A Letter to Ed ‘Volcanoman’ Williams

[Kool Kat]

Ed:  

Your Malta scenario -  0622_01 Operation Herkules_Alt (30-Turns) has significant play balance issues.

I and my opponent discovered these issues back in summer 2019. Ladder Commanders agreed to update the respective scenarios with more explicit descriptions on play balance and optimal play parameters e.g. solo or HTH, etc.

You stated that you were halfway through play testing the scenario and when complete would provide players an update and make some minor adjustments. That was in July 2019. I posted a reminder in the thread in August 2019.

Nothing. No updates. No comments from you.

If you don't plan to complete the play testing and post results - why not tell us?

Currently, here are the available Malta scenarios listed in El Alamein '42:

0622_01_Malta.scn
0622_01_Malta_Alt.scn
0622a_Malta.scn
0622a_Malta_Alt.scn.

0622_01_Malta and 0622_Malta_Alt.scn scenario descriptions:

Malta, June 21st 1942: This quote, from Italian Count Ciano, sums up the situation of 1st Panzerarmee in North Africa, "Because of the revival of Malta as an air base and the numerous sinkings in the Mediterranean, supplies for the First Panzerarmee have fallen far below normal requirements. Unless Malta is weakened or paralyzed once more, this situation cannot be remedied." The plans to take Malta had long been on the drawing board, indeed, some Axis strategists deemed it essential to crush this island for the war in the desert to succeed. [Size, medium]

Note in these scenario descriptions, there is no mention or recommendation on suitability for play against the AI or human versus human opponents.


Now, the other two listed scenarios - 0622a_Malta.scn and 0622a_Malta_Alt.scn have the following scenario descriptions:

Malta, June 21st 1942: This quote, from Italian Count Ciano, sums up the situation of 1st Panzerarmee in North Africa, "Because of the revival of Malta as an air base and the numerous sinkings in the Mediterranean, supplies for the First Panzerarmee have fallen far below normal requirements. Unless Malta is weakened or paralyzed once more, this situation cannot be remedied." The plans to take Malta had long been on the drawing board, indeed, some Axis strategists deemed it essential to crush this island for the war in the desert to succeed. [Size, medium] *Designer Note: Victory Levels optimized for Human vs. Human play.


So Ed, again what is to be done with 0622_01_Malta and 0622_Malta_Alt.scn scenarios? 

Are you going to make "minor adjustments" to them and update the scenario descriptions accordingly?

OR if not, how about removing these two scenarios from the DB so other players don't mistakenly play them?


OR if not any of the above, how about telling us you will not follow through with what you said you would do?

Pretty simple.


"A man's only as good as his word." - Rodd Thunderheart





 

[Compass Rose]

I highly doubt you will hear or see anything from Ed at least until after his next WWI game gets released, as I am highly sure he is buried with the workload and doesn't have luxury of time right now to look at or do anything else.


I suggest, in the mean time, to avoid playing the Alt scenarios that need attention and put together some recommendations and send them to JTS support.

[email protected]

[jonnymacbrown]

Ed:  

Your Malta scenario -  0622_01 Operation Herkules_Alt (30-Turns) has significant play balance issues.

I and my opponent discovered these issues back in summer 2019. Ladder Commanders agreed to update the respective scenarios with more explicit descriptions on play balance and optimal play parameters e.g. solo or HTH, etc.

You stated that you were halfway through play testing the scenario and when complete would provide players an update and make some minor adjustments. That was in July 2019. I posted a reminder in the thread in August 2019.

Nothing. No updates. No comments from you.

If you don't plan to complete the play testing and post results - why not tell us?

Currently, here are the available Malta scenarios listed in El Alamein '42:

0622_01_Malta.scn
0622_01_Malta_Alt.scn
0622a_Malta.scn
0622a_Malta_Alt.scn.

0622_01_Malta and 0622_Malta_Alt.scn scenario descriptions:

Malta, June 21st 1942: This quote, from Italian Count Ciano, sums up the situation of 1st Panzerarmee in North Africa, "Because of the revival of Malta as an air base and the numerous sinkings in the Mediterranean, supplies for the First Panzerarmee have fallen far below normal requirements. Unless Malta is weakened or paralyzed once more, this situation cannot be remedied." The plans to take Malta had long been on the drawing board, indeed, some Axis strategists deemed it essential to crush this island for the war in the desert to succeed. [Size, medium]

Note in these scenario descriptions, there is no mention or recommendation on suitability for play against the AI or human versus human opponents.


