Lack of information screeens

[Micke II]

I am in the process to try to master this game. With the help of veterans, having played this game on paper maps, + some thread written in this forum the training is progressing well.
My main concern is the lack of information screens concerning the main events of the game. When you are french, to know that Turkey has declared war to Russia you have to go in the Nation status overview to see what has happened. A screen appearing when a war is declared or is over will certainly bring more fun. Also a screen saying after a big battle who is the winner and where the battle has happened would be also nice. In fact, when you are playing GB for example, you don’t know exactly what is happening between Austria and Russia. A screen presenting the outcome of a diplomatic negotiation will be also appreciated.

[Anfield1]

YES YES YES
 
 

[Monadman]

ORIGINAL: Micke II

I am in the process to try to master this game. With the help of veterans, having played this game on paper maps, + some thread written in this forum the training is progressing well.
My main concern is the lack of information screens concerning the main events of the game. When you are french, to know that Turkey has declared war to Russia you have to go in the Nation status overview to see what has happened. A screen appearing when a war is declared or is over will certainly bring more fun. Also a screen saying after a big battle who is the winner and where the battle has happened would be also nice. In fact, when you are playing GB for example, you don’t know exactly what is happening between Austria and Russia. A screen presenting the outcome of a diplomatic negotiation will be also appreciated.

Agree; there is always room for more information concerning major events.

FYI, results of previous actions can be viewed in the Status window (brown box located in the left corner of screen). Double-clicking that box will expand the window and right clicking the status window, while it is minimized (default), will allow you to copy the contents to the clipboard.

Richard

[prielo]

Nevertheless, a pop up window when you got control over a minor or when someone you are at war with surrenders would be quite helpful.
 
Greets
 
Patrick

[jardail]

Agreed
 
I hate to say this, but I'm not very impressed with the amount of time that was spent beta testing this game if this is the result.
 
Marshall ya'll did a fabulous job, but there are some things here that are no brainers.  We NEED SCREENS!
 
If you were my S2 Officer I'd be chewing your ass right now for lack of Intel  [:D]

[Marshall Ellis]

What information are you missing?
 
I realize we're short on banners. We spent more time on mechanics than we did information. If you'd been with us a few months back, you'd realize we still did the right thing I promise you! We certainly can add more information presentation screens so let us know...
 
Leatherneck_MT: You actually think I've got some left to be chewed? LOL!

[Micke II]

ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

What information are you missing?

I realize we're short on banners. We spent more time on mechanics than we did information. If you'd been with us a few months back, you'd realize we still did the right thing I promise you! We certainly can add more information presentation screens so let us know...

Leatherneck_MT: You actually think I've got some left to be chewed? LOL!

I realize the job you achieved by "translating" a quite sophisticated boardgame in a computer game. it has been certainly a huge task.
But if, for example Turkey loses a batlle against Russia, when you are playing an another country you just see
"Turkey -1PP". It will be helpful to know the outcome of the battle: amount of losses, number of men having participated in the battle and so on.
After the signature of a peace treaty a window with the treaty conditions will be appreciated: ie Wien Treaty: "Austria loses Venetia and Tyrol, no trade allowed, Charles must withdraw. I am not sure this information is provided at the moment to the other players.

[carnifex]

Yes! I need to see the things I would see in a face to face game. If Turkey and Russia fight I get to see their troop compositions and what's left after a battle. Here I just see Turkey lost. Great.

And I mentioned before, the text in the text window is presented backwards. When you open it up, you have to read from the bottom up to decipher what happened. Every reinforcement phase I spend so much time going over this big block of text, with people trying to influence, wars declared, nations controlled, it's a giant mess.

[Mynok]

I don't know if knowing all that information is relevant. One thing that always bothered me a bit about the board game was the almost god-like knowledge of all the players of the details of events halfway across Europe. Sure, they would likely know Russia won a big battle against Turkey, but certainly not how many men were lost (with any kind of accuracy at least) and how many participated.

[tgb]

I'll second what Mynock said - how would GB, for example, know down to the man the results of w battle taking place on the Austrian-Turkish border?

The banner that most needs to be added is when your foe sues for peace. I had too many "WTF, how'd those corps end up over THERE?" moments in my last game.

[Micke II]

When France has lost the Trafalgar battle in October 1805 it was extremely important to know in Russia or Austria that France and Spain has no more fleets. It is also very important to know for GB that Austria and Russia have lost 50 000 soldiers in a battle like Austerlitz. This information will influence the decisions and outcomes of the next diplomatic and economic phase. It means that GB could send more money to Austria to rebuild its army or for Austria and Russia try to break the french spanish alliance.

[Alex Gilbert]

Actually, of all the info I would like easily reviewable, the most important would be enforced peace duration-

Currently, I am noting on paper when wars end so I can calculate the 18 month (or 24 or 36 month) term of enforced peace for my country vis a vis others. I can get by with this.

What is more difficult is keeping track of this for the other countries.

Having a window that can be pulled up to review this would be of enormous help (perhaps integrating it into the current political display).

