AGEOD Forums

Hi!

I just found about this promising new indie game in the wargamer forums.
http://www.forcedmarchgames.com/
It seems to be a small and not too complicated game, the kind you can fully play in some hours, with a clear boardgame look and feel.
The looks are really nice for an indie game (in a very appropriate "ancient" style) and seems to have interesting mechanics.
I have just downloaded the demo and have been tinkering a little with the numerous and very well done tutorials and the game seems pretty polished
Hope to give it more time this weekend
Good to see new PC wargame developers appearing... specially if they do ancient era games!!

Cheers!

I have just taken a look at the screenshots...

arsan wrote:The looks are really nice for an indie game (in a very appropriate "ancient" style) ...

It looks like we have a different standard of what "looks nice"...
Obviously, I would not expect a map like the Total War one in full 3D, that's something prohibitive for an indie game. But really... they could look a bit better IMHO...
Anyway, if that's as much as they can go on the graphic stuff, but the game mechanics are good... I will have to live with that.

What I do not understand is for what they need Pixel Shader 2.0 for those graphics ... but I supose I will need to try the game first to find out why...

But Generalisimo, do you observed that the graphical stylization of this game should resemble antique art? So i don't understand why you think it isnt nice. I think it really is. I remember i played another good looking indie game, some sort of strategy/adventure where you were oriental merchant. Thank god that it doesnt look like Total War.

Hehe! i said "for and "indie" game"
No, really, i like their "ancient picture" graphic style
I suppose they know their budget limitations and preferred to use their own style instead of doing a crude imitation of the standard graphics.
They don't try to be flashy, thats true but i find them stylish and very original.
I prefer a thousand times a game that puts personality above the standard "lets use 3D because everybody do" (even if it has no use at all for the game :bonk I could put some examples but i won't

Thats what i love AGEOD graphics: old 2D but done with tons of style

For what i've seen (half the tutorials) the game and interface are very polished and nice Ans the game mechanics looks promising. The battles remind me of the WW1 system.

Cheers!

PANGI wrote: I remember i played another good looking indie game, some sort of strategy/adventure where you were oriental merchant.

Sound nice, don't your recall the name??

arsan wrote:Sound nice, don't your recall the name??

http://www.spicetrade.org/

Thanks!
I'm not much into trading games, but the setting look interesting
I will have to take a look at this too!

arsan wrote:Sound nice, don't your recall the name??

Maybe this?
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/merchantprince2/index.html

For my own, I'm in love with the gfx, certainly inspired by the Tabula Peutingerina

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Table-de-Peutinger-detail.jpg

PANGI wrote:But Generalisimo, do you observed that the graphical stylization of this game should resemble antique art? So i don't understand why you think it isnt nice. I think it really is. I remember i played another good looking indie game, some sort of strategy/adventure where you were oriental merchant. Thank god that it doesnt look like Total War.

Obviously, we do not need to agree...

For me, it doesn't look good, sorry, you will not be able to convince me otherwise...

arsan wrote:Hehe! i said "for and "indie" game"
No, really, i like their "ancient picture" graphic style
I suppose they know their budget limitations and preferred to use their own style instead of doing a crude imitation of the standard graphics.
They don't try to be flashy, thats true but i find them stylish and very original.
I prefer a thousand times a game that puts personality above the standard "lets use 3D because everybody do" (even if it has no use at all for the game :bonk I could put some examples but i won't

I do not want to "bash" the artist for doing those graphics because I am sure that he invested a lot of time in doing those graphics for the game, so he deserves my respect.
But really... I do not like them... they are "hard" for my eyes...

arsan wrote:Thats what i love AGEOD graphics: old 2D but done with tons of style

I love that too... I do not think a game needs 3D to be able to sell more...

arsan wrote:For what i've seen (half the tutorials) the game and interface are very polished and nice Ans the game mechanics looks promising. The battles remind me of the WW1 system.

That's what it matters in the end for us wargamers...
The problem is that this is not the case for all the people...

I'm on the fence about the game mechanics/interface, which I did not feel were at all intuitive when I messed around with the demo; doing even the simplest actions seemed rather complicated. Interface needs a revamp for usability.

But I'm with Arsan on the graphics. They may not be what I'd consider to be "beautiful", but they are certainly distinctive, pretty informational (though I did not get far enough into the game to determine this fully) and give the game a very unique look. I like that.

I'm on my way to try this one. Thanks Arsan for the link.
Maybe that will help to wait the "Ageod's Roman Republic Era" game of my dreams !!
It's such a pity that I cannot play Pax Romana on Vista !!

