m10bob
Posts: 8622
Joined: 11/3/2002 From: Dismal Seepage Indiana Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: el cid again I actually faced something of a players revolt (not on the Forums, but in private email) over this issue a few months back in time. By then I had a number of games to evaluate to there was less need to guess about effects over time. I took considerable time integrating the new values with location file changes to land units. I also implemented significant differences between scenarios. But I also folded in restrictions to prevent abuse. These mainly are putting some units into situations where they can never change commands by expending political points and/or where they cannot even move. This is more or less SOP in RHS - a single policy change involves thousands of records (sometimes over a hundred thousand records - and we often do that to 13 different scenarios - if we include Level I and the unreleased Downfall scenarios - or to 7 - if Level II only. It isn't just a case of more PP, but also of insuring there is limited opportunity to reassign improperly. The unreleased 1945 Downfall scenario 125 in development sees Japan with little capacity to reassign major land units - 500 per day or about four days for a major division. But the Allies get three times as much - which for their typically smaller divisions is about 1 division per day. As well, the scenario tends to have units assigned to the correct command - no major changes for the Allies should be needed. Most scenarios ("strictly historical" 121 to 124 in Level II - 101 to 104 in Level I) have Japan get 1000 to start and 1000 per day - or about two days for a major division decision. The Allies start with only 500 - and they have more units - particularly late in the war. That is to prevent major first turn changes. But they get 1500 per day thereafter - which on review is minimal - about enough for a division decision per day. Both levels do tend to show great accumulation of pools - but not dangerously so - and by the time the Allies need to transfer whole armies (in 1943 and 1944) they either have them or at least can get the points after a period of a month or so. Japan enhanced scenarios are similar except Japan starts with 2000 points - which is only enough for one division - to give them more starting flexibility. When used for things other than major land units a thousand points is significant. Now Russia is a very special case. It was very undeveloped in stock - missing entire air forces and kinds of units - the list is long. Adding these units and capabilities has been noticed in Russia, where we seem to have players. [They write when I miss something or get it wrong]. As well, RHS is DESIGNED to play WITH RUSSIANS ACTIVE - even if NOT in combat. This isn't required - I provide Russian passive options for historical scenarios as well as for the future AI controlled Downfall scenario (AI does not grasp active Russians are not in the war yet). This is done as a FAVOR to ALLIED players and to balance things in a way that should limit Japanese gamey behaviors: instead of a garrison of ONLY land units, Japan needs to ALSO have a real air force facing Russia - because of the risk of not having one when a fight begins. Probably more important is where units are located, how and when they upgrade, and what recon flights are made over what targets? Active Russians means air units to not retain obsolete aircraft while pools of new ones grow to the point they are scrapped. The list of reasons is long and well tested - players familiar with it usually prefer it (assuming they do NOT play the AI - in which case ONLY scenario 122 (102 in Level I) is really going to work - to the extend AI ever works. But there must be an AI and an AI oriented scenario - to permit long term testing AI vs AI - to have a sense of effects over time of various things - so it is an option for players - even if AI is misleadingly named and not intelligent.) In tag team games, the player running Russia can be very upset he cannot do anything because some other "allied" player wants all the PP all the time! As for there being no "dedicated force" in Russia - I do not grasp what you mean? Although there were units sent West - the forces in the East generally grew over time. They begin so strong I doubt the Japanese can beat them in 1942, and it only gets worse as time passes. Certainly General Togo was pessimistic: "Every night I go to sleep worried about the Russians. Every morning I wake up without an answer." There is no indication in stock OB data that most units are in cadre form and no indication in later war data units sent with a view to launching an offensive were either. Remember, PP must apply to ALL war years - even 1945 - because they are fixed and do not 'grow' over time. In a realistic Russian Active Scenario - Russia does NOT have to watch Japan invade and be helpless - sometimes for days - until AI decides the invasion is one. It is horrible not to control where you build forts or fortifications, where your units are, or to what command they are assigned. Whatever that is, it is not accurate simulation. RHS does not ignore the Russians as a matter of design - the Russians are a gigantic flanking presence and certainly should not be portrayed as either helpless or unable to act when their interests demand it. Without recon, how