We put out the Campaign Series: Vietnam Survey yesterday. Our most sincere thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to respond to our questions so far. All input will be considered going forward!
With that said, we thought to share the First Day results with you immediately. Survey will remain open, if interested in the game title please do participate in it. (UPDATE: Poll is now closed!)
So here we go – at the time of writing this, there’s some 150 responses in.
This is what you said:
Campaign Series: Vietnam Survey
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Player Profiles
Age
A diverse group we are, but not getting any younger obviously. This is good feedback and indeed encourages us to keep in mind to have the user interface clear and large enough for players of all ages.
Game Collection
We, as a rule, own a lot of wargames. Long may it continue!
Three Favorite Computer Wargames
Lots of great games get a mention here! We’re in a good company here.
It was interesting to notice many of you lot are not mainly wargamers, there’s a lot of other types of games included here as well.
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Hardware
Computers Are A Boy’s Best Friend, indeed! We do like our little hobby here, and our rigs are there to support it.
Operating System
With some regret we let go of the Windows XP systems, as Microsoft themselves ceased to support it as well. As part of that decision, we moved into MS Visual C++ 2015 Development Environment, better designed to support the HW out there today.
This survey clearly supports that decision. Three quarters have Windows 10 already, while Windows 7 is the second popular option. Just a couple of Windows 8s in the mix as well, while XP got one mention (please update, it is not a safe operating system anymore!).
Display Resolution
When asked about the Display Resolutions everyone has, it was quite clear the HD displays still rule, but already one in ten gamers aäready has a 4K display. Tells us to look at Desktop Scaling options as part of our design and testing regime.
That said, one in ten still has a smaller display, something we’ll keep in our mind, too.
CPU Type
It was quite surprising to see some half of you were already on Intel i7 or similar. Lots of computing power out there! Intel i5 or similar still occupies one third, with older CPUs still represented with some 15% piece of the pie, too.
When designing game features, it seems we can rely there being adequate resources out there. We won’t be going overboard, but good to know we don’t need to be overly cautious, either.
Memory Size
Quite an impressive story here as well, with almost two thirds already at 16GB or more memory sizes. 8GB comes then, and a few smaller memory allocations there too.
Again, good to know, and while we don’t plan to go overboard here, either, again good to know we can assume most of you lot have quite decent HW out there.
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Gaming Options
So how do you like’m games, then?
Computer vs Human Opponent
Computers Are A Boy’s Best Friend, and it goes on to show here as well. 70% of you enjoy to duke it out with the Computer Opponent, while some 15% of you are hardcore Human-vs-human players.
We will keep both sets in mind, CS Vietnam will likely come with most scenarios designed both for vs-Computer and vs-Human versions.
Also, this will encourage us to continue to develop the AI. With Alternative AI in place, Event Engine there to support things too, we’re looking to have even more fun for both sets of gamers!
Matrix PBEM++ Game Server
Sometimes it is a bit difficult to find opponents, and Matrix Games have come out to assist in this with their PBEM++ service.
Most of you guys haven’t tried it out yet, while those of you who have, mostly seem to enjoy it. Campaign Series doesn’t support PBEM++ yet, and likely won’t within the Campaign Series: Vietnam 1.0 timeframe. Something to keep in our minds, though!
Random Battle Generator
Random Battle Generator has been a feature of the Campaign Series since the beginning, and proves to be a popular choice, despite bespoke historical scenarios being perhaps the most popular choice.
There were quite a few open text comments for the Random Battle Generator being further developed, so as some 60% of you consider it an important feature, we won’t be forgetting about it either.
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Campaign Series Vietnam
Now, into the next game in the series, and what you had to say about that.
Historical Era
Perhaps no surprises here, there’s still good support to have a few scenarios included depicting battles outside Vietnam War and Indochina War as well.
One of the things you liked about Campaign Series was the fact it includes a variety of battles, as mentioned in several open comments. This indeed is our plan for Campaign Series: Vietnam as well. Maybe something for everyone, in allocations as the graph here indicates.
Favorite Scenario Sizes
Regimental to Brigade sized battles just eked a victory here, while Company to Battalion sized battles were a close second. There are fans for the larger scenarios as well.
Again, we plan to have something for everyone, and again, maybe roughly allocated in a similar manner as below.
Favorite Scenario Lengths
This one compares nicely to previous one, so max 25 turn battles in the lead, max 35 turn battles second, and max 15 turn battles third.
Again, fans out there for those monsters, too.
Fun Factor
Fun factor had to be anchored against something, as everyone would want to play fun battles, right.
History knows a lot of lopsided battles that perhaps are not that fun to play as the losing side, so all the responses here point towards us including those battles in the scenario set as well. Oh, we intend to make them fun, too!
With CS Event Engine available, we can do new types of scenarios, like taking into consideration how long the other side holds onto certain objectives, and rewarding him for that, so plan to do just that. Wish us luck! (Lots of playtesting goes without saying.)
Play Balance
This one took us by a surprise, a bit. Campaign Series are well liked in the H2H Wargaming Clubs, and should there be a unbalanced scenario in the lot, we hear about it immediately.
While we strive for fair victory levels in future as well, and won’t be forgetting our H2H wargame club players, this perhaps shows that a historical simulation of a given battle is appreciated, even if at times it is difficult to get the victory levels spot on.
Again, with the help of Event Engine and other new tools, we will try to make the battles fun for those who enjoy seeing a proper reward at the end handed out to them.
Player Briefings
There’s a history buff inside most wargamers, so this one was expected. We do enjoy our historical briefings, don’t we.
There’s often a LOT of research behind each scenario design, and this response encourages us to have that more available to players, as background information. Nice thing about the latest incarnation of the game engine is that we can now have a generic Scenario Description, and then the side specific Player Briefings too.
We will continue to have as much historical immersion thrown in as makes sense here.
Campaign Series: Vietnam – Floor is Yours
Thank you for all the input and insight here!
A lot of you put quite an effort to give us feedback here, it is greatly appreciated, and we will take them into consideration with CS Vietnam, as well as in other coming titles, too.
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Call to Action
Again, our sincere thanks for everyone’s input so far. If you haven’t waged in yet, you are welcome to do so, the survey will stay open.
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of data for us to digest and take into action as we go ahead and work on Campaign Series: Vietnam game engine and scenarios.
Thank You!
