Questions and a suggestion

[Elmo]

Questions - Is there an easy way to tell the relative strengths of units? Example: If I have a Corps with a strength of say 6 and an Army of say 3 which one is really going to fare better in combat? How much of a role does readiness, experience, and supply play in this determination?

Suggestion - I usually purchase units for each country at the same time each turn. If others do this too then could you change the program so after a new unit is placed the purchase screen comes up automatically again? It would just save on having to reopen it multiple times.

[ May 21, 2002, 10:07 AM: Message edited by: Elmo ]

[Hubert Cater]

In the purchase screen you will see the general stats for units like soft attack, hard attack etc. Also when performing combat, you will notice two main areas that are the most helpful, the lower half of your screen will give you the current stats on your unit like readiness (as you've noticed) and stats like entrenchment etc on your enemy. At the top center of your screen a display of expected losses is given for both the attacker and defender, although this can be limited in FoW.

I'll probably keep the purchase screen as is, since it could go the other way when a player just wants to purchase a single unit and the purchase dialog pops up again when they don't want it to.

Hope this helps,

Hubert

[Elmo]

Thanks Hubert. I'll look for the info at the top of the screen although it sounds like that only applies to an attack. I was asking more about which unit to pick if I had a choice and needed to plug a hole in the line.

I assume the answer is not as simple as "An Army is always better than a Corps." but maybe it will be clearer to me after playing some more.

[dwtheriault]

I'm am currently playing through the demo for the first time and I must say, I am very impressed. Those darn English keep sinking my subs and BB's! Anyway, I have a few minor suggestions, if you'd care to hear them...

#1 - If I wish to reinforce my units, I have to click on each one individually then Max them out or incrementally update them all. Is there a screen that allows me to see ALL underpowered units and upgrade them from there, or will I just have to do it individually?

#2 - I cannot see a way to go to Next Unit or Previous Unit. I see that unmoved units have a blinking thing on them, but it'd be nice to hit N or P and that takes me to units that have not moved or attacked. With so many units on the screen, some may be accidentally missed.

#3 - I am guessing that there are no combined arms attacks, true? In other words, each unit attacks individually. If I have 3 armor units surrounding a single infantry unit, I cannot have one massive attack from all three sides. I have to attack with each one, true?

#4 - Rocket range. My first German rockets only have a range of something like 2 or 3. Is this correct? I can see having early rockets accuracy being low, but range should be higher than 2-3, shouldn't it?

#5 - Supply. If I create a new army or corp without an HQ, where do the supplies come from (what HQ are they assigned to)? Is there a radius away from HQ that supply diminishs? There seems to be, but I can't quite figure it out.

#6 - Why can't I have a sub and a BB (for example) occupy the same hex. The sub is under water and the BB above? Just curious.

#7 - Resources. Is there a way to reinforce resources when they are attacked or are they permanently lost? To prevent loss, I'm assuming I need to have a unit sitting on top of the resource, ture?

#8 - I am really enjoying this game and want to wish you and Battlefront all the success. I still play the heck out of Combat Mission and will definitely be picking up the next one. Now...back to work for you on this game!!! haha

...Dave

[Wolfe]

Just started playing the demo last night, but I think I can answer a few of these.

Originally posted by dwtheriault:

#3 - I am guessing that there are no combined arms attacks, true? In other words, each unit attacks individually. If I have 3 armor units surrounding a single infantry unit, I cannot have one massive attack from all three sides. I have to attack with each one, true?

Yep, just one at a time.

#4 - Rocket range. My first German rockets only have a range of something like 2 or 3. Is this correct? I can see having early rockets accuracy being low, but range should be higher than 2-3, shouldn't it?

Yeah, they don't seem particularly effective (except at absorbing British Strategic bombing runs). I think you would need to research more to get more pop from your rockets as well as longer distances.

#7 - Resources. Is there a way to reinforce resources when they are attacked or are they permanently lost? To prevent loss, I'm assuming I need to have a unit sitting on top of the resource, ture?

I believe you need to have a unit sitting on it to protect it, but they do seem to fix themselves, if left alone.

Now a few questions of my own.

I guess not, but is there any chance of gettings higher resolutions?

Any chance of getting some small map labels (particularly for capitals)? Shouldn't clutter up the screen, and would make a nice touch, IMO.

When a unit is surrounded but sitting on its capital city, it tends to reinforce up to the max (10). I had surrounded Paris, but had a devil of a time taking the city since the AI kept using its MPPs to fully reinforce the garrison. This seems a bit excessive considering they were surrounded. Calling up *some* local reserves and even the general population for defense of your homeland is fine, but being able to fully reinforce (albeit with a loss of experience) seems unrealistic.