Arsan: Do you really want to throw a monkey-wrench into this game? By likening it to Luca's WWI game? t

Arghh !! It's a little disappointing because the demo ends at the end of the second turn !!
Anyway, there're quite good ideas in this little game :
easy to understand and practice, options cards, recruiting, Hannibal's super powers ( ), political choices, good old graphic counters reminding antics' boardgames, etc ...
Quite entertaining and interesting, and not much alternatives on the subject. But the demo is definitively too short !!

Hehe, after doing half the tutorials i tried the campaign and didn't managed to survive until the second turn
The AI romans concentrated a huge army and smashed mine killing Hannibal on turn 1 in Cisalpine Gaul Game over!
It seems i better finish my tutorials before the next try
But so far i'm enjoying it
Hope the full game includes the option to play the roman and some other scenarios (1º and 3º Punic wars seems pretty obvious ones) to give the game more content. The engine seems worthwhile!

Maybe it's because of the betrayal of your spanish mercenaries !!

In my game, I took 4 of 5 Cisalpine Gaul cities, made an alliance with Gauls, destroyed a large Roman Navy in front of Carthago, and besieged Scipio in Genoa. But he managed to escape by sea and the Roman counter-attack in Cisalpine by the East re-took all of the cities except the one I'm in in Etruria. I don't even have the time to fight a real battle in open field !!
For your battle, have you used one of Hannibal's tricks ? Some are very powerful !!

When the game will be released, I think that the Roman side will be playable ( in fact, I hope so !! ). But I strongly doubt about some others scenarii.

DarthMath wrote:For your battle, have you used one of Hannibal's tricks ? Some are very powerful !!

No, as i hadn't done the Cards tutorial still
Next time...

Arf !! Bad luck !!
As it is maybe the only one which is essential.
With the recruiting's part ...

Strategy wrote:I'm on the fence about the game mechanics/interface, which I did not feel were at all intuitive when I messed around with the demo; doing even the simplest actions seemed rather complicated. Interface needs a revamp for usability.

But I'm with Arsan on the graphics. They may not be what I'd consider to be "beautiful", but they are certainly distinctive, pretty informational (though I did not get far enough into the game to determine this fully) and give the game a very unique look. I like that.

Oh, by the way, Mr Strategy, I've just taken a look at your Imperium Project. It looks very promising. Can you bring us further informations ?
It's a work still in progress as it seems, but I sense great possibilities !!

Funny, the art reminds me of the Bayeux Tapestry. Unique choice, in any case.

Can't trust those Spanish??!!! Eh Arsan? best, t apy:

After reading of the manual and two more little tries, it seems that the Roman side won't be playable by human. Its manpower is very overwhelming and almost unbeatable, even with Hannibal's superpower !!
Most of the results and possibilities of success depends of luck, one example is the Gallic Attrition : once I had no loss at all, another time I lost half of my little army ... and the Romans can recruit almost two complete consular armies each turn ... ( and all of that is WAD, as the manual states )
Reinforcing Hannibal in Italy seems to be a real challenge ( as it was, a good point for the game ... ) and the key to survive a little. But taking Roma comes close to being a myth !!
Another example of luck or not is the semi-random drawing of options cards.
That changes the game and the Punics' possiblities greatly.

In conclusion, I'm a little more reserved than yesterday about spending my money on this. There are some good points in the game, but luck seems to be the real factor of victory.

DarthMath wrote:Oh, by the way, Mr Strategy, I've just taken a look at your Imperium Project. It looks very promising. Can you bring us further informations ?
It's a work still in progress as it seems, but I sense great possibilities !!

Thanks for the interest. Think Imperium Romanum II (or similar board game) as a PC game and set in the Alexandrian Successor/Republican Roman era. It'll be a little while yet before I have anything to show, though. Check the blog occasionally or susbscribe to the RSS feed.

On the original subject; my main negatives are the interface and that some of the game mechanics (e.g., combat mechanics) are not really intuitive. I haven't read through all the help files, though; perhaps its explained there? I also don't like the reduction of Spain to two cities - the Scipios campaigned there for 12 years before wresting it from Carthage; that seems unlikely to happen with just two cities to conquor.

Apart from that, though I liked the gameplay that one gets to play. I think the second Punic war is quite difficult to simulate well (Hannibal's march is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that doesn't lend itself well to a general simulation), but the game adds in some some good mechanics for the situation (i.e., the Senates). Seems like a game with a lot of potential.

