Slitherine

Each month, we will release a preview focusing on a few factions present in the game. These will feature some historical background, their role in the war and in the game, and a number of units essential to these factions. These previews are meant to give a deeper insight into the game's mechanics, and advise those who know little about the First World War about the major events and their objectives in the war. Go here for more info:

Welcome to the third developer diary for Commander The Great War. In the first preview we focused on the two major Central Powers, Germany and Austria. In the second preview we looked at France and Belgium. Now it's the turn of Great Britain and The United States.

A direct link is here:

http://www.slitherine.com/ctgw_dd_3_1

These are great and very informative, good job. Next one will cover the Ottomans and will be also very interesting in my opinion. Are you going to cover Italy and Bulgarians/Romanians in other dev reports?

Balkan & Italian front is planned, as is a focus on Russia. Some other ideas for (final) previews are combat & tactics and AI. Depends a bit on how many we can still do before the game is ready

Awesome, this baby is on my 2011 buy list for sure

Pls. don't forget the Caucasus and Galicia fronts!

Working on it

Really waiting for this one!

Still on track? release for early 2011?

We just finished a big Alpha build yesterday, still a lot of things to do, fix or polish, but the core of the game and engine is done and really looks cool and plays well, impressive AI behaviour... On the media side we have 90% of the work done, but we will take our time and only release a stable, highly polished and good game. Our aim is end Q1 2011, if it takes a bit longer, the better for the end product, so yes more or less on schedule.

When developing games the first 90% of a game takes the first 90% of your time, the last 10% the other 90%...

lordzimoa wrote:We just finished a big Alpha build yesterday, still a lot of things to do, fix or polish, but the core of the game and engine is done and really looks cool and plays well, impressive AI behaviour... On the media side we have 90% of the work done, but we will take our time and only release a stable, highly polished and good game. Our aim is end Q1 2011, if it takes a bit longer, the better for the end product, so yes more or less on schedule.

When developing games the first 90% of a game takes the first 90% of your time, the last 10% the other 90%...

Great news! Mac version to follow, maybe Q2, 2011?

Mac version should follow a few months after PC release.

Now ever since C-EAW came out i was hooked, after the latest patches and a few mods, the game went from Great to Bad-A**. But it all came down to one thing, and i really hate to put down aspects of a game but its the AI. I dont expect them to be like a Human Opponet. Like Africa problem. Then C-NAW came out, as cool as it was doing a Nap.Era warfare the AI sucked, bigtime. I mean i could crush all powers by 1808-09.(A cake walk in Russa) I mean its sad that i have to mod the main files to (at least) try to give me a challenge. & sad that the creators of the game couldent increase the tatical side. I even looked at the Gerneral.txt file in C-NAW, then opened C-EAW, and to me look like someone copyed & pasted the info with like 4 real changes. I mean the file had oil info,Axis aggression for 1939 & this is for C-NAW. The 2nd title seemed to be rushed really, and a real disappointment for me. Oh man i hate to complain you guys.

ANYWAY- after C-NAW, and me turning my head, what will make this title differnt, will i see the same stuff in a gerneral.txt file like the others, I read about the secondary fronts someone posted on here, they to sounded like they were angery at the AI. BUT its all comes down to this guys. Say i play the Germans, i just hope i dont capture Paris or Moscow at some stupid time frame, like 1/2way through 1915 or something. I will buy this, but this tilte will be a make or break for me. At the momment i have the Guns of August game, now that is how a WW1 is.

Hope the best from you guys, cant wait for it to come out,Your addicting style of game play is all ways a fav of mine, I just hope this title is not rushed, as i felt C-NAW was.

We (the Lordz) were not involved in design of CEAW or CNAW, but I do know the AI was a problem. It seems to act mostly on global conditions like "warsaw captured > attack france", "paris captured > attack russia", without much concern over what happens elsewhere.

CTGW is a brand new engine. A brand new AI. It is being designed to act upon enemy actions, not preset conditions. We're pretty well aware that AI can make or break a strategy game. It's bloody hard to convert human decision-making into code, but on the bright sight once we have this AI in place it should work for any theme, be it WW1, WW2, Napoleonic, ...

Like I already said we do plan to focus on AI in (one of) the final preview(s).

That would be something to put human actions, like you said into code. CTGW looks like its gonna be great,

A brand new AI. It is being designed to act upon enemy actions, not preset conditions.

Now i like that, for the AI to, in a sense interpret your actions, not just act on impuse haha.

I'm really excited to get my hands on this one, like many others,hope the best for your team,& that there no dead ends ahead.

THNXS for the feedback-adherbal

Just so y'all know, the next preview will probably be moved to Januari. It's nearly finished but the Holidays aren't the best period to release things like this.