Notes on Things I've Observed

[taamvan]

@DoManMacgee I’m in your game but I have yet to get an online game started. Not sure what Im doing wrong.

So I played some single player. Making a great AI here seems pretty challenging, and also not so useful as most players should want to PBEM style play.

Could divide networked play into a PBEM mode where defender casualties are as they are now, and a LIVE mode, where defenders are expected to watch the game live and make a choice within 30 seconds, or default back to the casualty preload

Right now you can send fighters to their deaths–5 fighters head to japan even though only 4 can get picked up by carriers.
Also, game tries to enforce a 3 unit limit on UK build when I want to build 4 units (1 in UK and 3 in india)

The way the enemy turn is presented is no better than AAA and all the things I’m being shown don’t indicate what really happened, or what i lost.

The positioning of the infantry units so high in some the territories makes them hard to find.

Dice RNG seems a bit wonky with unusual results (I won a battle of 4 infantry vs 3 defenders which seems a really low chance)

I know things will be faster down the road but there are way too many “clicks” that have to be done and my tendonitis doesnt like that. have to click past so many animations and splash screens to resolve one combat

Still a bit unclear at times what the game wants you to click on in order to proceed.

needs larry harris patch, not “no combat on turn 1”

Otherwise its a good effort, way too many naysayers. All the best.

[DoManMacgee]

@taamvan Not sure myself. My attempts to host a game have all failed for whatever reason (I’ve been too lazy to look into it).

I’m currently in something like 10 games right not, haha. Most of them are just idling in the lobby but the few I’ve been in have been going smoothly.

Having a harder AI would be beneficial to newer/inexperienced players who are trying to ramp up to real opponents. The current AI is a joke and I’m pretty sure that even the “Easy AI” from TripleA could beat it.

I wasn’t able to send fighters to their death in my game (post-patch). It even forced me to NCM a Carrier to pickup a Fighter even though I would have rather had it die. It seriously screwed up my gameplan because it left the Carrier and Fighter in-range of a US counter.

You can turn the combat animations and stuff off on the options menu (little gear in the upper-left of the UI), but there’s still tons of clicking you have to do.

I agree with all of your other points though, especially the option to “play live”. I don’t understand why this game is being dogpiled on when it’s in Early Access. It’s supposed to be a buggy mess, we’re basically paying to be bug testers for Beamdog right now. The game’s actually improved a fair bit (no more random JavaScript crashes, faster load times, less rule errors, etc.) since it launched last week, and I only imagine that things will continue to improve as we roll along.

[JuliusBorisovBeamdog]

@DoManMacgee I’ve joined a game which missed a 5th player with douchemanmacgee as another player. Try starting the game if you’re a host there, or let’s wait till the host starts it. Currently, I recommend to use the Discord channel to find players (til we implement a way for communication between players into the game, other than the map notes to your allies).

The issue with 10 games not starting - might be related to the AI in Online MP, see https://steamcommunity.com/app/898920/discussions/0/1643170269568379700/?ctp=2#c1643170903491797024

[taamvan]

@JuliusBorisovBeamdog

I’ve been playing more and have some more observations.

Extreme lag while placing units requires that you minimize the game and do something else for a bit while it catches up, until then it appears frozen.

Enemy turn is not reported clearly and I have to examine the gamestate from scratch without having any idea how that came to be

I need some way both in game and out of game to look at the tile and know 1) which teams I am 2) which teams I am not. when im playing multiple games i dont know whether im one ally, or all of them, or who my opponents are…I can only see that information on the main Online Game screen

the unit arrows and pathing are confusing as to which units have been comitted and which are still waiting to be committed

bombers and fighters look too much alike

the number in the lower right hand corner saying “X” destroyers is covered by the other units so its hard to see

almost all the gameplay rules seem to have been coded correctly and the game works well, with the above issues to keep in mind.

[JuliusBorisovBeamdog]

@taamvan

1. We don’t have any quick solution for that particular bit of lag at the moment.
2. We have plans for a replay system so you can more easily see what happened when it wasn’t your turn.
3. Yes, we agree and have some redesigns in process for the cards, with one of the goals being to make who’s who more clear to the player.
4. Indeed, unit arrows are confusing. We have some plans to revise these.
5. Bombers and fighters - we have a bug in the system that bombers should be clearly larger than fighters, but overall the design is based on the pieces from the board game.
6. We have a few open tickets in the backlog for unit crowding leading to cases where you can’t see stack numbers. We still need to design an elegant solution and run another unit placement pass .
7. Yay, thank you! :slightly_smiling_face: