Matrix Games Forums

Ok. You grognards out there be nice. I love Combat Mission BB and AK and GGWAW but in GGWAW I hated the combat animations. I felt they were too static. I know it shouldnt matter but could you inform me on whether or not they have been updated for this new game? Thanks.

No combat animations in the sequel at all.

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

No combat animations in the sequel at all.

No animation at all? You should at least keep the animations of the original WaW no?

ORIGINAL: Syagrius
No animation at all? You should at least keep the animations of the original WaW no?

Agreed. You should at least leave the option for players who want to use it. I confess that although the animations are cheesy, I often play with them on. I usually click the box to close the animation when combat starts -- except for big and important battles. I sometimes watch these because I like the drama of seeing how the die roles go rather than instantly knowing how the battle resolves. It's kind of like rolling the dice in Axis and Allies. A little silly maybe, but there's no harm in leaving it in -- right?

We wanted to spend time adding a lot of new information to the mouse over text in the combat report screen and we have increased the amount of unit graphics in the game. We could not afford the time and money to add animation graphics for all the new units and given the hit we took on the cheese factor we decided to dump the animations. We decided the focus should be on improving the things that most people use and have asked for at the expense of the animations. The animations was something that was just too time consuming and expensive to get right, and given it was all show and no player input, it lost out.

Fine with me, Joel. I never played with the animations on anyway. I understand why some folks might be disappointed, but I suspect most of us won't care. I'm glad resources are going into other things.

Sorry Joel. But I won't buy it without animation. I know people enjoy wargames with just tiles etc, but that's not me. Depth without any attempt at immersion for me does just not work.

ORIGINAL: Nefarious13

Sorry Joel. But I won't buy it without animation. I know people enjoy wargames with just tiles etc, but that's not me. Depth without any attempt at immersion for me does just not work.

You got a point there. Same for me. I guess I will buy the original WaW instead.

Count me in the no animation is okay crowd. I definetly prefer the depth of play to acting out battles in animation. If the battles were ala COG where you actually fight them out tactically (not a bad idea by the way) then the animations would have a purpose. Another idea would be to let the player "roll a die" to determine the out come of the battle. Strat o matic baseball on computer actually let's you roll dice on the computer to get the result.

Hopefully we'll have a demo after the game is released so you can try it and see if it works for you without the animations. I can understand though that different players have different interests and desires in a game.

It doesn't really matter to me. When I first got WaW I had the animations on, however they eventually got tedious so later on I played without them. I suspect most people are the same way.

True that sometimes I keep the animations for some suspens. Sill nice for ship attacks but if AWD is getting rid of the flaws of WAW at the price of animations then fine by me.

I'd have to see the game to come to a real conclusion but initially the idea of taking the animations out all together rather than improving them seems a big mistake to me. Even with the 'cheezy' animations of the current game I often watch the animations as it gives a (very limited) sense that you're watching the battlefield.

Whether it's realistic in programming terms or not in an ideal world I was wanting better gameplay and better animations from the sequel. I'm sorry to be a neg-monkey but the sequel is going to have to provide a lot in gameplay terms to see me part with another round of cash for what appears to be (from the screenshots I've seen) a very similar looking game.

I find it funny that several posters from the 'no animations is ok' camp say that they "suspect that most people feel the same" as them. Based on what exactly? And *if* they're right how much does that have to do with the fact that the current animations are so 'cheezy'? I don't expect it will happen or have any effect but what about a poll?

In the ideal world, with unlimited resources, of course adding better animations would be great. We don't live in that world and it was exactly because we wanted to focus on more gameplay changes/improvements that we made the decision to cut lose the animations as too expensive. We know we will lose some players because of this, but it allows us to make what we think is overall a better game. The animations were good for some things, including instructing beginners on how the flow of combat works, but I think most people turn them off for most combat once they get used to the game. I could be wrong about that, but we got a lot of criticism for the cheesy look of the animations and making them better would have been difficult for us to do (especially having added a lot of new weapons art to show improving units, a new feature that many asked for). Since many players of AWD will have played WaW, we think players will be ready to do without the animations. I too wish we could have afforded to do great animations if only to entice the casual players. On the other hand, we really think that for as good as WaW gameplay was, AWD is many times better (more options, more features, more possible and varied strategies, more realism).

I hope you're right and will enjoy playing such a game.

I have no problem with the animations being taken out, especially with limited development resources available.  I usually have them off anyway as they strike me as a little hokey.

I am very happy to see unit icons are being updated to reflect tech changes through the war.  That is a a very welcome FUNCTIONAL upgrade.

Tony

Would it be possible for modders to add animations?

Unfortunately no as the entire option no longer exists in the game. With the new suppression rules, there is more to combat now that the animations would not show. I'm not sure what would happen if the old code was hooked up and allowed to try to run at this point.

Given the responses here, it might be worth investigating adding back the old animation code as an optional feature with the default set for "off." You might avoid the criticism of "cheesy animation" if this isn't a standard "feature" a reviewer would use, while still appeasing those who like to have the animation.

But I'll buy the game in either case. [;)]

Yeah, good idea. Options are always the best solution.