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PostPosted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 6:48 pm 
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Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2001 1:32 pm
Posts: 107
Location: Rotterdam NY USA
Has anyone tried making custom scenarios with the HPS scenario editor (yes i know many of you have! )? I have made a few. Any idea on how much playtesting it would take to get a good balanced scenario? Some of my best matches came from the Hill Challenge. Small battles with a true sense of Fog of War. Is Simone Tombesi still active in the club? I would like to thank him for all his hard work on that project. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated

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General Frank DiNola
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 10:50 pm 
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Joined: Tue May 22, 2001 8:03 pm
Posts: 2410
Location: USA
Playtesting helps you find errors and verifies that the game is playable but usually isn't too good at determining if you have a balanced scenario. The reasons are because: (1) your playtesting opponents may not be a good match (one is a better player than the other) and (2) there are so many options available within HPS and they can definitely impact the 'balance' of a game (and you will not succeed in playtesting any where close to all of them) and (3) we tend to design the scenarios with a certain strategy/tactics in mind and when it is turned loose on us maniacs, we play it with every strategy and tactic in the world other than the ones the designer thought were the only sensible ways to play the game.

In addition, none of us ever agree on whether or not a scenario is balanced. If you lose, it wasn't balanced. If you win but had to strain a little bit in order to win it, then it is balanced. If you win but you had to really sweat a lot then it was unbalanced to the losing side's favor but your superior play overcame it. The only true test over time is keeping track of game results as the club plays them, but that isn't possible to good result with HPS because we don't know what options were used (e.g. all the losses for one side may be with MDF and all the wins may be without MDF). You design for fun, playtest for playability, and then throw it out there and see if it stands the test of time.

Designing is fun but don't quit your day job (I'm sure that John Tiller heard that at some point as well).

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Gen Ned Simms
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Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em.
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 11:37 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2007 3:20 pm
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Ned, that's about the best discourse on the realities of scenario design and play that I've yet heard! My compliments!

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Commander, Army of the Tennessee
(2011-2014 UA CoA/GinC)


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