This game is not ready for market yet

[jpwagner]

Here is how I see it after playing the game for a day.....

"You buys your ticket and takes your chances..."

The same people who clamor about this game being released too soon will have an equal or greater number of people who whine "when will it be released?"..... Are there problems with World War One? Of course there are, but I have no difficulty in spending the time to learn the game system and as each patch comes along, increasing my time with the game. I'm not even interested in trying one of the Grand Campaigns yet because I realize that if you sink your teeth into this game there might come a patch which will not honor your previously saved games...I'm fine with that and understand completely...

Here's the choice as I see it, AGEOD could have said that the release date will be indefinately pushed backed, and if they had done this, there would be a rush of "sobbing susans" bemoaning the delays, many of whom becoming quite nasty with their constant complaining. Am I wrong with that assessment? If you follow game forums you know I am right. So I for one am glad that I have the ability to explore the nuances of WWI now. It helps that I have not had any crashes like some of you unfortunately do, but none the less, the game is playable right now and will only improve with time....

Thank You for releasing it when you did!

[Dgold]

As a serious board and computer wargamer for over forty years, I highly recommend this game. I have been waiting many years for a detailed, historically accurate WW I game. I would much rather have a WW I game based on this engine than on the SC2 or the GGWAW engines. The Ageod game engine (divisions and regiments) would be too detailed for this game.

I would like to thank AGEOD for publishing this game when they did. This game has such a steep learning curve (not difficult to play but difficult to master) that I am glad I have the chance to play it now, rather than waiting a month or two. By the time the game is patched a few times, I hope to be somewhat of an expert.

I have played through the Tutorials, the Serbian and the Palestine scenarios without a freeze or a problem.

Obviously having thousands (I hope!) of purchasers playing the game will discover more bugs and game issues, than a handfull of play-testers.

I don't mind playing a game in this state (playable but unpolished), having Developers ready, willing and able to listen to our concerns and even make improvements in the game interface.

A suggestion: perhaps the Developers or the forum Administrator could collect the important snippets of game rules and advice from the various forum topics, into a sticky consolidated topic to benefit all.

Another suggestion: lighten the colours up on the map, especially the brown tones. I too have older eyes.

[CSS]

I got thru the May of 1918 turn, before a politicakl lock up. {I brought Russia a blue coup and it freaked out the computer! LOL} still having fought several turns on all fronts as the Allies OMG when this babay gets debugge it will be EXCELLENT! I even had a massive naval battle that sank 5 britisn dreadnaughts and 10 German ones ...What a blast!!!

[Tamas]

I even had a massive naval battle that sank 5 britisn dreadnaughts and 10 German ones ...What a blast!!!

Now that had to be something!

[tagwyn]

I can assure you that AGEOD is the most honest and straight-forward, and ethical company in the computer business with which I have ever delt!! I am 65 years old. I am an attorney. I have been playing war games on cardboard and with computers ever since I can remember. More the 50 years. Don't dis AGEOD This company will not abandon you, the gamer. Their principals are GOOD people. If you are intersted in this game, (WWI) buy it and don't quibble about some nonsense. Sincerely yours, apy:

[Plugger]

Goodaye Tamas,

Reading your comments posted previously in this thread I get the impression that you - as a beta tester - are satisfied with the game functioning as it should. (Apart from perhaps some hitherto unknown hardware /software issues being experienced by some players)

You seem to indicate that the main problem being encountered by players is in understanding the game mechanisms, not in any perceived fault with the game itself.

You also point out that it is a direct port of a boardgame that uses non-standard computer game concepts that most players unfamiliar with the boardgame may not be familiar with.

I haven't yet bought the game but I've downloaded the boardgame rules and am reading my way through them. I'd agree with your view that this has the potential to be one hell of game. However I'm surprised, given the breadth and depth of the ruleset (extensive and detailed!) that more effort hasn't gone into providing proper documentation to accompany the initial release. I strongly suspect that this is where you (or more correctly AGEOD)
are running into problems - the big disconnect between the unfamiliar game concepts and the paucity of explanatory documentation.

