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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:29 am
by Kerensky
cmurphy625 wrote:Really enjoying the game.. Great interface.. lots of fun and Challenging.. Beer and Pretzels at it's best... One request though.. an option, to just play all scenarios in the campaign... feel cheated, when just because you can't score a decisive victory every time, that you have to miss out on something like Operation Sea Lion..

Yeah, I know I can play the scenario separately, but the big attraction with this game, like the old Steel Panthers, is part of your fun is nurturing you units upgrading and such as the campaign goes on..

Again, great job on this game... Now please re-do Steel Panthers!!!
This is somewhat possible to do, but you have to go into campaign.pzdat and change those values around.

OR

There is a sticky on this forum for 'cheat' codes, you can use these to control the course of your campaign to an extent. :)

Great Game!

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:36 am
by eveready321
My wife says she's a game widow - so you guys did it right - brings back memories of the old PG Days! I ran the entire campaign at Lt. and ended defeating the Russians at Bagration - and beat the Allies in the final onslaught on Germany - Combined arms is the way to go - with focus on artillery and air support.

Re: Great Game!

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:55 am
by Kerensky
eveready321 wrote:My wife says she's a game widow - so you guys did it right - brings back memories of the old PG Days! I ran the entire campaign at Lt. and ended defeating the Russians at Bagration - and beat the Allies in the final onslaught on Germany - Combined arms is the way to go - with focus on artillery and air support.
Managed to beat Bagration? Not bad, that scenario has been giving a few people issues, especially on the high difficulty levels (15 strength IS-2 spam is PAIN).

But you know... you're not the only one who has been having issues with women over this game.... I actually mentioned this to a friend of mine, and she recommended you send them over to her new beauty blog. Should be something to keep them occupied (or maybe a nice place to find a 'bribe' for them) while we get our war gaming on, eh? 8)
http://beauty-dust.blogspot.com/

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:09 am
by Tarrak
cmurphy625 wrote:Really enjoying the game.. Great interface.. lots of fun and Challenging.. Beer and Pretzels at it's best... One request though.. an option, to just play all scenarios in the campaign... feel cheated, when just because you can't score a decisive victory every time, that you have to miss out on something like Operation Sea Lion..

Yeah, I know I can play the scenario separately, but the big attraction with this game, like the old Steel Panthers, is part of your fun is nurturing you units upgrading and such as the campaign goes on..

Again, great job on this game... Now please re-do Steel Panthers!!!
If you can't score a decisive victory for no love nor money and you don't mind cheating take a look at this thread here: viewtopic.php?t=25990. This listed the cheats for the game. Using that you can make the scenarios a lot easier or simply use "turns #N" to add #N to scenario turn count. This value can be negative effectively reseting your used turns ... i think you get the picture. :) This way you can play an scenario you would like.

EDIT: Ooops. Note to self: don't answer posts before finishing reading the thread. Kerensky already answered this but well ... here you go again.

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 6:17 am
by generalgonzo
Where´s the fun in cheating ?

Will never undertsand that. Nice that there are 5 difficulty level (maybe 6 with the secret one ;-)), so enough room to experimentate. If you beat them on one level, try it one level higher then and lets see.

Btw: the game is great !!!! Need to see a doctor though because of the addivtion to that game ;-)

Bagration

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:51 pm
by eveready321
AAR Bagration

Beating the Soviets at Bagration was not easy - the IS IIs were monsters - the only thing that could stand up to them where the King Tigers, Panthers were totally ineffective. They almost broke thru to the North, but I defeated their attack in the south fairly quick and was able to shift forces - they had problems getting across the river - It took me a lot of time to get control of the air also. My Luftwaffe units were pretty beat up and needed refit. Needless to say I lost a lot of core units including my PZ IV H's and and JagdPanthers. Also Infantry had a very difficult time of it. but remember this was at Lt. difficulty.

As an aside - I ungraded all my stuka's to the G version and found they were not as effective against soft targets as the D model - so beware on your upgrades.

My comments

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 4:25 pm
by Benjerry
Here we go:

OVERALL:
A fantastic and addictive recreation of Panzer General, capturing all those little things that made Panzer General great, with a few new twists and upgraded presentation.

PROS (in no particular order):
- Good, clean, crisp 2D graphics and modern presentation.
- Good scenario design and size, most people don´t have the time or energy required for monster scenarios (yes, even those who clamor for monsters on forums - you know who you are ;) ).
- I really enjoy the new upgrade system - it makes a lot of sense for each tech to have an "upgrade path", while radical equipment changes are still possible.
- Fantastic multiplayer. Can´t say enough good about it. Retrofit it to all the old Matrix games (especially World At War, a World Divided, natch!) and re-release as "online edition" or whatever. I´m paying full price.
- Cost balancing of the units seems to be good so far. I like it that the high-tech rare units are suitably expensive.
- I was really surprised by the quality and artistry of the intro movie / trailer. Well done!

POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS (I.e. cons):
- Uneven scenario structure, I.e. winning a decisive victory in some scenarios might be a con for your progression, as you will play fewer scenarios, meaning less crucial experience for your troops. Adding in scenarios to fill in the gaps will make it possible for me not to have to lose Sealion in order to get to play Greece, etc.

- Get cracking on that North African campaign, and if possible integrate it into the main campaign a la PG. I can´t wait to push into the Soviet Union through the Caucasus again... ;)

Overall, fantastic effort guys, I´m really happy to hear that the game is selling well. Looking forward to seeing where you take us next!

