February Update

[pasternakski]

ORIGINAL: HordesOfSerbs
That's bullshit and I know that from experience

Yeah, that's what I thought...

[Hanal]

I have never before witnessed so many "Monday Morning Quarterbacks" and "Backseat Drivers" that proliferate gaming forums like the ones I find here, and it is a shame that the developers have to read such tripe!....all of these nags need to head to Churchill Downs, rather than waste time, bitching, moaning, and groaning about the delay of a luxury/entertainment item....do people have real priorities or issues in their lives anymore, or has it indeed come down to the simple fact, that the delay of a GAME, can instill such fervor in those who are in need of one?

[Bluestew0]

The facts are:

1) The project is behind schedule.
2) Some people are patient.
3) Some people aren't patient.
4) No one but the devs "really" know what is going on.
5) The sun will rise in the morning and life goes on, with or without EiA.

We can all continue to debate the reasons for the delays, post slams at one another or find other worth while activities to participate in as we wait for EiA to take a chunk of our free time down the road. How each person decides to deal with it is their rightful choice.

I chose to spend 3 minutes writing this post before playing some Pirates.
Have a day!

[Hanal]

ORIGINAL: Bluestew0

The facts are:

1) The project is behind schedule.
2) Some people are patient.
3) Some people aren't patient.
4) No one but the devs "really" know what is going on.
5) The sun will rise in the morning and life goes on, with or without EiA.

We can all continue to debate the reasons for the delays, post slams at one another or find other worth while activities to participate in as we wait for EiA to take a chunk of our free time down the road. How each person decides to deal with it is their rightful choice.

I chose to spend 3 minutes writing this post before playing some Pirates.
Have a day!

Very valid points....what irked me however, which prompted my post, is that people who are not involved in developing the game, feel it is their right to be critical of the people who are....freedom of speech is one thing, but have some respect towards the people who are making an effort to bring the game out.....no game developer should ever feel the need to apologize to anyone concerning the game that they are working on especially when it has not even been released yet...now if it is released and is so full of bugs that a can a RAID would not cure, then an apology might very well be needed, but then, afterall, isn't that why a game may take awhile to come out, in order to work these things out?....

And by the way, how is Sid Meier's Pirates?.....I have read some mixed reviews about it....

[HordesOfSerbs]

Fair enough that I take these shots because clearly we're behind ... sorry!

C'mon now... Who cares what I rant here... But you know how this game is played - it's the developer who always cops it at the end if things go south, not Mr "Project Manager" who manages real good so far as I can see.

Best of luck and scream for someone to help you out while it's still feasible. I realise that might not be an option at all in a small firm, but at least they can't blame you for not asking.

[Bluestew0]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon
And by the way, how is Sid Meier's Pirates?.....I have read some mixed reviews about it....

If you played the original a few years back, it is the same game with better graphics and a couple new tidbits added. Just like the original, it keeps me entertained for a little while when I want to be entertained by something that doesn't require a great deal of thought. It is not something that you will play for hours at a time but I find myself going back to it for an hour here and there each week. The kids love it, that is why I purchased it in the first place. The XBox is sitting unused and they fight over which one gets to play Pirates first. My diabolical plan is working.....to suck them in to PC gaming rather than the console stuff.

[crenfrow]

.....no game developer should ever feel the need to apologize to anyone concerning the game that they are working on especially when it has not even been released yet...

Now I dont totally agree with this. In a way when you place a release date out for the public, be it on your website or where ever, the developer has made a commitment. I look at it as a broken commitment/promise when they don't make the date. Don't release the date unless you are completely sure of the developement situation. It can be argued that Matrix has kept its customers "on the hook" with unrealistic time commitments. I understand everyone's feeling though, on both sides of the fence. I just thought I would add my 2 cents also. Cant wait for the game.

[jnier]

ORIGINAL: crenfrow

.....no game developer should ever feel the need to apologize to anyone concerning the game that they are working on especially when it has not even been released yet...

Now I dont totally agree with this. In a way when you place a release date out for the public, be it on your website or where ever, the developer has made a commitment. I look at it as a broken commitment/promise when they don't make the date. Don't release the date unless you are completely sure of the developement situation. It can be argued that Matrix has kept its customers "on the hook" with unrealistic time commitments. I understand everyone's feeling though, on both sides of the fence. I just thought I would add my 2 cents also. Cant wait for the game.

Having followed the gaming industry for a while, I KNOW that when I see a release date, I will not have a game in my hands anywhere close to that release date (at least in the vast majority of cases). Games are almost always released well after the originally stated release date (especially for wargames with small development teams). Granted that EIA is taking even longer than most projects, but anyone who thinks that a release date is a "commitment" or a "promise" is crazy. Release dates, especially when they are stated early in the development process, are optimistic guesses, they are not "commitments." And they are certainly not "promises."

[Hanal]

Remember back in the day when you would get your copy of THE GENERAL or S&T and read the upcoming games list, peruse the developers notes, anticipate the posted completion dates, and in my case, hop on a bus to THE COMPLETE STRATEGIST in NYC, only to find that the game you wanted had not materialized on the shelf?..... and finally, when a game was released, you then waited for the next issue of THE GENERAL or S&T to get the errata rules sheet and a page of counters that you needed to cut out and paste to cardboard, because they forgot to produce them during the initial run?.....those were the days and yet some things will never change as it shows that developing a wargame is very difficult whether it be for the pc or made from cardboard and paper....[:)]

[ardilla]

C'mon guys.

Imaging that Matrix Games didnt have this forum in the internet, everybody will be worried and having not clue about when will be released and how will be the CEiA game.

Lets thank MG and forget about their "mistakes" or "release dates", at least we have this forum and get the good part of these, and use this to help them, not to asking every month when will be the release date, you know sometimes one thing comes out and breaks your schedule!

