Just wanted to touch base and give an update on where we are with the game. All of the planned features are now in the game.
I am still on the lookout for information that the player needs to manage their country. As I continue to test, and get feedback from players, I will be adding this to the game where possible.
As an example, I think one thing missing from the game is the ability to gauge the strength of the enemy troops. An area where this is most glaring is between Japan and China. Playing as Japan, it can be quite intimidating seeing those huge stacks of troops deployed against you.
In actuality, the Chinese divisions are much smaller than the Japanese divisions, and much more poorly equipped. To address this in game, I am planning two additions.
First, I'm going to add a Unit Specifications Report that will let you compare the technical specifications for a selected country's units and your units. For example, you'll be able to see exactly how one of your Armor Divisions stacks up against the enemy country's armor's number of tanks, troops, gun size, armor, speed, range, etc.
Second, when planning an attack, in addition to the current estimate of the number of enemy divisions you see in the tooltips, I am planning on giving you an estimated strength. The accuracy of this estimate will be based on the amount of espionage you are conducting against them. If you have no espionage teams assigned, you won't get an estimate. If you have 1 team, you will get an estimated range of strength of the units in that region. The more teams you have assigned to that mission, the more accurate your estimate range will be.
Look for those changes coming in the next update.
Going forward here is the plan for getting the game from Early Access to General Release.
I'm currently playing each country, to tune them and hunt for bugs. As I do so, I will be continuing to balance and tune the game. Concurrently, while I am manually testing the game, I am running automated tests where the AIs play games against each other, and then I analyze what happened in the game.
In case you're curious, when I run these automated tests, the game generates computer and human readable log files. A typical game will produce about 50,000 files, and about 2 gigabytes of data. I then load that data into two programs. One lets me graphically view the game, turn by turn, and the other lets me review grids and charts with details about Production, Trade, Research, etc.
I also review some of the files manually. For example, I can review in detail what each country AI was thinking or planning for each turn of the game and see where they get hung up or fooled. I can also review battle details for every battle which occurred during the game.
Anyhow, back to the road map. A big part of the remaining Todo's is balancing the economies. I think some production costs are too high. For example, large capital ships are using too much factory capacity. I plan on starting to tune their costs down in the next update.
I'm also adding the finishing touches to the AI. The Pacific War AI still needs some improvement, so I'll be focusing attention on that going forward. You will also see a little more variability in the AI between games.
Finally, I will be testing the game options (e.g., Spain joins Axis), and testing the game difficulty levels.
As always, I welcome any feedback you might have. I'm especially interested in any bugs you find, or in information you can't find in game to manage your country.
I think the game is in the home stretch, while I finish up the testing and tuning.
If you have any questions, feedback, bugs, or suggestions, please leave your comments in the Discussion Forums. I check and respond to them daily.
Thanks for your interest in DOTW. War is coming! :)
Dave
Fiddlyware