TIK
Posts: 116
Joined: 5/4/2013 Status: offline
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Hey guys, today I was going to post a link to my new PitF LP, but I'm not allowed until I have 10 posts on here (link to my Youtube Channel is in my profile). So instead, I thought I'd give some constructive criticism for PitF. Below you'll find a list of advice or needs for future Close Combat games. All of it is my personal opinion built from years of playing cc games. Feel free to disagree. A lot of this stuff could be hard to implement, but I think most of it won't be. And some of this stuff could be patched into the current game... hint hint. THE SUGGESTIONS: 1. The ability to turn my tanks to face a chosen direction. I want to move my turret seperately to the tank body. The number of times my Panther shows it's rear to the enemy shermans... 2. The ability to reload ammunition type in tanks. I find myself firing HE at tanks because my previous shot was vs infantry. 3. Save battle replay. So I can view battle from enemy POV and both POV. Like in AoE and Total War. 4. A variety of map sizes. A (multiplayer/cc5 biased) poll on CloseCombatSeries.net (no link because I'm not allowed yet... but it's there) suggested half the community prefered medium maps. BUT the other half of the community were split between small and large maps - that's 25% who prefer small maps, 25% who like large maps, and 50% that like big maps. So having a variety of map sizes would benefit the community as a whole. And it helps the AI to have smaller/medium maps. 5. A variety in units. Seems to be limited types of tanks. Panther, Mark 4, then the odd Stug and Tiger. Really? 6. More sides. Not just US vs Germans. Include Brits, Canadians, Commonwealth, Japanese, Russians, Polish, Romainians, Italians, French... as many as practical. More sides means more work, but allows more replayability and panders to a wider audience - this is what made CC2 so good back in the day! 7. Full 3d like Achtung Panzer or Combat Mission BUT with the ability to go back to the traditional CC view. You said that Panthers is the last "traditional" CC game. Fine. Give us true 3D then. But let us zoom out to birds-eye-view, just in case. 8. A new campaign scenario. No more Normandy Games. Please, for the love of... How about North Africa? Italy? Korea? World War 1? Mars? Maybe even have two campaigns in one - like they did in the early Call of Duty games - so some fighting on both Western and Eastern Front. You could call it Close Combat: United Offensive! (Warning - united offensive was a COD expansion.) 9. Server system needs updating. The ability to minimize server system to browse the internet whilst waiting for someone to come online is a must. Plus show us the number of games being played/people online so I know I'm not the only one in the world waiting to play. 10. The ability to observe other MP battles. This will help players learn what it takes to play against a human opponent, and maybe encourage them to play multiplayer or the game as a whole. I understand this may be difficult to do, but AoE managed this back in the 90's! 11. Bring back the surrender/retreat/resign button. Some battles are lost. Why waste time continuing the fight? 12. More support units please. Even if it's just one extra. I don't take trucks because they aren't as useful as guns/tanks, and with the limited support types, I can't bring myself to take them. 13. Mounting guns is great. How about mounting infantry on tanks? (Someone else suggested this idea, and I like it a lot.) 14. AI needs to move. It's ok on defence - it just sits there. But it hardly ever attacks. In battles where both sides have to move to engage, it won't move, meaning the human player has to spend ten boring minutes getting to the battle! (Smaller maps may help a little - or left vs right) The first battle of my LP proves this is an issue. If you can't fix the AI, then have a button to speed the game up. 15. AI needs improvement! I'm saying this twice because most players prefer single player (evidence: another poll on CCS.net {link coming soon!}, plus what I've read on forums, and opinion/observation on my youtube channel). Even if you just make it move across the map in semi-suicidal fashion - it would be better than nothing! Working on the AI should be your top priority because it's a training platform. Players gain experience in single player, then go multiplayer. If they're not happy in single player, they may not have the confidence to go multiplayer. 16. I'm loving the variety of map terrain. Most maps are rural with urban elements, which is good. A vast improvement over the monotenous hedgerows of CC5. However, another poll on CCS.net (link coming soon!) suggests players prefer more urban maps. This may have something to do with the scenario, but maybe next game, could we visit urban battles like Berlin or Stalingrad? 17. You included semi-historic scenarios in PitF. Great. Please include more of these next time. Something I've been thinking of too - How about in-historic battles? US vs Brits. Germans vs Japanese. Germans vs Germans (might make fun multiplayer). Just a suggestion. 18. Demo. Please have a demo next time. I understand why you don't, but games without a demo put people off from buying a game. Have you ever bought a game you didn't have screenshots of? It's the same principle. Do it like they did in CC2. Have one playable map from both sides and nothing else. Done. 19. More players in multiplayer battles. So we can have 2v2 etc. The maps are big enough! Even if it's just for the in-historic battles. 20. DLC. Yep, I want DLC. I want more official (smaller) maps and more units. How many maps will you give me for £5? How about £10 to include a British operation? 21. Include random historical mainly-military quotes in-game, like they do in HoI or Total War. So while we're waiting for someone to join the multiplayer server we can read "Patience is a virtue" or something 22. Vehicles get tracked way too often. This wouldn't be an issue if I had lots of tanks, but usually I have 4 tanks. I've had battles where 3 out of 4 tanks gets tracked. I understand why this happens etc. but it seems as though if I go off-road for two seconds, my tanks get tracked. That limits me to roads. Then path-finding issues cause my tanks to shed their tracks often because instead of going down the open road, my tank will roll along a wall or hedge... Maybe the chance of being tracked should be reduced? 23. Tooltips. I know what the difficulty levels mean, because I've played CC since the 90's. But new players don't. How about a tooltip over the settings, just to tell new players things like what putting the enemy on easy will do? 24. Have a button to speed the game up. This should be in single player only, but would be very welcome. Achtung Panzer included both x2 and x4 speeds. It's needed at the beginning of a battle where your troops are casually walking towards the enemy over such large map... even on the fastest setting... :( 25. "Enemy spotted." Ok, thanks. "Enemy spotted." Yes, you don't have to repeat yourself. "Enemy spotted." No, seriously, shut up! I don't know why all my guys sound exactly the same and say the same things, but a variety of shouts would be nice. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. Thanks for reading!
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I have a Youtube Channel that features Close Combat and Panzer Corps Let's Plays and videos, as well as historical documentaries.
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