Zorachus99
Posts: 1066
Joined: 9/15/2000
From: Palo Alto, CA
Status: offline
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I've been playing the boardgame WIF for over 10 years. I'm sure you are getting input from the designers, but as a long time player my opinion matters since I've spent over $1000 on the game during that time. No Joke. This game has been revised, improved, and new counters were made time and again. I'm including replacement counters as well.
The game in it's current for is complex to say the least, however me and my human wargaming buddies have been playing for a long time and here is the hardest problem you have barring an AI that can figure out how to launch a successful buildup and naval invasion.
I look at an 7x12 foot board we have laminated our map to. All the counters are in full display and you can make strategic conclusions just based on a glance at the stacks in theatres. No real calculation needed. This kind of overview is still neccessary but you don't have a monitor that is 7x12 feet. Assuming you everyone has a 21" monitor is unrealistic, and yet still insufficient to display this kind of breadth. I wish I had suggestions but this is important while the player is trying to deduce what action they will take. I cant stress how important this idea is.
The clearly worst thing about playing a game with counters is that you can end up wasting time aguing about rules, calculating odds, and trying to sift through tall stacks all packed close to each other. Supply calculation, hex ownership and tracing resources for the UK are the hardest things of all to keep track of. A computer can really help in this area
Additionally almost every aircraft and ship have different capabilities - determined though a lot of research. This must be kept. Removing the Picture Profile of the counter or It's name, is removing a ton of enjoyment in the game. You want to know it was the Yamato task force that sank the Iowa task force, no two ways about it. Anything is possible in the game.
As for real suggestions:
1) make unit stacks slide out as you mouse over the stack so you can quickly determine exactly what is in the stack. I don't want to click to find out a stack contents. They would slide back in after you moved the mouse elsewhere.
2) By clicking a menu I want to sort every stack on the map so that either aircraft, land units, or ships are on the tops of the stacks. This is back to the overview idea. Flipped units should stay on the bottom unless so selected.
3) Make sure flipped units are very distinguishable, but examination is still possible without many clicks. I hate the colored box idea on whether a unit is used or not. There are a lot of ways to do this with palette changes.
4) Don't change the way the units look from the counters in the game. This will cause major confusion for people who are used to the counters and are willing to pay $200 for a game in the non-computer state.
5) Keep the maps included in the game as they are, making everything european scale is just not neccessary and bloats the map out of control.
6) Clicking on a unit should select it and show its movement possibilities as well as any out of supply hexes that it might end up in. Make this part easy. Returning a unit back to where it was before movement as a change of mind is also critical. Automatically blow the map up to a higher scale if you cant see where a unit can go when selected.
7) The combat phases make sense. Do not remove them. It might complicate PBEM, but the phases within a turn or even a combat are there because they make sense. Yes there can be multiple phases before land combat is resolved and that's a nightmare for PBEM. Don't remove them because it's the easiest thing to do.
8) While within a sub-phase such as intercept missions for air units AUTOMATICALLY sort all units to the top of a stack that can be involved that are within range. Additionally they should GLOW as to tip you off that they are selectable.
9) Automatically blow the map up to a higher scale if you cant see where a unit can go when selected.
10) Have a player have a specified preferred view of the map that things revert to after blowing the map up or down.
11) Land Units have up to 7 movement points. There should be a display setting so that if you center on a hex, you can easily inspect all the land units that can make it to that hex thus changing the odds. Without this people will get very annoyed trying to determine odds.
That's what my freinds and I consider critical.
Hope you read this.
Best regards and good luck!
Zorachus99
_____________________________
Most men can survive adversity, the true test of a man's character is power. -Abraham Lincoln
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Printable Version
RE: Zoom - 
In the demo you would click on the stack and a window would pop up. This window had a filter for land, air, special units, and naval units (by CV, BB, CA, Submarines, transports, and convoys). 
The game wouldn't need all the bells and wistles all at once. It's just what you think would enhance the game.
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