Could we have a bit more feedback? I'm thinking about the reports at the beginning of each turn. Unless I completely lost a unit, the game says I suffered no casualties. It would be nice to get a report that says how many units suffered casualties as well as how many units were destroyed. e.g.:

2 Army Groups suffered casualties

1 Rocket Attachment was destroyed

Would add some flavor. Also, I'd like to see what reserach is currently on-going. Not just when something is completed. When I first started doing research, I wasn't sure I had done it correctly since the game said there was no research to report for the previous turn.

FOW is off by default? That's kinda strange, no?

How about a briefing at the start of a Campaign to let you klnow who is against you, who leans which way, and what significant events may triggers responses (e.g. invading Poland would likely bring the Brits into the war, etc.)

Some units seem rather small for this scale. Could the sub units be re-named 'wolfpacks'? Their effectiveness wouldn't change, just their name. Wolfpack seems more impressive than just one sub. The same for cruisers/battleships. I think calling them a 'Scharnhorst Cruiser Group' (to indicate it has some support ships) would sound better.

Just a few suggestions. Thanks!

- Chris

[Wolfe]

Thought of a few more things.

When loading a saved game, the menu only scrolls by clicking repeated the up and down arrows. The bar inbetween doesn't do anything. Any way of adding a PgUp/PgDn option?

Confirming the deletion of every file you intend to delete: highly annoying. It may be a nice safeguard, but how about a toggle option for this one?

Overall stats? I'd love to have a running count how many Army Groups/Corps I've lost/destroyed on my way to victory. Especially if its broken down by country. Pretty please?

Is there any chance a demo saved game might be compatible with the full game? I've got a pretty good invasion of the USSR going, and would love to continue it to see what happens. After running over the Low countries, Sweden, France, and Yugo and having made new friends in Hungary, Romania, and even Bulgaria, I've destroyed 6 Soviet Army Groups, 1 Tank, and have driven back his air cover. I'm almost to Minsk, but I get the feeling the Brits may have something nasty in store for my weakly defended western wall.

If I turn on FOW and Last Turn Report, these options don't stick when I restart the game.

How do I tell which units have been upgraded? I've researched anti-tank, but I don't know which units have this new tech? Do all of them get upgraded or just the newly constructed ones? Is this info displayed anywhere other than the purchase screen?

Hide units also hides the menu buttons on my screen. Not really a horrendous thing, but odd to see nonetheless.

Thanks for a great game! Now I may have to try it as the Allies!

- Chris

[ May 21, 2002, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: Wolfe ]

[SuperTed]

Dave,

Originally posted by dwtheriault:

#1 - If I wish to reinforce my units, I have to click on each one individually then Max them out or incrementally update them all. Is there a screen that allows me to see ALL underpowered units and upgrade them from there, or will I just have to do it individually?

It must be done individually.

#2 - I cannot see a way to go to Next Unit or Previous Unit. I see that unmoved units have a blinking thing on them, but it'd be nice to hit N or P and that takes me to units that have not moved or attacked. With so many units on the screen, some may be accidentally missed.

Here is the list of hot keys. Your answer is there.

#3 - I am guessing that there are no combined arms attacks, true? In other words, each unit attacks individually. If I have 3 armor units surrounding a single infantry unit, I cannot have one massive attack from all three sides. I have to attack with each one, true?

Attacks are done individually.

#4 - Rocket range. My first German rockets only have a range of something like 2 or 3. Is this correct? I can see having early rockets accuracy being low, but range should be higher than 2-3, shouldn't it?

Research will improve rocket range.

#6 - Why can't I have a sub and a BB (for example) occupy the same hex. The sub is under water and the BB above? Just curious.

The game engine allows one unit per hex.

#7 - Resources. Is there a way to reinforce resources when they are attacked or are they permanently lost? To prevent loss, I'm assuming I need to have a unit sitting on top of the resource, ture?

Resource hexes repair themselves automatically.

Having a unit in a hex prevents strategic attacks.

[ May 21, 2002, 11:26 PM: Message edited by: SuperTed ]

[SuperTed]

Originally posted by Wolfe:

How do I tell which units have been upgraded? I've researched anti-tank, but I don't know which units have this new tech? Do all of them get upgraded or just the newly constructed ones? Is this info displayed anywhere other than the purchase screen?

Chris,

All units are upgraded simultaneously. You can see the unit statistics on the purchase menu and the research level on the research menu.

[Wolfe]

Thanks, Ted.

BTW, I said above a French unit sitting on Paris was constantly reinforcing up to 10 even though it was completely surrounded. Actually I was wrong; there was one enemy unit next to the city, which explains things.

- Chris