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byron13 -> (7/9/2002 4:50:12 AM)
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This issue was raised in another thread - by me! Darned good idea, I say - if it is provided as an option for ahistorical play with, say, optional production. If used, rather than leaving the choice to the player, I would rather the AI make the decision of what ships to add or subtract from theatre assets based on (i) some random factor that would assume needs in the rest of the world for a given time and (ii) your success in the game. Thus, for the first six months of 1942, the computer may provide you with additional assets because the war against the U-Boats is going very well, or may reduce your assets because of German success in the Med. If you were kicking butt in the game, the AI may strip some assets from you (since they would assumed to be of more use elsewhere regardless of the global situation); if you were getting your butt kicked, the AI would redeploy units to the Pacific to help stem the tide. Depending on the mix of world situation and game situation, these effects may neutralize each other resulting in no real change, or it may drastically supplement or deplete your forces in a given six month period.
For any of this to work, the computer would have to give you a couple of weeks or a month's notice and the reason why. Otherwise, you'd have players screaming about the U.S.S. Washington disappearing for no apparent reason.
I know the historical crowd will scream about this idea, but I emphasize that this should only be an option. A pure historical version of the game should be provided, and I'm sure will be the core of the game. U2, a respected voice on this forum, thinks it would be highly unlikely to have something like this. I think there is more like a 50-50 chance. I don't think we have received any indication from Gary & Co. as to what is likely to be included with the game. If optional production is not provided, then WiP will just be a PacWar remake in more detail, and I and many others will be disappointed. In this case, Gary would be recreating history and would probably provide the force pools that were historically available. If Gary takes a larger view and allows for optional production, then they would be allowing changes in history, in which case I think they would almost have to allow the game to be influenced by other theaters of war.
I don't think anyone here has a good read on this issue yet, and any discussions would be guesswork. I would like to believe that, given the time scale (4 years or longer) and the fact that production decisions would have a tremendous effect, Matrix will provide for ahistorical options. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and replayability of the game and possibly make it an instant classic. I also don't believe that a mere remake of PacWar ten years after the fact will be acceptable to a large part of the community given the other possibilities. But, as I say, this is all guesswork.
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