Making History: The Great War to release on Steam Early Access on April 4th

Started by MuzzyDev, March 19, 2014, 02:20:35 PM

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bbmike

For me it's all about Making History and not just replaying what actually happened yet again.
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Staggerwing

^What he said.

Look at what JasonPratt's Ethiopians are doing in his HOI AAR.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

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Mr. Bigglesworth

Quote from: son_of_montfort on March 20, 2014, 03:40:04 PM
I very much liked the MH WWII games. And while there may not be a shortage of WWI games, there IS a shortage of WWI grand-strategy, diplomacy, and nation-simulating games (like what MH WWII is). I am going to assume that you could try to play MH WWI without going to war, trying your best to avoid the inevitable conflict. That just is not something you can do in the other WWI games out there, which I feel are mostly good, but tend to play out exactly how the war played out.

That being said, I am weighing whether or not I want to jump in at Early Access. I have a bit of Early Access fatigue and am in no hurry to get more unfinished games.

That is what I find interesting. Lets say you play Germany. You do not go through Belgium. Does the game still put GB into the war? What if you are Russia. You let Austro-Hungary beat the shit out of Serbia. Does WWI start?

If they have a good decision tree system built into the game it could let you explore future conflicts that are similar. That to me is very valuable.

Of course it may just be a pre-defined war simulator.
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; "
- Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598

Mr. Bigglesworth

Being unfamiliar with the series I looked at reviews of the last title. Several sites say it is unplayable. Slow and buggy.

http://www.pcgamer.com/review/making-history-ii-review/

or amazon or metacritic.
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; "
- Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598

Mr. Bigglesworth

If the past bugs are fixed...

It would be nice to be able to enter a month/year to play out from that. The game has a database of values for each country month/year. Then we could explore the issues running up to the war as well as the war itself. For example strengthening the economy of Russia with competent management may have reduced their fear of the fast building economic power of Germany.

Kind of like now...
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; "
- Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598

Nefaro

I think the Economic and Diplomatic facets of MH2, along with being turn-based, is what made it appealing to me.   I enjoyed the long build-up to world war and the prospect that the player may be able to somewhat alter how it all progresses. 

That may be the same for most grand strategy games, but many of them seem to put more focus into the warfare side while Making History seemed to have a bit more of a balance between the three.  I also appreciated it being turn-based so that I didn't have to jockey a pause key all the time or sort through tons of pause trigger settings to tell it when to stop.  Pressure-free strategizing.  :D

Ian C

Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on March 20, 2014, 10:33:38 PM
Being unfamiliar with the series I looked at reviews of the last title. Several sites say it is unplayable. Slow and buggy.

http://www.pcgamer.com/review/making-history-ii-review/

or amazon or metacritic.


This was an early release issue and it was addressed and patched very quickly, although by then the reviews were out. The latest release is in great shape.


JasonPratt

Quote from: Staggerwing on March 20, 2014, 08:38:51 PM
^What he said.

Look at what JasonPratt's Ethiopians are doing in his HOI AAR.

Dying like flies gloriously!

That being said, I will no doubt add MH to my upcoming super-mega-crossover-alternate-history-WW1 comparison/playthrough.

(Assuming "access" on Steam is actually "accessible" by then.  ;D )
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MuzzyDev

Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on March 20, 2014, 10:33:38 PM
Being unfamiliar with the series I looked at reviews of the last title. Several sites say it is unplayable. Slow and buggy.

http://www.pcgamer.com/review/making-history-ii-review/

or amazon or metacritic.

That review is from 2010, and describes MHII at its release.  It was released in an unfinished state under publisher pressure.  That won't happen now, since we are self published.  We continued finishing the game after release and went on to add more features, content and an editor.  The game that review describes no longer exists.
Chris Parsons
Product Manager, Muzzy Lane

MuzzyDev

Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on March 21, 2014, 12:46:01 AM
If the past bugs are fixed...

It would be nice to be able to enter a month/year to play out from that. The game has a database of values for each country month/year. Then we could explore the issues running up to the war as well as the war itself. For example strengthening the economy of Russia with competent management may have reduced their fear of the fast building economic power of Germany.

Kind of like now...

We will have several starting points, including several years before the historical start of the war.  You will be able to use the editor to create new starting points, but it would be impossible for us to allow the game to start at any day over a period of years.  Each scenario has a massive amount of researched data to plausibly represent the specific start dates.  Creating hundreds of sets of that data wold be incredibly difficult!

Chris--
Chris Parsons
Product Manager, Muzzy Lane

MuzzyDev

Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on March 20, 2014, 09:49:39 PM

That is what I find interesting. Lets say you play Germany. You do not go through Belgium. Does the game still put GB into the war? What if you are Russia. You let Austro-Hungary beat the shit out of Serbia. Does WWI start?


You can indeed do things differently and that will change what other nations do.  It will be very unlikely that the war does not happen, though.  If you recall, there was a lot of animosity in Europe at that time.  Everyone wanted to improve their power and influence and ultimately dominate Europe.  The game will reflect this..
Chris Parsons
Product Manager, Muzzy Lane

Mr. Bigglesworth

Quote from: MuzzyDev on March 21, 2014, 01:49:53 PM
Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on March 21, 2014, 12:46:01 AM
If the past bugs are fixed...

It would be nice to be able to enter a month/year to play out from that. The game has a database of values for each country month/year. Then we could explore the issues running up to the war as well as the war itself. For example strengthening the economy of Russia with competent management may have reduced their fear of the fast building economic power of Germany.

Kind of like now...

We will have several starting points, including several years before the historical start of the war.  You will be able to use the editor to create new starting points, but it would be impossible for us to allow the game to start at any day over a period of years.  Each scenario has a massive amount of researched data to plausibly represent the specific start dates.  Creating hundreds of sets of that data wold be incredibly difficult!

Chris--

That is why I was thinking months or seasons.
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; "
- Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598

Mr. Bigglesworth

If it is a "history simulator" rather than wargame simulator you could have annual bite sized DLC packs of 10 years for $5. Start adding that in both forward and reverse time directions your total income could be very much larger. Imagine going back all the way to the Peloponnesian war.
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; "
- Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598

Mr. Bigglesworth

Quote from: MuzzyDev on March 21, 2014, 01:55:28 PM
Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on March 20, 2014, 09:49:39 PM

That is what I find interesting. Lets say you play Germany. You do not go through Belgium. Does the game still put GB into the war? What if you are Russia. You let Austro-Hungary beat the shit out of Serbia. Does WWI start?


You can indeed do things differently and that will change what other nations do.  It will be very unlikely that the war does not happen, though.  If you recall, there was a lot of animosity in Europe at that time.  Everyone wanted to improve their power and influence and ultimately dominate Europe.  The game will reflect this..

Yes, I am sure it would have happened. I'm curious how much changes in one nation impact the overall war. I am very much looking forward to the title being available.
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; "
- Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598

Grim.Reaper

I'll likely pick this up too, but may depend on what kind of discount is given for early access...I guess we'll see in a couple of weeks.