Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Chaylaton
Hey Steve/Beta testers or just someone that knows:

In the computer game how are convoys managed? Do you set up a convoy line and if it gets disrupted does the computer alert the player?

Chaylaton

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ORIGINAL: Froonp
I thought about this today, and I though that it should work this way :

You do that resource by resource.

For each resource, the program shows you whether it can be shipped all by rail or not.
A) It can be shipped by rail ==> you have nothing more to do, the resource will be shipped automatically each turn by the program, and will automatically change its shipping route if it become closed.

B) It can't be shipped solely by rail, an and then it must be shipped by sea.
For each of those resources, one by one, you would choose its path, sea area by sea area, and en the end, when you would have done this for all resources, the game would show you that you need X number of convoys in this sea area, Y number in that other one, etc...

For example, for the 3 Australian Resources.
One is in case A), because there is a Factory in Australia.
Both the others are in case B).
For the first you'd be first prompted to chose the starting Sea Areas between the Tasman Sea, the Coral Sea, the Timpr Sea, and the Cape Naturaliste.
Say you choose the Tasman Sea because you want to ship this one to Canada.
Then you would be prompted to choose between the sea areas that connect with the Tasman Sea : Coral Sea, and New Zealand Coast. You chose New Zealand Coast.
Then you are prompted to choose between South Pacific, Polynesia, The Solomons & Coral Sea. You choose South Pacific.
Then you are prompted to choose between Austral, East Polynesia & Polynesia.
Etc up to the Mexican Coast for example.
In then end, you should also be able to say to the program to which factory you want to ship the resource. Here I designate one of the Canadian factories.

Then, the program knows that you wish to ship this RP along this way, up to the Mexican Coast. The program determines itself that your RP can unload in San Diego, and do the rest of the way by rail up to the Canadian Factory.
The program would then show you the number of CP you should sail in each sea area to establish that route.

You would have this work to do once for each resource at the beginning of the game, and then it is over unless you wish to change the route.

The way it is done presently, is to put the CP, and let the program decide which RP goes where. With this way of doing, it is very hard to have the RP go where you want, and every turn you had to make long and repetitive changes in a dialog for it to work.

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ORIGINAL: Borger Borgersen

Will it be possible to have an automatic placement of convoys button. By pushing this button the AI will place the convoys so as many resources as possible will get to factories and produce. After the convoys have been placed automatically then player can modify this by moving the convoys he want.

I guess for most countries there are some sea areas the convoys should almost alwaysbe placed in (e. g. sea areas adjacent to ports that leads to factories). So the AI can be programmed by first adding these convoys and then it can make calculations for the rest.

Placing convoys is one of the most tedious and boring parts of WIF. Especially for the British player. So getting some help from the AI to place them would be helpful indeed. But it should be optional whether you click the button or not. The alternative method by selecting sea zones for  convoys from a resource to a factory one by one should also be available for the players.

This brings me to the AI regarding how to replace convoys losses. I guess the AI especially for the British player must calculate during the production phase whether it's necessary to build new convoys or not. He must look at the losses from the subs and estimate when some convoy route will be broken unless more convoys are available and produce them in time to be placed on the map to replace losses. Maybe the simplest AI rule would be that the AI will build as many convoys as the submarines sink. So the British AI keeps track of the number of convoys the German player has sunk and replace these losses as soon as possible. Then he shouldn't run out of convoys and risk the convoy routes to be broken.

But the number of convoys needed should be altered if the British player gets access to new resources that will require new sea zones or loses some resource that will require less sea zones. If the British AI keeps track of how many convoys are needed to transport all his resources then he can compare this number with the numbers of convoys he has and produce the missing numbers. Maybe he should be encouraged to build 1-2 reserve convoys so he can quickly replace convoy losses if the German submarines do more damage than normally.

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Return all unused convoys to nearest port still remains. I would like to rethink that though, since when given a choice between two equidistant ports which one the program chooses might be inferior.

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The number of possible routes can be quite large. My idea is to let the player choose each step of the way from a set of highlighted sea areas/ports. As each step is chosen, the next possible steps are then highlighted.

