CarlVon's Wish List

[CarlVon]

Hi Everyone,

Really enjoying the game. I have put together a wishlist, I'm sure there are some repeated things here. Just my 2 cents.

- NTDS Icons
- Zoom out and switch to NTDS
- Rivers could cut supply without bridge
- Supply Mechanics (in detail) manual
- Unit coloring, ie; if I have 4 units in a 'pack' just being able to change their color would be nice, so I can keep them together
- I'm getting older and I can't see the darn planes .
- Auto train mount is sometimes annoying.
- Background processing, ie; I see it's threaded (very nice), but perhaps hold back on one core so I can work on other things while waiting for the AI.
- Boarderless Window Mode

Thanks, great game.

[adherbal]

- NTDS Icons
Unit counters are coming in the next update. I wasn't aware of the NTDS system - might be good to use that for naval units.

- Supply Mechanics (in detail) manual
AFAIK its all explained in the manual?

- Unit coloring, ie; if I have 4 units in a 'pack' just being able to change their color would be nice, so I can keep them together
Not sure what you mean? Which colours would change? You can put custom paint/camouflage patterns on most ground units at the moment.


- I'm getting older and I can't see the darn planes .
Did you try the large unit size setting?

- Background processing, ie; I see it's threaded (very nice), but perhaps hold back on one core so I can work on other things while waiting for the AI.
Sadly this is an issue with Unity3D. The AI runs in seperate threads but Unity uses an old (bad) garbage collection system (= clearing memory which is no longer used) which does use the main thread and causes the lagging of the game framerate. We're constantly looking for ways to improve this but it is extremely annoying :/

[Myrddraal]

Regarding the threading, I think you've misunderstood the suggestion. CarlVon is actually requesting that we limit the AI execution to a single core so that he can alt-tab and do other things and get a core dedicated to other processes.

So you know, all the AI threads execute with lowest priority, so (assuming you're not changing process priorities) they should play second fiddle to normal priority threads in other processes.

The idea is that the AI will gobble up any idle CPU cycles (to maximise AI calculation speed) without preventing other in-game threads or external processes from accessing resource.

The notable exception is the garbage collector, as adherbal mentioned.

[Decaff]

I noticed you guys didn't respond to the comment about the trains. This interests me as well as I also find it annoying that i can't even tell when it will deploy the train!

[adherbal]

Because it's a bug will be fixed in a hotfix today or tomorrow.

[Dragoon.]

Hi Everyone,

Really enjoying the game. I have put together a wishlist, I'm sure there are some repeated things here. Just my 2 cents.

- NTDS Icons
- Zoom out and switch to NTDS
- Rivers could cut supply without bridge
- Supply Mechanics (in detail) manual
- Unit coloring, ie; if I have 4 units in a 'pack' just being able to change their color would be nice, so I can keep them together
- I'm getting older and I can't see the darn planes .
- Auto train mount is sometimes annoying.
- Background processing, ie; I see it's threaded (very nice), but perhaps hold back on one core so I can work on other things while waiting for the AI.
- Boarderless Window Mode

Thanks, great game.

Since the game use the Unity engine, you can force borderless window mode via a command line using -popupwindow . For this to work you need toggle in Options under Audio & Video Windowed mode on. Otherwise game (edit typo)*will* continue to use Unity's fake fullscreen mode.

Your shorcut must point to Order of Battle - Pacific.exe , since the game use like all Matrix/Slitherine games their autorun.exe launcher, just in case you're running the Steam version and wondering why setting launch options via the Steam library don't work.

Since I'm suffering too sometimes from somewhat long AI turns, despite my I7-4970k CPU, I like to untoggle "Pause game if window is not focused" in options/preferences, then via taskmanager set the .exe priority to below normal. So I can surf the Internet on my second display without hiccups, while waiting for the thread, I guess decoding iPhone storage encryption, to finish?

