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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [American Civil War] >> Forge of Freedom: The American Civil War 1861-1865 >> Questions & impressions

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Questions & impressions - 12/9/2007 7:23:20 PM

GShock

Posts: 1245
Joined: 12/9/2007
From: San Francisco, CA - USA
Status: offline

Well here I am, i got some questions & impressions to post, looking for your comments.
V1.10.10 (official)

1) What happens if i send 2 runners in the same sea zone to collect resources?
1.1) Sometimes i've noticed my runners just disappear. No notification of interception in events?
2) Why the AI by night goes into "sleep mode" allowing me to surround it and kill it?
2.1) Why the AI never entrenches?
3) Why the AI insists on a passive siege technique allowing me to send reinforcements even though the garrison is weak?
4) Why the rumors page is always blank?
5) Wouldn't it be easy to add a F1 page with "legend" on detailed combat hex bonus/penalties?
6) Did u notice the tooltip of British diplomacy mentions France? :)
7) There seems to be no explanation in manual about the -- signs in city-advisor page.
8) Conscription % of success should be removed if (as manual says) it's 100% successful.
8.1) Munster % danger should be removed if Governor supports Munster voiding unrests.
8.2) Conscription % danger should be removed if Governor supports Conscription.
9) I'm not entirely sure military groups really help with the unrest. Unrest seems to decay at normal rate anyway...maybe they just stop it from spreading?

Having asked about these things, all that remains is the compliments on a great game. I stick to the idea the community should help with developing an updated manual, "sealed" by the DEVS once ready.

As of the peeps wondering about FoF *or* AACW, i suggest to buy both. They are totally different but both very good games. :)

Post #: 1

RE: Questions & impressions - 12/10/2007 6:02:17 AM

jlewis42

Posts: 2
Joined: 12/9/2007
Status: offline

3) I've had the AI do aggressive sieges when they have large enough armies and take my towns/forts in a single turn sometimes.
5) I would like something like this
6) -- means you can't muster in that city because of unrest or something
9) The event report will tell you when an army unit has reduced unrest in a province, it is a % chance thing not guaranteed

(in reply to GShock)

Post #: 2

RE: Questions & impressions - 12/10/2007 10:07:13 AM

GShock

Posts: 1245
Joined: 12/9/2007
From: San Francisco, CA - USA
Status: offline

7) (erroneously marked as 6) ) -- seems to refer to inability to munster/conscript due to lack of men in the city
9) I mean that if the province has 2 turns of unrest, and the event log shows a group reduced it, it should go to ZERO unrest (1 normal turn passing + 1 group quelling) instead from 2 it goes to 1 normally just like the log says something, the game does something else.

(in reply to jlewis42)

Post #: 3

RE: Questions & impressions - 12/10/2007 3:29:24 PM

Ironclad

Posts: 1924
Joined: 11/22/2006
Status: offline

Here are my comments on the issues you raised:

quote:

ORIGINAL: GShock
1) What happens if i send 2 runners in the same sea zone to collect resources? Resources aren't doubled - just gives a repeat chance.

1.1) Sometimes i've noticed my runners just disappear. No notification of interception in events? Fair point - although damage from the resource danger effect is shown.

2) Why the AI by night goes into "sleep mode" allowing me to surround it and kill it? Night behaviour was changed because previously the AI was too active at night, unrealistically so - this way armies have the chance to regroup and recover from fatigue overnight.

2.1) Why the AI never entrenches? It does at major difficulty level and above - percentage chance increases with difficulty.

3) Why the AI insists on a passive siege technique allowing me to send reinforcements even though the garrison is weak? Can't say I have noticed this - a lot of work has been done in patches to improve sieges.

4) Why the rumors page is always blank? Its for PBEM use.

5) Wouldn't it be easy to add a F1 page with "legend" on detailed combat hex bonus/penalties? Would be helpful but developers have explained there are too many combinations to cover. However terrain casualty effects do appear in the action report accessed through the advanced menu on the battle screen.

6) Did u notice the tooltip of British diplomacy mentions France? :) No.

7) There seems to be no explanation in manual about the -- signs in city-advisor page. Explained in patch documentation - and it does mean can't do for lack of population. Also shows unrest.

8) Conscription % of success should be removed if (as manual says) it's 100% successful.
8.1) Munster % danger should be removed if Governor supports Munster voiding unrests.
8.2) Conscription % danger should be removed if Governor supports Conscription.

Can't see a problem in showing 100% if it means successful. However conscription danger can still lead to building being destroyed even when Governor supports it (latter means his attitude isn't lowered and future success rate isn't lowered).

