Matrix Games Forums

[font="Times New Roman"]This game seems to be based on World War 2, Road to victory, a game that I enjoyed playing for a while and liked pretty well. I'm quite interested in Time of Wrath (especially since it seems I will be able to get it for free), but was wondering what the main improvements are compared to Road to Victory. Perhaps this information has been posted elsewhere, in which case I would be grateful if someone can tell me where. Thank you for any assistance you can give me.[/font]

Best place is to look in the Tow and RtV forums, where there are innumerable threads related to the differences. There's also a ToW AAR from which you can discern many differences.

From those threads, you will get info on changes to the ground,air, and naval games, as well as graphics.

ORIGINAL:  jeffreys

[font="Times New Roman"]This game seems to be based on World War 2, Road to victory, a game that I enjoyed playing for a while and liked pretty well.  I'm quite interested in Time of Wrath (especially since it seems I will be able to get it for free), but was wondering what the main improvements are compared to Road to Victory.  Perhaps this information has been posted elsewhere, in which case I would be grateful if someone can tell me where.  Thank you for any assistance you can give me.[/font]

New and redone things (in a bit chaotic order written almost for the top of my head):

a) features/rules

introduced  air-naval interaction
introduced  air recon mission
introduced weather
introduced rough terrain type
reduced cost of purchasing and repairing land units
rebalanced naval combat
rebalanced units speed
rebalanced losses in air combat
rebalanced losses in land combat
rebalanced units withdraw after combat
rebalanced cost of units
changed ZOC entry cost for land units
new relation matrix
corrected cost of units supply
induced units upkeep cost
cost of air units cut by half
strategic bombers AP changed to 1
air division AP changed to 3
changed AP of all units
rebalanced strength of units
air units will hunt no more than one unit if attacking raider fleet
rebalanced chance of withdraw after battle
strategic bombers damage halved
changed base chance for retreat of land units
changed terrain type modifiers for unit retreat chance
changed unit's strength for retreat chance
losses dealt by air units corrected

b) AI

improved front lines for AI
AI uses planes more aggressively
AI performs independent  tactical airstrikes
new AI switches
AI try to hold given cities
AI try to hold forts of given level
AI try to shield given borders
corrected AI aggressiveness (land units)
reset AI priorities
other minor improvements


c) GUI/graphics

scalable screens resolutions (including HD)
classical windowed mode
changed  map appearance
weather related appearance of map
changed units appearance
map`s modes
minimap`s modes
zoom level related appearance of units
other minor GUI tweaks
new minimap image
health bar add for naval units
changed naval screen gfx
changed diplomacy screen gfx
new counters
each fort level has its own representation
added various eyecandies
added ownership view in minimap
added unit name under counter/sprite when zoomed in
adjusted zoom levels
corrected all scenario descriptions
changed display of units images
new  “start scenario” screen
new set of flags
“next unit” function

d) content

new land OoB
new naval OoB
new air OoB
over 1000 new events (commissioned ships, elite, volunteer and auxiliary units, flavor, fortifications, partisans, urgent situations, classic historical, mobilization, garrisoning and other)
redone map (changed terrain , dozens of a “new” cities and rivers, rebalanced PP and so)
corrected length of scenarios
various garrisons
new sea zones
“new” various lines of fortifications (e.g. Frontier Wire, Toblerone Line, Mareth Line, Gustav Line, Zigfried Line, Mannerheim Line, Metaxas and Aliakmon Lines, Maginot Line, Daladier`s Line, Arpad Line, Stalin Line, Molotov Line, VKT and VT Lines, Salpa Line, Pomeranian Wall, Atlantic Wall, Siegfried Line,  Skane Line, Concrete Border Line and other)
simple forts (Liege, Eben Emael , Tobruk, Modlin and other)
corrected commanders and their placement
new music themes

e) other

introduced simple editor
various new event methods
corrected PBEM
corrected memory use by GPU
added shortkeys (minimap ownership mode change,  ownership mode change, border mode change, Action Points left, city names, weather icons, hex grid, next unit)
added many parameters for ease of modding (% of interceptor's (strength+level) when air strike considered effective, basic chance of land unit retreat, etc)


and for sure even more...

This looks all splendid! [:)] Wish I could make games! Why, I can [8|], but I can't make them computerized. Very well ...

Some minor questions:

Rebalanced naval combat - does this mean that ships no longer fire at full strength when damaged?

