I'm enjoying Axis & Allies Online

[djensen]

Without revealing anything, just a quick note about AAO. I’ve played a few games of AAO but the next few weeks are busy so I had to quit a couple of games.

1. I regret that decision; I want to keep playing.
2. I really want to start another 2 or 3 games. Trying to resist.

So, yeah, I like it.

[Intrepid]

I am looking forward to trying it out also. I’ve often wondered why such a stable game franchise did not have an “official” online variant (esp. since the game is so suited to browser-style play on a wide range of devices).

I haven’t played 1942.2 in awhile, but it will be a great 1v1 option I think… and hopefully once the dust has settled on that release we will see AA50, G40, 1914, etc…

[DoManMacgee]

I’m at work at the moment, so I assume the Early Access is still not out.

Is there an alternative method to access the game at the moment, or is it invite-only (for folks like djensen and whoever else the Developers have given access to)?

[Panther]

I am looking forward to it, too. I am really curious how all the specialities of the ruleset will be implemented into the software. :smiley:

@Intrepid said in I'm enjoying Axis & Allies Online:

… and hopefully once the dust has settled on that release we will see AA50, G40, 1914, etc…

Indeed. Especially in G40 there are some more defender’s decisions during the attacker’s turn they would need to find a solution for to allow for asynchronous gaming, for example scramble, intercept, kamikaze … really interesting.

[JuliusBorisovBeamdog]

@DoManMacgee Yep. It’s invite-only at this point. ;)

[Gargantua]

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog said in I'm enjoying Axis & Allies Online:

@DoManMacgee Yep. It’s invite-only at this point. ;)

And where PRECISELY is my invitation? and the invitation to the LORD Curtmungus?

Or have we been OVERLOOKED?

Beamdog surely would not slight us in this way? only to FACE THE WRATH of our rage and honor! :)

And when exactly is Trent Oster going to respond to the PUBLICLY POSTED A&A DUEL requested on Linked in? Canadian Provincial pride is at stake.

[Curtmungus]

SUCH IS MY RAGE AT NOT BEING INVITED TO THE TEA PARTY BY FRIENDS!!!

[RSCERIE]

Hello, i downloaded Steam but cannot seem to locate AAO. i thought this game was available online?

[barnee]

@RSCERIE Hi RSCERIE

Not ready for the common man yet is my understanding. Only the Chosen few for now : )

[Gargantua]

Yeah - so how do we get the “privilege” cards so we can show these nerds how the game is really played?

[RSCERIE]

@Gargantua lol, love the smack talk. Bring it on 😬

[Gargantua]

Haha well boys I tried, but they are “full up” at the moment, and that’s from the man at the top!

[Imperious Leader]

The game is buggy. Lots of Java script errors that freeze the game up, whereas you need to restart. I was hoping the bugs would be worked out BEFORE releasing the product…

[Midnight_Reaper]

@Imperious-Leader said in I'm enjoying Axis & Allies Online:

The game is buggy. Lots of Java script errors that freeze the game up, whereas you need to restart. I was hoping the bugs would be worked out BEFORE releasing the product…

This was announced as an “early release”. Sometimes, “early release” == “beta tester”. My advice: submit bugs as you find them, so that Beamdog can fix them…

-Midnight_Reaper

[JuliusBorisovBeamdog]

Yes, please submit all the bugs you experience and feature requests at https://beamdog.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/3

[Imperious Leader]

I don’t do unpaid “homework” for company’s that should have hired sufficient beta testers to proof their product.In any case, the game has the following flaws:

1. Music sucks. The same damn nonsense for every battle. Each nation should have its own theme unique, like the Milton Bradley game.
2. It takes too long to get thru the battles, its chuggy. A player should click as fast as he wants to clear each roll, or default to results after each combat round.
3. The game needs player options for Technology, new unit types, timer, etc
4. Get rid of the stupid boxes that litter the map with strange icons, that indicate some silly idea that’s found on the right margin.
5. The AI is more ridiculous than Milton Bradley! WTH? Get somebody to play/ program some decent moves and have AI set for easy, moderate, and expert modes.
6. USA map cartography is horrific. who the heck drew this? must have had 5 minutes to finish.
7. Its not easy to move Bomber for SBR. Sometimes its just a combat unit instead.
8. A 2-6 mover may not travel over desired spaces, and takes too long to edit.
9. would love to attack neutrals as toggled option ( they would have units presumably).
10. Tired of the same picture before every battle, try unique pictures of exactly that nations units.
11. Need to be able to edit the costs of units, so the AI might have cheaper units and become competitive.
12. The Multiplayer rooms on steam need to have a space where players can state: The time the game starts and other info and not allow one player to have 15 rooms all with the same steam name. Either your playing here or there, not everywhere. Its not a Poker room.
13. alot more, but that’s just the top 13

[JuliusBorisovBeamdog]

@Imperious-Leader Thanks for the feedback. We launched the game into Early Access so that we could create a game players want based on their feedback. It can’t be done without reports and feedback like yours. We don’t demand from anyone to be a “beta-tester” - even the smallest feedback can greatly help us.

