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RE: When? - 10/7/2009 7:00:26 AM   
Joseignacio


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Not sure about the model of plane but a good percentage of the total army and most of the elite troops were transported through that "air bridge", first with some few small national planes, just emergency help to Seville, then with Nazi help (24 bigger planes).

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Post #: 1441
RE: When? - 10/7/2009 8:05:36 AM   
Jaimainsoyyo

 

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Junkers 52  mainly Jose Ignacio 

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Post #: 1442
RE: When? - 10/7/2009 8:44:46 AM   
Shannon V. OKeets

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: BallyJ

I would like to request that this be moved to another thread.[image][/image]
I keep looking here expecting to see something about WHEN???[image][/image]

I am not trying to be difficult but fair is fair guys![image][/image]
regards John

Yes. Please!

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Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

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Post #: 1443
RE: When? - 10/7/2009 8:57:40 AM   
Joseignacio


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Ok, Steve, I thought if it was disturbing (and I understand it can be) you would cut /paste in a new thread, but anyway, I will start a new one, and if you want you can cut and paste, anyone who wants to go on with this off-topic, is welcome, although I think it will not be a long thread...

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2261301&mpage=1&key=?

< Message edited by Joseignacio -- 10/7/2009 9:17:41 AM >

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Post #: 1444
RE: When? - 10/16/2009 7:16:23 PM   
panzers

 

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Been a while since I have checked in here. Just read steve's october update. Is it still on schedule for release next month?

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Post #: 1445
RE: When? - 10/16/2009 7:23:33 PM   
michaelbaldur


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quote:

ORIGINAL: panzers

Been a while since I have checked in here. Just read steve's october update. Is it still on schedule for release next month?


September 1, 2009 Status Report for Matrix Games’ MWIF Forum

I. Project Management
I am not going to make the first week of November, 2009 for product release.

I really don’t know how long it will take me to fix all the bugs I am seeing. The beta testers discover the bugs, report them to me (oftentimes with saved games so I can quickly reproduce them), I recreate the problem on my computer, fault isolate the bug, fix the code, and then recreate the situation to make sure the bug is actually fixed.

This past month I focused 90% of my time and energy on fixing bugs, and it looks like that is what I will be doing in September too.



< Message edited by michaelbaldur -- 10/16/2009 7:25:00 PM >


_____________________________

the wif rulebook is my bible

I work hard, not smart.

beta tester and Mwif expert

if you have questions or issues with the game, just contact me on Michaelbaldur1@gmail.com

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Post #: 1446
RE: When? - 10/16/2009 7:32:50 PM   
panzers

 

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Thanks, Michael. I know how much Steve wants this thing to work and I will continue to support he and all the staff helping him out. I have other things to occupy my time. Better take advantage of that because I don't think my gf is gonna like when this thing finally comes out.

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Post #: 1447
RE: When? - 10/16/2009 8:18:19 PM   
ypsylon

 

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Still release date before 2020 is not that bad.

Keep up good work.

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Post #: 1448
RE: When? - 10/24/2009 5:46:11 AM   
axisandallies


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Question. What will happen first. Release of MWIF or the Chicago Cubs win a world series?

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Stupid rebellion, anyhow....D. Vader

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Post #: 1449
RE: When? - 10/25/2009 5:31:34 PM   
Sarge


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2003 NLCS………. Game 6

Ahead in the series 3-2 , top of the 8th inning with a 3-0 lead , 5 outs away from the show……….

MWIF by a long shot......





5 OUT’S AWAY !……………oh,the humanity

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Post #: 1450
RE: When? - 10/25/2009 5:46:13 PM   
V22 Osprey


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quote:

ORIGINAL: ypsylon

Still release date before 2020 is not that bad.

Keep up good work.



Actually I would like this released before 2012 just in case the world actually *does* end.

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Art by rogueusmc.

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Post #: 1451
RE: When? - 10/25/2009 6:53:25 PM   
DCWhitworth


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quote:

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

quote:

ORIGINAL: ypsylon

Still release date before 2020 is not that bad.

Keep up good work.



Actually I would like this released before 2012 just in case the world actually *does* end.


Have you considered that the release of this might be what *causes* the world to end ?

