Questions and Suggestions

[ianiow]

First off - I'm an exile from FOG and newbie to P&S and am absolutely loving this game! I can't wait for the Ancients and Medieval version!

I have a few questions and suggestions that would make life easier:

1) Open Battle: When creating a scenario battle, it would be handy to have the default battle type as "Open Battle". This seems to be the favourite and it would save time scrolling through the list to select it. I've messed up several times because after selecting Open Battle I then change the armies and the whole thing resets to an 'Attack' battle again without me noticing.

2) Camera angle: When I start to view my opponents turn in multiplayer I am very disorientated at first because the camera angle I use to have my turn has changed to an angled point of view of the enemy. Would it be possible for the game to remember the last camera angle I used and have it ready when I start my opponents turn?

3) Combat Speed: When viewing my opponents turn in multiplayer the combat seems to take place far too fast for my old brain to comprehend. Is there a combat speed slider somewhere that I've overlooked?

4) Completed Games: On the completed games list is it possible to show at a glance which side was mine and which side was my opponent and who won/lost, and what percentages were? It takes a long time to play through the last turn just to find out who won.

5) Message board: All the text is one colour and no paragraph gaps. It is sometimes difficult to tell where your messages ends and where your opponents messages begin, especially in a text heavy chat!

6) Which side am I?: I am often initially confused as to which side I am playing while watching a replay of my opponents turn. Especially if I haven't played a turn for a long time. Is there a quick way to tell which army is mine straight away?

7) Friend or Foe?: During the playback, sometimes the little national flags disappear and in a chaotic battle with units facing every which way I cannot tell which units are mine and which are the enemy - the fast speed of the combat makes matters worse! Sometimes one side has blue uniforms and the other red which helps, but some armies are multi-coloured. Is there a knack of quickly telling friend from foe in these circumstances?

Spot the Catholic: In the battle is says on the scoreboard Catholics are 5% and Protestants are 10%. I look at the armies, one is Bohemian, the other Polish. Without looking in a history book, which army am I suppose to know is Catholic/Imperial etc, and which one is Protestant/Anti-Imperial etc?

9) Spot the German: After the battle starts, the game never lets you know the nationality of the army again. They are just labelled 'Imperial' or 'Protestant' etc. My opponent asked me what army I was using. I could see their flag but didn't know what country used that particular banner.

10) Active Games info: On the 'Current Active Games' board the mouse-over tooltip tells me what two Armies are fighting but doesn't tell which player is commanding which army. It also gives the turn limit but doesn't give details of what the current turn is. Both would be useful information to have.


Cheers, and keep up the good work!
Ian

[stefankollers]

i dont actually play Multiplayer. But regarding game speed, there is a button in options which allows you to turn it up or down. I usually have mine on 40, but I think the lowest setting is 30. It does allow you to watch the movement at a slower pace, and take in what is happening. Hope this has been some help.

[rbodleyscott]

All good suggestions.

Which side am I?: I am often initially confused as to which side I am playing while watching a replay of my opponents turn. Especially if I haven't played a turn for a long time. Is there a quick way to tell which army is mine straight away?

During each side's turn, its side is listed above the other in the UI at the top left of the screen. So during the replay you are the bottom one, and during your turn you are the top one.

Spot the Catholic: In the battle is says on the scoreboard Catholics are 5% and Protestants are 10%. I look at the armies, one is Bohemian, the other Polish. Without looking in a history book, which army am I suppose to know is Catholic/Imperial etc, and which one is Protestant/Anti-Imperial etc

It won't do this for Bohemian and Poles. It will only do it for Catholic Germans and Protestant Germans. The Catholics are the ones with the Imperial eagle flag icon.

Spot the German: After the battle starts, the game never lets you know the nationality of the army again. They are just labelled 'Imperial' or 'Protestant' etc. My opponent asked me what army I was using. I could see their flag but didn't know what country used that particular banner.

