Air Interface

[hossjww30]

Someone needs to take the current air planning interface and throw it in the garbage and start over. I've played WiTE1, War in the Pacific Admirals Edition, been playing since the 1980's and I have NEVER seen anything so confusing in my computing life.

[Zovs]

This may help you with the new UI.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=375410

It’s a breeze once you get ye hang of it.

[AlbertN]

In all honesty I agree with the OP.

The 'Air Interface' is not user friendly and ... well ... I'd apply what it was said to how WITE2 air war has been organized. The duality of 'day by day across the week' to the 'ground weekly turn' business to me just does not work.
That is besides the UI which is atrocious to navigate.

It does not help that things get 'missed' on the way as the 'containers of order' come and go due to historical shift.
When AoG or even a whole Luftflotte goes, there is a sudden jeopardy as ... things migrate under other commands.
If an AoG disappears the air units associated suddenly are attached to the higher echelon ... which may muck things up.

Clunky UI, deliberate complications for a player to keep track of, etc ...

[malyhin1517]

In my opinion, almost all players do not like the new air system in the game! I would prefer to have the old air system, but with the AOG and the network of airfields on the map! I love these innovations! And I don't like the system of air directives!

[MemoryLeak]

Every aspect of this game is unnecessarily complicated to the point of constant frustration. Grognards want an "in-depth" game that accounts for every bullet in WWII. Okay, but design the rules to be logical and easy to understand.

There are so many sections of the manual which 90 percent of game players cannot comprehend. It seems like Matrix has been going down this road for a longtime and you can observe this by buying some of the other games like War Plan Pacific . What a mess that is. IMHO of course.

If you need proof, all you have to do is read most of the posts and you will see how confused players are. It is the rule not the exception that people STRUGGLE with these games.

I believe the developers have lost sight of a basic principle of games, they should be entertaining, not make people want to jump off of a bridge out of frustration.

I want to be able to play this game so much, but it is impossible to remember 520 pages of complicated rules, contradictions and exceptions and only on Tuesday if there is a full moon.

[malyhin1517]

Every aspect of this game is unnecessarily complicated to the point of constant frustration. Grognards want an "in-depth" game that accounts for every bullet in WWII. Okay, but design the rules to be logical and easy to understand.

There are so many sections of the manual which 90 percent of game players cannot comprehend. It seems like Matrix has been going down this road for a longtime and you can observe this by buying some of the other games like War Plan Pacific . What a mess that is. IMHO of course.

If you need proof, all you have to do is read most of the posts and you will see how confused players are. It is the rule not the exception that people STRUGGLE with these games.

I believe the developers have lost sight of a basic principle of games, they should be entertaining, not make people want to jump off of a bridge out of frustration.

I want to be able to play this game so much, but it is impossible to remember 520 pages of complicated rules, contradictions and exceptions and only on Tuesday if there is a full moon.

For fun, I have shooting games! And this game is just interesting for me because it is complex and has a lot of nuances. Although sometimes I am annoyed by the inconvenience of some functions. In general, it is difficult to call, for example, chess a game for entertainment! And this game, in my opinion, is much more complicated than chess.

[Zovs]

Every aspect of this game is unnecessarily complicated to the point of constant frustration. Grognards want an "in-depth" game that accounts for every bullet in WWII. Okay, but design the rules to be logical and easy to understand.

There are so many sections of the manual which 90 percent of game players cannot comprehend. It seems like Matrix has been going down this road for a longtime and you can observe this by buying some of the other games like War Plan Pacific . What a mess that is. IMHO of course.

If you need proof, all you have to do is read most of the posts and you will see how confused players are. It is the rule not the exception that people STRUGGLE with these games.

I believe the developers have lost sight of a basic principle of games, they should be entertaining, not make people want to jump off of a bridge out of frustration.

I want to be able to play this game so much, but it is impossible to remember 520 pages of complicated rules, contradictions and exceptions and only on Tuesday if there is a full moon.

I think your wrong here, WarPlan and WarPlan Pacific are actually beer and pretzels type of games. Easy and fun to get into without a ton of details.

WITE2/WITW and WITP-AE are excellent games.

[comte]

Air interface was clearly bolted on in witw then carried over here. Its awful just transferring planes is horrendous. Great map great land game unfun awful air game.

[Zovs]

I still say once you get used to how to do an air transfer (there are 3 ways to do it, pick the one you like) and how the air war system works its really quite easy to use.

I for one never want to go back to the WITE1 click fests, its more logical to assign air units to missions prior to the ground phase, its similar to all the board war games that have come before.

Perhaps a better approach would be to use a WEGO system instead of a IGOUGO system. But that would be a different game and redesign and it isn't happening with WITE2.

[cblattmann]

I like the air system (directives) but I think the user interface in WITW was more intuitive and information easier accessible.

[56ajax]

Every aspect of this game is unnecessarily complicated to the point of constant frustration. Grognards want an "in-depth" game that accounts for every bullet in WWII. Okay, but design the rules to be logical and easy to understand.

There are so many sections of the manual which 90 percent of game players cannot comprehend. It seems like Matrix has been going down this road for a longtime and you can observe this by buying some of the other games like War Plan Pacific . What a mess that is. IMHO of course.

If you need proof, all you have to do is read most of the posts and you will see how confused players are. It is the rule not the exception that people STRUGGLE with these games.

I believe the developers have lost sight of a basic principle of games, they should be entertaining, not make people want to jump off of a bridge out of frustration.

I want to be able to play this game so much, but it is impossible to remember 520 pages of complicated rules, contradictions and exceptions and only on Tuesday if there is a full moon.

It is a complex game that requires hours of experimentation to understand. i was a beta tester and have been playing since it came out, though not on a regular basis. Only now I am able to understand T1 Axis Air directives. (I think the Air War is a stinker). And I believe that the game could be more enteraining, and rather than fix trivial hacks they should make it more playable.

Still I love it.

[DarkHorse2]

@Memory,

WiTE2 is like a crazy girl friend, you keep going back to.

Almost by shear will-power and tenacity, many of the old-timers have fought through the issues you are struggling with and have worked around them. They have done it so much, that it is now second nature and they have forgotten what you are experiencing.

The air-interface is an example.

Even now, it provides inaccurate or misleading information regarding AC ranges. But, over time, many of us have learned to disregard it and no longer see it as a problem anymore.

% traveled has never been fixed correctly. But in order to play the rest of the game, you have to move past it and just accept the current implementation. In fact, you eventually master how to exploit it - then it no longer seems like a bug anymore.

It is good that you are here and have posted the issues you are seeing, to remind us.

[Wild]

WitE2 and WitP AE are my favorite games. But they are a struggle.

I can no longer play simpler games. It feels like I'm wasting my time if I'm not struggling and challenging myself.
Mastering these games I find to be well worth the challenge.

Having said that, the air war could have been better designed.

[Stamb]

I agree with DarkHorse2.

People say its OK only because they got used to it. Now i have no problems with it. But.
When I saw it for the first time - I had no idea what to do. Literally. I had no idea that there are mini tutorials in a game's folder because game is not telling that they are there. I went on youtube to watch few videos how to move units around.
I wanted to play this game with my brother and he told that he is not gonna play this game because of the UI (as a whole, not only for the AIR).

[Mehring]

Air system could use a few tweeks but it's a vast improvement on v1. One problem I see is that recon is simultaneous with other AD so for planning a turn you get no benefit from the recon.

[TallBlondJohn]

I have to agree with the OP. I've been wargaming for 40 years and WITE2 is the one game I could play forever, but I dread the air. I come back to it every few months and I love the detail, depth and the UI improvements, but every time I have to re-learn how the air works - its just not intuitive and worse than that, its not fun in any way. As for trying to teach it to a newbie, I wouldn't even try.

The air killed WITW for me and this is just as bad. I want to be Zhukov, Montgomery, Guderian, Patton, Manstein. I don't want to be Tedder, Spaatz or Harris or have anything to do with their day to day jobs. I want to be able to set the general priorities for air, ask for tactical support here here and here, and call in the occasional heavy bomber strike at a cost in AP or VP.

Yes, at least I have the AI now to do it for me- its not ideal but it does the job. But don't say that's WAD as the alternative (micro-management) isn't an alternative for so many reasons. I suspect many people who would like fine control are forced to use the AI as the air game isn't a game, its a huge chore riddled with pitfalls and concepts inconsistent with the rest of the game.

Something that does work may not suit WITW - but lets tackle that when we get to it shall we? Or My WITW2 experience will be hours of pressing the AI button.

[Zovs]

I made a mini tutorial of sorts to make learning and using the Air manually a breeze. See my second pot in this thread.