(in reply to V22 Osprey)
Post #: 1452
RE: When? - 10/25/2009 7:00:23 PM   
michaelbaldur


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the world ends because the game is released and we forget to go to work ...

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the wif rulebook is my bible

I work hard, not smart.

beta tester and Mwif expert

if you have questions or issues with the game, just contact me on Michaelbaldur1@gmail.com

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Post #: 1453
RE: When? - 10/25/2009 7:40:29 PM   
HenrytheSecond


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quote:

ORIGINAL: michaelbaldur

the world ends because the game is released and we forget to go to work ...


'Forget', hell! I'll be taking 2 weeks off starting the day after this baby is released. And get this... the wife has agreed to my having a DIY-free zone for 2 weeks! Woo hoo!

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Post #: 1454
RE: When? - 11/1/2009 9:28:40 PM   
Jaimainsoyyo

 

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Another year without MWIF...will 2010 the YEAR?  


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RE: When? - 11/2/2009 5:06:48 PM   
composer99


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Time for the November status update.

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~ Composer99

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Post #: 1456
RE: When? - 11/3/2009 9:51:36 AM   
Shannon V. OKeets

 

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The Phillies are in the World Series , but down 3 games to 2. I have been watching more baseball in the last month (14 games) than I have in the entire 13 years prior that I have been in Hawaii. Hawaii has no professional sports team - and I have been a Phillies fan since the Philadelphia Athletics moved out of Philly in the 1950's. Hence the delay on this status report. Sorry, but fixing bugs took precedence over this report.

===================================
November 2, 2009 Status Report for Matrix Games’ MWIF Forum

I. Project Management
I still don’t know how long it will take me to fix all the bugs, but I am making reasonable progress on them. In October I focused 90% of my time on fixing bugs.

Communications
I received a couple of short emails from Mike (Players Manual), but nothing from Jim (sound effects), or Dave (music).

I monitored all the threads in the MWIF World in Flames forum daily and uploaded versions 2.01.05, 3.00.00, and 3.00.01 for the beta testers. There were fewer new versions but the number of chances per version was higher.

Orm finished his after-action-reports on Barbarossa.

Patrice helped abbreviating the longer port names for the Naval Review Summary form.

Robert continues to do new naval unit writeups every week.

Alain sent me an updated version of the Land Unit writeups, which contained new contributions from David Hughes.

Michael has been doing a ton of testing on the sequence of play.

No communications with Harry Rowland or Chris Marinacci.

Hardware and Software Development Tools
I have not installed ThemeEngine July/2007 although I will probably do that in November.

II. Sequence of Play
Beta Testing
I uploaded three new versions for the beta testers this month, which didn’t quite meet my goal of one a week.

Version 2.01.05 (31 changes): added 5 more slots for context sensitive help, fixed a couple of bugs in and substantially revised the Production Planning form, added more buttons for viewing combat charts in the Spend Surprise Points form, enabled doubling the Global Map (each hex is twice as wide and twice as high), and added another half dozen checks for invalid values. The latter keep popping up depending on which optional rules are being used. Given all the different phases in the game and the different forms for reviewing the status of units both on map and off, it is really difficult to foresee all the possible situations where some variable might be undefined.

Version 3.00.00 (39 changes) reflects a numbering change because substantial changes were made to the Naval Review Details, Naval Review Summary (NRS), and the data stored in the Screen Layout files (SLY files). I had let the SLY file format remain static for almost 3 years and decided it was time to implement all the changes I had accumulated during that time. The changes to the NRS form mandated a new format too. The other major work I did for the new version was to coordinate the use the UnitsInHex form, the Naval Review Details form, the Naval Review Summary form, and the double size Global Map. These now complement each other with different combinations serving different purposes during game play. There were a couple dozen other bugs fixed in this release.

Version 3.00.01 (17 changes) make “follow up” changes to the NRS form after the beta testers had a chance to work with it. The mods included adding a new check box for determining whether the displayed columns remain the same or are redetermined anew whenever the filters change. Other corrections were to air transport missions, displaying land combat odds using decimals instead of whole numbers when fractional odds are in use, processing the naval combat abort queue, and a couple of other naval movement fixes.

Test Script/Plan
Nothing new.

Game Engine Redesign
Nothing new on rewriting the supply routines (but is it now 3rd in my task queue behind naval combat bugs, and coding the redesigned system for routing resources to factories.