So I'd like to know if you consider that I'd be safe to buy the game now - having read the rules of the boardgame - or would it be best to wait for it to settle?

Cheers,
Plugger

[ozmono]

Forgive me I haven't read all the comments here. Just want to say I'm very disappointed so far. The limitation of the screen resolution is hard to cop straight of the bat, got an error message game dropped first time I started it up, than the error report wouldn't send it, than the start up video was about an inch large (problem with DivX codex I assume still I only installed what they supplied me with) Now the game runs but I cannot do the tutorial and cannot do the main campaign.

[Plugger]

Goodaye,

What limitation to the screen resolution are you referring to? I understood it handled just about any resolution out there?

Is this not the case?

Cheers,
Plugger

[dooya]

Goodaye,

What limitation to the screen resolution are you referring to? I understood it handled just about any resolution out there?

Is this not the case?

Cheers,
Plugger

Yes, any resolution is supported. With the option "Fit to screen" the game uses the native screen resolution.

[ozmono]

Yeah sorry as the guy above said thats not an issue, I'm not sure the tutorial is an issue now either.

[Seven]

My serious advice is to have the Beta team uninstall the game, and the install the retail download version , use the unlock patch and see if they experience the same issues we have.

I suspect that the Final Beta is somehow different from the retail, since the retail version had the lock on it (Calvinus said he knows nothing of the coding of this unlock patch and had nothing to do with).

Perhaps there is a chance that this lock somehow altered the code.
It is possible, since some games I know have been broken due to 3rd-party time locks.
The Beta team did not use an unlock patch -this is perhaps why they did not have any problems.

Beta team + no unlock patch = no problems.
Customers + unlock patch = problems.

What also surprised me, that instead of the unlocker simply altering the .exe, the unlocker reinstalled the whole game.
Now, Calvinus has stated the he knows nothing about what the unlocker does -so, this must be eliminated as a possible contributer to the issues.

[Tamas]

I strongly suspect that this is where you (or more correctly AGEOD)
are running into problems - the big disconnect between the unfamiliar game concepts and the paucity of explanatory documentation.

So I'd like to know if you consider that I'd be safe to buy the game now - having read the rules of the boardgame - or would it be best to wait for it to settle?

Cheers,
Plugger

I think you are right, but I would like to point out that if this is indeed the case, it was, at worst, an error in judgement, and not negligence on behalf of the team. They have been very dedicated to give this unapreciated simulation system of the Great War (the LGG system) a faithful and quality reproduction on the computer screen.

As for being safe to buy it - of course. The only thing which is a real issue for that is this severe freeze bug some people are experiencing, and which took us by surprise, since none of us betas have had it. So you might be vulnerable to it, until the next patch which will come when a definitive fix was found for it.

[gildamac]

Dear all, as mentioned on the game manual (despite it's very poor... I know), you can use the 'Enter' key to browse the armies and fleets of one nation.

The procedure is very simple. Click on an army of Russia, for example, then hitting the 'Enter' key will bring you to every army of Russia, one by one, zooming the map directly where the army is located. If you click on a fleet, instead, you will browse all fleets... If you select an army/fleet of another nation, you will browse instead all armies/fleets of that other nation.

This could be a way to locate quickly the armies, also those ones that have a mandatory offensive.

This feature doesn't work on my computer.
By clicking on an army and pressing "Enter" only browse (?) HQ armies, not all armies.

[calvinus]

This feature doesn't work on my computer.
By clicking on an army and pressing "Enter" only browse (?) HQ armies, not all armies.

Yes, sorry. You zoom to the HQs of the armies... In fact, all the army detachments are supposed to be located nearby the HQ Beware of going out of command..

In fact, each army is composed by one HQ and a variable number of detachments.

[gildamac]

Beware of going out of command..