9) I'm not entirely sure military groups really help with the unrest. Unrest seems to decay at normal rate anyway...maybe they just stop it from spreading? Haven't paid close attention - but thought this was working OK

< Message edited by Ironclad -- 12/10/2007 4:16:32 PM >

(in reply to GShock)

Post #: 4

RE: Questions & impressions - 12/10/2007 4:44:58 PM

GShock

Posts: 1245
Joined: 12/9/2007
From: San Francisco, CA - USA
Status: offline

2) The AI goes for the recovery of freshness by night but basically does nothing else apart from reacting to my flanking manouvers. It's easy to capture a couple of Bdes, by night this way, though you risk a lot as you'll be tired while the next morning the enemy isn't it's still an unfair exploit on the AI imho.
5) The detailed battle screen has some minor flaws:
5.1) in chit view, there can be seen a white box for some moments on the area, i believe it's the smoke, only a minor glitch, this box disappears.
5.2) It would have been nice to use the Shift key as a filter, working exactly as in the move highlighted cyan hexes. That would help a lot with highlighting hexes where you can shoot at (red= out of range, yellow= no LOS to tgt)
5.3) The range digits are somehow misleading...if arty can shoot 5 hexes how comes the countervolley hits the arty? That should be out of range basically...Can you clear out this pls?
100/0/0/0/0/0 <-- improvised
Does this mean 100 at adjacent, Out of range at 2 hex distance (and so on) ?
200/25/0/0/0/0 <-- Musket
Does this mean adjacent 200, 2 hex distance 25 and 3 hex distance = out of range?
7) What's the filename of this patch documentation? I guess i've missed it (if there's a beta i'd love to participate into testing btw, i'm a pro-beta)

8) It's not about a "problem" it's about the fact that Danger shows a % of danger which is unrelated to the gorvernor support status. If you muster and gov supports munster, there can't be unrest, only failure. So that % refers either to impressment or to conscription but the column only shows "danger" so you have to check for Gov status (im talking about the city-detail advisor but it's the same in city-detail...you see those stats but they are identical regardless of gov status while they should take into account the gov status. It's not a real issue it's just a glitch you can win through experience but the pages could have been done with a little bit more of detail, it never hurts.

9) Am almost entirely sure that if a group is said to help with the unrest, it still doesn't speed the unrest process. A region showing TWO doesn't go to 0 next turn when you read that the group has helped with the unrest it will still go to ONE so i believe this text refers to group containing the unrest from spreading to other provinces (not entirely clear but i think either the group is not helping at all or it's like i'm saying just containing).

Thanks for coping with me :)

(in reply to Ironclad)

Post #: 5

RE: Questions & impressions - 12/10/2007 4:57:28 PM

Ironclad

Posts: 1924
Joined: 11/22/2006
Status: offline

I will respond later when I read your latest post. This is just a quick correction to 7 - the dotted lines indicate a province where you are unable to muster or conscript (not just for lack of population).

(in reply to GShock)

Post #: 6

RE: Questions & impressions - 12/10/2007 7:45:11 PM

Ironclad

Posts: 1924
Joined: 11/22/2006
Status: offline

GShock: Re your latest post:

2) I was one of the players who pushed for an end to the aggressive night AI so am probably not in the best position to comment. Personally I prefer to shutdown or manoeuvre for position at night for a fresh start the next day. It does seem to come down to whether the results of any night time attacks are worth the loss of fatigue for the next morning's major action. A dilemma that the AI isn�t faced with.

5.1 I have never played the chit view so can�t comment.

5.2 I don�t think the highlighter is needed. The targeting icon identifies line of sight to the target so that only leaves the matter of the range and the weapon range information is available on screen. Experience helps of course and it should get easier as you become more familiar with detailed battles.

5,3 The range increments show the percentages of standard firing for a unit. In practice sometimes casualties seem to occur at O values presumably because of other factors � but its reasonable to treat these as out of range when you are firing (especially in view of the supply used each time). The action report is very useful for showing the effects of each individual factor for both fire and counter fire along with the range involved .

7. Version 1.10.10 is the latest update, just issued.

8. I always use the City List rather than City Detail and in the former all the percentages are listed in line and Governor status can be checked by holding the cursor over the State abbreviation near the start of a row.

9. I haven�t looked at the changes in unrest in detail other than a quick glance when there is mention in the events report, According to the manual good logistical staff or better have a 50% chance to reduce unrest by 1 level per turn and excellent/superb logistical staff have another 50% chance to reduce it one level further. There is no mention of them stopping unrest spreading although the swifter they reduce it the less time there is for it to spread.

I don't know if anyone from the development team will want to add (or correct) anything here.

Keep on enjoying the game.

(in reply to GShock)

Post #: 7

RE: Questions & impressions - 12/10/2007 11:09:38 PM

GShock

Posts: 1245
Joined: 12/9/2007
From: San Francisco, CA - USA
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ironclad

2) I was one of the players who pushed for an end to the aggressive night AI so am probably not in the best position to comment. Personally I prefer to shutdown or manoeuvre for position at night for a fresh start the next day. It does seem to come down to whether the results of any night time attacks are worth the loss of fatigue for the next morning's major action. A dilemma that the AI isn�t faced with.

Well well...hit V key, know how many Bdes you are facing and you may choose. The real issue is that you're gonna go fatigued anyway next morning by fighting them, so it seems to me there's no choice, you must take the advantage of nightfighting against a passive AI. It's possible to rout the whole army by night. It's 2 exploits basically not just one.

quote:

5.1 I have never played the chit view so can�t comment.

Update: It's a small graphical glitch, what appears is basically the textbox where the engine puts the casualty values. The box appears on top of the units for a moment, then vanishes and the casualties are displayed...very marginal.

(in reply to Ironclad)

Post #: 8

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [American Civil War] >> Forge of Freedom: The American Civil War 1861-1865 >> Questions & impressions

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