Units, Map, and Scenarios
Rob continues to generate new naval unit writeups and send me periodic updates of the master file. Alain sent me his current master copy of the land unit writeups, including some new ones from David Hughes. Patrice found a few names to tweak on the map (e.g., adding the Neva River) and inserted shortened names for many of the ports. The NRS form displays the names of ports as column headers but there isn’t a whole lot of room. I added another field to the NAM data file so alternative shortened names could be added for the ports. According to Alain’s count there are 127 major ports and 427 minor ports = 554 named ports!

Optional Rules
I broke the interdependence between the Amphibious and SCS Transport optional rules. You can now use neither, either, or both. While fixing bugs I did a lot of detailed checking of the optional rules related to land combat. There are probably combinations I still haven’t checked, but I know that the component parts are coded correctly when used individually. There was a discussion in the forum on the optional rule for Compulsory Peace between the USSR and Japan. A consensus seems to have been reached on how to implement the rule, although perhaps there are more voices yet to be heard.

Saved Games
Nothing new during October. There are some places in the sequence of play where the player is permitted to save a game but the saved game can not be restored. And sometime the reverse is true, where the program prohibits saving a save, although if it were saved, it could be restored. I’ll go through all this systematically someday, but with 150+ forms and 150+ phases/subphase/et al, nailing this down perfectly is more than a few minutes work.

III. Player Interface
I spent serious time this month fixing player interface bugs. These did not relate directly to the sequence of play but had to do with bringing up forms and entering orders using the map.

The biggest improvement in the player interface was the creation of a double size global map. This makes using the global map feasible for a lot of decision making where previously the tininess of the hexes made visibility difficult and clicking on individual hexes virtually impossible. One new use for the global map is displaying the resources and factories controlled by each major power or side. Besides being informative, this production display for the double size global map is one of the key design element in the new system for routing resources.

Conceptually, during Production Planning the player will be able to select a resource from a list of his resources, choose a factory from a list of his factories, and then plot the route from one to the other through sea areas. In actual practice, most resources are routed directly to a factory over rail lines without having to go overseas. For these there is no need to route resources. However, when overseas routes need to be specified, primarily for the Commonwealth, the player wants to have precise control of the overseas route. Equally important is for the interface to enter a route be easy to use, so decisions are made without fighting the computer.

Once the double sized global map was working, I worked on integrating it with the Naval Review Details, the Naval Review Summary, and Units In Hex forms. I am now pretty happy with the ability of these tools to enable a review of naval operations and enter orders for naval units. This was one of my major concerns from the very beginning of this project, since a player examining 25 square feet of paper maps to review all the navies worldwide would seem to have a marked advantage over anyone using a system with only 1 to 3 square feet of map visible on a monitor or two or three. The more screen real estate a system has, the better this design works, but even with a minimal sized monitor, a player should be able to assess a position and make informed decisions for his navy.

IV. NetPlay
Nothing new.

V. PBEM
Nothing new.

VI. AI Opponent
Patrice and I worked on defining a geographical breakdown of Europe, including the adjacent sea areas. This is now ready for use in the AIO scripts. I expect to resume (and hopefully finish) coding the parser in November.

I realigned the decision making assignments for each decision maker. Mostly this involved splitting a list of tasks into subsets for a hierarchy of decision makers. For example, instead of there being just one naval decision maker (i.e., the Admiralty), there are now 4: Admiralty - global responsibility, Rear Admiral - theater of operations, Fleet Admiral - area of operations, and Naval Group Commander - sea area group.

Continuing the example, the Admiralty decides on convoy pipeline entry and exit points for each theater of operations (TO) and allocates new/unused units to each TO. The Rear Admiral decides on the use of convoys and naval transports within his TO as well as the positioning of naval units to establish a naval presence in individual sea areas. The Fleet Admiral moves convoys with accompanying escorts within his area of operations. He is also responsible for committing units to attack enemy naval assets and deciding to which port(s) naval units return. And at the lowest level, the Naval Group Commander decides all the tactical naval decisions, ranging from shore bombardment through choice of naval combat table.

The key benefit of these changes is that each decision maker has a geographical area of responsibility that aligns perfectly with the geographical breakdown that Patrice, Peter, and I have defined (still incomplete at this point).

