Russian trucks.

Well, you have a point there. The AI does seem to adjust it reasonably. I was referring to the initial placement, as I can't really see where the sheaf is supposed to stretch until after I place it... and then it's too late.

Oh well, the AI does a decent job of moving it for me even if it extends off in a direction I didn't necessarily plan when placing it.

[JudgeDredd]

Yes initial placement is an issue. At present, you cannot adjust it...you have to live with where you place it. But that's what Erik was talking about earlier when he mentioned wanting to have some sort of targeting overlay so you could see where your shots will land.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd
And I do understand about the graphics issues. But, as I've said many a time, I'm a graphics whore. I have a relatively powerful system and I like to use it.

Yep, I do understand. Given more time and resources, I think adding another higher level of models and textures will be possible, but does take time. In the meanwhile, modders will pretty much be setting the bar higher I expect as they release higher poly models and higher res textures.

Anyway...back to boot camp 3 where I just lost 2 half tracks to mines!!

Well, if it makes you feel better that's exactly what happened to me the first time I played that one.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Grotius
My pet peeve actually isn't vehicle models; I think they look pretty good. I'm more put off by the infantry walking and running animations. But, I can live with them.

Ok, I'll add to the wish list to take another look at those. What bothers you about them, exactly?

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: dennisb55
I agree with many of the Judge's comments, especially about 'plotting' the arty in the orders phase. If there can't be a overlay of where it's being called on, then you should at least be able to redo the placement before you hit the 'continue' arrow.

Being able to view the briefing during the play would be nice.

I agree with both of these suggestions. What we're aiming for is to allow you to see the target markers as you're mving around the arty target before you place it for good.

I'd like to be able to turn on the 'coins' only for the enemy.  I know, there's always something...

Hm, if you play one side you could aways mod that side's coins to be blank/transparent.

I'd like to have one infantry squad target a tank to try and make it button up before another squad tries to gain position to close assault.  But whenever I tried it in the bootcamp I'd just get a grey line.  Maybe some explaination for the grey line would help.

Hm, this actually used to work. I think when we added a new AI penetration check in Kharkov it inadvertently "rolled over" to the human targeting side too. Will check.

More rollovers.

Clarify, please?

Sound:  All the sounds you'd ever need are in SPWAW.  If they aren't public domain by now, maybe you could talk to Alby and see if you can get some for PZCmd.  As for the voices, well I think you all knew they were going to be complained about and can fix them later. 

True about SPWAW and we certainly could use some of those. Perhaps some of the SPWAW folks might get interested in helping out with that?

Graphics: Good enough for me, but that's not saying a lot.  I think it's good that the graphics were kept as a secondary priority and the focus was on gameplay and design.  There are many eyecandy games that people can buy.  To have it all at this time isn't a possibility, especially with the smaller shops and large performance range of installed computers.  With a niche product like this, you need as large a customer base as possible and can't afford to tailor to the high-end users.  But keep optimizing PZCmd and you can probably improve it.  Every so often some genius comes up with a major breakthrough which jumps the industry forward.  Wouldn't it be great if the video cards supported circles internally?  Sorry about the rant.

Well, I don't see the graphics as below-par except when compared to mainstream 3D games with 10x-100x the development budget (I count TOW in that group), so I actually feel pretty good about them. Within this niche, I think only CMSF really exceeds the graphics and it has higher minimum specs and can't handle as many units on the battle at a time (from what I've seen, but I haven't tried 1.08 yet).

We'll definitely keep improving though, but to start with our main concern is to make sure as many gamers as possible can play the game.

Phases: Works for me.  I just have to remember I won't be able to get real control back for 80 seconds.
Command entry: Also good with me.  Seems like you need some more formations though.  However, I could probably set up any formation by positioning the units with individual move commands and then using the leader's move commands since they maintain position.  But that doesn't simulate the searching/covering archs used in certain formations.
Overall, I didn't get into CM but this one seems different.  Don't know exactly why but I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the HUD and role playing aspect (core units).
If you don't mind I'll continue playing and throwing out ideas, sorry if I'm wasting your time.

