Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it,
follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.
Our rules have been updated and given
their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!
Posts
this thread and some other strategy threads have had me on a wargame kick. silent hunter 3 has been getting a lot of PC time and Panzer Tactics on the DS brings back great memories of the Panzer General stuff.
edit: i checked out that Harpoon game on the web and it looks insanely deep. has anyone tried those modern subsim games? i never was too interested as the instrumentation used seemed way too complex. but for the simulationist i can see it being rad.
In my Panzer-divisions-conquer-the-world game as Germany I couldn't get anywhere near their beaches. I wound up going over them. I invaded a lightly defended coastal region with a port but no beaches up in Scotland, had my transports sail right in and unload about 20 Panzer divisions before the British knew what hit them.
I loved the Close Combat series. No building, but it required careful management of your troops. The fog of war and scouting were essential, which made for tense online games. And there was a good variety of units and maps, which was enhanced by an active modding community.
It's just a shame that the AI never seemed to improve. Bazooka times that never fire their weapons, making PIAT teams far more useful despite their more dated weaponry. Tanks with inebriated drivers, incapable of moving in anything resembling a straight line, and gunners who target infantry even when presented with a clear broadside shot at a Panther tank at close range. AI that rushes the player suicidally even on maps it is supposed to be defending.
Unfortunately, right about the time we should have gotten a refined, nearly perfected Close Combat game, the whole genre shifted to first-generation 3D wargames that looked and/or played like ass.
I love the Civil War Generals games. The first one, Robert E. Lee, is what got me into the genre, and it what I used (before Advance Wars) to try to bring other people in since it's so accessible. The last thing you want to start out with is some brain-breaker like War in the Pacific (the entire WWII PTO played out in 1-day turns, yikes).
War Plan Pacific is another in the wargame-lite mold of CWG1/2.
Is anyone else excited for Empires?
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
What exactly is in this pack, cause my Intelligence tab definitely doesn't look like that. Did they change it in Armageddon, or is it just one of those pesky patches?
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
It's also very pretty and apparently includes campaign multiplayer for up to seven players. It comes out next month in the UK, no word on if it's coming to the US, so I might have to import it.
Screenshots:
I really can't recommend this mod enough. Makes a good game amazing.
hmm, i could definitely be into this. pretty much anything ww2 inspired i'm all about.
and yes, i'm real stoked about TW: Empires. those naval shots look so fucking good.
I heard it was really buggy on release, but they quickly released like three or four large patches which apparently fixed most of the issues. They have English patch notes for some reason, and AI and general difficulty was mentioned as being improved. If we have any forumers from regions that have it, I'd love to read some impressions.
Whoa! What now? What is this?
How big are the battle maps?
Must research!
Actually you know what this reminds me of over Total War is that Axis and Allies abortion of a game where you did RTS fights for the territoreis.
caffron said: "and cat pee is not a laughing matter"
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
edit: maybe disregard that link. It downloaded fast but the installer said it had corrupt files. I'm trying from FileFront now
A lot of combat has been automated, you build divisions which consists of up to 4 brigades of any combination of unit you designate, infantry, artillery, tanks etc. Divisions are assigned a leader and for extra logistical and organization bonuses you can assign them an HQ as well. A regular HQ can manage two divisions and you can then add another HQ on top of it which can can manage 3 division HQ's and so on until you have the theater HQ. The more units you have attacking at the same time the higher the organization penalty is, this is directly offset by the theater HQ so its in your interest to assign all fronts to a theater. Bonuses are applied from each HQ to attacking divisions by range (range is determined by your radio tech).
Now this all sounds rather complicated and it did take me a while to get the hang of it. But once you have your HQ chain set up you can tick on the AI. You can choose to give the smaller HQ's objectives and a "stance" that determines if they attack aggresively or aim to hold the line, if you assign an objective inside your territory that HQ will try to defend those provinces or if you assign in the enemy territory they will try to conqour it. You can tell your HQ which direction you prefer them to take (circumventing mountains instead of going straight over them) or let them figure it out themselves. These individual HQ's will try to do their objectives and still gain full benefit from the theater HQ.
You can also just tick on the AI for the theater HQ and it will automaticly assign all HQ's under it to attack or defend basicly leaving the entire front to the AI and let you deal with important stuff like diplomacy, research and making sure they have the right units to get the job done. A theater HQ will automaticly request units it believes are needed to achieve its objective and you can assign him all these units from the production screen with the click of a button and they will automaticly get there when they're built.
Basicly when you start as germany you have two theater HQ's, there's the Werchmart in Berlin that oversee's the blitz on Poland and it will get this done in less then two months if you assign it the blitzkrieg stance. The other HQ is in the Rheinland, the border to France and I found assigning this theater the defensive measure wasn't actually that good. So I opted for attacking stance and gave it defensive objectives and the AI puts up a much more aggressive defence and actively counter attacks and supports the various battles but will never actually attack the french because it doesn't have the manpower to overcome the massive defensive line they have there.
Overall this game is fucking great, I got a lot out of the demo, you can't play around with production since you only have four months and the german unit composition is a bit weird (no artillery brigades for example) but Paradox have really outdone themselves here and the AI actually helps you and is supremely useful, I feel like this is how Master of Orion 3 should have been done.
MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
We need another day of the week just for war games. I still haven't gotten to finish an entire campaign in Empire Total War.
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
There's a lot of potential for fucking over history too, if you keep influencing Poland from the start (as Germany) they can't join the allies so all you get for invading them is a bunch of threat (which causes tons of other nations to mobilize and join the allies).
Game is HistWar: Les Grognards.
