A poll:human or AI opponents?

Matrix Games Forums

Forums Register Login Photo Gallery Member List Search Calendars FAQ

My Profile Inbox Address Book My Subscription My Forums Log Out

A poll:human or AI opponents?

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >> A poll:human or AI opponents?

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

A poll:human or AI opponents? - 7/6/2001 11:07:00 AM

KG Erwin

Posts: 8981
Joined: 7/25/2000
From: Cross Lanes WV USA
Status: offline

I want to know how many of you guys play against human opponents as opposed to playing against the AI? As for me, it's strictly vs the AI, for now. [ July 06, 2001: Message edited by: KG Erwin ]

_____________________________

Post #: 1

- 7/6/2001 11:19:00 AM

Stuart Millis

Posts: 217
Joined: 2/18/2001
From: British Columbia, Canada
Status: offline

Online is best, followed by pbem, followed by the AI (a distant third)

_____________________________

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 2

- 7/6/2001 11:23:00 AM

KG Erwin

Posts: 8981
Joined: 7/25/2000
From: Cross Lanes WV USA
Status: offline

Excuse me for saying, Stuart, but who has the time to engage in an online game? I'm not being facetious. I'm thinking about joining up.

_____________________________

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 3

- 7/6/2001 11:24:00 AM

Mark Ezra

Posts: 340
Joined: 12/29/2000
From: Jasmin Ranch, Acton CA
Status: offline

Well if I really want to beat up on somebody I go for the AI. Otherwise it's PBEM. Haven't tried the on line feature.

_____________________________

All Hail Marx and Lennon

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 4

- 7/6/2001 11:26:00 AM

Alby

Posts: 4855
Joined: 4/29/2000
From: Greenwood, Indiana
Status: offline

Pbem and online best(well when online works right anyway) never play the AI.. :) as Stuart said...its a distant third [ July 06, 2001: Message edited by: Alby ]

_____________________________

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 5

- 7/6/2001 11:31:00 AM

KG Erwin

Posts: 8981
Joined: 7/25/2000
From: Cross Lanes WV USA
Status: offline

Alright, then, who has tried the online feature, and how does it work?

_____________________________

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 6

- 7/6/2001 12:16:00 PM

Don

Posts: 810
Joined: 7/12/2000
From: Elk Grove, CA (near Sacramento)
Status: offline

I've played online 4 or 5 times, and it was such a pain it almost made me never try it again. Redleg and I would set up, go through the whole deployment phase, and then lose the connection. A good half-hour lost, then try it again and go through the same thing. When it works it is a real blast, but when it doesn't it is very frustrating and time-consuming.

_____________________________

Don "Sapper" Llewellyn

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 7

- 7/6/2001 12:18:00 PM

Tomanbeg

Posts: 4385
Joined: 7/14/2000
From: Memphis, Tn, CSA
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by KG Erwin: Alright, then, who has tried the online feature, and how does it work?

You have to like toe to toe slug fests. I quit online because I couldn't find anyone willing to play 20 minute turns. 6 minutes to move 100+ units is a joke. 20 minutes is tough enough. I do PBEM all the way, I just use the AI for testing. But it depends on your playing style. Time yourself for the next 3 PBEM turns you do. Now play the AI, and set a timer for 3 minutes, and stop when the timer goes off and end your turn. If you find that exciting then on-line is for you. I won't play a PBEM game of less then 24 turns and I prefer 35 to 45. And I don't know if they changed it or not, but it used to be possible to suck up your opponents time by waiting to take your op fire. at 3 minutes a turn, a 12 turn game eats up 1 to 2 hours. at 6 minutes 2 to 3 hours. Half of which you spend waitng for a chance to op fire. I would love to find some players who would be willing to play 1 or 2 turns an evening at 20 to 30 minutes a turn, with the goal of finishing a gamein 2 weeks instead of a month. Real timers say the god mode is unrealistic, I say no major I ever heard of has to drive every tank in his battle group into position, or lead every squad around by the hand. I'm certain Matrix has the ability to to go to a "Rules of Engagement" type quasi role playing game where we get Capt. LTs., Sgt. etc to run our troops and we pick the characteristics (Aggression. Training, Courage. etc.) sort of like building a D&D character. But then you wind up in a Combat Missing type game where the Computer does all the fighting. Which means it boils down to time and style. T.

