Time to Restart?

[KG_Soldier]

We've added quite a few new players the last couple of weeks and their new divisions are getting beat up pretty bad by the seasoned ones.

Perhaps now is a good time to start over and even the playing field.

Well. . . after Garnier finishes his exams and gets a little time.

[SouthernSteel]

We've added quite a few new players the last couple of weeks and their new divisions are getting beat up pretty bad by the seasoned ones.

Perhaps now is a good time to start over and even the playing field.

Well. . . after Garnier finishes his exams and gets a little time.

Nonsense, break out the bullwhip! Drive the mule harder! We must not relent!

Alternatively, use said whip on Kershaw and get that mess moving if you'd like a new campaign.

I for one wouldn't be overly pleased to have "wasted" all of this time trying to build up units to have it all swept away. I get your point, but I'm not sure how necessary it is (as in, I think more discussion is in order).

[KG_Soldier]

Garnier has said all along this is still in Beta and he intends to start over at some point. I'd hate to see new players get so frustrated they quit playing.

[General P R Cleburne]

We must not have that happen gentlemen.The new players must feel welcome and capable.i agree with both points however the main concern MUST be the balancing towards new players.Then sirs we shall have them all grow together fighting against and alongside!
YOS
Cleburne

[SouthernSteel]

Who has expressed concerns about being outmatched? I haven't heard anything, but I have also only seen maybe 40% of the divisions that have been created actually play (may well be time to clean up the division list again).

Also, I'm not sure that this beta run is really completed. Garnier is still trying things out and making changes. We ought, I would think, to get all of those issues straightened out how we want them before making an "official" version.

[Garnier]

It's sort of a perpetual 'beta', in the sense that it will never be 'finished' but rather eventually I will stop working on it. With the automatic updating I can fix bugs as soon as they are found, so there's no need to be beta in the traditional sense. Rather than working on it til I'm satisfied and then releasing it, I release it and then see what needs to be done and improve it on the spot.

Problems with the gameplay will be discovered forever I would think, and changes to gameplay to compensate will be needed forever. So it's never going to go from an 'in progress' to a 'complete' game.

Having a new division doesn't hurt your chances of victory in any particular battle due to the balancer. It does cause you to lose more men than the experienced enemy, and there I can understand it being frustrating to some degree.

However there is also the fact that fresh troops gain experience faster than veterans do, so eventually the veterans reach the upper limit where they get killed at such a rate that the regiment doesn't gain experience overall. Where that limit is and how rapidly the experience increases depends on the player's skill. For instance Barlow's experience went up a lot faster than mine did, but he didn't play more than me.

I for one wouldn't be overly pleased to have "wasted" all of this time trying to build up units to have it all swept away. I get your point, but I'm not sure how necessary it is (as in, I think more discussion is in order).

My goal isn't for people to play just to get experience, that's why there are mechanisms in place to cut the experience down. My goal is for people to have fun playing, that is, to make each battle fun, and make the battles easier to set up and play. Good players will be able to earn the experience back relatively quickly.

We've got plenty of time to discuss it of course. Eventually we will start over, I wouldn't want to play with the same two brigades forever.

There are things I'll want to do before resetting as well, that I can't do in the middle of a campaign. So there's no rush, but I'm glad to hear what everyone thinks.

[KG_Soldier]

Who has expressed concerns about being outmatched? I haven't heard anything, but I have also only seen maybe 40% of the divisions that have been created actually play (may well be time to clean up the division list again).

Also, I'm not sure that this beta run is really completed. Garnier is still trying things out and making changes. We ought, I would think, to get all of those issues straightened out how we want them before making an "official" version.

Well. . . I'd say we shouldn't restart until Garnier is satisfied with the "official" version. But then again, maybe restarting will allow him to "see" even more of what he thinks should be changed.

[Garnier]

So you will have been warned, I am working on a copy of the campaign at the moment, which will replace the current one. It will mostly look the same as far as what the players see.

Most of the changes will be under the hood, for instance you will have one username registered, and automatically have two divisions, one for each side, associated with it -- so the divisions won't be tied in as much with the registered users.

There are other things I plan to do before launching this next campaign, so the more time I give it before launch the more different it will be. The earliest possible date that the next campaign will launch is January 1. It will likely be some time later than that depending on how much I want to do before launching it.

The gameplay won't be much different so it's not much to look forward to compared to what we have now. Don't hold your breath, or your troops rather, in the meantime. It will mainly be nice for me since it will make future changes easier.

[Jack ONeill]

Sweet. B)