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RE: Creating the Map part 63 - Tweaks

 
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RE: Creating the Map part 63 - Tweaks - 10/5/2020 11:43:26 AM   
FOARP

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Jazon

Hi! What layer did U use for Pearl harbour? Are there any extras for fortification? Where can I found them?
Cheers! Enourmous work!


Thanks Jazon.

The fortress unit in Pearl Harbour is a pillbox unit (look in the units layer). I'm going to have to work out what statistics to give it at some point - at present it can even be moved so I'm going to have to give it zero movement. The game also includes coastal gun units that I'm going to have to edit.

In the Southern Victory/TL-191 books Pearl Harbour is defended by a unit that they call the "Concrete Battleship", which this unit is supposed to represent.


_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 181
American Front: First playtest - 10/10/2020 6:46:00 PM   
FOARP

 

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Status: offline 		American Front: First playtest

Ok folks, so here's what a playtest of the mod from the start of the war to the fall of the Sandwich Islands (in this case in April 1915) looks like. I emphasise that this is a very early Alpha build, with no convoys, no diplomacy, no events, no weather, no AI programming, no tailored graphics, and extremely wonky balance. This is just a test of how the base game handles fighting on the map in SP with the AI playing as the Entente and me playing as the Central Powers.

General comments

This was surprisingly fun. I was impressed by how well the base AI defended Canada and the CSA. Every time I though I had a breakthrough it would rail troops into the next objective and stop me. For example I thought I was sure to take Tulsa and then a CSA division just rolled in from somewhere and stopped my advance. On a wide open front the AI was nowhere near as vulnerable as I had expected and would often turn a situation where I had Entente troops surrounded into one where I was the one being surrounded. I basically went nowhere in the Canadian Maritimes and Quebec which surprised me. The one part of the naval war that was active was that around Hawaii where the AI came out ahead on points. I had expected stupid behaviour from the AI like sending all its forces to garrison the Caribbean coast, but it hasn't done anything like that that I can see (EDIT: loading up as the other side I see the AI didn't buy any units, so I guess that's something I'm going to have to fix)






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< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/10/2020 7:42:44 PM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 182
American Front: First playtest (MD/PA front) - 10/10/2020 6:52:27 PM   
FOARP

 

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Status: offline 		Here's what the front in Pennsylvania and Maryland looks like - the CSA broke the line early on and captured Baltimore before a US counter-attack smashed them back to the Virginian frontier. In western Maryland and West Virginia the CSA advanced as far as Cumberland, MD and Morgantown, WVA before the spearhead pointed at Morgantown was surrounded and destroyed and a strong front was formed north of Cumberland, MD.

Probably the performance of the CSa would be improved by having mobilisation events feed infantry corps onto this front.




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< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/10/2020 6:53:05 PM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 183
American Front: First playtest (Roanoke front) - 10/10/2020 6:57:27 PM   
FOARP

 

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Status: offline 		The Roanoke front was a little bit disappointing as the AI formed a solid front here until the last turn when the defending divisions were mostly transferred elsewhere allowing Big Lick to be surrounded. Maybe some AI programming ordering garrisoning of this front might help. The AI tried to advance through the Appalachians into WVA but was surrounded and destroyed.






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< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/10/2020 6:58:00 PM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 184
American Front: First playtest (Kentucky front) - 10/10/2020 7:04:36 PM   
FOARP

 

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Status: offline 		Kentucky turned out to be a tough fight - the US broke through from the north around Covington but the CSA positions in the west held pretty firm and the Rebs even advanced into the Missouri bootheel around Kennett, MO for a time.

I think I'll remove some of the fortifications I've put here to give the US a better chance of advancing.

One other comment is that the Ohio and Mississippi are too easy to cross. I'm not sure what to do about this yet - I guess I could up the movement cost of crossing a major river but I'll have to see.




