1989: Scenario Development Thread

AnthonyBoscia said:
We know what to do with those sandcrawlers... :lol: I'm gonna put the link in the second thread of the discussion group when it's ready and we can work out of there. I miss SOC though.

More action in my USSR game. The Germans and Americans took a beating, but fresh Dutch and French forces are closing fast. The Baltic naval infantry captured Copenhagen in a fierce battle, which was then reinforced with a motor-rifle division. I lost a lot of fighters to NATO interceptors but they lost many hit points in the process...simple attrition there. VPVO interceptors are rebasing from Russia to take up position in Germany, especially the MiG-31s and Su-27s which are unmatched by just about anything other than the Eagles. Once I cleared some air lanes, my close air support like Su-25s and Hinds slaughtered NATO troops that had penetrated the inter-German border.

Meanwhile, a grueling mountain campaign got me Kars on the Turkish border. I dropped an invisible Spetsnaz in the mountain passes and the Turks lost three infantry regiments when they came down the road to reinforce. Other special troops dropped into the Faroes and Shetlands and cut off the North Sea oil. I'm putting a force together to try and take Iceland. They'll be exposed at sea and I might lose them along the way, but the AI Americans love to use Iceland to rebase tons of aircraft so maybe I can catch a bunch on the ground. Then they'll have to reroute through the Azores. A good start...but a long way to go. A lot of little errors are being cleaned up as well but I do still have some graphics work to do, especially for techs and buildings. Pain in the neck... :mad: I hate doing graphics. More to follow soon.
Click to expand...

Did AI ever try to use land artillery against you?:)
 
No, all artillery is set with the offensive flag so the AI will attack you directly with it. You can either attack or bombard as the player. The AI units with the bombard flag are the Scuds and other missile launchers, which the AI will bombard you with because their range is high enough.
 
..

The game download is posted in the testing and feedback thread of the Workshop. It's about 930 mb zipped, and 1.3 gb unzipped. The biq is inside the folder.



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Awesome! I already have it downloaded and set it up, started up a game as Poland earlier today.

Tomorrow I'll sit down and dedicate a few hours to it.
 
Just wondering, does the mod have custom music?

EDIT: Nevermind, I re-read the first post. :)

Are all 31 nations playable?

Will it work as a multi-player scenario?
 
Hey Kevin,

All 31 civs are playable. The most un-user friendly civ is probably the European Neutrals (Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, and Finland lumped together). One civ I am looking forward to test playing is the Arab League, because they have a lot of variety and I need to think on what some of their Victory Conditions should be.

The current game could work in multiplayer. What I would like to do if there is enough interest is to make a strictly multi-player version. Basically it would be the game as I wanted it to actually be before I had to make changes to accommodate the computer player. This would include both Biq changes (artillery would be bombard only) and house rules that would be like board game rules. For example, missile units could only be launched from their appropriate platforms, and there would be max capacities for airfields, etc.
 
Tony I always follow this thread with great interest and I´m very happy about the progress of your scenario. :) The reason why I didn´t volonteer here for playtesting, is the terrible lack of free time I have, that at present is not allowing me to guarantee a proper playtesting.

Do you know the book of General Sir John Hackett "The Third World War" about a fictive conflict between NATO and WP in 1985?
 
Gojira, I'll need you to report exactly which actions you had to take regarding the sandcrawler.

Civinator, no problem. I know you have been busy with work and you need to use your time wisely to get CCM completed. You'll just have to skip all the boring playtesting and play the finished product when complete. :) I have read John Hackett's Third World War 1985 (from which I purposefully and shamelessly stole the title), as well as the sequel (which is even better). Also a lot of other 80s techno-thrillers, defense analyst studies, DoD publications, field manuals, and other nonsense. I found an awesome book called Air Battle Central Europe by Alfred Price, where he interviews squadron commanders of every type of major NATO combat aircraft and explains what they do. It is a short, easy-to-read, and extremely insightful little book that makes sense of why NATO has all these different models and precisely how they would do their missions.

Before this project is done I plan to write up a bibliography with some of my favorites for any who might want to take a look.
 
