My PC beta impressions thread

[OmegaMan1]

Hello! My name is Dave… I am starting this thread to record my thoughts/questions/etc. about the Panzer Corps beta. I’m very excited to have been selected, thanks! I’ll try to make this as engaging as possible, so if anyone wants to comment please feel free. The first thing I want to say is that I’m not going to read others testers’ threads until after I’ve played the game a few times, just so I can get a good idea of the game on my own.

A little bit about me: I have been playing the Panzer General series of games since the first PG was released in 1994. I have played every title in the series (that includes Fantasy General, Star General and Warhammer 40K: Rites of War). So as you can imagine I was very excited to see that Slitherine was working on this title. I hope my previous experience is a help and doesn’t make me too biased.

I’m looking forward to playing Panzer Corps and seeing how this game evolves.

Dave

[OmegaMan1]

OK, here we go. I installed the game without any difficulty. It ran smoothly from startup, and I’ve not had any issues in the 2-3 hours I’ve played the game so far. BTW, my computer’s specs are:
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Processor 4200 + 2.20 GHz
3 GB of RAM
Windows Vista SP 2
(It’s about 4 years old.)

So I start playing, beginning with the tutorial campaign set on normal difficulty. My first impression: As a Panzer General player, this game is like a comfortable old shoe. I immediately recognize the beginning-of-turn splash screens; the familiar button icons; even the same combat explosion sound from the original game. One thing did throw me off at first, however – moving units requires the right mouse button, rather than the left. Not a big deal, but it did take a little getting used to. My first few turns go quickly; it’s like riding a bike – it’s been a while, but once you’re back into the groove, the game’s mechanics flow very easily.

I’m currently on the first turn of the final tutorial scenario in the tutorial campaign. I really like the idea of a tutorial – something I don’t think the original PG had, so for beginners that’s a nice touch. While the opening descriptions do a good job of describing the new concepts presented in the scenario, at some point it might help to have in-game hints pop up to help new players. Otherwise I do think the tutorial will be a good way to introduce newcomers to PC.

Here are a few thoughts that came to mind as I played the tutorial campaign:
1. I’m finding it hard to tell which units have moved and which ones have not. I see when a unit has attacked it’s icon has a red line through it, but units which have moved but not fired look the same as units that have neither moved or fired. Perhaps the blinking icons that were used in PG to distinguish moved and unmoved units might be useful.

2. On the ride side of the screen, the function buttons have pop-ups to tell what each button does. However, the top icons – weather and the end phase button – do not. It might be good to have pop-ups for these as well, especially since I often forget what the weather forecast calls for at the beginning of the turn.

3. When units are low on ammo or fuel, maybe something (like red text) to indicate they are running low – a few times I was caught off guard by units running out of gas and bullets.

As far as specific issues, I’ve found only one so far. In tutorial scenario #5, the airfield at hex 5,12 doesn’t seem to work right. I assume it is German controlled, but no control icon appears (even after a German ground unit occupies the hex). You can load paratroops at this airfield, but you cannot repair or refuel planes there. This appeared to be the only airfield so far that had these issues.

I hope to finish the tutorial campaign, and begin the 1939 campaign, this weekend. I'll post more thoughts after that. So far, I am enjoying PC very much.

Dave

[lordzimoa]

Thanks for your feedback!

3. When units are low on ammo or fuel, maybe something (like red text) to indicate they are running low – a few times I was caught off guard by units running out of gas and bullets.

I like this one Alex, or we could make them animated so they flicker red or something.

[OmegaMan1]

I finished the tutorial campaign this evening, and will begin the 1939 campaign this weekend. Two more things I thought of while I was playing.

1. During the AI's turn, the screen remains stagnant. Is there any way to have the screen center on each battle hex? This would make following the AI's attacks much easier.

2. On the objective hexes, perhaps you could have two colors for each objective -- one for objectives that are not yet captured, and one for objectives that have been captured. This would help me see overall how I am progressing during the course of a scenario.

Again, I have really enjoyed my experience with Panzer Corps so far. Can't wait to begin the historical battles!

Dave

[Kerensky]

Thanks for your feedback!

3. When units are low on ammo or fuel, maybe something (like red text) to indicate they are running low – a few times I was caught off guard by units running out of gas and bullets.

