Armoured Commander: WW2 Tank Commander Roguelike

[Rev_Sudasana]

I've got a page up at http://www.armouredcommander.com/, not much there now but it's a place to keep screenshots and information as the project develops.

[monkie]

Wow, you have been busy, that is a lot of work but it sounds like you've built a framework that will be much easier to expand upon. The potential for other tanks, campaigns etc is very exciting.

Were you aware that Avalon Hill had an advertisement in one of the General magazines a computer version of Patton's Best? I remember coming across it at some point and they actually had what looked to be a screenshot of the Sherman overhead profile. I don't have a clue how far it got but it always seemed that PB and possibly B-17 would make for very good PC games.

I didn't know that PB took some of the stuff from ASL, that is very interesting.

The Website looks great as well, I hope that the word starts to get out among some more wargamers and we start to see more interest in this thread as well.

[Rev_Sudasana]

I had seen that advertisement, but as far as I know nothing ever came of it. There were also plans to do an ASL computer game, but I think when Avalon Hill went under they were either abandoned, or simply developed into the Close Combat series. Steel Panthers World at War is as close to computer ASL as we can get right now, but it's a very different focus from the solo, PB style.

I was actually thinking of recording a Let's Play of Alpha 5 once it's a little more polished. I changed a lot of the mechanics so there's a few new game-breaking bugs that have to be fixed. But once I can, any suggestions or requests for the LP? I was thinking of just playing through and discussing the different aspects of the game as they pop up in the campaigns and the battle encounters.

[monkie]

Just a general play through would be sufficient, along with an overview of the sequence of play.

It might be a good idea to mention that in the game survival is the real goal for your M4 crew. Balancing being effective vs being dead is the real challenge for the tank commander. Some players might be put off at first when they can't figure out why they're mighty 75 doesn't seem to be able to knock out that Panther at long range.

[Rev_Sudasana]

Let's Play of work-in-progress Alpha 5 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6aF8gK-oO0

[monkie]

Just finished watching the video, very well done and I think you pretty much covered everything. A5 is looking great, you are moving along very quickly. Also interesting to note that you changed from the 2D10 of PB to the 2D6 of the ASL series. I also found it interesting how your divided up the sectors using the hexes. I had no idea that some of the hexes divided in two were kind of considered as both sectors. Obviously the board version had to simplify certain mechanics and it's great that you don't have many of those limitations and can increase some of the realism.

Just a couple of questions:

1) Would it be possible to get info on the enemy units by just using the TAB key to cycle through them (just as if you were selecting them for targets) vs having to move the mouse over each one of them? I was just thinking might be easier to keep hands on the keyboard vs. moving one to the mouse?

2) Is the loader able to spot even though he is loading the main gun? I know we can change his sector but does the game take into account his action of loading the main gun and negate his spotting attempt?

Thanks for the video update, keep up the great work, looking very much forward to trying A5.

[Rev_Sudasana]

Thanks! Going to record another one soon that will move through a little faster, hopefully I'm run into some real resistance and get into some fun trouble.

I should be clear that my goal is not to recreate the board game, but rather to take the same basic experience and make it into an exciting and engaging RL. The board game was a great inspiration and set of basic game structures, but I think there's a lot more that's possible for the future!

Your questions:

1) Definitely. Might be easier to have the player use a command first, like [l] for look, and then you can tab through all enemies to get information on them.

2) In PB, the loader can continue to spot when on the 'Load' order. He can't while on Change Gun Load or Restock Ready Rack, however, and I think AC reflects this. There's a number of other orders that aren't implemented yet that prevent spotting, such as trying to repair the main gun. I think the reasoning is that reloading the main gun is pretty straightforward and the crewman has time to look out his periscope, but the other actions are more involved and thus he can't do spotting attempts.

[monkie]

In regards to loading and spotting I found it under 8.31 under the definition of the load order. I came across it by accident the other night and don't remember playing the game using it but rather letting the loader help spot no matter what action they were taking.

As you said the great thing is that you can choose what design aspects to change or tinker with to make the game more realistic.

[Rev_Sudasana]

I just checked, if the loader is on Change Gun Load order, his spot ability changes to None:

[monkie]

I was referencing 8.31 for the normal "load" command. "May spot normally unless the main gun is being fired. If the main gun is being fired the loader may not spot".

What I found confusing is that if you look at the "Load" counter it has the spotting symbol on it which means to me the loader can do both, however the description seems to contradict this.

[Rev_Sudasana]

Ah you're right - I'll have to add in another check to see if the main gun was fired in the previous turn.

[monkie]

I've been flipping through some old copies of GI Combat and the Haunted Tank, putting me in the mood to try Alpha 5! Lol.

[Rev_Sudasana]

New LP here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuswbvf4Mn4

As mentioned in the video I have two more major features to add, then I'll set up a download link for Alpha 5.

[monkie]

2nd video is also well done, you really cover a lot of ground in both of them.

[Rev_Sudasana]

I've got a release candidate version of Alpha 5 ready for download:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5500261/armcom_alpha5_rc1.zip

I'm calling it a "release candidate" because I haven't had time to do much playtesting of the final additions, but everything I wanted to include in this version is there. Because I changed so much of the core code from Alpha 4, there's still a lot that can crash or otherwise go wrong, as you can see from my Let's Play video!

Feel free to try it out, I'll try to fix any bugs that pop up, and then do a proper Alpha 5 release on Friday night GMT.