Slitherine

Okay just a few initial impressions;

To preface my comments, I am not an avid war game player, because I am not yet that framiliar with this genre of games, and the companies that make them. In researching the genre I came upon Slitherine and this sign up and am hoping to become more involved with these games. As a semi new comer to this area of gaming, some of my comments might seem naive and show my noobness. If so I apologize and in my defense I just want to help if I can. That said...

My first thought after finally getting the beta and starting it was, "hey this is just like that game I used to play on the PS years ago, [Panzer General]". Well duh.
I like the look of the game. You get to see a pretty good sized area, and the graphice are detailed enough that, after you get framiliar with the units you can easily tell what they are by sight. I tried out a few of the tutorial levels and was confused as to why there wasn't an actual tutorial. Maybe you are expecting a more sophisticated clientelle that would already know how the game works and not need any hand holding. If so I guess that reveals that I am a slightly bigger noob than you might have previously suspected . (or perhaps you plan on doing that and just haven't added it yet). Personally a quick walk through, either by voice or graphics, showing and explaing the basics of how to play, i.e. the objectives, how to move, reinforce, attack, upgrade, etc would have been nice. Also, an in game explanation of all of the stats would be helpful as well. Now I realize that the manual will obviously contain all of that information, but I think having a basic explanation in the game so you can see the stats and controls and movement would be nice for a quick refresher, or if you don't want to read or don't have the manual, or like me, have a hard time reading small print

I like how all of the controls are on the main screen and that you don't have to switch pages to get information, or give commands. I really like the mouse interface, however it might also be nice to have some keyboard shortcuts for things like cycling through units, upgrades, reinforcing, sleeping etc.

Performance didn't seem to be much of an issue, however it might be nice to be able to speed up the battle events and during the AI's turn.

At the beginning of a scenario it would be nice to have write up or a voice over, (or both ), explaining what the campign is and what the objectives are. It would also be nice to have a description of the different units, with their strengths and weaknesses in the upgrade and purchase unit screens.

Well I'll get back to playing and see if anything else jumps out at me. Please let me know if this is NOT the kind of information you are looking for.

Be well,

Thanks - this is perfect feedback. We are trying to target people like you new to the hobby or a long time awy from it. None of your comments are at all naive so dont worry about that.

The tutorial itself is not in yet (only the missions which the tutorial will be set are in) so hopefully when it is in it will make more sense.

Keep the feedback coming!

Cool thanks! I am glad to hear the tutorials are coming; that does make a lot more sense.

Other stuff;
-I noticed that my previous unit button doesn't seem to work, and I can't figure out what the button to the right of the mount/unmount button does and there is no pop up for it.

-I am not sure what the purpose of the compass is in the bottom right corner of the ui screen. It looks like it is just a graphic, and if so perhaps you could take it out and expand the opposing unit stats up above it.

-One thing I would like to be able to see for the units is whether they have an attack left or not. It that already exists please tell me where. It would be nice if you could see it on all units on the map at once, but if nothing else, you could add it to the opposing units screen on the ui.

-Following along those lines, maybe each unit could have their movement number, (i.e. the movement spaces they have left this turn), listed on it and an icon that shows if they have an attack left and how much ammo they have. I know the ammo and movement are listed on the individual units, but if nothing else you could put it on the strategic map or something similar.

Overall I am having a really good time with this. It is so much easier than PG on the PS

Oh yeah one last note, trying to add comments beyond the original size of the comment box is REALLY annoying . It keeps jumping up to the top of the box and you can't see what you are typing below the original window size. Perhaps if I were a better typer it wouldn't matter so much, but as it is kind of bites.

Just sayin

Compass is just placeholder.... for now.

Hi, thanks for your feedback.


Things like campaign menu, scenario menu, briefings, missing tutorial pop-ups, graphic effects, animations, main UI, MP UI, SFX, missing icons... and another big list are most of the time placeholder or unfinished art.

We add stuff every new Beta build, so you will notice the difference and get rid of all the temporarily art and media.


Cheers,

Tim aka LZ

Okay I am going to throw in a quick rant here. Those KV-1C's are H4X!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In one round I hit one twice with JU87 strikes, 3 artillery strikes 2 PZ4's a Panther and a Tiger and it took no damage. I hope hoping this is something that can be fixed because I can't even touch those suckers. I am playing the first round of the 1943 campaign on easy, no less. I know they were tough but this is ludicrous

Orchrist wrote:Okay I am going to throw in a quick rant here. Those KV-1C's are H4X!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In one round I hit one twice with JU87 strikes, 3 artillery strikes 2 PZ4's a Panther and a Tiger and it took no damage. I hope hoping this is something that can be fixed because I can't even touch those suckers. I am playing the first round of the 1943 campaign on easy, no less. I know they were tough but this is ludicrous

Yeah you seriously need to look at the KV-1 stats especially the C models. I was hitting the 19th KV-1C unit for about 8-10 rounds with 2 tigers, 4 PZ IV's a panther, 2 air strikes, and 2 or 3 artillery strikes, (one of them a 17cm K-18 ), and only got him down to 3 . NOTHING touched it. In case you are wondering how I hit it with that many ground units, I would fire, then move out, and move a new unit to take its place in the same turn.

A couple of other quick ideas:

-a combat log that lists each battle during the turn and the results. Maybe you could place it where the compass is.
-an order of battle that lists your combat units, plus their stats such as ammo, fuel, number of units, etc. I am sure that a real battlefield commander would demand such intelligence from his staff.
-Along the lines of the mention fiambre submitted regarding the "rugged defense" dialog. It would be nice to see that when an extremely tough defense takes place and also maybe a "heroic attack" or something similar. It might add a little spice to what is now just a quick display of a battle and you have to look at the numbers of units to see what actually happened.

I am sure there is more to come and I appreciate the opportunity to add my input. Overall, I am REALLY enjoying playing the beta and hope that I can be of some help. Incidentally, I was just cleaning off my desk and right in front of me is a copy of the windows 95 version of Panzer General. I am a life coach, and a true believer that things happen for a reason, so I appreciate you believing in fate and picking me for this

First impression?

The game won't unzip. Apparently I've been given an incorrect serial number. Thanks for wasting my time.

Hi

the serial number is for the installer. To unzip you need to use the password next to the link you used to download the zip.

Please try again!