|
ALTERNATIVE CITIES SET
There is an alternate city set called Acities.bmp which can be
swapped with Cities.bmp. This set departs from the traditional
concept of cities and represents them with geometric shapes just like
any ordinary atlas would. What it loses in visual appeal it makes up
with its ability to give you a crystal-clear strategic overview.
CHANGES IN VERSION 3.0
This is probably the final revision to DST. It might look
similar to 2.0 but a lot of fine-tuning has gone into this version.
Many techs, spawn events/locations and unit roles have been adjusted
to vastly improve AI behavior. The following are the more
obvious changes made:
a. I have incorporated the event algorithm that allows spawning
of merchant marine vessels pre-loaded with marines. It has
worked wonders to simulate the Allied island hopping
counter-offensive of 1944. (Hither to, one of the problems inherent
in any ocean type scenario was the AI's reluctance to load its sea
transport vessels. In version 2.0, this was partially solved by
spawning the marines and merchant marines on single-tiled island
cities but the solution was not very efficient and led to invincible
islands with dozens of troops.)
b. Several fixes to the map.
In China, Fort Bayard was given to the French and the island of
Hainan was added.
The ability to build sea units was removed from several cities.
Reduced Burma to a proper size, with two cities instead of three.
Consequently Mandalay is now further south and easier to reach.
All the Japanese(P) listening posts and Allied troop loading islands
have been removed.
c. Several improvements to the map
Added several important Japanese anchorage towns such as TawiTawi,
Lingga, Staring Bay and Lae.
Other towns that were prominant in WWII battles, like Imphal have
also been added. Amchitka was replaced by Kiska.
Beefed up infrastrucutre of cities in New Zeland and Indonesia.
f. Research Adjustments:
The Betty G4M Bomber and SBD Dauntless have been pushed further back
in the tech tree to track history.
The Research Rate has been slowed down by 10 percent.
You won't be able research Kamikaze until the Carrier Era - Kamikaze
doesn't make sense if you haven't even lost a single battleship. So
its now impossible to get the Blindfire Radar and Long Lance Wonders
(i.e. +3 ship movement) at the same time.
e. Unit Changes:
Helldiver is no longer available to the British as they never used
it. But I have added the B-24 Liberator in place of the B-25 Mitchell
so the RAF can build a heavy bomber.
Sub Hunter (i.e. Destroyer Escourt) has taken over the Buffalo
Fighter slot.
Changed the graphics for some subs and a few battleships.
f. Removal of negotiations, meaning negotiated peace is no
longer part of the objectives.
g. Wonders:
The Lend Lease wonder will now upgrade all out-dated British aircraft
to the improved American versions.
Blood Bank wonder has been changed to Henderson Airfield and is
pre-built on Guadalcanal.
h. The U.S. is now no longer unassailable. All the U.S. Army Reserve
units in Hawaii and stateside will disband once MacArthur abandons
the Philippines - because events will now render the Army Reserve
unit obsolete, causing the AI to disband them. Using the
same mechanism, Chungking will now be protected until Burma is taken .
i. The jumpstart saved games have been changed to scenario files to
reduce the chance of sneak attacks by the Allies.
j. Added a game concepts section in the civpedia menu.
CHANGES IN EARLIER VERSIONS
The primary changes have revolved around the Allies. These changes
are not very noticeable at first if you have played earlier versions
but it has taken more time to figure them out and test them than it
took to make the scenario in the first place. They have a very big
impact on improving the AI counter-attack in the second half of the
game and in general the challenge of achieving the winning conditions
has been hiked up several levels.
a. Removed/shifted techs to let Allies reach the end of their tech
tree and the priority of AI researched items has been reassigned.
b. The British have now got four public schools at the start and the
'Rikken Institute' wonder has been given to the British as 'Ultra Decryptions'.
c. Made several Allied units and wonders cheaper and certain free
Allied units are now veteran.
d. New system (that works) to create Allied transports with marines
on them.
e. AI is no longer allowed to offer you ceasefires without offering concessions.
f. The British will no longer shift their commander-in-chief to New Zealand.
g. Dutch submarines will now feature in the scenario.
h. Many units' home city have been set to none to allow fighting to
continue after cities fall, like in the Philippines.
i. Allies will still get their war techs by 1942 even if you don't
attack them.