Rebalanced chance of withdraw after battle - does this mean that the "retreat check" does no longer consider the concerned unit's initial strength, only the loss taken in the present combat. The retreat system has always given me some concern. It would be much better if the check was based on combat odds, not strength, and that the retreat execution was made with disregard of losses. This is one point that I haven't been able to mod. In fact I would like to see more retreats in the game, so that even 1-1 and 2-1 attacks could be worth trying.

Scalable screens resolutions (including HD) - marvellous!

Redone map (... rebalanced PP and so) - Sounds good. I was a bit dismayed by the fact that you could easily make more effect on larger, PP-infested cities than smaller ones if your bombing targets were carefully chosen. I hope that the PP allocation is more spread out now to prevent this.

New sea zones - since I and Doomtrader discussed this, I hope that you can now transport units round Cape of Good Hope.

Corrected PBEM - Longing to know what this means. [:'(]

ORIGINAL: Anraz

ORIGINAL:  jeffreys

[font="Times New Roman"]This game seems to be based on World War 2, Road to victory, a game that I enjoyed playing for a while and liked pretty well.  I'm quite interested in Time of Wrath (especially since it seems I will be able to get it for free), but was wondering what the main improvements are compared to Road to Victory.  Perhaps this information has been posted elsewhere, in which case I would be grateful if someone can tell me where.  Thank you for any assistance you can give me.[/font]

New and redone things (in a bit chaotic order written almost for the top of my head):

a) features/rules

introduced  air-naval interaction
introduced  air recon mission
introduced weather
introduced rough terrain type
reduced cost of purchasing and repairing land units
rebalanced naval combat
rebalanced units speed
rebalanced losses in air combat
rebalanced losses in land combat
rebalanced units withdraw after combat
rebalanced cost of units
changed ZOC entry cost for land units
new relation matrix
corrected cost of units supply
induced units upkeep cost
cost of air units cut by half
strategic bombers AP changed to 1
air division AP changed to 3
changed AP of all units
rebalanced strength of units
air units will hunt no more than one unit if attacking raider fleet
rebalanced chance of withdraw after battle
strategic bombers damage halved
changed base chance for retreat of land units
changed terrain type modifiers for unit retreat chance
changed unit's strength for retreat chance
losses dealt by air units corrected

b) AI

improved front lines for AI
AI uses planes more aggressively
AI performs independent  tactical airstrikes
new AI switches
AI try to hold given cities
AI try to hold forts of given level
AI try to shield given borders
corrected AI aggressiveness (land units)
reset AI priorities
other minor improvements


c) GUI/graphics

scalable screens resolutions (including HD)
classical windowed mode
changed  map appearance
weather related appearance of map
changed units appearance
map`s modes
minimap`s modes
zoom level related appearance of units
other minor GUI tweaks
new minimap image
health bar add for naval units
changed naval screen gfx
changed diplomacy screen gfx
new counters
each fort level has its own representation
added various eyecandies
added ownership view in minimap
added unit name under counter/sprite when zoomed in
adjusted zoom levels
corrected all scenario descriptions
changed display of units images
new  “start scenario” screen
new set of flags
“next unit” function

d) content

new land OoB
new naval OoB
new air OoB
over 1000 new events (commissioned ships, elite, volunteer and auxiliary units, flavor, fortifications, partisans, urgent situations, classic historical, mobilization, garrisoning and other)
redone map (changed terrain , dozens of a “new” cities and rivers, rebalanced PP and so)
corrected length of scenarios
various garrisons
new sea zones
“new” various lines of fortifications (e.g. Frontier Wire, Toblerone Line, Mareth Line, Gustav Line, Zigfried Line, Mannerheim Line, Metaxas and Aliakmon Lines, Maginot Line, Daladier`s Line, Arpad Line, Stalin Line, Molotov Line, VKT and VT Lines, Salpa Line, Pomeranian Wall, Atlantic Wall, Siegfried Line,  Skane Line, Concrete Border Line and other)
simple forts (Liege, Eben Emael , Tobruk, Modlin and other)
corrected commanders and their placement
new music themes

e) other

introduced simple editor
various new event methods
corrected PBEM
corrected memory use by GPU
added shortkeys (minimap ownership mode change,  ownership mode change, border mode change, Action Points left, city names, weather icons, hex grid, next unit)
added many parameters for ease of modding (% of interceptor's (strength+level) when air strike considered effective, basic chance of land unit retreat, etc)


and for sure even more...

That's it??? That's all we get for free???

 

That's it??? That's all we get for free???

Knowing nowadays gamedev if it had been less, you would have had to pay for it [:D]

ORIGINAL: Anraz

 

That's it??? That's all we get for free???

