Bru's Scenarios

[ColonelY]

Nice modifications. Well, I have to say though that one of them worries me a little:

Operation Lila Denied [...]

- Changed the Turn Start alliance from German to French on Turn 8 for the "Telephone Chat" messages; this way, the player views the chat before he sees the second wave of SS troops arriving. (Otherwise, he was seeing the messages on Turn 9.)
[...]

Will this imply that the player is about to play two turns in a row (without the AI playing in-between, I mean)?

If yes, the "Telephone Chat" messages could simply appear one turn sooner than previously, even if it means adding a note (in the last message of this chat), perhaps something like: "Fine, I give the orders, they will arrive soon.", and that's it.

[bru888]

No worries. This is a bit technical, but recall that each turn begins with the Free French (light blue) moves, as they go first. This trigger was set so that the alliance was German (dark grey). This meant that the FF would not see the messages, but would see the new SS panzer units during Turn 8 - it's a quirk of the program. The messages generated during the German part of the turn would appear in the FF's Turn 9. By moving the alliance from German to FF in this trigger, now the messages pop up in Turn 8, explaining what has happened, before the SS units begin roaming the map:

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[conboy]

By the way, Bru --
That's an ingenious way of supplementing the briefing by adding those descriptive pop-ups before the scenario starts.
I hope you don't have that patented because it's a very clever (effective) way to inform the player.
The pictures and descriptions are better than a long brief.
My compliments!

conboy

[bru888]

By the way, Bru --
That's an ingenious way of supplementing the briefing by adding those descriptive pop-ups before the scenario starts.
I hope you don't have that patented because it's a very clever (effective) way to inform the player.
The pictures and descriptions are better than a long brief.
My compliments!

conboy

I am really glad to hear that, conboy. Thanks.

Gabe, whom I esteem as a player, designer, and commentator, has little patience for them, though. I am not picking on him in the least. I am sure there are many other players who feel the same way.

What I am saying is that, sometimes as a designer, you have to choose between doing something for one reason or not doing it for another reason. There is no pleasing everybody. Sometimes it comes down to personal taste.

I like history. I like digging up interesting facts and images. I try to keep a lid on it but sometimes to tell a story requires a few popup messages.

This "talky" style suits me and gives me a great deal of pleasure, in designing for this game as well as playing it. To know that it also pleases a few others is icing on top of the cake.

[Erik2]

I've learned a few bits watching Bru's scenario design.
And I have started adding events in the campaign editor, it is a good place to add (small, I know) battle maps and other tidbits.
This keeps the general info bits in-between scenarios and makes a campaign more tidy in my view.
Of course, I don't have the verbal skills of Bru (at least not using teh Queen's English), but we all try our bets.
i'm looking forward to play the FF campaign once all scenarios are in place.

[conboy]

I like history. I like digging up interesting facts and images.

Dig it. This game has stimulated so much interest on my part in WWII.

WWII is very interesting to me -- far more interesting to me than more recent military history.

Keep awn keepen awwn, Bru.

conboy

[GabeKnight]

Nice option, indeed, to sail some of our units from one place to another... Actually, I've never used it during this scenario, but it's a cool option.

Heh, it reminds me of the shenanigans that Gabe would pull . . .

Wasn't needed. Could've used the ports for that, too...
But actually I did use the scuttle boats to attack enemy units near the coastline...

Played it again, v1.6, I think - middle diff.

The land battle is okay, and one should be able to hold four harbour facilities even at higher difficulties.

Just sayin: All official scens/DLC are playable on highest difficulty and you ALWAYS have some room for error. I can do some dumb moves and still Major win. And that's the way it should be IMO. Thus I'm still standing by my advice about the coastal guns objective and higher difficulties... Five is okay for middle, though.

I guess that this objective's gonna be the crucial point for most players in this scen...

And how about some 100RP (or so) for a start with the standalone scen? I guess you have enough inside the campaign.

- Removed some of the outlying 30 supply points in order to keep the AI teams focused and not wandering around conquering out-of-the-way locations.

Good call.

For balance reasons I would also suggest to keep the capital ships at static defense. If they move, torpedoes are too weak.

Gabe, whom I esteem as a player, designer, and commentator, has little patience for them, though. I am not picking on him in the least. I am sure there are many other players who feel the same way.
[...]
This "talky" style suits me and gives me a great deal of pleasure, in designing for this game as well as playing it. To know that it also pleases a few others is icing on top of the cake.

But please, don't take these comments too much to heart! Actually I like your style very much: you choose very nice pics and your writing style is witty and fun to read.

But you like to...stretch things sometimes, you know, like writers do. And sometimes it's much talk without real "essence", if you know what I mean...it's still fun to read, but sometimes...in the heat of the battle...I want to fight and not read novels...

[bru888]

But you like to...stretch things sometimes, you know, like writers do. And sometimes it's much talk without real "essence", if you know what I mean...it's still fun to read, but sometimes...in the heat of the battle...I want to fight and not read novels...

