Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress
I like the idea of atolls having large anchorages but lesser port facilities. I'm curious how you set that up in the game? Is anchorage size controlled by the PWHEX file?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Falken

Hi LST,

For the actual realism settings, you have two different set of instructions in your files.

The 049 Scenario file shows:
+ Historical First Turn on
+ December 7th Surprise off

while the word doc shows for recommended settings:
- Surprise On, Historic First Turn off

Before I start the setup, can you please confirm the settings?
Thanks, Dave...

quote:

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Did you try to model the Burma Monsoon any differently?

quote:

ORIGINAL: LargeSlowTarget


• Some GUI improvements to ease identification of TF types and key assets

quote:


All East Coast LCU reinforcements are pre-set to strat move to San Francisco automatically


Many ground units on map on Day 1 have pre-set move orders – according to my usual opening moves (remember, this is a personal mod…) > Japanese units in the HI concentrate at Yokohama, US Army at SF, Marines at SD, Aussies at Sydney, garrison swapping in India.


Added “parent tags” in front of subunit names for easier identification of subunits belonging to same parent, e.g. “PSD 57th PS Inf RCT” indicated the Rgt is a subunit of the Philippine Scout Division, “5ID ” = 5th Infantry Division, “2TD” = 2nd Tank Division etc.


Added markers in unit names for easier visual identification of units with special attributes:
~ unit has withdrawal date
´ unit will undergo name change
> unit will undergo major TOE change (like Aussie Cav to Armor)
- Chinese 2-division Corps (as opposed to standard 3-division Corps)
* static (warlord device)
! Chinese German trained / equipped (start with Chinese “43” squads instead of “41”


“Quickstart Convoys” > created “QS” convoys to collect the merchant ships scattered around the map (got tired of the hundreds of clicks on turn 1 at each restart…). Destination is set to certain collecting points (e.g. Yokohama, Sydney, Manila, Colombo, San Francisco) for sorting out (I tend to create convoys with ships of same class or at least same speed) resp. conversion. Ships are in convoys at historic start locations, so if you have other ideas for them, you can pull the ships out. Some merchant ships are left out because intended for conversion at start base, also most warships are left out as usage will vary.


The task force icons use the same mission symbol for Transport TF, Amphibious TF and Escort TF- I have added colors to tell them apart, Amphib TF symbol is (earth-)brown, Escort symbol is grey, Transport TF stays white. I also added colors for easier identification of TFs used mostly “locally” in a base hex – blue for ASW and yellow for Local Minesweeping. Finally, the important replenishment / support TFs (AOs, AEs, ADs etc.) are black.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Fixin

Need help. How to play both sides head to head. cannot access allied side. Thanks for a great design and your help

quote:

ORIGINAL: sanderz


Hi LST


I have been having a look through your mod documentaion, an amazing piece of work, must have taken you endless hours. I do however have a few questions/comments that i hope you can help with.


1) How did you set the new repair costs for engines? I see from the editor that there is a value for "load cost" that ties in with the values you mention, does the game use this "load cost" as the repair cost or is there another field somewhere that defines this? Reason for asking is that in my DBB-C game the editor shows a load cost for engines of zero and i had assumed the repair cost was hard coded.

Yes, the "load cost" governs the supply expenditure for repairing industries and engines.


2) How have your new rules for supply production worked out? How far into the game have you played using this mod?

Frankly, I don't know - therefore the disclaimer in the changelog that it is a seat-of-the pants approach. I have only played two full months, the rest of my testing was done by changing the start date of the scenario in order to see how late-coming units look and behave. The at-start supplies production for Japan has not changed much, so I do not expect major issues. It will just be slower to increase production, since only LI repairs will add supply generation (and not HI and LI repairs simultaneously).


3) Did you ever create the alternative version of your mod with standard engine production and standard HI / supplies production?

Not yet, but summer holidays are coming...


4) I think your your changes to the plane upgrade paths for the Zero actually make it very much easier (rather than harder) to beeline for the later model Zeros.

Don't think so. in stock, the Rufe shortcut allows to start M5 research with fully repaired factories in 4/42. In my mod, M5 cannot be researched before M3 6/42 and M3a 12/42 have been researched. Should slow it, assuming no "jumping the queue" takes place (i.e. all models of a line need to be researched).



5) You say "It is recommended to ship excess resources from Australia / India / Aden/ Cape Town etc. to CONUS and UK to feed the industries there." Does this mean Oil/Fuel as well? I have no idea how allied production works and assumed they just got fixed amounts of everything. Do you mean that the Allies also need Fuel and Resources for HI and that then affects their production? Or are you saying to do it for historical reasons?

UK and CONUS have huge amount of industries but do not generate equivalent resources, so will face a deficit. UK has LI only, so needs resources only. CONUS has HI as well, so needs resources and probably oil/fuel as well (from the Caribbean Sea Frontier (ex Cristobal base). Allied player actually does not need HI points for production, but I would recommend a house rule that HI must be kept running.


6) Regarding the section on Supply Cap House Rules i.e.

What does "SPS-size base" mean? (what does SPS stand for?) [?Something?PortSize] ???.

Standard potential size - a term from the AE manual. A port size "3(3)" indicates a port built-up to the SPS of 3. It can be "overbuild" to 6(3).

"House Rules: 1. Expand ports (not air bases or forts) when aim is purely logistics, 2. no strategic movements of ground and air units unless uninterrupted string of port SPS-size bases exists along the intended route (i.e. if the inland port has an SPS of 3, it must be built to 3 before strategic rail movement is allowed in that hex – further expansion up to max size 6 simulates further improvements to the Railroad capacity, like added sidings, switching yards etc.)"

I really don't understand item 2 here and how its supposed to work, please could you elaborate and perhaps give an example or two based on locations on the map (e.g. Ledo and Anyang where seemingly no rail transport of units would be allowed).

This applies only to destroyed or yet-to-be-build railroads (dotted black-grey railroads on my map). Ledo is linked to Calcutta by a regular rail line, so no restrictions apply.

Classic example for the above house rule would be the "Burma-Thailand Death Railway" which was built during the war. It does exist as railroad in the pwhexe.dat file - but in order to use it, all bases along the railroad must be build to their SPS port size (3 if I am not mistaken) before rail strat movement for units is allowed over that stretch of railway.


7) I see you have made changes to the Chinese OOB but whats the supply situation like for the Chinese now, has it been increased at all?

Gosh, it has been so long I worked on China - I can't remember if I have modified China supply generation, but I don't think so. However, "my" China is covered with dot bases which do have a very small inherent supply generation (local farmers) to feed the "civil administration units" which are there to prevent the auto-switching of hex ownership. The consumption of these "placeholders" is smaller than the minimum daily supply generation, so each dot will generate a small supply surplus. In isolated areas supplies may accumulate (which may entice the Japanese player to launch the infamous "rice offensives" to steal the harvest...), unless guerilla operations use it up.


8) I am thinking of starting a game, however are there any updates due in the next few weeks?

No major updates planned. I will wait for player feedback and collect things I discover during my own slowly advancing H2H game for an later update - depends on how many things needs to be fixed and how urgent.

Many thanks, and sorry to bombard you with all these questions.

No problem, my pleasure

quote:

ORIGINAL: Revthought

So bear with me here, I've only ever played the Allies s my knowledge of the game economy is far less than your typical Japanese player; however, if only Ali produces supply then what purpose does HI serve, other than being a strategic bombing target?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alpha77

SO did you change too many unit values ? I was working in a own scen (with some more bottlenecks too) based on the recent AI and "make stuff more worthwhile and scarce" threads..also added some fun plane design (mostly upgraded to exiting models, so all NOT fantasy but possible in the real WW2)

While working in the editor I also checked unit values (eg. tanks) and some were quite "strange", eg. US tanks seem to be overrated and some 43/44 squads too. Also tank destroyers had too high armor as well too high soft attack...

Will check you mod if time :)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alpha77

quote:

ORIGINAL: Revthought

So bear with me here, I've only ever played the Allies s my knowledge of the game economy is far less than your typical Japanese player; however, if only Ali produces supply then what purpose does HI serve, other than being a strategic bombing target?

HI builds everything, ships, planes, guns. HI is converted to eg. nav, veh, arm points...this is from which stuff is build. Eg. a tank with 20 tons weight will cost 20 VEH points (or 200? cant remember) I only know if you upgrade a tk unit or it has huge losses a lot of veh points will be eaten up...and also planes cost per frame and per engine. so Emily eg. is the most expensive plane you can have


VEH points build vehicles and tanks.... quite simple actually.

quote:

ORIGINAL: LargeSlowTarget

quote:

ORIGINAL: sanderz


Hi LST


I have been having a look through your mod documentaion, an amazing piece of work, must have taken you endless hours. I do however have a few questions/comments that i hope you can help with.


1) How did you set the new repair costs for engines? I see from the editor that there is a value for "load cost" that ties in with the values you mention, does the game use this "load cost" as the repair cost or is there another field somewhere that defines this? Reason for asking is that in my DBB-C game the editor shows a load cost for engines of zero and i had assumed the repair cost was hard coded.

Yes, the "load cost" governs the supply expenditure for repairing industries and engines.


2) How have your new rules for supply production worked out? How far into the game have you played using this mod?

Frankly, I don't know - therefore the disclaimer in the changelog that it is a seat-of-the pants approach. I have only played two full months, the rest of my testing was done by changing the start date of the scenario in order to see how late-coming units look and behave. The at-start supplies production for Japan has not changed much, so I do not expect major issues. It will just be slower to increase production, since only LI repairs will add supply generation (and not HI and LI repairs simultaneously).