There have been some changes to the Japanese side:
a. Yamato and Nagato BBs more expensive now.
b. Two Nagato battleships have been replaced by WWI battleships to
represent the older Fuso-class ships.
c. Free Colonial Infantry to ease the unrealistic manpower shortage.
d. Sinking of Kongo battlecruisers no longer triggers 'Carrier Era'.
e. Nagato units never become obsolete.
f. The shields of Japanese carriers have been moved inward so they
don't leave trials even when there are aircraft aboard.
Some other changes:
a. Missing railroad square from fast saves added back.
b. New Caledonia is now an objective.
c. Several negotiation entries have been customized so the scenario
has less of a plain civ2 feel.
d. Terrain under Vientiane has been changed to grassland from jungle
to make it possible to capture without wasting 10 artillery.
e. Chinese and Dutch can now build the CL Tankette and P-38 has been removed.
f. Attacking Russia will also result in the Oil Embargo.
g. This readme you are reading now.
CREDITS
Unfortunately my XP machine has robbed me of many of my creative
tools including my Adobe Photoshop and this scenario has much
less new material as opposed to its predecessors. Unlike before, I
did not make many new icons and units. Much of the graphics is
MacGyvered from existing material.
a. The traditional city set was put together by Eivind from elements
originally created by Curt Sibling
b. The beautiful terrain2 set is taken from BKA's A World At War
c. Units are taken with some editing from various sources. The
initials of the original artists have been left intact.
d. The map was adapted from Insurgent's Nippon scenario.
I also would like to give thanks for constructive suggestions given
by Eivind and especially Agricola.
USEFUL LINKS
HyperWar
Pacific War Articles
TheWar
Against Japan - American Military History Chapter 23
Pacific
Naval Battles in World War II
Why
Japan Really Lost The War
Naval
Encyclopedia of World War 2
Japanese
Aircraft Carriers
World
War II History - Pacific Theatre
Dutch
East Indies 1941-1942 Website
Singapore
during WWII
MUSINGS
As with Zweiter WeltKrieg (ZWK) my other WWII scenario in the
series, Dainichi Sekai Taisen (yes, you'll probably just refer
to it as DST) embodies the economic and political aspects of
the day and does not focus exclusively on military strategy. So the
player will not be artificially constrained into taking exactly the
same path as the Japanese did in history. However, the inherent
historical constraints and goals are still there. Japan has a bigger
military capacity at the onset but is hard pressed to replace
casualties because of her inferior economy and industrial base. At
the same time, the Allied forces will only grow from strength to
strength once military conflict is ignited. If you should want to
attack the U.S. in 1937 instead of in Dec42 or use tactics that
provoke a U.S. sneak attack on yourself, you are free to do so.
Notwithstanding the fact that you won't even have dive bombers at
that stage or that it robs you of the opportunity to play the Pearl
Harbor Gambit, you are free to do so.
Another thing I want to discuss is the ship movement allowance, a
common gripe against earlier versions. Yes, based on the scale of the
map, ships should technically be able to traverse greater distances
per turn. However, I cannot increase the ship's movement further because
a. I cannot have ships racing past carrier's screening aircraft and
sinking the carrier.
b. I don't want transports and ships in general zipping from port to
port without becoming vulnerable to interception in the open seas.
Ships need to be caught in the open for a carrier scenario to be playable.
c. I want to limit the number of times a ship can conduct shore
bombardment per turn.
d. I need the impact of the 'carrier era', which also captures a
crisis of low fuel supplies for the Japanese, to be material.
The alternative is to double the number of turns so that each turn is
a fortnight. Then the ship moves will be to scale, but do you really
want to play for 200 turns?
|
