scottie Posted June 30, 2007 Posted June 30, 2007 i just dont feel like you have any level of control over the proceedings. Think im going to jump back into the Combat Mission series. I love the TOW pickup weapons and control individual soldiers but i just feel that each mission develops on its own accord with very little user control or influence over what happens. I have tried the pause/order - pause/order method of played and it does help a bit. Ahhh i just get frustrated everytime i play TOW. It does look fantastic however. Scott
whaco Posted June 30, 2007 Posted June 30, 2007 Fantastic looking game but not for me either. I have my unopened game for sale for $25 cad and would love to get rid of it.
pad152 Posted June 30, 2007 Posted June 30, 2007 I don't understand the lack Of control aspect? The level of control is what I like about TOW, I'm normally down at eye level with my soldiers. When I start a mission the first this I due is to order all of my units to hold, then move some to recon the map, them move units as needed. If you don't do this your units will advance and likly get just get killed.
Nikki Mond Posted June 30, 2007 Posted June 30, 2007 I finished the game, played through all nations, all campaigns. There's not much replayability to go back, not really interested in beating myself up in the moscow battles either. I had my WOW! moments, and "this is cool" factor. Sure. I suppose if somebody POV Ray'd the maps I may go back as that would change my strategy for replay. Actually seeing the terrain changes at a glance. Link for POV Ray, for modders? A Bot mode would be nice for replayability. True some loved TOW some hated it, some in between. Looking forward to the next evolution of the game. Bye for now. [ June 30, 2007, 06:02 PM: Message edited by: Nikki Mond ]
ShiftZ Posted July 1, 2007 Posted July 1, 2007 I guess for most people war sims like this one are hard to get used to. As stated above, with ToW you HAVE to be at ground level with your troops to play the game properly. Eagle eye views will only serve to get you lost. LOS is everything and carful managment of troop advance and a basic understanding of war tactics are a must. I just purchased SB PE Pro and that is a game where head long rushes into enemy territory gets you killed real fast. Play the game at troop level, get used to hitting keys on the board, mucking about with the camera and you will find that the universe is unfolding as it should. Salute, ShiftZ.
scottie Posted July 2, 2007 Author Posted July 2, 2007 Originally posted by ShiftZ: I guess for most people war sims like this one are hard to get used to. As stated above, with ToW you HAVE to be at ground level with your troops to play the game properly. . Combat Mission games are like this too, better to be a ground level to get a feel for the game, to see what unit see. Im just finding TOW missing soome of the control features in CM - cover area - hide I gave TOW another good go at the weekend. It is fast moving and i find the LOS process diffiuclt compaared to CM. Will give it another go ... could do with entering buildings Scott
Spartan Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 For me the biggest problem is the AI. I have no problem issuing orders to a platoon and letting them get on with it to some degree while getting down the ground level as every puts it with others. But I still find situations where armour catches infantry in the open and they just sit there and die one by one. Or the other way around I have advanced armour towards an enemy infantry platoon. The friendly AI just sits there yet if you target each infantry figure in turn they all die. Just not right. I would nt mind so much as multiplayer is why I bought the game but even then unless your are only working with very few troops that you are actually controlling the game comes unstuck with silly AI tactics....
Rapier Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 Spartan The game designers don't want to program the game so all you do is start the mission and then sit back and watch the battle. The AI shouldn't do everything for you. It is purposely designed so the AI will do some fairly basic stuff for you. However, it has to be tuned ( "dumbed-down" so to speak ) so the player controlling the units will deliver a better battle result.
thewood Posted July 3, 2007 Posted July 3, 2007 Originally posted by Rapier: Spartan The game designers don't want to program the game so all you do is start the mission and then sit back and watch the battle. The AI shouldn't do everything for you. It is purposely designed so the AI will do some fairly basic stuff for you. However, it has to be tuned ( "dumbed-down" so to speak ) so the player controlling the units will deliver a better battle result. That doesn't make any sense. If you made a good AI, would that stop people from micro-manageing the individual soldiers. I don't think so. If the AI were decent, you could about actually commanding, not babysitting. There should be basic orders like, ambush armor on that road area, move to contact and then hide and observe, hold your fire unless this type of unit appears, cover that house with your machine gun unless directly threatened, etc. The only reason a company makes a dumb AI on purpose, is lack of resources, money, or talent. All three I can understand, but fans rationalizing it away is a little bit of a stretch.
Rapier Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 The context of my post related to allowing an infantry squad to be caught in the open by armour and then expecting the "AI" to save them for you. Or having to individually target enemy soldiers with your own tank... I personally don't mind micro-managing my troops but I do understand that some people don't enjoy playing games that way.
thewood Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 I don't think anyone expects infantry to be saved by the AI, but there is a very basic expectation of core human and realistic reaction of going to cover. In a game where you have to manage individual soldires with almost no squad-level orders, the soldiers have to have some basic ability for self preservation.
SlapHappy Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 Originally posted by thewood: I think that's a reasonable expectation of feature sets in a game of this type. However, the real reason this happened is because, as per usual, the designers were trying to push a tank-heavy game while almost completely ignoring any of the nuances of infantry development. Even after Battlefront got the US-Europe release missions re-balanced with a higher amount of infantry (can you imagine what it must have been like before?)the extra infantry capabilities weren't there and there was no time (or inclination) to add them in. So, yes, let's please not rationalize. I enjoy the game myself, but I can clearly see the infantry portion of the game is under-developed.
Duriel Krugaire Posted October 11, 2007 Posted October 11, 2007 How do you get down to ground level? This game is too confusing, it has been gathering dust for months, it is ready for the trash can. I loved the other series, but this is just not intuitive like the others.
Gridley Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Mouse wheel raises and lowers cam. You can also click a location on the mini map. To each his own, but I've only had the game for a few hours, and I find it pretty intuitive. There's things I'd like to be able to do like tighten up certain formations, and keep tanks from driving off when they're supposed to be defending, but generally really enjoying the hybrid style of game play - realistic RTS. I am enjoying it thoroughly, certainly not trash.
Flanker15 Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Not to mention the up coming expansion which adds everything that was missing for ToW!
Gnasher Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 "How do you get down to ground level? This game is too confusing" Especially if you don't read the manual! BTW its NUMPAD ENTER [ October 12, 2007, 11:24 AM: Message edited by: Gnasher ]
FinnN Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 Originally posted by Gridley: ...Mouse wheel raises and lowers cam...As well as that, there's a setting in the options somewhere that allows you to extend the camera height range - so that you can go right down to ground level and up further (handy if you want a semi-close combat 2Dish style view for gauging the best routes for sneaking). Have fun Finn
12Bravo Posted October 14, 2007 Posted October 14, 2007 "...and keep tanks from driving off when they're supposed to be defending." You need to also click on the "Hold" button to keep them from wandering. If you just click on "defend", they will sometimes move to find a better postion. Check out this screenshot (Hold and Defend buttons are highlighted): http://doubleveteran.com/screenshots/TOW_Defend_and_Hold.jpg
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