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ORIGINAL: dale1066

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Return all unused convoys to nearest port still remains. I would like to rethink that though, since when given a choice between two equidistant ports which one the program chooses might be inferior.

As a player I would like to make the decision myself in that case I guess the AI will have an algorithm based on new resources coming on line next turn/s and/or sea areas under threat of attack. The version of CWif i have didn't move them back it just desentrified unused units so that when skipping from unit to unit in the naval rebase phase Unused CPs would be counted in amoung those units to rebase, you still needed to move them back or tell them to stay at sea.

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The number of possible routes can be quite large. My idea is to let the player choose each step of the way from a set of highlighted sea areas/ports. As each step is chosen, the next possible steps are then highlighted.

Sounds good is this highlighting done on the map? i was hoping that for example if you selected an aussie resource and just dragged it straight to the uk then the code would pick an optimal route, but say you had issues with an opposing force in the cape basin and a treat to cps in the central atlantic then by dragging the mouse into South africa up to the belgian congo over to the carribean via mouths of the amazon and thence to the uk you get the more complicated but safer route.


With regard to lending resources the number and type is done in the pre impulse section of the turn i believe, when/where exactly can you specify the actual resource eg France being lent Cyprus rather than Cardiff, Cwif seemed to just pick the nearest ones and it was not always very easy to persuade the code that that wasn't what you wanted Can this be changed at any point in the turn from in the resources window a la Cwif default country setting and at what point in the turn would you cease to be able to modify it? all the way into the production phase ? once the player activity impulses are complete?

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ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
Processing convoy losses I believe I have figured out in some detail. I want the AIO to maintain reserve convoys situated around the map at points where losses are likely to occur. The AIO will constantly reposition its merchant marine to minimize production points lost because resources were unable to reach a factory. The build plan has to anticipate losses and future needs (due to newly acquired resources or lost factories that require a new destination for a resource, etc.). This is actually one of the easier things for the AIO to calculate.

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ORIGINAL: npilgaard

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
Processing convoy losses I believe I have figured out in some detail. I want the AIO to maintain reserve convoys situated around the map at points where losses are likely to occur. The AIO will constantly reposition its merchant marine to minimize production points lost because resources were unable to reach a factory. The build plan has to anticipate losses and future needs (due to newly acquired resources or lost factories that require a new destination for a resource, etc.). This is actually one of the easier things for the AIO to calculate.

Also, expected future gains of convoys should be taken into account. This is mainly CW getting access to the US convoys, which means quite a nice boost for CW - thus the CW may be able to relax somewhat on convoy-builds when US DoW approaches (depending on how much pressure the axis put on the CW convoy lines, of course).
Minor countries can provide a nice convoy boost as well, although that is harder to foresee, as it most often depends on Axis DoW.

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ORIGINAL: hakon

For resources, I would like the option to move ANY resource by sea, even resources that have a rail connection. Specifically, it should be possible to send the australian spare resources to the canadian factories, and then all the canadian resouces to england.

Setting up resources to go by convoy could also be an advantage when you risk loosing the rail connection later in the turn.

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ORIGINAL: hakon

I figured that since you need to know what convoys are needed already during naval movement, they convoy planner screen should be available at all times.

Since resources can only be transported ONCE overseas, there ARE cases where you want to send all resources overseas instead of first filling up factories that can be reached by resources on the same rail network.

Specifically, sending the spare australian resources to Canada frees up 2 canadian resources that can be sent to the UK. This is somewhat cheaper in convoy points than sending the australian resources all the way to the UK. But if the canadian resources are used in the canadian factories, this setup will not work. Japan may have simmilar situations where resources available though the south china sea can be sent to chinese factories, while all chinese resources are sent to japan through the sea of japan. (Assuming that the allies are contesting the China Sea.)

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ORIGINAL: Zorachus99

Ok, feature request, severity, 'nice to have'.

When moving a naval group from one sea area to another it would be nice if I only had to drag it to the sea area, and the screen would perhaps auto-center on the 0 box to either continue moving the fleet or move up to a higher box.  This would be a touch easier to move your fleets around without having to bother with the zoom so much.