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Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Convoys, Resources and Production (12/31/2005 10:19:49 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: pak19652002
I know a lot of attention is being placed on counter and map design, but I wanted to vent some frustration about what I feel is the weakest and most frustrating part of CWIF: CONTROLLING THE FLOW OF RESOURCES AND OIL TO FACTORIES.
The Check Production step should be a helpful tool, but I find it difficult to control or even to understand why it does what it does. It works well enough for land powers, but for the CW it is maddening. Frequently it will not let me assign resources and oil to factories when I know I have sufficient CPs and ports to support the transport.
Now, I am far from infallible so, if there is a reason why it won't let me send a Canadian resource to a Canadian factory instead of sending it to Australia or India, then it should explain why.
In the game I'm playing now I've got American and Canadian oil being burned in British factories while Canadian resources are being wasted. Is there some WiF rule that demands this? I don't think so. I try to assign default factories to no avail. If there is some rule I'm missing, it should tell me what it is rather than merely refusing to follow orders.
Like I said, I've been wrong many times and the computer is usually right. But, at least it should tell you why it won't let you do something.
On the other hand, I have deep suspicions that the logic is screwed up somehow and I hope Steve has plans to overhaul the system. I, for one, would be happy to volunteer to playtest this particular module into the turf!
Peter
Routing resources over the open sea has been a source of complaints about CWIF. I intend to rewrite it all (the logic it used was to avoid specified sea areas rather than control which ones were used).
Here is the logic I intend to use for the AI Opponent. Most of it will be available to the player as an AI Assistant.
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Computing all possible routes from all starting points to all destinations is not feasible. However, several dozen should be of great help. For example, putting in all the ones the Japanese might use, the USA shipments through uncontested waters, and the most likely ones for the transshipment across the Atlantic and Indian oceans, could save the AI a lot of work. It would also save the players work and aggravation if the AI Assistant offers them to the players as possible routes. Rail lines for shipping resources and reinforcements through protected internal lines also saves work (e.g., within Great Britain, the USA, and the USSR). Identifying critical nodes and using them as intermediate goal points is an important way to speed up program execution. That applies to both rail lines and sea routes.
The AIO will have to have decided earlier about how many oil points to set aside for reorganizing units (if that option is in effect). Likewise, whether any build points are going to be saved. When shipping resources to factories, use all the non-oil resources first. Routing resources by land is done first. If possible, using straits hexsides is avoided. Within the context of routing resources over rail lines, it doesn’t matter which resource goes to which factory. This is because if resource A can go to either factory X or Y, then any resource B that can go to factory X can also go to factory Y. The rail lines are a network.
Only after as many resources as possible have been routed by rail are the shipment of resources by convoys considered. At that time the AIO compiles two lists: all unused resources and idle factories. Then the AIO links the resources to the factories over existing convoys. This may involve moving the resource by rail both prior to and after convoying it by sea. Sending resources through convoys that can be searched and seized should be avoided. An iterative process is used to maximize the number of resources reaching factories. For example, if a resource has a choice of routes and/or destinations, then its routing should be delayed until all the constrained resources have been routed.
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Perhaps that is a bit too obscure. Part of the idea is that some resources can be put off limits for routing (e.g., oil). I actually have more detailed ideas about this but I haven't written it up yet. Automating the routing of resources is not really that hard:
(1) route non-oil by land avoiding straits,
(2) route non-oil by land using straits,
(3) list [A] unused non-oil resources and [B] idle factories,
(4) eliminate A and B that are neither in a coastal hex nor capable of reaching a port,
(5) list all ports [PA and PB] that A and B can reach,
(6) eliminate PA and PB that do not have friendly convoys in adjacent sea areas,
(7) reduce A and B lists now that some PA and PCB have been eliminated,
(8) list all sea areas [SA and SB] that contain friendly convoys and that PA and PB are connected to,
(9) continue linking sea areas using the same logic as 6 and 7 until either there are no convoys in the next set of adjacent sea areas, or SA and SB are linked,
(10) having established which resources can be linked to which factories connect those that only have one possible route,
(11) and so on, repeating for oil resources.
I also believe the player should be able to simply say: "this resource to that factory" and "this resource to that factory over these sea areas." The former is just a pair of hexes and the latter is simply a list of ports and sea areas. No big deal to gather from the player, store, or use.
I will get this right. In the 1970's I worked for a company called Transportation and Distribution Associates writing simulation programs for routing trains from Washington D. C to Boston.
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