Slitherine

We've all been posting about bugs and list errors, etc., but I though it might be good to take a moment and say what's right about the beta. A few major items come to mind:

1. The agression settings are wonderful. I can finally use cavalry to cover a flank without running off. That is huge. I can now also predict how troops will react to enemy charges because I can tell them how to behave. No more rope-a-dope skirmisher tactics unless I allow it. It's now worth getting skirmishers who are better than poor. Etc,. etc.

2. The new graphics system is a big improvement and the paint jobs on the new armies are pretty slick. Fiugres are better sized in relation to each other too.
I wasn't planning on getting this expansion, but the beauty of the painting and the interesting tactical options will probably seduce me.

3. Load times are much better.

4. Sortable scenario list has me actually playing those again.

That's all I can think of for now, but two big thumbs up.

Deeter

Great - the team really appreciate the feedback. It's good to know we're heading in the right direction!

Now go and find some bugs

iainmcneil wrote:Great - the team really appreciate the feedback. It's good to know we're heading in the right direction!

Now go and find some bugs

Be careful what you wish for....

Indeed. I have dutifully gone bug hunting and found:

The Durazzo scenario won't load because side 1 has no leader. Too bad, sounds like a cool battle.

Deeter

deeter wrote: 2. The new graphics system is a big improvement and the paint jobs on the new armies are pretty slick. Fiugres are better sized in relation to each other too.
I wasn't planning on getting this expansion, but the beauty of the painting and the interesting tactical options will probably seduce me.

Deeter

Can you enlighten me as to what has changed with the graphics system?

kilroy

All the unit images were reprocessed to look cleaner and sharper. Then how they are shown is very different e.g. A group of 5 German warriors was one pre-processed image. Now each model is stored as a separate image. The key effect is to take the size of FOG done from almost 1GB disk space to less than 300Mb due to how images are stored. The next impact is to reduced the demand on graphics cards to although load times may sometimes be longer in general the game works better, fast and the graphics look better. Another big benefit is that it is now possible for users to build their own battle groups and we intend to issue instructions on how to do that before the end of the year. Keith

keithmartinsmith wrote:Another big benefit is that it is now possible for users to build their own battle groups and we intend to issue instructions on how to do that before the end of the year. Keith

Sounds great!

keithmartinsmith wrote:All the unit images were reprocessed to look cleaner and sharper. Then how they are shown is very different e.g. A group of 5 German warriors was one pre-processed image. Now each model is stored as a separate image. The key effect is to take the size of FOG done from almost 1GB disk space to less than 300Mb due to how images are stored. The next impact is to reduced the demand on graphics cards to although load times may sometimes be longer in general the game works better, fast and the graphics look better. Another big benefit is that it is now possible for users to build their own battle groups and we intend to issue instructions on how to do that before the end of the year. Keith

Yes, that does sound great!

kilroy

Fixed the Durazzo issue for the next update 1.3.9. Keith

While we dont like bugs we much prefer if you find them during the beta than someone else does later

keithmartinsmith wrote:All the unit images were reprocessed to look cleaner and sharper. Then how they are shown is very different e.g. A group of 5 German warriors was one pre-processed image. Now each model is stored as a separate image. The key effect is to take the size of FOG done from almost 1GB disk space to less than 300Mb due to how images are stored. The next impact is to reduced the demand on graphics cards to although load times may sometimes be longer in general the game works better, fast and the graphics look better. Another big benefit is that it is now possible for users to build their own battle groups and we intend to issue instructions on how to do that before the end of the year. Keith

Sounds good, uh, as long as you can save the "templates" of Bg's to import into new scenarios.... Would hate to have to "build" a standard unit every time I use the scenario editor