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< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/10/2020 7:06:46 PM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 185
American Front: First playtest (Sequoyah front) - 10/10/2020 7:10:03 PM   
FOARP

 

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Status: offline 		In Sequoyah a number of times my troops advanced only to find themselves being surrounded. Eventually by pouring troops in I was able to properly get over the frontier into Sequoyah but I think the game went on from here I would have a hard time getting much further.

The events adding extra CSA troops as part of the national armies of the "Five Civilised Tribes" would improve this part of the game.






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< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/10/2020 7:11:14 PM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 186
American Front: First playtest (Ontario front) - 10/10/2020 7:15:10 PM   
FOARP

 

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Status: offline 		After a lot of blasting my forces managed to breakthrough on both sides of Ontario and it looks like the Canadians cannot recover.

I think this could be improved by adding in some pillbox positions on these lines and a fall-back position behind them.




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_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 187
American Front: First playtest (Other fronts) - 10/10/2020 7:28:10 PM   
FOARP

 

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Status: offline 		Winnipeg

I actually had my ass handed to me on this front - US forces had to retreat to avoid being surrounded. I'll add an HQ unit and maybe a cavalry division here for the US, but also put a pillbox into the line in front of Winnipeg.

British Columbia

My forces managed to outflank and destroy the Canadian forces defending Vancouver and take the city. Probably needs a pillbox position in front of it.

Sonora

I couldn't advance much further than the frontier - each time I tried I got flanked by CSA cavalry.

Maritimes and Quebec

Lots of scrappy and inconclusive fighting along the frontier with no real advance - Thetford mines was the sole real gain to the US.

Sandwich Islands

A surprisingly tough fight against the Royal Navy settled only by victory on land. O'ahu fell by October 1914 with the destruction of the "Concrete Battleship". The Big Island took tough fighting around Hilu before it fell, bringing about the surrender of the islands. This part worked well though I'll add the Dreadnought Dakota to the US OOB.

Potential gameplay tweaks

- major rivers should probably be harder to cross.

- I'm thinking about adding heavy artillery to the game - these would be slower-moving artillery units with fewer shots but higher base de-entrench. This would help model the different artillery described for the CSA and USA (CSA better at fast-firing field artillery, US better at heavy artillery). It would also give some fortress-busting artillery at the start of the game, which is kind of needed.

< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/10/2020 7:44:21 PM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 188
RE: American Front: First playtest (Other fronts) - 10/11/2020 1:43:21 AM   
BiteNibbleChomp


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Status: offline 		Very nice!

Re the Roanoke front, one thing you could try doing is removing the dirt roads between Charleston WV and the farm hexes... having those roads there effectively negates the terrain impact of the mountains, which is why it would be so easy to break through.

Also I suspect you have too many Canadian units in the area north of Maine - this was overrun pretty much immediately in the books. If you want to keep the balance as it is currently, maybe just remove a few units but then put them in Canada's production queue with a date of Oct/Nov 1914? Or even just move them to the area near the Great Lakes, seeing as you broke through there pretty quick.

Eagerly awaiting future developments :)

- BNC

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Post #: 189
RE: American Front: First playtest (Other fronts) - 10/11/2020 9:31:21 AM   
Jazon


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Status: offline 		Looking Great!
I see you use divisions and brigades, yeah? Is it possible to make Cavalry Brigade unit?
Anyway I am looking forward to look how it will grow, even though I am not familiar with the book you based your scenario on.
Big respect for effort and dedication to create such a massive scenario.
Cheers!

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Post #: 190
RE: American Front: First playtest (Other fronts) - 10/12/2020 4:44:04 AM   
OldCrowBalthazor


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Status: offline 		This looks absolutely fantastic!

If possible, could you post a screenshot of the Pacific Northwest?

One reason I'm asking is because of your comment about positioning a pillbox at or in front of Vancouver, British Columbia. There is a low escarpment that runs east-west just north of the border there, named White Rock BC (hence the name from said bluffs), and the heights overlook Blaine WA and the port of entry. It's a steep enough hill that a loaded semi can smoke its brakes while trying to stop from careening into customs. (me) .
Anyway, it's perfectly defensible terrain that could impede an advance north.

