In Honor of the JTS Interview Thread -- What Should Be Next?

[Cyrano]

For those that know of the company and its systems, what would be your top three or four games that you'd like to see come out next?  I imagine it could be an entirely new system or another installment of an existing one.

Mine, in order:

1.  AoS re-boot...with MP as it exists in the other titles.  I get faint-y thinking about 10-player ship scrums.

2: The completion of the War in Europe series with the postulated meta-map.

3: Renaissance:  Thirty Years' War

4:  PzC for Vietnam.  It exists for the bloody iPad, so why not the PC?

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

[Nefaro]

Anything non-WW2.   :P

The Age of Sail idea is nice but I'd imagine that it would require a huge amount of changes to their current system.  Not sure if they'd be willing to spend that much effort on it.  :-\


I have the Matrix digital version of the original AOS that comes with Battleground Napoleonic Wars.  There is a missing color issues with some of the flags in the ship UI but it works okay.  The Zoom is terrible on that old game, though.  On higher modern resolutions, anyway.  Either the ships are too small to properly see when at a good map-level zoom to take in the situation, or the ships are about right but the edge of the map doesn't even reach maximum gun range.  So I found myself having to constantly zoom in and out .. without being able to use the mouse wheel to do so.  Or requiring numerous hotkeys depending on the level you want IIRC.  So there are definitely some tweaks it could use.

[panzerde]

I'd really like to see more in the Musket & Pike series, either TYW or ECW - or both.


After that I'd like to see the War in Europe Series not only completed but fixed. There are game breaking bugs in it now, like the fact that you can't see combat results when in 2x 2D view.


A further expansion of the WWI series, either covering subsequent years in the war or one covering the Balkan Wars. Gallipoli or Palestine would be interesting.

[Al]

I'd like to see further games in the First World War series.  Panzerde's suggestions in that regard are excellent.  Premzyl/Lemberg would be nice.

Further expansion of the Panzer Battles series and please....something other than the eastern front.  France '40 offers lots of battles.

[Staggerwing]

More Modern War Squad Battles, esp. hypothetical cold war scenarios tied in with their Modern Campaigns story arc.

[southern_cross_116]

#3, although technically speaking 'Renaissance' is the name of a title in the 'Musket and Pike' series, it is not the series name itself.

[panzerde]

I'd also like to see more in the Panzer Battles series. A Western Front game would be particularly welcome.


Might have to play some of that series today...I do like company scale games...

[Strela]

I'd also like to see more in the Panzer Battles series. A Western Front game would be particularly welcome.


Might have to play some of that series today...I do like company scale games...

The next Panzer Battles will be in the West and the one following will be considerably warmer....

[Staggerwing]

...and the one following will be considerably warmer....

If we're talking Date Palms rather than Coconut Palms then...

Yesss!

[Cyrano]

Dammit, you guys...

Like I have the mental bandwidth to take on another game system.

*looks up Panzer Battles site and prepares to download*

Bastards!

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

[panzerde]

The next Panzer Battles will be in the West and the one following will be considerably warmer....

That is GREAT news. If the designer's notes are as good with those as they are with the Kursk title, I can stop buy WW2 Osprey titles!

[panzerde]

Dammit, you guys...

Like I have the mental bandwidth to take on another game system.

*looks up Panzer Battles site and prepares to download*

Bastards!

Come on Jim, we can get a turn or two of Kursk in between turns of Leipzig and Pavia. It's not like you're governing a major city or anything.

[bbmike]

I would like to see a new JTS game engine. 

[Cyrano]

@bbmike:  I hear that comment made a fair amount in the vicinity of JTS offerings, but it usually comes without suggestions to make the engine better.  I make no secret that I find the system just fine as it is, but it's certainly evolved over the years and has now even made significant strides in the area of graphics.  So, if it were in your hands (or anyone else hereabout for the matter) what would you change/add/remove, &c.?  Folks near to JTS visit here so you never know.  Strikes me as all together better to light a candle, you know?

@doug:  Mine, as most cities, is ultimately ungovernable in the medieval sense.  I like to think of myself as the pale, sweaty guy in the U-boat engine room that periodically gets the call from the commander looking for "Ahead Full" while standing in waist-deep water.

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

[Strela]

I would like to see a new JTS game engine. 

bbmike,

That's a hard one. The reason John can get out the volume of games that he has over the last 15 - 20 years is the solidity of the engine. John has consciously used the same engine to ensure compatibility and ease of patching etc.

The engine is actually very flexible when you consider it can handle tactical to strategic and land, naval & air etc. It's usually the 'Windows 98' interface that gets most criticism, but many people like the fact that the interface is consistent across the various series and makes the learning phase much simpler. I can almost guarantee any change in the engine will get the 'purists' offside...

Finally, you can see there is a concerted effort to improve the look of the game and that is helping to change the perception of the games being 'old school'. This is the beauty of John's engine, there is a lot of customisation that can be done at a designer/user level and we are starting to leverage that more and more.