Now, after long hours struggling to understand what happened, I'm finally able to play (barely) the Campaign ... and the more I play the more I like it, but also consider some interface improvements are really needed !
I think that the main "big" problem is that the game is very structured ... and the interface is much more free-form, EU-like, this leads to endless frustrations where you don't know what you should/could do, what you may have forgotten etc...
For this I have no ready global solution, but let's be more precise with some suggestions :
0- The software mouse cursor is not precise enough, maybe too big, oftentimes I have to click twice or thrice to hit a small button correctly. Change it or allow hardware standard cursor
0.5 - Please align the unit interface and the log window, currently there's a line half-hidden, it's ugly.
1- When the "IA processing" and "game busy" messages boxes are visible, it would be nice to have something "moving" telling more in detail what the AI/game is doing, just to be sure it's not frozen (and so that I could understand why deciding to move 2 poor Turkish armies take so long !)
2- Even knowing what country you play currently is tricky ; the selected country (with its flag shown) is just the last owner of a region you clicked in (if it's not a plyer country you can't do anything, but still)! . First time I played a campaign I first searched for French troops, there weren't any as they are deployed after the War plan phase (where I was in), but I clicked on some Belgian units in the meantime ... and I had no War plan to choose anymore !
Quite weird convention, the country should be chosen by a "direct" method- eg click in the flag and it display a list of countries (flags), you choose one (highlighted are player countries)...
3- Combat screens... many things to do :
First the Breakthrough subscreen/window is a nightmare : it is "clickable" in the 1st round but you can't do anything in it, then you're not notified you won a round and should use it (so you forget..), and when the combat ends it's not clickable anymore !! Please disable it whan it's not usable, notify a round won (suggest to plan a BT by a msg) or better, open it automatically !
We need a combat round report (especially in large and naval battles), and a summary of losses on each side for the current battle would be useful
End of combat report should be more informative, and show the units that were damaged/lost (for example show the unit counters on the right or left of the current counts). In case of sieges, the end of combat report is lacking.
Also, the "crossed swords"icons for winner and loser are too much similar - maybe add a "laurel crown" to the winner icon, or give a broken sword to the loser, whatever..
4- Graphics (in the "ledger") are mostly unreadable - lines too thin, some colors too light (white on white background is super !). Plus a view of enemy countries data will be interesting (maybe as an option), lese you can't really compare
5- End of scenario screen is depressing - please allow to get back to the victory conditions fulfilled or not, points gained by enemy and friendly losses. Instant access to "ledger" with all tallies and graphs (enemy included) would be another good option.
Apart from that, the AI really needs to be quickened/optimized, I have to wait 5 min for the "strategic AI" in a small scenario like Palestine, and 10-20 sec just to have the AI choose which Serbian corps should be put to the front in battle (amongst 3 total !!) ... My configuration meets (nearly exactly) the "recommended" config of the manual, such waits are way too long and frankly ununderstandable.
I'm pretty confident that the team will seriously improve the game, I'd be glad if this helps !
can not motivate as they should do. It takes so long to know what to do first, second, third and have I missed anything. The general overview could be better.
!).
I remember there's a page...
