New player - any way to zoom in + other questions

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enhorning
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New player - any way to zoom in + other questions

Unread postby enhorning » Mon May 21, 2012 3:14 am

Hi,

I just bought Unity of Command from this website, after enjoying the demo. However, I am finding that I have to squint a lot at the (high-res) screen to try to make out the various indicators (movement left, out-of-supply, special attachments, etc.) on the units - is there any way to zoom the view closer in? Seems a shame to have such a zoomed out view, especially when the available battlefield (in early scenarios at least) only uses a small part of the screen.

Is there an easy way to swap the location of two adjacent units? Or must any such shuffling go through an empty third space?

I saw screenshots somewhere with Nato symbology in place of the heads / tanks illustrations. Is that an official option - if so, where can I find it? If not, what is it, and where can I find more information about it?

Apart from these queries, I must say the game looks great - just the kind of wargame I have been wanting. Scenarios that can be played in a single evening, manageable amounts of units on each side, yet still striving for a good level of strategy, and with proper respect for the importance of supply. (Though, as far as I can tell, lacking the option to stockpile and save up supply for a bigger operation.) Reminds me in some ways of the "EastFront" board game, and that is high praise.

Cheers!
/Ola

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Tomislav Uzelac
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Re: New player - any way to zoom in + other questions

Unread postby Tomislav Uzelac » Mon May 21, 2012 8:10 am

Hi, thanks for the kudos :-)

enhorning wrote:is there any way to zoom the view closer in?


Not as such, but you may try this trick. Make sure you back up your config file first, just in case :!:

enhorning wrote:Is there an easy way to swap the location of two adjacent units? Or must any such shuffling go through an empty third space?


You must use an empty hex to swap, yes.

enhorning wrote:I saw screenshots somewhere with Nato symbology in place of the heads / tanks illustrations. Is that an official option - if so, where can I find it? If not, what is it, and where can I find more information about it?


You can install Daniel's mod. There are some more in the matrix games modding forum. Daniel's looks best though (IMO!).

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spillblood
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Re: New player - any way to zoom in + other questions

Unread postby spillblood » Thu May 31, 2012 9:29 pm

I think NATO symbology in a WWII game makes no sense, I prefer Unity of Command's look to Gary Grigsby's WITE. Simply makes games hard to decipher for normal gamers, and would definitely reduce the accessibility and attractiveness to gamers new to the turn based strategy genre. But it could make sense to make it an available option for hardcore strategy gamers. A zoom option and a scalable interface for high resolutions is necessary though.

RambOrc
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Re: New player - any way to zoom in + other questions

Unread postby RambOrc » Fri Jun 01, 2012 1:33 pm

Don't use that NATO stuff, if the game has tanks I want to see tanks! ;)

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Danielefc
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Re: New player - any way to zoom in + other questions

Unread postby Danielefc » Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:38 pm

RambOrc wrote:Don't use that NATO stuff, if the game has tanks I want to see tanks! ;)


I second this! (Even as the maker of a Counters-Mod)

spillblood wrote:I think NATO symbology in a WWII game makes no sense, I prefer Unity of Command's look to Gary Grigsby's WITE. Simply makes games hard to decipher for normal gamers, and would definitely reduce the accessibility and attractiveness to gamers new to the turn based strategy genre. But it could make sense to make it an available option for hardcore strategy gamers. A zoom option and a scalable interface for high resolutions is necessary though.


I couldn't agree more - however I ran into alot of ppl saying that they didn't want to buy the game since there where no NATO symbols. Why they feel like this is beyond me.

EDIT: I mean i get some people might prefer Counters - but to disqualify a game just because of a lack of counters - that i dont understand :)
Last edited by Danielefc on Sat Jun 02, 2012 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

enhorning
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Re: New player - any way to zoom in + other questions

Unread postby enhorning » Fri Jun 01, 2012 10:22 pm

As the original poster, let me clarify my position.

I would definitely not want to see Nato symbols instead of heads - I think the heads and tanks are a good default, as this is a game which has lot of potential to draw in people who aren't grognards.

What I would have liked to see was Nato symbols as an alternative. For me, when I goof in a scenario, it is usually because I can't tell my units apart well enough (and this was made even worse by high resolution and no zoom functionality) - Nato symbols would to me (who is familiar with them from playing lots of boardgames using them) be much clearer, especially if colours were chosen well.

As for it not making sense in an Eastern Front WWII game - the point is that Nato symbols are an established wargame standard that is familiar from many other board and computer wargames. Not using them increases the learning curve slightly for grognards.

(There's been experiments - Red Star Rising e.g. - that uses historical Russian army symbols instead, but that drastically increases the learning curve. I've played lots of WW2 games using Nato symbols, I've played Napoleonics using Nato symbols, I've played American Civil War using Nato symbols... while not historically appropriate, they are convenient and makes it easy to get into a new game.)

So - if Nato symbols were offered, definitely offer them as a (non-default) option - and don't replace the dolly heads with them! There is a certain charm in moving my little Russian and German dolls around the map, I must admit :)