BA Newb Feedback

[sage3]

I played a lot of Steel Panther, way way back in the day. The original Combat Mission as well. I have to admit, I was prejudiced against BA due to the name, and the graphics... but in a fit of boredom (I'm stuck on a deployment in a very boring part of east Africa), I went ahead and bought BA. What a great game. I really like the graphics - they've grown on me - and thing the game play is a really good.

There are a few things I'd like to see improved in a new version of BA:
1) Intermediate level of 'suppressed' that reduces spotting range and fire output. I think it should be harder to get the fully suppressed result that exists today, but some sort of 'intermediate' level of suppression could exist. Another way to model this would be to slow decrease the defender's accuracy, and chance for opportunity fire, as suppression increases. This doesn't have to implemented in a way that is complex.

2) Some additional simple damage options for vehicles, such as tracked, or main gun damaged. Doesn't have to be complicated, but a few more options other than just destroyed. Even a light gun or a PIAT can track a heavy vehicle. This might also allow for an option where vehicles can become tracked or bogged in a scenario.

3) A click interface more like Panzer Corps. I really dislike the use of LMB / RMB in BA. Switching between units requires extra clicks. I should not have to deselect a unit inorder to select a new unit. I'd prefer LMB to select a unit, RMB to bring up the action menu.

4) The ability to zoom out a little further. Pretty minor, but it would be nice for getting the big picture.

5) Vehicles shooting up a terrain levels at other vehicles should receive a penalty to hit for 'hull down'. This might be modeled, so apologies if I missed it. This adds defensive value to the high ground.

6) MGs should be able to fire at, and suppress, armored vehicles. This I would really like to see. This was a real tactic. In combination with idea 1, above, this could provide a marginal benefit to doing just this. It could be coded in such a way that a vehicle could never become fully suppressed from MG fire to avoid gamey tactics like buying lots of bren gun carriers and MG'ing KTs until they give up.

[pipfromslitherine]

Thanks for the feedback - and happy you are enjoying the game

1 - nice idea. It wouldn't be too hard to implement either. The only issue might be making it too much of a feedback loop where slight suppression makes it tougher to avoid becoming more suppressed because it is hard to fight back.

2 - it's on our list for BA2, although we haven't worked through all the details yet.

3 - you have the option of LMB or LMB+RMB options. You can change in the options menu (ESC), bottom right IIRC. You can (in LMB mode) also hold to select units if they have orders over them. Hopefully I am correctly understanding your issue.

4 - You can disable the zoom lock by adding (IIRC)

NOZOOMLIMIT 1

to your USER.TXT file in My Docs/My Games/BBCBA

5 - we are reworking the gameplay advantages etc of hills for BA2, as we agree that they aren't providing enough combat advantages currently.

6 - I believe that some hi-cal MGs can shoot at armour, but generally we wanted to avoid the ability to chip away with infantry weapons at armour (as you appreciate).

Hope you continue to enjoy the game, and look forward to any more feedback you might have

Cheers

Pip

[sage3]

1. With regards to 1, I think it might be possible to implement and balance this as something like a "rattled" state that wouldn't cause too much of a feedback loop. I think that it should be harder to get units into the completely suppressed state where they simply will not fire back.

3. With regards to 3., I didn't see this, and this is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

4. Perfect, thanks!

Great to see the work you are putting into BA2. I await eagerly.