ok i just ordered the game
 

I had the same feeling as some others that the game seems pretty small for $35, especially because i'm not that excited for the campaign as much as skirmish mode. but the demo and the promise of the other races was just too much fun & i'd like to see you guys develop more games like this, so what the heck.

seems like in the demo it's pretty easy to win in skirmish mode against the AI though...does this get any harder? Are their difficulty levels in skirmish mode?

Can you handicap multiplayer games? My wife will only play if i handicap myself somehow.

Finally, are there more online multiplayer games going now? Anyone think about doing some kind of tournament/ladder system?

Looking forward to playing against you all soon.

Re: ok i just ordered the game
 

The Skirmish are indeed pretty easy - there is no difficulty level. You can handicap yourself by not buying certain units, or, vs your wife, you can decide not to use all your money (say, you're only allowed to spend 80% of the money you make; this makes it tough on the bookkeeping, but personally I'd do it immediately if my girlfriend wanted this as a condition to play me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif )

As for the online games... it's always pretty hard to find games. At least it is for me (I live in Europe, which means I typically don't have the same free hours as Americans). The online game comes with its own permanent ladder.

Re: ok i just ordered the game
 

That is an interesting thought about the handicap...you could do it more easily by saying, for example, that the stronger player can never allow cash to fall below $2000...so you essentially lose the first two turns of the game while your cash builds up to the minimum level. then you wouldn't need to track the 80%.

Thanks!

Re: ok i just ordered the game
 

FWIW, I expect multi-player games to pick up a bit soon, thanks to a couple of major press reviews. (PC Gamer and Computer Games Magazine.) We're also releasing a patch (v1.20) in a couple of weeks or so that will have features that make it a bit easier to find opponents.

As for the handicap feature, this is something we always wanted to implement, but with the way the rules and races are set up, there's no consistant way to balance a handicap. Any type or quantity of handicap we considered would benefit each race inconsistantly -- some races would always get a bigger benefit than others.

Informal, self-imposed handicaps are a good idea though, and I can definitely see how that would help bring an SO into the game. =)

-Hiro_Antagonist

Re: ok i just ordered the game
 

Great, thanks. Also, fwiw, bruce geryk's blog on 1up got me to try the demo (even though he complained about the elf pictures) so maybe that will help.

I really like the gameplay design, i think it can potentially have much longer life then advance wars (a game that i loved) especially if multiplayer becomes more common. now my next request is for you to port it to GBA so i can play on the train http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. I hope you guys do well with it.

Re: ok i just ordered the game
 

Thanks for the kind words!

Bruce G. has been a good proponent of the game, and he's the one that wrote the LOL review in Feb's CGM.

Since our next game is more sci-fi and doesn't have Elves and Dwarves and what-not, hopefully he'll like that one even more. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I really want to see the online play thrive with LOL, as I think that's the most fulfilling way to play it, and I agree it's will give it a long life with customers.

-Hiro_Antagonist

Re: ok i just ordered the game
 

Hopefully the next patch will get more people to play online, now that I finally have some time to play no one is on http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif