To reload or not to reload

[rogue187]

it occured to me that when I want to play a game based on realism, I find myself reloading the game when my battle plan falls apart. Usually when it drasticlly falls apart (APCs killed with everyone inside, surprise ATGMs, I think something is safe when it is not) etc. I was wondering, is it considered bad sportsmanship to reload when things have fallen apart or just keep pushing through and taking what ever result you get?

[theFightingSeabee]

Generally I'd say reload when you're not having fun any more. If you're playing multiplayer, it would not be advised.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Above all it is your game and you should play it in a manner you find enjoyable. If that happens to be reloading every time someone walk in to a bullet, by all means do so.

But I wouldn't do it.

Myself, I rather enjoy trying to recover from a SNAFU. Or, especially on defence, that desperate defeat where you have a heroic failure as things go wrong. I've found that me scratching my head over if I should do something risky is half the fun, and you'd rob yourself of that if you can just do so without fear of consequence by reload if it wasn't a good idea. As we say in The Netherlands, he who burns his arse must sit on the blisters.

That's not to say I won't reload a game ever. If I give an order to do X and for some reason the pixeltroops do Y and get themselves killed, i may reload. But ordering X and finding that X was a bad idea... no, wouldn't reload that.

But as I said, it is your game and you should derive pleasure from it any way you can.

[afreu]

Generally I'd say reload when you're not having fun any more. If you're playing multiplayer, it would not be advised.

x2

One of the reasons I never finished the official campaigns is that I felt I had to reload everytime I took significant losses.

A good scenario is one in which suffering casualties doesn't kill the gaming experience.

[souldierz]

Don't expect every game to go according to plan.Eventually if you keep reloading you will never play a game all the way through in one try and that will be slow and frustrating.Do that with a campaign and it will take you a year to finish it.

Sometimes you gotta sit back and take the loses.Watch and play the scenario like a movie, what ever happens, happens and who ever falls, dies.Don't take it personally when a man gets hit, it's part of the show or the story and the show or story must go on.

I reload when there's a very bad path finding issue that takes place and gets many men killed.Most of the time I allow it to pass off as the Sgt or whoever was leading made a bad call and tried to take his own initiative and got killed.Or I reload when my personal favorite situation happens to me, where i click on one squad, but my mouse double clicks secretly and chooses the whole Platoon, so when i give the move order i see more of my forces start running in the streets or out in open and vehicles start to shift, that one burns me up when that happens.:mad:

I'd suggest rolling with the punch's, it will only make you wiser for the next mission,plus it's satisfying when you beat the mission on the first try.Overall it's best not to reload, but you can do as you please;)

[Alan8325]

where i click on one squad, but my mouse double clicks secretly and chooses the whole Platoon, so when i give the move order i see more of my forces start running in the streets or out in open and vehicles start to shift, that one burns me up when that happens.:mad:

This one just recently started happening to me. I think it means that there's a little switch bounce going on the mouse and it's time to get a new one.

[Thomm]

DDo that with a campaign and it will take you a year to finish it.

Not at all. The key is to save often enough in order not to loose too much time.

I had about a dozen save games for each battle in the campaign, *because* I did not want to get stuck later in the campaign due to previous losses. To me, this seemed to be more time-efficient than to risk having to go back and replay numerous battles.

Best regards,

Thomm

[souldierz]

I meant if you reloaded after every loss you took.I tried reloading often when testing certain situations and felt that I became to picky in trying to achieve a certain outcome and dropped that gamey habit.Also in the time it took for all the reload and replay, I could have completed 2 other missions on top of the one I was playing allowing me to enjoy more missions.

I still do the same and regularly save games to make sure I don't fall victim to some kind of glitch or mishap again.The lasting a year remark was an over expression:p.Just another way of saying it will take you longer to complete,because you might catch yourself replaying the same 5 minutes over and over again:)

[hoolaman]

I think a big part of the fun (and the reason MP is so fun) is that you are forced to deal with the consequences of your cock-ups. Reloading devalues the game so that the tension goes out of it.

I will reload though if I do something that causes massive casualties early in the battle that I think "No real life commander would possibly be that stupid". Or something that I know has lost me the battle on turn 2.

[MeatEtr]

Reloading is great for experimentation or learning purposes. But don't overdue it, it can become a bad habit.

Now if there was a full-playback feature of a battle in the game. Then I could see people doing it more often to conduct, ahem, the perfect attack/assault to watch and showoff later. But we may never see this feature in the game anyway.

P.S. Hoolaman, where the hells my turn? I wanna finish driving out your uncon scum from the circus. hehe

[Praetori]

I usually play on even when bad things happen. I feel I learn more that way. If I'm feeling confused as to WHY the end result turned out the way it did I often re-load the saved game and play to learn from there (I rarely play to the end of the scenario tho because I like playing with the odds stacked against me).

I was appalled in the campaign mission at Ash Shammas (airport) when I lost two strykers and most of the fireteams riding them to the huge IED/Landmine at the runway entrance to the complex but I kept playing thinking "this game is bloody harsh".

Most of my troops died horribly so that time I had to replay/reload the mission and went in with a much more realistic approach against a military objective such as that (guns blazing, bounding over-watch and putting lots of firepower against any suspected point in the terrain).

I haven't reloaded since (except for the occasional CTD).

[Lt Belenko]

"Goes overs" is for when you are playing Candyland with your kids - And one of them draw Molasses Swamp late in the game.

I remember playing the Avalon Hill games. When things went badly a good "accidental" jolt of the table took care of things.

I play any battle to the end. I rarely even play a scenario more than once. That's just me.