Alex

[Monadman]

ORIGINAL: Alex Gilbert

Actually, of all the info I would like easily reviewable, the most important would be enforced peace duration-

Currently, I am noting on paper when wars end so I can calculate the 18 month (or 24 or 36 month) term of enforced peace for my country vis a vis others. I can get by with this.

What is more difficult is keeping track of this for the other countries.

Having a window that can be pulled up to review this would be of enormous help (perhaps integrating it into the current political display).

Alex

Alex,

That information can be found in the Current Nation window and the program does a find job of counting down the months you. In this example: Britain may not declare war on France for 36 months (extended due to Enforced Peace 36 condition at time of surrender) and France may not declare war on Britain for 18 months.

Richard

[Alex777]

As important as providing us with more info is filtering out the stuff which doesn't tell us anything.  For example, for every phase of every turn, we get 2 lines of text per major power: the first telling us that, for example, "1805, Jan Turkey Playing Diplomacy ..."" and the 2nd saying "1805, Jan Turkey Finished Diplomacy!".  No doubt these were useful in debugging, but players should not have to wade through reams of these statements of the obvious in order to locate the useful bits.  Filters, we need FILTERS! 
 

[chuckj118]

The system is in need of some kind of information boxes that come up and tell you who has DOW'd who and who has surrendered to whom.  It would also be nice to be informed of any changes in the control of minors.
 
Finally, I really have to say that all player's should see what happens during any battles that occur.  During a face to face EiA board games all the players would be able to see what took place and even watch each die roll. 
 
More importantly we need to see the chit picks.  How can we get a feel of how someone picks their chits if we don't see the battles.
 
This, of course, assumes that we are still trying to simulate the same feel and gaming experience that you would get from playing the board game.  If not...um,  what was the point?  You could have designed a ground up PC game and designed the rules to suit yourselves. 
 
Is it not harder to program a boardgame equivilent than write a game from scratch?
 

[Mynok]

Getting rid of the "gods-eye" knowledge of the board game is an appropriate and realistic change that should be made. The only reason all that knowledge was available in the game was because it was too difficult to hide it. No such case for the computer game.

It's an evolutionary, not revolutionary change. The feel and flavor of the game are not lost because knowledge of battles was reduced to "Russia defeats Turkey in a major battle in xxxxxx".

Knowledge of diplomatic moves should remain, as those were intended for public dissemination in most cases.

[La Provence]

ORIGINAL: Micke II

When France has lost the Trafalgar battle in October 1805 it was extremely important to know in Russia or Austria that France and Spain has no more fleets. It is also very important to know for GB that Austria and Russia have lost 50 000 soldiers in a battle like Austerlitz. This information will influence the decisions and outcomes of the next diplomatic and economic phase. It means that GB could send more money to Austria to rebuild its army or for Austria and Russia try to break the french spanish alliance.

Totally agree with this !

[chuckj118]

Well, Mynok, I guess we have a difference of opinion here.  I suppose Marshall or someone up the ladder needs to make that decision.  Either way the game will still be fantastic! [:)]
 
 

[Alex Gilbert]

ORIGINAL: Monadman

ORIGINAL: Alex Gilbert

Actually, of all the info I would like easily reviewable, the most important would be enforced peace duration-

Currently, I am noting on paper when wars end so I can calculate the 18 month (or 24 or 36 month) term of enforced peace for my country vis a vis others. I can get by with this.

What is more difficult is keeping track of this for the other countries.

Having a window that can be pulled up to review this would be of enormous help (perhaps integrating it into the current political display).

Alex

Alex,

That information can be found in the Current Nation window and the program does a find job of counting down the months you. In this example: Britain may not declare war on France for 36 months (extended due to Enforced Peace 36 condition at time of surrender) and France may not declare war on Britain for 18 months.

Richard

Excellent, I had missed that. Thanks.

I still think that if possible it would be useful to be able to see this for other countries, but that is less important.

Alex

[dauphan129]

My 2 Cents.

I don't want to have to click OK for 40 different info boxes that pop up while other countries are taking their turns. I wonder if we could get a turn summary at the end or beginning of a turn that pulled up some info?
Like at the end of Econmics when you hit end phase something pops up and says

-------------------------------------
France built Available
5 Calvary May 1806
19 Infantry March 1806
10 Militia January 1806

Freestates
Holland built
3 Infantry March 1806

OK Go Back
-----------------------------------
Then Maybe at begining of Reinforcement get a single screen that says who all declared wars/made peace.
-----------------------------------
France Declared War on Austria January 1806
Prussia declared war on Wurttenburg January 1806

OK
-----------------------------------

Finally, At the beginning of Diplomacy we could get a screen that summarizes the battles that happened. Maybe relative strengths based on how many corps were involved (without actual numbers though chits could maybe be told).

Example:
Austria and France fought a battle last turn each side had 3 corps (or more) GB gets this notice with any other combats listed.
----------------------------------------
The French Outflanked Austrian positions trying to Defend Bavaria in a major battle.
Prussia broke into the city of Wurttenburg and defeated the local militia.
etc.

OK
----------------------------------------
Anyway point is I think a summary well timmed would be better than lots of pop ups. Plus I am guessing this would be less destructive to PBEM Games.