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EricLarsen -> V2.0 The Good, Bad and Ugly (11/13/2002 10:46:02 PM)
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Well, version 2.o is now out and here's the quick skinny on it from my perspective.
The Good
In my current game of a modified scenario 19 I am finally able to see the A-20 plane losses. While it was definitely a different format than before it now works just fine at displaying all plane losses legibly.
The ship counters in the tf screens is really a nice player aid. I was very pleasantly surprised to see the counter in the create tf screen so I no longer have to anally count the ships as I create a task force to make sure I have the right number of ships.
The "standown button". While I was content to click, click, click my planes back to zero training it sure is nice to now only have to click once to make it happen. Kudos to the players who kept pestering the UV team into making this and to the UV team for listening and implementing the standown button.
Upping the plane upgrade from 100% to 125% (IJN) and 133% (Allies) so that the program now doesn't deplete the new plane replacement pool so quickly and allows for new planes to still be in the pool even after an air unit upgrade to cover losses from other similar plane air units.
The Bad
Subs can't attack barges and PT boats with torpedoes. As I played my current game I noticed how my subs would get more and more successful at making torpedo and gun attacks on barges. At first I attributed the increasing success to improved crew ratings over time, but as I conducted more and more successful attacks I discovered that it was the attrition of the barge units themselves that increased my success. Early on when the AI was sending out 10 barge tf's my subs just wouldn't bite on a gun attack, so torpedoes were the only way to get the job done because the sub commanders wouldn't face off in a gun battle against bad odds. As the barge tf's grew smaller I saw that my subs finally started making good gun attacks, rather than always relying on torpedoes. Not allowing subs to make torpedo attacks upon large barge tf's, or for that matter large PT boat tf's, means that subs just won't sink any stinking barges or PT boats. Or if they do have the folly to attack a large barge tf on the surface with guns chances are it's going to take damage in return. Shame on the player or players who whined this idiotic change into the game and shame on the UV team for not thinking this through completely before deciding to implement it. May your subs get shot to pieces by the mighty barge tf's!
The Ugly
The 40MB patch and 3+ hour download time. Glad I set it to download before I went to work.
The game is extremely S-L-U-G-G-I-S-H now when in the main selection screen for selecting mode of play. When I click on the load saved-game or select scenario buttons on this screen I now have to wait about 10 to 15 seconds or more to get to the next screen. Then when I click on a saved game to play it takes another full 10 to 15 seconds just to see the saved game light up so I can then click the next button. This used to be virtually instantaneous, I click and a second later the next screen pops up or the saved game lights up so I can take the next step. I usually have to bail out of the game every hour or two as the system seems to get more sluggish pulling up screens. After I shut down and start up my computer things go fast again (I've got an old 400MHZ clunker). Even after restarting my computer from scratch these screens are still sluggish and now that makes restarting take a little longer each time as I now have to cool my heels waiting for these screens to now come up sluggish. Even when I try escaping the start-up screens and videos just getting into the game seems to take longer as well. I sure wish there was an option to turn off the opening and closing videos and credits. While I sometimes enjoy the opening video and audio when I'm puttering around doing little things while the game is loading up for the first time, it gets real annoying real fast that I have to sit there escapting the things every time I have to reboot to get my game moving again. Please don't forget that not all of us have 2 gig screamers yet.
Eric Larsen
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