3) Did you ever create the alternative version of your mod with standard engine production and standard HI / supplies production?

Not yet, but summer holidays are coming...


4) I think your your changes to the plane upgrade paths for the Zero actually make it very much easier (rather than harder) to beeline for the later model Zeros.

Don't think so. in stock, the Rufe shortcut allows to start M5 research with fully repaired factories in 4/42. In my mod, M5 cannot be researched before M3 6/42 and M3a 12/42 have been researched. Should slow it, assuming no "jumping the queue" takes place (i.e. all models of a line need to be researched).



5) You say "It is recommended to ship excess resources from Australia / India / Aden/ Cape Town etc. to CONUS and UK to feed the industries there." Does this mean Oil/Fuel as well? I have no idea how allied production works and assumed they just got fixed amounts of everything. Do you mean that the Allies also need Fuel and Resources for HI and that then affects their production? Or are you saying to do it for historical reasons?

UK and CONUS have huge amount of industries but do not generate equivalent resources, so will face a deficit. UK has LI only, so needs resources only. CONUS has HI as well, so needs resources and probably oil/fuel as well (from the Caribbean Sea Frontier (ex Cristobal base). Allied player actually does not need HI points for production, but I would recommend a house rule that HI must be kept running.


6) Regarding the section on Supply Cap House Rules i.e.

What does "SPS-size base" mean? (what does SPS stand for?) [?Something?PortSize] ???.

Standard potential size - a term from the AE manual. A port size "3(3)" indicates a port built-up to the SPS of 3. It can be "overbuild" to 6(3).

"House Rules: 1. Expand ports (not air bases or forts) when aim is purely logistics, 2. no strategic movements of ground and air units unless uninterrupted string of port SPS-size bases exists along the intended route (i.e. if the inland port has an SPS of 3, it must be built to 3 before strategic rail movement is allowed in that hex – further expansion up to max size 6 simulates further improvements to the Railroad capacity, like added sidings, switching yards etc.)"

I really don't understand item 2 here and how its supposed to work, please could you elaborate and perhaps give an example or two based on locations on the map (e.g. Ledo and Anyang where seemingly no rail transport of units would be allowed).

This applies only to destroyed or yet-to-be-build railroads (dotted black-grey railroads on my map). Ledo is linked to Calcutta by a regular rail line, so no restrictions apply.

Classic example for the above house rule would be the "Burma-Thailand Death Railway" which was built during the war. It does exist as railroad in the pwhexe.dat file - but in order to use it, all bases along the railroad must be build to their SPS port size (3 if I am not mistaken) before rail strat movement for units is allowed over that stretch of railway.


7) I see you have made changes to the Chinese OOB but whats the supply situation like for the Chinese now, has it been increased at all?

Gosh, it has been so long I worked on China - I can't remember if I have modified China supply generation, but I don't think so. However, "my" China is covered with dot bases which do have a very small inherent supply generation (local farmers) to feed the "civil administration units" which are there to prevent the auto-switching of hex ownership. The consumption of these "placeholders" is smaller than the minimum daily supply generation, so each dot will generate a small supply surplus. In isolated areas supplies may accumulate (which may entice the Japanese player to launch the infamous "rice offensives" to steal the harvest...), unless guerilla operations use it up.


8) I am thinking of starting a game, however are there any updates due in the next few weeks?

No major updates planned. I will wait for player feedback and collect things I discover during my own slowly advancing H2H game for an later update - depends on how many things needs to be fixed and how urgent.

Many thanks, and sorry to bombard you with all these questions.

No problem, my pleasure

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alpha77

SO did you change too many unit values ? I was working in a own scen (with some more bottlenecks too) based on the recent AI and "make stuff more worthwhile and scarce" threads..also added some fun plane design (mostly upgraded to exiting models, so all NOT fantasy but possible in the real WW2)

While working in the editor I also checked unit values (eg. tanks) and some were quite "strange", eg. US tanks seem to be overrated and some 43/44 squads too. Also tank destroyers had too high armor as well too high soft attack...

Will check you mod if time :)

PS:If you edited/corrected the unit values too and AA values and some more fun airplanes, I will try you mod. But I am too historic a guy to find most values others enters as wrong, mostly tanks and guns. Both versions the ORIG scens coming with the game (WAY TOO HIGH often) and the updated Andy Mac scen2 (sometimes TOO low) need re-work sadly. But it is possible these values have no big impact on the game, as I remember in JI AI game years ago I had not much problem with eg. the 43+ Allied tank units - and this must have been the original TOO HIGH values version. But this was against AI, so no real measuering stick. I just remember this early AI game was broken somehow, the Allies would not bring the big units like Brits guards tanks to the front for some reason. They bunched up in some Indian cities I found out.....never much bothered to do fighting (guess Indian tea is the best for some reason!)