Commander: The Great War is Out Now!

Lord Zimoa · December 13, 2012, 03:58:12 AM

On balanced the AI get no bonuses at all! On privileged it does get some economic boosts, on handicapped the AI should get some penalties. The privileged AI gets a one off manpower bonus (at game start) & temporary PP bonuses when it is below full strength. However, it gets no combat bonuses.

So if you are beaten on balanced, yes you are ass-whipped by good designed and well written AI! The AI was one of our main developing new features and we had one special assigned AI programmer (Dave aka Myrddrraal) who worked with unseen passion on it during the past 3 years and it is one of the best AI I have seen in a wargame for a long time. So a big credit goes to him.

Alas upon release we noted a small error that on handicapped the AI was actually privileged instead of handicapped...

This is fixed in the upcoming patch, together with some more re-balancing and bug fixes based on feedback after the initial release. This first patch is ready for release and in the hands of Slitherine/Matrix, so should release any day now.

In the next year we have planned more updates and requests as well as adding things that were on our own wishlist anyway, like an "undo" button for units that has not revealed any FOW, a slick easy- to-use scenario editor, adding an extra zoom-in level, and much more... this new Commander engine is powerful and relatively easy to manipulate through Lua scripting, it will be the base we will work on for some years to come, so we are pretty sure we have all the tools to make it even better with help of the wargaming community and feedback we get from players.

As usual we will support our games for years to come... as long as you guys enjoy and buy our products we are committed to update them as best and fast as we can.

Cheers,

Tim aka LZ

Gusington · December 13, 2012, 08:50:57 AM

Thank you LZ. So that settles it...we all suck, including Steelgrave.

As an aside, has anyone won the game?

TheCommandTent · December 13, 2012, 09:48:10 AM

Quote from: Lord Zimoa on December 13, 2012, 03:58:12 AM
On balanced the AI get no bonuses at all! On privileged it does get some economic boosts, on handicapped the AI should get some penalties. The privileged AI gets a one off manpower bonus (at game start) & temporary PP bonuses when it is below full strength. However, it gets no combat bonuses.

So if you are beaten on balanced, yes you are ass-whipped by good designed and well written AI! The AI was one of our main developing new features and we had one special assigned AI programmer (Dave aka Myrddrraal) who worked with unseen passion on it during the past 3 years and it is one of the best AI I have seen in a wargame for a long time. So a big credit goes to him.

Alas upon release we noted a small error that on handicapped the AI was actually privileged instead of handicapped...

This is fixed in the upcoming patch, together with some more re-balancing and bug fixes based on feedback after the initial release. This first patch is ready for release and in the hands of Slitherine/Matrix, so should release any day now.

In the next year we have planned more updates and requests as well as adding things that were on our own wishlist anyway, like an "undo" button for units that has not revealed any FOW, a slick easy- to-use scenario editor, adding an extra zoom-in level, and much more... this new Commander engine is powerful and relatively easy to manipulate through Lua scripting, it will be the base we will work on for some years to come, so we are pretty sure we have all the tools to make it even better with help of the wargaming community and feedback we get from players.

As usual we will support our games for years to come... as long as you guys enjoy and buy our products we are committed to update them as best and fast as we can.

Cheers,

Tim aka LZ

Thanks for the update. Nice to see you guys supporting this for the long haul.

Nefaro · December 13, 2012, 10:19:34 AM

Quote from: Lord Zimoa on December 13, 2012, 03:58:12 AM

So if you are beaten on balanced, yes you are ass-whipped by good designed and well written AI!

Good to hear!

The AI is challenging. I wish all strategy games could say the same.

Steelgrave · December 13, 2012, 10:21:39 AM

Wow, I do suck. Congrats on a game design that made me realize that, Lord Z ;D

Bismarck · December 13, 2012, 10:49:10 AM

Quote from: Nefaro on December 13, 2012, 10:19:34 AM
Quote from: Lord Zimoa on December 13, 2012, 03:58:12 AM

So if you are beaten on balanced, yes you are ass-whipped by good designed and well written AI!

Good to hear!

The AI is challenging. I wish all strategy games could say the same.

+1 I sometimes think players have a bipolar thing swinging from " I can win so the AI sucks" to "I can't win so the AI cheats"' Glad to see players appreciate a good design.

Nefaro · December 13, 2012, 10:53:25 AM

Quote from: Bismarck on December 13, 2012, 10:49:10 AM
Quote from: Nefaro on December 13, 2012, 10:19:34 AM
Quote from: Lord Zimoa on December 13, 2012, 03:58:12 AM

So if you are beaten on balanced, yes you are ass-whipped by good designed and well written AI!

Good to hear!

The AI is challenging. I wish all strategy games could say the same.

+1 I sometimes think players have a bipolar thing swinging from " I can win so the AI sucks" to "I can't win so the AI cheats"' Glad to see players appreciate a good design.

I know what you mean.

But I actually enjoy a tough AI opponent whereas I think many people want one that makes them struggle a bit, but eventually buckles in the end so that they don't get too frustrated with losing. As with most things, it's all about the personal preference of how much is perfect.

TheCommandTent · December 13, 2012, 01:19:11 PM

Don't get me wrong I enjoy a tough AI opponent too but I just want to make sure it wasn't "cheating" before starting another game in which it kicks my butt. It wouldn't be as much fun if I could just win every time regardless of how bad I played.

Keunert · December 13, 2012, 02:21:07 PM

i am pretty sure that there is some hidden forum somewhere where all those so called weakling ai's bitch about idiot human opponents like me or Steely

Bismarck · December 13, 2012, 02:27:09 PM

Quote from: Keunert on December 13, 2012, 02:21:07 PM
i am pretty sure that there is some hidden forum somewhere where all those so called weakling ai's bitch about idiot human opponents like me or Steely

ROFLAO!!! ;D ;D ;D

republic · December 13, 2012, 02:28:30 PM

If I'm a person more comfortable with Advanced Tactics Gold than Hearts of Iron, would this be for me?

LongBlade · December 13, 2012, 02:29:47 PM

Quote from: republic on December 13, 2012, 02:28:30 PM
If I'm a person more comfortable with Advanced Tactics Gold than Hearts of Iron, would this be for me?

I'd say yes.

Keunert · December 13, 2012, 02:35:59 PM

i'd believe that the hoi3 ai would gladly pay 10 bucks if there was any sort of patch that would reduce my turn length by boosting my intelligence, or even add some polygons to make my clueless face a little more bearable to watch

Bismarck · December 13, 2012, 02:47:00 PM

Quote from: republic on December 13, 2012, 02:28:30 PM
If I'm a person more comfortable with Advanced Tactics Gold than Hearts of Iron, would this be for me?

No doubt about it.

Steelgrave · December 13, 2012, 03:20:44 PM

I actually feel better about the beating I've taken, knowing that the AI is not cheating and it's just that good. Kudos! I can handle the AI being a little rough on me if it's done fairly. Just gotta up my game here 8) Good thing is that I'm no where near tired of the trenches yet. Victory shall yet come!