I like this one Alex, or we could make them animated so they flicker red or something.

Personally, I'm still waiting to see what the animation and visuals will be to represent the 4 unit states will be. Once we have that, then it should be obvious if and where something like this would fit. Maybe the information on the right side of the screen should blink for attention when fuel and ammo are low? The right side being that place where it currently shows Strength, Ammo, Fuel, and Entrenchment values.

[uran21]

Thanks for you feedback and thanks for reporting that airfield on 5,12 in 5th tutorial. It is a bug. Fixed now!

[Kerensky]

Thanks for you feedback and thanks for reporting that airfield on 5,12 in 5th tutorial. It is a bug. Fixed now!

Oh, well in that case, Norway has a similar unclaimed airfield located at 16,3. I think there's one or two more, and I'll mention them as I find them.

[uran21]

Thanks for you feedback and thanks for reporting that airfield on 5,12 in 5th tutorial. It is a bug. Fixed now!

Oh, well in that case, Norway has a similar unclaimed airfield located at 16,3. I think there's one or two more, and I'll mention them as I find them.

Thanks, fixed that one in Norway too.

[Kerensky]

17,6 in Sea Lion is a city hex with no flag. There are three more like that on the Thames River, but I have a feeling those three are intentionally left unclaimed. That's the only extra one I could find after looking at all current scenarios.

[uran21]

Those three on Thames was first attempt to combine city and river and some sort of experiment but I gave them flags now. And removed that harbour without tile.

[Rudankort]

I like this one Alex, or we could make them animated so they flicker red or something.

Actually we have low fuel/low ammo icons (to appear to the right of strength label) done, but I didn't integrate them yet. Probably I will in the next build. Also, low fuel/ammo should be red in the side panel.

[Razz1]

Actually something as important as Ammo should be visible on the unit on the map.

A player should have to look to the right or hit the hot key F then look for the data.

Something to think about for a future patch.

[OmegaMan1]

Glad to hear you guys are looking at ways of improving the low ammo/fuel status notifications. I think this will be a tremendous help when playing, since keeping an eye on supply levels is critical to any offensive.

Dave

[OmegaMan1]

I just finished the Poland 1939 scenario ('39 campaign). Pretty straightforward, and a nice combination of the first two scenarios from the PG campaign. Two issues I noticed:

1. The "next unit" button seems buggy. It doesn't always "light up" when units are still left to move. Also, I've noticed that, when cycling through more than two units with the next unit button, it will highlight an already-moved unit that actually can't move (it always seemed to pick a unit that was in a transport). If you either moved all the remaining units, or put the remaining units to sleep, the next unit button stops picking up the false unit.

2. A really minor detail: when going to the build/upgrade screen, the small flag icons that denote which country you are buying for seem to "drop" off the page. They return if you click them a couple of times.

3. This isn't a bug issue, but an observation: it really is hard (for me, anyway) to see infantry units in cities. They seem to blend in too much.

Finished the scenario with 7 turns to spare. Now on to Norway.

Dave

[Rudankort]

Good points all three. I'll have to check how next unit works now. It attempts to exclude units which cannot do anything useful (even if formally they have an action left). Point 2 is a small, but annoying bug. Something inside the UI library, haven't figured out yet. Point 3 is reported by a lot of people, any suggestions how to fix that?

[OmegaMan1]

As to a fix for the units-in-cities issue, my first thought is to somehow change the city graphic -- maybe give it a brighter color, or make the existing graphic lighter. My other thought is if somehow, when a unit is present in a city hex, the city hex would be "grayed out" or lightened so that the unit would stand out more. I don't think changing the units themselves is an issue, as I like how they look so far. The last thought I have is perhaps giving units some sort of bright outline while they are present in cities. Hope this gives you some ideas.

Dave

[OmegaMan1]

Rudankort, I read on another thread in the beta forum (yes I've started to read others' comments, the suspense got to me LOL) that you aren't as experienced with the PG3 engine as you are the first two PG games. One thing I think would REALLY be a nice addition to PC, and was a feature in the PG3 games, was that capturing non-objective city hexes could sometimes generate a bonus. The bonus would take the form of additional prestige points, or an increase in experience for the unit involved. This was a nice incentive for players to try and take cities that aren't listed as objectives. This event would happen once or twice during a scenario, and would be random, so players would not know what city would give this "bonus." Of course I realize this might be beyond the scope of the PC engine, but it was a really cool feature of the PG3 games that I think would work well in PC. Please let me know what you think!

