War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition...what's stopping you?

[IronX]

Man - every time someone "resurrects" these monster game threads, it puts me in the mood for one.

Me too. Haven't played if for years, but it's going back on my HD today. It'd be great if Grigsby updated the UI and graphics to match War in the West/East.

[Rayfer]

Man - every time someone "resurrects" these monster game threads, it puts me in the mood for one.

Me too. Haven't played if for years, but it's going back on my HD today. It'd be great if Grigsby updated the UI and graphics to match War in the West/East.

Strange timing...I just re-downloaded the initial non-AE version today and started to give it another go.

[sandman2575]

For those feeling the WitP itch -- I can't recommend Chemkid's glorious modded WitPAE maps strongly enough:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3696410

Completely transformed the game for me. I know it doesn't give as precise an indication of terrain types as the vanilla map (although you can always toggle the map terrain -- F6? or something) -- but it is *so* much more pleasing to the eye and atmospheric / reminiscent of WW2-era cartography than vanilla that I could never go back.

[IronX]

Very nice. I'll definitely give them a try.

[Toonces]

Heh.  I was thinking about re-installing this game today as well.  Tremor in the force or something I guess.

[IronX]

Just be aware that it can be a bit tricky to run well on Win 8/10 if that's what you have. There was about a five second delay between clicking on something and getting a response for me. I played around with some of the switches in the shortcut and managed to get it to work well (see Matrix forums).

[Tuna]

Just be aware that it can be a bit tricky to run well on Win 8/10 if that's what you have. There was about a five second delay between clicking on something and getting a response for me. I played around with some of the switches in the shortcut and managed to get it to work well (see Matrix forums).

Yeah there is a switch to fix that..

Here is the command line I have on my son's laptop (which he took to school)

"C:\Matrix Games\War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition\War in the Pacific Admiral Edition.exe" -deepColor -cpu4 -skipVideo -px1366 -py768

I think the -deepColor is the 'fix'

[Toonces]

Thanks for the heads up on that- I do have Win 10.

The problem with WitP:AE is that it's so bloody long.  On the one hand it can be kind of groovy to have such control over every aspect of fighting the Pacific war.  I suppose there was a point where I would have desired it.  But at this point I simply don't have the stamina to devote so much of my gaming time to a single game.  And that really is what it takes if you want to get anywhere with it.  There are simply way too many excellent games out there waiting to be played to invest all of my time in WitP.

And further, I agree that the UI is simply painful to use.  Again, there was a time where it didn't bother me as much but the endless clicking on those little buttons, and all the idiosyncrasies that occur when going through the screens, it's all just too much.

What I think I'd prefer at this point is more of an operational level game.  I'd like to have various campaigns to play through using the WitP engine; not just Guadalcanal but others, even fictional ones. 

It's hard to admit it's just too much game, especially as I'm such a Pacific war fanboy.  But I don't know that I'll ever get around to really immersing myself in the grand campaign again this lifetime.

[Toonces]

AE is just plain hard

Unnecessarily so, IMO.  Personally, I find the interface time-consuming and arduous.  Most of my time is wasted hunting down commands and clicking a zillion times to accomplish the simplest tasks.  :(

^ This.

[Bison]

AE is just plain hard

Unnecessarily so, IMO.  Personally, I find the interface time-consuming and arduous.  Most of my time is wasted hunting down commands and clicking a zillion times to accomplish the simplest tasks.  :(

^ This.

How many clicks did it take to resurrect that response?  :P

[Yskonyn]

The interface lag doesn't get fixed by the -DeepColor switch.
Its a combination of -dd_sw and -multiaudio that did the trick for me.
Also the -SingleCpuStart combined with the -cpu# switch (use a number for the #) helped spreeding up the game.
But the readme has info on what and why all the switches.
Bottomline: the game runs fine on W10.

Too bad most of you don't go into detail about my questions. :) I'll just be moving on to Guadalcanal.
Some quys on the matrixforums wrote that any outcome as a draw without losing carriers should be considered a win in Coral Sea. The Japanese can't take Port Moresby of course.

[jejo68]

Thanks for the heads up on that- I do have Win 10.

The problem with WitP:AE is that it's so bloody long.  On the one hand it can be kind of groovy to have such control over every aspect of fighting the Pacific war.  I suppose there was a point where I would have desired it.  But at this point I simply don't have the stamina to devote so much of my gaming time to a single game.  And that really is what it takes if you want to get anywhere with it.  There are simply way too many excellent games out there waiting to be played to invest all of my time in WitP.

And further, I agree that the UI is simply painful to use.  Again, there was a time where it didn't bother me as much but the endless clicking on those little buttons, and all the idiosyncrasies that occur when going through the screens, it's all just too much.

What I think I'd prefer at this point is more of an operational level game.  I'd like to have various campaigns to play through using the WitP engine; not just Guadalcanal but others, even fictional ones. 

It's hard to admit it's just too much game, especially as I'm such a Pacific war fanboy.  But I don't know that I'll ever get around to really immersing myself in the grand campaign again this lifetime.

What do you mean it takes a long time to play. Atilla60 and I just finished our PM game after only 4½-5 years. stop being whiney

[Philippe]

Was that for a scenario covering just the early war, or was it the whole thing ?

(And I'm assuming the whole thing doesn't include the Japanese war in China in the mid-thirties).

[sandman2575]

It'd be great if Grigsby updated the UI and graphics to match War in the West/East.

I actually think the UI in WitE/W is considerably worse than WitPAE's.  In fact, I can't think of a game whose UI I despise more than WitE's.

WitPAE's UI leaves *a lot* to be desired, that's for sure (hence the need to supplement the game with 3rd party apps like WitP Tracker and Combat Reporter). But for all the frustrations, it has a kind of quirky endearing quality to it. WitE's UI is a soulless abomination. I'm still dumbfounded, all these years later, at how bad it is. I have made numerous attempts to 'get over it' to play the game, but to me it's an insuperable obstacle to enjoyment.

(...as you can see, I have some strong feelings on this subject   ;))

[Toonces]

I was thinking about this thread some more today.

I think what this game would benefit from (which it won't, but maybe a future game?) is a reduction in scope.  There is just too much information that needs to be managed for one person.

My idea for a game like this would be to borrow some ideas from the board game Pacific War.  Specifically, rather than fighting the whole game out over the whole map using every unit I would compress things down into operations.  The player could pick or design the operation they wanted to conduct, the units he wanted to use form those that are available, and then the game would scope to that area.  Units would flow into or out of the operational area as required, handled by the AI. 

Maybe the way I would design this would be to separate the map into subsets.  The player would pick his subset area (Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, Midway, Philippines, etc.) and then pick an objective from a list- seize Port Moresby, seize Manilla, etc.  A list of available forces would be generated from the database dependent on what had happened previously, or what is not being used by the AI at a strategic "off map" level that the player wouldn't control.  He would allocate those forces in broad ways and then the game would start with the units on the map and the game would run until the objective was met, or not met over some given time. 

I'm not talking about a scripted campaign, but more where the player directs operational objectives and the game scales down to whatever he dictates.  Meanwhile the AI handles higher level strategic moves and the war evolves on those lines.  Perhaps the player gives broad strategic objectives from a list, and the game does macro-level wargaming under the hood that influences the rest of the game.

Anyway, the idea is to make the game more manageable at a level consistent with a single commander.  Even current WitP would work if it would automate and streamline much of the work. Things like building task forces, training units, describing search arcs, resupplying outer areas, ASW patrols, heck even submarine warfare; there is a lot that is just too in the weeds.