heretic's first impression

[heretic]

Overall: it lacks atmosphere - it tastes too mechanic

5 seconds: nice but clumsy
- no program icons (fav icon)
- first campaing choice: which campaign did I choose, what is it, how to go on?,..
- did I choose the unit or not
- ...

5 minutes: ok I get it
- interesting to play
- hard tot ell difference: friend and enemy and what I am to do

15-30 minutes: Cmon where is the atmosphere
- seriously why talk about hex and blue army even in tutorial? Atmosphere please!!
- Buy units - cmon no atmosphere either: after all collecting stuff drives players and you let it feel .. mechanically
- ...

End game for first time:
- weird load and save
- task bar full with ac3 codec icons

...

Please add atmosphere - the feel and personality.

[lordzimoa]

Thanks for the feedback.

[heretic]

Playing for more time, my additional impression:

- management of my "own" units (upgrade, buy, replenish...) becomes increasingly weird and difficult: it is still what drives me forward but it is really clumsy to manage. In PG it was even more clumsy, but it had atmosphere. Here it is clumsy without atmosphere.

- colors: on low contrast displays (eg. notebook) the whole screen is too dark.

- colors my units and enemy units look too "similar" on low contrast screens. Several times I mistake my unit with an enemy unit and vice versa.

- the core slot/units to place/units placed counter is off. In Norway I had all units placed according coutner but still had 2 more.

- save game: How do I delete a save game????

- save game: The whole save game screen is not intuitive.

- Computer AI: AI on highest difficulty still does stupid things.

- Computer AI: AI looks overall solid and ok, still it could/shoudl do better in highest difficulty.

[Kerensky]

The tutorial is not meant to really provide much atmosphere (beyond the briefing text, that has some). It's designed to train brand new players who are wholly unfamiliar with the genre and Panzer General formula of game play. Excessive atmosphere in this regard would detract from the actual purpose of the tutorial.

If you want to be immersed in the game, your best bet is the actual war campaigns. Plus this is only a BETA, the release version has an extra special surprise coming that will greatly improve the player's immersion into the game.

I'm not allowed to say what that is, you'll have to find out when the game goes live and you purchase your copy!

[IainMcNeil]

Thanks for the feedback - what would make the game more atmospheric and make the army management easier? What are the issues you're finding?

[heretic]

immersion/atmosphere
1. including historical data would add atmoshphere and immersion
2. based on Tutorial texts I suggest to reconsier layout of text when used for historical info
3. add historical photos (a lot have been posted in wikimedia commons for free use)

Army management
1. If I recall correctly there was a specific army management intro screen in PG.
2. usability -Suggestion: add two buttons besides each unit not full for resupply unit strength and resupply unit strength elite
3. In highest resolution the items are too small - increase unit icon size depending on screen res
4. It is not intuitive to see the comparison of unit stats in selection - show name of the units you compare or let user select the units to compare
5. Improve graphic in "$" screen - I believe a rework would be in order.

...

[IainMcNeil]

Thanks - the photos are an interesting idea. If anyone wants to do some research and find appropriate photos that are copyrigt free for the missions we can look and see if there is a way to work them in.

We have another surprise that should add to immersion for release.

What kind of historical data would you like to see?

We did want to have a separate army management screen - I think we'll probably add it at some point but ran out of time. This should address all those issues.

[heretic]

On pictures:

example: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... iger_I.jpg

Much more pictures are released by the Bundesarchiv. If not mistaken it includes the C for commercial use also

[Kerensky]

#1 Library is fully integrated in game.
#2 Partially addressed in the upcoming secret addition for release.
#3 Heroes and leaders abound with historical photos, as does the Library, and several special MP maps have very interesting art (Hylan and TFN).

...

#1. Army management screen has been compressed into a side bar. No functionality has been lost doing this, but there is the added bonus of being able to view the map and plan according at all times.
#2. Come again?
#3. Making a UI that fits 800x600 all the way to 1900+ has it's drawbacks. You can always change your resolution, and eventually we may have resolution setting configurable in game.
#4. This is a known bug, as has already been fixed in the update (Didnt make it into Rc3)
#5. Come again?

[heretic]

#1 Library is fully integrated in game.

Didnt see that yet

#2 Partially addressed in the upcoming secret addition for release.

#3 Heroes and leaders abound with historical photos, as does the Library, and several special MP maps have very interesting art (Hylan and TFN).

Aye

...

#1. Army management screen has been compressed into a side bar. No functionality has been lost doing this, but there is the added bonus of being able to view the map and plan according at all times.

Immersion was lost - even army screen itself feels "mechanical" - I personally "feel" I dont like my units much. Sounds weird? Was different in PG.

#2. Come again?

You mean double post? Somehow yes.

#3. Making a UI that fits 800x600 all the way to 1900+ has it's drawbacks. You can always change your resolution, and eventually we may have resolution setting configurable in game.

Yep definitely drawbacks. The combo of resolution with lack of contrasts of colors becomes an increasing issue. On might be ok, all together works not so well.

#4. This is a known bug, as has already been fixed in the update (Didnt make it into Rc3)

[El_Condoro]

2. usability -Suggestion: add two buttons besides each unit not full for resupply unit strength and resupply unit strength elite

This might be the suggestion to allow incrementing unit strengths rather than the all-or-nothing current approach. The two buttons would be "+" and "-", I assume.