Naval warfare in 1989 covers these major areas: Submarines and anti-submarine warfare (ASW), surface vessels and sea control, naval aviation, missile units, and sea transport/amphibious operations. The picture of naval forces in the game is essentially the inverse of the land war. On land, the Soviet ground and air forces are clearly designed for the offensive, while NATO is clearly organized for defense. At sea, the Soviet Navy's focus is on defense of the Motherland from naval threats and protection of the nuclear deterrent. The secondary mission is sea denial with ocean-going submarines and long range bomber aviation. Many NATO nations are designed primarily for protecting the littoral around the continent, while the U.S. Navy (supported especially by British, French, and Canadian naval forces) is tasked with sea control: defending the sea lines of communication and threatening attack from the sea in any area.

Sea units have an attack/defense rating based on their available offensive and defensive weapons, detection systems, and countermeasures. Hit points are based off tonnage ranges. Hit points are much lower for naval units than land or air. Frigates and subs up to 6000 tons will have 3 Hit Points (1 +2 for Veteran status). Those in the 6-9,000 range will have four hit points, while those with 9-12,000 have five. Almost all naval units start at veteran, with the exception of exceptional units like boomers and the best attack subs, which start at elite.

All submarines in the game have the invisible flag. For those armed strictly with torpedoes, they have an offensive and defensive rating, generally favoring the offense. Subs armed with anti-aircraft missiles (including torpedo tube-launched SAMs) have an air defense rating. Submarines with surface-to-surface missiles like the Harpoon, Exocet, and RPK-6 Vodopad are represented by the bombard ability. These bombard attacks can attack land (no lethal bombard) or sea targets (with lethal sea bombard). You'll have to decide if you want to bombard at a distance with missiles, with less risk and lower chance of success, or engage with torpedoes and risk damage or death but with a better chance of sinking a target. Some submarines have the ability to carry separate missile units. This will be covered further in a little bit.

Surface vessels also have attack and defense ratings based on their capabilities. Keep in mind that assets like sonar, air search radar, shipboard helicopters, and other countermeasures factor into the ship's ratings. So the defense number does not correspond to 'ship armor' or anything, but rather to the ship's ability to detect and neutralize threats before they kill the ship. The detect invisible flag does not apply to every ship and submarine like it normally does in Civ games. Only those ships and subs with the most modern ASW capabilities can detect invisible. You (and the computer, surprisingly) will therefore need to coordinate between those units that can detect subs and then mass firepower when you find them. Much of the map is water so it will be a big search area! Surface ships with missiles will have the bombard ability. These are valuable and limited in number, unlike in normal Civ 3 where everyone can happily bombard. At the apex of the surface vessels are the big boys like the Slava and Kirov cruisers and the Iowa battleships. These ships are beasts on shore bombardment and surface action, but are just as vulnerable to missiles and air attack.

There are three main types of naval aviation: ship-mounted air units (aircraft and helicopter carriers), shore-based aircraft, and patrol/missile aviation. Carrier aircraft are regular air units that can land on carriers, which are marked with the 'carries air unit' flag. These include Tomcats, Harriers, Yak-38s and the like. These aircraft may be specialized for interception, strike, ASW with detect invisible, recon (Hawkeyes), and charm bombard/electronic warfare (EA-6B Prowlers). These units are elite, but are weaker compared to land units because of their size (squadrons of 12 aircraft versus land-based squadrons of 18-24). Shore-based aircraft include things like RAF Buccaneers, Bundesmarine Tornados and Soviet Naval MiG-27s, that act as normal land-based aircraft but have lethal sea bombard. All normal land-based air units have a transport capacity of 1 and the carry only air/foot/tactical flags that prevents them from landing on any carrier. The third type of naval aviation unit is the patrol and missile squadrons. These are sea units with air unit graphics that can freely zip around sea squares. Patrol aircraft have detect invisible and very high movement (up to 60 squares per turn), along with a nice bombard to drop torpedoes on people. They work great when used in conjunction with land-based air and other naval units for sub hunting! Missile aviation units also are marked sea and have the carry only air and carry only tactical flags.
 
