Hinge of Fate Version 2- World War 2, 1941-1945

Axis single player game is ready, see post #4

Screenshot - German invades Britain, summer 1945:

Messerschmitt Factory
- It is defined as 'Soviet Power' in the Allied SP file.

I'm a little concerned about the power parity between German and Russian troops. For example:

German Inf Corp: 12/14/2, Cost: 150
Russian Inf Army: 13(6)/16/2, Cost: 150

German Inf Div: 6/7/2, Cost: 45
Russian Inf Corp: 6/9/2, Cost: 45

I'm a little familiar with history and I thought the Germans had better quality troops than the Russians?

Also, I'm a little skeptical of the German order of battle in the MP version of HOF. Germany will surely lose a few armies "preplaced" in enemy territory.

The Germans did have better quality troops for the most part. Keep in mind the relative unit sizes you are comparing there.

German Inf Corp = around 3-5 divisions. Russian Inf Army = around 9-12 divisions, plus artillery.

German inf div speaks for itself.

Russian infantry corps = 3 infantry divisions.

As far as the preplaced stuff, consider the time of the year (IE, December 1941 I think). This is on the eve of the Russian counter offensive. It is hard to represent that in terms of Civ 3 as there is no weather. The Russians are very thin in the tank department and it will be awhile before they get another Tank army, so they have to be careful with what they have.

I understand that corps and divisions certainly are different sizes altogether. However, when German and Russian troops are compared side by side, Russian troops are stronger for the same price. German cannot produce the equivalent of a "Russian Infantry Army" in their build queue. The next best unit is the Panzer corp, and surely, those are much more expensive than a Infantry corp.

What I'm pointing out is a scaling problem. Russian units have been scaled up while the German troops were not updated accordingly. In the previous version of HOF, the Russians have Corps (10(6)/14/2) that were the same price as Germany's Corps (12/14/2). The same follows with infantry divisions.

Here are ones that I found. I you have any more post them
so I can fix them in V2.05

1. Allied Battlecruiser - no resource requirements, should require iron + coal
2. Minor Allies can't build basic fighter plane, I gave them their own fighter,
the Brewster Buffalo, but forgot to select a civ in the "available to" list.
3. The Minor Axis can't build the P-108 heavy bomber (I checked off japan by mistake)
4. Support fleet not buildable when mobilized for war.
5. CW inf Div flagged as Foot unit, should be wheeled.
6. CW destroyer cannot by upgraded to ASW DD.
7. Messerschmitt Factory is defined as 'Soviet Power' in the Allied SP file.

TechGuy said:

I understand that corps and divisions certainly are different sizes altogether. However, when German and Russian troops are compared side by side, Russian troops are stronger for the same price. German cannot produce the equivalent of a "Russian Infantry Army" in their build queue. The next best unit is the Panzer corp, and surely, those are much more expensive than a Infantry corp.

What I'm pointing out is a scaling problem. Russian units have been scaled up while the German troops were not updated accordingly. In the previous version of HOF, the Russians have Corps (10(6)/14/2) that were the same price as Germany's Corps (12/14/2). The same follows with infantry divisions.

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Techguy:
You could well be correct about the cost for Soviet rifle units being too
low. But the Russians start off with some pretty big disadvantages; low
experience levels and no barracks in most cities. I'd like to see how the balance works out before I start adusting.
Also I think the Tech cost may still be too high. Any thoughts on this?

New PCX files

I fixed a number of problems with the PCX files used for units in the Civilopedia.
A. Some were rendered with 24-bit color instead of 8-bit which made them appear all back.
B. Others had transparency issues which made the backgound pink.
C. Others are replacements for the original Conquest icons which just looked ugly.

This is part of a major overhaul of the Civilopedia I am working on. The Type "C" fixes will
not have an immediate effect because pediaIcons.txt needs to change as well.

Unzip the files and copy to the:

Conquests\Scenarios\HOF_V2\Art\Civilopedia\Icons\Units folder.

