Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

quote:

ORIGINAL: wilecki
Well I beg to differ. I think that a fair review should focus on all aspects of the game. A person that didn't play the original game, like myself, might still want to know everything about it including the clunkiness of the interface. Such person is also much less likely to know which aspects were promised to be polished and which were not and maybe he's just not willing to buy a game he'll literally fight with while playing and which could have been so much better with few simple solutions known from other games. And why should he even care about those promises? It's like somebody would release today a renewed Sensible Soccer 96/97, with some tweaks and ability to play it on modern computers, ask for it a price of a new game and then act surprised when reviewers are pointing out clunkiness or ugliness or any other -ness that fails when compared with the latest FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer. It doesn't change the fact that Sensible was and still is a really fun game. Forgive this example but I couldn't find better.

A person that was already acquainted with the original game will simply ignore obvious parts of the review (if he is even going to read such review in the first place) and as an old fan of the game he will be well aware of what to expect.

I think a key misunderstanding here is that my objection is that reviews should not _focus_ on the interface. I feel that the two posted here did focus on that and meanwhile did not really address what it is that players of the originals would find improved here, which is a pretty substantial list. It's also worth noting that we are releasing two games here for the price of one of the originals, having updated both to the final version of the engine plus many improvements.

I certainly think the interface should be part of any review, but I think it should not be the focus of the review for an updated release like this one, especially when it was not promised to be substantially different from the originals. It's worth noting that unlike some other game niches, in wargaming these kinds of definitive treatments on a subject are rare and it's often a long time before they are revisited. That's the main reason why it makes sense to extend the life of definitive games like these when a replacement for them is not really on the horizon. There are limits to what can reasonably be done with older engines though and I believe what the team focused on and promised to do, they did very well.

I'm sure some interface improvements will be possible post-release, but an interface overhaul is asking too much of the engine itself.

Regards,

- Erik

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge

Well I beg to differ. I think that a fair review should focus on all aspects of the game. A person that didn't play the original game, like myself, might still want to know everything about it including the clunkiness of the interface

I could agree with that, if it was focus on all aspects of the game, fine, but they weren't

and both reviews, that is there view of the interface, most people who played the game don't notice it, when they know what they are doing

quote:

ORIGINAL: wilecki
Hi Erik,

Well I haven't read the other review but in the Out of Eight review the general focus was most certainly not put on the interface...

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
expecting an interface overhaul that was never promised comes a bit out of the blue for me.

quote:

ORIGINAL: JaguarUSF
Just because it was never promised doesn't mean you shouldn't expect it, especially if you did not know it was never promised. Or something

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC



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quote:

ORIGINAL: fthein

What worries me more as the bad interface are the high bomber casualties when playing against the allied ai which the last reviewer mentioned. Is this true or bad luck? In the old verion so far as i remember you could kill several hundert B17 bomber within a few days because the ai was overly aggressive.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

quote:

ORIGINAL: JaguarUSF
Just because it was never promised doesn't mean you shouldn't expect it, especially if you did not know it was never promised. Or something

Nobody expects the interface inquisition!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

HS, to be fair to the reviewer ( and others ) I don't think that this is an issue of not wanting menus. I think this is an issue of there being a BETTER way to present the menus than we currently have.

E.g. Imagine, if you would, a menu for production featuring, along the top, generic pictures of "single-engined day fighter", "twin-engined day fighter", "night fighter", "Jabo"

Click on "night fighter" and below these generic pictures a new page pops up with pictures of the planes on the left in one column, a second column showing a picture of avionics etc ( parts ) and a third column showing a generic picture of plane engines ( 1 engine for single-engined planes, two engines for twin-engined planes )

There's a number below each plane, part and engine which shows the number required at present for that plane type and the total number being produced in total.

Click on a picture and a new box pops up showing you a list of the factories ( and their sizes ) producing that plane assembly or avionics or engine. If you want to change production you can select more than one of the factories at a time and then when you select change all of the selected factories will change to whatever you want at the same time. When you close this sub-menu the main page will update all the figures letting you instantly see the effect of what you are doing on night-fighter production, assembly,m parts and engine requirements.

On one page you have all of the data you need to change production for ALL of your night fighters. Same for the other types. It is displayed somewhat graphically with a clear communication to players of what engine and parts types are required for which planes, how many of each you need and what the total production for each is.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Nemo121
I think this is an issue of there being a BETTER way to present the menus than we currently have.
(...)
Click on a picture and a new box pops up showing you a list of the factories ( and their sizes ) producing that plane assembly or avionics or engine. If you want to change production you can select more than one of the factories at a time and then when you select change all of the selected factories will change to whatever you want at the same time.
(...)
Is the current aspergery menu a game-breaker for me? No but neither is it even close to being as user-friendly as something along the lines of what is outlined above.