Let's get it out of the way first. The game features pretty primitive 3D, blah blah blah. For those interested in an in-depth grand tactical wargame featuring high-level gameplay at the helm of a Napoleonic army, that may not matter. HistWar: Les Grognards is an indie game being made by French designer Jean-Michel Mathé and published by Battlefront (the developers of Combat Mission). Expected in Q3 2009 (end-September?).
For a fairly comprehensive preview, check this thread http://www.napoleonic.commandersatwar.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=149 (which I will be quoting quite a bit in here)
The game is being advertised as being "one of the first - if not the first - FPC (First Person commander) game". But what does that actually mean? FPC is one of the game modes (you have a good variety of options re: the amount of realism you want - and you can play it with a bird's eye view scrolling through the map as well) which attempts to recreate the player's role as the Commander-in-Chief in a Napoleonic battle as realistically as possible. Why does it matter? Realism isn't necessarily fun, but it certainly can be in the proper context. The implications of realism in a strategy/tactics game is that the focus of the gameplay would be heavily aimed at decisions that an actual *commander* would have to do. This means not being able to jump in and micromanage every single unit in the battlefield at once, not being able to issue orders and have them carried out instantaneously; limiting game abstraction as much as possible (but again, the balance needs to be such that it isn't detrimental to fun).
So, again, how does this work? The player is the C-in-C, as in the actual person. Your HQ actually moves around the map, situating itself in positions from which to better view the battlefield. There are 3 levels of AI: "Grand-Tactical (GT),Tactical AI and Regimental AI." As the C-in-C, you replace the Grand-Tactical AI. You issue orders to your corps and divisional commanders, who then issue orders to the subordinates (regimental commander --> brigades, and so on). You can also step in and give orders to regiments if that's what you want. How do you issue orders? With couriers, aides de camp - of which you have a finite number of.
Aides de camp
http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=85171
This feature is the one that has me the most excited. It sounds like a really neat gameplay feature. Could lead to pretty tense scenarios of information warfare. To issue orders to another commander, you take an aide de camp and send him off to the commander. This takes TIME. If you've sent a commander a long way off, it will take a lot of time to carry new orders there, and it will also take a lot of time for info/intel (corps status/strength/morale, enemy and friendly positions) to get back from there. Furthermore, couriers aren't just abstracted. If they get caught by the enemy (eg. there is an actual enemy unit between you and the commander you wanted to send a message to), that message will never get sent, and the enemy will actually get the message/intel that was being sent.
This actually also works in multiplayer - where it may take quite a while for a message sent by one player to reach another. This can make for some pretty tense co-op/adversarial sessions.
So, in summary, aides de camp are how you issue orders, get situational updates on the battle and the fog of war (info for which can be outdated depending on when aides de camp get to you, if they do at all). Furthermore, they require time to carry out their missions, and can also get captured if they run into enemy formations (and thus provide information to the enemy).
Orders
http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=83211
The video in that thread shows off how ridiculously easy it is to issue out orders. Now, the graphics may not be pretty, but look at how massive the battlefield actually is. Yet, a few clicks, and you're done issuing orders (including the extent of the frontage - very cool). The bulk of the gameplay lies in the actual decision-making and high-level command, rather than constantly interacting with the interface in order to carry out your plan. Which only takes a few seconds to order - very very cool.
Now, just because orders are easy to do issue doesn't mean they're easy to carried. Not only does it take time to SEND out your orders by couriers, but it also takes time to carry them out. This isn't a battle of clicks-per-minute, nor is a matter of rapid micro or memorizing queues. It is a battle of wits. Using limited information, and limited means through which you can act upon that information - given the amount of time it may take to react upon an enemy's action - you as the C-in-C need to out-plan, out-wit, and predict your opponent's moves. You CAN'T just improvise and queue in new counter-units in your build list. You need to anticipate your opponent, defend your vulnerable areas, set your reserves, and so on - IN ADVANCE.
Doctrine Editor
Want your corps and divisions to act a certain way under certain conditions? Implement it into your doctrine! More info and examples/screenshots here: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=84817
Order of Battle
So there's no in-game base/unit building. Yet, your army is extremely customization. Your entire Order of Battle can be adjusted to fit your needs.
Multiplayer
http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=85868
8 players. PvP or co-op. Can be split any way. 1 v 7. Players vs AI. Units can be split out any way (eg. one C-in-C, one player controls 2 corps, another 1 corps, or mix-and-match. Units can also be shared between multiple players).
Example of messages in multiplayer:
Screenshots
So why does no one here even know about this game? Because of these!
I'm really excited about this game. Sure, it's low-budget indie, but the gameplay features impress me far beyond that of any conventional RTS. The multiplayer sounds particularly awesome (especially sending couriers between players).
* I am not Jean-Michel Mathé
I still haven't played HoI3 yet.. Like all the paradox games there's so much there to intimidate me. The only one of their games that I played a ton of was Crusader Kings and some EU3. I've only dabbled in the HoI games. I'm reading about some bugs/issues with the game that's kinda making me want to hold off until they release 1.2.
Demiurge, have you had a chance to play anymore?
About the Paradox games, we should totally do a succession game starting in Rome and ending in HoI. I meant to make a pitch for it during that big sale a while back, but I missed my chance. How about the succession game to end all succession games?
Are you by chance referring to the mod (is it a mod or was it just a Paradox "patch") that strings together all of Paradox's grand strategy games into one absolutely MASSIVE grand strategy game?
Steam - Talon Valdez : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk
Yeah, apparently it's an official thing that lets you export your save to the next chronological game.
that looks superb