Knowing nowadays gamedev if it had been less, you would have had to pay for it [:D]

More likely they'd tell you that you're going to get this huge list of improvements, that you'd get a sizeable discount for preordering only to discover that there is no discount and no free game as advertised, that you have to register with a firm that would actually own your game and would only allow you to play when you've down loaded the same file you've downloaded every other time you've tried to play from the incredibly slow security firm that only has three servers running at any time anyway, and that requires that you watch 176 commercials for Pokemon and Mario Brothers xbox games (calling them breaking news) and you only then discover that the developers set of system requirements is "somewhat optomistic" and you cant even get the miserable pos game to even load, although your system far exceeds the published sys req, but that's your problem and the huge makers of baru dolls cant possibly give you a refund and you've just bought a sixty dollar desktop icon to remind you that you've been taken again.
(Actual player adventure with Empire, Total Garbage!)[X(]

ORIGINAL: Uxbridge

Rebalanced chance of withdraw after battle - does this mean that the "retreat check" does no longer consider the concerned unit's initial strength, only the loss taken in the present combat. The retreat system has always given me some concern. It would be much better if the check was based on combat odds, not strength, and that the retreat execution was made with disregard of losses. This is one point that I haven't been able to mod. In fact I would like to see more retreats in the game, so that even 1-1 and 2-1 attacks could be worth trying.

Now everything influence this chance, except weather ; )
[odds, unit strength {after battle}, terrain].
And all of those are at your service in consts.csv

New sea zones - since I and Doomtrader discussed this, I hope that you can now transport units round Cape of Good Hope.

You can transport units around Africa.

But the weather already affect unit's strength

Some interesting new changes listed above. There will be a new terrain type as well. One thing I don't see is any changes to supply system? At the moment supply is judged at the begining of the turn, I seem to remember that there was a discussion about moving it to the begining of a Phase?

Instead of that we have decided to allow unit to survive for a given amount of turns without supply. However with every turn without supply, effectivenes will be reduced.

This is an impressive list of improvements. Congratulations.

Just was wondering about the below point and wasn't sure initially what it means:

new relation matrix

Still not sure actually - but is this referring to diplomacy and the starting values of various potential minors for political alignment and political resistance (DP cost)? I assume this is addressing some of the earlier concerns about how hard or easy it is to bring in Minor Allies via diplomacy (DPs)? I remember that Spain was a particularly hot discussed topic in this context .....

Yeah the Diplomacy was a problem.  It was almost impossible to get the traditional axis minors of Finland, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria all in a single game much less in time for a historical Barbarossa.  However it was relatively easy to get Spain.  Mmmmm to be fair the only real problem with the first thing I mentioned was Finland, it was almost impossible to get, and if you did it was hardly worth the effort since you would have most likely have to have given up every other minor for a summer 41 barbarossa.
 
I have high hopes though that this has been fixed!  Doomie commented several times on this subject when it was in the forums about fixes for these things.

Agree with Finland.

It is admittedly hard to find the perfect balance that works both in the game and is also reasonably historical. I look forward to seeing the next approach to this problem in ToW.

ORIGINAL: Michael the Pole

ORIGINAL: Anraz

 

That's it??? That's all we get for free???

Knowing nowadays gamedev if it had been less, you would have had to pay for it [:D]

More likely they'd tell you that you're going to get this huge list of improvements, that you'd get a sizeable discount for preordering only to discover that there is no discount and no free game as advertised, that you have to register with a firm that would actually own your game and would only allow you to play when you've down loaded the same file you've downloaded every other time you've tried to play from the incredibly slow security firm that only has three servers running at any time anyway, and that requires that you watch 176 commercials for Pokemon and Mario Brothers xbox games (calling them breaking news) and you only then discover that the developers set of system requirements is "somewhat optomistic" and you cant even get the miserable pos game to even load, although your system far exceeds the published sys req, but that's your problem and the huge makers of baru dolls cant possibly give you a refund and you've just bought a sixty dollar desktop icon to remind you that you've been taken again.
(Actual player adventure with Empire, Total Garbage!)[X(]

Michael,

I had the same problem with Empire/Steam at the outset. But did you know that if you open Steam while you are offline, it skips all the logon processes and you can play the game offline immediately? I discovered that while on a flight Also, a few reductions to my settings (smaller units, no shadows, less grass, etc.) and the game runs great. I really enjoy it and the battles are very interesting.

Markus

IMO steam sucks. I will never get anything that has steam on it again.