Carl Puppchen Posted February 19, 2005 Share Posted February 19, 2005 I have posted 9 scenarios under carl puppchen for cmak over at the scenario depot with ZERO reviews. The 2 reviews up there are from my "usual" opponent. I did receive an email tip about a bug in my scenario that I fixed and reposted and that was much appreciated. I know that there is a big thread about the depot here but... come on... I'll take one lousy review Try "our backs to the tiber" - I am playing that against my usual opponent and we are having a blast. It has a lot of action and is only 30 turns with the objectives in play very quickly. Maybe some of it has to do with the fact that my scenarios are kind of weird (or maybe not very good) in that they are all for PBEM play (or HTH) and have random reinforcements to spice things up. Oh well. Any help appreciated. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Posted February 19, 2005 Share Posted February 19, 2005 I understand how you feel Carl I have 71 battles in Cmak at SD and only 26 having been reviewed and only 2 of eight operations. A couple on the CD have never received a single review either. However this is far better percentage than for CMBB or CMBO. I'll make you a deal if you can wait a week (the real world is very busy for me right now) I'll play one and review in exchange for a review of one of my unreviewed ones. But be warned, I tend to be hard reviewer! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junk2drive Posted February 19, 2005 Share Posted February 19, 2005 Under CMAK Operations, top 20 reviews, 7 are from me. Some have 1 review. I stopped reviewing the scenarios that I playtested for people for fear of them looking tainted. No news is good news they say. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Hey feel free to taint any of my scenarios with your comments! And thanks for all the reviews - of mine and other designers! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Carl: why not playtest them at TPG first? Not guaranteeing that you'll get reviews at TSD if you do, but if there's a question about the playability or quality of your work, have some folks at TPG test them out first and report back to you. Just a suggestion. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Puppchen Posted February 21, 2005 Author Share Posted February 21, 2005 It is a good idea for posting at the proving grounds. I just joined and put "our backs to the tiber" up there. I will put some of my other ones over there, too. Hans - if you have any recommendations for games 1) vs AI as axis 2) as PBEM let me know and I'd be glad to trade. [ February 20, 2005, 08:28 PM: Message edited by: Carl Puppchen ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 FWIW I've stopped used the Scenario Depot as a place to read reviews, for the reasons that have been discussed at length elsewhere. When I get a scenario recommendation from somewhere, I pick up the scenario from the depot, but reviews ... nup: they're a waste of effort to plough through at the moment. Since I don't use them, I also have not bothered writing any more. I can see that designers would like some feedback (hey - I hate it too when I post something and get no feedback). This being the case, I'll try to be more disciplined about giving the feedback when I play the scenario. But I can tell you now: I'd be more ready to do that if I thought they were more useful than just providing feedback to the designer. GaJ. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooz Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 "Carl: why not playtest them at TPG first? Not guaranteeing that you'll get reviews at TSD if you do, but if there's a question about the playability or quality of your work, have some folks at TPG test them out first and report back to you. Just a suggestion."--GJK IMO, once battles/ops are posted at TSD, how many get revised? These scenarios appear (to me) as finished works awaiting critique. I encourage all scenario designers to take advantage of THE PROVING GROUNDS(TPG) as a good method of evaluating their designs. You will find many dedicated playtesters who offer detailed, insightful reviews of submissions. I have often thought of TPG as a place for all scenario wips. Once polished, they go to The Scenario Depot as finished products. This type of collaboration benefits us all, members of the CM community. We don't get paid for any of this. We all share the same desire--fun, balanced battles and ops. WE--the gamers, make our hobby better. Pretty cool when you think about this. :cool: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredrock1957 Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 Da Proving Grounds is where I place all my scenarios for playtesting... In fact out of the 11 CMBB and 19 CMAK scenarios I have placed there for playtests.... ALL have received a review, discussion, comment or somefink... ... Its only after this I make modifications and then place them at The Scenario Depot where I know they will get downloaded... its always nice to get feedback there but I don't expect it... So I say to all the designers lookin for feedback, send you scenarios over to Da Proving Grounds and dont forget to get involved in a little playtesting, you will find that one hand washes the utter... Also I remember in a thread a while back both GJK and Admiral Keth were discussing the possibility of combining some of the functionality of the two sites... That would be awesome if that happened during the same time frame as the release of CMX2... But still hats off to those two fellers for doing a great service to the CM community... That is all... -FR 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gpig Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 I've posted a few reviews at the depot, recently. If I get to your scenarios, I'll post a review for them as well. Keep up the good work, fellas. Gpig 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junk2drive Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Thanks for reviews Gpig, I have noticed them. I had a thought about reviews. I have for years downloaded scenarios for other games from wargamer and other sites. None of them provide for reviews. Some game fan forums don't seem to recommend scenarios, just point you where to get them. I think we have a unique community in CM. (If you stay out of peng and waffle threads, but that is unique in itself.) I don't remember anything like TPG or some features of TSD. We are lucky and better for it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeaconBlue Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Originally posted by junk2drive: I had a thought about reviews. I have for years downloaded scenarios for other games from wargamer and other sites. None of them provide for reviews. Some game fan forums don't seem to recommend scenarios, just point you where to get them. I think we have a unique community in CM. (If you stay out of peng and waffle threads, but that is unique in itself.) I don't remember anything like TPG or some features of TSD. We are lucky and better for it. [/QB]All this what you say is so true. I don't post here often but I do try come and read on a somewhat regular basis... an attempt to "keep in touch". That said, I have signed up at TSD just so I could leave some reviews, (there are some awesome scenarios there) but due to time constraints have never done so. Reviews or not though, I noticed that some scenario authors/designers have literally thousands of downloads.... I think that says something. Just to have your work downloaded that many times would be a great compliment, I think. Humans are pesky though, if something is free and they like it, enjoy it, they'll talk about it to their friends but never compliment the designer, whereas if they find bugs or want to argue historic point or perspective or complain, they can't wait to make contact and cry about something they got for free. Great games, community and forum. People who ain't a part, just don't know. