Finally came home and the family moved out

[SilentHunter]

Haha talk about being late to the party, I just bought and am playing this game. My first impression is it's not a very deep/complex game but I'm still learning it and finding out theres more beneath the surface ... just don't know how much more yet. But where is everyone, what are they playing world war 2 related, this forum is dead?

[Tomokatu]

Well, the development sequence was WWII: Road to Victory, then WWII: Time of Wrath which was an upgrade, then Lordz/Slitherine moved to the Pacific with "Storm over the Pacific", which had some cool features and the fanbase decided that we wanted THOSE cool features installed in Time of Wrath and that was "Time of Fury" but it didn't always work out well.
The GUI was a great improvement but the engine fell over from time to time, too frequently.

My opinion was that RtV was the best computer iteration of the old TAHGC "Rise and Decline of the Third Reich" but the engine had a problem with mainly naval transport where duplicate fleet and ship numbers broke the game. All the data files were in Polish, too! so we needed Doomtrader's help too often to rebuild files for us. There were also PBEM issues.

Slitherine has expanded massively doing corporate takeovers, so the old days of a personal relationship with the developers through the Matrix forums are over. Many of the old players are active on the Slitherine forums and there's an integrated login system where you can register your Matrix ID & password with the other Slitherine forums, if you want to.

The word I seem to be receiving is that most gamers are now on Steam, not stand-alone machines. I'm no fan of Steam so you won't find me there.

Most action seems to be on the First War (Commander: The Great War) since it's the centenary of the beginning. Again see the Slitherine forums, too. There are balance issues but kirk23 is working on mods with developer approval.

Myself, I've started to dabble in Ancients which I've never played before and I'm still playing Space Empires IV

[SilentHunter]

Thanks Tomokatu, I saw Commander Great War but did not spark any interest for me. I'll checkout the Slitherine forums as well. I know what you mean about Steam ... for some reason it brings out the worst in people !

[baloo7777]

Tomokatu...

My opinion was that RtV was the best computer iteration of the old TAHGC "Rise and Decline of the Third Reich" but the engine had a problem with mainly naval transport where duplicate fleet and ship numbers broke the game. All the data files were in Polish, too! so we needed Doomtrader's help too often to rebuild files for us. There were also PBEM issues.

What is RtV?

[shermanwar]

Or more simply put....every update to the game has been filled with issues. The game was essentially abandoned....the business model appears to be "Crank out version 1 of every game possible then move on to the next thing" I still use version 1.0 because atleast it works. I have never been able to get any later version to work reliably. Too bad as this seemed like a great game or had the potential to be. So Matrix by now is working some game set on a alien world with unicorns doing battle with ray guns.....pathetic.

[AH4Ever]

Is anyone from Wastelands-Interactive still involved with this title?

[Tomokatu]

RtV is my shorthand for "Road to Victory"

[shermanwar]

Ah4ever....good question! I wonder if you will get a reply or just crickets?............

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: SilentHunter
Haha talk about being late to the party, I just bought and am playing this game. My first impression is it's not a very deep/complex game but I'm still learning it and finding out theres more beneath the surface ... just don't know how much more yet. But where is everyone, what are they playing world war 2 related, this forum is dead?

Still play ToF and there is a lot of detail if you want to go deeper. The game has been made available on STEAM as version 1.06 (Matrix version at 1.04, with 1.05 available as a self install update). There still seems to be some development, as the latest STEAM version has a new feature (undocumented) where F11 brings up what looks like a hex supply level overlay on the map. Also undocumented in the earlier versions, F9 displays beach-head hexes, F10 gives an air-superiority overlay and F12 allows adjustment of national PP/DP levels (useful when scenario flaws cause a PP level crash, but not available in STEAM version).

Alternative game is 'Commander - Europe at War - Grand Strategy Mod ver3.10', which has good community support, but ToF playing in near weekly turns (48 turns per year) and down to Divisional level, with the ability to split into even smaller units, has more flexibility.

Watching the development of DC III, next installment of the 'Decisive Campaigns' series, which looks very promising, see blog :

http://www.vrdesigns.nl/?p=679

I enjoy 'CEaW - GS Mod', but will still persevere with ToF, though perhaps not in STEAM, as I need to keep control of the game, with mods and adjustments, to keep it playable.

The Forum shows the discussion on the problems in ToF, such as AI convoy routing and some scenarios have some combat factors missing (e.g. not applying Terrain effects), some players have stability issues with the game, although I have always been able to get it running.

So as the earlier discussion notes, there is a great game in here, if only .......

[baloo7777]

ORIGINAL: Tomokatu

RtV is my shorthand for "Road to Victory"

Thanks Tomokatu. Looked up the game on google, as I hadn't seen it before. I really felt that TOF had a lot going for it. But it fell short in a lot of ways. If you are a modder, the game can be made to work (not so much for PBEM though). I think the support of the developer diappeared. I have thought about starting a new game of TOF again using some of the mods and advice given on this forum. Rasputitsa has been helpful in that regard.

[Tomokatu]

Must be brief.
I want to explore some of rasputitsa's recommendations but I got Shogun 2 working on Steam. Spent about 15 hours so far learning but main computer died overnight and I'm using the old laptop today, just for forums, no email, no Usenet.

Bought "Field of Glory" at the Matrix sale and need to build an Ancients army then launch an online challenge.

Probably time for a new computer.
More deails in my personal journal page at DeviantArt journal