Suggestions for BotB

[Tankarush]

First off, you guys are awesome. Epic game, epic programmed and something never seen, almost bugfree first release. Chapeau to you all.

And second, some food for thought:

1 - Possibility to save "game over" review on Ipad. To watch again or show friends.
2 - Possibilitiy to save detailed "game over" review with unit movements to your Website and auto generated link, able to send friends.
3 - Option to confirm "pass" or "commit" or both together.
4 - Option to show warning before "commit" when a unit has been moved and there are still unused units in that sector.
5 - Enemy AI less surroundable (cut off from supply).
6 - Ally unit in Echternach should have been out of supply, due to Axis surrounding, but didn't happen. Just after it moved to Kruchten it kinda put itself out of supply (happened just once).
7 - Ever tested a 2v2? Don't know if it would work, gameplay speaking, but if it would, i clearly see this as a LAN-Party contender. Would need LAN Host capability. And if you'd add a spectator spot, for the fifth Ipad joining just to watch the 2v2, that one connected with Airplay to a TV and BOOM you've got yourself an E-League. Quite wild I know, but just something to think about.

This game reminds a bit of CoH (Company of Heroes) and DotA (Defense of the Ancients) on PC. Maybe have a look at those games to get some Ideas.

[Tankarush]

Forgot to mention

8 - At the "game over" screen, at the lower left corner, there is a little square with an arrow pointing out, which when I tap at crashes the game to homescreen. I have an Ipad 2 with IOS 5.0.1

9 - You already have been cracked. I hope the term Jailbreak means something to you. Next time, go for a free trial App with full game IAP unlock. IAPs are waaaay safer than regular Appstore buys. But beware, there are also IAP verificaton models which can get cracked easily.

[Yojimbo252]

Some good suggestions.

This game reminds a bit of CoH (Company of Heroes) and DotA (Defense of the Ancients) on PC. Maybe have a look at those games to get some Ideas.

I was very heavily into CoH but I'm not sure what parallels you're drawing there as CoH is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game not Turn Based (TBS) and it operates at a Squad level rather than Divisional.

About the only thing the 2 games have in common is they are set in WWII.

[s_MesaDon]

Add option to continue battle till the end of the 13 days and progressive levels of victory. More scenarios.

[Airshark]

I'm going to leave off discussion of the AI, as I don't bother playing it any more - but here are some suggestions that might be applicable to the next game. I think all of them are interface suggestions, not rules changes.

1. When one side has no units available to act, automatically submit a PASS for their turn. This would have speeded up some of the early turns where the Allies basically exist to pass.

2. If #1 above is implemented, change the "Pass" button for the other side to "End Day", as of course the other side will always pass, thus ending the day.

3. Instead of the pretty but not-so-useful VP display, it would be great if you could show the victory thresholds for the day along with it. Perhaps the display could look something like

6 - 32 - 43

indicating that the victory threshold for the Allies is 6 (indicated in green), for the Germans 43 (in blue), and the score is currently 32. Perhaps this could be used to replace the date indicator as well. Though the dials are prettier, they are less functional.

4. Similarly, it would be great if the projected VP levels if the day ended right now were displayed. The app certainly knows the current state of the board, and can count the VPs in advance assuming no units are destroyed and no additional VP cities are taken. it might also indicate the current outcome, if known: "German Victory (43)" for example.

5. It would be useful to add a button or menu selection somewhere that showed the probability at any given point that you're going to get another move, or at least the expected average time elapsed that day per side's turn. I know that information is available in the full rules, but who's going to look it up?

6. In a game with these few moves, I'd have found it interesting for the game-end review to be move-by-move rather than just a non-pausable movie. Show the moves and combats on the board. It'd be even better if there was some way to save a game for review later.

7. Be nice to see some indication of where the next reinforcements are going to appear. Can act as an objective for the opposition, and a spot you can defend if those reinforcements are important to you. Not everybody knows about the race for Arlon.