Also, I have intimate knowledge of all the Western 11 states of the USA and the southern margins of Western Canada, plus decades of day dreaming of potential conflict spots if ever Goddess forbid, this region got embroiled in war.

Cheers!
Old Crow

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Post #: 191
RE: American Front: First playtest (Other fronts) - 10/12/2020 5:05:00 AM   
eightroomofelixir

 

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Status: offline 		The play test looks fantastic, esp. the AI moves. Did you write/arrange AI scripts by yourself? Because that's simply another level of fantastic.

I'm a firm supporter of making major rivers more difficult to across. Mississippi is wide enough to make the border of two theaters, not to say lacking or bridges.

Adding a small number of slower-moving heavy artilleries (like that single Chinese artillery in WaW) would improve the static frontline a bit - most of the units on your map are divisions, means that the war on this map is fighting on an operation level compared to the main WWI game. I think more artillery pieces - maybe one per HQ, esp. in the east of Mississippi - would suit this level better.

Besides, how is the naval battle between USA and CSA going in your play testing?

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Post #: 192
RE: American Front: First playtest (Other fronts) - 10/12/2020 8:23:54 AM   
FOARP

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

The play test looks fantastic, esp. the AI moves. Did you write/arrange AI scripts by yourself? Because that's simply another level of fantastic.


This is, genuinely, just base-game AI and as such is a testament to the work that the guys at Fury did on the AI. It indicates that perhaps the only thing I need to do in terms of AI programming to make this at least playable on land is to fix the unit-building issue (the AI didn't build anything during the playtest), which would probably also fix the collapses on the Roanoke and Ontario fronts.


quote:

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir
I'm a firm supporter of making major rivers more difficult to across. Mississippi is wide enough to make the border of two theaters, not to say lacking or bridges.


Agreed. I did consider making the Mississippi/Ohio into land/sea hexes but this would use up too much terrain, so the only real solution is to make the movement cost higher - I'm thinking comparable to high mountains. As it is a US infantry unit can advance from the Missouri bootheel directly across the Mississippi in a single turn which really seems off to me.

quote:

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir
Adding a small number of slower-moving heavy artilleries (like that single Chinese artillery in WaW) would improve the static frontline a bit - most of the units on your map are divisions, means that the war on this map is fighting on an operation level compared to the main WWI game. I think more artillery pieces - maybe one per HQ, esp. in the east of Mississippi - would suit this level better.


Agreed. Heavy artillery units (and even super-heavy artillery units) are right there in the base-code so I'll probably give the US two in their starting line-out (maybe one opposite Niagara falls and one opposite Paducah) and none to the CSA. The US might have a max build-limit of four such units and the CSA two, with Canada having one. Movement would be maybe one or two hexes on road? Maybe a base-level of 1 de-entrench rising to 2 when fully researched, and maybe a range of two hexes? Rail-guns would have their range upped to three as well (this is just on the edge of the range that could historically be achieved by e.g., the 38 cm SK L/45 "Max" but I think is excusable for game-play purposes).

I'd have to de-buff field artillery at the same time though, at least the amount it increases due to research, particularly decrease the damage they do as (even in the base game) this can be excessive. Maybe drop them to maximum six shells as well, but give them a little bit more movement to emphasise that they are field guns.

quote:

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir
Besides, how is the naval battle between USA and CSA going in your play testing?


The base AI doesn't seem to move naval units unless there's enemies close enough to "activate" them, so none of the CSA naval units I put down in Cuba have moved up. I hadn't placed any units closer that that but will do for the more finished game.

Basically this is another area that I need to do AI scripting for.

I did see Canadian units moving about on the Great Lakes though.

< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/12/2020 9:37:18 AM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 193
RE: American Front: First playtest (Other fronts) - 10/12/2020 9:16:52 AM   
FOARP

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: BiteNibbleChomp

Very nice!

Re the Roanoke front, one thing you could try doing is removing the dirt roads between Charleston WV and the farm hexes... having those roads there effectively negates the terrain impact of the mountains, which is why it would be so easy to break through.

