Is ECW ready yet?

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JamesLxx
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Is ECW ready yet?

Post by JamesLxx »

I've seen a lot of posts here about problems. I'm looking forward to playing ECW but I don't want to start until its as stable Ageods other titles. How close is ECW to being played without the frustration of hitting bugs?
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altipueri
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by altipueri »

I am happy with it but if you want it to be ready straight out of the box it is probably best to wait until the forthcoming patch is out which will hopefully fix the slow scrolling issue that some have, and fix some of the typing errors in the text that cause some spleen venting.* :)

Time enough to do a bit more background reading perhaps? Last night I read Winston Churchill's chapters on the Civil War in his "History of the English Speaking Peoples".


* I've just driven back from London via Wycombe - which for me is now Wycombre, and shall be forever more. I may have to spray paint the road signs.
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DEB
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by DEB »

ORIGINAL: altipueri

...and fix some of the typing errors in the text that cause some spleen venting.* :)

I think the various Map errors re "county" positions are rather a bigger bug bear than the few spelling errors reported to date...


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altipueri
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by altipueri »

The Reading/Newbury/Berkshire labels are awry but I don't think they affect gameplay.

Do the cows wagging their tails affect things - e.g. supply in a region?
Philippeatbay
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by Philippeatbay »

Words painted on the map are there for color and don't effect gameplay, though they can be aesthetically disconcerting. I'm still groaning over some of the howlers in Alea Jacta Est which are too labor-intensive to correct by modding. Hopefully there isn't too much of that here.

If I understand correctly, the problem with the word 'Berkshire' that you see on the map is that it should be 'Surrey' and a bit further to the east. The word 'Berkshire' would probably best appear if it were written running NNW to SSE along the right bank of the Thames, possibly in a slightly smaller text size. But that could get a little crowded because it might have to appear under the icon for the town of Reading. Since that would put it right next to the word 'Surrey' (which you would see in the best of all possible worlds), the map might start to look a bit on the cluttered side.

I for one would rather Miguel focused his limited time on addressing issues of substance, and circle back for the cosmetic issues later on. I would think that ironing out the text that appears under the tool tips is a bit more pressing, so it would probably be better if he concentrated on file wrangling rather than re-painting bitmaps. I think it important that the tool tip label read 'Reading" and not 'Newbury' when you run the tool tip over the town icon, even if the name of the region the town of Reading is located in happens to be Newbury. Admittedly we've strayed into country inhabited by Emerson's hobgoblin, but sometimes clarity has to trump elegance.

Remembering to fix what shows up when you run a tool tip accross a town or a region is not as easy as it would first appear when you have a host of other fires to put out. People can drop useful suggestions for changes into these threads, but do we really want Miguel spending all of his time combing the forum for things he might have left out, when that energy would be better spent on refining the game's internal mechanics? I can still remember the howls of outrage from across the pond when AACW first came out many years ago, and people would look in vain for the county they lived in only to find it carrying the name of a neighboring county in a different state. It was only after people set up a special thread for boo-boos (technical term) that all the suggested emendations started getting collected in one place, so that the poor overworked programmer could work them in en passant when he needed a break from what was going on under the hood.

If such a thread were to get started, an important thing to remember is that things change over time, even in the British Isles. I made a Dark Ages village names mod for the Mount and Blade Viking game once, and in making it had to look up a couple of hundred place names just to make sure they were actually in use during that period. The first thing that struck me (after I had waded through all of the Anglo-Saxon) was how many towns and villages could be traced back to the eighth and ninth century. But the second thing that struck me was how different the landscape was in terms of which towns were important and where they were located compared to either late Roman Britain or the High Middle Ages. So just because you drive past a big town on the way to work every morning doesn't mean it was important (or even in existence) in the 17th century. The place names in the British Isles don't tend to change that much, but you have to research the history of each and every one of them just to be sure you know what was actually supposed to be there.