8. How about being able to toggle an overlay of where the German artillery coverage is?

These are all I've got without changing the game itself.

[s_nkarp]

Brilliant suggestions Airshark. Thanks!

[daviddunham]

8 - At the "game over" screen, at the lower left corner, there is a little square with an arrow pointing out, which when I tap at crashes the game to homescreen. I have an Ipad 2 with IOS 5.0.1.

Do you have email configured on that device? If so, I would love to see the crash log (send a report per the FAQ on bug reporting and we can walk you through that).

[Tankarush]

10 - I was able to tap "pass" at the very beginning of a game, so that it skiped the first surprise Axis attack. The second, I had to make a move, because the button was greyed out. The third time, I again could tap "pass". After the moves of Axis and Allies, at the end of the first day, the game gave me a game over screen, telling me that I, the Axis, have lost.

11 - It would be very wise to tell in the manual, that the British units are the ones on 22'nd and 25'th in salmon.

12 - Replace the word "released" with "allowed", concerning the Axis at the Meuse, because of the Bitish units, to prevent misunderstandings (ex. section "British Movements Restrictions" in the Full Rules).

13 - Be more precise with day events. Ex. section "Supply Checks And Supply Tracing" in the Full Rules: Ally units are out of supply if there is no path of friendly space ... at the end of the 16'th day for the whole next day ... and then recheck every day after. Axis units are out of ...

14 - Generally your manual has not gotten much of love. Definitions have no uniformity, rules which belong together are cluttered over the whole manual and it's more written like someone skews from giving rules to telling a story.

[Tankarush]

8 - At the "game over" screen, at the lower left corner, there is a little square with an arrow pointing out, which when I tap at crashes the game to homescreen. I have an Ipad 2 with IOS 5.0.1.

Do you have email configured on that device? If so, I would love to see the crash log (send a report per the FAQ on bug reporting and we can walk you through that).

I'm sorry, I don't have an email configured on my IPad.

[daviddunham]

I'm sorry, I don't have an email configured on my IPad.

Which is probably the source of the crash — I’m off to check on that.

[daviddunham]

I don't have an email configured on my IPad.

Bug should be fixed in the next release, thanks for letting us know.

[s_pixelgeek]

Just wanted to add my vote for a few of the suggestions made here.

Some sort of "Done" button is really helpful especially for the Allies in the early phases of the game. Multi-player would be a lot easier for the Allies as well if you could just sign-off of the turn.

I would really like the option to continue playing the game after a Win or Loss condition. I was a bit doubtful of this suggestion when it was made a few weeks ago but lately I have had games that were quite interesting and I was looking forward to another turn or two when I would win.

A warning when there are unmoved units in a zone. I've actually restarted games because I have missed moving German units

[Tankarush]

.
15 - BotB Version 1.0.2: Error calculating Axis early victory (broken supply)

[gregorit]

You indicated that your version was 1.0.2; the update that was supposed to fix this that came out earlier this week was 1.0.3.

[Tankarush]

I'm aware of that. Informing just in case.

[Tankarush]

.

16 - BotB Version 1.0.3: Unit in Echternach despite being surrounded, still in supply.

NVM - misunderstood the rules.

[Tankarush]

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17 - BotB V 1.0.3: Rendering error at Bouillion

[Tankarush]

.
18 - 1.0.3: AI behaves very very strange. Inexplicable movements like U-Turns. Maybe use 1.0.2 AI and start again. AI still easy to surround and cut off from supply.

[Tankarush]

19 - 1.0.3: Victory point win condition trigger error, when having exact amount.

NVM - since no one else reported, has to be me.

[Tankarush]

2 - Possibilitiy to save detailed "game over" review with unit movements to your Website and auto generated link, able to send friends.

Just so that there is no misunderstanding. The detailed review would be saved as a video at your website, so that everyone could watch it. But of course not realtime. Also a thumbs up and down rating would be nice.

Yeah yeah, those customers and their wishes ...