Also I suspect you have too many Canadian units in the area north of Maine - this was overrun pretty much immediately in the books. If you want to keep the balance as it is currently, maybe just remove a few units but then put them in Canada's production queue with a date of Oct/Nov 1914? Or even just move them to the area near the Great Lakes, seeing as you broke through there pretty quick.

Eagerly awaiting future developments :)

- BNC


Yup, I've got to see how to properly balance that Canadian frontier. At the moment making it weak might lead to the AI simply denuding other fronts to cover it, but it seems a bit strong compared to the US. I think probably an HQ and some corp-sized units added to the US OOB in Maine might move things along a bit...

My concern about removing the road over the Appalachians is the US player has no reason to invade Virginia via that route as described in the books if there is no road there. Since the AI was resisting strongly there right up until the last turn when it decided to send all the units there away (I think they went to Sequoyah) I'm hoping that fixing the no-unit-building issue will solve the issue on the Roanoke front.

Mostly, though, I'm just really glad that it looks like the base AI can handle this map despite it being huge and very different to the map used by the base-game. The base AI did a pretty good job of identifying cities that were threatened and those that weren't and defending the threatened ones. I was afraid I had spent all that time creating a map that the AI couldn't handle - for example I was afraid the AI would try to garrison the long coasts or the entire Canadian frontier rather than defending against active US units.


< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/12/2020 9:50:53 AM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 194
RE: American Front: First playtest (Other fronts) - 10/12/2020 9:48:34 AM   
FOARP

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Jazon

Looking Great!
I see you use divisions and brigades, yeah? Is it possible to make Cavalry Brigade unit?
Anyway I am looking forward to look how it will grow, even though I am not familiar with the book you based your scenario on.
Big respect for effort and dedication to create such a massive scenario.
Cheers!


Yes, I've used divisions/brigades to cover a lot of the front because the CSA and USA in this scenario have populations roughly the same size as France and Germany respectively: it just isn't conceivable that they could have covered thousand-mile-long fronts with corps-sized units. Probably even giving Canada as many units as I have would require Canada to have had almost North Korea-style levels of mobilisation.

Cavalry brigades are in the base code. You can add them to the country's build limit in the editor, and put them on the map using the unit layer. I think you can also change the name the game calls them by editing the localisation text folder - so if you want to change "Detachment" or "Garrison" to "Infantry Brig." this can be done.

Regarding this series of books, unfortunately I don't think they were ever published in Polish, at least I never saw them in Empik and a search on Merlin turns up nothing. This is a pity because they are very interesting books with a fascinating scenario, though Harry Turtledove has a bad habit of repeating stuff just in case you didn't read it in a previous book in the series.

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 195
RE: American Front: First playtest (Other fronts) - 10/12/2020 12:20:52 PM   
FOARP

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: OldCrowBalthazor

This looks absolutely fantastic!

If possible, could you post a screenshot of the Pacific Northwest?

One reason I'm asking is because of your comment about positioning a pillbox at or in front of Vancouver, British Columbia. There is a low escarpment that runs east-west just north of the border there, named White Rock BC (hence the name from said bluffs), and the heights overlook Blaine WA and the port of entry. It's a steep enough hill that a loaded semi can smoke its brakes while trying to stop from careening into customs. (me) .
Anyway, it's perfectly defensible terrain that could impede an advance north.

Also, I have intimate knowledge of all the Western 11 states of the USA and the southern margins of Western Canada, plus decades of day dreaming of potential conflict spots if ever Goddess forbid, this region got embroiled in war.

Cheers!
Old Crow


Thanks Crow! Am away from my home computer but you can see the southern British Columbia area here. I think you're right and I'll see about adding some hilly terrain just north of border instead of that farm terrain as well as a pillbox.

