An indiscreet question ...

[CapnDarwin]

Guy's,

The game engine can and hopefully will over time hit different times and places. We have had WW2 on the list from practically day one of the 2.0 game engine development. This particular game engine is set to really handle Cold War to Modern fights. As we have said elsewhere, some scale and other internal code changes would need to be made to go into the discreet bubble of WW2 to do it justice with a grand tactical game engine.

And yes, everyone should be allowed to have a favorite place for this game to go and we all should respect that.

Thanks!

[Hoplite1963]

ORIGINAL: nukkxx

WW2 eastern front would be a strategic mistake. The market is saturated with WW2 games. WITE has reached some top level and will be difficult to do better, even with the FP engine.

IMO Flashpoint should remain a modern time combat simulator. As Thomas says there are plenty of real and hypothetical conflicts in the 1950-2020 time frame.

In fact I'd love to see some top modern weapons and platforms, including lots of electronic warfare, drones, satellites, unconventional depleted uranium and fragmentation weapons, etc. etc. All these would be perfectly adapted to FCRS engine.

1980's is already .. 35 years old but as it was nearly never treated in computer games we enjoy it. The challenge now will be to go to another setting. Gulf, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Korea, Africa, etc. I know I already said that many times but it's really my dream

TOAW was a nice game covering these periods and I guess a big commercial success too, so it's not impossible.

I think the engine would also work very well for early 20th century conflicts including World War One. The asymmetrical WeGo approach could be used to model the classic mid to late war situation of defender (to extent) being able to issue orders and request fire support relatively quickly as opposed to the attacker having relatively little chance to change orders to for units after then had left the front line.

This is also an period that is relatively little covered by tactical wargames although as was shown by the JTS Squad Battles title brought out earlier in the year there is lots of scope for interesting scenarios particularly if your base title covered the Western Front in 1918 (featuring Germany France the British Empire & the USA as the 4 initial nations) and the birth of modern combined arms warfare.

[moet]

ORIGINAL: Capn Darwin
As for websites we have been featured on Grogheads, Wargamer, Wargamer.Fr to name a few of the top of my head. Other sites have the product info. We are on Facebook and have been talked up on a few FaceBook sites too. And more stuff is planned. As MR pointed out, we are a week old!

This game is a great one, the best since Battles from the Bulge from my personal point of view. The fact that the war frame is hypothetical doesn't bother me since the way the game models war is realistic. Playing FCRS teach me how to act as a commander, and that's what I look for in wargames.

That's true that we didn't see yet many FCRS reviews yet, but I think "good wargame" reviewers are working on it. I myself started to write a review for wargamer.fr French website, but I'm beeing slowed by my regular work (bad personal timing...). I guess the review willl be post in about a week and a half.

In this respect, I still have very specific questions to the developers to help me getting a complete understanding of the game mechanics (see the questions here : tm.asp?m=3443616&mpage=1&key=&#3443616 . [:)]

[TheWombat_matrixforum]

I think the issue with the WWII/no WWII thing is not that the game wouldn't work for that time frame (it would), or that it wouldn't make for some interesting scenarios (it would), but that the classic NATO/WP period has so few games for it, and WWII has so many. Given infinite resources, sure, I'd love to see this system for WWII battles, though I think the scale would have to change perhaps. Given real-life constraints, I'd much, much rather have the developers focus on what I think is underrepresented, that is, modern, near-historical hypothetical modern, and related conflicts. I think this engine would, for instance, handle the 1973 October War well, and could be great for a near-historical/contemporary Korean conflict as well. Those have very few computer games devoted to them, whereas WWII has a bunch.

There is value in variety, but also danger. Focusing on one thing and doing it well is also a good idea.

[budd]

Everybody has their preference i suppose, mine is WW2, but in this case i really don't care where they go....the system is great, i'll play anything in any time frame if it's going to be this much fun.....Bring it on.

[kemmo]

I don't really have a favorite time period, the last game I got before Flashpoint was about Ancient Greek Warfare.But like budd says Flashpoint is a great a great system,and whatever direction it takes I'll be happy.Mad Russian mentioned time and money spent on the game,both well spent in my opinion.

[wodin]

Funny enough I bought this up in the General Discussion forum. The answer was advertising makes little difference.

I'm sure though the developers would be more than happy to know their games where getting full exposure.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3440059

ORIGINAL: nukkxx

I'm surprised I don't see reviews in large specialized magazines/website. I guess you sent promotional copies for review to all these websites ?

It's surprising because the game is objectively excellent, fully innovative (a new paradigm and not the n-th remake of the same old concept !). A very well polished game with nice maps, nice menus, efficient UI, great AI, scenario editor, moddable, campaigns, PBEM (but no TCP/IP games ), apparently nearly infinite re-playability and a fully dedicated team. Etc. etc.

Well, all the ingredients of a blockbuster.

I think/hope this will be soon well known on the internet gaming community and that the sales will reach long term targets and hopefully largely over. It's all what I'm wishing you.

So once more, congratulations for this amazing game !

Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm is the best investment I made for years. As MR says, I have years of enjoyment in front of me for a handful of bucks. A great deal and great value for my hard earned cash !

[Rosseau]

Some pretty fussy customers with differing tastes all seem to like the game. It's a niche product compared to Panzer Corps or Battlefield Academy. But I am hoping a big enough niche so we see lots of modules in the future.

Excuse me, Battle Academy [;)]

[76mm]

WWII is the way to go.... don’t fight it... Eastern Front WWII is the big one for semi-operational games. You know I right....

The engine is superb... but if you do go WWII/when you go WWII, resist taking it down to a more tactical level. The unique combination of semi- operations and “command game....” features of this engine are what make it so outstanding.