can Russia even detect an assembling invasion force - never mind deploy to counter it - or possibly to pre-empt it? Developing Arctic logistics in both Siberia and North America has been a difficult task - and perhaps not well understood. Here in Alaska we study this history a good deal more than probably anywhere else - except in Russia of course - where notes indicate players appreciate the attention to detail we have shown. If you think the Russians should be passive, spend no PP points for their interests at all. Consider the needs of the British, the Chinese, the Dutch, the Aussies, the Canadians and NZ and of course the USA - and tell me that a diligent player who reviews all units every turn won't run out of PP regularly. We actually experimented with "unlimited" PP and found real problems with that - even game crashes. So we use generous but LIMITED PP - and it seems to solve the problem of hamstrung Allied players. Japan is insatiable - IF a player wants to commit the bulk of the IJA (which historically did NOT happen - outside of China we never faced more than 1/6 of it) - they will be as hamstrung by PP as the Allies are. The real limits on Japan should be logistical - not PP: we have seen invasions of India, Ceylon and Australia fail because you can move the UNITS but it isn't so easy to feed them! Even in China, probably Sian has never fallen, and certainly Chunking is not likely to fall - even in games where I asked players to commit major IJA forces to try. PP don't help Japan win in China. Its defense is mainly its size compounded by terrain and poor communications to feed major forces needed to reduce fortified urban hexes. RHS takes all suggestions and complaints seriously (including more than a few very good ones from M10Bob). And we have experimented with PP over a wide range - going from too many to too few - and settling back near where we began - based on more or less a division every day or two. Complaints by the Allies in Test Eight were very strong - the Allies had very unrealistic operational constraints. It is also hard to reconcile any given value with very DIFFERENT player styles - SOME players more or less ignore PP most of the time - while others run em to zero every day. And apparently AI doesn't use em at all - 'it does whatever it wants' quoting a senior programmer. quote:
ORIGINAL: m10bob quote:
ORIGINAL: el cid again Part of the problem is PP are constant. Testers found when the Brits need to transfer many units for the offensive in Burma, it was impossible later in the war. Similarly, a player may want to do a non-historical shift in units for an offensive. You need the pp to be able to do that in a reasonable time in 1943 and 1944 and 1945. quote:
ORIGINAL: m10bob Very much appreciate the continued improvements. Sid, what is the reason RHS gives so many political points from the offset? I definitely appreciate the ability to transfer units from a CONUS or otherwise committed command to one of an emerging theater of operations, (as in real life), but am concerned that I may be getting ALL of my political points in one fell swoop, rather than earning them thru time? In a nutshell...will I continue to get political points as the days pass? IIRC part of the reason stock had so few PP's per turn was to prevent the very gamey practice known as "Run Robin"(or something similar whereby an allied player would simply evacuate forces to Australia rather than lose them in place. I am huge on historical possibilities and would prefer these limitations but certainly feel 50 points per turn does NOT represent true mobilization as happened in real life. Limiting the Dutch units by command to prevent evacuation would go far to appease history IMHO, with very few exceptions. If you need any help finding a more historic number of points per turn, I am sure you will have volunteers more qualified than just me, though I will be willing to help.(Retired, private resource library, etc.) If the game requires a FIXED point pool per turn and it can still be based on manpower and actual production numbers, I can acquire those numbers. Giving the Japanese fixed victory point pool for their conquests still seems like a fair system and I would not limit them to "whatever they hold up to and ending with 1943". I would give them credit for things they did later in the war as well which might be 4 times what they were worth in 1942.(Just an example.) As far as Russia being part of that VP pool, I would not even consider them as they did not have a DEDICATED force whatsoever compared to what they had removed to employ forces at Kursk, Stalingrad, Smolensk and Leningrad. Most of the units the game shows coming into the Russian areas were cadre strength at best. Again...if you choose to revisit the production pool or manpower or "whatever" fuels the PP's, feel free to holler, I and others will help. RHS is a HUGE amount of fun to play as you have assembled it, IMHO. As ever I am glad to read that my comments are NOT seen as those of an "enemy"(LOL).. I remember when you had them in your face on a daily basis, and I stood with RHS when some of those detractors went far beyond civility. I am confident the folks using RHS at present and commenting are too involved finding the "Easter eggs" and evidence of unspoken research on your part to be dismayed.
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