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 196
Creating the Map part 64 - Convoys and more Tweaks - 10/13/2020 7:46:57 PM   
FOARP

 

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Status: offline 		Creating the Map part 64 - Convoys and more Tweaks

Hi again. After the excitement of last week's playtest it's back down to more mundane things. I've added in numerous convoy routes that can be seen in the below picture, taking them clockwise from the top:
- A convoy of German supplies from Wilhelmshaven to Boston, Mass.
- A UK supply convoy for the Canadians going from Portsmouth, UK to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The idea here is that it will be replace firstly with a convoy to Quebec City and then with a convoy to the Hudson Bay as the USA advances into Canada, with each having a narrower window in which supplies can be shipped before the ice of winter closes the route. A side-effect of this is that I'm going to have to make Canada a major power as minors cannot receive convoys.
- French supplies from La Rochelle, France to Charleston, South Carolina.
- A Spanish convoy going from Vigo to either Brooklyn, NY, or Savannah, Georgia, depending on who manages to influence Spain over to their side.
- A convoy from Buenos, Aires, Argentina up to the UK. Argentina is a major source of food for the UK and cutting this route will end the war fair quickly for the UK.
- A convoy from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, up to Miami, Florida. The Dominican Republic is friendly to the CSA and can be influenced to join the Entente cause in exchange for being given a free hand and support against their Haitian neighbours.
- A convoy from Port-au-Prince, Haiti to Philadelphia, PA. The Haitians rely on the US to defend them against their Dominican neighbours.
- A convoy from Veracruz, Mexico across the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, Louisiana. Mexico is effectively a semi-colony of the CSA and part of its industry may be called on to bolster the CSA war effort.
- A convoy from Santiago, Chile, up to San Diego, California. Chile is friendly to the USA in the world of TL-191 and may lend a cruiser to the US cause if influenced far enough over to the US side.
- A convoy from Shanghai, China to San Francisco, California. The Entente can shut this down by giving free-reign to the Japanese, though this will come at a diplomatic cost elsewhere.
- A convoy from Tokyo, Japan, to Vancouver, British Columbia. This carries badly-needed supplies to the Canadians.
- A convoy from Vladivostok, Russia, to Prince Rupert, British Columbia similarly taking supplies to the Canadians.

Each of the above convoys coming from a European/Asian/South American country has meant adding a port to the edge of the map. I don't particularly like this solution but I don't see a better way of having a convoy on the map and a place to deploy units for these countries.

I other tweaks I've added the Bahamas, Jamaica, and British Honduras to the map as minor powers, and played around with the OOBS a bit as well as implementing some of the other changes discussed in relation to the play-test.




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< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/15/2020 4:01:14 PM >

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American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 197
Creating the Map part 65 - Weather (I) - 10/16/2020 6:20:17 PM   
FOARP

 

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Status: offline 		Creating the Map part 65 - Weather (I)

Hi again. This week I'm focusing on a very mundane but necessary part of the map - the weather.

As a first pass I'm just filing out the sea hexes, separated into those parts of the map that are frozen (i.e., freeze over in winter), temperate (a terms that apparently includes the North Atlantic), semi-arid and arid.

I've created 18 weather zones at sea, these are:

- Hudson Bay (frozen).
- Lake Winnipeg (frozen).
- Great Lakes (frozen).
- Labrador sea (frozen).
- Gulf of St. Lawrence (frozen).
- North Atlantic (temperate), including the all the north-eastern part of the sea map all the way to the edge.
- Gulf of Maine (temperate, though I may make some parts of the coast frozen per eightroomofelixir's comments regarding Bangor, Maine).
- North West Atlantic (temperate), including all the sea around Bermuda, across to the coast of New York State and down the coast of North America to the Bahamas.
- South Atlantic (temperate), which is everywhere in the South-eastern part of the map.
- Caribbean Sea (temperate).
- Gulf of Mexico (temperate)
- Mexican coast (semi-arid), which covers the coast of Mexico south of the opening of the Sea of Cortez.
- Sea of Cortez (arid).
- California coast (semi-arid), this includes the western coast of Baja California.
- South Pacific (temperate), this is the entire south-western part of the map stretching all the way to Hawaii and beyond.
- Pacific coast (temperate), this is the coasts of Oregon, Washington State, and British Columbia south of the Gulf of Alaska
- North Pacific (temperate), this is the entire north-western part of the map
- Gulf of Alaska (temperate - or should it be frozen? I can't find any maps showing ice far out to sea here but I find that hard to believe given how legendarily cold it is here!)

