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Questions for Bigtime


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Hi

This is my first post after downloading the demo several days ago and taking my time to evaluate it. As a die hard Close Combat Player (at leaast for CC2) I have found myself comparing any wargame I come across to it - again I compare to their best effort so far CC2. CC2 held my interest for some time because of its good gameplay and reasonable attempt at accuracy. However htey fell far short on CC3 and their overall attitude to their customers was disgraceful.

Although I swore I would never by another atomic product after their interview in the zone - I most likely will purchase cc4

Why ??

because this isnt done yet :-(

I must commend the team at bigtime software for its efforts in many areas especially in historical perspective and accuracy, not to mention their excellent ability to listen to those that are interested in a great wargame ( Ive read alot of threads ) I do have a few questions that I hope you could address for me as I am trying to get others that I gamed with in CC2 to take alook at this (I'm sold)

1. as far as multi player goes in tcp/ip will their be an option to control game settings such as turn time limit and victory conditions?

2. Will you be able to make scenarios with points and purchase units like in cc2?

3. Ive noticed the wonderful job on the tank graphics and the trees look awesome too. Will other terrain features such as buildngs etc be brought up to this standard, as well as stuff like smoke?

4. Is there any decision to expand the views to so there are a bit more midrange settings

(sorry used to cc2 kinda scale :-P )

my system specs are here in case ya wonder

PIII 500

128mes pc100 sdram

17.2 gig hd wdc

tnt 2 viper 770 vid card 32 megs

SBLive

Thanks for all you efforts and taking the time to respond when I know you are busy.

SSPL out

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Guest L Tankersley

Here are some completely unofficial answers to your questions:

1. Unknown. There was discussion of putting a time limit on the orders phase (I think it's on "The List" but I don't think it's been confirmed for the initial release). I doubt there will be variable victory conditions for TCP/IP play - my understanding is that victory conditions are built into scenarios (via the victory locations) and the game engine (casualty levels and the like).

2. My understanding is "yes, and" or possibly "no, but" depending on your emphasis. The scenario/map editor will ship with the game. There's also talk of a design-your-own random battle/random map generator that I _think_ is confirmed for the initial release. However, I don't think you will be given a map and a bunch of points to buy an arbitrary or semi-arbitrary force to command; force purchase is part of the scenario design (that's my understanding, anyway).

3. I think the graphics are still being tweaked, but I wouldn't expect miracles for the buildings. Better-looking smoke is problematic; there are discussions of why in other threads.

4. I don't think so, but with the 4 angled and 4 overhead views, the zoom feature, the scalable units and the camera tilt feature you have a lot of flexibility. (I didn't know about the camera tilt until I saw someone post about it here a while back.)

I imagine if I've provided egregiously wrong info Steve or some of the testers will jump in to correct me. wink.gif

Leland J. Tankersley

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Steve of BTS sez:

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>We have a really cool Design Your Own (DYO) option that allows totally random scenarios, or totally random units on a map of your chosing.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I would assume you can set a number of parameters for the random scenarios, but I think I've heard that picking your force 'a la carte' will not be included. You could, of course, agree, together with your opponent, to use the scenario editor to each pick forces of an appropriate size. You'd probably have to trust your opponent a good deal to go about this in an honorable way.

I've also heard mention somewhere of units being assigned values for the purpose of global morale, though I don't recall where, and I would assume those values are also used for scenario designers to help balance things and for the random scenarios.

In regards to tournament play... I get the impression that it's awfully hard to come up with perfectly balanced scenarios, and I wouldn't trust force-picking or random forces to do it at all, considering that terrain has quite a large effect on the balance of force required. It's probably still quite hard to do with people designing scenarios, particularly without a decent number of people to playtest. I have a good way around this, but I'm gonna start a new and properly labeled thread for it, 'coz i wrote it out, and realized it was awfully long and not quite on topic. smile.gif

-John Hough

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Guest Big Time Software

Hi all. Some answers, although Leland was pretty much correct wink.gif

If you play a H to H game using the DYO game feature, yes... you get control of many of the things you are looking for. Not total control, but it gives you a quick head to head game (of solo) with custom forces on a custom map using custom settings.

There is also a scenario option to have Victory Locations be variable. By this I mean assume there are three flags to go after. The ATTACKER can choose one to go after, the other two don't count. Thing is... the DEFENDER doesn't know which two wink.gif

Unfortunately we keep butting our head up against hardware limitations, and in the case of buildings -> time. We can overcome both in the near future, and are trying to improve smoke without sucking up too many resources (CPU and/or VRAM).

I think as you play CM more you will find that the views we have made available are fine. It might just take a few times to adjust, but that isn't so bad smile.gif

For the record I *really* like CC2 as well. Up until CM it was my favorite wargame in years. Oddly enough I haven't played it in a while wink.gif

Steve

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