Note: for some reason the editor keeps putting a space in the word "Units"
in the file path, there should be no space in this word.

It is safe to overwrite any of the existing files.

I was wondering how the Oil Units work in the multiplayer game. I shipped them from Palembang to Tokyo but am not sure what to do with them after that.

Spartaca said:

I was wondering how the Oil Units work in the multiplayer game. I shipped them from Palembang to Tokyo but am not sure what to do with them after that.

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Spartaca:
You need to get a land unit to pick up the oil then carry it into
a VP location, you will then see a message saying something like:
"we returned the Oil" and your treasury will get 300 gold.

Here is some more about the oil units and The Dutch East Indies
wonder. Also a question about MP turn order. This was in response
to some questions E-mailed by Sully:

At 07:55 PM 9/20/2007, you wrote:
Hi Eric! A couple of questions for ya..

For the IJN..how does the Dutch East Indies work? Does it produce a treasure unit that must be seized and then transported back to Tokoyo?
How often does it produce a unit? Can it be transported via a Fast Trans?
Is it the only oil producing wonder? When can the IJN build aircraft after capturing the DEIW?? And..how many aircraft units can be produced per oil unit/treasure? And in your current MP version of HOF2..is the order the same as Luthor started the game in the Stuka PBEM game? He starts with China..which...seems a little strange to me in regards to turn order??


Sully

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1. DEI OIL - it will produce one oil unit per turn if your government is Imperial
Japan, else produces nothing. It is the only oil producing wonder.

2. House rule states that the oil must be returned to VP locations in the home islands only.

3. Oil can be transported by fast transport if carried by a foot unit, but
another house rule says that only transports or invasion fleets should carry
oil.

4. You still need oil as a resource to build aircraft, be careful not to confuse
oil the resource with oil the treasure unit, the treasure is just used to generate cash.

5. China gets to move before Japan so they can fortify their units, since China had been at war
for years on Dec/7/41 they were not surprised like the USA. Same with Russia and Germany,
Russia moves first, but in this version of HOF I moved their armies and medium bombers back far
enough that they would not be able to use them on GT1.

So if Russia does launch an attack on GT1 they will have to do it without
armies or medium bombers. This is for the MP version of the game, single
player versions work a little differently.

Where is the Russian game?

Serutan said:

Where is the Russian game?

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Serutan:
Russia uses the same file as the other Allies, It's in post number 4.

Ah, OK must have missed that. Sorry.

This update brigngs the Civilopedia up to date for HOF V2 as far as the units
go. There is still some work to be done on the buildings, goverments, etc.

I also fixed a number of problems with the PCX files used for units in the Civilopedia.
Some were rendered with 24-bit color instead of 8-bit which made them
appear all back. Others had transparency issues which made the backgound
pink. Others were just replacements for the original Conquest icons which
just looked ugly.

INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:

Unzip the zip file. In the zip file you will find two folders; a text folder and a pcx folder.

Copy the contents of the text folder to the Conquests\Scenarios\HOF_V2\text folder.

Copy the contents of the pcx folder to the Conquests\Scenarios\HOF_V2\Art\Civilopedia\Icons\Units folder.

It is safe to overwrite any of the existing files.

I really like new version, specially the changes made in the navy speed.

The fast naval movements makes the game much more dynamic and fun and it's clearly more realistic!

There is one thing that isn't as realistic as the 1st version: the Gibraltar straigth. In the first version, it was very difficult for the Axis to pass submarines in or out of the Mediterranean if the Commonwealth player used his navy stationed there for sub detecting. And this was pretty much was happened in reality.

Now, due to the fast movement it's easier for the Axis to do this so I think there could be some changes to make passing through the straight harder and more according to reality. One idea I had would be to add an extra type of terrain (slow coast?) that would only exist nearby Gibraltar. This terrain should have very high movement cost forcing the units passing nearby Gibraltar to pass it really slow.

