Extra Content for Panzer Corps Announced!

[Kerensky]

Love it - the more you can offer varied mission objectives (rather than the classic race as fast as you can to capture these 4 cities), as well as defensive missions, the better.

Piatek will hopefully prove to be a most delightful defensive scenario.

The topic of varied missions objectives is tricky, but I think we've come up with a very good solution. Many missions do have special objectives that require a player to complete in order to achieve decisive victory. However we also acknowledge that this concept may not appeal to everyone, so players who wish to just play the victory grabbing game may do so and will not be unduly punished for it.

Here's just one example that illustrates this concept.



Bonus points for anyone who can figure out which scenario these objectives belong too. Give you a hint, it's historically based.

Spoiler below!

































http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Giraud

While trying to block a German attack through the Ardennes, he was captured by German troops at Wassigny on 19 May.

By the way, take note how the date on the scenario is May 19th, and historically Giraud was captured on May 19th. We went through a lot of history books, yes actual books not just wikipedia pages, to come up with content that is both fun but very true to history as well.

[OmegaMan1]

Thanks for the details, Kerensky! The DLC campaigns are sounding better and better every time.

This image should explain what I'm talking about, just keep in mind the briefing is subject to change in the final version.

Choose your own campaign path options?! Be still my beating heart...

[BriteLite]

Signed up for the beta. Can hardly wait.

When PzCorps was released I was puzzled when some posted complaining about the game price. $50+ and you get d/l, box hard copy and your name on the disk. And a great game too. I have spent twice that much on games that sucked and now reside in storage. Now the expansions begin and Slitherine wants $5. I say it is a great deal. IMHO the game was underpriced to begin with. I will gladly spend $5 for expansions every time they are released.

Thanks Slitherine, Lordz, Matrix and especially Rudankort for publishing the best conflict sim in years at a fair price. And thanks for developing marketing that allows you to supplement your ROI and provide ongoing development/content at a very fair price.

[impar]

I like this!

I actually preferr the initial WWII period than the later. Infantry is more useful, panzers are an exciting new concept without being too overpowered, air warfare exists but its not that decisive,etc.

Will there be night turns where planes are grounded and visibility is lower?

[Longasc]

Already told some of my friends who still didn't buy Panzer Corps that they are missing out on the best strategy game of the year.

What shall I say, my Beta luck is usually low (not a blogger - seems to be a requirement to get into those MMO Betas) but regardless if I get into this Beta or not, I am already drooling over the new scenarios!

I very much agree with impar, the early war period has more appeal to me than the late war scenarios, prestige price for units and relative unit power works better early on IMO. Don't like those crazy expensive but necessary late war tanks.


P.S. I'm just drooling!!!

[parusski]

I was thrilled to be a beta tester. Panzer Corps took over my life this past string and summer and it still gets more playtime than any other game I have. The extra content is a great idea, and priced perfectly. I can't wait to start using the new content.

[ralmoritz]

I love the idea of varied scenario objectives & more detailed scenarios that follow a more historically accurate path. Signed up as a beta tester & hope I get to be one of the privileged few to get an early look at the new grand campaigns.

[rezaf]

Signed up for the beta. Can hardly wait.

When PzCorps was released I was puzzled when some posted complaining about the game price. $50+ and you get d/l, box hard copy and your name on the disk. And a great game too. I have spent twice that much on games that sucked and now reside in storage. Now the expansions begin and Slitherine wants $5. I say it is a great deal. IMHO the game was underpriced to begin with. I will gladly spend $5 for expansions every time they are released.

Thanks Slitherine, Lordz, Matrix and especially Rudankort for publishing the best conflict sim in years at a fair price. And thanks for developing marketing that allows you to supplement your ROI and provide ongoing development/content at a very fair price.

Props to you for liking the game, but it is definately not underpriced. You got to take into consideration that Matrix NEVER downprices or has sales worth calling that.
This means the price will be pretty much stuck at $50 forever.
You might be happy with that, but in this day and age, not everyone is prepared to spend that much. I find it very unfortunate that a lot of players who'd be willing to give a PG remake a try at $25 will probably never get the chance to do so. Because, you may have paid $100 for suckey ganes, but lots of people these days only buy even AAA titles at steam sales for <$10 or something - in that context $50 is a friggin' fortune.

Just for reference, I don't use steam unless I absolutely have to myself, have never bought a single game at a steam sale and I thought the price for PzC was fair.

