Slitherine

Hi,

Have played a couple of games since the v1.03 patch came out, and I thought now would be a good time to list some feedback on a range of items that could do with tweaking/changing. For the most part it is a very enjoyable game, and just a few changes would, in my opinion, really improve things:

Graphics
CSA IX Corp seems glitched when it arrives - the units stream on from what is clearly the wrong entry hex, in some cases passing right over Union units on the board.

Its not very clear when objectives change hands, the first time I played I completely missed the subtle change in brightness of the symbol. Would it not be better to have the objectives show a Union flag which then changes to Reb upon capture?

The number of SP left on AI units seems to be shown wrong quite a few times, so it looks like a brigade should shatter and disappear, but when you hover the mouse over it, it says still has 1-2 SP left.

AI tactics/flow of the game
When playing as the CSA the AI needs to have something done to avoid a day 2 pile up in Gettysbury. Currently it ignores most of the objectives in favour of piling on WW1 style at the immediate objectives directly above the town - with human wave attacks preceded by massed earth shaking artillery bombardments. Little Round top never gets a look in, so the game doesn't "flow" out towards the flanks as it did historically.

A solution may be to have either the AI not recognize the central 5 objectives for any reinforcements arriving turn 10 or later, which might then force them in the direction of the Little Round Top and/or Culps hill.

Another idea could be that on turn 11 the central 5 objectives "disable" so day 2 only has 2 objectives on Culps hill, and maybe two on Round top & little round top, and the one on the cross roads just south of Cemetery ridge. They could then "re-activate" start of day 3?
that would force the play to spread out on day 2 to the flanks before CSA then gets to choose anywhere to attack day 3.

General game play
The centring of mouse on reinforcements is better, but has thrown up new problems - in that when you select a unit that came on previous turn, often the view centres on the reinforcement hex rather than the unit.

It would be nice if when you opened the calendar it showed the current day.

FOW would be great. I believe PzGndr gave a very good idea for how to implement it in a previous thread. Not a deal breaker though.

At Day 2 night time turn I as Union player was given the control of CSA IX Corp for deployment and movement?!

cheers
Steve

thanks for the feedback, the developer or GL may reply

Hi, regarding IX Corp, this is a reinforcement that can enter the map from 3 different entry hexes. Depending on what destination hex you choose it will enter from one of these 3 hexes. I've tested it and it looks to be working fine.

I will check the problem with the strength shown on ai units. If you noticed any pattern when this occurs, it would help a lot (like "units have different strength after a retreat").

You can find the current day shown in Menu.

The bug where you can control an AI unit after a rally: this is one of the issues i'm working on right now.

Regarding the selection of a unit that came on previous turn: i've tried it a few times but it works fine for me. Do you have a specific example?

steveo110 wrote: AI tactics/flow of the game
When playing as the CSA the AI needs to have something done to avoid a day 2 pile up in Gettysbury. Currently it ignores most of the objectives in favour of piling on WW1 style at the immediate objectives directly above the town - with human wave attacks preceded by massed earth shaking artillery bombardments. Little Round top never gets a look in, so the game doesn't "flow" out towards the flanks as it did historically

I agree with you, but I think the problems with the victory conditions go much further than that. The grouping of allmost all victory hexes on cemetary ridge causes an ahistorical bunching up ww1 style for both sides. So spreading VPs all over the map to represent "control of the battlefield" would be prudent. Control of Culp's Hill was not vastly more important than little round top as you mentioned.

However, the victory conditions in the campaign game lead to entirely illogical results at times. Let me illustate this with a screenshot:

What you see above is turn 22 (end of July 2nd) and what the game considered a Confederate "victory" (I was playing CSA btw). As you might see the CSA army is almost entirely destroyed. CSA has 12 units (most of them very weak and damaged), while the union has 25 units, mostly full strenght.

I "won" because I held on to a few objective hexes and scored a bit more VPs than the Union. Never mind the fact that my army is almost anihilated and I would be forced to retreat during the night from the field. Alternatively, if I stayed then on the next day, the Union would have just steamrolled me.

In RL terms Lee's army would cease to exist as a capable fighting force, while the Union would still be left with a decent army to march on to Richmond with. So common sense tells us that for the CSA this is a worse outcome than RL Gettysburg. But the game decided it is a victory.


As such, I think that holding just 2 hexes on cemetary ridge is given far more importance than it should. At the same time, losses, control of the battlefield as a whole (gettusburg town, little round top, seminary ridge etc) and the overall balance of power between the armies is not sufficiently taken into account.