There are three types of missile units. The basic missile unit is the cruise missile, and functions very much like the Civ III cruise missile except that it is an air unit and not a land unit. Cruise missiles have the tactical flag, so they can only be carried by ships or submarines with the 'carries only tactical' and 'carries only aircraft' flags. Cruise missiles represent very powerful long range missiles like the P-500, P-700, and Tomahawk. They are marked with the 'cruise missile' flag, which means that they cannot be intercepted, shot down, and are eliminated when used. They can be used against land or sea targets. These are powerful and expensive units that can wreak havoc against heavily defended targets like carriers.

The second type of missile unit is the air-to-surface missile. These are tactical missiles that can only be used from units with the 'carries only aircraft' and 'carries only tactical missile'. These have very low hit points and a low-medium defense, but are not used up when fired. These missiles are exclusively owned by the Soviet Union and start on the Missile Aviation units. The aircraft (which are in reality sea units) can carry the missile to within range of enemy units, and then unleash a hoard of missiles. These missiles may be intercepted or shot down by air defenses. Those that get through do an obscene amount of damage. They survive to be launched again in future sorties. The result is a deadly barrage with a moment of tension as each missile may either be defeated or catastrophically wreck a ship. When coordinated with cruise missiles and submarine strikes, enemy ships can be wiped off the map. The missiles can be used against land targets as well, although they are just as vulnerable to interception or air defense.

This is the one weak area of the setup. Civ III cannot be set up so that a weapon can only attack land or sea. Instead, the AI will usually rebase these missiles to a city near the front of the land action and use them there. Which is fine but it removes a lot of the fun of the naval missile attacks after the first few turns. Unfortunately, even if you uncheck the Rebase command, the AI can still rebase! The human player cannot rebase missiles, so he must move his missile aircraft within range of his target, and travel back to port to reload new missiles. This will be the setup for multi-player as well.

The final missile unit type is the submarine launched ballistic missile. These are land units with the tactical flag (and Nuke strategy) that can load on nuclear missile submarines, which have the 'carry only land' and 'carry tactical' flags. These units are worth the max amount of points (1000 shields) and are your nuclear deterrent...keep them safe.

There are two types of sea transports: cargo ships and amphibious ships. Cargo ships can only carry regular land units. They are slow and stupidly vulnerable. The U.S. has a few Fast SeaLift ships, which move much quicker. Otherwise, sea transport is very limited. If you want to move around the water, you need to research the 'Merchant Marine' tech which unlocks container ships. These are civilian cargo ships brought into naval service and are terribly weak. You must protect them from subs and missiles if you want to get them across the sea alive!

The second type is the Amphibious Assault force. This actually represents several ships including helicopter carriers, loading docks, and amphibious assault ships. These are the only units that can carry amphibious land units. The ships are better protected than cargo ships and have an air defense value, but are limited in number. Amphibious units can of course directly attack from the sea. These units have the 'foot unit' and 'tactical missile' flags, while the amphibious ships have the 'carry only land/foot/tactical' flags so that only these ships can carry these units. The U.S. Marine Harriers and Cobras are also amphibious land units with the bombard ability, so they can bombard from their ships or attack directly. If you are the Warsaw Pact I can't warn you enough: beware U.S. naval power! They can appear out of nowhere, bombard a coastal area with missile, air, and sea units, and then march right over you with marines. Then come the cargo ships filled with tanks, artillery, and helicopters. Other nations like Yugoslavia, France, Spain, Greece, Poland, and the U.K. have a more limited amphibious capability so be sure to soften the defenses up before attacking (think AOI here). The Soviets have both their naval infantry and invisible Naval Spetsnaz which are real monsters.

A lot of this will make more sense as you see it in action but so far I am very pleased with how the naval war is working. Guard your assets jealously...in modern war your sailors can go to Davy Jones locker in the blink of an eye.
 
Hey CFCers, I need your help. I am in the final stretch before release of this game. Unfortunately, my computer is under heavy attack from malware and other unpleasantness. Right now it looks like I should be able to backup and restore my files without losing any of the scenario work. It will, however, be a time consuming process that even in the best of circumstances will delay my work for a while.

