Gilmer
Posts: 1452
Joined: 7/1/2011 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Capitaine What I think is the problem with AGEOD games are the mechanics of the WEGO movement system and its resolution of combat. No matter how "realistic" the WEGO method is, it produces a less visceral experience than a nonWEGO method. Especially with AGEOD you don't really see your forces move on the map, and movement is a big part of playing a wargame. You plot, then you end your turn, and things happen that are difficult to follow as they happen. Many forces don't even appear on the map during turn resolution when it seems like they should. When combat occurs, you can't follow that as it happens; you have to bring up a battle report at the start of the next turn and study its cryptic hieroglyphics to try to make sense of how a battle was resolved. All this may give the sense of a realistic system -- or maybe not -- but it is not very rewarding gameplay where, as in say WitE or WitW you move and fight as you go seeing the results immediately and having a rough knowledge of the factors going into a combat. As you go. Perhaps a WEGO system *could* provide a better sense of movement and combat, but the AGEOD system is pretty low on feedback and pretty opaque. Intentional? Maybe, but not very rewarding to most players. Things are inexplicable sometimes and with a lot of AI issues you're never sure if what is happening is valid from either side's perspective and one loses confidence in the narrative of the game as it drags on. At least I do. I LOVE the subject matter of the AGEOD games, and their scope and graphic presentation. The execution is very frustrating which limits my willingness to continue buying and playing them. I definitely think they could do with a revamp of how combat is presented. They do have a setting in the more recent games which is pause after combat, so you can take a look at it and see what happened immediately, before the turn plays out the rest of the way... Having said that, if they could revamp the system and give a better representation of the fight and explain what is happening and why the losing side lost, that would go a long way in helping what you describe. I feel much the same way at times. As it is, it seems to me, they built a good core program and since then have made updates and revisions. And I am no expert at computers, but with many programs I have used, once you start getting in to so many revisions and add-ons etc., it can become something not originally intended and give crazy results. I do believe that is why they have to continuously tweak the engine when they produce a new game, because earlier revisions make the results for the new game look way off. The one thing I have absolutely loved about their games from day one is you can suffer several defeats and the game isn't completely over. I have Forge of Freedom and if you lose several big battles, in my games, it is usually over and the AI steamrolls you after that.
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"Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit" John III Sobieski as he entered Vienna on 9/11/1683. "I came, I saw, God conquered." He that has a mind to fight, let him fight, for now is the time. - Anacreon
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