Loving it, and suggestions

[TheRealJostapo]

Hi, I'll confess I haven't poured over the boards extensively, and find posts like this one very often cheesy.   That said, of all the games I've played in the last couple years, I am impressed with UGCW and feel as though I got a bargain for the amount of entertainment.   So congrats for that.   

My feedback;

1. DLC now! please.   Lengthen the campaign somewhat and stitch a few of the missing battles in.   For another 20 minors and 5 majors I'd happily throw 25 bucks your way.
    
2. The victory conditions dialog is ambiguous and hard to read.   Specifically, I want to know which failed conditions lead to an "End of Battle" condition; specifically for the multi-phase battles.   For instance, I've played Chickamauga twice as Union now, and have not experienced the final desperate phase.   I _want_ to lose just enough to finally 'win' and follow a more historical path, and, experience all the content you put hard work into. 
    
3. Related to above, if you could indicate on the mission briefings screen and victory dialog what the historical outcomes were.  This would serve a couple purposes.   
   
   First, as I'm sure you designed the missions a long historical lines, it might silence some disgruntled players complaining about the missions.  You were supposed to lose that battle and pulled out a draw?  gg.   
   
   Secondly, education.   Maybe a hyperlink to Wiki's entries for the battles.   I'll confess studying the Civil War is a hobby of mine, and I'd love a way to get my son to do so as well (and he can't NOT click a hyperlink).
    
4. Managing the Army is fun.   Repetitively slide to full strength and apply is dull.   A row for three buttons (Full with vets, full with rookies, full with a blend) would be very well welcome.   (The blend bit could be just a 50/50 split between vets and rookies, or something smarter which tries not to remove perks).   Ditto, a 'buy all' in the armory screen.    Basically, sliders are necessary, but annoying.
    
5. An option to disable mission timers.   An example, the Mule Shoe.   I've stood on that ground and was in the infantry. There is no way in hell I'd start that assault until I'd thoughtfully arrayed my forces.   Unfortunately the game meta the timer forces is lining up the army in four rows of brigades and simply issuing a "March Forward in a line until you hit the edge of the map" order.   In other words, the timer I think in a lot of cases is hurting strategy and sandbox'ness and results in the game being played more like Starcraft. 
    
6. Loosen up the brigade intolerance for overlap.   Select ten line brigades and tell them to mark in a direction.   When they come to rest, very often one will think "Hey I'm too close my neighbors so I'm going to find an empty spot".    Unfortunately for me, that unit is very often the greenest brigade in my Corps.. and he meanders front and forward of the line, so the opposing line rightly things "That's the closest guy, we better focus our fire".   There was a reason green units are placed in the center but this behavior results in green units very often staying green because they keep getting shredded as a result of this behavior.
    
7. Some way to preview my move orders like in the Total War series.   Press a key, and you see what the final moves and disposition will look like (barring enemy action).   For mass assault missions like Mule Shoe, this would be exceptionally helpful, where timing and spacing a very important.
    
8. The firing arc/range indicator for infantry and artillery is way to dim.   I understand it was done to make the map less like a game, but on some of the heavily forested maps, this makes knowing when you have to displace your artillery a pain and involves a lot of leaning in and squinting at the monitor to trace the arc out to get the range.
    

Anyhow, this post is already long and obnoxious enough.   Fantastic job on the game.   Feel free to ignore every point in this list EXCEPT for #1.   I'd love to give you more money.  (Seriously... cash in! Don't make a single code change, and just add some content.  Channel your inner Electronics Arts!)

-joel

 

[Andre Bolkonsky]

We love long posts, and this one does not qualify as obnoxious. 

You make some good points, and repeat many suggestions which have been made in the past. I do like the Preview Order command, something to think about for the future. I'll make sure it's on the list. 

Welcome to the forums, come back often. 

[Keenonthedaywalker]

DLC would be great! Also I agree with number four and would like a better way to manage the army(Still fun with sliders though).

[dutmistrz]

If you make a DLC, you have my money. 

For army management, it's many things that can be upgraded. For instance when you want to replace a leader you need to have a spare one, and make these crazy rotations (maybe I'm missing sth, but I didn't find a simple button to unassign the leader from a formation). Also swapping entire divisions isn't possible, I would like to make my 1st Division 3rd and there is no way without the necessity to transfer it to another corps. Same goes for bgd's - If I want to move the 4th brigade to 1st slot within a division, I need to juggle them with another brigade

But it's details, the game is astonishing nonetheless. Going through MG difficulty as Union and I'm literally stressed out during every battle, just finished Antietam... 20k casualties vs 37k CSA. Iuka in sight and then... Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! Jk, CSA won't shout this - as grim as it seems, the battle has some neat possibilities for a Union victory, at a relatively low cost, too.