Properly Presenting SOW Waterloo

[NY Cavalry]

It seems that among a couple threads over on the Matrix site that some questions have been raised concerning this game. The best way to address these concerns is to show them just how the game plays. My solution is to get 10 guys together for MP and record the game. That way it will be shown what the game is and by that I mean a full battle experience. Not just some screen shots of weird behavior, but the big picture of armies clashing in battle.

It will be important to those veterans of SOW that we show how to set up our divisions and corps.

It will need to be unlimited viewing as we would want to show the entire battlefield and couriers can be an option.


Can the battle be uploaded straight to the matrix site or do we need to place it on youtube.

It would be nice if Norbsoft helped us out with a few things.
1) more damage from canister
2) less aggressive cavalry
3) rifle range reduced to 80 yards.

[RebBugler]

Excellent idea, and thanks for volunteering you and your group for promoting Waterloo. MP play will definitely make the game shine brighter as the SP screenshots of troops overlapping are dimming it's positives and serve as negative fodder for the perennial naysayers that tend to frequent the Matrix boards.

However, doubt if any of the requested changes will be considered, with patching and such I hope you'll understand why. The SDK is due out soon and will include all the tools necessary I would think to reshape gameplay as you requested. So please wait for that or go ahead and 'fraps' an MP game as is, either way would be a plus for highlighting SOWWL's merits, and with experienced MP players, troop congestion is virtually all but eliminated.

[IronBMike]

3) rifle range reduced to 80 yards.

Rifle or musket...?

[Saddletank]

Musket range should be about 100-140 yards.
Baker rifle out to about 180 or 200.

[NY Cavalry]

As I am still learning Napoleonic tactics please feel free to set me straight. Here is my question. From what I have read so far and heard from discussion; rifle or musket fire did no damage at those distances. That effective distances were like 40 yards.


If you have infantry units blasting away at those distances does anything get hit? If the game uses those setting isn't it a civil war battle and not Napoleonic?

[Jim]

We had an extensive discussion on this during development. The bottom line is that troops did open fire from those ranges despite the poor effect. The team was able to cite significant historical support for this choice. Mitra did add into the AI that more veteran troops will hold fire until the ranges are shorter.

-Jim

[Marching Thru Georgia]

We had an extensive discussion on this during development. The bottom line is that troops did open fire from those ranges despite the poor effect. The team was able to cite significant historical support for this choice. Mitra did add into the AI that more veteran troops will hold fire until the ranges are shorter.

The exception is not the rule. Undisciplined or untrained troops might at times fire at long range, but even that was uncommon. Prussian troops, no matter how green would never, ever fire at long range. Their physical punishment system was severe and the men would not risk the consequences of firing before ordered.

In the game, the troops usually begin engaging at ~10 yd. below the maximum weapon distance. That matters little since the game can be modded to reflect reality and musket ranges can be shortened to proper distances. However, the infantry reaction range is based on the maximum weapon distance. Also, events such as when a unit has enough time to form a square is based on the cavalry to infantry distance which happens to be at about the historic maximum musket range. Basing the reaction range on the weapon range was a huge blunder. It makes it very difficult to create realistic battlefield conditions. To do so will require combing through all the code and replacing instances of this system with a better one.

[IronBMike]

I am perfectly fine with how muskets are handled right now.

There are other things to worry about rather than that, which can be easily modded anyways.

The biggest thing right now is creating a huge, positive player base and making these devs some money and creating a huge player base!

[RebBugler]

Also, events such as when a unit has enough time to form a square is based on the cavalry to infantry distance which happens to be at about the historic maximum musket range. Basing the reaction range on the weapon range was a huge blunder. It makes it very difficult to create realistic battlefield conditions. To do so will require combing through all the code and replacing instances of this system with a better one.

Pretty sure it's 200 yards, but Davide will clear it up.

Personally I think it works well as is. And I tested it a lot since I designed the cavalry scenarios. I think I'm a pretty good player and found it quite a challenge to get to battalions with my squadrons before they formed a square.

[Saddletank]

I think what MTG is saying, Reb, is that with the square and cavalry reaction range set to a distance linked to infantry weapon range, modifying the weapon ranges has unfortunate consequences. Modders now have to dig that much deeper to discover these interlinked tactical relationships and change these also or else any mods could throw up weird and ahistorical side effects.