Dave

[OmegaMan1]

I finished the Norway scenario today. A very tense game... nearly lost my northernmost amphibious force to the British navy. I managed to save the day by getting my naval and air forces up there to fend off the British. I was able to secure the southern objectives in a few turns, but the battle for Trondheim and Namsos really dragged out... and was not helped by five consecutive rain turns near the end of the scenario! I took the last objective on the next-to-last-turn, so it was a marginal victory. Norway is a tough nut to crack; getting a decisive victory there looks difficult. (I remember when I started playing the first PG I would purposely drag out the second Polish scenario just so I wouldn't get a decisive victory and could therefore skip the Norweigan scenario!)

Thoughts after this scenario:

1. The ability of land-based units to hit back at naval units seems a bit of a stretch. Maybe an artillery piece could get off a few rounds, but infantry or tanks damaging capital ships? Not sure about that... although I admit I don't recall if this was possible in the PG series. I can see being able to hit a ship if it's in a port, but not at sea.

2. I miss the pop-up messages that would appear during combat (i.e., "rugged defense," "ambush," "surrender," "out of the sun!" etc.) Will these be implemented at some point? They were always helpful, particularly when you'd attack a unit and get hit with defensive artillery fire.

3. Will there be some method to show which units are core units and those that are only auxiliary? I figured the naval units weren't core units, but I'd like to know which ground/air units won't be coming over to the next campaign so as to assign priority for experienced and inexperienced replacements.

That's all for now. Off to the Low Countries.

Dave

[OmegaMan1]

Just finished the Low Countries and France scenarios. I managed a marginal victory in the LC scenario, and a decisive win with France. Both scenarios work well, very reminiscent of the original PG versions. I only found two issues in each scenario:

Low Countries
1. At several times during the game, the AI's units in and around objective hexes are revealed (including hexes that were no where near my units). This didn't happen every turn, more like once every third turn.

2. I noticed that in a few instances the AI would move an infantry unit out of an objective hex in order to attack my units. It would then leave the objective hex itself open. In almost every case I was able to take the objective hex without a fight. Perhaps the AI is a little too offensive-minded when it should be defending more vigorously?

France
1. This isn't an issue, just a graphics suggestion. For capital cities such as Paris, perhaps unique graphics (i.e. something like the Eifel Tower) to distinguish the capital?

2. I won a decisive victory in France (after a marginal victory in LC). According to the campaign path sheet, my next scenario should have been Greece. Instead I was taken to Sea Lion '40. Is the campaign tree wrong?

Again, pretty smooth sailing so far. Looking forward to Sea Lion tomorrow.

Dave

[OmegaMan1]

Just finished the Sea Lion 40 scenario today... what a challenge! I lost four core units in the English Channel to the Royal Navy, before even setting foot on the English shoreline. I just managed to capture the last objective hex on the final turn. Here are my thoughts/issues:

1. There are a few hexes that seem to have issues in this scenario. I know the four London hexes along the Thames have been documented elsewhere, but here are few others I found:
a. Ramsgate ( 28,8 ) currently appears as an all-sea hex rather than a port city hex.
b. The river "mouth" hexes at (3,6), (2,7) and (24,7) look strange... like a river flowing in the middle of the ocean. Different artwork, perhaps?
c. The (5,4) hex of the Severn River looks radically different from the rest of the river hexes. Is this intentional?

2. It was almost impossible to sink the two UK submarines near Southampton. I surrounded both with my destroyers and never landed a hit on either. The only way I was able to sink them was to allow them to hit my destroyers and take damage in return, until they were finished off that way.

3. As I mentioned above, I was able to take the last objective on the final turn of the scenario. However, the splash screen at the end said "loss." Is it possible to obtain all the objective hexes in a scenario and still lose?

4. If I had indeed scored a marginal win and not a loss, the campaign path said I should have proceeded to Barbarossa. Instead I was sent to Greece.

That's all for today... I'll report on Greece tomorrow!

Dave