Now, the other two listed scenarios - 0622a_Malta.scn and 0622a_Malta_Alt.scn have the following scenario descriptions:

Malta, June 21st 1942: This quote, from Italian Count Ciano, sums up the situation of 1st Panzerarmee in North Africa, "Because of the revival of Malta as an air base and the numerous sinkings in the Mediterranean, supplies for the First Panzerarmee have fallen far below normal requirements. Unless Malta is weakened or paralyzed once more, this situation cannot be remedied." The plans to take Malta had long been on the drawing board, indeed, some Axis strategists deemed it essential to crush this island for the war in the desert to succeed. [Size, medium] *Designer Note: Victory Levels optimized for Human vs. Human play.


So Ed, again what is to be done with 0622_01_Malta and 0622_Malta_Alt.scn scenarios? 

Are you going to make "minor adjustments" to them and update the scenario descriptions accordingly?

OR if not, how about removing these two scenarios from the DB so other players don't mistakenly play them?


OR if not any of the above, how about telling us you will not follow through with what you said you would do?

Pretty simple.


"A man's only as good as his word." - Rodd Thunderheart

You can always invade Crete instead, no? jonny



 

[Kool Kat]

I highly doubt you will hear or see anything from Ed at least until after his next WWI game gets released, as I am highly sure he is buried with the workload and doesn't have luxury of time right now to look at or do anything else.


I suggest, in the mean time, to avoid playing the Alt scenarios that need attention and put together some recommendations and send them to JTS support.

[email protected]

Gent: 

Since Ed is tied up for the foreseeable future...the referenced scenarios have been identified as having significant play balance issues primarily because hard attack factors and their effects were not understood correctly by the designer... why not delete these two scenarios from the Blitz DB?

Blitz Officers can do that right now. I don't see what John Tiller Support has anything to do with it?

Delete 0622_01_Malta.scn and 0622_01_Malta_Alt. scn and the problem is resolved. With only two reported matches between these two scenarios, nobody is going to miss them anyway.

0622a_Malta.scn and 0622a_Malta_Alt.scn would then be the "correct" Malta scenarios to remain in the DB.

[Mr Grumpy]

I highly doubt you will hear or see anything from Ed at least until after his next WWI game gets released, as I am highly sure he is buried with the workload and doesn't have luxury of time right now to look at or do anything else.


I suggest, in the mean time, to avoid playing the Alt scenarios that need attention and put together some recommendations and send them to JTS support.

[email protected]

Gent: 

Since Ed is tied up for the foreseeable future...the referenced scenarios have been identified as having significant play balance issues primarily because hard attack factors and their effects were not understood correctly by the designer... why not delete these two scenarios from the Blitz DB?

Blitz Officers can do that right now. I don't see what John Tiller Support has anything to do with it?

Delete 0622_01_Malta.scn and 0622_01_Malta_Alt. scn and the problem is resolved. With only two reported matches between these two scenarios, nobody is going to miss them anyway.

0622a_Malta.scn and 0622a_Malta_Alt.scn would then be the "correct" Malta scenarios to remain in the DB.

[Mr Grumpy]

Damn my original reply got lost in a forum glitch...…..  

Ed may find the time in the future to provide updated files for the _Alt scenarios that could be included in any future EA42 update pack, however his time is maxed out right now on his next title so that is not a priority right now.

It has been the policy of the Blitz since its beginning to have a scenario entry for all the scenarios included in the titles this ladder supports, if this is was not the case players looking to report a game will try to add in their own entry's often messing the DB up or just post against the closest entry they can find which may not award the correct ladder points, I personally don't think many players check a scenarios DB entry before playing a game so once again removing the DB entry would not stop those players from playing a particular scenario, in fact you could argue that removing the entry also removes the negative comments about a scenario robbing anyone who does happen to check the DB first of an informed choice?

I have updated the scenario descriptions of the original Malta scenarios to suggest they should be best played against the AI, I forgot to do this after your original post. 

As Compass Rose suggested you may want to chat to JTS Support to ask if they will consider updating the scenario descriptions of the original scenarios to reflect they are best played against the AI in any future EA42 update pack.

[Volcano Man]

Ah yes, I have been too busy to reply here until now, and I am still too busy to go into much detail.

But briefly: I did correct those E42 _Alt scenarios and, if I recall correctly, they are awaiting the next natural patch/update of E42.

Besides that, I don't think this is an emergency, because IMO there are plenty of scenarios on the ladder that have issues of their own. That may not be the answer you want to hear, but I just don't see this requiring an emergency update from JTS, given that the scenarios have been like that for over a decade.