Potential newbie (Full Version)

All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition



Message

RSGodfrey -> Potential newbie (7/22/2009 10:18:48 AM)

WitP has long intrigued me, but reading reports I was deterred by the time investment (planning to submit my PhD Thesis this year).

Can you advise if WitP:AE will have the flexibility to play with a reduced time investment?

I know that this may be an anathema to the grogs. out there, but some of us have a life!

Richard



Terminus -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 10:23:03 AM)

Depends on what you mean by "flexibility". AE is a very large game, and it will suck up 101% of the time you can spend on it.



Flying Tiger -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 10:26:16 AM)

quote:

I know that this may be an anathema to the grogs. out there, but some of us have a life!


interesting approach.....ask a question, then critisize the potential answer-ers. Good one! Are you suggesting the diehards who play WitP through to its painful end are lifeless, unsocial, desperate individuals who get no greater satisfaction than watching a few tiny colored dots on a monitor move VERY slowly around a not quite perfect map of not quite all of the Pacific ocean??

Ok. point taken.

Yes. AE is apparently shipping with a couple of smaller scenarios for those 'with a life' who just cant commit. Of course the full campaign is expected to take far longer than stock WitP - but that is the way we like it!!

cheers



Flying Tiger -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 10:27:20 AM)

quick question T. Has there ever been ANY thread that you have NOT read?



TheTomDude -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 10:47:08 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Flying Tiger

quick question T. Has there ever been ANY thread that you have NOT read?


I guess his answer will be "NO". Not that this is an uncommon or unfamiliar word to him. [:D]



Terminus -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 10:48:23 AM)

And one that I somehow find the reason to use continually in this place. Wonder why?



RSGodfrey -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 11:09:11 AM)

FT - this was not intended to be a criticism of anyone's gaming habits or use of time.

If anything it was said with envy at those of you who can devote time to this monster simulation/game.

I suspect if the developers provided the flexibility for game dedication to the grogs. and those of us with less time, sales would soar.

Richard



dorjun driver -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 11:09:34 AM)

The time you invest?  However much you desire!  Contrary to many posts, it is a fun game.  Fun.  You know, fun.  Non-life threatening.

Spend more time playing and less time worrying about the forum freaks opinions. Besides, none of them have jobs.

/Don't let Terminus-Grumpypants throw you off.

DACE



herwin -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 11:15:33 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: RSGodfrey

WitP has long intrigued me, but reading reports I was deterred by the time investment (planning to submit my PhD Thesis this year).

Can you advise if WitP:AE will have the flexibility to play with a reduced time investment?

I know that this may be an anathema to the grogs. out there, but some of us have a life!

Richard


I know what you mean!--I use WitP as a way to relax. A turn will probably take you between half an hour and an hour if you play casually. Let your subconscious mull over your research while you play, and justify it as an alternative to sleeping on your ideas.



Terminus -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 11:23:40 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: dorjun driver

The time you invest?  However much you desire!  Contrary to many posts, it is a fun game.  Fun.  You know, fun.  Non-life threatening.

Spend more time playing and less time worrying about the forum freaks opinions. Besides, none of them have jobs.

/Don't let Terminus-Grumpypants throw you off.

DACE



Again with the boat bum shooting off his mouth. I was certainly not trying to throw him off, but AE is not for everyone, and you might as well go into it with your eyes open.



RSGodfrey -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 11:29:06 AM)

Hi Harry, I am a Senior Lecturer in Economics at UWIC.

WRT to WitP its not only the time taken to play a turn thats of interest , but also the number of turns to complete a game. For example, playing the full campaign at one turn a day, how long will it take to complete?

Thanks

Richard



Terminus -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 11:37:40 AM)

You're a "senior lecturer in economics" and you can't calculate the time it will take to complete the campaign when playing one turn per day?



RSGodfrey -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 11:48:05 AM)

Hi terminus, I have little familiarity with the game engine. Does it offer the flexibility for a turn to simulate 1 day of reality, 1 week or 1 month etc.?


Richard



Akos Gergely -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 12:05:17 PM)

Richard,

if you play 1 turn per day it would take exactly as long as it did IRL from Dec 7 1941 to 1945 aug or whenever you abandon the game. You can choose to do 2 or 3 or even more turns per order phase giving up some tactical control. The best way is to play the AI if you don't have the time, it's not as challanging as a human opponent but it's still good fun  and can be played pretty fast once you get into the rythm.

