September Update

Marshall Ellis · Post by **Marshall Ellis** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 5:10 pm

Hello all:

Happy end of Summer to all you Northern Hemisphere folks and end of Winter to you Southern Hemisphere folks (Y'all).

Sorry to be a little late this month but at this late stage in development, there usually is not a lot of suprising information to release. Our testing is moving along at a slow pace and that is normal since fixes in the product this late in the development process require a lot of cross testing to make sure the ripple effect doesn't create problems in other parts of the game.

As far as the development stage goes, we are really trying to get the AI to play in a PBEM game and that is what is consuming most of our time at this point.

Couple of random questions on my mind that I have seen in other threads:

Naval Interceptions. YES! They are there BUT due to the nature of PBEM games, we had to change it a little so that you must give a naval unit orders to attempt to intercept. In order for PBEM play to be acceptable, you MUST be able to ALMOST play an entire turn BY YOURSELF without interaction from another player. You cannot wait or rely on someone to be at their computer at a certain time. Board games were designed to have all players at the same place at the same time.

I was a little intrigued to find some comments about our units??????? The unit designs haven't changed a whole lot in a YEAR and I thought most were OK with them???? As far as editing the units, YES you can edit them with almost any graphics program.

I would like to thank you all for your patience! This is one serious undertaking by Matrix! One that no one else WOULD take on so my hats are off to Matrix for taking on the migranes!

Thank you

mmurray821 · Post by **mmurray821** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 5:19 pm

Bravo, bravo.. Keep up the good work.

I am glad to hear about editing the unit icons. Heelllllloooooo furbies in british uniforms... j/k

peskpesk · Post by **peskpesk** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 5:32 pm

Thanks for the update!

AI in a PBEM game will be vital and the the quality of the AI too. I hope a release for late October is still on and as always I wish for a update of the EiA site http://www.empiresinarmsonline.com/ . I still don't know wish knew options will be included in the game and by now they must be fixed.

John Umber · Post by **John Umber** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 5:55 pm

Thank you for the information.

I suspect most people started to comment the screenshots just because it was the first time they saw them. That is speaking for myself. But if we can mod them, then it will always be the way we wish for in the end. Hundreds of variations that is.

Since no comment on release date, october is still possible?

Le Tondu · Post by **Le Tondu** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 6:01 pm

Thank you very much Marshall for the update.

It is great to see that the units can be modded. That is a BIG plus.

Good luck on all other aspects of the game too.

Nordiska · Post by **Nordiska** » Wed Sep 03, 2003 9:13 pm

glad to hear all is going well. Thanks for the update. Think we can be given an update as to what options will be available in the game?

Marshall Ellis · Post by **Marshall Ellis** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 3:25 am

Not real sure of what options we are going to keep or lose (???) so I'm hesitant to mention some that may be "on the fence" right now because they may not make the cut.

A few examples of what I'm talking about:

"winter land movement" which essentially doubles land movement cost in certain parts of the map during winter.

"supply option" which allows you to turn supply off/on in the game but this will probably be eliminated since without supply, the ENTIRE game takes on a new dimension (i.e. Turkey could land right on London or France would not have to worry about supply lines on the way to Moscow).

Give me some thoughts if you would on these and maybe a few more BUT please remember that "options = time" so please don't kill us if your option doesn't make the cut...

Thank you

Le Tondu · Post by **Le Tondu** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 4:16 am

Sure hope that winter land movement remains. How about winter sea movement as well? As one who sailed the north atlantic during the winter, I can tell you that things can get mighty different during the winter. I've been across the Channel too (in April) and believe me, it wasn't a piece of cake either.

Supply has to remain, otherwise the results are too unrealistic.

Marshall, if you are saying that winter land movement and supply will remain, but will not have an existence as an option to turn them off, then I'm with you. BTW, I'm not real sure why anyone would want to turn them off.

peskpesk · Post by **peskpesk** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 10:37 am

Supply must be in the game and Winter movement sound like a good improvement. But personally I would like for all options to be toggable on or off. And I'm sure no one will "hack your head off" if some option doesn’t make it in the game, please we like to hear more.

Capitaine · Post by **Capitaine** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 3:36 pm

Supply: Should always be on. Warfare in this age, particularly at the strategic level, was ALL about logistics. Cannot really have any realism at all w/o it.