Anyway, here is what our development team has to say about your concerns:

We have a few tracks, but possibly not as much variety as may be desired over time.
Technology and new unit types aren’t faithful to this ruleset (1942, 2nd Ed). We may be able to look at other boxsets in the future. In terms of timer, we’re aware of requests for customizable timeouts, which may help address this concern.
This is temporary. We will address a map that lines up appropriately but wasn’t achievable in the timeframe/with the resources we had.
We have changes planned for our movement system, which may make it easier to assign bombers to raids vs an attack.
We currently don’t allow players to choose movement paths (except for blitzing tanks and transports), but have a feature request logged to address this.
We can log this as a feature request, as we’ve heard this from other fronts as well.
We’re not really sure that this is the best solution for the desired outcome (more competitive AI), but it could be logged as a feature request if you feel strongly enough about it. Please, log it at https://beamdog.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/3
We have plans to add in a chat to the pre-game lobby, but this will be a little while coming.

[DoManMacgee]

@Imperious-Leader said in I'm enjoying Axis & Allies Online:

12. The Multiplayer rooms on steam need to have a space where players can state: The time the game starts and other info and not allow one player to have 15 rooms all with the same steam name. Either your playing here or there, not everywhere. Its not a Poker room.

Not sure if this is directed at me (I’m currently trying to join like 15 games. None of them are mine btw), but I wouldn’t have to try joining so many games if they would actually start. Maybe a feature to automatically cancel games that haven’t started within a reasonable amount of time instead of forcing games to be played in real-time (which is what I assume you want).

[Black_Elk]

@djensen I’m curious how the game in its current state compares to the pre-release version you tested? Like what stuff was changed or which features are there now that weren’t then? There were a couple months between your initial post here and the early access drop on Steam, so that might give us some kind of realistic estimate about what kind up updates we might expect in a 1-3 month timeframe. Thus far we’ve only seen hotfixes, but its only been out a few weeks so maybe there is more stuff coming down the pipeline.

Right now the gripes can probabaly be grouped into 3 main categories.

1. People griping about the UI, game function, or server type issues.
2. People griping about the implementation of the online ruleset compared to OOB. (The stuff that was changed to make it asynchronous.)
3. People griping about the 1942.2 game itself, as compared to Classic or Iron Blitz, or more popular AA50 and G40 games.

The third group will be hard to accomodate short of some kind of re-release of the Classic game or expansions for some other gamemaps. I gotta say that one we could probably have seen coming a mile off just from the choice of board to translate digitally. The second group is kind of on Beamdog, whether they decide to put out a version geared more towards live play or traditional PBEM. The first group I think should be the priority right now for having their concerns addressed. I’m just wondering how much we can expect to see on that front, based on what was added from the preview state to the early access?

I kind of wish they had offered a closed or invite only Beta before early access to some of the people who post regularly in the 1942 sec ed section, since I think many here could have anticipated some of these issues in advance, and might have helped to shore it up before going public. But it is what it is.

As things stand currently I imagine some pretty signficant re-designs will be needed to get it into the state that many people are hoping for. My fear is another GTO type scenario, where the game just can’t accomodate the level of competative online play that many here have come to expect. We need a critical mass of skilled players coming over from TripleA or returning from Iron Blitz so we can hold more exciting tournaments and the like. But this is already an uphill battle because of the choice of 1942.2. Most tripleA players would probably want Global or AA50, most Iron Blitz players would probably want Classic 3rd Edition. So A&A online needs to be really slick and offer something more/better than what Hasbro gave us 20 years ago and something that just looks a lot nicer and feels cleaner than tripleA to get a lot of those people really pumped for 1942.2

[Black_Elk]

Ps. Also I gotta say, this sub-forum feels really burried.

As the newest title with plugs and articles featured on the home page, I feel like 1942 Online should have its own highlighted discussion section a little higher up on the list.

There are many forums for older boards that are fairly innactive but which are still taking up the prime real estate. This version makes changes to some key rules so I’m not sure it makes sense to discuss this game in the current 1942 sec edition forums, though maybe as a sub forum there? I know these boards are focused more on the physical gameboards, but since this one is an official product I think it makes sense to give it a bit of a bump.

Right now there are a lot of disperate discussions going on at the Steam Forums, but that place is an organizational mess. It’d be nice to pull some of that traffic here, since I think many A&A 1942 Online users would find this place a more useful resource for general Axis and Allies Q&A and a better place to have fruitful discussions all around. But currently this section just feels hidden even to those who know it exists.

The Play Online section is probably the most active of all the forums on this site. It updates like every couple minutes because of PBF games, but that also makes it harder to see when new discussions or threads are being replied to in the other sub forums like this one.