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 Post subject: Two Simple Features I'd Like to See in MA-series Games
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2005 12:06 pm 
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Sea Wolf
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"Retract Turn" Button

Have you ever accidentally ended the "disclose phase" and been forced to send the turn anyway? Or have you thought long and hard about a turn, sent in it, only to realize one second after you press "send" that you left a loaded transport in harm's way?

Here's the first simple feature I'd like to have: A "retract turn" button. Now, obviously, if one's opponent has already started playing the next turn on his/her end, this button should be disabled. And using the button shouldn't extend the time limit for games at all...you'd still have to send in a revised turn within the time limit or risk being timed out. I know some folks might be opposed to a retract turn button just because when someone says they are done with their turn they should be done, like taking your finger off your piece in chess. But wouldn't this feature just add to the quality of the think-based strategy of MA? Shouldn't all redoing options be available, not just within the turn but after it is sent as well, since it really makes no difference to one's opponent until after they log on and look at the turn.

"Save Turn" Option

Another situation: Have you ever been playing a close, late-game turn on New Paradise, and one hour later, with 90% of your moves in place, you are pressed for time for some reason or another to finish the turn within the next few minutes? What should you do? Do a few quick rough calculations and wing it or come back another day and redo the million moves you've already made and finish the turn carefully?

And here's the second feature I'd like to see: A "save turn" option, so if you're caught in the middle of a complex turn but need to come back to it another day, you don't have to redo everything.

What do you all think? Devs, how difficult would it be to implement these features?

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PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2005 3:52 pm 
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well actually...
first- i dont think that serios players really need a retract turn.When you have it finished you usually look around battlefield and think abit about what can be done better.
second - this is technically hard to do if opponent had already downloaded your turn from server but not made his turn yet.In this case to retract turn you have to some how re-move this turn from opponents comp - and that's impossible.Maybe it's possible to retract turn which is on server but not received by opponent but i doubt developers will spent time making a thing which is difficult and not needed by all

Save turn -here i completely agree.

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PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2005 4:16 pm 
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Well Mrakobes, I'm a pretty serious player, and I always look around carefully before sending my turn, sometimes for a good long while. But I've still found that several times some complicated transport possibility will just "click" in my head as I'm thinking about everything the second after I press "send." Maybe no one else's brain works this way, but it has happened to me a couple of times. Also, I've had the situation where I accidentally hit "end phase" when I meant to disclose a SA, but I couldn't and was forced to send the turn. At least there should be an option to say "no" to sending the turn (instead of "now" or "later")! One major use of the retract button would be to quickly go back and change these situations.

Anyway, as I argue above, there would be no harm with such a feature provided it is only usable until one's opponent logs in and views the turn. It is just like the already existing undo button. But once one's opponent merely views the turn (whether they respond with a move or not) then obviously the move cannot be retracted, as you say. My point is that it would be nice if things weren't set in stone until one's opponent actually logs into the server and recieves your move.

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PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2005 5:21 pm 
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I've done the accidental hit of the End Disclose phase and there is a solution to it. You need to make sure you get the Connect Now or Later option, hit later and then repair the game. It will wipe your move out to the previous state on the server. So you have to do your whole turn over, of course you could tie the Save Game feature into this so that you don't have to replay the whole turn, if you managed to save the turn.

Another feature I would like to see is Rewind Phase. This would take you back to the end of the previous phase. That way you don't have to sit there hitting rewind 50 times to get back to a prior phase.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2005 6:42 pm 
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ChrisCraven,

I used the solution you mention once before (and it worked), but I tried to use it again at another time and the turn was sent anyway. Perhaps this second time failure was due to the fact I'm connected all the time with broadband, and, recognizing my connection, the game decided it was "later" immediately. Just a theory. Anyway, this situation could clearly be improved if some interface changes were made.

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PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2005 6:57 pm 
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While reading your comments, I am reminded of one more feature I'd like to see.

Option to Change Guerillas within Combat Phase

Have you ever had the situation occur when you raise guerillas at the start of your turn, then make a ton of time-consuming moves, and then realize at the end of virtually all your attacking that things would work out better if you could slightly change your guerilla choices/locations? What do you do? Either you have to rewind forever or start the turn over, and redo everything, or live with the strategic wart.

While I agree that a "rewind phase" feature would be nice (I actually thought the PC version of MA *did* get this feature with some patch...am I wrong?), I'd like to have the option of not just rewinding everything to do the whole turn over again, but also the ability to change my guerillas at any time during the combat phase. It is important that such a feature still would only allow guerillas to be placed on the same spots as were at the beginning of the turn, and as if before any units were moved in combat phase. And if existing units were moved out of an area that changed guerillas would block, for example, those moved units must be automatically undone similarly to how undoing a "blocker" unit already automatically undoes all the "blocked" units that moved through the blocked unit space in combat phase. Anyway, the point is, the game could be made to accept guerilla changes within the combat phase without altering the gameplay which dictates that guerillas are placed on the board as it is before any movement and/or combat takes place.

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Last edited by Placid on Mon May 02, 2005 11:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2005 11:50 pm 
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Sea Wolf
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ChrisCraven wrote:
Another feature I would like to see is Rewind Phase. This would take you back to the end of the previous phase. That way you don't have to sit there hitting rewind 50 times to get back to a prior phase.


You may try do it by pressing the 'LeftAlt+BackSpace' one time. And then one hit 'BackSpace'. It's useful for MAN (may be that for MA too).


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 Post subject: Save turn and other desired MA features
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2005 2:18 am 
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Save Online Turn

MA absolutely needs a "save turn" ability for online games. This could not be a "normal" save game file, for obvious reasons. However, it could consist of an "order file". In other words, the file would contain the sequence of orders which a player has issued to that point. They could then be "replayed" internally (or even graphically if the player wished to review what s/he has done so far on the turn).

When loading such a file, the user would be presented with only those "order files" that apply to the current game and turn.


Undo Purchase

Why not allow the undo button to allow a unit previously purchased during the turn (recruitment, disclosure, guerrilla) to be "unpurchased"? Of course, the guerrilla units should not be candidates after combat has begun.


Backing up

It would be nice to be able to back up to an earlier phase, and yet have actions for later phases saved. For example, after performing a lot of recruiting, one could back up to the combat phase (with one click!), perform an action, and then have the purchases reapplied. Of course, some purchases may become impossible due to changed unit placement. The user could be informed of these during the automatic "re-recruitment".


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 12:13 pm 
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Sea Wolf
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While thinking about the future Domination Network and other possible improvements that might be made to Domination, I remembered this thread. There are some good suggestions here.

I know the devs are busy folks, and I know that many good suggestions exist, and I know that time is limited. However, it might be good PR to occasionally have more dev interaction with threads like these. If nothing else, I'd be encouraged by a short statement that lets us know the devs are listening to our suggestions. Thanks for the great games devs, and be encouraged that players are excited to help the MA series continue to improve and be the best it can be.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 2:21 pm 
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Thank you for all your ideas.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 2:43 pm 
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Thanks, Tiger. (Not all my ideas, though.)

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 3:01 pm 
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Sea Wolf

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Here's another vote for "retract turn" option....
SERIOUS players really could use this....it would save a lot of wasted time...especially if the game is moving slow....which for some reason happens to me, maybe usually in the morning?? for example:
I realize at the END of my turn that my guerrillas were misplaced,etc. SO I rewind forever!!
....and so:

QUESTION: does the game speed change due to the busy-ness of the site?

Usually everything moves fast enuff, BUT sometimes....no.... :o


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