Agree with the statement above. This is the first modern-era game I've bought in a very long time. I like it quite a bit but am not sure how long the subject matter will keep my attention.

WWII East Front on the other had would be awesome, I think the asymetric C3 we-go system would be really cool.

Don't get me wrong, the 80s iteration is a great game, and I look forward to future content.

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: nukkxx

WW2 eastern front would be a strategic mistake. The market is saturated with WW2 games. WITE has reached some top level and will be difficult to do better, even with the FP engine.

eh? WitE is a completely different scale/focus and moreover has serious issues in its representation of the conflict (at least in my view). The market is full of WWII games because people buy them...

There is only only one fairly recent WWII East Front game on a similar scale that I can think of, it was unplayable out of the box, and from what I saw received poor developer support--I gave up on it long ago.

BTW, I agree that Arab-Israeli Wars (1956-1973) would be an awesome expansion for this game.

[wodin]

MR if your talking about TU I can state with hand on heart Scot works on it everyday...the damn thing is so complex though it does take along time to egt things done. I will say there are no plans to stop working on it. One last thing he has had two close family bereavements, one after the other recently..so I've given him a break from the testing and work I do on TU for abit. Though believe me he has a good 200 emails or more from me that he is working through..

At the moment he is re writing lots of code and redoing the database, going through TU with a fine tooth comb. The I'm hoping he moves onto the SOP's and the need for a few more..at the same time he has bugs to squash and issues to look at. Oh and he is also redoing\imporving the AI.

[Mad Russian]

Since I have no idea what TU is, it was asked and got no answer, I have no idea what you are comparing to.

Good Hunting.

MR

[76mm]

Since I have no idea what TU is, it was asked and got no answer, I have no idea what you are comparing to.

Oops, I think Wodin was responding to me...I'd prefer not to either promote another company's game or bad-mouth it (by name) on Matrix' forum, but if anyone really cares pm me.

The point is that this game is much better.

[Mad Russian]

The point I was going to make is, that part of Flashpoint Campaigns big drawing is it's simplicity. All the well intended wish list items are in the, "Great To Have" column. We look at everyone of them.

Little changes to the operating system, hot keys, etc. will be changes I would expect you see implemented.

Changes to the core way the game plays will be less likely to be implemented. It all depends on how hard the changes are to implement. Some of them would require a major rewriting of large parts of code to get included. If that's the case it's a change that's less likely to be made.

As with all things it comes down to time. We all work full time jobs, just like you guys. We have put together a game that is very different from other games. We have an overall goal in mind and where we can implement what you guys want and still keep moving towards that goal then great. If, on the other hand, some of your suggestions don't get implemented don't take that as a personal slight, or to mean that we didn't think your opinion/suggestion had merit. It more than likely will come down to the simple expedient that we don't have time to do all this.

As the developers we have our own wish list of things to include. Many of them coincide with the ones put forth by you gamers. Some will surprise you. It will be interesting to see how this all evolves over the next months/years.

Good Hunting.

MR

[moet]

ORIGINAL: moet

ORIGINAL: Capn Darwin
As for websites we have been featured on Grogheads, Wargamer, Wargamer.Fr to name a few of the top of my head. Other sites have the product info. We are on Facebook and have been talked up on a few FaceBook sites too. And more stuff is planned. As MR pointed out, we are a week old!

That's true that we didn't see yet many FCRS reviews yet, but I think "good wargame" reviewers are working on it. I myself started to write a review for wargamer.fr French website, but I'm beeing slowed by my regular work (bad personal timing...). I guess the review willl be post in about a week and a half.

And the wargamer.fr review is right here :
http://www.wargamer.fr/test-de-flashpoi ... red-storm/
if you feel like practicing your French. [;)]

[Mad Russian]

And it's a GREAT review too!!

Good Hunting.

MR

[moet]

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian
And it's a GREAT review too!!

I didn't know you were fluent in Russian AND French! [:)] [:)]

[Mad Russian]

Who said anything about me being fluent in either? I have friends that are!!! [:D]

One of those friends is Google Translate..... [&o]

Good Hunting.

MR

[MikeAP]

ORIGINAL: Radagy

I think the real Achille's Heel of this game, just in terms of marketing, is his frame of time, which appeals just a small niche of players . Selling a game about an hypothetical past war is overly difficult and having already an active and large community is a clear sign that the system is polished and innovative.
I made an effort to get in the mood of simulating a war that has never happened and I guess I could because that I played that war infinite times thirty years ago (Assault, Baor, GDW's Third World War). It's a sort of way back to my youth. [;)]
I'm sure you will hook a new huge target of buyers as soon as you publish an expansion concerning:an hypothetical future war or a real war from the past (Korea, Vietnam, Arab-Israeli Wars, Afghanis

In going to disagree. I think the best wars to simulate are the ones that have never hurt anyone.

Furthermore, I would say that the true Achilles heel of the game is the lack of immersion. Frankly, it is not a very pretty game. There aren't much to the graphics, and the sounds are barely functioning.

While the typical 50-something year old wargamer on his 500mb graphics card will have no qualms, it will never bring in any new players. I'm not saying the game has to look like Company of Heroes but I think Panzer Corps is a great example of bridging the gap and creating a level of immersion that draw players. Maybe an option to toggle some 3d units (Civilization, Pandora, etc).

With that being said, I'm enjoying the game and look forward to some of the update that the developers have been discussing.

[Mad Russian]

Yeah, I've noticed all the negative comments concerning time frame, hypothetical war, poor graphics and sound myself. Especially telling is how much more predominate those comments are than those that support the game play, asymmetric command cycle, range of equipment and the scenario base.

It's all very telling.

Good Hunting.

MR