Eivind
Very nice to hear from you. I have admired your work for years now. Loved the Norwegian campaign for its scale and attention to detail. Also your Blitzkrieg series have been an inspiration. Thanks for the feedback, just what I was hoping for. Its easy to get caught up in your own train of thought.
With so many WWII scenarios having been made other the years I have the benefit of hindsight when I started mine. I wanted several things. Number one I wanted to build the biggest most accurate map possible. Secondly I wanted to make the game challenging for the player using events. Thirdly I wanted to try out some new ideas.
I could not see the point in remaking the same games that are already available, quite hard when there are so many good WWII scenarios already out there!
By far my most pressing concern was finishing the blasted thing, polished or not! Over the last 5-6 years I have started a Vietnam, Balkans WW1 era, WWI and several other scenarios and never finished them. I was determinde to at least get it on the site and improve it later.
I will address each of your points in turn to stop me waffling!
-Less Ocean-Rivers: I wanted the great rivers to act as barriers rather than transport routes. The great rivers (Rhine, Danube, Dneiper, Volga etc...) need to be crossed at strategic points (Kiev, Budapest, Nijmagen etc...).
Other than Calabria to Sicily I cannot see any worthwhile land bridges that would assist the AI. Where would you suggest?
-Cheep Warships: I agree with you on this point. The only problem (I read somewhers so it may well be wrong) is that if you make units more expensive then (20) 200 gold then there can be an anomaly where you can buy them for negative gold (nothing). If this is not correct then I would be glad to bump up the price of Battleships and Carriers as they make convoy escorting much easier (and therefore the game easier for the human player)!
-Grassland as mines: Interesting. I'm not 100% on this one. I suppose I could remove the Orchard terrain and make it an industrial square and only put it around industrial cities! Could work. I just though it made the Med look pretty!
-Bach files for season changes: A friend at work said the same thing. I would have loved to have done that but I am not very good with computers and ran out of time + could not work it out. I did ask Paul Mutica and Allard Hofelt for some advice, which they very kindly provided, but I was still too dull to sort it out! Deffinately something I could use some help with.
-Text events: Have just looked and there are a lot. Would have liked to add more Unit events but thought there shoud be some sort of reward for capturing key cities. May alter this a bit. Some Create units events only start working when you capture enemy cities (Ie. Russians get troops every 4 turns in Minsk and Kiev once they have possession). I will probably work on this too.
-Italy and Vichy France: By 1941 both of these countries had lost a lot of influence on the war. By giving Vichy to the neutrals they become much larger and more dangerous. Also this would mean that war with Vichy = War with Sweeden, Portugal and Switzerland, and I could not bring myself to do that.
As Italy and Vichy france were both occupied by the Nazis fairly soon after scenario starts it seems logical to jump the gun a bit and group them together. Also if you did make peace with the Italians of French then you cannot attack the Nazis from the Mediterranean.
Turkey and Spain seemed more vital to me. Spain could take on the British in Gibraltar and prevent the Torch landings. Turkey was historically a major concern for both sides and played a masterful game of diplomacy to remain neutral. Turkeys participation on either side could have proved decisive.
-Unit signatures: I agree 100%. I will rectify this in the next version. As I never expected to finish the game when I first compiled the game then it did not seem to matter. When I realised I would finish it I did not seem to have the time. I appologise for my lazyness and would like to thank all the creators for their work.
-Knights/Musketeers. As the game was set as Villages only I thought it would not matter too much. I think I compensated for obsolesence by doing the stats correctly and using events to create units. I have not thoroughly checked this yet (only got to about 50 turns) but have not seen any ill effect yet. Let me know if there are any problems.
-Long game: I like an epic but most people have other things to do and 100 turns may be a more realistic total and would make reaching the objectives more pressing. One interesting aspect would be Allies vs USSR after the Nazis are beaten.
-Tech Tree: I would very much like to expand and improve this aspect of the scenario but at the time getting a workable version finished was my priority. Suggestions would be appreciated as this can be modified drastically.
-Cities: Will take a look at the ones you suggest. I quite liked my (pilfered) ones. What I often do is change the graphics to my own preferences when I play other peoples scenarios. Each to their own!
-Peoples Gif: I agree it does look a bit odd. I pinched this one from Paul Mutica as it was one of my favorites and then I forgot about it. I would like to try and modify it slightly to look a bit more periodic. If anyone feels like having a go then please feel free.
-Resources: Once again more aesthetic that historically based. Suggestions would be welcome.
-Railroads: Totally agree with you there Eivind. Railroads + Human Player = Goodbye AI. The reason for putting RR in USA and Britain was merely to make organisation of D-Day type troops into camps/storage dumps more straight forward. I could remove them though. I guess that may make allied units in transit more vulnerable to raids by the Luftwaffe (instead of Me109 kamikaze attacks on Dover!).
-Science rate: This is deliberately bad. The aim was to force the Allied player into transatlantic trade by sea if they wanted to survive economically. This would make the battle of the Atlantic a vital strategic area.
If I gave the allies technology improvements they could alter the tax rate and therefor skip the war with the U-Boat Wolfpacks.
The other factor is the limited nature of my Tech Tree. By limiting science rate I could ensure that advances happen at roughly the right time. This is something I will deffinately be working on to expand and improve.
-Events: I ran out of space for events. I tried using multiple events files but could not get it to work. The ones I chose were intended to keep the game as challenging for the Human player as possible but until I have played the game all the way through I cannot tell if this was successful. I will probably try and improve on this so any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks again for the feedback. My mind is already buzzing with new ideas.
Have to go out to New Years eve party now.
Hope everyone has a very happy one!!!