I agree with you about the combat mechanisms, a little more details ( and explanations about what is happening ) would be more immersive for the player. A system with opposing counters on the front line would be cool too ( who fights who ) with cavalry on the side, heavy infantry in the center, effects of a reserve, adequate bonuses for overrunning, etc, etc ...
I also agree with you with representation of the Spanish theater, but I think that it's a result of the overall scale choice. 5 provinces in Italy seems very few too, on the same subject.


I was thinking about something else too. I read in your forum that you states your project is a little over-ambitious for a single man, and I agree with that ( main reason of time delay ). I also read that you were searching a games' studio and found difficult to associate with one that has the same ambitions of making a good and complex game on this Era. I modestly think that Ageod perfectly fits with what you're searching for. Furthermore, Philippe Thibaut has some very good experiences with the subject, as he was the game's developper of Pax Romana in the beginning of the decade. I know that you consider your project as your "little baby" , and that it's difficult to make concessions with other persons about your ideas and ways of making things, but as the first buyer of such a game if, by luck, it is released one day , I think that an association with the Age studio will allow you to have ressources that you may have great usefulness. I don't know if you have already try to contact them, or if you have some personnal reasons to not do that ( things that I can understand ), but I think that it could be a very good thing, profitable for everybody.
I hope that I don't embarass anybody with such a statement, but I was thinking of that from a player point of vue and write what I have in mind.

Cheers,
Math.

DarthMath wrote:I agree with you about the combat mechanisms, a little more details ( and explanations about what is happening ) would be more immersion for the player. A system with opposing counters on the front line would be cool too ( who fights who ) with cavalry on the side, heavy infantry in the center, effects of a reserve, adequate bonuses for overrunning, etc, etc ...

Hi!

If you look on the game options there is a "Detailed combat" or "advanced combat" (Can't recall now) that is grayed out in the demo.
Hope they are working on something nice for the battles there!
I agree about Spain. Maybe making two regions of it and representing it on the map on the same scale of the rest, letting the northwest part out of the game woudl have been nicer than the current mini-Spain.
But i find the interface very good and polished. The simple drag and drop way of doing things kind of reminds me of AGEOD's.
I think this engine could be used for more ambitious/big games, with more provinces and the like
Cheers!

Hi dear Spanish Ambassador,

Thanks for the info, I don't remember that I've seen such an option. Anyway, I think there will be no more complex battle system than the one we play with in the game. Just maybe more explanations and some maths about who makes the hits and the routs, but not much after that, I'm afraid.

As I wrote on the post above, I strongly hope for the "must have" game on this period. I was very disappointed by EU : Rome, and Rome Total War is just a nice battle engine.
Well, after all this writing, I think that I'm going to watch some episodes of the HBO Rome series.

DarthMath wrote:Hi dear Spanish Ambassador,
As I wrote on the post above, I strongly hope for the "must have" game on this period. I was very disappointed by EU : Rome, and Rome Total War is just a nice battle engine.
Well, after all this writing, I think that I'm going to watch some episodes of the HBO Rome series.

Salut,

Je ne sais pas exactement ce que tu attends, mais tu as regardé Strength & Honour 2 par Magitech?

En plus, j'ai entendu dire qu'un autre jeu de stratégie sur les romains devrait sortir cette année...je ne peux pas en dire plus pour l'instant.

Anguille wrote:Salut,

Je ne sais pas exactement ce que tu attends, mais tu as regardé Strength & Honour 2 par Magitech?

En plus, j'ai entendu dire qu'un autre jeu de stratégie sur les romains devrait sortir cette année...je ne peux pas en dire plus pour l'instant.

Salut à toi Anguille !!

Je ne connaissais pas, effectivement. Ca a l'air très sympa. Serais-tu par hasard possesseur de ce jeu ? Et dans l'affirmative, pourrais-tu donner quelques infos là-dessus ? Je me laisserais bien tenter par la démo, mais 1.73Go, ça m'inquiète un peu !!

Concernant le nouveau jeu, tu ne peux rien me dire car sinon je suppose que tu serais dans l'obligation de me tuer !!

Edit : Je viens de voir que tu as fait un AAR sur le forum de Paradox. Je vais donc préciser un peu mes questions. Que vaut le moteur du module bataille par rapport à la concurrence ? Et finalement, est-ce que le jeu mérite son prix et est-ce qu'il est aussi bon et complet qu'il semble le promettre ?

Je ne comprend pas...