Officers & Gentlemen,
First thoughts for Pip & Ian on 2.0 beta on iPad 2 (upgraded to 2.01 last night, so you may have fixed 2.iii below):
1. Observations
i. Nice implementation - Sensible application of "if it 'aint broke, don't fix it". Everything works smoothly.
ii. Is the default volume louder? Sounds twice as loud as the non beta version (at the same iPad volume settings).
iii. Good unit selection, although feels easier to get opponents for games as Allies (everybody wants to try a Tiger II?).
iv. Precise new ending reports. "Your opponent surrendered. Victory" has replaced the confusing "Achieved objective" (Err, I did, how?). Thanks guys.
2. Fixes
i. Game would flow better if play ran through force selection AND make first move immediately afterwards (right now it's choose units then pass the turn back to opponent, wait for them to choose units, then play first move). Or is there a behind the scenes attempt to trick both sides into balancing unit choices?
ii. Units don't always surrender at Morale -100 (I'm not sure if this is always broken, but I'm chasing an M36 with two Panthers and a Marder on Winter Village. He's Morale -100 and he's still there).
iii. Return of pink snow, sometimes but not always, in the Winter Village Redux map (the 2.01 notes say you've fixed some map colouring, so maybe this was 2.0 only?). It used to happen occasionally on Christmas Surprise.
3. Requests
i. Yep, me too. Preview map before force selection (or at least show name or description of the scenario during force selection) to inform unit choice.
ii. Please include some non-tank choices, ie. there are no non-self-propelled AT guns or artillery choices yet. If a good AT gun plus a transport were much cheaper than a Sherman 76 or a Panther, I'm curious to try a non-tank strategy. Right now there's no way to play an AT gun/tank mix to beat off Tigers (think Kursk or North Africa). Games swiftly degenerate into a tank vs tank slug where the Germans have better kit and the Allies can only win by clever placement of infantry spotters (be smart guys, infantry deficient force selections will get punished severely. I got caned!!).
iii. Show fire range and movement points in addition to hard/soft attack and defence stats during the force selection stage (I still can't remember what's got the best fire range).
iv. Add a button in the top right menu to cycle through visible enemy units (perhaps next to the button that cycles through the player's own units). Alternatively, can you force the game to jump the map to show enemy units that become visible during opponents moves? It's easy to miss sneaky tanks and recon cars that move into view but don't fire.
v. Keep the maps coming 1: Meeting Engagement is the favourite because it's massive and mixes space for tanks with town and forest for spotters (sorry, I mean infantry). Makes genuine strategy possible because you have time to group units into mixed commands before they contact the enemy. This would be a perfect map to make us choose between transports (for rapid placement in key choke points) or more fighting forces. But there are no transport choices available for Meeting Engagement? This is also the map for some carefully placed AT guns. Give me my 88s guys!!
vi. Keep the maps coming 2: I guess you watch which maps are popular from server counts, but if you need help prioritising which to bring over first, the larger mixed terrain ones would seem to benefit most from tailored force selection... I'm thinking Killing Fields, Armoured Showdown, Christmas Surprise, Urban Armour...
vii. Ability to sort MP challengers' list by scenario, player or date modified (by clicking tab at top of list) to make it easier to find what we're looking for.
4. Questions
i. What are the conditions that trigger whether a unit will open fire during an opponent's turn? Was just playing an ace (but daring) opponent who drove a regular Sherman into a single space between a fully healthy Tiger and a PzIVG (both were facing him, with one shot left). He took out both the Tiger and the IV for no return fire from either. ARGH!!
SUMMARY: Bottom line, 2.01 looks like a cool new feature (MP force selection) added to an already awesome game. Early days for me. Have only completed a couple of games. Will feedback more after the weekend... Keep up the great work!
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