Open questions: do all of the Great Lakes freeze or just some of them? This seems to vary from year to year so I'm assuming at this time the answer was "all". Even if the Gulf of Alaska doesn't freeze, are places like Sitka ice-bound in winter? I can't find information on this.

Simply setting frozen/temperate/semi-arid/arid doesn't determine the regularity of rain/storms which is something I will do later. Rest assured that "Hurricane Alley" will exist and that winter in the North Atlantic will be just as awful as it ought to be. I also may through in some harmful Hurricane events hitting the Caribbean and Florida if I have time.

Next I will do the same with the land. I'm going to use this map as a basic outline though I will be breaking it up more than is shown here.




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< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/17/2020 7:19:03 AM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

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Post #: 198
RE: Creating the Map part 65 - Weather (I) - 10/17/2020 7:51:46 AM   
OldCrowBalthazor


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Status: offline 		Sitka is not ice bound in the winter. I can attest to that because I had lived in Kodiak and Sitka, Alaska for sometime. The Japanese Current runs in a great loop along the coast, bringing relatively warm water there, somewhat like the Gulfstream does in the Atlantic, moderating the coast of Norway on the most part, in winter.

Another interesting fact is there is 'The Kelp Road' hypothesis, which theorises that peoples originating in Northeast Asia used this warm current to basically generationally hop down the coast towards modern day Puget Sound and the Columbia River, avoiding the Corderillan Icecap in the interior, and peopling the Americas.

Hope that trivia and my own experience answers your question about Sitka. Btw, in this alternate timeline, is Alaska (Alyeska) a Russian Territory?
If it is, that would make sense, as it was purchased by the USA in 1867, after the 'first' Civil War....the one Won by the north of course.

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Post #: 199
RE: Creating the Map part 65 - Weather (I) - 10/17/2020 2:01:05 PM   
FOARP

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: OldCrowBalthazor

Sitka is not ice bound in the winter. I can attest to that because I had lived in Kodiak and Sitka, Alaska for sometime. The Japanese Current runs in a great loop along the coast, bringing relatively warm water there, somewhat like the Gulfstream does in the Atlantic, moderating the coast of Norway on the most part, in winter.

Another interesting fact is there is 'The Kelp Road' hypothesis, which theorises that peoples originating in Northeast Asia used this warm current to basically generationally hop down the coast towards modern day Puget Sound and the Columbia River, avoiding the Corderillan Icecap in the interior, and peopling the Americas.

Hope that trivia and my own experience answers your question about Sitka. Btw, in this alternate timeline, is Alaska (Alyeska) a Russian Territory?
If it is, that would make sense, as it was purchased by the USA in 1867, after the 'first' Civil War....the one Won by the north of course.


Many thanks Crow - great to have this local insight!

In this scenario Russian America (AKA Alaska) has its capital at Novo Archangelsk (AKA Sitka). I have found it hard to identify more than 2 or 3 Russian settlements in the part of the panhandle that extends into the map so if you see anywhere in the link that had a settlement in Russian times but doesn't in this map then let me know.

< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/23/2020 12:47:47 PM >

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Post #: 200
RE: Creating the Map part 65 - Weather (I) - 10/24/2020 1:32:15 PM   
d4n13l

 

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Status: offline 		Great work FOARP, looks fantastic! Did you already think about the audio side of things? Would be great if your final result would include some of the "classic" tunes one can hear in other American Civil War games or other sound effects. No idea if this is feasible or worth the effort though, as one can just play the tunes from another program in the background (Spotify, YouTube, etc.), but it would surely round off the package quite nicely.

