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Weird Force Levels in long campaign

 
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Weird Force Levels in long campaign - 1/19/2007 5:13:16 AM   
Dragoon 45


Posts: 435
Joined: 8/10/2004
Status: offline 		I recently started a long campaign with Russians vs Germans. Starting date was 7/43. I input the buy point level in the preferences screen at 8500 pts for the Germans. Deliberately picked a high point value as I wanted to try to create an entire Tiger Battalion of 45 tanks with attached elements to see how well they would do en-mass. The first couple of battles everything went along about as I expected: hordes of Russians vs the Tiger Battalion +. Then I got a delay mission with 2500 support points and started a new battle. I destroyed about a company of Russian infantry fairly easily expecting hordes of T-34's to next appear when the battle ended. I was surprised to see the battle end that quickly and so looked at the player 2 OOB. The AI had bought 1 rifle company, a GAZ-25 AAA section, an engineer platoon, and a section of 82mm mortars. I am guessing the AI spent less than 1000 pts for its force. Okay I figured this was just some blip on the screen, until I checked at the end of the next battle, the AI had again bought less than 1500 pts worth of forces to attack a core force of over 8000 pts. This trend continued for the next two battles. Then also the AI was giving me somewhere around 12000 pts at the end of each battle to repair my units after the third battle. I am needless to say a little bit baffled over this.

I never checked "easy battle" or "hard battle" on the buy screen, leaving everything on medium battle. I started a different campaign with approximately the same pt values for the core force and in this campaign nothing out of the ordinary in regards to the AI's purchase point values were noticed.

Has anybody else ever encountered this?

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RE: Weird Force Levels in long campaign - 1/19/2007 5:16:12 AM   
Alby


Posts: 4855
Joined: 4/29/2000
From: Greenwood, Indiana
Status: offline 		what were trhe map sizes?

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RE: Weird Force Levels in long campaign - 1/19/2007 6:49:05 AM   
vahauser


Posts: 1644
Joined: 10/1/2002
From: Texas
Status: offline 		This is a well known aspect of a long campaign. You are experiencing integer "overflow".

What is happening is that based on your force the computer is trying to calculate the number of battle points it can spend to buy units. And the computer is calculating a value over 20,000 battle points. Since 20,000 points is the maximum, then the number "overflows" and all the computer ends up buying is the remainder. For instance, let's say that you have a force that the computer calculates is worth 14,000 points. And let's say that you are on a Delay Mission. I think the computer gets 1.5 times your force in battle points. Well, 1.5 times 14,000 is 21,000 which exceeds the maximum of 20,000. So, the computer ends up with 1,000 points (21,000 minus 20,000) to spend against you.

The moral of the story: If you are going to have an expensive core, then only fight Advance and Assault missions (the computer gets less points than you when it is delaying and defending). If you have an expensive core, then the computer will not be able to exceed the maximum of 20,000 points which means that the computer will not be able to effectively advance or assault against you.

This phenomenon has been around forever. I first encountered it way back during the SP-II and SP-III days in the late 1990s.

< Message edited by vahauser -- 1/19/2007 7:44:22 AM >

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RE: Weird Force Levels in long campaign - 1/19/2007 12:41:27 PM   
Kuokkanen

 

Posts: 3545
Joined: 4/2/2004
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quote:

ORIGINAL: vahauser

This phenomenon has been around forever.

And still unfixed? I think one of code monkeys deserves kick to butt

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RE: Weird Force Levels in long campaign - 1/19/2007 3:33:46 PM   
Goblin


Posts: 5547
Joined: 3/29/2002
From: Erie,Pa. USA
Status: offline 		Dragoon,

There is also a limit to the number of units total allowed. If you purchased most of them, then the computer is stuck with the remainder. IIRC its 400 or so.




Goblin

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RE: Weird Force Levels in long campaign - 1/19/2007 4:23:07 PM   
vahauser


Posts: 1644
Joined: 10/1/2002
From: Texas
Status: offline 		Goblin,

I'm pretty sure that unit limits are not what is happening to Dragoon.  I've run some tests and both sides get 100 formations and 400 units (this is easy to verify, just set up a Hotseat battle with 20,000 points per side and you will see that both sides can buy 100 formations and 400 units).  It's a battle points problem.

Dragoon,

Just make sure that if you are playing a long campaign and your core is worth more than around 8,000 points, then you should only be playing Advance and Assault battles.  If you have a high-value core, just re-load the battle until you get an Advance or Assault.  Don't play meeting engagements, delays, or defends.

If you start a campaign with, say, 3000 points in your core, then after 20 or 30 battles your core experience and all of your upgrades will probably make your core worth around 8000 points.  It's easy to tell the value of your core.  You get support points equal 1/4 of your core value in an Advance mission.  So, just multiply your support points times 4 and you know if the computer can Advance or Assault against you.  For instance, let's say the campaign generates a Defend mission and gives me 2100 support points.  Well, that tells me right there that my total force will be worth more than 10000 points.  And that tells me that the computer cannot perform an Assault mission against me because the computer will want to spend more than the 20000 point maximum.  Therefore, I would have to reload that battle. 

Bottom line, if you are getting more than 2000 support points, then you should probably re-load Delays and absolutely re-load Defends.

< Message edited by vahauser -- 1/19/2007 4:43:50 PM >

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