VII. Documentation
I got an email from Mike that he is working on editing the Players Manual.

I continue to finish up writing and taking screen shots for Players Manual Section 8. The Naval Review Details and Summary forms documentation was completed immediately after those forms were finalized. I also documented the Land Air Transported Units and Drop Off Units forms after making some changes to them.

I revised the text in chapter 11 on the keyboard shortcuts and the use of the mouse for entering commands. The text hadn’t been 100% accurate when compared to the code that processes those commands.

Nothing new on Section 6, PBEM and NetPlay forms.

VIII. Learning Aids (tutorials, training video, embedded help text)
Nothing new on the 2 remaining chapters of the training video: naval movement/combat and production. I am much closer to authoring the chapter on naval movement and combat. Besides a few remaining bugs, what has me confused is defining a sequential script that covers all the various elements of naval movement and combat. There are a lot of variations and I am now sure how many of them should be included/excluded.

I added a new Help form for keyboard and mouse commands, more or less taking screen shots of my revised text in the Players Manual section 11. I think this is the last Help form that will be needed. There is still missing text for some of the context sensitive help, but most of that can also be taken from the Players Manual once I finish writing it.

IX. Glitz (historical video, sound effects, music, historical unit write-ups)
The currently active authors for the unit writeups are Robert, Alain, and David. I am waiting on the sound effects from Jim and the music from Dave.

X. Marketing
Andy Johnson has retained the ownership of the MWIF fan site he started to set up before his new job prohibited him from working on it. If anyone is interested, just send me an email or Personal Message (PM) - Andy is quite willing to transfer ownership to someone else.

Remaining Tasks

I Tasks requiring a small number of hours

1. Historical video
Integrate these into the program (randomizing when they are shown).

2. Sound effects
Awaiting Jim’s complete set of sound effects, after which I will integrate them into the program.

3. Music
Awaiting Dave’s complete set of music, after which I will integrate them into the program.

4. Unit writeups
I simply replace old master files with new ones when Rob and Alain send me updates.

5. Players Manual
9 of 11 sections are done.

6. Context sensitive help
I need to write a few lines for ~40 minor forms that pop up during play.

7. Auxiliary files
These are starter sets for new players so they can jump right into playing the game without having to make a lot of preparatory decisions. I need to round out my collection.

8. Tutorials and training video
The Training Video is 80% done. There are still some lingering bugs in naval combat which need to be fixed before I can record the training video on that topic. The same is true of production.

9. Player Interface
With the exception of the Standing Order forms for PBEM, I have finished the forms.

10. Optional Rules
For the optional rules that I want to finish, I need to fix bugs and bring them up-to-date with rules changes since 2003.

II Tasks requiring a medium number of hours

11. PBEM
The technical task of sending and receiving emails from within the program hasn’t been coded. Work on the standalone program (running on a third party computer) to generate random numbers hasn’t begun. The large task here concerns the Standing Orders: defining and instantiating internal variables, then displaying them in the forms so players can review and revise them.

12. Sequence of Play
There are still bugs related to the sequence of play, though that number keeps dropping.

III Tasks requiring a large number of hours

13. NetPlay
There isn’t a lot to do directly related to NetPlay, but the underlying performance of the program in generating Game Record Log Entries has to be perfect. That’s because the GRLs are sent to each computer in a networked game to keep them up-to-date with the decisions of all players. I need to instantiate, with actual data, the form used to monitor internet communications while a game is in progress.

14. AI Opponent
I need to finish writing the parser. Which then leaves the task of calibrating the rules’ performance so the AIO plays well.



_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

(in reply to composer99)
Post #: 1457
RE: When? - 11/4/2009 10:55:57 PM   
Triboga


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Hi everybody;
Just say that from a year ago there’s one more person waiting.  
Since I was called by WiF board game and wargames in general, around early 90’s in a comics store,. And a friend of mine and myself expend weekends during years learning how much cost every hex at mother Russia, trying to hurry up our particular d-days or just trying to bring the Blitzkrieg to London and after life separate us in different towns and was impossible for us found somebody who was crazy enough to follow us driving tanks head to Kursk.
Now we have a new chance to play it again -in our opinion, best game ever-, we try others by mail, even we play EiA sometimes, but I can’t wait to come back to WiF
Keep working, I’ll be here waiting

