Although I have other projects that are taking precedence, I continue to think of this project. I’m annoyed that it hasn’t been finished but I really think this is the type of scenario that truly needs lua to shine. A few issues with it as discussed before and elsewhere is that there were too many units to move around, it was too hard to juggle the various civs (you’d spot aircraft with one civ then have to remember where it was to attack it with another, which was clunky).
Another issue was that past versions had no less than 50 different “targets” divided into some 8-10 different categories and the player was expected to keep track of which ones had been destroyed, as well as try and figure out which ones should be defended.
I intend to simplify things and make them more intuitive with lua. In short, to make the experience more like a Civ2 scenario. I’m going to focus on a few targets/objectives:
Industry
Railroads
Fuel
Urban Centers
Ports (including U-Boat pens)
Pilots
Industry: Rather than have numerous types of industries with different effects this will be greatly simplified. Cities (but not airbases) will be able to build factories, powerplants, manufacturing plants, etc. When the improvement is built in a city, lua will allow me to place a corresponding target unit on the high alt map. When that target unit is destroyed, the city improvement will vanish and will need to be rebuilt. The idea being that rather than some clunky industry interface you simply are trying to maximize production or reduce it for the opposing player. I need to determine if any of the three can work independently of each other or if all three can, otherwise a player would simply destroy the one linked to the factory rather than the powerplant to shut them all down.
Cities will only produce Goods units that have to be moved to airfields and disbanded to build planes. Because they will be built rather than granted every turn, there won’t be anywhere near as many of them as in earlier versions (you can only get one per city per turn max, if your industry allows it) and should be manageable. These units will have to move on railroads.
Railroads: Bombing the railroad depot unit will change the terrain around it which will need to be repaired. The unit auto-respawns over and over again allowing this to keep happening. With lua I can use one unit for many different depots and cross reference against its point on the map for specific effect.
Fuel: Aircraft will once again have the settler flag and be reliant on fuel to perform. The Germans will start with a number of fuel refineries/synthetic plants with the ability to build more. They will “build” the unit the same way that industry units are built (by building an improvement, which will then cause a corresponding unit to be built). Destroying the unit will remove the improvement. Each turn, I’ll have lua scan the map to see how many of these units are around. If they fall below a threshold, the map tiles for fuel stores will change to ones that have significantly less capacity (high fuel levels might allow 6 ‘food/fuel’, 2/3 down would allow 4, 1/3 down would allow 2).
Urban Centers: RAF and Luftwaffe attacks on urban centers will change the terrain surrounding cities, reducing income and science beakers. The units will always respawn meaning that they can be attacked repeatedly. Engineers will have to fix the terrain below. I’m moving to one low-alt map for this version rather than two. The night battles will only take place at high alt. It means no dambusters but it allows for a more dynamic world where RAF actions will affect Germany as a whole. The low alt night was always a waste of time in earlier versions and the few low alt raids at night don’t make it worthwhile.
Ports (including U-Boat Pens): I’m moving away from the Battle of the Atlantic. It will be represented abstractly as in the first version from years ago. The game will check to see how many u-boat pens Germany has. If they have a full allotment (for example, let’s say 10), the Allies will get 0 bonus/benefit. If one is destroyed, and the count is now 9, the Allies will get an extra $1,000 per turn. They get an extra $1000 for every pen not there and Germany can rebuild these in actual cities. Likewise, the same can work for actual ports, but in reverse. If the Allies have 10, they get $10,000 (or whatever). If Germany destroys 1, the Allies get $9,000. These units will be respawned with the same technique as fuel and industry described above making it much more intuitive to repair this stuff than relying on tech advances as in the old versions (this is also a heck of a lot more stable as often techs won’t show up as options for whatever reason).
Pilots: These aren’t really a target but lua finally allows a good method of replicating one of the Allies’ main objectives: drawing the Luftwaffe into the skies and destroying it. Lua allows one to have a ticker/ticket system similar to a FPS like Battlefield. Airbases will now start at all airfields. They will be inexpensive to own but very expensive to build. Their function will be to provide trained pilots as well as a “force pool” of more (instant replenishment of combat losses i.e. repair of the unit in one turn). As losses build, lua will allow me to randomly remove one airbase meaning that one airfield won’t have this pool. I may just have that every 10 (or whatever) plane losses removes one. They can keep being rebuilt, but the shields have to be diverted from other tasks. Therefore, the Luftwaffe will want to be much more careful about where and when they attack, and avoid getting caught up in fighter sweeps.
Because I will make all air units “k” units that carry ammo, the expectation is that the units will be much more likely to survive combat. This allows there to be less of them and for them to be more expensive. The destruction of one of them should be a big deal to the Allies and to the Germans. Gone will be the days of moving hundreds of air units per turn. You might only have 50 in your inventory at any time by game's end, making each more meaningful.
Essentially, this will allow me to go from over 50 targets that are hard to keep track of to 5 targets that are easier to understand and also (hopefully) more intuitive, as well as instituting a force pool of sorts to finally replicate Germany's trained pilot problem as the war progressed. It should make planning easier and should make the game run much smoother.