Ingame feedback from: leaston

[leastonh1]

My first go with the game...

1. Nice intro, I like the cartoon gfx.
2. Clean, simple gui ingame.
3. Is there any way to turn off the music?
4. WASD pans the camera. Left & right arrow keys rotate. I'm left handed, so in most games with a 3D interface like this, I'd expect the arrow keys to also pan. Can this be changed?

[leastonh1]

My first go with the game...

1. Nice intro, I like the cartoon gfx.
2. Clean, simple gui ingame.
3. Is there any way to turn off the music?
4. WASD pans the camera. Left & right arrow keys rotate. I'm left handed, so in most games with a 3D interface like this, I'd expect the arrow keys to also pan. Can this be changed?
5. The dialog box that appeared immediately after I destroyed the first Italian tank in the tutorial didn't stay visible long enough to read it.
6.

[leastonh1]

My first go with the game...

1. Nice intro, I like the cartoon gfx.
2. Clean, simple gui ingame.
3. Is there any way to turn off the music?
4. WASD pans the camera. Left & right arrow keys rotate. I'm left handed, so in most games with a 3D interface like this, I'd expect the arrow keys to also pan. Can this be changed?
5. The dialog box that appeared immediately after I destroyed the first Italian tank in the tutorial didn't stay visible long enough to read it.
6. The second tutorial says to take out the 88 guns, and to aim at the Northern one with the airstrike to get them both. How do I know which is the Northern gun?
7.

[leastonh1]

My first go with the game...

1. Nice intro, I like the cartoon gfx.
2. Clean, simple gui ingame.
3. Is there any way to turn off the music?
4. WASD pans the camera. Left & right arrow keys rotate. I'm left handed, so in most games with a 3D interface like this, I'd expect the arrow keys to also pan. Can this be changed?
5. The dialog box that appeared immediately after I destroyed the first Italian tank in the tutorial didn't stay visible long enough to read it.
6. The second tutorial says to take out the 88 guns, and to aim at the Northern one with the airstrike to get them both. How do I know which is the Northern gun? Ahhh, I picked the correct one, but a compass would have helped.

I've only seen the tutorial so far. The lack of clutter in the game is welcome and keeps the focus on the action rather than the stats or options. The graphics are good and being able to zoom in and out such a long way is very good.

Sorry, I can't go back in this text editor window to change anything..

[leastonh1]

Ahhh, ok. I kept bringing up the comment box to add stuff as I played through the tutorial. Sorry, I didn't realise it posted comments live each time! I'm guessing I should have just pressed F5 again instead of Ok to get rid of the box between commenting? Please delete all my extra posts!

I haven't played properly, so have no idea about this yet...when there are multiple units on the map, can you use part of the movement allowance and flit between units to use up some allowance, or do you have to use it all for each unit, which then cannot be selected again this turn?
Also, outside the tutorial, I'm wondering if there's any indicator to show which units have moved this turn?

Why didn't the 88's react to my Matilda?

The tutorial hasn't given me enough on its own to say much other than these comments and questions off the top of my head. I'll post some more when I've played a proper scenario.

Thanks for having me on the team

All the best,
Lea

[pipfromslitherine]

Don't worry about the text repeating. It's on the list to fix!

Thanks for all the feedback.

- You can turn down/off the music by hitting ESC and turning down the volume.
- Hadn't considered lefties with regard to the keyboard. Perhaps we can add some controls to the keypad?
- Northern does assume you haven't swung the camera around it's true - basically we mean the gun with the big shiny marker on it. Hopefully the fact it only works on one gun gets the idea across?

Keep your thoughts coming

Pip

[leastonh1]

Ok, regarding the airstrike in the tutorial...

Left clicking on the plane adds the icon for the airstrike to the mouse pointer. I then right click once on the highlighted gun. The plane icon now appears on the gun. I move my mouse to end the turn and the plane icon disappears from the gun. The only way to initiate the airstrike seems to be to right click twice on the gun and then you get the diving plane image with the arrow.

So, I setup the strike and ended the turn. The planes came and took out the guns, and only then did the dialog appear informing me that it might take a couple of turns for the planes to arrive. It's out of sync.

