Slitherine

Dear Pip and team...

Was taking my daily fix of BA this morning (getting painfully trashed as a Home Guard hampered Brit on Sealion beaches) and wondered if it's possible to:
(i) show a rank for MP players (from private to field marshall) when looking at the MP challenges list. Would be great to see a rank that gave an idea of an opponent's experience (how many games they've played) and their win/loss ratio... would help me to partner up at a similar level to keep the games fun, and
(ii) permit unit selection for some of the MP scenarios. Essentially give both players a choice of what they want to fight with. This could really shake things up for scenarios like Urban Slog or Beaches...

Saw Brynog's request for a playback feature that lets us watch all of the moves for a completed game. That's a great idea! Yes please...

Keep up the great work
(You must be multimillionaires from all of the iTunes downloads by now?

Sadly not millionaires quite yet! I'm not sure how many wargame-making millionaires there are...

The upcoming update adds in multiplayer maps with force selection - it will definitely force you to expect the unexpected.

MP rankings is on our wishlist, but we've not been pushing hard for it as many people don't want to play in a way which might seem 'competitive'. I understand your main thrust is to pair up equal players for the most fun match, but sometimes you can learn a lot from play a really good opponent. It's an interesting idea though.

Cheers

Pip

pipfromslitherine wrote:Sadly not millionaires quite yet! I'm not sure how many wargame-making millionaires there are...

MP rankings is on our wishlist, but we've not been pushing hard for it as many people don't want to play in a way which might seem 'competitive'.

Cheers

Pip

I most humbly disagree! Everyone I have played has been extremely competitive. That's what makes this game so awesome.
Now usually when you play a very competitive game, you can get some sore losers. Not so in this game. (although one person did come across as potentially being so, but he shortly resigned the game)

One of the first MP games I played was against Arminius. He kicked my behind in 3-4 games.
But, because this is a competitive game, I kept at it, knowing that I was beginning to learn the "tricks-of-the-trade".
Now after playing many more games since then,...I'm playing the same scenario against Arminius again,...and all I can say is,...he's feeling the pain now.
He may still end up winning,..but that's what makes this fun,...our competitive nature.

Anyway, my point is, I agree Rankings would be awesome for every reason GottaLove88s states.
But,..in the mean-time,..can't wait to see what the new update will bring to the game!

Hey Pip, Just reading this now. YAY force selection. That's going to be awesome... not that I'm impatient or anything, but when can we get it?

It's taking longer than we were hoping. Sometimes stuff just gets in the way, and we had a load of new features which then had the turn-sending-memory issues that didn't show up in beta. We are working hard to get into a beta phase asap. Sorry for the delay.

We will probably do some additional beta signup just prior, if you are interested and have the time.

Cheers

Pip

PS. Thanks for thinking about the MP rankings thing. I've got to say, like Gortwillsaveus writes, I don't seem to be playing any uncompetitive games. There are some games where opponents seem to be resigning unexpectedly (and some amazing opponents who are playing through to the bitter end when the writing is clearly on the wall and on the panzer ruins). But uncompetitive Battle Academy? No, not yet. Ok, most of us are going to plug away, win a few, lose a few, and we'll end up at Captain or Major... Sure, I'm still happy to play a few generals, to learn new tricks by getting my ass kicked, and I'm happy to play versus a few PFC's too, because we've all got to learn (and it's always nice to win)... But if BA was chess or poker, I'd mostly play at my own level or slightly above it... And knowing the level of my opponent would change the way I play... No silly rushes versus a Rommel that's for sure! (it's kind of like being able to choose Easy, Medium or Hard for an AI player)

Totally happy to sign up for beta testing. Let me know when and how (I suspect there will be a lengthy queue of us!

Just on that opponent resigning thing... As well as getting the game engine to tell us when our "Opponent resigned" (rather than the confusing "Objective completed" when we're nowhere near our VP targets), is your single player AI smart enough to take over when a human gives up? It would be a serious upgrade to be able to play games to the end, where I've set up incredible positions, only to have a human fall into the trap and (apparently) resign... "Objective completed" (game over, opponent resigned) takes all the fun away of being able to actually execute those lovingly crafted strategies... Please?

Somebody has to be first (you guys deserve it, you're fields ahead of the competition because you care, and without being able to check I'm sure your iPad downloads must be racing away... and BA is just one game!). Remember the rest of us when you all own Caribbean real estate, ok...

Having the AI take over would be pretty tough I think, especially in those MP maps where there are specific objectives (e.g. hold VPs rather than just deathmatch).

In terms of MP rankings, we definitely have it on our radar (as well as finding the time to properly finish off our automated online tournament system that would hook into BA and allow people to start and run their own tournaments from a web page). It would just all be opt-in rather than defaulting to showing everyone on the rankings.

And fingers crossed on Caribbean estates. We're pretty confident that wargames are the path to riches, although sometimes I do think I should have taken that contract with the Yankees....

Cheers

Pip

Stick to the gaming... you can avoid the Brooklyn accent... besides, what would you do with all of the girls and Ferraris... you'd be bored in no time, lol!

Online tournament is new to me? Is that PC/Mac only? Or can we do it from iPads?

Ok, makes sense on the AI. It would be asking a lot for an AI to pick up when a human has given up.

GottaLove88s wrote:Online tournament is new to me? Is that PC/Mac only? Or can we do it from iPads?

We were testing the tournament system on FoG, but we just haven't had the time to finish it off. Once it is complete then it will be a web page where you can start/sign up for/watch tournaments, the games themselves are generated and appear in your games list, so will work on any version you happen to be playing at the time. It's very cool, but we've had so much else to do...

Cheers

Pip

Is there a date for the update with mp force selection and tournament ?

The tournament support is not in the next update, it is a future plan.

We are hoping to get the updating into beta next week.

Cheers

Pip

Awesome news. Thanks Pip, can't wait. Have a great weekend!