FRIDAY was Shot Down by the Europeans

Skoop · July 24, 2015, 05:10:37 PM

Kicked Friday off with mission 7 of the "Friday Night Bombing Missions" which is a weekly MP event hosted by the community for IL2 Battle of Stalingrad. It's basically an MP dynamic Campaign where the losses and progress are tracked and updated manually to give a persistent battlefield effect.

Then later tonight it's another round of Iron Front MP CoOP.

BanzaiCat · July 24, 2015, 06:24:50 PM

Already played me some Warhammer 40K Armageddon. Two hours' worth, lost track of time.

-budd- · July 24, 2015, 06:41:07 PM

Continue with WITE, its not as hard to learn as i imagined. The UI is really well done. Now that i've played the "road to Minsk" 3 turn scenario 6 times, twice as the Russians to see how the AI handles the Germans, I'm moving on to bigger things "the road to Leningrad" . For a change of pace i picked up Quake 2. I finished it years ago, one of my favorite shooters. I got it all modded out with new textures and playing with the KMquake exe. I forgot the game has a 4 barrel shotgun :D so i'm gonna shoot some strogg"s in the face. I also loaded up Dark Messiah of might and magic a different FPS, as in "first person swordplay" so after WITE sucks my brain dry, I'll just go shoot some shit or stab some shit.

Gusington · July 24, 2015, 08:14:37 PM

BC: and?? Impressions? Feelings? Likes? COME ON MAN

BanzaiCat · July 24, 2015, 08:39:33 PM

Quote from: Gusington on July 24, 2015, 08:14:37 PM
BC: and?? Impressions? Feelings? Likes? COME ON MAN

LOL - I had started another thread and lengthy post but I decided against it. If you want to know, I'll try to summarize my thoughts:

- It's hex-based, IGOUGO wargaming. Panzer General-like? Perhaps. There's lots under the hood to make it different/more than just that, though. However, the similarities cannot be overlooked, and that will probably kill it for anyone that hates PG.

- Do you like Warhammer 40K? Admittedly I have quite a bit of ignorance when it comes to this universe. It appeals to me but it's so broad, deep, and full of content from so many sources that it's almost impossible to see where one should start to absorb it all. If you like W40K, you'll probably like this. If you can take it or leave it, it won't have nearly the appeal.

- There are a LOT of units. I mean, a LOT OF UNITS. And since I'm ignorant in general of this universe, I can't tell you the difference between them. As you go further into the Campaign, you'll unlock more and more choices to build your core forces. The choices are in fact rather overwhelming. Those familiar with W40K shouldn't have a problem. People like me might have trouble wading through it all. It certainly is not lacking for content, unit-wise. The artwork on the units is very impressive, though I don't know the difference between an Autocannon and a Lascannon.

- The terrain and units look pretty good. The animations are not all that impressive, though. Units are rendered in one of six facings, owing to the hexes; they move like Tron light cycles, snapping to each direction as they move. No cool animation of grinding treads or marching soldiers - just bap-bap-bap-bap you're there. Firing animations are good, but limited - they look the same whether you're firing at an adjacent unit or one three hexes away, so there's no 'direct' fire, per se, from the firing unit directly into the target hex. You'll see firing animation based on the direction the unit is facing, and then explosions. The explosions are fairly impressive, as incoming hits the target. Destroyed targets, however, just evaporate.

- I don't know much about the universe, as I said, but I DO know that Titans are pretty massive behemoths. They're one-hex-sized units in this game. Not impressive at all. There's also some rather powerful area-effect weapons in the W40K universe, but none of these are here; everything is one-attack-per-hex and there's from what I can tell no area-effect weapons, which is disappointing.

- There is a choice between a Campaign and Scenarios. The Scenarios are basically one-shots from the Campaign. So if you've played the Campaign, you've played all the Scenarios. That kind of sucks. I had hoped to see separate stuff.

- There is a multiplayer component, but I did not try it.

I did spend two hours with it as I said...so I WAS engaged in the gameplay. It did draw me in despite my knowledge handicaps. I didn't overanalyze the units and just kind of jumped in and bought units that looked cool/had decent stats and jumped into the battles. This didn't feel like something I personally would have been comfortable with paying $40 for. Half that price would be pushing it. Like I said, it's pretty much Panzer General at heart, but with a lot of bits from the 40K universe to make it very appealing to those that are hardcore WH fans. Me, I can take it or leave it - I like the universe but it's overwhelming, as I said.

Is it worth $40? I don't think so. Not for me, anyway. If you're big time into WH40K and you enjoyed PG, you'll get a LOT of mileage out of this.

