I have the events.
I do have one question:
specialNumbers.convoyArrivalSquare1 = {5,15,0}
specialNumbers.convoyArrivalSquare2 = {2,66,0}
specialNumbers.convoyArrivalSquare3 = {4,126,0}
Would {{5,15,0},{5,16,0},{8,18,0}} etc. also work here or does it just have to be one tile? I see that you've used the "Move to Adjacent" which will prevent the Germans from stopping on just that tile but I'm curious if I'll be able to randomize it any. I'm envisioning drawing some rectangles where the convoys will generally appear somewhere within the rectangle (although, perhaps that isn't even necessary to draw it).
-Predestination of Allied victory (or at least impossibility of German victory) should be fixed...
I am wondering if we've done enough to keep the game fun for everyone because we are trying to do something a little unique here - the German player has to basically stomach being ground into the dirt which is a bit unusual. I think reducing the number of turns from 175 to something between 90 - 120 will probably help this too since they have a good chance of holding out. I think this turn reduction will be balanced by reintroducing fuel bonuses from freighters so that there are less turns of "down time" while the Allies are building up a massive force.
I think we're making some progress towards fixing some issues the playtest unearthed/confirmed:
-late game crawl should be reduced with very few army and sea units walking around on the map and a viable aerial option (fighter bombers) to take out flak.
-Predestination of Allied victory (or at least impossibility of German victory) should be fixed...
-Germany now has some very, very good reasons to attack Allied military ports and fuel refineries.
-Germany should now present a much more dangerous challenge in the Battle of the Atlantic. I could easily see the Allies having to spend a considerable effort early to mid game on trying to keep U-Boats at bay.
-Payload should fundamentally change the game - one bomber, one mission.
I am wondering if we've done enough to keep the game fun for everyone because we are trying to do something a little unique here - the German player has to basically stomach being ground into the dirt which is a bit unusual. I think reducing the number of turns from 175 to something between 90 - 120 will probably help this too since they have a good chance of holding out. I think this turn reduction will be balanced by reintroducing fuel bonuses from freighters so that there are less turns of "down time" while the Allies are building up a massive force.
I agree that we should give some more thought to the German player's experience. Maybe we can use some of the extra unit slots to give the Germans some one-off units, either "prototype" planes that were never actually produced, or a few "experten" units like you suggested earlier. What might be interesting is a sort of "solitaire" mission for the German player that occurs within the context of the war, and is affected by the war, but doesn't itself impact the war. The Allied player wouldn't care, but the German player would have some extra reason to want to play and prolong the game. I don't have any idea what this solitaire game would be, unfortunately.
You had mentioned quite a while ago an intention to make this scenario playable single-player. Most of what you're discussing sounds like game strategies best utilized with two human hands behind the players. How is the progress (if still being pursued) of having the game be single-player-friendly without an incompetent or inexplicable AI opponent?
I can make the choice of tile random from a set of tiles in a table, or random within a box that you define. Just tell me what you would prefer.
You had mentioned quite a while ago an intention to make this scenario playable single-player. Most of what you're discussing sounds like game strategies best utilized with two human hands behind the players. How is the progress (if still being pursued) of having the game be single-player-friendly without an incompetent or inexplicable AI opponent?
Everything being discussed at this point is 100% for multiplayer and I haven't put in much thought into single player. I was a playtester for Nemo's Blitz and am aware of what went wrong with it (chiefly, the AI stacked all its units on one tile and they would then be wiped, 100+ at a time). I think Lua could, to an extent, be used to overcome that issue. I don't know how the AI would manage with multiple maps but I doubt they would do well with it (at least the high-alt/low-alt concept). It would probably require a complete redo of the scenario from the ground up (quickened of course given how much ground work has been laid), and require several other tweaks.
I'm not really sure what the AI would do better at - defending or attacking. I do think the strategic bombing mechanism would be easy enough for the AI to use (from either side), because it's simply "attack unit" and "build improvement," both of which they can do. But getting them to attack with enough force to do something would be tough without heavily scripting the scenario. Also, the entire 'k' unit and payload mechanisms wouldn't likely work with the AI.
I would love to make this single player at some point but to be honest if that happens I see the path not as converting OTR immediately, but building a different scenario - The Battle of Britain - as a single player scenario first and foremost (and eventually converting to MP), and then taking the lessons learned from that and reapplying to OTR. BoB would be much easier to playtest given the condensed time frame, significantly fewer units, smaller tech tree, etc. OTR is truly a monster of a scenario in scope. There are 12 lua modules working together to make it run, and its main event is nearly double the size of Napoleon's, and about four times the size of Caesar's for example (and both of those are pretty darn large scenarios themselves)! Trying to convert something like that while simultaneously testing how the AI handles even a tiny percentage of what we've incorporated just seems monumental, hence my thought of trying a small-scale test with BoB (that would also give more of a reason for BoB to exist beyond just being a "reskin" of OTR).
How are we going to do the German Occupation Bonus? With only a few battle groups, it doesn't make a lot of sense to count how many are in France. I was thinking along the lines of counting the number of quartermasters that have been built, and only allowing construction/completion of the quartermaster building in occupied cities if a battle group is in the city. That would force the occupying forces to go around "occupying" the country. However, once the buildings are complete, only invasion would act as a way to reduce the bonus for the Germans. Perhaps this is acceptable. After all, the German player will probably be playing defense for most of the game, so it might be a desirable bonus for the German player to not have to contest the occupation bonus the way the Allies must for their convoys. Alternatively, the occupation bonus could be based on Quartermaster plus Railyard. After all, there is little value in plunder if you can't transport it.
Do you still want a start of game warning about fuel levels? At the moment, the player will be warned if reserves go below the upcoming turn's costs.
I think we're OK with just using the battle groups and adjusting their value. I would hate to complicate the scenario more than we have already and this system is already ready to go. Also, the Germans are going to start with a heck of a lot of these (I have 15 full battle groups and 12 depleted battle groups at the start). I need them to have several more than the Allies to make an early invasion problematic for the Allies.
The only change I made was to add the beaufighter and remove the Ju88C from the sub issue given that German aircraft can attack by day and night and we probably don't want them to have sub attributes by day. I added the freight train because I wasn't sure if the nil value would creep up without anything in there, and I thought this might make those a bit more survivable anyway. I can add "can spot subs" to the P-47s to make them more useful in the trainbusting role as well.