Wow - First time I've ever wanted to instantly return a Matrix Game

[pat.casey]

To be fair to the OP, it is a bad interface. Once you figure out how to use it, it's not unusable, but it's certainly not "natural" or intuitive. Ultimately, the game UI shouldn't be an IQ test; if I have to think really hard to figure out how to use the UI, it's a bad UI, not a sign of my mental deficiency.

Of course, despite that fact, I quite like the game, so I don't agree with his general conclusion at all. Point though is that even games I like can have major faults, and the UI is a major fault in this game.

[TheBlackhorse]

Man, what an odd OP.
 
Jimmy has 1 post to his credit and that is to come here and slam GoA... Yet, he claims knowing matrix and their catalog well and good like he's been here for ages. Then he doesn't even return to respond to those who answered him.... It's just baffling.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: pat.casey

To be fair to the OP, it is a bad interface. Once you figure out how to use it, it's not unusable, but it's certainly not "natural" or intuitive. Ultimately, the game UI shouldn't be an IQ test; if I have to think really hard to figure out how to use the UI, it's a bad UI, not a sign of my mental deficiency.

I must say I am honestly confused by this. I didn't have any trouble with the UI in this game at all.

What's so hard about it?

[SMK-at-work]

It's difficult to know - the most concrete thing mentioned by others so far seems to be lack of mouse scrolling....which I agree is a bit inconvenient but hardly game breaking or owrthy of the sort of condemnation that the UI is attracting.
 
I suspect (but cannot prove of course) that the game is "simply" 1/ too groggy for a lot of people - WW1 isn't RTS, or fantasy or sexy or trendy, and 2/ the UI is actually so simple that people are having trouble coping with a lack of complexity!

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: SMK-at-work

It's difficult to know - the most concrete thing mentioned by others so far seems to be lack of mouse scrolling....which I agree is a bit inconvenient but hardly game breaking or owrthy of the sort of condemnation that the UI is attracting.

To be honest, I didn't even really notice that. Sure, I do usually scroll with the mouse with other games, but when it didn't work I reached for the arrow keys without a second thought. Only when people started moaning about it here did I really think about it.

I suspect (but cannot prove of course) that the game is "simply" 1/ too groggy for a lot of people - WW1 isn't RTS, or fantasy or sexy or trendy, and 2/ the UI is actually so simple that people are having trouble coping with a lack of complexity!

Well, it is a grog game, but it's nowhere near as bad as many - TOAW looks to mine eye like something else in terms of complexity. The graphics are poor by modern standards but its a wargame, it doesn't need graphics.

The thing about refitting where you had to cycle through your whole army, that really was poor. But Frank has fixed that up, and right clicking on a unit and hitting 'refit' - really, how can it be any more intuitive than that?

[SMK-at-work]

he he...TOAW is complicated....but then it does a lot.....but then I don't use all of it's features either.......I really enjoy it....perhaps I'm too used to vastly complicated UI's!! [:D][:D]

[Joel Rauber]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana
. . .

The thing about refitting where you had to cycle through your whole army, that really was poor. But Frank has fixed that up, and right clicking on a unit and hitting 'refit' - really, how can it be any more intuitive than that?

Refitting works much nicer in V1.1 as you say, I do wish that after refitting one unit that the stack wouldn't go back to its original stack order. But that's a very minor thing.

[pat.casey]

ORIGINAL: Joel Rauber

ORIGINAL: EUBanana
. . .

The thing about refitting where you had to cycle through your whole army, that really was poor. But Frank has fixed that up, and right clicking on a unit and hitting 'refit' - really, how can it be any more intuitive than that?

Refitting works much nicer in V1.1 as you say, I do wish that after refitting one unit that the stack wouldn't go back to its original stack order. But that's a very minor thing.

How about adding a "Fully Refit" to the context menu instead of forcing me to do:

Click Unit
Choose Refit
Move mouse to popup.
Click Reinforce
Click OK.
Move mouse back to next unit (which is probably adjacent to the one I just reinforced)

Wouldn't it be easier to have an option on the context menu of "Refit Full"? That way all I'd have to do is:

Click Unit
Choose Refit Full
Click next unit (which is probably about 10 pixels away)

Lets face it, probably 95% of the time you're doing a full refit anyway.

