First impressions
Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:56 am
Ok, after having played up to Kiev now I have a few comments to make about the game (I played on General btw)
First of all, I got my ass kicked several times but so far always managed to get a DV without any lost core units out of the game if I just plan careful enough (Sealion was tough). I never load during a scenario, only a complete scenario reload, doing it from scratch. So that's a good thing about the AI, especially since it doesn't feel like it is cheating, but simply outmaneuvering me with the ocasional lucky dice roll. In Sealion a good planning and slow movement made the difference between a DV and a total loss with half my core destroyed. (And my naval tactics which I trained so hard in original PG Norway still work! yay!)
The game feels very PG to me although I miss a few scenarios but I'm sure the grand campaigns (which I already bought but haven't played yet) will offer great new stuff. In general I really like the terrain and graphics but some stuff I don't like there, I'll go into that later.
All in all a very fun game and I cannot wait to get into the grand campaigns and I'll make sure to post some AAR too to get some feedback and maybe do some MP games to improve my skills.
Now for the bad things I noticed of which some may be corrected, some probably not.
- Unit graphics: (As mentioned in other forums to Rudankort) I think a lower camera angle for the unit renders would be better. This is probably my biggets concern with the game: I don't easily recognize my units. It is ok for infantry arty and even planes but it is horrible for tanks. I've come from PzI to my 2nd model of a PzIV and I have to say I cannot even single-look distingish my IVs from my IIIs. It is possible but in original PG this was a matter of just a glimpse and also something I really hated about PG2. I would really appreciate a mod here which features the same 3d models but rendered at a different angle. Heck, I would even pay a few bucks for such a graphics DLC. Really!
- Plane movement heck markings. Who the heck came up with those dots?? They are a really bad idea. First of all, possible movement, ESPECIALLY out of fuel hexes, need to be recognizable at first glance. These dots do not do that, especially since units occupying hexes hide the dots! Can this be easily modded somehow into completely red/white filled hexes? This is my 2nd biggest concern
- No real compendium. I would at least have expected several chapters about the game combat and terrain mechanics but even the manual only tells the most necessary things. Special traits are not mentioned anywhere and this is especially strange to me as I see the same concerns mentioned in the BEta forums quite some time ago.
- Some terrain details are distracting and even missleading. Why are there clear hexes with small forrest patches on them? That missleads at first glance into thinking they are forest hexes. That's a no-go for such a game. First priority must always be giving the player visual information, THEN make it look nice.
- In general there are quite some improvments possible to the UI also:
* Core/Auxiliary units cannot be easily distinguished. Gold/SIlver frame is not a good solution. Before I read about it in the forum I totally missed that even. I had no idea there was a visual indication at all. The PG solution with white vs black font was MUCH better.
* Over a year ago people asked for the possibility to be able to access the unit stats screen by right clicking in a unit in the reserve in deployment mode. This still hasn't been implemented and is also a big concern.
* Maybe I missed this but is there no possibility to see scenario based losses, only campaign losses?
* Some functionality is only available as shortcuts, like abandon unit or rename. Why?
* Why is the textbox for renaming always empty and not showing the current name. If I mistyped I./ArtReg ! and meant I./ArtReg 1, it is really annoying having to type it all again instead of just replacing the last character.
* In Reserve and Unit List bars, if I hover over the stars I get a tooltip with the unit's experience. Why does that not work with the hero or medals? Why do I have to access the unit stats screen to see those?
* It would be really nice to be able to have arrows in the unit stats screen to go through all the units instead of having to look for them on the map. (If I missed this ignore)
Aside from those small issues, great game, keep the stuff coming!
First of all, I got my ass kicked several times but so far always managed to get a DV without any lost core units out of the game if I just plan careful enough (Sealion was tough). I never load during a scenario, only a complete scenario reload, doing it from scratch. So that's a good thing about the AI, especially since it doesn't feel like it is cheating, but simply outmaneuvering me with the ocasional lucky dice roll. In Sealion a good planning and slow movement made the difference between a DV and a total loss with half my core destroyed. (And my naval tactics which I trained so hard in original PG Norway still work! yay!)
The game feels very PG to me although I miss a few scenarios but I'm sure the grand campaigns (which I already bought but haven't played yet) will offer great new stuff. In general I really like the terrain and graphics but some stuff I don't like there, I'll go into that later.
All in all a very fun game and I cannot wait to get into the grand campaigns and I'll make sure to post some AAR too to get some feedback and maybe do some MP games to improve my skills.
Now for the bad things I noticed of which some may be corrected, some probably not.
- Unit graphics: (As mentioned in other forums to Rudankort) I think a lower camera angle for the unit renders would be better. This is probably my biggets concern with the game: I don't easily recognize my units. It is ok for infantry arty and even planes but it is horrible for tanks. I've come from PzI to my 2nd model of a PzIV and I have to say I cannot even single-look distingish my IVs from my IIIs. It is possible but in original PG this was a matter of just a glimpse and also something I really hated about PG2. I would really appreciate a mod here which features the same 3d models but rendered at a different angle. Heck, I would even pay a few bucks for such a graphics DLC. Really!
- Plane movement heck markings. Who the heck came up with those dots?? They are a really bad idea. First of all, possible movement, ESPECIALLY out of fuel hexes, need to be recognizable at first glance. These dots do not do that, especially since units occupying hexes hide the dots! Can this be easily modded somehow into completely red/white filled hexes? This is my 2nd biggest concern
- No real compendium. I would at least have expected several chapters about the game combat and terrain mechanics but even the manual only tells the most necessary things. Special traits are not mentioned anywhere and this is especially strange to me as I see the same concerns mentioned in the BEta forums quite some time ago.
- Some terrain details are distracting and even missleading. Why are there clear hexes with small forrest patches on them? That missleads at first glance into thinking they are forest hexes. That's a no-go for such a game. First priority must always be giving the player visual information, THEN make it look nice.
- In general there are quite some improvments possible to the UI also:
* Core/Auxiliary units cannot be easily distinguished. Gold/SIlver frame is not a good solution. Before I read about it in the forum I totally missed that even. I had no idea there was a visual indication at all. The PG solution with white vs black font was MUCH better.
* Over a year ago people asked for the possibility to be able to access the unit stats screen by right clicking in a unit in the reserve in deployment mode. This still hasn't been implemented and is also a big concern.
* Maybe I missed this but is there no possibility to see scenario based losses, only campaign losses?
* Some functionality is only available as shortcuts, like abandon unit or rename. Why?
* Why is the textbox for renaming always empty and not showing the current name. If I mistyped I./ArtReg ! and meant I./ArtReg 1, it is really annoying having to type it all again instead of just replacing the last character.
* In Reserve and Unit List bars, if I hover over the stars I get a tooltip with the unit's experience. Why does that not work with the hero or medals? Why do I have to access the unit stats screen to see those?
* It would be really nice to be able to have arrows in the unit stats screen to go through all the units instead of having to look for them on the map. (If I missed this ignore)
Aside from those small issues, great game, keep the stuff coming!
I'd much prefer one, bigger figure. If the figure representing a infantry unit was bigger, you could even see the difference between the regular infantry and the SE units camo. The players would be definitelly more attached to their infantry units.