This is not fair!!!

Discuss John Butterfield’s Battle of the Bulge: Crisis in Command Vol. 1
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Dittsche
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This is not fair!!!

Post by Dittsche »

All the three iOS crisis in command games are unplayable. No sounds, the animation are not smooth (BoB). And now I read the same update is coming out for Drive on Moscow. This is terrible!!! I want my money back! I like also slitherine. I have a lot of games on my IPad. But the strategy for updates for the three crisis games is bullshit. First of all the new multiplayer- pbem system. This is terrible for iOS. Game center was much better and faster. On a pc maybe is this system okay, but on iOS is this quite complicated. Please slitherine, don't change drive to Moscow or al Alamein. Please. Only fixed for iOS 9. But please don't change the multiplayer or animation or the hole codec. You destroyed BoB on iOS. Don't destroy the other one!!! This is not fair. And when you read all the comments in the AppStore, you will see iam not alone with this meaning. Sorry for my bad English. But iam angry and iam German. :roll:
AlbertoC
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by AlbertoC »

We are sorry you are encountering problems. Naturally we care for the iOs versions of those games. I'll direct your complains to the producer, who is more prepared than me to answer to your concerns.
Dittsche
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by Dittsche »

Thanks a lot. I try now the latest version from BoB. But unfurtnally, it's not the same like before. Before everything was smooth. Now it's looks like my iPad is to slow for this game. But I have iPad air 2. The sound now it's okay since the last update, but the animation are slowly. For example. So when you skip the timeline, the transition effect is to slow. Also the animation from the ai. Please take a look from the original iOS version but on iOS 7 or 8 and maybe you see what I mean. Also I didn't see the third unit in gmund. The button commit is over there. And I can't move the map. The latest version from part 3 al Alamein have no music, or sound effects. And this since iOS 9. This is really bad. I mean I pay money for this. I guess 20 euro. And then I can't use? This is not fair!!! This is like Ubisoft. They do the same with the seddler or silent hunter. But I hope slitherine is seriously and you fix this really soon.
And maybe some other ios players read this thread and feel the same, so then guys please write your experience from the crisis in command games.
Dittsche
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by Dittsche »

Okay, then I will continue in this thread. I wait really long. And normally you are a good producer for war games on every devices. I like the games very much. The crisis of command series was for me one of a reason to buy a iPad. After Shenandoah go to slitherine, there was no good! Support for iOS. The people write some negative comments in the AppStore but nobody was care about. Also I read some threads here in the forum, but nobody answer. So now I go in the offensive. I pay 20 euro for a game i can play only few month. And I know all the other games form slitherine a working fine. But unfortunately the crisis games specially BoB was making for iPad and you can feel this when the game comes out. It was making for iPad. This was also written on pocket tactics forum. But now it is a bad pc port. Not more. I repeat again, the sound is worst then before. Then animation.... Bla bla bla. I hope this offensive is a little bit helpful and we can see in the next few weeks a good small update. So after then everything is working fine with iOS 9 and 10. I don't need pbem multyplayer. I don't need new menues. And also I don't need new sounds. All the games was perfect. 90%-95% in all the reviews. Why you try to change this? I can't understand. That's my point.
IainMcNeil
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by IainMcNeil »

Hi Dittsche - this has been covered many times on the forum. I'm going to move your post there so you can see why. There is no code or development team to carry forwards the old game. The only version is the new Unity version which had to be written from scratch. Eventually Apple will release an iOS update that broke the old version and there is no way to fix it so we decided to release the new version. Check the Bulge forum for details.
Sourdust
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by Sourdust »

Bad luck for us Dittsche. BoB is broken, won't get fixed.

Even long after launch, the game is riddled with bugs and loss of functionality.

Ex: Order of Battle in "Endgame" is STILL wrong, LSSAH has full strength but it should be only 4 strength (the other 3 points are KG Peiper). Hugely unbalancing for that scenario. And Endgame ends on 27 December, no idea what happened to the final day which should be the 28th.

Bugs: sometimes when armoured units kill a stack and get to do a breakthough move, they get a second attack on the stack they move to. Shouldn't be allowed, and wasn't in the original implementation.

Following an early auto-victory end of game, no option to keep playing, as in the original. And no chance to view the VP screen.

Still numerous display errors on the map, mostly misdrawn front line indicators.

And the AI is certainly no better, and possibly worse, than the original. AI routinely vacates Leige when there are German units with moves right next to it, which is almost always a sure-fire way to lose. I just played a game where I controlled Marche, a VP town, but had no units in it. The AI spent days moving units around the town and never took it, despite it being completely unoccupied. The AI is simply idiotic...

The only good thing in all of this is that Slitherine is not forcing update of Moscow or Desert Fox, both of which continue to work just fine and are pleasures to play on the iphone.