As for the content packs ... I'm slightly annoyed by the fact that they essentially shipped only with a skeleton of scenarios and are now effectively raising the price of the full game to $85 (many a strategy game came with 70 scenarios), but then again, I'm having a hard time mustering rage about that fact - it's quite a few scenarios per pack, nobody is forcing me to buy them and the developers (probably) also have to eat and all that. At least I'm reserving judgement until I have actually played any of them.

I think you should. I'm sure you'd give good feedback.

Well, thanks, but I think it's an established fact by now that I'm a wuss that complains about difficulty, too tight turn limits and AI quirks when none of this holds any truth and the opposite is true...
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rezaf

[VPaulus]

Well, thanks, but I think it's an established fact by now that I'm a wuss that complains about difficulty, too tight turn limits and AI quirks when none of this holds any truth and the opposite is true...

People are entitled to have their opinion and express it. rezaf, you're honest and speak what you think.
That's what the devs wants to hear sometimes. Besides things are a little more dynamic and there also other aspect of the beta that you might give ideas, even for future tweaks. I think beta should have your voice.

[IainMcNeil]

Absolutely we want to hear all feedback good and bad.

AAA games are built on a completely different business model but I can see why people compare as they only see a game at the end of the day, not the development structure behind it. You don't care how it was developed or funded.

We struggle with this all the time and do what we can to maximize the revenues for our developers so they can keep going. The reality is that lowering prices on these games does not spike sales so there is no incentive. It is best for everyone if we keep the prices steady and don't penalise early adopters.

The game is only $39.99 - the extra $10 is the cost to print the box/manual on demand. Without a retail release the numbers involved don't allow us to manufacture in bulk and it also means we can personalise the disks and get your serial on the disk which is the same as the one you get when you download. As far as I know nobody else allows this.

Anyway we're back on the usual price debate and there is not really anywhere for it to go. We all know the issues of price vs demand and ultimately we have to do what makes best business sense for us and the developers and that is what we do.

[billmv44]

Great news! Signed up for Beta-testing again. Keep that new content coming (and Allied Corps too!).

[rezaf]

The reality is that lowering prices on these games does not spike sales so there is no incentive.

Well, you never really tried, so it's just speculation, which I say is plain wrong. For some games, it could be true, who knows, but for others, not so much.
Especially PzC is a game that just screams "Put me on Steam" - and like I wrote, I'm not at all a fan of steam.
The thing is, Steam has taught gamers to wait for a price drop - which never happens with Matrix games, so they never pick them up.
I know I'd pick up dozens of Matrix games during a decent sale, but for $60 or 10% off? Ain't gonna happen.
But you're right of course, it's your decision to make, and yours alone. And since, without any real data to back it up, you claim sales spikes are impossible, there's nothing more to say.

That said, my point was that I considered the pricing for PzC just about right. It isn't overpriced, imo, but also definately not underpriced.
If you'd tried to sell it for $10 more, I'd possibly not be here and continuously increasing the appeal of your product (ever so slightly, of course) by writing and providing mods for it to other players.

@VPaulus: Oh, I respect the developers and will continue to voice my opinions (don't worry iain, I'm not going to open pricing discussions left and right), but I noticed being in a minority opinion, and if the devs listen to players at all, they'll probably listen to wishes a lot of players voice, not the outlier of one dork - which I'm absolutely fine with. I'll think about applying for the beta, but ... probably not.
Thanks for caring at all, though.
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rezaf

[Molve]

I sincerely believe this thread " Extra Content for Panzer Corps" is the wrong place for the pricing discussion.

[Molve]

improved artificial intelligence scripting

Can I ask why this is mentioned specifically under the '40 grand campaign, and only there?

Won't the improved AI benefit the whole of the program? Assuming you're talking about the game engine's AI, that is.

Or are you talking about tricks 'n tweaks to the individual scenarios themselves (in other words, scenario triggers to "help" the AI move fresh units to certain areas or buy the "right" kind of reinforcements etc)

[rezaf]

Molve, you're right about the pricing discussion, but wrong about AI scripting. It's mentioned in the description for both campaign packs. It's a marketing text-block, nothing more.
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rezaf

[IainMcNeil]

The AI improvements will be rolled out at the same time the DLC arrives and will make use of scenario design improvements in the editor (as I understand it!).

[El_Condoro]

So there will be a general upgrade of the game at the same time, but separate from, the release of the DLCs?

[SAS]

This keeps looking better and better!

[IainMcNeil]

Yes we will need a patch to add the ability to play DLC to the game.

[Molve]

Yes we will need a patch to add the ability to play DLC to the game.

If that was a reply to El Condoro, I think his question was more

"will the DLCs be accompanied by general upgrades"

and not so much

"how will the DLCs be supported by the program?"