(in reply to FOARP)
Post #: 201
RE: Creating the Map part 65 - Weather (I) - 10/24/2020 4:31:01 PM   
FOARP

 

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Joined: 12/24/2012
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quote:

ORIGINAL: d4n13l

Great work FOARP, looks fantastic! Did you already think about the audio side of things? Would be great if your final result would include some of the "classic" tunes one can hear in other American Civil War games or other sound effects. No idea if this is feasible or worth the effort though, as one can just play the tunes from another program in the background (Spotify, YouTube, etc.), but it would surely round off the package quite nicely.


Thanks!

This is interesting and something I hadn't thought about. There are events that can cause a short audio file to be played - I guess maybe at certain points I can have a riff from either Dixie or the Star-Spangled Banner play in-game. It won't happen often though.

However if you just want to stream The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" or "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" whilst playing then that'll probably fit the bill as well!

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

(in reply to d4n13l)
Post #: 202
Creating the Map part 66 - Weather (II) and final tweaks - 10/24/2020 4:43:42 PM   
FOARP

 

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Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline 		Creating the Map part 66 - Weather (II) and final tweaks

This weeks sees and important milestone in this mod passed with the final completion of the map. I've managed to lay down a total of 75 different weather regions, most of which very on land roughly conform to one or more Level III US Ecoregions, with the characteristics of the weather in each weather region typically being taken from the Wiki data on the climate of a town located within that region. As you can see from the below screen-shot of Southern California this lends the map a very different appearance particularly in desert regions.

This is the last bit of "creating the map" per se that needed doing - after seven months of this, probably totalling around 700 hours of working time (I've got 900 hours logged on SC:WW1 in Steam and no more than 200 hours of that is play time), I'm definitely glad to be finished with that! From here on out I'm instead going to be soft-coding events/AI/OOBs and graphical assets for the game.

The bad news is that a lot of this is pretty tedious coding in text editors, and the bug-fixing that inevitably comes from that. The good news is that I'm going to be doing a lot more play-testing of the mod now as well!




Attachment (1)

< Message edited by FOARP -- 10/24/2020 4:44:06 PM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

(in reply to FOARP)
Post #: 203
Soft-coding Part 1 - CSA Events for 1914 - 11/1/2020 6:37:28 PM   
FOARP

 

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Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline 		Soft-coding Part 1 - CSA Events for 1914

Quick one here, which doesn't mean I haven't been doing a lot of work on the mod this week, just that soft-coding for this engine can often be tricky. I've coded three events for the CSA in 1914:

CSS Mississippi - The old Alabama-class battleship is due to arrive in the Mexican Pacific port of Mazatlan, but the CS Navy could simply seize it and turn back to Savannah. Let it arrive and the Mexicans will join the war, turn it back and you'll have an extra pre-dreadnought.

CSS Alabama - The other Alabama class battleship which was due to be scrapped. Scrap it and mount its armament on rail to make a rail-gun unit (Battery "Alabama Annie"), or fix it (at a cost) and return it to service?

Utah Rebels - Right at the end of the year you get a choice of whether to smuggle weapons to the rebels in Utah or not. Go ahead with it and Utah rebels and forms the state of Deseret (see picture). This was a difficult one to code as I'm not sure it's possible to form the state and get the units deployed on the same turn.




Attachment (1)

< Message edited by FOARP -- 11/1/2020 6:38:24 PM >

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

(in reply to FOARP)
Post #: 204
RE: Soft-coding Part 1 - CSA Events for 1914 - 11/2/2020 4:02:37 PM   
eightroomofelixir

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: FOARP
Utah Rebels - Right at the end of the year you get a choice of whether to smuggle weapons to the rebels in Utah or not. Go ahead with it and Utah rebels and forms the state of Deseret (see picture). This was a difficult one to code as I'm not sure it's possible to form the state and get the units deployed on the same turn.


The Utah part looks good. I do have a question: Will the rebels of Utah/State of Deseret cause a income loss event for the USA, since they cut off the transcontinental railroad?

_____________________________

No conquest without labor.