I understand that Slitherine needs to re-do the games and can't support the old Shenandoah zombie apps. I only wish they had hired somebody vaguely competent to do the new versions.
JohnCarlisle
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by JohnCarlisle »

I agree with this post.
mboog12
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by mboog12 »

While I don't appreciate the insults, I am going to answer in a polite way.

LSSAH : yes this was a bug, it was fixed some months ago but we didn't get to roll a live update. A new update will come in a few months.
Endgame ending: we tested in on our end and the Endgame scenario ends on 28 for us. Do you know any other steps to reproduce this bug?
Breakthrough bug: as with LSSAH, this is already fixed. It will be available in a few months.
Game ends after victory: This is not a bug. It was a decision that we took during development. For the moment it will stay like this.
Numerous display errors of the map: we haven't heard of these issues in more than a year. Where exactly are they?
AI: we did slight improvements to it. Nothing major but might help with some situations.


The new battle of the bulge is a bigger project than the old bulge because the newer build is made to run on 5 platforms -different resolutions, different input, store rules-. Also the team is considerably smaller. Releasing an update for it is a time consuming process. We scheduled an update for Bulge and you'll have an updated version sometime this year.
Now that I've put things into this perspective I think you'll agree that competence has nothing to do with the slow updates :)
Sourdust
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by Sourdust »

mboog12 wrote:While I don't appreciate the insults, I am going to answer in a polite way.

LSSAH : yes this was a bug, it was fixed some months ago but we didn't get to roll a live update. A new update will come in a few months.
Endgame ending: we tested in on our end and the Endgame scenario ends on 28 for us. Do you know any other steps to reproduce this bug?
Breakthrough bug: as with LSSAH, this is already fixed. It will be available in a few months.
Game ends after victory: This is not a bug. It was a decision that we took during development. For the moment it will stay like this.
Numerous display errors of the map: we haven't heard of these issues in more than a year. Where exactly are they?
AI: we did slight improvements to it. Nothing major but might help with some situations.


The new battle of the bulge is a bigger project than the old bulge because the newer build is made to run on 5 platforms -different resolutions, different input, store rules-. Also the team is considerably smaller. Releasing an update for it is a time consuming process. We scheduled an update for Bulge and you'll have an updated version sometime this year.
Now that I've put things into this perspective I think you'll agree that competence has nothing to do with the slow updates :)
Good that you're still working on it. My iphone shows last update is to version 1.19, which went live in June 2016. So nearly a year since last patch... based on your post above, some fixes are already implemented but won't be pushed to an actual iphone update for "a few months". So iphone update approximately once a year, give or take... I understand you're working on 5 platforms with a smaller team, but plenty of other apps I have get regular updates, especially when bug fixes are involved. I'm not a programmer and can't speak to the specifics of how to get apps updated' all I know is that plenty of other app developers seem to be able to manage updates more than once a year.

On the display errors: quite a few of the borders between areas have reversed front line indicators - ie, when the front line is running around that area, it shows blue on the allied side and green on the axis side, rather than the correct way around. Pointed out by redwing and others more than a year ago, and still a bug in the current version.

On stopping the game at the end: fine if you've decided as a design decision not to let players keep playing after auto-victory. (Though why, I'm not sure.) But to not even display the victory point screen at the end? Or allow players to pull up the victory screen? If that's a deliberate decision, it's a bad one.

AI: glad to hear you've tweaked it, but honestly the errors are so dramatic (AI vacating key victory areas and blundering headlong into encirclements) that it just doesn't feel like a plausible opponent. I wish more developers would take the care that Vic did on DC3: Barbarossa - very careful iterative AI development on a much more complex system.
sa_gibson
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by sa_gibson »

Is anyone still supporting this game?
Crabman
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by Crabman »

I'm perfectly fine playing the old versions of Moscow and Desert Fox from sheanandoah (aka the good versions) on my air 2 ,even with some sound problems (no music or environment noise) but i never really touched BotB since it got replaced with the"improved"version (i tried a couple of times but deleted it quickly again).Ok,that's one thing.They still work although i can't update my devices to ios 11 because the war would be over then.

But now i got an iphone 6 and due to that bigger screen (compared to my old 5s) i felt in love with desert and moscow on phone as well.The playability is awesome.I was even willing to try BotB once more and realized that you need a HUGE magnifying glass for all texts and menus.May i ask you politely,did you even try it on an iphone before you released it?Ever?I was thinking even if you try hard,you can't destroy a game that is SO good.But Slitherine managed it,kudos.I don't think it's a nice move to sell it in this state at all.

I'm not that kind of drama queen usually but speaking for myself,i don't think i would ever spend a dime again on slitherine games.
JagdTiger700
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Re: This is not fair!!!

Post by JagdTiger700 »

What improved version?
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