Thanks for your answer and your advice

[Serpent77]

Since the activation patch is viewed by many as the main reason which caused troubles what do customers who downloaded the game after it was released say on this issue? (I assume the patch should have been applied only to the pre-released version of WW1? So, no patch = no problem? Please correct me if i am wrong.) Do they experience the same freezing, crushes, etc?

[tagwyn]

I know you and Tarmas are working on a patch. When can we expect it? Thanks. t

[WhoCares]

Since the activation patch is viewed by many as the main reason which caused troubles what do customers who downloaded the game after it was released say on this issue? ...Do they experience the same freezing, crushes, etc?

I donwloaded the game yesterday and played the first two Tutorials and about 2.5 times the Tannenberg scenario.
Yepp, you guessed right, 2.5 times because it crashed once, at the end of a battle when I clicked to continue to the next battle.

Otherwise I had no serious problems, a few little fight with the interface, but no gamebreaking bugs. Obviously, I did not yet stress the game too much so far - I will do so the next days as my weekend started this evening already

[morvael]

For me the game has a great potential that will be realized when the manual and first two patches will be out. I've not lost my faith in AGEOD, especially in light of their sincere statement that's stickied on the forum.

As my personal wish I hope the map will be rotated properly, I don't care if it won't fit a regular square then, you can fill the blank corners with black or white paint. What matters is that the feeling of playing on some other planet must go away I wonder what would people playing AACW said if the South would be in the north and the North in the south!

[Emeg]

<..> What matters is that the feeling of playing on some other planet must go away I wonder what would people playing AACW said if the South would be in the north and the North in the south!

May be it is a good suggestion that with a patch a kind of floating compass symbol (like the NATO symbol) is added on the mapscreen with its pointing 'arrows' showing North - East - South - West. May be this can help the disorientated players to find the right quarters.

[morvael]

It's not the problem that I don't know where is the north here but I feel bad having to adjust 28 years of looking into the maps that all show Europe in a way that France is west of Germany not south.

P.S. Ok, 18 years because for the first 10 years maps didn't interest me at all

[rwenstrup]

I'd like a normal map orientation as well...but the clarity of rules and lack of crashes are the key...

[bboyer66]

I agree, North map orientation is something that should have been done from the get go. In a board game, you can walk around the table to get oriented to the map. Not so with a computer.

[Duckman]

i would also welcome an option where the map could be (at the cost of some additional memory required or slower game speed) facing upwards with north etc. i dont understand how the developers could ignore such a thing.

[Tamas]

i would also welcome an option where the map could be (at the cost of some additional memory required or slower game speed) facing upwards with north etc. i dont understand how the developers could ignore such a thing.

I dont see the issue there to be honest.

[PDF]

I dont see the issue there to be honest.

Properly aligning the map is an obvious common sense choice, not doing so is the issue

[Elmo]

I dont see the issue there to be honest.

You can't be serious?! I can't think of a single real world map that has ever had North to the left. It's nonsense and should be corrected.

[PhilThib]

The issue is what we have to do in priority... fixing the code glitches and improving documentation and gameplay is first and foremost and will takes all our time in the next months.

Reworking the map is a huge task, cumbersome, long, increasing heavily the weight of the game (those who have knowledge of graphics will know why) and for a very limited immediate benefit...

We'll probably make a try at this, but surely not now...be patient please.

[Primasprit]

Hi Elmo!

You can't be serious?! I can't think of a single real world map that has ever had North to the left. It's nonsense and should be corrected.

Frankly speaking I was also a bit confused by the rotated map in the beginning. But you get used to it quite fast. (Additionally the orientation of front the lines fit perfectly to my wide screen monitor, saves a lot of scrolling. :neener

[CSS]

When people buy a new Lexus, I hear them say I will never get used to it fitting in my garage. However as always they get used to the cars new size ( like all other cars they purchased! ) and love it.

This map though may seem odd, once you have played a few times it works very well.

Play the game for more thank 20+ hours then see if you want it changed? I bet not