Why is the Three Moves Ahead review not being discussed!!!!

[sjgold]

So the Three Moves Ahead guys did an hour long podcast on Pandora.


Sigh wont let me post the link...

idlethumbs
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Overall the game had positive reviews. But like most of us have noted some of the game was noted as needing major improvement.

Now this is concerning as the podcast came out on the 7th and there has been no mention of it here, nor any feedback from the developer on if these issues are valid, by design, or being fixed. I find this frustrating as this game has the potential to be one of the best....

[player1]

https://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes ... than-a-box

[SephiRok]

Was a great podcast, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I didn't feel there were any major issues brought up that we had not discussed before. A minor improvement in the next beta is the direct result of their feedback. Is there anything in particular on your mind?

[sjgold]

Like I said, I agree that this could be one of the best 4x games of all times.
Amazing work that's for sure...

I think the biggest things on my mind are the diplomatic AI which for sure has been discussed.
The stacks of doom issues and controlling of stacks.

i think honestly those where the only largish issues in the podcast that surrounded the negative side of things. At least from a major issue standpoint, there was a lot of other stuff mostly positive if not glowing and some smaller negative.

I love the game, I just want to see it be the best! was totally surprised to see no mention of the podcast here... (at least that I saw...)

[boulugre]

It's a good review because it shows the feedback of a new player gaming experience.

I agree with most of what they say on the diplomacy problems, the rather poor background story and lack of personality of each leader.

I don't find it too difficult to spot your units on the map / in a stack, I guess it's just takes a little bit of time to get used to spot the right information.

I don't however agree with their analysis of the stack of doom problem. While it's true you can stack as much troop as you want on a hexe, they obviously never played far enough in a game for not having their entire army reduced to dust by a concentrated nuke strike. Between bombardment, nukes, artillery and black holes, the game play offers more than enough way to make the stack of doom a rather poor tactic, easily beatable. (maybe the only exception is a full stack with healing upgrades in a city with all the defense building up, that might be a little too op right now)

Funny to see how impressed new player are by the initial alien aggression, once you played a few game and learned how to deal with aliens its rather easy to fend them off by adapting your starting growth strategy. Actually most experienced player on this forum are wanting more powerful or resilient aliens so they still stay a force to reckon in mid / end game.

[Zak0r]

I totally agree to your comment about stacks of doom. In late MP wars you really can't put more than 4-5 units on a hex and not expect to get some kind of shit going down on that hex. You need to be very flexible and react quickly to every scan you hear. This adds something like an RTS-element to the game which I thoroughly enjoy.

Just an example from one of our last games at civforum. I was gathering a stack in one of my cities when I heard a scan. Slightly panicked I moved the stack two hexes out of sight of that scan. Another scan on the stack outside of the city. Aaah, quickly moved out of sight again. Another scan ... damn, no movement points left. Rockets flying ... and flying and flying ... only one tank with 0.2 survived. I lost 40% of my military in one turn, lol. Should have split the stack. THAT'S what happens to you if you try to form a SoD. So that's really not an issue in this game and I love it!

[boulugre]

I totally agree to your comment about stacks of doom. In late MP wars you really can't put more than 4-5 units on a hex and not expect to get some kind of shit going down on that hex. You need to be very flexible and react quickly to every scan you hear. This adds something like an RTS-element to the game which I thoroughly enjoy.

AI is also pretty good at targeting it's nuke at big stake and not wasting them on single targets, so even in single player stack of doom is not the way to go. As you said it's all about spreading your troop to minimize WMD effect while still concentrating them enough so they can protect each other. There is no perfect strategy making the game more interesting as very situational.

Just an example from one of our last games at civforum. I was gathering a stack in one of my cities when I heard a scan. Slightly panicked I moved the stack two hexes out of sight of that scan. Another scan on the stack outside of the city. Aaah, quickly moved out of sight again. Another scan ... damn, no movement points left. Rockets flying ... and flying and flying ... only one tank with 0.2 survived. I lost 40% of my military in one turn, lol. Should have split the stack. THAT'S what happens to you if you try to form a SoD. So that's really not an issue in this game and I love it!

Haha sweet!

I really wished my internet connection didn't suck so much so I could join those game

[sjgold]

I can agree with the SoD counter in the thread...
I do find it difficult to see whats what though....

The diplo aspect I feel is critical though.

[Igorputski]

I feel diplomacy should be removed in all games. It's just a crutch and an exploit vs the ai anyways and serves no purpose than to give the player time to prepare or build up vs the ai.

Did no one but me ever play "Empire", that was a game that there was no diplomacy from the start. Everyone was at war and that's the way you dealt with the ai the entire game. It was a game of attrition and of course luck, but it was a lot of fun because you knew when you spotted something you were already at war with it.

I blame Warlords for implementing diplomacy features into games. They just had to have some basic diplomacy crap that didn't amout to a hill of beans because you ended up going to war with that faction anyways. It was just a delaying and exploitive action as far as I'm concerned.

If you want diplomacy then buy the game "diplomacy" don't bring it into every game that's made with war now.

If I have the ability to turn it off in any game that's what I do and that's the way you have to play in MP if you play in my games. All for one and one for all sotospeak in my games. )

[Zak0r]

You can declare war on contact and you'll have what you want.

[Lebb]

I would like an option in MP similar to the new(ish) feature they added to CiV multiplayer - where if 2 players are engaged in a war they take their turns one after the other rather than at the same time.

While some like Zak0r say they enjoy the nature of simultaneous turns requiring you to out maneuver your opponents scans and whatnot, I personally am not a fan of this kind of combat in a turned based RTS. My combat with the AI is turned based, it should be the same against other players as well