My thoughts so far

[Reisman17]

Having just watched the Twitch Stream last night here are my thoughts and suggestions

1. Terrain colors very subdued. I am sure this is something that could be modded however this was my first thought seeing the game. We are talking about June in France which should be full of color so it just felt too lacking in color. I hope you tweak this or even include an option for different palletes kind of like some games have (latest example is Cities Skylines where you can pick different color packs - very cool).

2. I did not notice (unless I just missed it) if each infantry unit other than having a flag also has a drummer. The drummers very very important for keep step and it would be great to hear drummers beating their drum to the units marching. Obviously this only applies to columns and not lines however I am sure the drums were used to signify other events like when to charge etc..... Please look at including something along these lines.

3. Flags. I know this is late in the game but I was thinking that it would be so cool if flags were carried by a singular infantry man and it would be possible that the enemy could either take the flag (you could just add a counter for how many enemy flags captured etc...) by force or by causing the enemy infantry unit to rout therefore dropping the flag to run. This would allow the enemy to pick up the flag/s and gain some kind of experience/notority and cause severe morale loss in a certain area where the unit that lost the flag. These flags were very important back in the day and were seen as status symbols especially by the French. Talking about flags that in my opinion the flag should be in the front if in a column and behind the infantry if deployed in a line.

4. This thought came about due to especially large battles. Keeping track of your units morale is a big headache and it would be very difficult/ next to impossible to go through each unit to check its morale and if it is low to pull it off the front lines (if possible at least) and let it recover and send in reserve troops to fill the gaps. I think it will be a case of just watching units break and then try to the plug the holes in the line which I think is in my opinion the wrong way to tackle this. This was especially important in TCM and TCM2 (both of which I played and really enjoyed) where your morale could cascade (just like in real life) and if you lost too many units your entire army was in peril. This made it that you had to pay attention to your morale of your units or risk a mass rout. This seemed to go away with Gettysburg (which I was sad to see) however I can understand why. The amount of units in Gettysburg was considerably higher and therefore would become a chore try to check all your units morale. So you may ask what is the solution. Well I gave this some thought and what I thought may help this would be give the units some form of marker that could flash when getting low (e.g a circular dot that when not showing would have good morale, yellow slow flashing - morale getting low and red flashing fast - getting ready to rout) directly above the flag of units (kind of like a heartbeat) I say flashing so it catches wyour eye as you scroll all over the battlefield. I know you are trying to keep distractions to a minimum but in my opinion this is one of the most important aspects of the game (and in history too). I also noticed that the general (in this case Napoleon in the video) does not have an overall army morale score which concerns me again as I feel its not just one units morale that fails and brings the battle to an end but multiple units of which some may happen all at once as described by the cascade scenario above and therefore knowing how close your army might be to completely routing/giving up would be very important info, build some tension/ nervousness and make you work much harder at trying to hold your army together (like what happened in TCM and TCM2) . I really hope morale is brought back into the forefront where it belongs in this age of fighting. Very rarely did a unit rout because of casualties it was due to lack of morale (hence the importance of flanking maneuvers. This did not kill a lot of men but caused the morale of the unit being flanked to drop rapidly and could cause routing).

4. Will it be possible to get courier system to notify you (when playing General for instance) when units get to certain morale levels (e.g. 1/2 morale send a message saying unit is getting demoralized or message saying unit is about to break). This would be sent by the commander of that unit or units. This is especially important when your doing the "Riding in the Saddle" mode and with the above effect of a cascade of morale breaks if multiple units are close to breaking already in the same area. Of course by the time you get the message things may have changed especially if your General is on the other side of the map but it would still be cool to receive those kind of message and of course if they are intercepted that the enemy would know where to re-enforce for best effect and try to break those weak units maybe committing their reserves.

I hope you like my suggestions and comments. I know some of these are really hard to implement however I still would like to see these one day . Really looking forward to this game. Have been waiting since Histwar came out (passed on Histwar 2). This engine has always been better in my opinion is giving a true fight however Histwar 2 does have its own set of advantages. Good Luck.




Reisman17

[Little Powell]

1. Terrain colors very subdued.

Hi Reisman17. Thanks for the feedback.

Just a quick note on the colors, you have to remember that yes this was indeed June in France, but the stream shows the AM map, which during that time in the battle, the ground was saturated with rain and the sky was overcast, giving it the subdued look. The PM portions of the battle, where the ground is still wet and muddy, but the sky has started to clear the the colors are a bit brighter.

The look of the map was extensively researched using historic reference maps, along with many eye witness accounts--just as we have always done with our maps.

Napoleon's wooden observation tower? It's there...
The little strip of hedgerows north of the sandpit? It's there...
The windmill north of Mont St Jean? It's there...
Just a few examples of how detailed the maps are...

[Gunfreak]

Just a question. How big are the maps, is there a single map for the whole battle or is it in sevral parts like gettysburg?

Ralated question is there a full army vs army senario? With all armies able too fight it in single huge game?

[Little Powell]

Just a question. How big are the maps, is there a single map for the whole battle or is it in sevral parts like gettysburg?

Ralated question is there a full army vs army senario? With all armies able too fight it in single huge game?

There are two Waterloo maps, but they are both exactly the same dimensions. The difference is; one covers the AM portions of the battle, and the other covers the PM. So yes, the entire battle is essentially covered on a single map.

There are full army scenarios--one for the French and one for the Allies.

[Gunfreak]

Thats really great news!

[Destraex]

1. Terrain colors very subdued.

Hi Reisman17. Thanks for the feedback.

Just a quick note on the colors, you have to remember that yes this was indeed June in France, but the stream shows the AM map, which during that time in the battle, the ground was saturated with rain and the sky was overcast, giving it the subdued look. The PM portions of the battle, where the ground is still wet and muddy, but the sky has started to clear the the colors are a bit brighter.

The look of the map was extensively researched using historic reference maps, along with many eye witness accounts--just as we have always done with our maps.

Napoleon's wooden observation tower? It's there...
The little strip of hedgerows north of the sandpit? It's there...
The windmill north of Mont St Jean? It's there...
Just a few examples of how detailed the maps are...

rain in my experience never makes things look dry and yellow like in thr video. It makes colours rich and moist. However making things darker and richer may make those massive blocky terrain textures stand out a bit I guess. Can we have a picture of later terrain?

[Little Powell]

rain in my experience never makes things look dry and yellow like in thr video. It makes colours rich and moist. However making things darker and richer may make those massive blocky terrain textures stand out a bit I guess. Can we have a picture of later terrain?

We went through several terrain color changes (and several is a gross understatement) and we decided on what looked the best.

[Ingles of the 57th]

Frankly I never worry much about what is in the basic game; it is just a starting point ..... and in any case it is too late to change now.

I guess the increased modability of SOW Waterloo will very quickly produce countless variants to cater for most peoples needs, tastes and concepts of historical authenticity.

Looking forward to trying it. Just sorry that my old regiment was occupied elsewhere in 1815.

Geoff Laver
Late of Her Britannic Majesty's 57th Regiment of Foot