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I am a long-term wargame/strategy player (since 1962!) and have played Flashpoint Campaigns Red Storm quite a bit in the past. I waited to buy Southern Storm until I had the time to really learn the game and finally made the purchase last week. I read the manual (yes...I am one of those old fashioned board game trained grognards) and have finished the second tutorial.

You guys have done a great job. The improvements seem to be substantial yet the "feel" of the system remains the same. Many game developers approach improvements in a way that completely changes the "feel" of the game and ultimately kills its enjoyability (e.g. each "improved" version of the Railroad Tycoon system).

I have two comments and two questions.

First Comment - I would suggest that you have someone go back to the tutorials and approach it in this manner - make sure that every step is set forth in the tutorial instructions. As they currently read, they often frustratingly skip a step. Example - "Terrain Evaluation with the MCOO jumps right into it. Actually the first step is "Go to Terrain Overlay". Another example - "Looking Into the Mission" - says "select staff, then select Show Mission." Actually, you need to first "import mission graphics from the Briefing" as I learned after ten minutes of trial and error. There are other examples.

The Tutorial is actually one of the most important pieces of any complex game and it is where you will win or lose a potential long-term supporter. You need to take the time to make sure it is absolutely correct and easy to use.

Second Comment - you should consider hard wiring the weather in the Second Tutorial. I played it and enjoyed a slightly overcast but relatively clear day. As a result, by the third or fourth turn all of the instructions no longer related in the slightest way to the game situation and I ended up crushing the Soviets by the 7th turn but learned very little of what the tutorial was supposed to teach me. I will go back and hope for bad weather but I feel like I was doing nothing but treading water for two hours or so.

First Question - maybe I overlooked something in the manual. In the first turn of the Second Tutorial the instructions are to send the two headquarters to certain hexes and assign them a "Rest & Resupply" command. Why would you do this? They already have 100% on everything. Does it accomplish anything - the Tutorial implies it will later reduce the Orders Cycle Timing. Is that correct? Does it do anything else?

Second Question - as I was playing the 2nd Tutorial I clicked on an enemy unit and found, to my surprise, a path that it seemed to be following towards my units. Which setting initiated the ability to see this path? Does it reflect the orders to the Soviet unit or does it reflect what the USA intelligence unit thinks is its expected path?

Third Question (Sorry I lied in the above Title) - the First Tutorial has a map with red and yellow lines and arrows and says the "Soviet Courses of Action (COA's) have two main routes....."). It does not tell you how to access this visual or what it represents (e.g. Speculation by the USA intelligence units?). Any help here, much appreciated.

Long message. Sorry...I am old.

John,

Welcome aboard, and we are glad you are enjoying the game. As for Tutorials, I wrote those, so all failures to communicate in detail are on me. I tried to be as thorough as possible, but I'm sure some steps were missed as I tried to build on concepts through the three tutorials. If I get some time in the future, I will make another pass on those to include new features and Ui elements and get them in better shape. I can see about restricting the weather in scenario 2 as well.

To your questions:
#1. When moving HQs, they will drop readiness, maybe not a lot, but setting for the recovery will keep readiness high and orders cycles low as possible.
#2. If you are playing with the enemy visible via the Difficulty Setting, all of their information, including AI pathing, is visible to you as the player. Try turning the visibility off for more of a challenge with realistic spotting.
#3. This is just an artistic rendering of what I believe the possible COAs are. These are not in the game as Staff overlays. Scenarios do have both Op mission graphics and Intel mission graphics that can be loaded from the Staff Menu.

If you have any other questions, please let us know. Enjoy the game.

Thanks a lot for your prompt reply. You folks have shown a considerable dedication to this game system and I remember thinking "when will they ever launch Southern Storm" but recognizing that delays in computer games usually mean quality at the back end. I think that you have largely reached that goal and the delay was well worth it.

Having said that, I hope that you will take the criticism - from a vastly experienced wargamer - as constructive criticism rather than just some jerk attacking your substantial efforts.

Two points.

First - As I said - you will win or lose new players through the tutorials. Your statement "If I get the time in the future I will make another pass...." strikes me as really missing the point. The tutorials will either engage or turn off the player. If you personally don't have the time to figure out what the newbie really needs, I would suggest that you enlist some very experienced players (not me, too little current experience) and ask them to help out by approaching the tutorials as if they were coming in for the first time and have them critically review each section and fix as needed. Gamers are very good at this.

Second - Am I being too sensitive/critical in saying this? Perhaps but as a pretty experienced gamer let me say that in the last few hours I found the third tutorial to be largely unplayable. Why? Examples. Look at the illustration at 4.6.1 "Reposition the Units" the text says - simply deploy your units as shown. I printed out the tutorial and could not read which units went where. I went to Help, loaded the tutorial and increased the display 4 times before I could figure out where each of the units were supposed to go. In the first two tutorials, you were pretty good in helping the player know exactly where the units went. I would respectfully submit to you that in the third tutorial you got lazy. Now go on to 4.7.3 "Establish a bridgehead". Ok, I get the idea re where and how to move them but you have skipped over the Commands to be used in movement and ultimate placement. Again, I am experienced enough to take a good guess but why not help the newbie out by giving complete instructions?

Understand - I will learn the game on my own and I am actually a pretty big supporter of your efforts and want to see you succeed.

All the best - keep up the good work and, maybe, enlist some help.

My apologies re #2 above. I see that I should have waited till 4.10 to see the actual movement instructions. I will try the tutorial again and not bother you further.

John, along with CapnDarwin I too want to welcome you to the Southern Storm and the community. I believe as you play Southern Storm and get used to it that you will find it hard to go back to Red Storm. I know I have. There is so much more to Southern Storm. The amount of information available to the player is far above what was available in Red Storm. Take time to go through the Staff functions and the overlays that are available as you play the game. Did you have a contact that is not shown on the map? Check with your staff and you will probably find it. We are also looking for ways to improve the game, so we pay close attention to players comments and criticisms. Players would be surprised at the amount of discussion time their comments (and especially their criticism) get in our meetings. We also have some new features coming down the pike which came directly from players comments. So if you see something, please feel free to post.