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Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 9:49 pm
by Oleg Mastruko
AGS Hungarian Campaign 44.

You know how very critical of TOAW3 scenarios I am, and that I am of the opinion selection was done extremely badly.

In my own personal selection 60% of scenarios that end in "Garbage" folder, end up there less than 60 seconds after I open them (OK call me idiot, I don't mind [8D] it's just me).

Some other scenarios, though, need to be played for a turn (A MERE TURN) or two turns before they end up in "Garbage", realizing they were obviously NEVER playtested beyond turn 1.

Case in question: AGS Hungarian Campaign 44. Strange name for a scenario, plus there are no air units at all. Still, no problem - perhaps it was designer's intent (not explained in documentation though). On turn 2 Soviet player (that is me) can see that his strongest unit on the map, some Tank Corps, has movement rate of 1, and is rated as unit with "very slow movement". A tank corps? My strongest unit?

OK I get the message. No one ever playtested this. Never.

AGS Hungarian Campaign => Garbage. Reason: blatant mistakes, obviously never playtested. 78th official TOAW3 scenario to end there (not counting Classic TOAW folder which I don't even open.). Phew. Next. 66 scens to go (not rated as Garbage, yet, in folders other than "Classic TOAW".)

Oleg

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 9:59 pm
by Okimaw
You know, I've read a number of your posts about scenarios over the last little while and I've got a question for you. What are your top 10 scenarios and why?

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:04 pm
by Oleg Mastruko
ORIGINAL: Okimaw

You know, I've read a number of your posts about scenarios over the last little while and I've got a question for you. What are your top 10 scenarios and why?

Uhmmmm, this thread is not intended for lists of good scenarios and happy thoughts [:D] [:D] [:D] This thread is here for WHINING [:@]

Wasting my time (and my honorable opponent's time) on such scenarios is just annoying. I won't play 60+ turns in a scenario that obviously no one (except this Elmer dude) ever played beyond turn 2.

I will list my fav scenarios somewhere else, some other time (no prob).


RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:10 pm
by Menschenfresser
Odd, I'm looking at the scenario in COW. I see one or two German Tank Corps and they have 32 mp.

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:15 pm
by Oleg Mastruko
ORIGINAL: Menschenfresser

Odd, I'm looking at the scenario in COW. I see one or two German Tank Corps and they have 32 mp.

Try the Russian Tank Corps - this is one specific unit I am talking about.

BTW it is also the ONLY tank corps unit in the scenario (IIRC) - Germans don't even have corps sized tank units in this scenario (it's not an HQ, it a unit).

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:26 pm
by DuckofTindalos
ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

I will list my fav scenarios somewhere else, some other time (no prob).

Should be a very short post...

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:27 pm
by Chuck2
It could be that this scenario is still in beta version. The briefing states that this is version number .90. Perhaps version 1.0 would be the first non-beta version. The briefing also has subtitles for things like House Rules and Victory Points but no information is provided beneath.

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:28 pm
by Menschenfresser
Ah, I thought you meant German.
 
Yes, I see that. There are actually two Russian tank corps. One that starts at 66,33 and the one you're referring to in the front lines. The problem seems to be that the front line unit has no trucks of any kind. Also the briefing says that all German units east of the Tisza can't move until the Russians capture some town. They don't start immobile at all. I thought it might be an honor rule, but there's a blank section labeled "Honor Rules" in the briefing, so obviously this is another mistake.
 
This one probably should not have been included. As part of the scenario selection team, I can only say that we waded through a lot of scenarios with similar problems.

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:32 pm
by Captain Cruft
The actual problem with the unit (5 Gds Tank Corps) is that it has no transport for its numerous arty and AT pieces. Not a single truck. EDIT: Oops, posted before I saw the previous post.

This is obviously just an oversight by the designer, and easily fixed. Now, things like this don't particularly bother me, since I have very low software quality expections (globally, not just with this game). However, it's a bit of a pain in the ass if you have to check through each scenario before you play it.


RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 10:50 pm
by nemo69
ORIGINAL: Menschenfresser

Ah, I thought you meant German.

Yes, I see that. There are actually two Russian tank corps. One that starts at 66,33 and the one you're referring to in the front lines. The problem seems to be that the front line unit has no trucks of any kind. Also the briefing says that all German units east of the Tisza can't move until the Russians capture some town. They don't start immobile at all. I thought it might be an honor rule, but there's a blank section labeled "Honor Rules" in the briefing, so obviously this is another mistake.

This one probably should not have been included. As part of the scenario selection team, I can only say that we waded through a lot of scenarios with similar problems.
The problem with the mobile German formations at the beginning is that the formation orders used to freeze them ('wait' and 'fixed') are only effective for the PO, not for a human player. This should either be fixed (as with the transport assets of the now infamous Tank Corps) or that part of the briefing put into the House Rules section.

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 12:04 am
by Industrial
ORIGINAL: Nemo69

The problem with the mobile German formations at the beginning is that the formation orders used to freeze them ('wait' and 'fixed') are only effective for the PO, not for a human player. This should either be fixed (as with the transport assets of the now infamous Tank Corps) or that part of the briefing put into the House Rules section.

It might also be due to a bug in TOAW III, on SZO Ralph just posted that he had found some bugs whith importing events for Pl 2, here is his post:
Here's the issue, the following event types weren't converted correctly for P2 in some scenarios. Editing an existing scenario, may make this problem worse.

WITHDRAW_UNIT_EFFECT
DISBAND_UNIT_EFFECT
WITHDRAW_ARMY_EFFECT
SET_FORMATION_ORDERS_EFFECT
UNIT_DESTROYED_TRIGGER
SET_OBJECTIVE_1_TRACK

I'm hoping that the next upgrade should be able to fix these. The plan is that it will fix them, and write out a text file to the scenario directory about what it did so that people can verify that the scenarios are converted correctly..

http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=541392&postcount=145

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 3:57 am
by ralphtricky
ORIGINAL: Industrial

It might also be due to a bug in TOAW III, on SZO Ralph just posted that he had found some bugs whith importing events for Pl 2, here is his post:
They're unrelated.

These bugs affect a few scenarios that were included in the initial release. We've also detected a few that appear to have been broken in COW also.

This bug is more likely to affect someone that's creating a new scenario or updating one, than someone playing a current scenario.

Ralph

RE: Another scenario for "Garbage" folder

Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:54 am
by PDiFolco
Oleg is a whiner but he has some good points : were the scenarios really playtested ? All of them ?
I've no problem if Matrix says "there was just too many we just made sure they work" but that's not real playtest...