UI issues and a flawed graphics presentation? I'll explain (WARNING: at very great length!) ...
[*] When one unit fires on another, an unsightly thick red arrow points from the firing unit to the target unit. Whether or not casualties result, the arrow goes away after a time. In many exchanges, there are no casualties, just a lot of red arrows showing up here and there. When there are casualties, red or blue numbers appear above the affected units, then slowly, strangely, float upward for sometimes many seconds.
Why not just show the numbers, no floating, no levitating, and they vanish after a short while?
Due to the, IMO, gratuitous and, um, oddly annoying floating action, this steals away CPU cycles, I would imagine. And contributes to the, on my older gaming rig, frustrating sluggishness of the game controls, for example: In the control box, explanatory tooltips are slow to appear, or often don't show at all. Menu actions are glacial. It's just a chore dealing with the sub-optimal game controls.
There are other things like, IMO, gratuitous, unnecessary unit animations -- animated sprites shooting flaming volleys, for instance -- that also steal away CPU cycles. I'd really like a way to turn this video eye candy off!
Yeah, sure, I can play the game in counter-view mode, and ditch the sprites. But the game's unit counters are unattractive, don't fit well with the otherwise beautiful (if rather dark and gloomy) hand-drawn game maps. I prefer to play with the sprites, which are decently done, if not quite gorgeous.
That's just how I see it. (Or don't see it!) Sure, it's just my personal perception, but the total effect for me: The game's visuals are somewhat of a muddle. Overall, it's difficult to make out the front lines, it's not easy enough for me to follow the course of the action.
[*] The X/Y axes of the map coordinate system are "tilted" to the right. And the X/Y axes are not at the usual 90 degree angle to each other, rather 60 degrees/120 degrees.
If you look at the map in the usual orientation, and expect X coordinates to increase hex to hex, horizontally, left to right, you won't see it. Similarly, if you expect Y coordinates to increase hex to hex, vertically, top to bottom, you won't see that either.
It only begins to make sense if you cock your head 60 degrees rightward, so in that orientation, the X axis runs along the NW to SE diagonal. And the Y axis runs along the NE to SW diagonal.
In the depicted maps, geographical north is vertically straight up; geographical north is at the top center of the map; N is not actually NE. Of course.
From the player's normal perspective -- vertical & horizontal, top-to-bottom, left-to-right -- and given how map coordinates are handled in almost every other game (indeed, any other coordinate geometry or map system that I know of), it is all very confusing!
Try to make sense of the reinforcement entry hexes. What the...? Many players will be utterly confused and just give up trying.
The game's programmer explains that doing it this way makes it easier for him to compute distances, etc. (He is a mathematician by training.) Okay, but it's to his benefit, not ours, the players'. It's annoying, confusing, and adds to the frustration of playing the game. Better, I think, would be: Okay, for internal computations, keep the unusual hex geometry. But for benefit of the player, add a translation layer, converting the idiosyncratic internal map coordinates to the usual map coordinates that the player (indeed, anyone who has ever used a conventional map) expects. BaB is not a space game or an air combat sim! I shouldn't have to warp my view of physical space to understand it.
...
To their credit, the game's devs are introducing some much needed hot keys in tomorrow's patch (just several weeks after release, the game is already at version 1.05 beta), for moving one unit to the next (or previous), showing various useful highlights (out of command, out of supply, etc.). Yay! Less mouse movement, less need to interact with the sluggish control box and game menus. They keep working at fixing things.
Apart from these annoyances, otherwise the game is a breath of fresh air, a fantastically innovative game system, bringing to the forefront much needed considerations of command & control, unpredictability, etc.
[*] Except for the disturbingly odd "FOW". Basically, apart from grayed out areas of the map, the game has no real Fog of War. You know just about everything of the enemy -- his strength, the unit morale, gun ranges, the enemy commanders' battle plans, when and where reinforcements will enter, every AI unit move as it happens (even if not exactly from where to where), etc. Way too much intelligence! The rationale given: It's because our spymasters are so good. Unconvincing. It's also been more or less suggested: If you don't want to know those things, just turn a blind eye to them. Um, okay. Why bother with graying out areas of the map then? Couldn't I just turn a blind eye to enemy forces too? (Much like John Pope did at 2nd Bull Run?)
...
I've been maybe too harsh in this long-winded rant. The game has a lot going for it. I have a like-hate relationship with it. The game occasionally freezes or crashes. I mutter to myself, and walk away in disgust. Yet ... despite my frustrations, I keep returning to it. Looking past its flaws, I am nonetheless fascinated by it. Maybe the devs will polish the remaining rough edges and make this into a real gem of a game. Here's hoping my current like-hate relationship with Brother Against Brother grows into true love!
_________________ Civil War Battles Lead Programmer, https://wargameds.comPanzer Battles & Panzer Campaigns Lead Programmer, https://wargameds.comCampaign Series Lead Programmer, https://cslegion.com
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