Engine Improvements?

[garyknowz]

As I recall, one the chief goals of the NSD team was to produce a stable MP component. It was a smashing success. My question is: What do you see as the next big feature for the SoW series? I'm not referring to add-ons such as new maps or scenarios a la Antietam; rather engine improvements on the scale of the MP feature. Personally, I think it would be superb to develop a campaign/strategic mode and use the current tactical engine for actually engagements. However, that may be a pretty tall order, particularly in the map making area.

Anyhow, what sort of game engine improvements were you folks considering for a future release?

Thanks!

Gary K.

[Little Powell]

I can't go too far into it because we don't like to make announcements until things are set in stone, but I'll just say there are many exciting things planned. Definitely engine improvements on the scale of MP. In fact in the short term, we will be releasing a patch pre Antietam that includes some improvements/features.

[NY Cavalry]

It would be nice to "hide" information from your opponent during a game. The info in the stars to be dropped (MP play). The only information you could "see" of your opponent would be a regiments state and number. If you saw an officer you wouldn't be able to "click" on him and know who it was. With the last improvement to LOS (which is a great improvement) and hiding information on opponents forces, it would make the game more challenging.

[WriterJWA]

Totally random and not meant to troll ... but is there any chance we could see light-source/dynamic lighting improvements in the graphics engine in the future, something to give the game added texture and depth w/ regards to shadows and lighting based on the time of day and weather conditions (which would affect LOS)?

[KG_Soldier]

It would be nice to "hide" information from your opponent during a game. The info in the stars to be dropped (MP play). The only information you could "see" of your opponent would be a regiments state and number. If you saw an officer you wouldn't be able to "click" on him and know who it was. With the last improvement to LOS (which is a great improvement) and hiding information on opponents forces, it would make the game more challenging.

I agree. The stars are good for knowing everyone is still in the game and no one has dropped. But there is way too much information on the opposing players' strength.

[SouthernSteel]

Totally random and not meant to troll

What a troll :whistle: go back under your bridge, troll. Or better yet, a cave, cuz trolls live in caves.

[WriterJWA]

It would be nice to "hide" information from your opponent during a game. The info in the stars to be dropped (MP play). The only information you could "see" of your opponent would be a regiments state and number. If you saw an officer you wouldn't be able to "click" on him and know who it was. With the last improvement to LOS (which is a great improvement) and hiding information on opponents forces, it would make the game more challenging.

I'm for this, too...

I think it would be awesome for the engine to keep that information hidden until a friendly regiment kills/captures an officer, or either engages in melee or forces an enemy regiment to surrender, then some of that information would be made available to friendly players. Or perhaps a random chance that intelligence on enemy forces is complete enough to know loose order-of-battle details and there is a random chance this is revealed to the player based on sighting range, etc. An example of this would be Confederate officers knowing the different corps symbols of the Army of the Potomac and making inferences based on what they can spot and recognize.

Totally random and not meant to troll

What a troll :whistle: go back under your bridge, troll. Or better yet, a cave, cuz trolls live in caves.

Wait..... you still play this game?

[SouthernSteel]

Wait..... you still play this game?

Nope, just here to criticize and otherwise demean. Gnashing and weeping are music to my ears.

[norb]

One of the improvements that we are working on is for everyone to be able to play with high res sprites, while keeping the memory image and performance below the current low res option

I don't think there's much more we can do for speed. I tried introducing some basic threading into the game, but it messed with MP so bad that I backed it out. It didn't do that much and took more memory to keep all the pieces thread safe. I may revisit it again in the future, but the first tests were not positive enough on all machines to warrant the investment.

[WriterJWA]

Timed reinforcements.

Perhaps an improvement might me to included scheduled, player-controlled reinforcements in battle scenarios. An example could be having elements of Sykes' Corps coming in to reinforce Sickles' Corps on Day 2, or Reynolds' Corps coming in to reinforce Buford on Day 1. This would make for some longer scenarios and interesting MP games.