Out of Game Combat Resolution

[Kai]

Please implement an option to resolve combat outside of the computer program and then input the results of the battle manually.

This would make it possible to use BOA II as a campaign system for folks who like to play miniatures battles.

This would expand the potential market for the BOA II game to all the miniatures gamers out there.

This way, if there is an interesting battle, the players could choose to resolve the battle with miniatures, then input the casualties and results manually.

[Pocus]

We would need a serious petitions to do that (at least 250+ persons) because it will need quite a lot of works for us. But keep suggestions coming, they are the fertile grounds from which we improve our games!

[GShock]

I disagree on the 250 people to do that, anyway. It takes just 3 in a garage

[Pocus]

This is to see if there is a really strong interest or not. The demand surfaces from time to time.

[Kai]

We would need a serious petitions to do that (at least 250+ persons) because it will need quite a lot of works for us. But keep suggestions coming, they are the fertile grounds from which we improve our games!

Quite a lot of work? How hard could it be, really?

All you are doing is adding the option to replace the computer generated combat result with a player input combat result. Currently, the computer applies some formulae and comes up with combat losses, etc. Why would it be so hard to provide the option to bypass the formulae and just let the player input the results?

You will never get 250+ petitions from your current customers.
However, if you make the change, you will open up a whole new customer base, well beyond the number of people who are simply interested in computer strategy games.

By making the game compatible with miniature gaming, you will have expanded the number of people who would be interested in BOA2.

There are a lot more than 250 people who play American Revolution miniatures games. All of these people would become potential customers, even if they otherwise had no interest in a computer only game. There are 5-10 people just in my local club who would buy BOA2 if it had this feature.

Look at Matrix's version of Empires in Arms. It has this feature implemented. As a result, 7 people in my local miniature gaming club bought EIA who otherwise would not have purchased the game.

Think about it. Right now, your game appeals only to computer strategy gamers. With the addition of this feature, your game would appeal to a whole other market segment. (a market segment of people who routinely spend a lot of money on the hobby.)

[Cougar_DK]

Quite a lot of work? How hard could it be, really?

Kai, when I developer say its hard....well....its hard.... They know the code, we don't. Its all about design....

I'm a total noob in their games but since the system is WEGO, there could be some things to consider, since a lot happens in a turn where we as players is hands off.

[Pocus]

All I have do to, amongst many things, is to provide the players with an utility which allow them to enter the end results of their tabletop wargaming in a format compatible and legit to the computer game... Quite a lot of work...

[GShock]

Questionable to resolve battle somewhere else...all the engine stats and mechanics go to be blessed...this system is specifically designed to let the AI do these things for us during resolution...what game can do that with our parameters? U'd end up building a game in the game just to make it adaptable...and then what? Half players use this game and half uses the other one?

...dunno...i don't think it's a good idea to invest resources, time and money on this, but of course it's my opinion. I am more interested in tweaking the engine to make it go more realistically, tweaking the AI to be a decent opponent...wherever combat is resolved, as long as accurate, who cares?

[Pocus]

tweaking the AI to be a decent opponent

GShock has been abducted by Aliens and reprogramed!

[GShock]

...which explains my right hand's recent mutation into a "wicked hand"

[Kai]

All I have do to, amongst many things, is to provide the players with an utility which allow them to enter the end results of their tabletop wargaming in a format compatible and legit to the computer game... Quite a lot of work...

Quite a lot of work, but it would have to be easier than an overhaul of the opponent AI.

Even if it is quite a lot of work, it would be worth it. As I pointed out earlier, it's one of the few changes you could implement that would actually broaden the appeal to a whole new market segment. The miniature hobby is saturated with miniatures and rule sets, but there are very few decent campaign systems, and even fewer computer moderated campaign systems. (I can only think of 2, and they are both Napoleonic.)
It is an unmet need, and BOAII would be the only solution in the AWI genre. (For that matter, any of your games would be amenable to this change. I mentioned this issue on a miniature gaming forum, and immediately got a response from a guy who said he "would pay up to 200 bucks for a good ACW version.")

[Pocus]

You would think that if the miniature hobby players were at least midly interested by pc games, they would already be playing AACW, which is more and more seen as a reference game, given the depth of details it has that none of its competitors reach (without disparaging them, that is not my attention, but I admit I'm biased in favor of this game ).

But it does not seem they are much interested, because we have perhaps on average one player per month asking that, so it is not much. So even if there is a potential, it has to be proven that these players can get attracted by this feature in a PC game.

[Jabberwock]

The miniatures group I used to play with in college would have been very happy to have something like this - and they had student activity money to spend. A group of them spent an entire year (1991?) of Tuesday and Thursday nights refighting the civil war using two different systems.

It could be used as a scenario setup utility, a "cheat" utility, or as Kia suggests, using the game generated .scn, .hst, and .trn files as a basis for modification.

I'm not saying that Pocus needs to be the one to code it. It doesn't even need to be done in Delphi. It could be a web site.

... hmm ...

[Kai]

You would think that if the miniature hobby players were at least midly interested by pc games, they would already be playing AACW.

That's my point. It's true that miniature hobby players are not necessarily interested in pc games. However, if you add the miniatures resolution feature, they become interested. Not becasue it is a pc game, but as a campaign tool for miniatures.

You can't judge the potential market by your current market, because the two don't necessarily overlap. (I am perhaps an exception.) The addition of a miniatures option provides entry into an entirely new market. Time spent tweaking other features of the existing games will only result in marginal additional customers, because the "tweaked" game will still only appeal to your existing market segment (hard core computer strategy gamers.) Folks in this market segment already know (and love) your games, so the increase in market penetration will be limited no matter how much you tweak the existing game.

Miniature gamers are a completely new and untapped market. That's why making the existing game miniature compatible makes sense. It provides AGEOD with access to an entirely new population of potential customers by making a relatively minor modification to the existing game.

[Pocus]

Thanks for your feedback, you made some points. I have passed the discussion to the rest of the team. Is something is ever done (and this is not a promise), then it won't be before several months. But thanks.

We will get back to you, if you can provide links to active forum and such.