Or you can go for smaller map, limited time scenarios like Guadalcanal or to a one yoear long full map scenario. These can be played in a few weeks against the AI, especially the Guadalcanal one.

So the game is quite flexible and hopefully in the future there will be even more smaller map, shorter scenarios made by modders, so you can do just one battle or campaign like taking the Marshall Islands (Op. Galvanic IIRC) etc.



m10bob -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 12:14:19 PM)

Excepting the first day turn, I generally can play maybe 2 turns on workdays and 7-10 turns on each of the weekend days.
One real week equals approx 2 1/2 to 3 weeks game time.
I only play "one day turns", but you have the option to make each turn 1,2, or 3 days.



John Lansford -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 12:21:45 PM)

You can set the turn length to either 1 or 2 day increments.  I prefer the 1 day increments myself.  As for how much of your time it takes, well, I spend about half an hour or more on each turn before hitting execute, but there's nothing wrong with performing some of the work on one day and finishing it up on the next.  The execution of the turn takes about 5-15 minutes (you've got to click through the individual encounters once they're completed if you've got the animations all turned on) and you're ready for the next turn.



Erik Rutins -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 12:38:18 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Terminus
You're a "senior lecturer in economics" and you can't calculate the time it will take to complete the campaign when playing one turn per day?


Be polite, Terminus.



Terminus -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 12:48:20 PM)

I know, that was over the line. Sorry.

Playing one turn per day means you take either as long as the war historically took, half as long or a third as long depending on what number of days the turn is set to. I personally prefer playing 2-day turns.



Flying Tiger -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 12:56:09 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins


quote:

ORIGINAL: Terminus
You're a "senior lecturer in economics" and you can't calculate the time it will take to complete the campaign when playing one turn per day?


Be polite, Terminus.



yeah T. Get back in your box!

seriously, Richard sounds like he is genuinely interested, and is asking a serious question. Dont scare him off!!



stuman -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 1:00:49 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: RSGodfrey

WitP has long intrigued me, but reading reports I was deterred by the time investment (planning to submit my PhD Thesis this year).

Can you advise if WitP:AE will have the flexibility to play with a reduced time investment?

I know that this may be an anathema to the grogs. out there, but some of us have a life!

Richard


Welcome to the game RS. I think you will find that the greatest time commitment may be when you first start learning the ropes, etc. But it is a fun game. Detailed for sure, but also a learning experience. I do not let myself get bogged down against the AI , and will often process 4 or 5 turns in a day. Then other times I spend longer adjusting things. Once you get started, 2 day turns seem to work fine.

And good luck on your Thesis.



RevRick -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 1:04:42 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Terminus

And one that I somehow find the reason to use continually in this place. Wonder why?


Hmmm. Reminds me of my son in the "terrible twos".[:D]



CaptDave -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 3:48:20 PM)

Richard, one other thing you should understand. You may have figured this out from other threads, but just in case...

The first turn is likely to take you far longer than any other. In the full campaign, some players report taking as many as 12 to 15 hours on the first turn! Things are much simplified after that, however, and turns will be in the 15 to 60 minute range (depending on how much you need to accomplish on a given turn).



Shark7 -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 4:00:42 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: RSGodfrey

WitP has long intrigued me, but reading reports I was deterred by the time investment (planning to submit my PhD Thesis this year).

Can you advise if WitP:AE will have the flexibility to play with a reduced time investment?

I know that this may be an anathema to the grogs. out there, but some of us have a life!

Richard


A life? What's that?

On a serious note, you can still play at a reduced pace by spending as little as an hour per night on it. Just remember that at that rate you are going to spend the first week and a half issuing orders for the first turn. Don't let that deter you though as the first turn is by far the worst, and generally after that you can issue all your orders in less than an hour on the subsequent turns...

First turn is the worst because you are setting up your entire warplan for the first time....that is you are setting all objectives for all command areas in one shot, as well as your convoys and moving around air groups, ships and troops. After that you will rarely have to make big preparations for more than 1 command area at a time. In fact some turns I have literally gotten some turns done in 5 minutes due to being in the middle of operations and not having to make many changes...the theory of 'if what you are doing is working, then keep doing it' applies.



devoncop -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 4:45:19 PM)

Hi all,

Well just like the instigator of this OP I have finally decided to take the plunge having got hooked on the area of operations having read several excellent books on the subject recently.