Winter movement: Given this is a large scale, abstracted strategic game, I'm not sure a doubling of land movement costs rule is appropriate. Definitely units would move slower, but the movement rates are already artificially slow compared to what really could be accomplished. In truth, again it was logistics (no fodder for horses -- horses were used by ALL troops, not just cavalry -- available for foraging; armies ALWAYS foraged for fodder b/c too much was needed to transport by wagon even in spring/summer) that limited winter opns, not snow or slow movement itself. Although, obviously, heavy snow could impede actual movement, it just isn't really that critical. Also, don't believe this was in the actual rules, was it?

mmurray821 · Post by **mmurray821** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 5:30 pm

I love supply. It really adds realism to the game. If I just want to do a unit rush, I'll play Age of Empires where I don't have to worry about that.

Winter movement sounds great. Maybe you could add some combat modifiers for winter since it is a huge pain in the butt to manuver in snow and cold does a number on moral (yes, I do speak from experiance on this one)
Maybe also you could put in a weather modifier that randomly chooses weather for a battle for each season. Rain gives attackers and mobile defenders a negative bonus, bonus to defense and the like.

Anyway, keep up the info!

Nordiska · Post by **Nordiska** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 6:41 pm

Both of the options sound good, how about an option to allow pre-war builds?

mmurray821 · Post by **mmurray821** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 7:47 pm

Nordiska wrote:Both of the options sound good, how about an option to allow pre-war builds?

Ooooo ya! Or make your own custom scenerios....

Marshall Ellis · Post by **Marshall Ellis** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 11:12 pm

Hey guys (gals):

I agree with the supply issues. It's too central to the game to BUT I could keep it as an option then if you don't like it ... don't use it. It wasn't in the original rules and I first added it as a test option (testing option code) and it is a common option among many pc wargames so I really had no real strategic reason for adding it other than as a test function.

"trivial combat"

May use an option that allows all combats to be trivial. This might speed the game up a little bit ... what are your thoughts?

Thank you

YohanTM2 · Post by **YohanTM2** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 11:48 pm

Capitaine wrote:Winter movement: Given this is a large scale, abstracted strategic game, I'm not sure a doubling of land movement costs rule is appropriate. ... Although, obviously, heavy snow could impede actual movement, it just isn't really that critical. Also, don't believe this was in the actual rules, was it?

Marshall, what about just doubling movement in certain terrain in the winter?

YohanTM2 · Post by **YohanTM2** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 11:52 pm

Marshall Ellis wrote:Hey guys (gals):

"trivial combat"

May use an option that allows all combats to be trivial. This might speed the game up a little bit ... what are your thoughts?

Thank you

Trivial Combat
I would never play it but if it is a toggle and won't delay the release I'd say go for it.

Supply
I would never play w/o supply either and think it would skew the game way too much. France would never have to worry and their cash would be huge!! Not sure I would even like this one as an option.

j-s · Post by **j-s** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:43 am

Yohan wrote: I would never play w/o supply either and think it would skew the game way too much. France would never have to worry and their cash would be huge!! Not sure I would even like this one as an option.

That's true! Option is allways option (don't need to use), but I can't see what's the point of this option.

But how about a "Original EiA" - option? All would be so close original boardgame as possible...?

Le Tondu · Post by **Le Tondu** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:08 am

Trivial combat as an option? Sure. Some might like it as it would speed things up. Yet, the game's combat is an aspect that I've personally been looking forward to.

peskpesk · Post by **peskpesk** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 10:00 am

j-s wrote:But how about a "Original EiA" - option? All would be so close original boardgame as possible...?

This sounds like a very good option. All people how just want to play EiA
on computer will be very happy.

A option for Trivial combat is fine with me, but just as long as it's a option

, I like to pick those combat choices!

Marshall could you post a list of what options is possible at the current?

I'm sure we all on the forum would like to say "bhuuu!" or "hurrray!"

John Umber · Post by **John Umber** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 10:11 am

Trivial comat was in the original game and is supposed to handle all small land forces (one-two corps each side) if I remember correctly. It is a good option. But perhaps there should be a "option" for this to choose before all battles? "Just" move the option to the battle "card".

Supply is a good option. Most new players would like to try without this function in the beginning. After learning the basics of the game, use supply. True, the game is built around supply and must be there for more experienced players. That is people like us in this forum...

Winter movement. Like it very much, but use it on sea AND land. But winter should be limited to certain areas. Russia, Scandinavia, Atlantic, North Africa (due to the cold, not the snow) and Turkey?

What other options would be available?

Nice work so far!

September Update

September Update

Options????

Wow

Supply!