Believe me, I took your comments on that subject well, and to heart. I am keeping them in mind, because you were right in the context in which you made them: Bir Hakeim. There was one popup message about the provenance of a British AA unit - not even French - but the other one that I wince to remember was the one about the artillery unit that Napoleon had served in before his rise to power. That is the kind of non sequitur that I must avoid.

ColonelY also helped clarify my thinking on this, but from the opposite viewpoint. He was helpfully suggesting that we put in popup messages about significant WW2 events that occur during the timeframe of the scenarios. That idea I nixed, though. Only outside events that tell the story of Free France, and only the most important ones. Most of those will appear as campaign events between scenarios.

All that said, however, when I want to tell the story of somebody like Susan Travers, I beg the player's indulgence even if it does run to three popup messages. Scan (because there might be something to do with gameplay) and click through if it does not interest you. It's the price of playing Bru's Scenarios!

[ctskelly]

Hi Bru,

Belatedly, I want to thank you for this rich assortment of scenarios. Steam shows my OoB time has passed 10,000 hours, which is almost two years (minus sleep time). I am sure about 23 of it is due to you and Erik, and I can't thank you enough fo what is definitely the most enjoyable part of any day. If you ever want something from Japan, let me know. ctskelly at gmail.

[bru888]

Hi Bru,

Belatedly, I want to thank you for this rich assortment of scenarios. Steam shows my OoB time has passed 10,000 hours, which is almost two years (minus sleep time). I am sure about 23 of it is due to you and Erik, and I can't thank you enough fo what is definitely the most enjoyable part of any day. If you ever want something from Japan, let me know. ctskelly at gmail.

Much appreciated; I am glad you like them. It's posts like yours that keep me going.

Although . . . only 23 out of 10,000 OOB hours spent on Erik's and my stuff? That's not very much at all. He and I have to try harder. ( )

[GabeKnight]

I believe he meant "2/3" and that would be the same for me, too, I guess. Maybe rather 75%...
So yes, thank you!

[bru888]

I believe he meant "2/3" and that would be the same for me, too, I guess. Maybe rather 75%...
So yes, thank you!

Whew!

[bru888]

I updated these four highlighted scenarios according to the discussion in this thread:

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Interestingly, those are the only four that were affected. As for the other scenarios, due to the nature of their objectives and the way they were constructed, this change in style was not a factor.

P.S.: I have a hankering to go back to those earliest scenarios, Oahu and Aleutians (the list is arranged in creation date order), and have a look at possible improvements given what I know now about scenario designing. Not that I'm a designing guru these days, but I'm a lot better than I was back in those days.

[bru888]

Standalone versions of the 24 scenarios from Free France 1940-1945 are now available as links in the opening post.

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[bru888]

This recently came up concerning a new scenario that I am working on:

[...] There is no flying bomb made in Germany in the game

Of course, but we have already solved this "problem" in some of the last scenarios of the Free France campaign.

A smart use of the Ohka (Japanese model MXY7) will do the trick.

BRAINSTORM: Avoid using a Japanese plane in favor of one that definitely looks German: the He 162 fighter jet. Labeled properly, it's not a bad likeness of the V-1 Flying Bomb!

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BRAINSTORM FIZZLE: Realize that, while the Ohka really is a dumb flying bomb with the kamikaze trait, the He 162 is a combat unit. Not only is it likely to attack something along the way even if just exiting the map or moving to hex while supposedly ignoring the enemy, if attacked in the air, it will shoot back!

So, Ohka? Okay! Just don't look too closely at it.

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[Erik2]

I've used the Okha as a V1 substitute. It is mostly for decor as the attack stats are really abysmal.
But then again, the V1 was not famous for hitting the intended target.

[bru888]

I've used the Okha as a V1 substitute. It is mostly for decor as the attack stats are really abysmal.
But then again, the V1 was not famous for hitting the intended target.

Yes, you will see that for those reasons (weakness and unreliability for most tasks), I have rigged up a system whereby the V-1s spawn in the north and northwest and are directed to exit the map over Antwerp. Each exit counts as a successful strike. The player has to minimize those strikes in order to keep a secondary objective complete; else failed. Tested it last night; works well on its own. Now to figure the balance: How many AA guns and fighters to defend Antwerp to provide a satisfying challenge? Throw in some distracting German attack planes as well? One may see how this gets complicated ...

[bru888]

Enemy territory.

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Scenario coming soon.

[bru888]

Oh my, this is shaping up to be a humdinger!

More difficult, more intricate, more air and sea action:

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Even something as subtle as needing to realistically hunt for targets; compare what the player now sees (see map below) versus what was being revealed previously (see map above). Besides topography and place names, he will begin the operation knowing only the location of the fort and the eight castles:

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No guarantees, of course, and it may not be to all tastes, but I am getting the rare urge to play this one all the way through, myself.

"Soon" is a relative term, as demonstrated by my having said "Scenario coming soon" nearly a month ago, but it really is close now.

[Erik2]

There's a quite nice Dutch film on NetFlix, The Forgotten Battle, wich uses the Scheldt Estuary battle '44 as a back-drop.
Perfect snack before attempting Bru's sooooon to be released scenario.