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Post #: 1458
RE: When? - 11/4/2009 11:46:35 PM   
Shannon V. OKeets

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Triboga

Hi everybody;
Just say that from a year ago there’s one more person waiting.  
Since I was called by WiF board game and wargames in general, around early 90’s in a comics store,. And a friend of mine and myself expend weekends during years learning how much cost every hex at mother Russia, trying to hurry up our particular d-days or just trying to bring the Blitzkrieg to London and after life separate us in different towns and was impossible for us found somebody who was crazy enough to follow us driving tanks head to Kursk.
Now we have a new chance to play it again -in our opinion, best game ever-, we try others by mail, even we play EiA sometimes, but I can’t wait to come back to WiF
Keep working, I’ll be here waiting

Welcome to the forum.

_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

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Post #: 1459
RE: When? - 11/5/2009 2:07:43 PM   
Joseignacio


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Hello.

I understand that the deadline of the first week of november will not be met, but I don't know if there was another that I may have missed.

No hurry on my side, just wanted if maybe I will be able to have it as a Christmas present or no, since it doesn't seem I'll have it for my birhtday Nov19th.

If not, no problem, summer holidays maybe a good moment to play too, from the swimming pool of the hotel...

< Message edited by Joseignacio -- 11/6/2009 10:35:29 AM >

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Post #: 1460
RE: When? - 11/6/2009 8:33:34 PM   
petracelli

 

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Steve

Keep up the good work.

Phil

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Post #: 1461
RE: When? - 11/7/2009 5:21:14 PM   
rhondabrwn


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quote:

ORIGINAL: jaimain

Another year without MWIF...will 2010 the YEAR?  




I'm thinking worst case scenario is 2012... the day before the world ends

Double disaster... world ending and an unplayed MWIF waiting to be installed

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Far Dareis Mai

My old Piczo site seems to be gone, so no more Navajo Nation pics :(

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Post #: 1462
RE: When? - 11/9/2009 2:43:39 PM   
bo

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Joseignacio

Hello.

I understand that the deadline of the first week of november will not be met, but I don't know if there was another that I may have missed.

No hurry on my side, just wanted if maybe I will be able to have it as a Christmas present or no, since it doesn't seem I'll have it for my birhtday Nov19th.

If not, no problem, summer holidays maybe a good moment to play too, from the swimming pool of the hotel...

HI Jose how are you, just dropped by [lucky arent you] to see how things are going but alas everyones got their heads still stuck you know where about a release date, I feel for you guys and gals, " sorta" HAH!

Bo

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Post #: 1463
RE: When? - 11/9/2009 6:20:37 PM   
winky51

 

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I still feel an AI was not needed and the game should have been focused on email/network/hotseat play. The AI could come later.

Personally I dont know how the hell they are going to make an AI for a game this advanced and make it work. I wrote a global scenario for Strategic Command 2 (SC2) and the AI was tough to write. I am still writing it as I keep finding easy loopholes in their strategy. SC2 is far simplier than WIF.

Ive been following but not posting. I posted when it was 1st being developed and gave my suggestions and frankly, they all got implemented and I was most impressed. Im just waiting for it to come out so I can play via network with my Friends back in Florida. I moved to North Carolina.

(in reply to bo)
Post #: 1464
RE: When? - 11/10/2009 2:08:05 PM   
Kham

 

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It is in good hands but it is just one guy.

I think settling for a mediocre AI would be necessary. Other wargames have had pretty poor AIs and done well enough (Heart of Iron etc.). The real game starts when you get a flesh-and-blood opponent, but even a terrible AI can help you learn the mechanics of the game - which in WIFs case are not exactly trivial.

In my opinion, people happy to just play the AI will be equally happy to walk all over it every game.

(in reply to winky51)
Post #: 1465
RE: When? - 11/10/2009 2:18:48 PM   
Joseignacio


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Not at all.  I am a frequent poster in the spanish leader website for videogames forum www.meristation.com , strategy section, and people are more and more angered with bugs and bad or mediocre IA. After all, in an average videogame at least 50% of the people play against AI, maybe 90% in games which are not RTS, no matter what the polls among freakies (like me) say.

