Monkstar

Well I already applied a few months ago. The offer still stands.

I think too large units might get you in trouble with the overall mapsize because you might be unable to - for example - surround your enemy since he could just make a line from one end of the map to the other. And there might be similar issues like this just limiting the tactical gameplay if there are too many troops on the field. But then again, DarthMod has also allowed ultralarge unit sizes in the past, so who knows?

Yes, I think the chance of getting it back if something happens to it are actually not that bad. But I did have my Origin account pirated once and it really was pure luck that I still had a few old game keys (from games I hadn't played for years) somewhere in the attic to prove that I bought the games myself. If i had thrown them away, there would have been no chance in proving to the support that it was my own account. And I know certain MMOs where people had their accounts pirated, stripped from all valuables and then used as bots for advertising illegal stuff in the game which led to the accounts getting banned as well since there was no proof they did not do that advertising themselves (no matter how unlikely it was). So these people really ended up with their entire games ruined. I just don't like taking chances, so I tend to be as careful and skeptical as possible. And it's just that bad gut feeling I have whenever I add more games to the pile I already have in Steam, making a possible loss even more threatening. Nevertheless, I still agree that putting this game on Steam is a good idea because it really lets the devs focus on the actual game development.

A publisher becomes a problem when he gets pushy with fixed release dates regardless of the progress and things like that. If he does not interfere with the production and design of the game, he can be very useful though.

I didn't say Steam is a bad thing in general. I was just pointing out that there are not only pros, but also cons. Of course it is great for independent or startup game developers (especially Steam Greenlight) to distribute their games without having to produce physical copies of it. For the most part, Steam turns out great and I am fully aware of the fact that it offers a great opportunity to Nick and his team. And I really want this game to be a success because I can't wait for it to set new AI standards for everyone. I apologize if I sounded too negative, and I did not lose my Steam account in the past, either. The threat of it maybe happening feels like the sword of Damocles to me though; not a big one, but it's there.

It is nice until someone steals your account or you lose it somehow. That might happen even without you doing something wrong and then you suddenly lost a few hundred bucks' worth of games. That's when you really start hating Steam because you never own the games physically.

Interesting idea, but I fear it might deny me the chance of selecting a single unit if there is just one icon representing them all. How do i split them up? I want to be able to select units by clicking on their icon. I think it's actually better to have icons for single units if I did not want to combine the units to a larger one myself. So I wouldn't exactly like that. It would probably be misleading too, depending on how widely the units are spread, since I wouldn't know intuitively which units belong to that big icon and which don't.

Well, how do you apply for being a tester? I see you already have some people and I'm really keen on joining them. My english is quite decent and I do have some knowledge about programming (that's not what I'd apply for, just saying I might have a better understanding of bugs and similar things I might find).

I definitely prefer the second one. Red and blue background is totally sufficient, and I prefer having the larger unit type icons instead of the flags. I know which side I am on and the flag is not really necessary.

I really can't wait for you to enable us to support you financially. Judging from the DarthMods I'm pretty sure this will be an awesome game and I would even pay for the chance to see the beta and give you feedback. I keep coming back here every now and then to see how it's going and I can't wait for a playable version or a little trailer or just some gameplay footage to be made accessible to us.

I really dislike the tiles. I prefer bars and numbers, so 18 and 19 are my favourites. But I'm also fine with 21-23. For me, the tiles really take away a lot of precise information because there are only 5 states that can be represented and in my opinion that's way too inaccurate and makes me unable to see small changes and therefore trends which I really need to see how the unit is performing.