WarTactical Turned on its head! Drastic change.

[gameleaper]

I have drastcaly changed WarTactical, you can now move in steps from point to point, moveing around walls, or move fire then move back to cover. This is very differrent gameplay! I find it really really enjoyable feels like a proper wargame now. Please try your own setups in the editor.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/bnbzzdfugvb0z37/WarTactical538.zip

The game runs on Windows XP/Vista/7/8 MacOSX

[gameleaper]

sorry updated the link with new version, its just a quick fix of something I forgot.

[gameleaper]

Ok I've finished working on & testing WarTactical, this is not an update you should already have it, you should grab it while the link is valid on the free ftp server, the final version is 538 http://www.mediafire.com/download/bnbzzdfugvb0z37/WarTactical538.zip , so except for some future modules thats it.

I want to tell you all about the program, The game is Turn-Based. first of all you should try using the info Dots by pressing "U" nobody seems to know about them they tell you what units have moved or fired etc... Line Of Sight is pin-point accutrate, you should definatly try the editor "E" for game setup.

The game is an infantry squad level game, but a game of tanks can be just as good.The game decides everything on Dice Rolls and modifiers just like a boardgame, The game uses chits for units like a boardgame . the map is about a mile square visible from overhead, 1 pixel per yard, but this can be changed.

The Range, Armor, Anti-Armor, and strength of each unit can be set in the editor.

you can move a unit and then fire and then move back to cover, but your range will reduce as you go.

There are TEM(terrain Effects Modifers) that can be placed on the Map, these can simulate elevation, cover, or terrain type, the TEMs can also be negative like open ground.

There are Victory flags that you battle for control to get the points. Rally Flags are placed to attract the computers units when they cant see you, they can lead them to Victory flags, or the computer can be defending victory flags. Move the mouse to bottom left and you will see a battle report.

Wall of two types exist those that block movement for the computer, and those that block you and the computer. they are easily put on the map with the editor.

The turn results are interactive, you can see the attack result then switch to the map to see where it was then back to the results.

Im finished working on it now, so please try it?

[bayonetbrant]

so now I gotta download it all again?!

[gameleaper]

so now I gotta download it all again?!

sorry, but its now a better game :) the older version is still a good game though.

[gameleaper]

thought the download stats would be of interest to you guys, check the picy for a screenshot of the numbers downloaded so far

[GJK]

First off, congratulations on a game that is easy to play and comes with an AI!  That's no easy task. 

I've played a few games with your 538 version.  The "Leader" scenario is pretty good with an assault to take a hill. 

If it were my decision to make, I would see about incorporating some type of defensive fire.  As you have it now, the game is strictly a IGOUGO game which I think works fine for strategic or operational level games but not so much for tactical games.  In the Leader scenario, since I could both fire and move each turn, it was easy to get to the top of the hill where the remaining turns were a back and forth of fire exchange and little or no maneuvering.  Getting up that hill would be a whole heck of a lot more challenging if the AI could interrupt my move with some defensive fire!

By the way, the look of your game is very much Squad Leader like.  Was that an influence on your design?

I do like the summary of attacks and results screen that shows after the AI turn.  I like being able to study the values and seeing the results of each attack and how it was calculated.  I see that you have the formula at the bottom of that page but still can't quite wrap my brain around what you're adding or not and how the dice affect it however.  Is it after the ARM and TEM which is added to DEF, the ATT adds AP to ATT and then those values are added to the dice rolls?  Is it then the higher roll wins?  I'd like to get more details on how that is calculated (and you may have it in the documentation of which I haven't gone through it all as of yet).

The only real problem that I have with the summary screen is I don't know which unit is which, so when it goes back to the map window, I can't relate to whom got hit and whom hadn't until I individually click each unit.  Perhaps unit ID numbers would help.  There was a very old computer (talking Atari 800/C64 era) game that Avalon Hill put out called "Under Fire".  It was all text based but you would use the mapboard from the original Squad Leader game (board #4 IIRC) and it used Squad Leader pieces and it was basically Squad Leader on a game board but the computer played one of the sides.  It would tell you where it fired and it kept track of its hidden moves.  I have a copy of it that I play from time to time on a C64 emulator.  The point is, it used Unit ID's and would show you a similar results screen.  You then looked up the piece with that ID # and you knew what had happened that turn.

At any rate, I'll play around with this some more and if I can think of any more feedback, I'll offer it up.  By all means, stick with it - who knows what you may come up with!  A tactical PC game that covers almost any era is very appealing....much like the old "Wargame Construction Set" game.

[gameleaper]

Thankyou GJK for the feedback, I will put all you mention into my thinking for future versions.

