Dev Diary #18 – Let the HoI spirit travel into AoD - 16. January 2010

Welcome to the 18th Edition of the Arsenal of Democracy Development Diary.

As the game is basically done, we have set ourselves today a deadline for the final RC5. We decided it shall be this Sunday. (Don’t confuse that with the actual release date. That’s not up to us - but to Gamers Gate/Paradox to announce when they receive our finally working version.) I hope we get through the checks n’ tests and get accepted in the coming weeks. We are all preparing for some last night shifts this weekend and currently the Coffee is getting brewed. Eventually Lennart organized a new intro and we are planning to take it in, it really looks promising.

As the core game runs now in our eyes “as stable as hell is hot”, we will deliver RC5 on Monday regardless of maybe missing parts in translations. The English Version is fine, checked and approved. I’m convinced most of you guys are already satisfied with that one but our pretensions are high - and we will of course patch possible missing gaps, errors and faults in all translations in a future V1.01.

As he is finished with his main task, Lennart is at the moment already experimenting with a code porting from C++ to C# as he has aspirations for a possible AoD2 with MONO for better cross-platform support. My current task is “a bit” simpler; it is to get the final Version cleaned of all possible swastikas. Some of you may know that there are harsh laws and penalties in Germany displaying Third Reich Insignia nowadays. So we better get sure that the law is obeyed. There are some areas of course, which are neither black nor white, but somehow grey:

We had a new combat background file added a few weeks ago that’s currently under scrutiny by me. As the old one showed only small Egyptian wings, we added a big eagle instead of them. As eagles & wings symbolized in the ancient occult teachings of Egypt the travel of the soul from one body to another – in short death and rebirth through Samsara - we thought it would be a good idea to pimp the current battle display with a nicer looking Eagle. Some of you may have seen that eagle on other occasions before and that’s a bit of the dilemma I’m in right now. As I’m unsure about that specific case to keep it in or not, I decided to let you guys vote on it.



Other then that I’m optimistic I hunt down the remaining swastikas and Nuremberg War Criminals this night.

At this point, the last lines of the last Development Diary, let me thank all of you who contributed for your great effort.
Without you, the community, the gamers, the modders, the passionate military men, history experts and fans, we would have never come so far. There are so many of you who helped getting AoD on the way that there was literally an army of professionals from all fields of warfare, politics, technology and history backing and supporting this project at all times.

You are the true Arsenal of Democracy.

Thanks to all of you from your Lead Developers Lennart Berg, Philipp Elhaus & Andy Gibson.

 

Awesome update! Looks good! It has been very enjoyable reading the diaries! Now to play the game

 

Great news.

And I like the eagle, I think it should stay.

I would offer to help with translating stuff, but I am only fluent in English, so I would not be much help

Anyway best of luck

 

I like the eagle, but i would scale it a bit down because it looks too big in the combat interface...

 

+1. Keep the eagle, but tone it down. Voted.

 

i agree

 

+3.

 

I vote for the Germans will win this battle

 

I like the eagle, though I have to agree with previous posters that it might be a bit too big. Scale it down a little and it'll be optimal I think.

 

Don't like it. Too obviously Nazi. Nice to add as a wee graphic mod for a German player, but not as a general interface across the board.

Aye.

 

it's a joke?

 

I want to express my categorical protest this symbol

In the game dedicated to period of the Second World War This eagle is clearly a Nazi(OK -german army) symbol, for me anyway.

And why should I see him during the battles of the winter war, for example?

 

I hope your RC will be accepted and put up for sale ASAP. Good luck for the weekend!

 

no.

 

Nice eagle, I like it.

 

Same here.

 

The eagle looks good and appropriate, but I'm of the opinion that free space should be used to display additional info or something relevant, not just eyecandy. Perhaps you could have the name of the army/corp/division or the leader displayed there? Or even better, the unit insignia?

 

It's too big for my liking, and too germanocentric. Having this eagle display during a China/Japan battle would be confusing.

What's this about AoD2?

 

Sorry if this is obvious, but what dose this mean ? what will be the advantages ?
Answering your question : I like the eagle, but I would like even better a symbol related to the Country one chose to play : e.g. an America Eagle for USA, Sickle and Hammer for a Soviet player, a Lion for UK, etc.

Mario

 

I don't like it, too germanocentric.

Best wishes with the upcoming release !