Battle Zoom

[John_D]

Just for the immersion, an idea came up..
What if we had a battle zoom option.
You know the current battle you select to see its progress, but then zoomed in on the map.
Seeing the brigades move around (nato counters) and being victorious, or slaughtered.
The background could be more or less generic, depending on the province settings.
Maybe the roads, and a railroad could be shown as they should be on the campaign map.
It wont add much, just immersion.

And maybe.. just maybe order a counterbrigade to a point on that small zoomed map with the mouse and see it it helps.. for the small tactical input.. :closedeyes:

 

[Unicorn303]

I's Likes dis idea! I wished they had put it in for HOI3 but they never did...

 

[Augustus93]

And another Total War fanatic who has a little better disguise than the average Total War fanatic.

 

[John_D]

Perhaps maybe some arguments, youngster, will be more constructive.

 

[podcat]

Perhaps maybe some arguments, youngster, will be more constructive.

Its a matter of cost really. It would be cool to have a zoomed in battle playing out in 3d instead of our classic looks, but making all that artwork would cost as much as the other artwork for the game, and all for something you cant really interact with and most likely will not bother to look at after a while when focusing on the strategy becomes more important than the tactics.

And another Total War fanatic who has a little better disguise than the average Total War fanatic.

be nice

 

[John_D]

Thanks for the reply, but it should NOT be in 3D, just in 2D top down would be enough.
Just the same as you have it now, just more zoomed in and broken down to the brigades.

But yes, you are correct, strategy will overshadow it very fast.

 

[GermanPower]

I think everyone would love any graphical enhancements like this. However in my view, this would be the last thing on my list. Gameplay comes first, thats why I like paradox, graphics are nice and stuff. But what really matters is the meat and bones of the game.

 

[Conch]

And another Total War fanatic who has a little better disguise than the average Total War fanatic.

I own every EU game, I own every CK game, I own every HOI game, I own every TW game. Works fantastic.

 

[lemonsquid]

seems like it would require a heap of work when in the end, you know everybody is watching from up above at the grand scale keeping tabs on multiple battles across the frontline. Id much rather Pdox focuses its efforts on other parts of the game

 

[FOARP]

Just for the immersion, an idea came up..
What if we had a battle zoom option.
You know the current battle you select to see its progress, but then zoomed in on the map.
Seeing the brigades move around (nato counters) and being victorious, or slaughtered.
The background could be more or less generic, depending on the province settings.
Maybe the roads, and a railroad could be shown as they should be on the campaign map.
It wont add much, just immersion.

And maybe.. just maybe order a counterbrigade to a point on that small zoomed map with the mouse and see it it helps.. for the small tactical input.. :closedeyes:

Sounds like a lot of work for something I'd look at once, maybe twice.

 

[unmerged(46341)]

I own every EU game, I own every CK game, I own every HOI game, I own every TW game. Works fantastic.

Word

 

[Sir Pellew]

Sounds like a lot of work for something I'd look at once, maybe twice.

I tend to agree, although I am a fan of immersion But the work disproportional outweights the benefit, sadly

 

[fabius]

seems like it would require a heap of work when in the end, you know everybody is watching from up above at the grand scale keeping tabs on multiple battles across the frontline. Id much rather Pdox focuses its efforts on other parts of the game

That's why better Unit graphics would add more punch per buck

For Info:

Map sprites have small representations of each brigade.

Keep or improve the attack power numbers infomatic

I like the look of Ultimate General' total troop count and wonder whether as an option something like that could work with Paradox games.

Hmm just had a thought. Perhaps the map unit sprite icon could be dynamic and change to reflect the composition of all divisions present or attacking from that province.


And for fun- add some basic combat animations to sprites in battle.

Oh- and I really think that the variety of sounds of battle could really be improved.

 

[themousemaster]

When adding any feature, it's important to note that it doesn't just affect the people who want it, and to want it in a specific way; all players of the game are going to be "introduced" to the feature, and how they react/perceive it needs to be VERY clear, OR very important to the game mechanic.



The problem with a "zoomed in" view is that the game's battle calculations either

A) Are independent of what is going on in the "zoomed view", which would make completely confusing to someone who is trying to figure out how a battle is going (not unlike the current Naval Combat model of HOI3), or

B) The "zoomed view" would be directly representative of what the actual battle calculations (which are abstracted by variables like leader skills, experience levels, and random chances) are doing, which could lead to things from like outrage-of-stupid-decisions... ex:

"Why the HECK is that brigade trying to flank the artillery when they could run the 1KM of distance straight at it since the guarding enemy infantry has already retreated? I should be able to micro their movements myself to avoid this insanity"



I'm not sure I'd like the production resources spent trying to resolve getting this idea into the game "correctly", so as to avoid the above. Since the "player" in these games is a combination of a country's president and top-general, I'd prefer if the game design decisions revolved around what that "individual" would actually do and see instead.

Leave "gameplay generated but functionally unhelpful" eye candy to modders and perhaps (and perhaps, just MAYBE, add the tools for the modders to do that).



(in case anyone wonders why I went with the mouthful of "gameplay generated but functionally unhelpful", it's because other eyecandy, like static artwork, is fine as a DLC from the producers; as long as what is being DLC'ed just changes variables, and not game procedures, it can be developed from anywhere, and by anywhere, without too much difficulty)

 

[RisingSun]

Well if they cant come up with zoom or least look realistic, just keep it simple like in HoI2 with good animated sprites.

 

[TheRomanRuler]

Well if they cant come up with zoom or least look realistic, just keep it simple like in HoI2 with good animated sprites.

This, altough i want to see more than 1 soldier, it would be great to see if unit also has armor or motorised forces, and possibly correct ratio too?
Or perhaps i just made it complicated and not simple again

 

[Dalwin]

Please no battle zoom option.

I would also say that animated sprites are a waste of resources, but at least I know counters will be there and I'll be using those anyway.

The enhancement I could get behind would be one that would add some additional functionality to the counters. The sprites are for looking at pictures. Counters are for quickly accessing condensed information,.

 

[fabius]

Please no battle zoom option.

I would also say that animated sprites are a waste of resources, but at least I know counters will be there and I'll be using those anyway.

The enhancement I could get behind would be one that would add some additional functionality to the counters. The sprites are for looking at pictures. Counters are for quickly accessing condensed information,.

I use counters all the time in HoI. But if sprites relayed useful information and looked representative if the units present then I think that I would use them

 

[String]

It would be just another of those "Nice for the first 30 minutes and never used after that" features. Like sound in Eve Online.