Volcano's Alternative Scenarios preferred?

[BigDuke66]

Hi
Seeing again and again some reference to Volcano's alternative scenarios I wonder if they are preferred over the stock scenarios.
I know that Volcano points out that his scenarios are "just an alternative" but I wonder how the community sees it, are his scenarios preferred over the stock once?
And that generally over all of the PC series?

[typhoon]

Me I just see them as an alternative. Am happy playing both stock or Vm's work. They just give extra scenario's to play and there are already so many it just adds to the pleasure.

[Ricky B]

I agree with typhoon, the VM scenarios are an alternative, and although frequently better, especially when the setup and victory conditions are tweaked, there are stock or other alternative scenarios that are quite good also.

Rick

[typhoon]

The head to head scenarios are also very popular benefiting from many hours of play they are tweaked to give a better gaming experience whether more historical is another question all together. Yet again I prefer having the choice all in all it just shows the flexibility of the original system. Very clever indeed!

[Mr Grumpy]

Apart from the titles that were created by Ed (Volcano Man) himself there is a VM _alt version of almost every stock scenario, one main difference is that the _alt scenarios use the same optional rules regardless of what title is being played and also the combat values of the units are standardised over every title, you have to remember that the 30 odd PzC and MC titles were designed by several designers and so they use a vast range of optional rules and combat values which some players can find confusing.

So if you "buy" into the _alt scenario system and gain a understanding of how the optional rules effect the way the scenarios play, you can carry that knowledge/experience into any title with _alt scenarios.

Also using several years of playing feedback (which of course the original designers didn't have access to) many _alt versions of campaign scenarios have benefitted from that community feedback and have been tweaked in many ways to create an improved balance for PBEM play or to iron out issues with the original scenarios that the community felt through years of play testing required altering, as Ed says the _alt scenarios are a "community project".

For example I personally worked on the _alt Market Garden campaign scenario to allow the British Airborne forces a chance to seize Arnhem even when the German player knows what is coming, in the stock scenario "historical hindsight" allowed a competent German player to block all approaches to the bridge at Arnhem and made his job of defending there and linking up with German units defending Nijmegen much easier than it was historically IMO.

There are also a number of smaller _alt scenario that have been tested by the community to improve PBEM balance, details of these can be found in the TOC Mod scenario sub forum above this main forum, I personally worked with Ed on several of these and they are a great play.

Like Ed I am not suggesting there is anything wrong with the stock scenarios per se and in the past I have also played both stock and _alt scenarios and enjoyed both, the _alt scenarios are just an alternate edited version of the same scenario, but personally I particularly like the standardisation that the _alt system brings to all the scenarios in the PzC/MC series and the additional tweaks that have been added through community feedback.

In case anyone is wondering the _alt scenarios have there own entry in the scenario DB for reporting games to and earn the same ladder points as the stock scenarios.

[BigDuke66]

Speaking of the optional rules, I wonder if the screenshots that show the rules screen only show the ones that MUST be activated or if the rules really all have to be set ON/OFF like on the screenshot.
For example all the alternative resolution are not activated and I wonder if this has to be set that way or if these not activated rules are up to the players decision to be turned ON or OFF.

[Mr Grumpy]

Speaking of the optional rules, I wonder if the screenshots that show the rules screen only show the ones that MUST be activated or if the rules really all have to be set ON/OFF like on the screenshot.
For example all the alternative resolution are not activated and I wonder if this has to be set that way or if these not activated rules are up to the players decision to be turned ON or OFF.

Have a read of this thread https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=47923, but basically you set the OR's by either clicking the "default" button or adding/removing the OR's manually by clicking the boxes.

[Dog Soldier]

For the _alt versions of scenarios you have to manually set the optional rules set to match the screen shot VM provides.

The default setting is set by the stock version and is not changed just because it is an _alt scenario. Changing the default optional rules is not something anyone but John Tiller can do, I believe.

Just manually match up to what Ed 'Volcanman' set up as the optional rules set for his _alt scenarios and things will play as he intended. A fair amount of testing went into the _alt scenarios from what I have seen. As Mr Grumpy (Foul.) points out, a lot of community feedback is also woven into those scenarios.
You can change the set of optional rules, and things may play out very differently than Ed intended.

Enjoy Ed's work. It is really good and just different from the stock game experience.

Dog Soldier