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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Decisive Battles: Korsun Pocket >>

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- 10/7/2003 5:06:45 PM

Rob Gjessing

Posts: 525
Joined: 1/27/2003
From: Sydney Australia
Status: offline

No there is no random map generator in this series, yes Im sure its possible but it doesnt exist in this game.

But dont be put off by that.. there is alot of replayability in it.. playing a different person via PBEM (where this game really shines) really is like playing a different game.. because each person plays differently, plus, there is the option to turn Fog of War on so that you dont always know where your enemies units are, the weather can be set to Random (this does make a big difference is you get mud thrown at you when you dont expect it - it effectively can grind you assault to a halt.

And then there is the 'Unknown' units setting, which randomising the values for all of your units.,. so that they are not always the same in each game.

In terms of scenarios, I am in the process of converting an older SSG scenario from one of their other games (Panzer Battles) over to this new engine. If it works (and I cant see why it wont.. Im 75% of the way through this one and its playing ok!) - if it works, then it means there is nothing stopping me converting all 60 odd other scenarios that are waiting to be done! Well the only thing stopping me is time..

Someone pay me what I am earning now and I will be happy to convert full time.. but until that happens, and whilst I am one of the few who are doing it.. they are not going to come quickly.. I am hopeful that once I have done this one and people see how effective it is.. they will contact me and start converting them themselves.. I will be able to provide them with the unit and battle data.. they just need to invest the time..

(in reply to Canuck_jp)

Post #: 1

- 10/8/2003 3:31:19 AM

Hertston

Posts: 3564
Joined: 8/17/2002
From: Cornwall, UK
Status: offline

[QUOTE=Canuck35] Another part of why I've yet to check for myself is because I bought the game before I've bought a new computer so I have nothing to play it on :)[/quote]

ROFLMAO !! Yup, that's a pretty good reason, I guess :D

[QUOTE=Canuck35]I'm interested as to why quick battles are not suited to this type of game. I think they'd be perfectly suitable. I'm not sure how the distribution of units would occur but why could randomly generated maps not be included? I may be completely off here but it seems to me that if you can randomly generate a map in say, Civ 3, surely it cant be that hard to randomly generate a map for a game like KP?[/QUOTE]

Two issues here. There's no reason why you couldn't do quick battles, I guess. I think my aversion to it is that it would just be such a waste, and you would miss out on an awful lot of what the game is about. The importance of "historical" battles as a factor for enjoying a computer wargame depends pretty much on scale. At the tactical level, it's far less important. Take something like the Squad Battles games, or SP:WaW.. most of the scenarios are "historic", but at that level detail is usually sketchy and to be honest how do you tell, say, one chunk of Vietnamese jungle from another ? At the operational level, though, without the background (and with a scenario essentially no more complicated than "kill more of them than they do you") it just turns into a virtual counter-moving exercise - it would be dull, frankly. Just to add, there's no reason a good scenario shouldn't be hypothetical rather than historical, but to be worth playing it would still need the sort of care in design folks like Rob put in. "Random" just wouldn't work IMHO.

On the map editor, there's probably no reason whatsoever they couldn't code a random generator. But you are (as far as I can recall) the only person who has felt the need for one and with all due respect, it's hard to take your comments too seriously when you havn't even taken the wrapper off yet ;)

(in reply to Canuck_jp)

Post #: 2