The Opfire/defensive fire is a nice Idea, I will think what I can do with it.

I have plenty of ASL games, I think its the best boardgame anywhere, I also have the Squad leader game, but never learnwed it because I had the ASL, but the text c64 game you mention is really interesting. ASL and SL are really what motivated me to make this game, I have used Leaders for bonuses.

The Turn summary is interactive, you can scroll up/down and see the line from defender to attacker locations at the time of the attack, the attacker may have moved though. the line appears in the summary and on the map, but the Leader scenario uses light colours like yellow and the white line dosnt show up to well, I should tone down the colours in that scenario, glad you mentioned it.

the ID numbers you suggest are already to a limited way built-in, there are 15 individual named units available, but you can have as many copies of them as you want - but properties such as strength armor etc... can be differrent for each copy. you need to go into the editor and select a unit then press RETURN i think to enter a tag, the tag is universal for all units of that copy, EG: you can have 12 infantry units in the module folder all with the same graphic, but each with a differrent ID, then you can place as many as you want of each on the map with differrent properties, but there only ever be 15 differrent IDs per side. BUT I have not created 15 units in any module so far, so just copy and rename them in the modules folder.

Help01.png in the game folder is help for the attack Formula, there is also some text help. the formula has to be thought of from the attackers point of view, so a shaken attacker is a -modifer and a shaken defender is a +modifer, if a unit is 2 or 3 times stronger it gets a +Modifer etc... the armor mod is a little bit differrent if the defender has armor greater than zero then there is a -modifer for the attacker but the anti-armor value of the attacker is a +modifier , BUT if the defender has no armor then the anti-armor is never credited to the modifier. The white dice are always the player, the red always the computer.

just fired-up the Leader module, The yellow colour is ok I think after looking at it, the only way to see an attack is with the line from attack position to defender position, but the attacker may move, and the defender may die, but the summary gives chit details, I will look at it hard. also the IDs are not visible in the summary sorry, but I know what you mean now, I will keep it in-mind.

[gameleaper]

First off, congratulations on a game that is easy to play and comes with an AI!  That's no easy task. 

I've played a few games with your 538 version.  The "Leader" scenario is pretty good with an assault to take a hill. 

If it were my decision to make, I would see about incorporating some type of defensive fire.  As you have it now, the game is strictly a IGOUGO game which I think works fine for strategic or operational level games but not so much for tactical games.  In the Leader scenario, since I could both fire and move each turn, it was easy to get to the top of the hill where the remaining turns were a back and forth of fire exchange and little or no maneuvering.  Getting up that hill would be a whole heck of a lot more challenging if the AI could interrupt my move with some defensive fire!

By the way, the look of your game is very much Squad Leader like.  Was that an influence on your design?

I do like the summary of attacks and results screen that shows after the AI turn.  I like being able to study the values and seeing the results of each attack and how it was calculated.  I see that you have the formula at the bottom of that page but still can't quite wrap my brain around what you're adding or not and how the dice affect it however.  Is it after the ARM and TEM which is added to DEF, the ATT adds AP to ATT and then those values are added to the dice rolls?  Is it then the higher roll wins?  I'd like to get more details on how that is calculated (and you may have it in the documentation of which I haven't gone through it all as of yet).

The only real problem that I have with the summary screen is I don't know which unit is which, so when it goes back to the map window, I can't relate to whom got hit and whom hadn't until I individually click each unit.  Perhaps unit ID numbers would help.  There was a very old computer (talking Atari 800/C64 era) game that Avalon Hill put out called "Under Fire".  It was all text based but you would use the mapboard from the original Squad Leader game (board #4 IIRC) and it used Squad Leader pieces and it was basically Squad Leader on a game board but the computer played one of the sides.  It would tell you where it fired and it kept track of its hidden moves.  I have a copy of it that I play from time to time on a C64 emulator.  The point is, it used Unit ID's and would show you a similar results screen.  You then looked up the piece with that ID # and you knew what had happened that turn.

At any rate, I'll play around with this some more and if I can think of any more feedback, I'll offer it up.  By all means, stick with it - who knows what you may come up with!  A tactical PC game that covers almost any era is very appealing....much like the old "Wargame Construction Set" game.

OK I've studied your feedback and have thought about the answers, first I have used the same graphic chit with different properties for all infantry, you can use different graphic chits with IDs so they will be visible on the summary aswell as the attack line. Now defensive fire has a workaround, you can closely stack together MGs or Artilary with a long range, this will give a number of attacks on the advanceing troops, it wont fire when its your turn but it will be a deterant and a challenge to destroy the defenders first or you will be showered by the defenders and artilary. I will keep thinking on it, thankyou for some great feedback