[Myrddraal]

Hi Dragoon,
Another tip - you don't need to untoggle the "Pause game if window is not focused" option. The AI works completely asynchronously from the UI / gameplay thread. Even when the game is paused when not in focus the AI calculations continue. However, with the 'pause' option enabled, no actions will be played out until you tab back into the game. This way you don't have to miss the action.

Another snippet of news - we're doing a lot of optimisation work on the game at the moment. Hopefully in the next release you'll notice a speed improvement in the AI.

[Dragoon.]

Hi Dragoon,
Another tip - you don't need to untoggle the "Pause game if window is not focused" option. The AI works completely asynchronously from the UI / gameplay thread. Even when the game is paused when not in focus the AI calculations continue. However, with the 'pause' option enabled, no actions will be played out until you tab back into the game. This way you don't have to miss the action.

Another snippet of news - we're doing a lot of optimisation work on the game at the moment. Hopefully in the next release you'll notice a speed improvement in the AI.

Good to know, thanks for the update!

[CarlVon]

Comments under his comments below .

- NTDS Icons
Unit counters are coming in the next update. I wasn't aware of the NTDS system - might be good to use that for naval units.
= Great, wow you guys are working hard and listening well.

- Supply Mechanics (in detail) manual
AFAIK its all explained in the manual?
= Naw, it's pretty light . For example, units don't recover very fast if at all when they continue to move.

- Unit coloring, ie; if I have 4 units in a 'pack' just being able to change their color would be nice, so I can keep them together
Not sure what you mean? Which colours would change? You can put custom paint/camouflage patterns on most ground units at the moment.
= Oh, I can change the paint, I will have to check that out. It's important when you have 500 units divided in to groups of 5 .

- I'm getting older and I can't see the darn planes .
Did you try the large unit size setting?
= That's large? hehe, just kidding, yes I did, problem is they blend in to the background, NTDS should fix this for myself. Although it makes me sad, your objects are very nice. Perhaps switch to NTDS when you zoon out a lot (like supreme commander)

- Background processing, ie; I see it's threaded (very nice), but perhaps hold back on one core so I can work on other things while waiting for the AI.
Sadly this is an issue with Unity3D. The AI runs in seperate threads but Unity uses an old (bad) garbage collection system (= clearing memory which is no longer used) which does use the main thread and causes the lagging of the game framerate. We're constantly looking for ways to improve this but it is extremely annoying :/

= Ya, I noticed that. But if you hold back on 1 of my cores I could watch Netflix . I have an i7. Just hold back on 1 core if cores > 2 maybe (this would have to be an option though I think)

This is now my standard for wargaming engines. I have played Advanced Tactics, Harpoon, Command Air Sea etc etc. This is the best balance I have seen yet. I played PazerCorp and it had a MAJOR issue with roll variance, it was horrible the randomization was insanity. your is perfect, people have an "idea" of what to expect and don't feel cheated.

That being said, I think I would like to start building some scenerio's with the editor for everyone. Except mine have more counter attacks and trickery, the AI script layer is quite good... well, for me.

[CarlVon]

On the unit colour issue, it still would be nice so you can see who is grouped with who. Just change the background colour on the unit health count would be fine. When you have big army's this is really helpful.

The current camp change function isn't helpful in its current state. It's great I can name units though.

[coolhandlewke]

"what about what I want" oberyn martell

hey guys, first post. been enjoying this game, especially the mp aspect. currently playing in a couple matches with carl. on my wish list is a few more standard issue maps, particularly sizable ground based maps like the fork. we have been tearing up the fork in 2 v 2's, but adding in the jungle, and some more would be great. what I also want is for more of you to try this fun and addicting mp. there seems to be 6-8 of us playing in 5-10 matches at a time. just about everybody grinds out at least a turn a day. give it a try. i'm a relative noob but am having fun just the same.

[adherbal]

We are planning to add some more MP maps in the next patch.

In addition - once we managed to complete the feature - the Skirmish mode will add an endless amount of (randomly generated) MP (and SP) maps.

[coolhandlewke]

that adherbal will be truly awesome!