(in reply to FOARP)
Post #: 205
RE: Soft-coding Part 1 - CSA Events for 1914 - 11/7/2020 7:54:21 AM   
FOARP

 

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Joined: 12/24/2012
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quote:

ORIGINAL: eightroomofelixir

quote:

ORIGINAL: FOARP
Utah Rebels - Right at the end of the year you get a choice of whether to smuggle weapons to the rebels in Utah or not. Go ahead with it and Utah rebels and forms the state of Deseret (see picture). This was a difficult one to code as I'm not sure it's possible to form the state and get the units deployed on the same turn.


The Utah part looks good. I do have a question: Will the rebels of Utah/State of Deseret cause a income loss event for the USA, since they cut off the transcontinental railroad?


Good idea! I'll see if I can find a way of coding it - I guess there can be an MPP loss event (maybe 100 MPP out of the US's present ~1000 per turn) triggered by the existence of Deseret and ending once the state of Deseret no longer exists.

All the US's present transcontinental railways run through Utah (the historic line through New Mexico and Texas, and the one through Idaho, weren't built in this timeline) so the strategic impact is you can't move units from coast to coast via rail whilst the Deseret holds the line.

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

(in reply to eightroomofelixir)
Post #: 206
LATEST RESULTS FROM GEORGIA - 11/14/2020 3:07:22 PM   
FOARP

 

Posts: 641
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline 		Soft-coding Part 2 - USA events 1914-15

Hi, this week I've been working on simulating the communist uprisings in South Carolina and Georgia that happen in Turtledove's TL-191. In this mod the US player can choose to sacrifice some MPP to fund an uprising in the south that forms the Black Belt, and Congaree Socialist Republics, which the Confederate player must somehow crush before the rebellion behind their lines gets out of control.

The below picture shows partisan units of the Black Belt Socialist Republic battling against Confederate State Militia units (who wear grey uniforms as in the books). Capture the capital at Albany, GA, and the Black Belt SR is crushed, though you'll have to keep troops there to ensure that there is no further insurgency.

Fans of escapism will surely enjoy this unrealistic scenario where different parties battle for control of various parts of North America....

Other events I've programmed in the past couple of weeks:
- An elite German volunteer division forms in Philadelphia.
- US units reinforce the states surrounding Utah after the rebellion there at a significant MPP cost.
- War breaks out in Hispaniola, both the CSA and the USA have the chance to reinforce their respective proxies (the Dominican Republic and Haiti).





Attachment (1)

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

(in reply to FOARP)
Post #: 207
RE: LATEST RESULTS FROM GEORGIA - 11/14/2020 11:16:42 PM   
FOARP

 

Posts: 641
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline 		Bonus picture - war in the Congaree




Attachment (1)

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

(in reply to FOARP)
Post #: 208
RE: LATEST RESULTS FROM GEORGIA - 11/20/2020 11:57:41 AM   
Jazon


Posts: 121
Joined: 8/18/2020
Status: offline 		Nice work! I see this mod will also have lots of events, I guess I can learn a lot from this thread before I will start coding events myself. But why communist uprising in Georgia? I haven't read the book, but I would bet for communist activity in US Chicago or city from East coast ;) Keep it going mate!

(in reply to FOARP)
Post #: 209
RE: LATEST RESULTS FROM GEORGIA - 11/20/2020 1:49:36 PM   
FOARP

 

Posts: 641
Joined: 12/24/2012
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Jazon

Nice work! I see this mod will also have lots of events, I guess I can learn a lot from this thread before I will start coding events myself. But why communist uprising in Georgia? I haven't read the book, but I would bet for communist activity in US Chicago or city from East coast ;) Keep it going mate!


Cheers!

In the books, slavery ends in the CSA in the 1880's but the black population of the south is still very oppressed and discriminated against. Communist ideology spreads amongst the black population of the CSA, particularly in the areas where many work on cotton plantations, and they carry out an uprising in 1915.

_____________________________

American Front: a Work-in-progress CSA v USA Turtledove mod for SC:WW1 can be seen here.

(in reply to Jazon)
Post #: 210
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