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Joel Billings -> RE: Game Has Serious Problems (3/15/2011 2:14:48 AM)
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Vicberg, I'd have no problems having the combat system be documented. Unfortunately, it would be a huge task, very time consuming and difficult to lay out to people (unless they want to read C code). There are just so many factors going on. We tried to put out some of the important concepts, but going into more detail is virtually impossible. We just don't have the programmer time available to try to analyze what is going on and detail it in an understandable way. Occasionally an issue will become important in the tester forum, and we'll try to get some more info from Pavel (or Gary) on the details so we know what's going on. The two games you mention are classic Gary games. He sits down and writes pages of formulas that try to account for all the factors that Gary can think of that would influence the item in question (whether combat, supplies, etc.). It's never documented before he writes it. So it becomes a time suck as he (or someone like Pavel that can read Gary's code) explains what's going on (often to me over the phone) so it can be written up for the manual or the testers. We do not have the resources for incredibly detailed testing of the formulas, or even explanation of everything going on. We go by feel, and often discover a bug that was buried in the code that had things not working the way we wanted it to. Sometimes it amazes me that Gary gets as close as he does to the way things should work.
If you have a specific question about something, you can always ask, either on the forum or in an email to 2by3@2by3games.com. Sometimes Pavel will respond online and sometimes I will get an answer for an email. No promises though as it depends on how complex the answer is. But we do try to answer those questions we can because we do want people to learn what is important (and it often helps for us to know as well).
Many people ask how many copies of the various games have sold. Well, WitE, WitP, and WitP AE have followed similar sales trajectories and we are happy that WitE is following in the two WitP's footsteps. But let me tell you right now there is not that much money in this for those of us that are doing it full time. We make a living, but not one even close to what good console game programmers/developers make. And yet these games are big projects that suck time and so we have to make a call on how much programmer time we can put into any item, including documenting the systems in the game. If it weren't for the unpaid volunteers like the testers and the semi-volunteer programmers that get paid very little for the time they put in, things would be even worse.
On another note, I too wish people would be more civil on the forum. We are always interested in constructive criticism. I do think that a thread titled "Game has Serious Problems" tends to generate some heated responses, but hope they would not turn into personal attacks. We acknowledge the game is not perfect, but we firmly believe the game is a fun "game" and can be enjoyed as it is today. It is true that the German Army does not take the damage it should by the fall of 1941, and takes too much in the winter, and we're working on that, but even so the game can be enjoyed today. We are a long way from the boardgame WitE where the Soviets had no chance of even one attack before the winter of 41. On the other hand, we may not have everything perfect (and no doubt never will). But as one interested in feedback, I find it interesting that for every person that says the Soviets can't attack in the summer of 41 I see one saying they can (and I've seen examples of this). So I don't think it's all or nothing, but somewhere in between.
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