Aje demo released

Bison · October 08, 2012, 01:38:47 PM

JDredd honestly I would post over at Ageod forums for specifics. You'll get an answer straight away and most likely from one of the dev team too.

JudgeDredd · October 08, 2012, 01:42:12 PM

Posted at Matrix thx Bison

Bison · October 08, 2012, 01:47:18 PM

No. Post at Ageod. Seriously.

LongBlade · October 08, 2012, 01:49:02 PM

Quote from: Bison on October 08, 2012, 01:47:18 PM
No. Post at Ageod. Seriously.

Erik will probably know an answer or find out for you, but he isn't active in the Matrix forums these days. Slitherine sure won't know and they'll have to go to AGEOD. My advice is to go to the source.

Bison · October 08, 2012, 01:51:09 PM

Matrix is a publisher. Ageod is the developer. Publishers as a rule know squat about the mechanics. Plus Ageod has a very active and helpful community.

JudgeDredd · October 08, 2012, 01:53:30 PM

Yeah - took Bisons advice and gone to the source too. Just another login and password to remember!

What strikes me as rather odd is.....it stuck out like a sore thumb to me! Click the Strategic Cities button on the mini map and some regions are solid red and others are flashing red.

There's nothing in those regions (obvious to me at least lookign at the region stats) that suggests it's in any kind of trouble and it's not obvious whether they are hugely important ones...but I can't believe no-one else hasn't used the strategic cities button - and therefore have to believe that other people have seen these flashing red regions?

I know people here are playing it (or have done) - didn't anyone notice any flashing red regions?

Bizarre

LongBlade · October 08, 2012, 01:53:46 PM

Quote from: Bison on October 08, 2012, 01:51:09 PM
Matrix is a publisher. Ageod is the developer. Publishers as a rule no squat about the mechanics. Plus Ageod has a very active and helpful community.

I know, but Erik was excellent about stuff like this. He actually played most of the games and had the answers at hand or could quickly test for them.

Bison · October 08, 2012, 01:56:35 PM

I agree I always felt Erik was helpful however he seems to be religated to an increasingly backseat role over at Matrix. This is quite unfortunate as he was the captain of a stable ship for a long time.

JudgeDredd · October 08, 2012, 02:10:48 PM

Well - Wodin at Matix answered and it seems he may be correct

When hovering the mouse over solid red regions it says "Strategic Town" - doing the same over a flashing red region it says that and has an extra line of text that says "Caesar Objective Town"

So it seems the flashing red ones are specific to Objective Towns

section 4.6 in the manual should point this out but fails to do so

Bison · October 08, 2012, 02:17:14 PM

You got a response at Ageod too. Win-win.

JudgeDredd · October 08, 2012, 02:47:29 PM

lol - stalker!

I find it really irritating though that wargamers are fed like this. Ok - I'm not going to blow this out of proportion - but it's indicative of the wargaming genre...we're left to burrow to get information and if we're not, then the manual is lacking. I mean - someone programmed those areas to flash red...so why didn't anyone say "the manual should tell users what a flashing red region means - 'cos I made it designate Objective Towns"!

But - I'll give AGEoD their dues - they have brilliant tooltips. They could be better - but they are a damn site better than most other game producers put in their games. Proper feedback is very important for in depth games like these...and AGEoD are almost there :-)

Nefaro · October 08, 2012, 04:15:36 PM

Quote from: JudgeDredd on October 08, 2012, 02:10:48 PM
Well - Wodin at Matix answered and it seems he may be correct

When hovering the mouse over solid red regions it says "Strategic Town" - doing the same over a flashing red region it says that and has an extra line of text that says "Caesar Objective Town"

So it seems the flashing red ones are specific to Objective Towns

section 4.6 in the manual should point this out but fails to do so

Sorry JD, I hadn't checked this thread in awhile.

The flashing towns are Strategic Objectives, set by the scenario, which will give you a near-instant win if you own them all. I'm not sure if you need 51+% loyalty in them, too, but I believe it's something like if you hold them all more than 1 turn then you'll get an instant win. Similar to the fast win you can get by knocking your enemy's National Morale into the dirt. These special cities also should have a (gold?) star next to their city name in the normal map view. You can also find each one by opening your Objective window and there will be a list with these important objective cities there; you can click on the nationality flag next to each city, there, and it will instantly take you to that city's map location.

There are two types of strategic cities. The regular ones you just get VP for. The Objective cities (the flashing ones in that map filter) both give you VP and the aforementioned victory if they're all held. Depending on the specific AGE game and/or scenario, there can be some randomization as to which cities are considered the special objective ones. A good example would be PONs StratObj cities usually being a few that are the same, and then some are added at random, and yet more as the game progresses. I thought I had seen this in another game or two, also, but I could be wrong. I have no idea if that randomization happens in any AJE scenarios.. as that would be a mechanics question for the devs or scenario designer.

JudgeDredd · October 08, 2012, 05:19:39 PM

Thanks for that detailed explanation.

I have no idea how I would get these objective cities...I'm busy running about grabbing back what keeps getting taken! I'm seriously not playing this right! :-)

Nefaro · October 08, 2012, 05:38:12 PM

Quote from: JudgeDredd on October 08, 2012, 05:19:39 PM
Thanks for that detailed explanation.

I have no idea how I would get these objective cities...I'm busy running about grabbing back what keeps getting taken! I'm seriously not playing this right! :-)

Don't forget to recruit more troops. If you haven't been doing that, in your current scenario, the AI will get even further ahead of you.

You'll get a big lump sum from taxes, the first turn of February IIRC. So you can afford to muster a large amount of extra units after that. Just remember that you must pay for upkeep the rest of the year (every monthly turn) and that many Decisions cost money, too. Then again, some decision can create more income at the expense of other things, if you get desperate.

JudgeDredd · October 09, 2012, 01:27:28 AM

oh yeah - I've been recruiting troops! The AI just has decent armies lodged in the South of Italy (there are about 3 or 4 moving from region to region) and I'm running about with 2 to grab places back. I have a large army in Southern France putting fires out and one over to the east of Italy on the mainland which is slowly taking ground. Caesar is stuck in Sicily with an enemy army grater than his sitting in the north east province - I could ship him off - but that would leave sicily wide open.

I really am struggling to gain ground and only really just managing to re-take ground.

A couple of questions if anyone has the time

1. I see regions going purple (I'm playing Caesar). According to the manual regions change hands based on the last unit to stay there at least one turn. These are normal regions - nothing special - so I guess their only real importance is from a supply point of view? Is there any reason why I should use an army to retake a non important region if it appears to not block my supply chain? Is there any other reason why I should take those regions or can I just let the map turn purple as long as I have strategic and objective cities?

2. I'm building units - but only really have the ability to create a few small spear units (can't remember what they're called - 1 up from plebs) and at the end/beginning of each year I can build a couple of the bigger units (cohorts?) - is it sufficient to leave a single pleb army in a city/town? Should I guard my objectives/strategic cities with cohorts or should I attach the cohorts to my armies and use the plebs to protect cities? Because I don't have enough money to create enough units to guard all the cities AND rebuild my battered armies.

That's all that springs to mind at the mo.

Ta