Some Panzer Corps iPad Questions

[rodney727]

One thing to bear in mind is that while retina quadruples the number of screen pixels (and this pixels required in an image) without equivalent memory increase (iPad 2 to 3 only doubled the memory). So it is also a technical issue, given the terrible memory management system on iOS. Some games do indeed have retina versions of their gfx, but most are not as complex, with the range of visuals onscreen at one time, as Panzer Corps.

And as said, the asset work would be truly enormous - perhaps even enorMaus

Cheers

Pip

Really Pip shouldn't you be working on fixing the difficulty levels rather than retina displays? When are you going to admit that allied corps, afrika corps and all the dlcs difficulty are broken and simply don't work? What's that? You have my $80 I spent and simply don't care? I understand. Hey you want me to post pics in an aar on field marshal or Manstein on any dcl? I will. I guess I just want to know why you charged us $80 for about half the features for the PC version. I can't wait to hear your logic on this. And please remind us why it's the same price as the PC version! Because it's portable? Oh ok.

[Dmurphy238]

There is no real file system on iPad and so no way to copy files to and from it. We'd need a way to cloud transfer saved games from one to the other and its a big task and not one the team currently are working on so unfortunately you have to start a new campaign.

Does this mean that, at present, we can not transfer our core units from say, the '39 campaign to the '40 campaign?

[IainMcNeil]

As Phil says the iPad is not powerful enough to do what you want.

There simply is not enough memory to have all the art scaled up and at a 1:1 pixel density on a Retina display. The iPad just fits the game in to memory as it is this would quadruple the memory requirement and the significantly slow things down making it unplayable. The other option is to strip out 75% of the units and terrain tiles to make room for the ones in the game to be 4 times the size but that would hardly be fun!

Right now there is a mismatch between the display and the memory and power of the device. Its not as powerful as a PC but has a way bigger display.

[Forefall]

Don't worry dmurphy, that works fine. Just not from PC to iPad.

[Dmurphy238]

Don't worry dmurphy, that works fine. Just not from PC to iPad.

Thanks! It was a great relief to see in person that when I finished off Norway, there were my troops ready to attack Eben-Emael! I hate to think I would have had to suffer "Recon Rudel", the worst hero ever, for nothing! Now, to keep him alive long enough to get the killer version!

[dalogan72]

Anyone interested in playing multiplayer, the game must be fluid, I will always play for Germany, let me know at www.dalogan72.com

[rodney727]

I'm always up for a game

[Ret1ogli]

Hi, after i finish , wich expansions i should buy! The 1939 Early Blitzkriegs that goes from 1939-1945 it is the same as the Gran Campaign 39 expansión ?

Thanks

[best75]

The grand campaign expansions cover the war in munch greater detail so no the 1939 early blitzkrieg campaign is not the same as grand campaign 39

[SamR]

I just got Panzer Corps and I'm pretty impressed. The game offers great depth, but is very playable. The touch interface mostly works well.

However, as others have noted the graphics are not distinct. This does impact playability.

While re-doing the graphics for a Retina iPad might take too much effort and memory, I think there are some other things you could do to help. The command and stats icons are just really hard to read. They're a bit too small, the resolution is poor and the color contrast is lacking. You could fix that without adding much to the memory footprint. Also the text fonts seem small to me.

On the map some of the problem may be in choice of colors rather than resolution. Also colors don't show the same on Retina v non retina iPads. But given the turnover rates on tablets they're are going to be fewer and fewer non Retinas out there so targeting retina iPads might be best

The other big guys out there right now in wargames in the iPad space are Shenandoah. Their graphics are impeccable but their games so far don't have the level of detail that Panzer Corps does (to be fair, this is by design). They've pretty much set the graphics standard right now. Panzer Corps doesn't necessarily need to match that but it could do better than it does

[FatRefrigerator]

I don't really mind the low graphics. Sure it'd be nice to have better visuals, but I'd much prefer to see all the PC features implemented first.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

... perhaps even enorMaus

For that you are charged 1102 prestige!

- BNC

[lordzimoa]

Their graphics are impeccable...

That is Unity, a custom game engine you can buy of the shelf, used more and more, several Slith games as the new: Close Combat, Order of Battle, Frontline: Road to Moscow and many unannounced game projects use this Unity game engine nowadays.