In a website where I was literally stoned 3 or 4 years ago when complaining about this on Paradox games like EU2, I was seriously butt-kicked a couple of years ago for complaining about the same with Ageod games like WiA or BoA, and now massively backed up when shooting Paradox for HoI3 and Matrix for Empire:TW. In this latter, there was also a seed of disconformity starting from Medieval TW II.

There is no longer a blank check for developers, neither in bugs nor in AI.

(in reply to Kham)
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RE: When? - 11/10/2009 2:38:59 PM   
Lützow


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Where should be the point of a non-ai WiF? Whoever owns the boardgame can already play it over the i-net by using Suntzu and stuff.

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Post #: 1467
RE: When? - 11/10/2009 2:45:52 PM   
lavisj

 

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I agree an AI is necessary for the commercial success of the game. Without it, it would remain in a very small fringe market.
With it, it stands a chance. But I am also worried about how well the AI will perform in a game that is so difficult to play well....

Jerome

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Post #: 1468
RE: When? - 11/10/2009 4:47:08 PM   
Custer1961

 

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I will not buy it without an AI on release.

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Post #: 1469
RE: When? - 11/10/2009 4:56:02 PM   
winky51

 

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I look at it that if you cant meet the expectations of the user then you should push his expectations back because he wont notice.

Developer: "X game will come out with an AI and network play, internet play, PBEM"
User: "oh boy it has an AI it will be challenging"
Users always expect more from an AI than is suggested.

When the user gets the game they are disappointed and will play once then bad mouth the game to others ignoring the good parts. The game developer failed to meet the expectation of the user, indirectly, because users expect more. We all hope for an awesome AI.

Now...
Developer: "X game will not have an AI in this current version but we will have one in a later patch. We have over the internet play, network play, PBEM.
User: "oh boy network play, too bad it doesnt have AI play so I better start getting some opponents."

In this case the developer has to make it as easy as possible to make sure users can get opponents which is far simpler, and less time consuming, then writing a soso or crappy AI. In the end the user will talk about the "fun game over the internet" they had with their opponents. Their focus will be on the positive not the negative. You gave them a product that met their expectations, you got it out faster which allowed for free word of mouth advertising, and you provided a forum for users to get a very advanced opponent (other users).

But now there is the marketing side which happens in all industries.

If lets say in Jan of 2010 for the 1st year you can sell 1,000 copies @ $100 with an AI, not make the user completely happy and that is more than.

Coming out with the product in Jan 2009 with no AI and selling 800 copies in 2 years but making the user happy... well then its a simple money equation.

But now toss in future sales and a different twist even if a sale ISNT made on WIF....

X user buys product and is dissapointed because the AI is weak. Y user asks "how is WIF?" X user says "the AI sucks dont bother".... now Y user wont buy product. Future sales lost and maybe even future sales from the company is lost for other products.

now with no AI installed meeting expectations

X user doesnt buy product. Y user asks "did you buy WIF?", X user says "no it doesnt have AI", Y user might still inquire to the product realizing "well how does it play then? ooo network play. ooo they have GREAT support for finding opponents" Y user buys it, or at worst doesnt but doesnt hold a negative view of the developer.

Take War in Europe by Decision Games. They came out with the original with NO AI. Now they remade it better than their DOS version which was fairly good for its time.

People tend to focus on the negative and only remember that. Everyday we are bombarded by negative news, constantly, non-stop. Our brains are naturally attracted to it. People love to say whats wrong with something far more than whats right. So I think products should be geared to avoid that situation. I work in IT and we work that same way.

An executive has a broken laptop. He tells us he has a meeting in 2h30m and he needs it by then. We know we can fix it in 30m. We tell him it will take 1hr to fix it. So we get it done in 45m due to complications and he is happy because we exceeded his expectations of 1hr. If we told him 30m and took 35m he would only focus on the negative and file a complaint even though we were 5m late.

I think if WIF was put out before the AI was done word of mouth alone would make it sell more. AI could come out later. Also the programmer would get far more feedback from a wider field of players.

Im not an expert on marketing and it could very well be Im wrong in this case and even if the AI is poor people would still buy more than if it had no AI at all and this wouldnt affect future customers or products.

< Message edited by winky51 -- 11/10/2009 4:58:51 PM >

(in reply to lavisj)
Post #: 1470
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