I am of the opinion that you get out of a game what you (and the designers) put in and so have decided, after reading many of the forum contributions to go the whole hog with the AE edition.The recent decision to make it a standalone title has also helped and the fact there is a substantial manual!

I have taken on and enjoyed HOI2 and OAW but realise this is a new level.I may well be back with some questions so thanks in advance for any answers!

I did consider trying UV or WPO first but I would only be playing as a means to an end and for the minimum time necessary to feel I had some of the mechanisms of the engine understood and that would not be fair on either myself or the game.

I am posting to feedback to Matrix that newbies will still be attracted to this epic work and the commitment shown by forum members and designers alike has certainly contributed to my decision.

Anyway, roll on release day!

Best wishes all

Ian



bradfordkay -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 5:02:56 PM)

This game is rewarding enough that if you play only one turn every two or three days you will enjoy it immensely. I know that I have tried to maintain an average of one turn a day and my PBEM with ChezDaJez is slightly ahead of that pace (usually faster in the winter and slower in the summer).

Just devote what time you can to it. If you are playing against the AI, it will always be there waiting for you. If you advertise for a slow paced PBEM, you might be lucky enough to find an opponent who understands and will likewise wait...

welcome to the madhouse!



jjax -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 5:10:03 PM)

At first I was terrified of the first turn. However, if you break it into several play sessions it is not that bad really.

After the first turn, other turns take a lot less time (if you call a half hour to a hour less time !).

Personally, i can't find find time every day to play WITP. But WITPers are right when they say it is the perfect game to drop for a couple of days and then come back to. But if you do not play every day, you may want to let potential PBEMers know that[;)].



emorbius44 -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 5:10:34 PM)

quote:

WitP has long intrigued me, but reading reports I was deterred by the time investment (planning to submit my PhD Thesis this year).

Can you advise if WitP:AE will have the flexibility to play with a reduced time investment?

I know that this may be an anathema to the grogs. out there, but some of us have a life!

Richard


In a way your very question contradicts itself. You've picked the most massive and complex computer wargame ever developed and are asking can it be played in a reasonable amount of time. My answer would be how patient are you? I've been playing WITP by e-mail with my long time war game e-mail partner (since around 1992) and we started our game about a week or two after it came out. We used to play 5-6 turns a week but because of constraints on our time we're doing maybe 2 a week the last year or so. Nevertheless we just chug along and are up to April 1944. In my view it's not so much the end result as the process of playing it out so how fast we get there isn't as important as just playing the game and enjoying it. If you can enjoy the game that way you should be fine, if you can't go for something like SSG's Carriers at War which can be resolved in a few hours.

Bob



charlesmc -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 7:51:46 PM)

Potential newbie here as well. I bought UV last summer, but just could not get into it. The tutorial, well, let's just say I didn't have a firm grasp of what to do after going through the tutorial which seemed to only discuss things at a high level...not like exactly what commands, clicks to issue.

I hear from the pricing post that beginners may want to start with plain-old WITP rather than jumping in with AE. However, I'm concerned that the community will really be moving to AE and perhaps there may be a smaller pool for WITP in the future and/or my interests will turn to AE as well. Not to mention all the bug fixes, etc. in AE.

Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that I should just jump in with AE and accept the steeper curve.



DivePac88 -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 8:01:48 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: charlesmc

Potential newbie here as well. I bought UV last summer, but just could not get into it. The tutorial, well, let's just say I didn't have a firm grasp of what to do after going through the tutorial which seemed to only discuss things at a high level...not like exactly what commands, clicks to issue.

I hear from the pricing post that beginners may want to start with plain-old WITP rather than jumping in with AE. However, I'm concerned that the community will really be moving to AE and perhaps there may be a smaller pool for WITP in the future and/or my interests will turn to AE as well. Not to mention all the bug fixes, etc. in AE.

Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that I should just jump in with AE and accept the steeper curve.


Welcome charlesmc to WitP, think you doing it the hard way, but admire your spirit.

First thing is read the manual a few times, and then start with a small scenario. Also any questions or you get stuck, just post here for answers.




Barb -> RE: Potential newbie (7/22/2009 8:23:20 PM)

charlesmc: You should try the shortest scenario in the game: Coral Sea - just to get the feeling on how to set things to do what you want them to do. play several times for both sides. then switch for something bigger...



Page: [1] 2 3   next >   >>

Valid CSS!




Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition 2.4.5 ANSI
0.9375