There is one critical area that I need help in, and that is Buildings. There are a number of improvements and wonders that need to get done. Now, all the stuff that actually looks like a building (chemical factories, airports, etc.) are all fine. What I need is the stuff that just requires a picture for certain events. For example, "Political Maneuvers" is like the Apollo Program in normal Civ 3, allowing the space race to start, while the "KGB Operations in Italy" building signifies State Security forces establishing order in occupied Italy.

So, if anyone wants to make any of these items it would be a HUGE help. This kind of imaginative 'find the right picture' work is an area I am very poor at but I know some people have a real eye for that kind of thing. You are welcome to index it and make it game-ready, but really even if you find a good picture and crop it well I can do the grunge work. The sizes needed are 128x128, 50x40, and 32x32. Wonder splashes too if you like. Here are the items I still need:

Agribusiness: SW - big AG companies for Western countries
Nuclear Decision Great Wonder - acts like Manhattan project, allows production of nukes by everyone. A "Finger on the button" type of thing.
Matam, Haifa Great Wonder - a hi-tech business park in Haifa, Israel. Basically gives Israel some bonus to tech and production.
Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant Great Wonder- famous US tank factory that made tanks for 50 years from Shermans to M1s. It closed after the Cold War but in the game is open for autoproducing business.
Kurganmashzavod Great Wonder- in Kurgan, USSR. Autoproduces the all-new BMP-3 for the Soviet Army.
Chelyabinsk Plant Great Wonder- Russia's famous "Tank City" that received the Orders of Kutuzov and Lenin for its role in WW2. In the scenario, it produces tractors and more importantly, BMPs.
U.S. Air Force Plant 42 Great Wonder- Top secret Air Force plant producing a very limited and very special unit for the scenario. :) All other information is classified.
Red Banner Northern Fleet This is a preplaced Wonder in Murmansk that fulfills some in-game function. The Wonder basically represents the headquarters more than the actual shipyards.
Agusta Aviation Great Wonder- Italian helicopter company that produces Gwendoline's awesome Mangusta helicopter with Ares' awesome sounds. Needs an awesome building graphic to accompany!
Yarrow Shipbuilders Great Wonder- famous shipyard in Scotland that makes destroyers for the Royal Navy.
Political Manuevers Small Wonder - Apollo Program for Warsaw Pact that allows construction of the 'Spaceship components'.
Warsaw Pact Expansion Great Wonder - after a new government is installed in occupied west Germany, the Soviets can activate the newly formed People's Republic of the Rhineland as a minor WP ally.
Western Industrial Relocation Improvement- Probably what I need most. It signifies western equipment sent east to help with production back home in the USSR.
KGB Operations in France Improvement- Just like it sounds. These are established in the host country after the territory has been liberated.
KGB Operations in Germany
KGB Operations in Israel
KGB Operations in Italy
International Outreach Small Wonder - this is available to each WP nation and basically allows Air Trade- that is, trade with the Middle East and Venezuela.
Berlin Accords Wonder - This is built by the Warsaw Pact and signifies the unification of Berlin under the SED. It may be a small or great, haven't decided yet.
Soviet Friendship Agreement Small Wonder - This is built by Authoritarian governments and helps boost research and production
Soviet Assistance Program Improvement- whereas the Friendship agreement is a wonder, this smaller improvement can be built in any city with access to the Russian national resource.
French Technical Assistance Improvement - same thing, except signifying French aid and requiring the French resource.
British Technical Assistance
American Technical Assistance
Political Overtures Small Wonder- NATO version of the Apollo Program
State of Palestine Great Wonder - available only to Arab nations if they conquer Israel.

Please be as imaginative as you like. Even if you only have time to do one or two, every bit would help! I really would need any additions no later than the end of November. Thanks very much!

Tony
 
Hey Lionic, I am using MadGad's buildings for some other factories that are already done. :)

Samez, I knew about your Kholkoz wonder but not the Akademgorodok. Thanks, I will find a spot for it.
 
Tony, suggestion (for you to decide):
KGB buildings - the (KGB Coat Of Arms + liberated(?) country Flag in the upper right corner) images can be used. All pics can be found in the Wikipedia, have transparent color, so no problems with placing pics to the "land" background image. I'd suggest flags because they'll remain recognizable in the 32x32 size. Just an idea.
 
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