Constructive Criticism
Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:05 pm
This game has great merit and I want to play it a lot. Was able to spend some time with it last weekend and have some suggestions.
1)First, and most important; there needs to be some improvements in the production model. As it is now implemented, each country has a static production capacity. The only way to expand production capacity is to conquer another country with not modeling of national prioritizing of war production or improvements in efficiency. You should be able to invest in more factories, just as you can invest in more divisions, or invest in research for more productive factories.
2)There needs to be some more information about other countries. Leaders did not make decisions in a total information vacuum. If Country X is about to attack Country Y, Country X should have some vague idea of the number of divisions and their locations for Country Y beyond what is right on the border. Also, when not involved in a war; there should be some notification that there is a war going on somewhere - and when it ends and who wins. As Italy I knew to watch out for a German invasion of Poland and France, but I was not notified of anything.
3)Obviously, there are problems with the naval game. However, an easy help would be to adjust the location of the button so you can click through the sometimes useless information screens that pop up even when nothing is happening - i.e. have the buttons located in the same place so you don't have to move the mouse to find the differently located button for each screen. It wouldn't really fix anything, but would be less annoying.
4)You need to have a native English speaker proof read your texts,not just spell check them. There is a difference between 'lose' and 'loose', for example. This is not really a problem for me, but with Bitter Glory coming up, you want to present as professionally as possible.
5)You need to consistently include the naval prefix to all ships, i.e. HMS, USS, KMS etc. Telling me that something happened with the "Ran" only confuses me, where as "KMS Ran" at least tells me that it is a German warship. This is done inconsistently.
5a) Would also be very nice to include the type of warship, BB-battleship, CA-heavy cruiser, etc. I'm somewhat familiar with some of the more common ships, but few people should be expected to be.
6)Take a look at your sprites. I don't like sprites, but I did notice that the sprite for Soviet Mechanized Infantry was pretty clearly a BMP and nothing from the 1940's. The tank looks a lot like a T-54 or 62 with the domed turret, but that is not so much a problem. As I said, I don't play with sprites so didn't look at many, but the BMP was startling.
7)The Reports overwrite text on top of text. Specifically, I noticed that Report-Losses and Report-Production do this, creating an illegible mess.
8)Would be nice if you would label the rivers - light blue text,nothing intrusive. Most people's geography is not especially excellent.
9)Pictures attached to Unit Info need to be reviewed. For example, the picture with Infantry Unit Info is an airplane. And why in the world are some of the airplane pictures in 1939 pictures of JETS? Like with the BMPs, this is not a NATO vs Warsaw Pact game.
10)Also, you need to come up with some way that the player can tell what type of aircraft an air unit flys for those of us who don't like sprites. Only way to tell is to look at the sprite picture. As above, you could show single engine, twin engine and four engine pictures with the Unit Info.
Well, that is all for now. Back to conquering Europe.
1)First, and most important; there needs to be some improvements in the production model. As it is now implemented, each country has a static production capacity. The only way to expand production capacity is to conquer another country with not modeling of national prioritizing of war production or improvements in efficiency. You should be able to invest in more factories, just as you can invest in more divisions, or invest in research for more productive factories.
2)There needs to be some more information about other countries. Leaders did not make decisions in a total information vacuum. If Country X is about to attack Country Y, Country X should have some vague idea of the number of divisions and their locations for Country Y beyond what is right on the border. Also, when not involved in a war; there should be some notification that there is a war going on somewhere - and when it ends and who wins. As Italy I knew to watch out for a German invasion of Poland and France, but I was not notified of anything.
3)Obviously, there are problems with the naval game. However, an easy help would be to adjust the location of the button so you can click through the sometimes useless information screens that pop up even when nothing is happening - i.e. have the buttons located in the same place so you don't have to move the mouse to find the differently located button for each screen. It wouldn't really fix anything, but would be less annoying.
4)You need to have a native English speaker proof read your texts,not just spell check them. There is a difference between 'lose' and 'loose', for example. This is not really a problem for me, but with Bitter Glory coming up, you want to present as professionally as possible.
5)You need to consistently include the naval prefix to all ships, i.e. HMS, USS, KMS etc. Telling me that something happened with the "Ran" only confuses me, where as "KMS Ran" at least tells me that it is a German warship. This is done inconsistently.
5a) Would also be very nice to include the type of warship, BB-battleship, CA-heavy cruiser, etc. I'm somewhat familiar with some of the more common ships, but few people should be expected to be.
6)Take a look at your sprites. I don't like sprites, but I did notice that the sprite for Soviet Mechanized Infantry was pretty clearly a BMP and nothing from the 1940's. The tank looks a lot like a T-54 or 62 with the domed turret, but that is not so much a problem. As I said, I don't play with sprites so didn't look at many, but the BMP was startling.
7)The Reports overwrite text on top of text. Specifically, I noticed that Report-Losses and Report-Production do this, creating an illegible mess.
8)Would be nice if you would label the rivers - light blue text,nothing intrusive. Most people's geography is not especially excellent.
9)Pictures attached to Unit Info need to be reviewed. For example, the picture with Infantry Unit Info is an airplane. And why in the world are some of the airplane pictures in 1939 pictures of JETS? Like with the BMPs, this is not a NATO vs Warsaw Pact game.
10)Also, you need to come up with some way that the player can tell what type of aircraft an air unit flys for those of us who don't like sprites. Only way to tell is to look at the sprite picture. As above, you could show single engine, twin engine and four engine pictures with the Unit Info.
Well, that is all for now. Back to conquering Europe.