_____________________________

"The 15th May, 1948, arrived ... On that day the mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead."
� The Cairo daily Akhbar el Yom, Oct. 12, 1963.
[IMG]http

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 8

- 7/6/2001 12:56:00 PM

Warrior

Posts: 1808
Joined: 11/2/2000
From: West Palm Beach, FL USA
Status: offline

I played the AI exclusively for nearly nine months. I wanted to know what I was doing before I tried a human opponent. I now have about 15 PBEM games under my belt, and they are more interesting - IF - they move fast enough. One turn every day or two takes the excitement out of it for me, but I still enjoy it. I've never tried an online game, have no idea how to go about getting one going, but would love to try one sometime. If you want to get started with PBEM, I volunteer to be an opponent. :)

_____________________________

Retreat is NOT an option.

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 9

- 7/6/2001 2:01:00 PM

Skotty

Posts: 83
Joined: 7/18/2000
From: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Status: offline

I play multi on a lan, where we are both in the same room. It's great to razz your opponent when you smoke his Tiger with a bazooka and watch him turn red and pound the keyboard :D I don't think I will try over the net yet, cuz online is a bit buggy. We play with 7 min turns with about 3400 to 3600 points. You can still move everything in that time and it only gets dicey when stong contact is made. The worst thing that happens is you have 3 sec left and you forget to plot your 105mm's.... doh! When it works, online kicks butt!

_____________________________

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 10

- 7/6/2001 2:25:00 PM

KG Erwin

Posts: 8981
Joined: 7/25/2000
From: Cross Lanes WV USA
Status: offline

I take it then that if want to play online, the key is to have very small point totals for the opposing forces--say a company-size matchup? Would that work better than two battalions slugging it out for God knows how long ? Anyone want to try that with me?

_____________________________

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 11

- 7/6/2001 2:25:00 PM

Mai Thai

Posts: 95
Joined: 4/21/2001
From: Switzerland
Status: offline

I play only against AI in designed scenarios and campaigns, if the designer is good and "wild" it is a challenge anyway Now i received the MC cd but i have not tryed yet bye

_____________________________

-- occupy it, administer it, exploit it

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 12

- 7/6/2001 2:39:00 PM

KG Erwin

Posts: 8981
Joined: 7/25/2000
From: Cross Lanes WV USA
Status: offline

I can see from experimentig that online play is a fitful proposition at best. I'll come back and try it in the morning. Good night all.

_____________________________

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 13

- 7/6/2001 5:30:00 PM

ruxius

Posts: 909
Joined: 5/5/2000
From: ITALY
Status: offline

Two Cooperative human PBEM against two cooperative humans..but it's hard to do it without fanatism :D

_____________________________

Italian Soldier,German Discipline!

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 14

- 7/6/2001 6:33:00 PM

General Mayhem

Posts: 180
Joined: 6/13/2001
From: Country of six thousand lakes and one truth
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by Don: I've played online 4 or 5 times, and it was such a pain it almost made me never try it again. Redleg and I would set up, go through the whole deployment phase, and then lose the connection. A good half-hour lost, then try it again and go through the same thing. When it works it is a real blast, but when it doesn't it is very frustrating and time-consuming.

Does it happen with all connection types? Are we talking modems, ISDN, cables, DSL's or what?

_____________________________

----------------------------- Sex, rags and and rock'n roll! ------------------------------

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 15

- 7/6/2001 10:09:00 PM

Paul Vebber

Posts: 11430
Joined: 3/29/2000
From: Portsmouth RI
Status: offline

In teh testing we have done we have found that LAN connections do the best, you get about a 90% success rate. Failure being the game gets "corrupted" and you and your opponant are essentialy playing two different games to the point its uplayanble. Adding extra players compounds the problem With high speed internet connections you get about 75% success rate, though size of the games has a lot to do with it. The more units you have, the greater the chances of screw up. Small gae definately work a LOT better and something like Steel Shield with hundreds of units per side is not likely to work out. Dial ups are very iffy, and I'd say are about 25 or 33% of teh time workable - theough small games (<50 units per side or so) fair better. For the most part its better than SP3 online was, but the peer to peer architechure is not very resiliant to errors leading to the games diverging over time and worse the biger they are. Saving every couple turns and emailing teh thesave to everybiody (making sure everybody saves it in the same slot!!) IT surprising to hear teh problems with ver 5.3 and 6.0 but as we have come to expect, changing one thing often crops up in some other area where you least expect it. Getting online play weapons cues functioning for the release Lost Victories version will be high on our list! But we have to balance that with Combat Leader development right now. Was there a problem with 5.2?? [ July 06, 2001: Message edited by: Paul Vebber ]

_____________________________

http://www.matrixgames.com/images/sig-logo-02.gif

(in reply to KG Erwin)

Post #: 16