This should be made in a way that the player controlling Gibraltar (Commonwealth in the beginning) could pass faster (using the city itself) than anyone else trying to pass through there.

.

Luthor_Saxburg said:

I really like new version, specially the changes made in the navy speed.

The fast naval movements makes the game much more dynamic and fun and it's clearly more realistic!

There is one thing that isn't as realistic as the 1st version: the Gibraltar straigth. In the first version, it was very difficult for the Axis to pass submarines in or out of the Mediterranean if the Commonwealth player used his navy stationed there for sub detecting. And this was pretty much was happened in reality.

Now, due to the fast movement it's easier for the Axis to do this so I think there could be some changes to make passing through the straight harder and more according to reality. One idea I had would be to add an extra type of terrain (slow coast?) that would only exist nearby Gibraltar. This terrain should have very high movement cost forcing the units passing nearby Gibraltar to pass it really slow.

This should be made in a way that the player controlling Gibraltar (Commonwealth in the beginning) could pass faster (using the city itself) than anyone else trying to pass through there.

.

Click to expand...

Luthor:
One thing about using "slow coast" terrain is that it would also
slow down the Allies (US and Minors) which I don't want to do.

I have a couple of suggestions you might try.

1. Park some Allied subs near the straits, the Axis subs will run
into them because they can't see them, at least not until they
get advanced subs. Damaging a sub is almost as good as sinking it
because it has to make the trip home for repairs.

2. Try adding a small island north of Oran with a CW coastal
defense (i.e. border guard) unit and some static defense divisions
on it. With the coastal defense in Gibraltar that should make it very,
very tricky to for an axis sub to sneak through without being seen.

The Allied single player game is ready (see post #4 for the download).
Here is the list of things fixed since V 2.04:

1. Allied Battlecruiser - no resource requirements.
2. Minor Allies can't build basic fighter plane.
3. Minor Axis can't build P.108 bomber (but Japan can)
4. Support fleet not buildable when mobilized for war.
5. CW inf Div flagged as Foot unit, should be wheeled.
6. CW destroyer cannot by upgraded to ASW DD.
6. All Corps should have ZOC
7. Biplane fighter - should be buildable by all civs.
8. CW Sub Upgrades to Axis advanced sub instead of Allied.
9. 4-stacker cannot be upgraded, should upgrade to fast transport.
10. Shinano class carrier - rotate and ranged attack were not enabled

Balance adjusts:
SP Allies - add VP locations in Rostov and Karkov, remove some CW armies
SP Allies - coastal defence units removed for human player
SP Allies - remove duplicate US I corp.
SP Allies: more cash for Axis, Russia, china, Minor Allies. Less for US and CW.

SETUP issues:
Deleted allied BC Persian Gulf.
Daunltess in Gibraltar -> Skua
Delete transport W Africa
Added extra food sources near Alexandria & Asyut
Units in stack SE of Liverpool in UK not named
Duplicate INF divs (56th & 54th) in UK
Delete extra inf div in Malta
Add flak in Tobruk.
SP Allies - remove duplicate US I corp.

Other:
Transport renamed -> Axis transport
US Old BBs no longer buildable
Renamed The Oracle->Yalta
Add commercial dock in Port Harcourt.
Universal Sufferage changed, gives +1 happy all cities (since there is no war weariness)
Manhattan Project - production rate increased, improvment cost decreased
Tech cost reduced:
LRB - 140
Radar - 50
MW3 - 120
MW2 - 75
TA2 - 115
ASubs - 150
NA2 - 95
NA1 - 70
ASW - 105
Jet - 90
MW1 - 45
HB - 60

Hi eric A,

Regarding coastal hex movement cost, you could also limit ship movement near the North Pole.

You could use LM Sea tiles with a movement cost of 15 or so near the North Pole to simulate ice packs and limit ship movement accordingly.

Changes:

Added Flak unit in Tobruk

Added Flak unit in Dakar, removed biplane fighter.