Hubert Cater

Minors cannot be disbanded

Agreed considering the design. Now if I was using force pools and limited numbers of purchases for each country then it would make more sense and usefull, otherwise why purchase for a minor when you can just purchase a major unit as you've pointed out. What you get in this game is the resources of the minor and an inital bonus of their minor units to supplement your existing forces (one of the benefits of letting some of these countries join as opposed to attacking them). I think the rest of the ideas are good and make perfect sense, but would be better suited for the more advanced version while the current implementation will stay the same for the reasons stated above. Hope that helps, Hubert

I was hoping that there would be an exasperated mood induced when playing the eastern front, much more than I could have hoped for Hubert

The demo is a perfect indicator of how fast the final verison will run. Hubert

I've made some adjustments in this area, mostly because you guys have managed to push the demo to its limits (which is a very good thing) and exposed some of the gamey strategies The Soviet strategy is mostly to be on the defensive until they can muster a proper counter offensive (as you've experienced), but I have added some planning to SU defence tactics such as improved defensive positions, using rivers to their advantage etc., but decided to keep away from the front line wall for the most part. This is I feel a bit gamey and does not reflect the real situation on the eastern front which was composed of strongholds or 'hedgehogs' around key towns and cities and advancing or retreating fronts from these areas. (But by late 43 and then 44/45 this is a different story) I think your tactic of cutting off and surrounding these areas with tanks etc., is a good one and not necessarily a weakness of SU strategy in 40/41, but the added defensive planning should make it more interesting and risky to drive deep without support and supply. Hope that helps, Hubert

Copy protection won't be a problem Hubert

Great to hear

Yes

1) There was a problem with some systems when the proper monitor driver was not installed, i.e. used a high refresh setting that the monitor could not handle, final version will have an 'ini' file that can be edited to set to the highest refresh rate on your system if you are positive that it properly supports it 2) It's a custom window, you just have to use the arrow keys 3) Game is running a loop to check for active units to display the flashing, I know it reports full CPU usage, but I don't think it's an accurate representation since it's a very low intensity usage of the CPU, if you try and run something else at the same time it should be fine Hope that helps, Hubert

Thanks!

Sweet!

Very nice

Glad to hear I can see how this setting can sound misleading, it actually means "random" within a *historical context*, more specifically if and when do these countries join their historical alliances. This is determined by game play and means that major countries like Italy can only join the Axis but may join late or early depending on events in the game. Same goes for Axis/Allied minors, and you could expect to see things like Hungary or Romania question joining the Axis if Germany invades it's facist ally Spain for example. This was an idea, but as a design decision I went against it primarily since it's an easy way to cheat, you can just save and reload until you get the desired results. I know the current solution is not perfect, but as stated above, you can get countries to join your side but it primarily depends on how you and your opponent play the game. Leans towards earning these types of results One idea I'm toying with for the future would be to have join percentages for these countries similar to what you now have for Russia, Italy, and the US so this relationship would be more apparent. All possibilities in one form or another for down the road Great! Hubert

Interesting idea Chris, you never know Hubert

Not to worry, nothing huge, just a few tweaks to make it more interesting. Actually I've done this with most of the gamey strategies, minor adjustments here and there so as to not entirely discount them, but just to make them a little more interesting/risky Hubert

Interesting point on the distraction effects, could be something to consider for the future, but most likely will not change for the final version. Hubert

No problems!

Very good point, and I think it would be safe to say that having this type of open style, unofficial beta period en masse will definitly make the game that much better and if I haven't said if before, thank you very much to everyone for many many of the positive comments and excellent feedback. In fact this is exactly the type of excellent feedback I have received from the official SC Beta Team and combining the great job that guys like SuperTed, Otto and Hawk have done with this forum's comments and I think we'll all have a game here that will not dissapoint very many people Now is everybody's wish list going to be included, probably not, but I do understand the desire to know what has been changed, trust me I'm not teasing anyone here , I just think that it would be better suited to have a list of changes that will be immediately playable once the Gold Demo is available. I think the primary benefit is also to keep the floor open, which is in the end a very good thing for everybody. If this still doesn't convince everyone, not to worry, I think you will be seeing that list very soon Hubert

I agree! Very nice page Hubert

No weather effects like that for Russia, but there are in general shortened months during the winter/fall/spring. Not maybe exactly what you are looking for I know , but using the 'scorched earth' option as well as leaving the 'war in siberia' option left unchecked will give you some of the effects you are looking for when playing out Barbarossa Hubert

Aesop, Good point and legitimate concern, but as SuperTed has said, it is something I have addressed for the final version so not to worry Hope that helps, Hubert

It has

Good point Bill, forgot to mention that Russia has been tweaked a bit as well Hubert

Very very soon guys

Many tweaks have been added as you've all guessed, more on that with the official announcement (not to worry, nice long list sitting on my desktop ready to go so nothing should be missed ) but to answer the US reluctance question, this is really a tough call since early entry is based on a lot of hypotheticals as seen in the game. What I've tried to model is the actual reluctance of the US general population as a whole at that time with the actual events that fully drew the US into the war (i.e. PH as well as German Declaration of War on the US) as well as extreme situations both militarily and politically. Again this is one of those "keep in mind you are only playing until may '41," type situations but what I wanted with the game system was to model potentially early entry by the US but not too early as to seem really ahistorical. So things like the invasion of the UK, or declarations of war against traditional neutrals like Switzerland, Sweden etc. could draw them in earlier, but standard play aggression really should not IMO. In most cases I've found that playing outside the historical declarations of war the Axis used will bring the US in prior to Dec 7h, '41 so hopefully that alleviates the fears Hubert