I think I get it now. When you right click an enemy unit to attack, the click adds the attack icon to the enemy unit. You have to right click again to actually begin the attack. Ok, that makes more sense now.

Another thing I've just noticed. When I play the tutorial and complete it, it takes me back to the menu to choose between tutorial or the campaign. If I then click the "Play" menu item from the main menu, it doesn't take me back to that other menu. I get dropped into the cartoon gfx intro where I can only choose between the two tutorials. Hope that makes sense?

[pipfromslitherine]

Yep - all makes sense.

The message after the airstrike should tell you that it will take a couple of turns to get to where you are going down the road?

The click to activate, then click to action is the standard UI for non-moves. It will become clearer why once you have multiple actions you can do. It's also a safety net in case you use one of your limited shots in a turn. If it's too much of a nanny perhaps we could add an option to allow instant actioning for power users?

Play does indeed load the last battle you were playing. I guess it could drop you out to the campaign screen again, rather than taking you back to your completed campaign (although when not using the tutorial, you might want to replay some missions to get some achievements). I'll take a look at what we can do.

Thanks for the feedback - it's all very useful.

Cheers

Pip

[leastonh1]

The message after the airstrike should tell you that it will take a couple of turns to get to where you are going down the road?

Yes, I read it wrong. Sorry.

The click to activate, then click to action is the standard UI for non-moves. It will become clearer why once you have multiple actions you can do. It's also a safety net in case you use one of your limited shots in a turn. If it's too much of a nanny perhaps we could add an option to allow instant actioning for power users?

It's funny, I went straight into RTS playing mode in my mind when I began to play this. I think that's why I expected a single right click to set off an attack immediately. It's more like an rts than a turn based game in some ways.

Play does indeed load the last battle you were playing. I guess it could drop you out to the campaign screen again, rather than taking you back to your completed campaign (although when not using the tutorial, you might want to replay some missions to get some achievements). I'll take a look at what we can do.

If I was in the process of playing a campaign, it makes sense that clicking "Play" in the main menu should take me automatically to that campaign and the next scenario. But, after completing the tutorial I was expecting to click on Play and be dropped to the campaign selecting menu again. It's probably just my flawed logic!

[leastonh1]

I'm seeing dialogs pop up and disappear too quickly to be able to read the text. These have a green background, but no Ok button.

The speed of the units movement and animations (such as exhaust smoke) look too fast.

The Desert Rat inf firing sound is much louder than other units. It's especially noticeable when listening with headphones.

Once units have cleared out from covered victory points (like tents etc.), why don't these show as captured unless inf enter the square? Except, this doesn't apply with the last vp, which can trigger the end of the scenario simply by eliminating the occupying unit.

Western desert campaign, second scenario is shown as "training two" in the cartoon intro page. Is this correct?

I've only played the first scenario of the western campaign so far, but it was way too easy to win. The enemy didn't attack my units at all unless it was reaction/spotted fire. One unit of opfor infantry sat in one of the corner towers of the fort and didn't attack once, even before being suppressed.

Hope that helps :)

[leastonh1]

When going into western desert scenario two, I'm offered a choice of troops with 300 points to spend. However, without knowing what the scenario is about, the choice of forces is just guesswork. Could we have a scenario description before being offered the units?

I just attacked a convoy with the Blenheim and there were no explosion sounds to go with the animations. Western desert scenario two.

When I press escape the dialog has two sliders, the save/load button and the exit button, but nothing else. No labels, no text.

[pipfromslitherine]

Hmmm - that's a good point! To some extent we explain the mission in the popup briefing when you select it - but perhaps we need to show the animated 'over the map' briefing before the force selection screen.

The Desert mission is designed as the first real campaign you do - and so the first couple of missions are pretty gentle. It gets a lot tougher!

Thanks for all the good feedback.

Cheers

Pip

[leastonh1]

Zoom out seems to be virtually infinite. The detail (ie the land features) disappeares into the fog too quickly. I'd like to be able to see the map clearly zoomed out more than I can now. Either that, or put a limit on the zoom before the land does cover with the fog.