Hubert Cater

Thanks and I will take a look this week

No worries xwormwood and I think a part of this might just be getting used to the new scale, i.e. it is immediately different from what everyone is used to in the previous releases so it is of course very understandable. Even for me, the scale was noticed right away when we first made the switch from Pacific Theater development to Global, but once you start playing the game you begin to appreciate what the game actually delivers and in that sense some of the compromises that needed to be made. Long story short, while you initially feel that there is a bit of a compromise on movement and tactics relative to the previous releases, what you do gain is the sense of playing out the war on a Global scale, i.e. balancing out the decision making process for either the Axis or Allied side and planning for the long term both economically and diplomatically keeping in mind the various players and triggers that bring the various nations to war. As mentioned prior to release, one of the biggest challenges is getting Japan played just right as it is tough to get all your resources and units prepared for the long drawn out war it is about to be engaged in by late 1941. After that everything is still in place, there is still a technology race, unit purchase planning, production placement and diplomacy and the overall grand strategy. Then after a while you find that the military tactics are still there it is just that we are talking about shorter distances and once you get used to the reduced movement, again only relative to previous releases but still appropriate for this scale and turn lengths, it is still a game of tactics and strategy just at a different scale, i.e. you quickly forget that there were any compromises even made. Why? Well the game is very playable and it won't take you a lifetime to complete whereas if the scale was much larger it naturally would take that much longer to play out a turn. I'll also say the following, and this goes directly to the initial point made above relative to how it might just come down to what you are used to... after playing Global for over a year now and switching back to the older releases every once in a while my initial impression is that the maps for ET and PT seem so big! Hubert

Honestly this was our design choice at the time and I could make the arguments that it made a lot of sense for a variety of reasons, i.e. such as playability, game time, resources and testing etc. but at the end of the day there are always going to be design choices that players will disagree with and we understand that. Essentially this is why we have made the game engine and Editor as flexible as they are for custom changes and/or mods.

Some events are a bit more random or I should at least say dependent on in game conditions but the Nazi-Soviet decision should trigger each time you play. It of course only triggers once Poland surrenders, is this not the case?

Not a mistake at all as like I've mentioned above there are already mods in the works that are being worked on at that size.

Bo, to be honest I don't think we've ever said the map could not have been made bigger, rather that the ability to make a bigger map is certainly there if players so desire. Essentially that is the nice thing about releasing a very flexible game engine and Editor, i.e. no one is stuck with the original design (if they prefer something else) and this has been true since the very first release of SC2. Hope this helps, Hubert

Hi Xwormwood, Thanks for the feedback and I can try and give you a reasonable answer to some of your queries even if it is not a complete and fully detailed one. I think the easiest thing for me to say would be that essentially you are correct in that many concessions have to be made and that for the most part once these concessions are made the focus shifts to the bigger picture rather than dwelling on a lot of the smaller details. Naturally this just happens as eventually you want the game to be completed, as otherwise, and believe me this does happen, we could spend weeks if not months on what ends up the most trivial of items rather than maintaining the overall focus of the big picture. Is the game perfect? Of course not but overall it plays very well and we also have a situation where we needed to balance the game for not only the AI but for Multiplayer as well. In fact this game was probably one of the more heavily tested Multiplayer releases we have put together so far... so unless a specific strategy was tested and reported for AI games then there is little for me to eventually edit/change. Problem is of course that there are many different strategies that can be implemented but the good news is that I am listening and will gladly adjust minor items like the blockades/raiding for the next patch. Hubert

For the subs there might be a bug there and I'll take a look at that. Can you send me a saved turn so I could see what is going on? Send to support@furysoftware.com For the situation in China, part of the problem is the tight spaces and limited AP. Often the AI might not have the range you would expect it to have to capture cities until the following turn but you are also right that this is likely a situation the AI was not entirely prepared for as it is mostly scripted to be on the expected defensive. I can look to make an adjustment here as well. Otherwise glad to hear you are enjoying the game Hubert

Just to add a note myself, the base Japanese income is also a portion of the US oil that will go offline sometime in 1941. It would have been nice for us to be able to show this as a separate convoy value but the current engine does not support that and so it simply appears as regular income for Japan. For reference these oil resources can be found at the bottom right hand corner of the map and are scripted to go to 0 MPP value as the war progresses with the applicable US Embargo message.

