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Essro -> RE: Learning Curve (5/10/2008 4:37:54 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Froonp
Not if you are alone. You'd need to be in Vassal with a guy who know Vassal and WiF, otherwise you will be lost.
VASSAL is easy enough. I have no intention of playing a full game. I merely want to take some counters and move them around a bit. For example, take a handful of naval and air and just familiarize myself with how they move and function, interception, etc.
It was my hope that by doing so I could reaquaint myself with the WiF RAW. Then hopefully when MWiF gets released I will be able to jump in and say "I know what is supposed to happen." If you do not think this is the case, please let me know.
I am a long time gamer. Grognard. WiF is not that complex of a wargame. For gamers it's mostly familiar concepts and fairly intuitive. What made people think WiF was hard was that in an attempt to portray every little WW2 nuance and circumstance they implemented many exceptions to rules. Thus one had to remember a lot of petty exceptions. Non-gamers might have more problems unless the UI is friendly enough to do the “remembering” for them. But I think there are enough non-hardcore gamers who might be pleased to see the first decent WW2 Strategy game after playing those “other” very recent pieces of garbage.
Having said that, I look at some of the UI screenshots and become worried about how this will translate into a computer game. Then there is the EiA fiasco that haunts all future releases of any faithful adaptation of a boardgame.
I truly don’t envy Steve and everyone who has worked on this project. I suspect attempting a lunar landing would be easier than programming the AI for this. So many variations.
Here is my fear about the AI and learning curve. I have no interest whatsoever in playing the AI. AIs are terrible. They always have been and always will for the foreseeable future. I will use it to help understand how things work but that’s about it. So, I will be playing other players. Now, as I see it, mostly novices and folks who are timid will mostly or only play the AI. The more experienced players will want to get the most out of it and thus play each other. Many of these guys have been playing WiF for years. They know every stratagem and how to react. Thus, I am at a serious disadvantage unless I started relearning the rules now.
Anyhow, if MWiF is close enough to the WiF FE RAW, I hope to learn a few things by using VASSAL or CYBERBOARD but I am not sure which one is better.
@Froonp
On a side note, your WiF site is magnificent. About 1 year ago or so I stumbled across it when doing some research for a TOAW III scenario that my brother and I were working on. Your collection of WiF data helped us quite a bit. The scenario was a complete overhaul of TOAW’s Europe Aflame. We added the Pacific theater, almost completely reworked the OOB and TO&E. There are 4,000 units on a split map 300x300 hexes with 999 events. It is fully functional with an abstracted method of production decisions and strategic warfare.
We never released it however. The turns take a very long time. We mostly wanted to see if it could be done with TOAW’s engine, which it can…mostly. Some people say they want to see WW2 modeled at division level and 10-15km hexes. I say to them “No you don’t, trust me.” That TOAW monstrosity we made is corps/division/air wings/individual CV and BBs level at 22km (40km Pacific) and it’s a pain in the arse to play.
Hence, my renewed interest in the inspiration: WiF and soon to be MWiF.----much more manageable.
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