Regards.

[Bluestew0]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Remember back in the day when you would get your copy of THE GENERAL or S&T and read the upcoming games list, peruse the developers notes[:)]

JP, sounds like we had some major hobby and reading similarities in our lives...only the state is different. Remember the tiny complete games you'd get in the strategy mags? I think one of the magazines still does that....I forget which one. Damn computers have made me lazy.

[Hanal]

SPI's Strategy and Tactics was good with the mini games on themes as diverse as The Alamo, and Roarkes Drift (wish I still had that one) while The General concentrated on variants for their existing titiles...Companies then came out with different "pocket games" such as THE CREATURE THAT ATE SHEBOYGAN!.....those were indeed fun times for gamers........

[pasternakski]

S&T is still in print (along with Wargamer) from Decision Games. The quality is still excellent, and the people responsible are still pretty much the same (they even calmed Ty Bomba down enough to be a worthwhile contributor again).

[Oleg Mastruko]

pasternak, I can't explain why, and it certainly has nothing to do with this discussion, but your new sig just made me choke with laughter [:D][:D][:D]

O.

[NeverMan]

ORIGINAL: ardilla

C'mon guys.

Imaging that Matrix Games didnt have this forum in the internet,

I would know just as much now about the release date as I would if they didn't have this forum. While I certainly found the earlier "updates" enlightening, the last few "updates" have been nothing more than "it's coming any day now".

I will be utterly shocked if this game EVER gets released.

I will also be just as equally utterly shocked if, providing it gets released, it's not full of bugs and holes ALL over. TMR this late in the development? Come on. Ellis might be doing a great job, but Matrix is dropping the ball on this one big time.

[ardilla]

ORIGINAL: NeverMan

I would know just as much now about the release date as I would if they didn't have this forum. While I certainly found the earlier "updates" enlightening, the last few "updates" have been nothing more than "it's coming any day now".

I dont agree with you, sorry.

Here you had the chance to watch screenshots and know much about the original rules and the new EiH rules added.

And of course, we had the chance of make them correct the mistake of the TMR!!!

But if you think this is not positive I respect you opinion, but I totally disagree under my point of view.

Regards

[Bluestew0]

ORIGINAL: ardilla

But if you think this is not positive I respect you opinion.
Regards

Ardilla, you are a naturally positive person aren't you? I say that meaning it is a good thing as my line of work tends to make one cynical. The world needs more positive thinking individuals...keep it up.

BTW, how is the new government over there in spain?

[Titi]

ORIGINAL: ardilla

I dont agree with you, sorry.

Here you had the chance to watch screenshots and know much about the original rules and the new EiH rules added.

And of course, we had the chance of make them correct the mistake of the TMR!!!

But if you think this is not positive I respect you opinion, but I totally disagree under my point of view.

Regards

Well if only it could be true.

The few screenshots we have are showing the same since the start.

We know nearly nothing about the rules and don't have any answer about what will be in the game if not shouting loud. For example, i still don't have get any answer about the maximum number of corps taking supply from the same depot; four or unlimited.

To correct mistake, we must first know that they exist and so came back to the previous point.


The forum was more active before than it's now even with all the betatesters engaged. I would really like some comments from them if not from Marshall. The communication here is lacking and as result my desire to buy this porduct is following the same lane.

So i must agree that this project was poorly planned, and what is worked on now seams more game issues like TMR that really bugs. If not, why will it take nearly one month to restart the AAR.

Only MHO, but seams shared by others. So Matrix do something.

[rhodopsine]

I had promissed I wouldn't add more to the debate, but I think that some things have to be straightened up.

You have to understand that there are things that we (betatesters) can say or show and some we can't and that, for various reasons. It can be because the current screens are temporary, or because some features are not yet enabled or because there is a bug...

You want AAR? Fine... I can show you some. I'll show France (or any other country...) crushing it's neighbours utterly because the AI currently is still baby level. The PBEM is suspended because of various bugs and because of the TMR issue, Marshall has quite a bit of programming to do. We're waiting for the new version.

And there's a bit more... Some of us are actually quite hesitant to post anything here. We do not want to start controversy, or endless debates about how come someone's favorite rule is not included and so on... Sure TMR was quite an oversight... But do you really know how much of an impact not using it has on the game? I played many live games, I always played it using the TMR... I had never really thought about the real impact of it before I actually played without it. And the issue of TMR had been flagged on the development forum even before it all started on the public forum.

Give Marshall a break... Ever since we started testing that thing (around the beginning of december) we have been harrassing him with bugs reports and change and implementation requests. I have a bit of experience programming and I can say that I've rarely seen someone fix things as fast as Marshall is. In about 2 months, he provided us with no less than 7 updates. And please don't start yelling about oh it's full of bugs... It's still beta but there are much less issues left than when we started.

As for the general feel of the game, I can say that in my opinion, it's as close as possible as what is EIA. Sure there are things that will be slightly different, because the general game mechanics requires quite a bit of interaction between players during various phases and some of it cannot be implemented on a computer without generating literrally hundreds of emails or communication. We're just making sure that those modifications will not impact significally the game flow...

All of the EIA betatesters are EIA passionarias. I don't think that any of us would accept any kind half-breed game that would not quite be EIA. Have a little faith!

Martin Paradis

[carnifex]

This is just a silly thread. [8|]

Who cares if we all have to wait another two years for this game? Who cares what Matrix said originally about the release date?

Is anyone planning their vacations around it? Are there six people at your house right now waiting to play? Get real people. Give it a rest with the broken record release date idiocy. It's tiring and it's spam.

Can't believe people get worked up over stupid crap like this.