The Demo Is Here!! Who's Played It?

[AZGungHo]

Hey - I just saw on the Wargamer the Demo has been released.

I am waiting for the download to start as I type this!

So SC pros - what do you think???

[Retributar]

Me Too!!!,...Still Downloading The 83.4MB Mega-File!!!... .

This is "BLOODY-HELL-GREAT!!!".

[fantomas]

Banzaï ! I download the best game og the world ! Hurrah !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[StefMan]

Damn it. 3 more hours to go until my 64k ISDN will have finished the download. It will be 2:00 am by then. Wish I had a decent connection. But still, GREAT TIMING. Just took my last exam today. I shall happily spend a sleepless night. Thank you Hubert. Thank you Battlefront.

[StefMan]

And thanks to all the playtesters as well. Sorry that I forgot to mention you in the first place. I guess you all have spend more than one sleepless night while working on SC2.

[fantomas]

I shall have just one word : Fabulous ! I have work and pleasure for 1000 years !

[CBase]

Does any documentation about how to play the game come with the demo?

[ALthered]

Bugger.Here i am sat at work with nothing to do and no one else in sight.Someone said the demo is only 84MB ,a simple download for our 2mb connection.What a great way to spend the next 9 hours of my night shift,getting paid for it too.

Problem,i don`t have administrator rights so i can download files,but i can`t run them .

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[Kuniworth]

Game seem ok. Map a little crowded, nice to hear all the classic sounds from original sc, like the subs and the marching armies

One error so far. Vorishilov should be changed to VOROSHILOV in the russian leaders in the Weserubung scenario.

[Killer Tomato]

Well with 650 kb/s dl goes fast:)

First things i notice:

Map is crowded

Get morale & readiness values far over 100%

Can't figure out how to buy units ( help plz )

regards

[J P Wagner]

Buying units is disabled in the demo...

[Killer Tomato]

Oooh thx:)

Other thing. I started the campaign 5 times.

3 times my planes could only move 2 tiles. The other times they could move 4 tiles.

So my plane in denmark could attach oslo in the first turn or could not. This really confuses me.

[Desert Dave]

Correct,

AI available, only, with a 6 month play time from April to September, and Unit purchases have been disabled.

That's all I've been told.

And,

Since I only learned of it some minutes ago,

I don't have it

And won't,

Since I have dial-up only

Out here in the desert sticks.

Doubt it's any different than

Gold game scenario, though.

[Hubert Cater]

Killer Tomato,

One of the new Morale and Readiness features is that takes into account initiative. Initiative in the sense that there is a small bonus of morale applied whenever you conquer a country and in turn there will be a small morale drop for your opponents.

In the early years this can be very effective for Germany when played to conquer Denmark, Benelux and Norway in quick succession where German morale will be very high for a few turns while at the same time Allied morale will drop. The formulas are designed to re-stabilize after a few turns and values will generally return to normal.

In general, while the option still remains, as it did in SC1, to attack Benelux early in 1939 after Poland, Fall mud, Winter snow and the lack of initiative or morale bonuses may server to slow down the attacks and not necessarily make it more beneficial than to wait until spring as was done historically. All in all this gives players more options and more pros and cons and in fact there are many more nuances like this that give SC2 much improved gameplay over the long haul.

Note, that many of these nuances will unfortunately not be as apparent in the shortened demo but over the longer campaigns items like the Production Queue, Diplomacy Effects, Research and Upgrade Changes, Soft Builds, Weather Effects play a much more effective role than they did in SC1.

For Unit Purchases, this option has been disabled for the Demo.

Hubert

[Desert Dave]

Other thing. I started the campaign 5 times.

3 times my planes could only move 2 tiles. The other times they could move 4 tiles.

Weather effects. 1/2 spotting and movement in "rain & mud" turns.

So my plane in denmark could attach oslo in the first turn or could not. This really confuses me.

You have to attach or re-arrange units BEFORE they move. And, must be within range of HQ of course.

[Hubert Cater]

Originally posted by Killer Tomato:

Oooh thx:)

Other thing. I started the campaign 5 times.

3 times my planes could only move 2 tiles. The other times they could move 4 tiles.

So my plane in denmark could attach oslo in the first turn or could not. This really confuses me.

This is the weather in effect... i.e. during Mud your Air spotting and attack ranges are generally halved. There are other such effects that can also result in lower attack and defense values.

[Killer Tomato]

Yeah thx

jsut saw my action-points be less in rain-mud conditions.

[Desert Dave]

Ooops,

Didn't realize you were on hand Hubert,

I'll wait awhile and see

What you say - first! :cool:

Besides, it's "getting ready for supper" time

Out here.

Be back later.

[Killer Tomato]

Hi Hubert

Thanks for the very quick response. It was indeed just that. I took benelux/norway/denmark in turn 1 and got those morale/readiness bonusses in the next turn. Turn after that the effect was already less. Slight problem is perhaps that in turn 2 & 3 I had an almost unbeatable army. Every french army took 6 hitpoints per attack by a german army.

Cheerz

Killer Tomato

[Hubert Cater]

This is by design and in this specific case actually helps mimick the very "real life" morale situation in the field by the time Germany invaded France.

Overall testing has shown that this feature works quite well and as mentioned before lets the player have a few options on how they would like to conduct the war by trying a few alternate strategies... i.e. do I attack early or later on with perhaps an morale initiative bonus?

[Killer Tomato]

Well than i must say that it does exactly work like you say it should. Am really anxi

ous to see how this works out in a full lenght campaign

all those considerations... Now i understand the 150 page printed manual:)

thx for answering!

[Madmatt]

By the way, since someone mentioned "sounds" my ears perked up. There are actually very few carry-over sounds from SC1, and even those have been remixed. My goal was to retain the feel of the old sounds but add more variety to them. Of course you can actually now add new custom sounds with the editor but I will leave that for Hubert to explain. One cool thing that I am particulary proud of is what occurs when you click on one of the Major nation capitals. Just be sure there isnt a unit already occuping the tile...

Also, what do you guys think of the new music? Just an example of how music will be playing a much larger role in future Battlefront titles...

Madmatt

[Hubert Cater]

Yes, that 150 page manual is a true necessity in order to fully appreciate all the "under the hood" changes that have been applied to SC2... in general SC2 is MUCH MORE than simply a larger map

[Hubert Cater]

Actually each city has its own sounds as well and for each type, i.e. western, middle eastern etc. and the smaller scenarios have their own unique village/town sounds... just a few small additions/touches here and there for added flavour

[ASHBERY76]

My view is the strategic game looks very good and suits the engine, while I'm not keen on the battle scenarios at all.

The game is very simple but seems to have strategic depth, and has a very fast pace.HOI2 is still the best in this genre imo, but takes weeks to play a campaign.SC2 is good for gamers who don't have the time and will finish a campaign in one night.I will order.