The Operational Art of War IV

[Slick Wilhelm]

I caved like I knew I would, and just took the Operation Crusader scenario out for a spin. So far, looks pretty good!

[ArizonaTank]

I caved...  So far so good.... 

[jomni]

Many men in their caves.

[JudgeDredd]

So there's a refund thread over there - the OP pointing out a large proportion of scenarios are not single player.

One guy responded with this

There is AI for all scenarios, but not all has a "Programmed opponent" that means a script for the AI...

Does anyone here have any idea what that means? Can you actually have an AI without having it scripted meaning....? It can't do anything and....therefore isn't an AI?

I'm confused  #:-)

lol - I see the usual answers are kicking around Matrix. Another guy said this (in answer to it not being on Steam)

PS And it is not not on steam, it is just not yet on steam.

I want a refund as well. I just looked through my package and discovered that it does not include a live human opponent! This means I am forced to either play the AI, the PO, play both sides against myself, or go out looking for a human opponent. For $65 Matrix should be mailing me a human opponent that will be available to play against whenever we need them.

When I posted there yesterday to ask about the manual and postage costs, I was trying to remember why I left the place I loved so dearly...now I remember

Tamas from Matrix has cleared up "the mess" - stripping out all the sarky shite and given a clear answer (as one or two others tried to)

As for "no AI": ALL the scenarios can be played in single player without exception. The difference that can be made between the nearly 300 scenarios, is whether specific AI scripts to help and optimise AI planning have been added or not.

Some of the scenarios, and indeed, that usually means the massive ones, do not have such AI scripts and the designers felt that due to this the AI's performance in their scenarios does not live up to the standard set by the other 200+ ones. So they market these "PBEM only".

I'd like to point out that we have almost as many scenarios marked "PO (AI) only", including one of the most impressive and biggest ones, Directive 21, that lets you play the Axis forces through the entire East Front campaign from 1941 to 1945. The designers suggest you play this as the Axis, and your long term victory objective is not to lose Berlin by the end of it!
And also in the case of these scenarios, there is nothing stopping you from playing them PBEM. It is merely that the designers felt that the events scripted etc. give you the most historic result if you play as a specific side in single player.

And then there is the vast majority of the scenarios, where the AI has been properly helped by scripts for both sides AND the designers are not shy about recommending PBEM either.

[jomni]

It's the same case in III as well.

You answered your own question about the PO right? Shall I still answer you?

[chemkid]

@the judge - thanks for the heads-up, mate! i found that refund-thread, too and was confused as well... i'll 'wait' til my coupon rolls in and give it a try soon.

cheers! ...and a merry TOAW4 friday to everyone! :)

[JudgeDredd]

It's the same case in III as well.

You answered your own question about the PO right? Shall I still answer you?

I wasn't talking about PO - I was talking about AI because that's what the thread was about. Programmed Opponent is just an enhanced AI. If the person who answered it had made it clear, there wouldn't have been any confusion

What makes sense is there is an AI and there's an "enhanced" AI for some (most?) scenarios - for one or both sides. So "disaster" averted.

It so looks like a sweet game.

[Yskonyn]

My 44% discount coupon, like magic, was dropped electronically yesterday! Guess what I took for that nice phat discount?!  :hug:

That's right! TOAW4 (and CMANO's Shifting Sands). :D

Happy camper here!

[Grim.Reaper]

the whole ai discussion confused me since i thought all prior versions were like that and was not something new with this release.  if that is true as i believed, no idea why everyone was so surprised but i guess maybe they could have been completly new to this series.

i am sure even the simple ai will be more than enough to kick my butt as most games do:)

[JudgeDredd]

i am sure even the simple ai will be more than enough to kick my butt as most games do:)

Exactly.

[JudgeDredd]

ffs - I've literally just bought Battlefront II and when I checked my email for confirmation, saw an 11 year, 44% discount from Matrix 

[Tamas]

Hey guys, here is a list of all the scenarios, grouped by their designers' recommendation on how to play (AI or PBEM, or both):

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4378959&mpage=1&key=&#4378959

[MikeGER]

the whole ai discussion confused me since i thought all prior versions were like that and was not something new with this release.

yeah, but it was praised with a lot of improvements.
the top-notch military simulation that every wargamer needs marketing sales pitch

A closer study of the information shows that is about new naval warfare , supply and some other tweaks (that's were the better AI may get assumed by old customers) and UI artwork,
as whooping TOAW 4  not TOAW 3.1

i will watch some fresh Let's Plays first and wait for a sale (or my coupon)

[JudgeDredd]

Hey guys, here is a list of all the scenarios, grouped by their designers' recommendation on how to play (AI or PBEM, or both):

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4378959&mpage=1&key=&#4378959

Thanks Tamas. Very helpful (and clear)  O0

[FlickJax]

Hey guys, here is a list of all the scenarios, grouped by their designers' recommendation on how to play (AI or PBEM, or both):

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4378959&mpage=1&key=&#4378959

Indeed high up my list when bank recovers from Xmas raping!!!