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buq-Buq Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 I think it's funny that Kingfish's scenario, "If at first . . ." is listed twice at The Scenario Depot. :-D Mark 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJK Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Originally posted by Buq-Buq: I think it's funny that Kingfish's scenario, "If at first . . ." is listed twice at The Scenario Depot. :-D Mark Yes, that would be a Buq ... Buq. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Puppchen Posted February 24, 2005 Author Share Posted February 24, 2005 Well for my scenarios I play them PBEM against my "usual opponent" before I post them at the depot. So at least I have some idea of whether the scenario is remotely cool / balanced or not. I will start posting them up at the proving grounds too - I have 2 up there - our backs to the tiber and water struggle - and no feedback yet, but it is early. If you are playing HTH or PBEM I highly recommend our backs to the tiber - it is NUTS and a lot of fun. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Puppchen Posted February 27, 2005 Author Share Posted February 27, 2005 I just finished our backs to the tiber against my usual opponent and it was a draw after some of the most NUTS fighting ever. It even had the "super bomb" bug which didn't impact the outcome but made the final map of slaughter even more desolate. Go to the "what the heck happened" thread in the main CMAK forum to see it or check out my site at What the Heck Happened? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Hi Carel I'm back, which scenario of yours would you like me to review? Vs AI best and smaller the better! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 Something that would help people choose your scenario, and hence help get it reviews, is to have a clear indication of whether it's intended to be balanced or not, and whether it's been playtested as such. I'm sure that people like me who are looking for balanced scenarios skip over lots of new (unreviewed) scenarios in favour of reviewed and reported to be balanced ones ... I'm not really interested in finding myself on the loosing end of a historical or accidentally (untested) unbalanced battle. If you put "This scenario was designed to be balanced and playtests indicate that it is" then I'm much more likely to try it out (at least until I discover whether you're any good at making them balanced ). In fact, if you have a list of unreviewed scenarios that you are confident are balanced, please let us all know... I for one will try them... GaJ. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 GaJ I do label that on most scenarios. Below is a part of one of my briefing from a scenario that is about to be released. IYO is it clear enough. If not I'm open to making it clearer. Difficulty: French Average German Challenging Balance: Pro-French Points: French 1,625 German 1,100 Map size: 800 x 1,300 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 Oh and for one that IS balanced: Difficulty: Nationalists: Average Republicans: Average Balance: Balanced Pro-Republican Nationalist points: 1,100 Republican points: 1,100 Map Size: 720 x 640 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 :confused: :confused: Is this some sort of US political joke, or what... (Hans - your scenarios are generally well labelled, and I've reviewed every one that I've played. I have passed over looking at yours more recently because most of the ones I looked at were "best played vs AI", which is not what I'm looking for). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junk2drive Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 Since it's 6am where he is and afternoon where you are, I'll stick my nose in. Hans' second post refers to Spanish Civil War. One side was called Nationalist and the other Republican. ***** If you read my reviews of vs AI, I will usually comment if I think it would be good vs a human. I have played some that I can tell a human would have done so much better. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 Originally posted by GreenAsJade: :confused: :confused: Is this some sort of US political joke, or what... (Hans - your scenarios are generally well labelled, and I've reviewed every one that I've played. I have passed over looking at yours more recently because most of the ones I looked at were "best played vs AI", which is not what I'm looking for). What Junk said 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 The big problem, especially big for prolific "vs AI" scenario designers like Hans, is that Scenario Depot doesn't let you search by "best played as". So... I just thought "OK - for my next game I'll do the right thing and play a Hans scenario and review it". Guess what. I have to wade through many many "best played vs AI" scenarios to find any PBEM scenarios. And when I get there, they don't tell me if they are balanced or playtested. I'm not moaning about you Hans ... just trying to highlight the current problems that are there for people looking for the "right scenario for their need". Right now scenarios designers feel justifiably irritated at the lack of feedback (every Hans scenario I looked at had 100s of downloads and no reviews) but on the other hand people looking for specific scenarios also have a harder time than really necessary right now. (I have to also mention the current silly review category called "PBEM replayability". Now what does that mean? Does it tell me that the person liked the scenario for PBEM (even though it only plays through once, which is the case for most scenarios) , or that it is the special kind of scenario that you might actually want to play again? If the latter, then where have the reviewers put their opinion for whether its a good scenario for once-off PBEM play?) Someone will probably leap in now and say "Hey - don't knock the Scenario Depot, it's great and we need it". It's true: it's a wonderful service to the CM community. It's just not perfect right now As someone who actually _does_ review every scenario they play, I feel like I have some sort of right to let you all know the issues I see GaJ. [ March 04, 2005, 04:23 AM: Message edited by: GreenAsJade ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted March 4, 2005 Share Posted March 4, 2005 Originally posted by junk2drive: Since it's 6am where he is and afternoon where you are, I'll stick my nose in. Hans' second post refers to Spanish Civil War. One side was called Nationalist and the other Republican. "Democrats" "Nationalists" all sounds about the same to me 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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