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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> War In The Pacific - Struggle Against Japan 1941 - 1945 >> Production

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Production - 11/4/2002 1:02:46 PM

bobman5352

Posts: 10
Joined: 6/18/2002
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So, I was sitting around thinking about computer games (ahh, the life of a college student), and in particular anticipating WitP, and I came up with the following production scheme, which seems to me to be just fantastic :).

First of all, WitP is not an RTS or a production game, and a lot of the criticism I've seen for including production is that it would tend to alter its character. I agree.

Nevertheless, it's kinda preposterous for reinforcements to be fixed for the entire course of the war in UV, and it would be even more preposterous for the longer time-frame of WitP.

The solution, I think, is to model production so that it reacts to the game situation, but keep it out of the hands of the player. The AI ought to look at losses for different ship classes, and decide from that what new ships out to be laid down or whether conversions ought to take place.

This might be kind of hard to implement, but I think it could be done fairly easily if, instead of a list of times for ships being commissioned, the computer is given a list of dates when construction was begun. At those dates, the AI would look at the current theater situation and decide what kind of ship to build, within reason (e.g., a historical destroyer could be replaced by a minesweeper, but not by a battleship). This approach would effectively model the availability of shipyard facilites without getting into messy details or excess player control.

Another possible modification that would prevent excess strain on the AI and allow for varying strategies would be to allow the player to assign some production priorities that would skew the AI's choices in favor of those classes. For example, if I'm anticipating that a coming invasion will cost me a lot of transports, I could warn command to start building replacements ahead of time.

Interested in hearing criticisms or if WitP is too far along to include something like this.

Post #: 1

Re: Production - 11/4/2002 1:29:29 PM

Zakhal

Posts: 2494
Joined: 1/4/2001
From: Jyv�skyl�, Finland
Status: offline

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bobman5352
So, I was sitting around thinking about computer games (ahh, the life of a college student)[/QUOTE]
Aye. Indeed.=)
[Quote]Nevertheless, it's kinda preposterous for reinforcements to be fixed for the entire course of the war in UV, and it would be even more preposterous for the longer time-frame of WitP.[/Quote]
Yes.
[Quote]The solution, I think, is to model production so that it reacts to the game situation, but keep it out of the hands of the player. The AI ought to look at losses for different ship classes, and decide from that what new ships out to be laid down or whether conversions ought to take place.[/Quote]
Sounds okay. Good idea. Shouldnt be hard to implement either. Just count how many vessels of type and if below certain amount kick few into conversion/production.
[Quote]For example, if I'm anticipating that a coming invasion will cost me a lot of transports, I could warn command to start building replacements ahead of time.[/Quote]
Id like that. Ability converse with the higher Q. In UV its hard to grasp that it would even exist cos youre on your own. (Well the "chance of sending reinforcements" is a kind of command thing you can "communicate" with, but arguable very limitedly so)

(in reply to bobman5352)

Post #: 2

- 11/4/2002 1:38:54 PM

Zakhal

Posts: 2494
Joined: 1/4/2001
From: Jyv�skyl�, Finland
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Theres of course the easy way to solve all this. Just add "few" extra ships of all types (msw,asw,ml,cargo,tanker,etc) so the player hardly never runs out of them. Actually i think its the way they might be going for in Witp.

Its just with that, the strategic element those small ships might bring, is wasted cos theres always plenty of them at hand. Like fuel in UV. Never an issue.

(in reply to bobman5352)

Post #: 3

- 11/4/2002 10:56:30 PM

mdiehl

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Joined: 10/21/2000
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The problem with that is that no power was capable of cranking out an unlimited number of ships. In 1942, escorts were a limited resource in the USN. Throughout the war they were a limited resource in Japan. Japan was making them as fast as they could. There was not in particular anything that they could do to replace losses at a higher rate than they historically did. The USN cancelled a bunch of contracts in 1944, so in theory there's room for more USN DD/DEs in 1945-1946 if losses are absurdly high. But if the 1943-1944 USN replacements are wasted so badly that these are needed, the Japanese player ought to have lots of kill VPs to his credit.

(in reply to bobman5352)

Post #: 4

Grrrr - 11/22/2002 9:07:37 PM

Ron Saueracker

Posts: 12121
Joined: 1/28/2002
From: Ottawa, Canada OR Zakynthos Island, Greece
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Zakhal
[B]Theres of course the easy way to solve all this. Just add "few" extra ships of all types (msw,asw,ml,cargo,tanker,etc) so the player hardly never runs out of them. Actually i think its the way they might be going for in Witp.

Its just with that, the strategic element those small ships might bring, is wasted cos theres always plenty of them at hand. Like fuel in UV. Never an issue. [/B][/QUOTE]

...so that the player never runs out of them. Man! All that will accomplish is allow players to send more ships into the breach without proper planning and support. Let's kill everyone, lalala...

I think we are going to need some form of "theatre morale" which is affected by losses and victories etc. If it gets too low, the player is sacked from the theatre and the AI takes over. If you just throw units around the entire Pacific theatre, you are essentially gone as commander. Bye Bye...:p

In UV right now, players are using transport TFs as bait, as CV early warning pickets etc. More surface battles occur in a few months than during the course of the whole war because the is no "consequence" to poor and reckless planning and management. Losing control of a game in WITP might keep players from treating war games like "Total Annihilation" or "Warcraft."

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