Same answer. It only does this for TYW Germans. For all other armies it specifies the nationality in the top left of the screen.

[stockwellpete]

6) Which side am I?: I am often initially confused as to which side I am playing while watching a replay of my opponents turn. Especially if I haven't played a turn for a long time. Is there a quick way to tell which army is mine straight away?

Yes, I used to get confused by that, but now I realise that the ones running away are most likely to be mine!

[ianiow]

Thanks for the explanations guys. I will jump back into the game and try to figure things out.

[hidde]

2) Camera angle: When I start to view my opponents turn in multiplayer I am very disorientated at first because the camera angle I use to have my turn has changed to an angled point of view of the enemy. Would it be possible for the game to remember the last camera angle I used and have it ready when I start my opponents turn?

This. It irks me every time.

[ianiow]

In games where I achieve victory in my opponents turn, the replay in 'Completed games' says that I am defeated - it reports things from my opponents perspective. This could get complicated if you forget which side you were and have to report the result to a competition or a league event. I have taken to writing down which side I play on a piece of paper as there isn't anywhere in-game that gives this information easily.

I think this is a big oversight. Something like this would fit the bill:-

charles1 (Royalist 1642-1643) 26% (-38%) defeated ollycrom (Parliamentarian 1642-1643) 64% (+38%)

[rbodleyscott]

In games where I achieve victory in my opponents turn, the replay in 'Completed games' says that I am defeated - it reports things from my opponents perspective. This could get complicated if you forget which side you were and have to report the result to a competition or a league event. I have taken to writing down which side I play on a piece of paper as there isn't anywhere in-game that gives this information easily.

I think this is a big oversight. Something like this would fit the bill:-

charles1 (Royalist 1642-1643) 26% (-38%) defeated ollycrom (Parliamentarian 1642-1643) 64% (+38%)

This occurs when you achieve victory at the end of the Melee Phase preceding your turn. (i.e. Not during the other player's turn, but between it and yours). When you run your turn, you will see that you have achieved Victory at the end of the replay. However, on the assumption that the person viewing the completed game will be the player whose turn it would have been next if the game had not ended (i.e. the person who does not yet know that the game has ended), when you load the completed game it reports victory/defeat from their point of view.

I agree that reporting it as you suggest would be better.

It is not an oversight, it is an issue we were well aware of. However, the current behaviour is engine-based, which means we can't script round it. The engine has to work for other games that were designed with the way it currently works in mind, so changing it may be problematic. However, we can add it to the engine wish list.

[ianiow]

It is not an oversight, it is an issue we were well aware of. However, the current behaviour is engine-based, which means we can't script round it. The engine has to work for other games that were designed with the way it currently works in mind, so changing it may be problematic. However, we can add it to the engine wish list.

Thanks for the clarification. It's a shame the engine can't currently handle battle reports. I guess competition organisers will just have to remind everyone to write down on paper as much detail as possible before and immediately after the battle to avoid confusion. No big deal in the greater scheme of things.

This leads to the question, will the new FOG2 game use the same mechanics or are you able to modify the engine for this one?

Ps. When's FOG2 coming out? (I'm thinking of having this as my signature)

[rbodleyscott]

It is not an oversight, it is an issue we were well aware of. However, the current behaviour is engine-based, which means we can't script round it. The engine has to work for other games that were designed with the way it currently works in mind, so changing it may be problematic. However, we can add it to the engine wish list.

Thanks for the clarification. It's a shame the engine can't currently handle battle reports. I guess competition organisers will just have to remind everyone to write down on paper as much detail as possible before and immediately after the battle to avoid confusion. No big deal in the greater scheme of things.

This leads to the question, will the new FOG2 game use the same mechanics or are you able to modify the engine for this one?

We certainly have more chance of getting the necessary changes made for the new engine than the old one.

Ps. When's FOG2 coming out? (I'm thinking of having this as my signature)

Not this year. We want to make it really special.