Gusington · July 24, 2015, 09:38:02 PM

I do enjoy Panzer General and Panzer Korps, and I am a novice WH40K fan...have collections of books waiting to be read while I find the right games, like The Founding and Eisenhorn, so...I think I will enjoy this. Thanks BC!

Nefaro · July 25, 2015, 04:11:13 AM

Still just playing World Of Warships. About the only one I've done in the past week and a half.

Tuna · July 25, 2015, 09:12:57 AM

Totally addicted to World of Warships as well right now.

Also continuing PBEM Tiller Antietam with Panzerde and WITP AE Guadalcanal with SDR.

Airborne Rifles · July 25, 2015, 09:27:23 AM

I'll be trying to get CMANO in and write up the AAR for the first half of the scenario I've played. Lots of things getting in the way, though.

JasonPratt · July 25, 2015, 10:40:51 AM

Quote from: Gusington on July 24, 2015, 09:38:02 PM
I do enjoy Panzer General and Panzer Korps, and I am a novice WH40K fan...have collections of books waiting to be read while I find the right games, like The Founding and Eisenhorn, so...I think I will enjoy this. Thanks BC!

I've been playing it off and on since release, and I concur with B_C's opinion on all points, pro and con. If you like Panzer General and you like WH40K, you'll like this. If you like one but can't stand the other, eh. If you hate both, or are ambivalent either way, this won't change your mind.

I'll add to the critiques that, last time I played, air unit mechanics were excessively stupid and kind of broken (in a hampering way, as in being hampered by terrain.) However, the game can be played without them, so no biggie. The devs have been pretty good about fixing bugs, and adding some design benefits (like being able to name units, which is a major feature of most PGish games but was originally left out despite the code basically being there.) They've added campaigns over time, but I'm not sure those will matter to anyone who doesn't already like not only WH40K and the Space Marines in particular (I do), but the Battle for Armageddon lore especially (for which I'm meh) -- Space Marines vs Orks are SMs vs Orks after a while.

Gusington · July 25, 2015, 10:44:16 AM

^Yeah I think I remember JH bringing up that exact point about the air units.

Toonces · July 25, 2015, 11:02:15 AM

Quote from: Tuna on July 25, 2015, 09:12:57 AM
Totally addicted to World of Warships as well right now.

Also continuing PBEM Tiller Antietam with Panzerde and WITP AE Guadalcanal with SDR.

Ahhh...that explains why I see Panzerde popping up every day on my Steam friends list playing Campaign Antietam. The first time I saw the pop-up I spent 10 minutes trying to find the game on Steam before I realized it was a non-Steam game. I didn't know Steam would do pop-ups for non-Steam games, but apparently it does.

Closure. I have closure. I love it when that happens.

Tuna · July 25, 2015, 11:06:59 AM

Quote from: Toonces on July 25, 2015, 11:02:15 AM
Quote from: Tuna on July 25, 2015, 09:12:57 AM
Totally addicted to World of Warships as well right now.

Also continuing PBEM Tiller Antietam with Panzerde and WITP AE Guadalcanal with SDR.

Ahhh...that explains why I see Panzerde popping up every day on my Steam friends list playing Campaign Antietam. The first time I saw the pop-up I spent 10 minutes trying to find the game on Steam before I realized it was a non-Steam game. I didn't know Steam would do pop-ups for non-Steam games, but apparently it does.

Closure. I have closure. I love it when that happens.

LOL, I just asked him if I'm in real big trouble because he's been in Antietam for awhile!!!.. I said if you spend that much time analyzing your turns I'm in big trouble!.. But he said he walked away after the replay! ::)

panzerde · July 25, 2015, 11:11:40 AM

Quote from: Tuna on July 25, 2015, 11:06:59 AM
LOL, I just asked him if I'm in real big trouble because he's been in Antietam for awhile!!!.. I said if you spend that much time analyzing your turns I'm in big trouble!.. But he said he walked away after the replay! ::)

At least that's what I told him...

panzerde · July 25, 2015, 11:13:24 AM

Quote from: Toonces on July 25, 2015, 11:02:15 AM
Ahhh...that explains why I see Panzerde popping up every day on my Steam friends list playing Campaign Antietam. The first time I saw the pop-up I spent 10 minutes trying to find the game on Steam before I realized it was a non-Steam game. I didn't know Steam would do pop-ups for non-Steam games, but apparently it does.

Closure. I have closure. I love it when that happens.

I've set up most of my Tiller games so I can launch them from Steam, since I generally have Steam open all the time anyway. Plus, it does show that I'm playing them in the Friends list so I guess I'm advertising!