Mad Russian
Posts: 13256
Joined: 3/16/2008
From: Texas
Status: offline
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Thanks Budd. I'm sure that Mike wasn't being disrespectful either. As he said, he used a choice of words that I took a direction I should have chosen my own words more carefully.
When you work on something for YEARS of your life and people don't like it, that's one thing. If you have thin skin you should stay out of making or selling anything. That's not a big deal. When you tell me that I did something half-assed, without knowing what the entire process is, that went into creating it, that's something else.
I was told when I started that there would be 4 maps. Like in the original FPG. I told them I would do the scenarios. They were fine with that, even though it's rare for one scenario designer to do all the scenarios and in this case we had a playtester add two of his excellent designs to finished list of battles.
The reason it's not normal for a single designer to do the entire offering in the game is time. The scenarios are greatly affected by how the code works. In this case, I wrote the story line, created the basic time line and found the battlefields on Google Earth. Then I gave that listing to the rest of the team and they started working on the game you see now. As each scenario was finished and playtested the next one had different parameters to be dealt with.
I think it's a rare team that has the scenario designer setting the tone for the coding work. But I think we have a very rare team to begin with. Any team I'm on is 'unusual' to begin with...
What they thought I was going to do was to create 4 maps, like they had in FPG. When I told them I would do a map per scenario there was silence in the call for a bit. Then they said if that was what I wanted to do I could and they would support me. The graphics didn't fit the scale and I asked that they be rescaled. Which they did. Today I would do that work myself as I've learned a lot more about graphics and HexDraw in general.
Before a scenario could be playtested it had to have a map. It took me a week to make the first one. That was in HexDraw alone. Not counting the researching the location on Google Earth after writing the location into the games timeline. I got better, and quicker. If I hadn't we would still be working on getting the scenarios done. Hand drawing roads and rivers with elevations added in is time consuming. Each map is hand drawn with literally thousands of graphics. The woods are all small sections pieced together. So are towns. To make them more functional I created contour lines through the forests so that forests didn't have hills disappear. There was a lot of trial and error as to what worked and what didn't.
I finally worked out the MR contour system and only put fields in the two lower elevations. I tried to make the maps as functional as possible. Once the map was done and I had to make corrections as I went to places where I had not moved the forest back from the road, etc., we went into heavy playtesting of each scenario.
Each scenario was playtested in order because of the different parts of the code that each one highlights. That's why chemical and nuclear weapons are at the end of the list. They were the last things we worked on. Of course, making changes to the code in any area could affect play balance in the previously done scenarios. Again, this is why there is generally more than one scenario designer, because they had to be rebalanced as we went forward.
The original team didn't have anyone with military experience. Now the team has two members with military experience and that has made a huge difference between FPG and FPC. That is probably the number one biggest change between the two games. Perspective of what a combat operation would have looked and felt like after having had boots on the ground there. Both Charles and I served some of our enlistments in Germany.
With all the changes, and they are too numerous to count, coupled with constantly changing situations and equipment in the scenarios, each week was an adventure. Not to mention Matrix asking us....WHEN????? Like some of the rest of you that we could mention...but won't.
Another huge benefit for this project is the fact that Charles has lived in the Soviet Union. If you can count wonderful warm Siberia as Russia! We don't look at the Soviet military as anything other than another national military doing their job. They aren't supermen. They aren't untermensch. They are just regular soldiers with a different doctrine and a job to do to live through this war like everybody else.
Put that all together, add in more hours and hard work than you can imagine and here we are.
No, Mike wasn't disrespectful of me, he was uninformed in all the thousands and thousands of things that had to take place before this game ever got to be put on the site for sale. But I will say this, nothing about this game was 'thrown together'. It all took untold hours and dedication to get it here. Even with the warts. I was happy with those warts or you still wouldn't have seen my part of it.
I've been in the scenario design business for computer games since Combat Mission x1 games. I started a scenario design group called HSG. I was told that gamers didn't like historically based scenarios because they weren't balanced. When we finally stopped working together as a group we had put that myth to rest. I was on one of the CM2 game alpha teams but didn't stay long. Then I ended up doing the patch for PCK which turned into PCO. Three long years for that game series to watch it die. I wasn't going to get involved in another computer game because of the time and effort it takes. But after 3 years on the Eastern Front I wanted to play something else so I bought FPG. I was less than thrilled. After a couple of inquiries I was introduced to this team, and to my benefit joined it.
That's how we got where we are now.
I'm the main target for discontent because you see my work everytime you start the game. You see my story lines, my maps, my scenarios, my campaigns. You see that you like or don't like the graphics, the scenarios, the campaigns. You don't see Rob's coding, Jim's research or Charles playtesting. Their work is the entire game. There isn't a one of us that could have been taken out of this project and have it look and feel like it does now. So, while most of the comments come my way directly at me, I have a thick skin for the most part. Unless, you tell me how lazy or careless I was. Because you can trust me above all else on this, we have never been lazy or careless about a single thing you see in this game. It's all there because we made choices to get it there to you. Some of them were the lesser of two evils. Some of them were tremendous. It's all here.
I'm glad that you all enjoy the game for the most part. We know we can make improvements and that most of your comments are aimed at making a good product even better. For that we all thank you. It's very gratifying to be a part of something that comes together as strongly as this game has.
As always...
Good Hunting.
MR
< Message edited by Mad Russian -- 2/17/2014 6:49:46 PM >
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The most expensive thing in the world is free time.
Founder of HSG scenario design group for Combat Mission.
Panzer Command Ostfront Development Team.
Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm Development Team.
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Printable Version
RE: New official look of maps - in the future? - 
A possible 3d Tweak for OTS maps - 
some time ago which is why you opened it up and made modding easier. Stay on the path and if some kind soul spends their time making better looking maps that are too my taste i'll use them but gameplay is the thing and the gameplay is most excellent and getting better. MR i've been playing your scenarios for awhile even when i didn't know they were yours, and i appreciate the work you put in on Panzer Command and Flashpoint and hope your reaping some fine fruit for your labors. Again no disrespect meant toward your work. 
....i need a new campaign.. i need a new scenario ...you know something that makes me look bad and question my ability to lead my pixel troops. 
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