Not at all, thanks for the feedback and keep it up! I'm glad you're having fun.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: z1812
PCK is a breath of fresh air. I have only finished the Tutorial, messed with a few of the scenarios and looked at the editors. But after 10 hours of play I can say as a game it "feels right". It is what a version 1 should be. ( how many games have this level of quality at version 1 ) A little rough around the edges but with no great flaws. At least as far as I see. Imagine what PCK may be like after 8 patches..............

So while the graphics may not be cutting edge, they are more than adequate. The game play certainly is much, much more than adequate.

Thank you, that's exactly what we were hoping folks would see.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Rick
I actually have a bigger issue with posture - I'm still unsure that the squads are adopting a different posture when they reach their destination. I'm going set something up to see if I can check this, but besides the posture grpahic, I was sure the unit orders also didn't change for me.

If by posture you mean whether they no longer count as having the Rush order, then no. However, they should animate back to kneeling when they reach their destinatinon, then start of the next phase they should auto-switch back to Defend.

One more possibility might be an options setting for "better models" (or use the very detailed setting), then have a flag set to point to different mod version of the same vehicle.

Something like that is what we're hoping to do in the future so that we can continue to support the low end and extend the high end.

I sure hope Erik doesn't increase the minimum system graphics too much for the next release (well unless he's going to make us wait two years for next one).

Only a little - I think we'd like to keep the low end at about the same point in terms of what it represents vs. the 'average' system when the game is released.

I'm really enjoying the BootCamp campaign I'm up to the last battle now.

Excellent, that one's quite fun, more like a real battle than the others.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: desert dawg
I say leave the sounds and skins to the modders. Erik you just keep improving the mechanics of the game. For CM the modders have done INCREDIBLE jobs with sounds and skins. And, as you say, the core game should be left alone so that the lower end computers can play and we, the gamers, have an increased amount of players to play against. My 2 pennies.

Thanks, I do hope and expect that modders will help fill the demand for this between now and the next release. And we'll do all we can to support them.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco
I'm more disappointed by Buildings textures than vehicles. They really look bad from close, it reminds me of CMBO before mods...

Hm, seriously? I loved CMBO, but I think your memory may be deceiving you a bit here. See the pics below from unmodded CMBO and compare. I think the buildings sit a lot better than that. Is there a specific building that looks bad to you or all of them?

About arty, I'd also like to be able to adjust fire manually. But a bigger problem to me is that arty is weak : a Nebelwerfer, Katyusha or 150mm barrage doesn't not even pin much infantry running in the open, the kill radius seem very small

Are you sure they're not just firing off target? I have seen excellent results with artillery and they _should_ do a lot of suppression, especially for the higher caliber artillery.

[Erik Rutins]

And another original CMBO...

[Erik Rutins]

A Kharkov shot to compare...

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Mraah
If and when you raise your poly count, please keep the old 1500 polys available.
Create an option in the config menu to allow the user to load which set of models he prefers ... such as

1. LOW = 1500
2. MED = 3000
3. HIGH = 6000

or whatever. I know you'd have three different directories of models but you'll be able to keep your target audience for both high and low ends machines. Plus, if someone with a high end machine wants to run a huge battle he can drop it down to MED or LOW to maintain the frame rate without sacrificing game play. Even a toggle during the game would be nice.

Right, something like that is what we'd like to do to maintain performance for the low and and allow high end folks to get their full eye candy. But more models or more textures takes more time and resources, so we'll see what we can do.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd
Yes initial placement is an issue. At present, you cannot adjust it...you have to live with where you place it. But that's what Erik was talking about earlier when he mentioned wanting to have some sort of targeting overlay so you could see where your shots will land.

Yes, that's what I'm saying - I'd like to make the process of calling it in more informative.

[junk2drive]

I'm wondering what graphics setting people are using from the settings menu? At low on my 64mb GPU the game really looks poor. Still better than the CMBO shots above.

[Mraah]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Right, something like that is what we'd like to do to maintain performance for the low and and allow high end folks to get their full eye candy. But more models or more textures takes more time and resources, so we'll see what we can do.

Erik,

Absolutely no rush Erik ... like desert dawg said... you stick to the mechanics.