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Originally Posted by DRG
I will touch on a number of issues raised
One thing both Andy and I disliked about the SP3 game engine was those annoying pop-up message boxes and that's why they are not in our versions of the game. To remind myself what it was like I just ran a quick game and it all came back to me immediately why I didn't like it ( didn't like it A LOT )
Another thing we both agree on is during game play we both focus on what is happening on the screen. We don't need a message to tell us our infantry unit is taking casualties we can see it as the game centres the screen on the relevant action. And as a result, I hardly ever look at the messages on the screen except when I am picking a target to check which one has the best hit chance.
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Hi,
The messages did occasionally block parts of the action but I don't recall that being a major issue in WAW. I agree the SP3 game itself was "not good" for the very reasons mentioned. I only played it briefly before sticking with SP-1 and SP-2. As a player, I love observing the how and why's of the weapons and vehicles performance as much as exploring tactics and "fighting the battle" so for me, the messages are very relevant. If I lose a tank to an enemy weapon, I like seeing the what, how and why. its part of the fun of the game.
on the con side for the SP-3 engine, the aspect I hated the most, and one that carried into SP:WAW was how vulnerable soft targets (Inf, manned AT guns, arty, MG's etc) became vs. the SP-2 engine.
Despite the code modifications of later WAW versions, and despite my setting Infantry Toughness to max (250%), even *entrenched* INF units in favorable terrain, could still be hosed out by MG and cannon fire within several turns. It was so bad it overshadowed the positive features for me.....(easy read messages and having armor factors replaced with actual thickness and slope angles)
Anyway, I was much happier with Shrapnel's use of the SP-2 engine as the base for WinSP and I eventually moved completely to these games. The end of development with WAW just put a "!" on the changeover, despite the work I'd put into it during development. Once in a while I'll revisit it for the memories.
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EDIT....... Andy just emailed me that this is definately NOT going to happen as "every instance of where we put a message on the bottom of the screen would need finding and an if/else clause wrapped round it also messages at the top line, and likely elsewhere - plus on the sub screens like the encyclopaedia"
I just checked the code and there would be thousands of places this would need code added in both games so not going to happen especially for something we never liked. I only mentioned it to him on the hopes the option to display that way could be handled with a specific bit of code
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That's that then. I kind of figured that would be the case. Thanks for looking into it. And thanks to you and your team for the continual support and improvements of the series.