James Sterrett
Posts: 1576
Joined: 7/7/2004
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Laramie
Once again, Dr. Sterrett issues a concise, clear, and informative "box" of information. But...I take it you like it? Can offer observations as well as any compare/contrast with COTA?
Disclosure: I'm a BFTB beta tester, as part of my day job.
I'm a big fan of Panther's games, both personally and professionally.
tl/dr version: These not only offer the best AI I know of; they also offer the best simulation of being the commander that's available in a single-player computer game. That may or may not mean it's a fun game for a particular person.
The AI is outstanding and even better than COTA's. Dave and Paul spent a lot of effort on some things that are hard to see in the AI, generally getting forces to behave more correctly. Overall, though, it's amazing: you can assign an arbitrary group of forces to achieve an arbitrary terrain-based objective and they will make a competent go of it. Keep in mind that the AI facing against you is not given preset battle plans, but has to decide what to do based on available forces, terrain, mission, and known opposing units.
Simulation of Command:
Commanders and their staffs come up with a plan, issue orders to subordinate units, and then monitor unfolding events as those subordinates execute their missions. As events unfold, there are three key questions: 1) Are friendly forces doing what the plan requires? 2) Are enemy forces doing what the plan predicts? 3) Will this plan still achieve the intended outcome? If the answer to any of these questions is "no", then they have a problem and need to figure out how to fix it, and then issue orders to solve the situation. Ideally, they recognize that the answer will be no in the future, and fix the issue now. There's a lot of staring at the map or reports and trying to decide if something needs to be done -- but the subordinate units are getting on with their assigned tasks all the while.
In the game, the player comes up with a plan, issues the order, and then has to monitor unfolding events, asking those same three questions and trying to come up with new orders as fixes.
Better still, when you enable command delay (ideally as high as it will go!), you get a game that makes you experience Boyd's OODA loop directly. Players who can stay ahead of events, anticipating instead of reacting, come to dominate the battlefield; their forces seem to turn up where and when they are needed to tip the tide of battle in their favor. Those who react to events find themselves struggling, forces not quite in the right place, pre-empted by enemy actions, and so on.
If you're interested in a taste of BFTB as a military staff trainer, come to Origins Game Convention on 24 June.... I and several others will be running a series of seminars using off-the-shelf games to conduct staff training exercises (much more fun than it sounds, I promise!  ), using BFTB, and the also-excellent Flashpoint Germany and Decisive Action (each in its own seminar.)
|
Printable Version
First impressions please - 
)
). One armored Battalion was defending a bridge halfway up the map that was not an objective, and no enemy units were in sight, so I ordered them to probe toward the main highway that cuts across the map SW to NE. To my great satisfaction, they emerged in the rear of the enemy just before nightfall, and they did a lot of damage in addition to keeping a significant part of the enemy force away from the St Vith objective. Actually I expected them to meet up with some enemies and to keep them away from my flank, so I was not such a great genius...
RE: First impressions please - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread