the german long campaign is unplayable
 

with every patch this game has gotten worse and worse.... there is no longer any point in playing the german long campaign... that no one has even commented on this is amazing. I'm not going to waste a lot of my time with all the long list of things that don't work.... suffice to say... there is no way for the germans to cross a river in a river crossing! I know I'm just going to get--if anything--- hate mail, and/or band from posting... clearly, this is a game for americans, by americans...and has nothing to do with WW2

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

Some hard cheese with your whine, sir?.

The German WW2 long campaign is probably the most played variant of the genre. If it was 'broken' then I am sure it would have been brought up long before now.

As to the occasional river crossing that comes up in France 40 then you do the normal thing for such:
A) Buy some barge carriers for your tanks to cross the river with. A barge carrier 'carries' a barge and it offloads that by attempting to drive into the wide river. Load your vehicles onto the barges (a barge can load from alongside as opposed to the same hex so there is no need to drive the vehicles into the river) and ferry across. You can find these formations in the "MISC" page.

B) in a river crossing, your foot troops carry rubber rafts. Again 'drive' the unit into the wide river and it transforms to a raft unit. On exiting the river on the other bank it transforms back to the infantry unit.

C) Buy lots of artillery. Pound the enemy side of the river where you are going to cross, and drop smoke if it is daylight to screen your crossing operation.

D) If you want a really easy battle then you have the normal tools available.
- You could screw the visibility down to 1 or so for a night battle/ (There are no night sights in WW2)
- You get the choice of river width. Use a small number and the river is less wide, or even can be a bit of marsh (if 0 is selected, AFAIR).

E) If you really cannot handle the river crossing, then simply exit and restart your save and you should be offered another battle type as it is a random event (in the LC as opposed to a user campaign).


As to your list of "long list of things that don't work" then you should try to enumerate these in the forum and then perhaps those points could be addressed, if they were shown to have any validity. We do engage with our end users, if somewhat acerbically at times being grumpy 50-something grognard types.


I happen to live in Scotland :uk, which as far as I recall is not in the USA.
Don lives in Canada :can, which again is not a part of the USA.

And that last bit about "has nothing to do with WW2" is really rather a large piece of flame bait is it not?.

Do by all means feel free to actually itemise your grievances, if any. But please do so in a considered, adult, manner in future, and not as an apparent bit of troll-bait written by a 14 year-old which the above posting comes across as.

Please refer to the forum rules before posting again - click on the link marked "Forum Rules" at the top of the page to read these. You have already bent or broken a few of these, already.

Andy

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

If you continue to behave like a troll then you are correct, you will be banned. This post contains nothing informative other than you don't understand how the game works so you lash out at us like a 3 year old.

"Barge Carriers" or "Lastkahn-Transp" in the German OOB, need to be purchased to ferry tanks across a river and how many are bought is entirely up to the player. It's not like beach assaults where barges are bought automatically. You need to get to the river before launching your barges so it's entirly up to the player to buy those with his Support Points. If you want to load infantry into barges to cross the river you are free to buy more but in river crossing battles all infantry units are automatically given a rubber raft. Thats "SP101"... it's been that way since Steel Panthers was first released in the '90's and applies to ALL nations in any kind of campaign or battle.

Don

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

I've been playing steel panthers since the 90's.... in the 1st edition, barges loaded on to barge carriers... as in the matrix version... after a few patches, they did not. in fact in some patches, units wouldn't even generate rafts at river hexes. In the latest patch (6.0) I was not even given the option to purchase barges.... secondly, when purchasing motorized art.,alot of trans. vehicles--with which the art. is paired, can't even load the art. pieces because they are "too heavy".... that no one has pointed this out for at least half a dozen patches.... and 5 or 6 years... is incredible to me!
with every new patch, I give the long campaign one last try....
with the same result--or worse... SPWW2 is a great game... or was...

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

I have to confess that I played WW 2 up to now only with SP WAW and will try out SP WW2 now.

However, in SP WAW river crossing was FUN!!! Exciting, thrilling, you needed proper planning, smoke screen etc. ... I was always happy to draw river crossing from the scenario.jackpot in a generic campaign....

The only a bit unrealistic thing was that every squad ... even sniper had his rubber boat. Have you ever carried a rubber boat loaded with the equipment of a squad? One of the most exhausting experience I made during my time in the modern German army.

I have never had any technical problems with river crossing in the other SP with it.

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

Maybe the reason nobody has mentioned any of these things is because they understand how the game works.

You seem incapable of providing real information..... try that---- give me an example of a year, and month and the gun where it is impossible to find a transport that will load it. The player is REQUIRED TO THINK......... you must pick transport that will carry your gun ( you can blame the nit-pickers who complain a transport could only carry 6 men when we had it set up to carry more to accomodate the gun and we adjusted that unit but that does NOT mean players can turn off their branin and buy anything they like. Transport is displayed buy unitclass NOT if can cay this gun or that so you have to be able to figure that out yourself.....so show me a month and year when there isn't at least ONE transport that could carry a gun in the German OOB.....or any other OOB ) but you offer us NOTHING as an example just generalized whining about issues YOU think have existed for 5-6 years then act amazed YOU are the only one that sees them..... doesn't that tell you something important ???

I tested the German LC in a river crossing and was able to buy barge carriers no problem. ....where are your saved games proving your point ??

Get serious and so will we. If there is an issue we will address it but from what I can see the "issue" is with your perception of how you think things should be not the game....otherwise we would have heard all about this from other players long before you.

Don

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

Your dead right about one thing, barges don't load onto barge carriers they are already loaded in them when you start.
As for the game for Americans by Americans that is laughable its great that unlike most games this does them no favours.

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

The REAL problem here is we have a player complaining about things that he's let fester, BY HIS OWN ADMISSION for years and then, instead of presenting them properly we get spewed on and told

That's right up there with the " Did you know: The Russians invented EW for aircraft first..." idiocy passed off as an attempt at "humor" on the MBT forums.

Ha Ha, so funny....NOT.

But here there are so many things wrong the guy complaining CANNOT EVEN BE BOTHERED TO TELL US WHAT THEY ARE.

Now..... just about everywhere on the 'net that's called "trolling" and I call it trolling here as well but I figure if someones that eager to look like a troll then at least start to offer some examples *MAYBE* there might be something to it but without specific examples we are dead in the water and the comment that "that no one has pointed this out for at least half a dozen patches.... and 5 or 6 years... is incredible to me!"... is incredible to me as well but not for the same reasons but apparently we as designers and everyone else as players are just lazy and stupid.

It is CORRECT that barges. once unloaded, cannot be reloaded. Checking back to OOB's made in 2001 and comparing to the latest ones we have given "Barge Carriers" ZERO carry capacity since AT LEAST 2001.

So IDK if we ever allowed it but if we did it was before 2001 and I REALLY don't give a crap how SP:WaW handles anything.

So there is one mystery "solved".... you cannot reload a barge onto a barge carrier and as far as I'm concerned that SOP

As for guns....... yes, you have to PAY ATTENTION to the carry cap of the vehicle and then figure out if the gun you want can be carried by it. The safe bet is pick the vehicle with the highest carry capacity but if you know the gun weighs "4" and has a crew of 11 you need a transport that has a carry cap of at least 115 and it's been YEARS since I had to explain that.

It's not "new".. it has been that way for years. The ONLY thing that has changed is the carry capacity of transports that carry guns have been refined and made more accurate and if anyone had though this was wrong they should have spoken up when they first noticed it and we could have explained it instead of having to deal with someone who's let resentment build up for half a decade........ not the smartest way of getting something explained or fixed.

Now....... both Andy and I would be very interested in hearing this "list of things that don't work" because maybe there might be something that CAN be fixed or changed but japping off that the game has "gotten worse and worse" then expressing amazement that nobody else has noticed is not the least bit helpful.

Testing HAS revealed a wide river map generation problem that we didn't know was there before but as far as I can tell that has nothing to do with any of the vague complaints offered on this thread so far.

So let's hear it... what have we been doing wrong all these years ??

List them out

1/
2/
3/

etc

and we will look into or explain every one of them




Don

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

Just a simple thought here but you say its a river crossing & no way to cross. Are you using the map generated or using a ready made one. If the later which one because there is a chance that despite the fact it looks like a river crossing map it might not have been built correctly.
In that case no barges or rubber boats as the game does not know its a river so all you have to do is give the map number for it to be fixed.

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

That's correct....... a custom map can be made with a wide swath of water that looks like a "river" but unless the "river" flag is set, usually by making a small stream into a river...... the game has NO idea it's a river map and you won't be given rubber boats etc


Don

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

Well, actually, Canada is part of North America, so Don IS an American, strictly speaking. There are also Central Americans, Middle Americans (includes the Caribbean) and South Americans. Sure wish people would realize that using the term "America" or "Americans" to refer only to the US or its citizens creates a certain amount of ambiguity...:D

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

I presume from the smiley that was in gest though it obviously did not apply if you look at the context of what was written it was quite obvious that the meaning was a citizen of the USA.

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

Lots of obfuscation in these parts ....
If there are problems it's chat together.
In any case make a PBEM games to express your anger.
:)

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

This is not clear.

I posted a Hot Keys Quick Reference Sheet about 4 years ago, here:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=41860

I posted it in 'Letter Size' (US, Canada, Mexico, and some South American nations), and A4 paper size (the rest of the world).

There's been 1,412 downloads:
45% for 'America'
55% the rest of the World

This game is in English, and as almost two thirds of the world's native English speakers are in the US and Canada (using 'Americans' loosely), you'd expect about two thirds of the players to be 'North American'.

But the above estimate is that only 45% of players are North American.

If you meant that it's a game for US citizens then you'd be even more wrong, as US players would be close to 40%, when it should be almost 60%.

This game is not nearly as popular with US Americans as it is in other parts of the world. It's an English speaking game where Americans are actually a minority.

Cross

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

Then there are US citizens such as myself who play German long campaign far more than any other country, and while not one of the best players, play with a 25% or more handicap without any major problems. I wrote up an AAR awhile back covering all the way from 1939 till 1943 in one of those campaigns.

Frankly I think the OP is either trolling or hasn't put much effort into learning the game.

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

Normally I just lurk and though fear of feeding a troll, I would like to comment.

I have played this game since it was spwwii without the win. I have had more enjoyment out of it than any other game I ever played and always eagerly await a new patch that always makes it better.

But I will objectively say there is a severe learning curve to this game. It is not for the first person shooter crowd or those who want to master a game in 40 hours.

I have found nothing wrong with the mechanics or of river crossings and I play German long campaign almost exclusively. I am a US expat to Europe. (I will also point out really liking river crossings.)

I humbly suggest any problems with a river crossing are either on the custom map as mentioned, or a serious deficiency in strategy and tactics.

This game in its current and past few forms is masterwork, and gets better with time. But a beginner is going to have a lot of frustrating losses. Especially if they try a head on charge across the water or don't have a strategic level plan.

I have played SPWAW, it has a few cool features I wouldn't mind seeing in SPWWII, they are different games though, some will like one over the other. I have thrown my hat in with this one.

If you are really having trouble, I suggest starting off with a small map and only 2 or 3 companies.

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

@OP
Don and Andy give all OB nations the same attention to detail no matter which, no doubt about it,and not sure why you think germany is slighted,it's very well probaly the one most fixed.

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

Hello prinzeugen,

partially your post is based on an false assumption. Theres no need to buy Barges and try to load them on the Barge Carriers during deploy phase. This won't work.
River crossings are not so complicated and in no case buggy. All you have to do ist buying Barge Carriers only and get them to the riverside. prinzeugen i want you to think about the following words: "fairness" and "baseless allegations"
In case of language difficulties and to prevent further misunderstandings of other german players who think rivercrossing is not possible:


Soldat,

alles was Du für eine Flußüberquerung brauchst sind Lastkahntransporter. Diese enthalten bereits jeweils einen Lastkahn.

Es ist nicht möglich Lastkähne auf Lastkahntransporter zu verladen, während Du deine Truppen aufstellst. Jeder Transporter enthält bereits einen Lastkahn.

Gruß

Andrea Lutz

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

I guess the nub of this is:

Never try river crossings unless you know how to do it correctly,(ie lots of smoke and bombard ect..) and do it in low visabilty as they did it in RL.

Re: the german long campaign is unplayable
 

An amusing point of view, since about 75% of scenarios in this game are from the German side and Germany has the most detailed OOB of all nations.