Under the rubric of managing our expectations, it's probably worth remembering that it took more than half a dozen patches to smooth out the region names in AACW (American Civil War I as opposed to the current Civil War II). With any luck it won't take anywhere near that long for ECW, but I'd be surprised if it happened overnight. Miguel may manage to pull off that hat trick, but I'm not sure we want him to.
ess1
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by ess1 »

Excellent post.

from Salopia or is it Shropshire.[:)] Not sure where I am - as usual.[:D]
Philippeatbay
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by Philippeatbay »

It's Salopia if you're writing in Latin.

Where I live I've never heard anyone think they were living in Novum Eboracum, but most people here don't usually know enough Latin to decipher the text that appears at the bottom of the city's seal (sigillum civitatis novi eboraci).

I seem to think I'm living in New Amsterdam.




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DEB
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by DEB »

Or from Salop in ( correct ) ECW speak...

Please note the post by "Philippe at Bay" that you liked, is based on several misconceptions. See my detailed response below ( next post ).
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DEB
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by DEB »

ORIGINAL: Philippe at bay

Words painted on the map are there for color and don't effect gameplay,
Thank god for that !

[ I don't have the game ( to date ) so I am unaware of such things... ]
...though they can be aesthetically disconcerting.
Not half !
If I understand correctly, the problem with the word 'Berkshire' that you see on the map is that it should be 'Surrey' and a bit further to the east. The word 'Berkshire' would probably best appear if it were written running NNW to SSE along the right bank of the Thames, possibly in a slightly smaller text size. But that could get a little crowded because it might have to appear under the icon for the town of Reading. Since that would put it right next to the word 'Surrey' (which you would see in the best of all possible worlds), the map might start to look a bit on the cluttered side.


If that's the case ( and considering your previous comments ), perhaps it would be best to remove "Berkshire"...
I for one would rather Miguel focused his limited time on addressing issues of substance, and circle back for the cosmetic issues later on. I would think that ironing out the text that appears under the tool tips is a bit more pressing, so it would probably be better if he concentrated on file wrangling rather than re-painting bitmaps. I think it important that the tool tip label read 'Reading" and not 'Newbury' when you run the tool tip over the town icon, even if the name of the region the town of Reading is located in happens to be Newbury. Admittedly we've strayed into country inhabited by Emerson's hobgoblin, but sometimes clarity has to trump elegance.

That's OK with me. Most of the comments made ( by both me and others ), were made prior to the release of the game ( after viewing the screenshots posted elsewhere on this forum ( as game "adverts"))...
...an important thing to remember is that things change over time, even in the British Isles.
This does not really apply too much in England ( it does rather a lot however in Wales and Scotland ). Some of us Brits do know our History mate, and we have Historical Atlases and Maps to assist us too...

[ The only real changes in England since the Anglo-Saxon Times were the merging of a few very, very small Counties ( e.g Rutland ) with one of their larger neighbours ; and more recently the creation of a few Metropolitan areas. The one thing that has not happened is the actual moving of a County... ]
I made a Dark Ages village names mod for the Mount and Blade Viking game once, and in making it had to look up a couple of hundred place names just to make sure they were actually in use during that period. The first thing that struck me (after I had waded through all of the Anglo-Saxon) was how many towns and villages could be traced back to the eighth and ninth century. But the second thing that struck me was how different the landscape was in terms of which towns were important and where they were located compared to either late Roman Britain or the High Middle Ages. So just because you drive past a big town on the way to work every morning doesn't mean it was important (or even in existence) in the 17th century.
What applies to pre ECW history does not necessarily apply to the ECW period. I don't believe anyone queried any of the towns or cities used in the game, just the actual siting of some of the county names.

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DEB
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by DEB »

ORIGINAL: altipueri

The Reading/Newbury/Berkshire labels are awry

There are a few others too as I recall...
but I don't think they affect gameplay.

Lets hope not...

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Volunteer
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by Volunteer »

Are there plans afoot for ECW to be released through Steam?
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Leibst
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RE: Is ECW ready yet?

Post by Leibst »

No plans right now, but TYW was released on its moment. Anyway as far as I know once you buy a game in Matrix/Slitherine/ageod and later is released on Steam you get the Steam key. I have never done this but it rings me a bell.
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