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:16 am
by aleader
After rolling through Panzer General several hundred times (my first game addiction, which has led me later to thousands of games of Combat Mission and now CMBN :D my wife thanks you...shhh, she's asleep ), I was stunned to get my a** handed to me in the first Poland scenario, and then later in the low countries on the default difficulty. I've become very accustomed to the freedom of movement in CM, and certainly don't recall Panzer General being this difficult. Got mad, played it through again CAREFULLY this time, and got through them, only to lose in Norway when the AI landed units near the end and captured two cities I left undefended.

My observations then. This game is far tougher than PG, even more addictive because of this. The big reason for this I think is that my units aren't automatically brought up to full strength after each battle ala PG, and the ability of the AI. I'm finding it much tougher to balance prestige and upgrades.

I LOVE the attention that's been paid to the maps, the sounds and the battle animation graphics. I also LOVE the little upgrades to PG that I couldn't live without now such as: arrow showing path of units, being able to compare unit stats at upgrade, visual cues for low ammo\fuel, railroad transport, ability of arty/air defense to move and then shoot, etc.

Issues that bug me: cavalry killing tanks?!, AI moving entrenched units when the much better strategy for them would be to stay put, left/right click movement...still getting used to it, but something seems 'off' about it.

Need to play it more, but seems like a homerun to me. Would love to see an African/Japanese campaign. Good work boys!

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:26 am
by Razz1
Calvary loves to use those AT rifles.

Do some research on those things. Also Calvary can fight dismounted.

Casualties are based upon terrain among other things.

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:49 am
by Rudankort
Hey aleader, great feedback, just a few comments:
aleader wrote:left/right click movement...still getting used to it, but something seems 'off' about it.
There is an option in the game menu called "mouse interface". You can change it if you don't like current scheme.

As for cavalry, it might work well against early tanks, but against late ones it does not stand a chance.

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:07 am
by Nauwiesbande
Absolutely LOVE the game so far (Bought it on Wednesday, already clocked approx. 15 hrs :shock: ).

A definite upgrade to the beloved PG; I love the new sounds, the attack animations, I always watch the opening diorama on start-up;
the campaign is so addicting; the small details like mission briefings, the mission select screens that look like "Feldpostkarten" (post cards from the battlefield) are absolutely stunning.

Multiplayer is great (too bad most of the games are locked, hard to find open games).

Only thing I wish for is North Africa to be added to the campaign.

Great job, guys!

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:38 am
by Rudankort
Nauwiesbande wrote:Multiplayer is great (too bad most of the games are locked, hard to find open games).
If you don't see any open challenges, just create yours, it is very easy to do (use Issue Challenge tab). Somebody will pick it up pretty soon.

Thx for feedback. :)

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:57 am
by Nauwiesbande
Yeah, I did that after only finding locked games.

Works very smooth, I like it that you can take your tine to think things through.

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:06 am
by Kissaki
Kerensky wrote:For a while during the BETA, there were prestige awards for damaging and killing units. Unfortunately it turned out to be quite a hassle to balance properly. It's definitely something possible, but it would require some very robust balancing measures, including changing the price of units, prestige given to the player during the campaign, but also how much units are worth. Killing a PZ IV worth as much as King Tiger....

It's all very closely linked, and difficult to balance properly.
I understand. Is it something that may be in the works in a patch sometime in the future, though? And also, are we given more prestige for town capture as to compensate?

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:11 am
by berndN
Rudankort wrote:
PatrickStar wrote:Just a short question: where is the "restart scenario" button? please do not say that you didn´t integrate one. :cry:
I hate to bring bad news, but "restart scenario" option did not make it into 1.0. We'll try to integrate it in the first patch. For now, your best bet is to save the game at the beginning of a battle, so that you have a fallback.
Can I save during deployment? I restarted my tutorial several times now because I hit end turn during unfinished deployment :D You guys make me get better and better however walking through the tutorials :)

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:21 am
by Rudankort
Yes, you can save during deployment too, and it is even recommended to do. :)

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:41 am
by generalgonzo
Rudankort wrote:Yes, you can save during deployment too, and it is even recommended to do. :)
An autosave every 4 turns or something like that would be nice too....

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:43 am
by berndN
Rudankort wrote:Yes, you can save during deployment too, and it is even recommended to do. :)
Thanks a lot! Will do so from now on :)

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 12:30 pm
by Kissaki
generalgonzo wrote:
Rudankort wrote:Yes, you can save during deployment too, and it is even recommended to do. :)
An autosave every 4 turns or something like that would be nice too....
Yes, autosaving every turn may not be to everyone's tastes. An option to "autosave every X turns" would not be far amiss, imho.

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:54 pm
by aleader
Rudankort wrote:Hey aleader, great feedback, just a few comments:
aleader wrote:left/right click movement...still getting used to it, but something seems 'off' about it.
There is an option in the game menu called "mouse interface". You can change it if you don't like current scheme.

As for cavalry, it might work well against early tanks, but against late ones it does not stand a chance.
Thanks for the tip, will try some adjusting there. I understand that cavalry could kill tanks when they were entrenched, that makes some sense. I was killed a few times in the wide open terrain by horses that had lost their entrenchment (by pulling a rather dumb move and moving out of the trenches...as mentioned above). This seemed a bit unrealistic as I have read accounts of cavalry being slaughtered in the open in Poland in '39. Not a huge issue by any stretch as I'm assuming Poland is the only place they show up, and it's probably not a common occurrence anyways.

One other comment, I also find the balancing of the air defense to be more accurate. Anti-air used to be the bane of PG with even inferior air defense guns decimating my planes on every attack. Basically made any hex defended by them untouchable by air until the gun was dealt with.

Also, will there be any adjusting to the prestige awarded for capturing\killing units or are players finding it to be about right?