Fockewulf, Sorry to hear about the trouble and if you still haven't managed to get it up and running I would suggest the following FAQ and then to submit a support ticket at the Helpdesk as they should be able to guide you to license completion. http://www.battlefront.com/elicense_faq.html http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk

Hi Captain! Glad to hear you are enjoying the game In order to adjust the map this is pretty straightforward in the Editor, i.e. you can increase the map size and then make adjustments as necessary by redrawing the tiles and borders and ownerships etc., but it can be time consuming. In terms of future maps, officially developed map changes are not likely but there are a few mods already in the works that have significantly larger maps. One is even a 512x256 map but I can't say for sure when this one will be available as it is being developed, independently, by one of our beta testers. Hubert

1) Not completely sure but the Editor does a different set of checks than in game, as in game the checks are more strict as to what are valid convoys. So in theory the Editor should at least show the convoy routes better than the game but I wonder if the Editor later found them to be invalid. If you try and reload the convoy scripts in the Script dialog do they show up again. Also I would try and see if they load in game as well just to see if there is a difference. 2) The only thing I can think of is if you are putting together a custom campaign and are using a custom unit bitmap that does not conform to the same size as the one that comes with the default Global campaign. Could this be the case?

1) This happens on rare occasions when the game is minimized and then re-selected. If the buttons appear to be missing you can often minimize again and then re-select the game from the taskbar etc., and all the interface graphics should then re-appear. Just to confirm is this when you do switch back and forth from game to Desktop and are you running in Windowed or Full Screen mode? 2) This is an odd one as it seems to work fine on my end but I mostly run on XP and I do test on Vista but usually with UAC disabled. I wonder if on Win7 it has to do with compatibility files causing the issue. Here is a reference to what I am referring: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VistasShowCompatibilityFilesAndTheScrumptiousWonderThatIsFileVirtualization.aspx Why I think it might be connected is because if it is saving this file in the virtual folder, i.e. the INI file that keeps track of these in game changes, it might not be saving properly. One way around this is to try and uninstall the game and then re-install into another folder other than the Program Files folder such as C:\Games etc., or you might want to try right clicking on the Desktop icon and selecting to run in WinXP compatibility mode to see if that makes a difference. Hope this helps, Hubert P.S. We have a tech support forum for Strategic Command, that you can post this to in the future, i.e. it is a few links below this forum.

I think this is normal when playing the game as different users as I believe the OS creates different profile save locations under Vista and Windows 7, perhaps XP as well but to be honest I am not sure as I have never run this kind of test. Glad you like the game though! Hubert

Hi John, If memory serves I believe only the AI can interdict the Norwegian shipping lanes (without penalty) as a bit of a helper to the AI, otherwise for a Human Allied player, in either multiplayer mode or against the Axis AI there is of course a warning and penalty levied. Hubert

I'll reiterate what Bill has just suggested, give it a lot of time especially if the system decides it needs to recheck all the scripts, this is essentially the equivalent of recompiling the entire campaign. Try letting it running its course and it will eventually return control back to you when it is done. Hubert

Hi Brian, Glad to hear you are enjoying the game 1) I can look into this but it is a bit tricky as most of these end of turn screens are pre-set to close down automatically and I might be opening a can of worms if I change the functionality after so many releases. An easier change might be just to double the length of display time. 2) This can be edited by going into the SETTINGS dialog and toggling the 'Quick AI Animation' option. 3) Great to hear, I think? Hubert

Thanks Geofighter and definitely don't be shy about spreading the word As an aside, this is probably our best release to date with David doing an excellent job of putting the original campaign together while Bill did a fantastic job of editing and fine tuning... all in all considering the scope and depth of playing WWII on a Global scale I am quite pleased with the quality of this release. So enjoy! Hubert

No problem at all and glad to hear you've got it all working again

I believe this error was fixed for PDE in the latest patch and most likely for Weapons and Warfare, can you confirm what is the latest version of Weapons and Warfare you are running? If it is not the latest I would definitely suggest applying the latest patch as it should fix it for you. Hubert

Yes and you can actually now see for yourself with the newly available demo http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=254&Itemid=400

For those that may have missed it, here is a link to an interview done for SC WWII GC earlier last month that should provide a few new details about the upcoming release: http://thegamerstudio.com/interview/461-interview-battlefrontcom.html Hubert

Moet, Decision events were introduced in the Patton Drives East expansion and included in the Pacific Theater release but for Global Conflict the Decision events are much deeper and numerous that it will certainly make the game much richer than any of the previous releases. Hope that helps, Hubert

Thanks everyone, and we of course thank you for your patience as well

Thanks everyone