Big advantages: a whole team of programmers constantly improving, updating, evolving the engine, quality graphics, a vibrant community adding new available content and additions, cheap licencing and especially cross-platform development right of the plate. So no more expensive porting and you can release a game relatively easy on a variety of platforms, also integrated are the in App shops, a pain to integrate if you do it by hand.

Panzer Corps and Commander eg. are custom build in house engines, they also have some advantages as they are specifically written for certain gameplay or specific games. But building custom engines from scratch, as we used to do in the past, cost a lot and takes a lot of time.

So Unity is just a great offer and allows developers with relative low resources, without a team of top notch programmers, to you win a tremendous amount of time and save a lot of money. And still produce cool and fantastic games.

We use it ourselves now for several new unannounced games, it is the future...

https://unity3d.com/

[BiteNibbleChomp]

I don't really mind the low graphics. Sure it'd be nice to have better visuals, but I'd much prefer to see all the PC features implemented first.

True on that - but graphics don't make games, only improve them. You don't need to be given a HD panzer before you can stomp the world, and 16x16 pixel one would do the same job!

- BNC

[ruggs215]

So when is the change log going to be listed? I find it hard to believe it takes 2 days to make this log.

[rodney727]

I just got Panzer Corps and I'm pretty impressed. The game offers great depth, but is very playable. The
touch interface mostly works well.

However, as others have noted the graphics are not distinct. This does impact playability.

While re-doing the graphics for a Retina iPad might take too much effort and memory, I think there are some other things you could do to help. The command and stats icons are just really hard to read. They're a bit too small, the resolution is poor and the color contrast is lacking. You could fix that without adding much to the memory footprint. Also the text fonts seem small to me.

On the map some of the problem may be in choice of colors rather than resolution. Also colors don't show the same on Retina v non retina iPads. But given the turnover rates on tablets they're are going to be fewer and fewer non Retinas out there so targeting retina iPads might be best

The other big guys out there right now in wargames in the iPad space are Shenandoah. Their graphics are impeccable but their games so far don't have the level of detail that Panzer Corps does (to be fair, this is by design). They've pretty much set the graphics standard right now. Panzer Corps doesn't necessarily need to match that but it could do better than it does

My BIG BEEF with this game is that I paid $80 for this game (same as the PC version) thinking it would play just like the PC version (as they have stated many times before game was released on iPad ). It has only four options to pick from unlike the PC version which has several more to pick from. I enjoy playing on Manstien and Rommel levels which right now as the game sits simply do not work. I think it's great they submitted a patch to apple.......can't wait to see if they really did fix the real issues with this game or not.

[lordzimoa]

Hi guys, Alex is in St. Petersburg and they have serious net problems all week, so communication is by mobile phone, apparently 10.000 homes are without any network connection for a week now. So asa we get the full list we will post it. Sorry for the inconvenience, we are awaiting the log, just as you all.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Hi guys, Alex is in St. Petersburg and they have serious net problems all week, so communication is by mobile phone, apparently 10.000 homes are without any network connection for a week now. So asa we get the full list we will post it. Sorry for the inconvenience, we are awaiting the log, just as you all.

Call it Leningrad - this is a WW2 game!

- BNC

[lordzimoa]

Here is an overview of the changes

- Added full German translation
- Added full Russian translation
- Added separate controls for music and sfx
- Added "Sleep always" command (invoked via Unit Info screen)
- Added "discard truck" confirmations when embarking a unit
- Paratroopers can now be deployed on the ground or in the air, depending on the ground/air switch
- Fixed award/hero notifications during AI turn
- Fixed bonus difficulty levels (Guderian, Rommel and Manstein)
- Fixed issues with map jumping
- A host of other fixes and improvements

[rodney727]

Here is an overview of the changes

- Added full German translation
- Added full Russian translation
- Added separate controls for music and sfx
- Added "Sleep always" command (invoked via Unit Info screen)
- Added "discard truck" confirmations when embarking a unit
- Paratroopers can now be deployed on the ground or in the air, depending on the ground/air switch
- Fixed award/hero notifications during AI turn
- Fixed bonus difficulty levels (Guderian, Rommel and Manstein)
- Fixed issues with map jumping
- A host of other fixes and improvements

EVERYONE WILL BE VERY VERY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY NOW! ALL CAPS BECAUSE IM HAPPY!!