[SMK-at-work]

I always thought that it would be good to have an optino to auto refit all units of a natinoality up to a certain level - eg you might get all the French Corps to 18 points, or all the Russian ones to 16 or something like that, possibly with a minimum starting level - so you would refit all corps over 10 points up to 16....the system would calculate how many points you had and advise how many you're going to use and have left over.
 
but Frank is jsut a one man band, and the system does work as is, and I wouldn't want to load him up too much!![8D]

[boogada]

I don't understand that soo many people have problems with the UI. Ok, I have done very little war game playing in the last years. (I think the last game I playes extensively was 'Clash of Steel' in the late 90's, so I'm used to 90's UI's) Everything works, the actions are seperated into turns and everything can be done easily. OK, mouse scrolling would be nice, but I don't notice this once I start playing. 

[Joel Rauber]

I suppose I've started hijacking the thread and turning it into a wish list of changes for the UI. My bad.

I'm basically happy with the UI, its servicable! Just to be clear; I am not someone that has problems with the UI.

[Joel Rauber]

ORIGINAL: pat.casey
. . .

Lets face it, probably 95% of the time you're doing a full refit anyway.

Full refit is not a bad idea. However, for me 95% of the time I'm not doing a full refit. Its actually fairly rare. I don't have enough refit points to refit everybody and I don't want to leave units so weak that they get eliminated. Only at certain Schwerpunkts am I doing full refits, more normally I'm evening things out.

This is likely a difference in playing style and I'm inexperienced enough to not have a clue as to which style may be better.

[Tac2i]

ORIGINAL: balto

I have been wargaming since board game days (Avalon Hill). I bought this Saturday and I am already thinking this may be one of the best wargames I have come across in a long time.

UPDATE: The game I was referring to below was Advanced Tactics: WWII. Didn't realized I had jumped to another forum when I posted my comment.
Same here... and I agree that this game will likely become my favorite computer wargame. If diplomacy features could be added for multi-player games, that would make it even better. Some improvements to the naval game to provide inception abilities similar to aircraft would be good too. Lastly, for play against the AI, some drastic speedup for very large scenarios.

aka TacticsII

[Alan Sharif]

Without the help of members of this forum I would have struggled to play this title. I am glad I did not throw in the towel as this is simply a FANTASTIC game.

[OmegaMan1]

Just wanted to post my 2 cents to the thread. Without the helpful FAQs on this forum I probably would have struggled with GOA's interface longer than I did. That having been said, the effort was worth it because GOA is a FANTASTIC game, and one that Matrix should be proud of (a solid, highly replayable game on a rarely-covered topic). I am having a blast playing GOA, and thanks to Frank and Matrix for making it a reality. [:)]

[Erik Rutins]

Appreciate the compliments folks, thanks to Frank for this great game.

[Mowersben]

This is one of the best games I have bought in a long time. Well worth the money, a fantastic model of WW1. 

[Lascar]

ORIGINAL: Mowersben

This is one of the best games I have bought in a long time. Well worth the money, a fantastic model of WW1.

I have been playing it since it came out and I'm playing several GoA PBEM games right now and I have not grown tired of it. I can't say that about any other game I've played except for Combat Mission. It has a certain quality to it that makes it feel like a classic wargame.

[wargamer123]

Initially I was not happy. And I like cosmetics A LOT! However GOA makes up for that in rugged interesting gameplay. It is not cosmetic it is however quite unique. Best wargame released not that I have tried some of the other Matrix Titles
 
This is a title that you can play a few months straight! Rare, when usually even a massive title lasts me a few weeks or at max 1 month
 
AI sucks but the PBEM community is alive and pretty darn good

[EUBanana]

Still playing GoA now after a year - only pbem now, mind.

A perfect mix - not too complicated, not to simple, surprising amount of depth and nuance, has a proper trench/attritional warfare feel to it.

In fact GoA is the only Matrix game I'm still playing these days.  I played WITP for about 2 years though so its got some catch-up.