baltjes
Posts: 59
Joined: 7/21/2007 Status: offline
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Hello folkes, The forum seems to show some rivival again! Good to see. Thought it was all dead and gone. I agree with those who state that the JTCS engine is quite weak. Playing against AI can be satisfying with the shorter scenario's, with the larger ones, however, AI makes many strange, 'illogical' (not to say 'weird') moves. Such as cluttering ON objective hexes in stead of finding positions to defend them adequately. Or moving transport- and leader units to full exhaustion. AI-turns do take very long time to finish. And that seems not to be a matter of computer memory; even with 4 GB - memory machines this is the case. Therefore, to play a huge scenario (as I like them) agains AI will be less satisfying in the (not so) long run. So, H2H is the best. However, what 'fool' is willing to set up a PBeM game with a scenario with over 300 turns! As a adict to devellop huge scenario's (over 10.000 units ; mapsize over 500 x 500 hexes), I found that playing H2H with the HOTSEAT option is a good alternative. (That is how I am testing home made scenarios) Then, you are playing against yourselve! And, believe me, you can't remember the postions and moves of your 'opponents' units! Huge scenario's wil cover quite a lot of (battle)time. The point I want to make here is that not all modifications are necessarilly bound to encriptions and (de)coding only at forehand by the computer. Of course there are some pre-set modifications like the 'Close Combat' rule. But variable visibility can be easily managed in the btl.-file (or btt.-file for hot seat games, bte.-file for PBeM games). You can have day turns, night turns, dusk- and dawn- turns and even on full day -turns the visibility can depend upon the weather! (fog, clouds, rain, haze, etc. etc.) Even more, you can bring variability in the ground conditions depending on season and weather. It is even possible to simulate variable supply conditions. The only prerequisite is that the conditions hold for the total battlefield; it is not possible to have 'mud' at one place and 'snow' at another place at the same time. I am using these modifications in my home made scenario's of wich some have been released in the Games Depot of the 'Wargamer'. A few others ('Uranus' (for East Front) and 'Herbstnebel' (for West Front)) have not been released yet. Primarily because I am to lazy to write the needed explanatory notes to those scenario's. ( The point is; when a scenario 'works', I am putting it aside and put my mind on other ones, like Dynamo and Fall of Berlin). Nevertheless, JTCS still is (and remains), despite its shortcomings, a wunderfull game with enough challenges to devellop new scenario's. It is this feature that proves the power of the game and it is a pity that so few new scenario's are relieved. (with some shame to myself) Hajo Baltjes
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