Over the Reich - Creation Thread

[JPetroski]

I doubt that air power is going to be used to completely defeat army groups, except in rare circumstances. I was thinking that if damaging an army group prevented it from counting towards the occupation bonus, there would be some value to making raids against them.

Ok, that makes sense... It also gives a constant purpose to tactical bombers (especially if we don't allow strategic bombers attack at low alt).

On the topic of Army Groups, I don't think they should be buildable, at least in unlimited quantities. At the current price of 1270 shields, they will always be more cost effective than any aircraft, and the game will devolve into army group vs army group, rather than an air war game with some interaction with the ground war. We're trying to model the air war, not the overall war.

I think that makes sense. We'll need another mechanism for combining two depleted battle groups together (probably as simple as moving them both on the same tile and pressing k).

I think we just use the points system for additional battle groups. Perhaps the Allies start with 1 or 2 and the Germans with many, so D-Day "could" occur at any moment, but probably wouldn't be successful without reinforcements and a build up. The Germans would be unlikely to invade Englsnd early because the same concept would apply to naval task forces. The Germans might start with 1 and the Allies several, and these are the transport ships, so unless the Allies truly botch it, they should be relatively safe from invasion, unless the Germans do really well.

 

[JPetroski]

I figured I'd weigh in on the red to hopefully move some of them to black. These are just my ideas so if you think they're bad or need a tweak by all means let me know.

-Tweak the Battle of the Atlantic mechanism. See "Input needed".

-Remove the system where a destroyer chooses where the freighters appear. Instead, have an event where a certain number (which I can tweak) appear at certain locations every 3 turns (I will probably have 2-3 locations marked on the map as boxes, with freighters appearing at certain coordinates within those boxes).
-German units should be moved at the start of the Allied turn if they are on these coordinates. I'm pretty sure Lua lets a unit appear on a square another unit is already on anyway, but we might want to test that, because I'm not sure if the even order will matter otherwise -- should the convoy event come after the unit move event?).
-Keep the system where the Allies destroying German military ports is a good thing, but instead of more freighters appearing, have them appear at every 2 turns, or 1 turn depending on how many ports are destroyed (we can use the same numbers that we had for the other logic). The idea being, if you target these ports, you will get more frequent freighters, but they still need to run the gauntlet.
-Add a system where the convoys grant money/fuel when they reach port (1300?).
-Reduce the amount of money/fuel they provide by (100?) for each port that the Allies DON'T possess (they start with 13 and have a max of 13. If the Germans can bomb all of these, the Allies don't get the fuel bonus. It might not be strictly logical but it does give a good reason for the Germans to have bombers and for these bombers to have a reason to target ports).
-Keep the system where destroying German ports also increases the cost of U-Boats, though we'll need to tweak the cost since they aren't starting at 100.

-Add in events where after a certain threshold of points, the Mediterranean receives reinforcements more regularly to keep this a viable threat/thorn.

-This is something I can probably do in the points section myself. I wouldn't worry about it for your list but we should probably keep it in your list just to remind me that it isn't done.

-Revisit where the French trains spawn and consider randomizing these.

-As discussed above let's keep the system where certain German units need to be beyond the grey line but now let's just have these appear somewhat random (I can provide coordinates or you could pick a few just to get the event going and I can then edit if necessary - your coordinates are probably just as good as mine though).

-Revisit friendly fire. If it's possible to make it so that flak will only fire if there aren't friendly fighters around (per post Over the Reich - McMonkey vs. JPetroski in the playtest thread, then that would be best. If we can't get that working, disable the concept completely. I like the idea of the flak just not working (reactively) if the fighters are there. I think that allows us to make it a "choose your poison" situation without inadvertantly shooting down your entire airforce. I think the decision was keep splash but eliminate friendly fire. Would like confirmation before changes are made.

-We should definitely eliminate splash against friendlies but keep it against enemies. If possible the best solution would be to only allow splash if friendly fighters aren't detected nearby. I think with your ammo load/home city solution, there's going to be less need for the Germans to throw everything they have at the bombers every turn (because the bombers are now a one and done unit) and they can be much more selective about when and where they attack. I think it'll be a lot of fun.

-Add brief text event, likely towards the beginning of the game, warning players to maintain a certain fuel level so that certain improvements aren't sold off. Maybe we want a warning if ammo is called up below a certain threshold?

-I don't know what McMonkey's costs are in his current playtest but I'm guessing that the threshold probably needs to be pretty high - $1400 because I know my costs are currently around 650 which is more than double what I started with and I assume his have also doubled (they start at 700 or so).

 

[Prof. Garfield]

OK, I think I have the information I need to write the events currently in the list. Any missing info at this point is likely to manifest itself when I actually write the event and realize there is a factor that wasn't considered. On that subject...

What should we do if an army group is defeated in a city? Should the depleted group generate inside the city where it was defeated, or should it generate in the next nearest city? I can see both actions desirable in certain circumstances. It may be desirable to hold out at all costs to delay an advance or to wait for reinforcements. In that case, you would want the army group to re-form in the city where it was destroyed. On the other hand, it might also be desirable to retreat to the next city in order to re-group and form a defence there instead.

I'm inclined to say that the depleted army group can't appear in the same location that it was destroyed. If an army group is defeated, then it is defeated, and if it doesn't retreat faster than the enemy can advance, the men will be captured.

I'm also thinking that we might want to give the army groups a "retreat" command with backspace. That is, pressing backspace will allow (after an "are you sure" text) the army group the option to teleport to the city where it would retreat to if it were defeated.

For re-forming army groups, I'm thinking that that should be the 'k' function of depleted army groups. 2 depleted army groups and a train combine to form one new army group, 3 depleted army groups and two trains form two new army groups. The trains mean that having open rail lines to the front has some value for keeping units in fighting condition. I'm not sure what to do about veteran status.

 

[JPetroski]

I like most of these ideas. I dont know about the retreat option just because what if the Allies encircle them? There aren't enough ground units to implement knighttime's encirclement module and it would probably just complicate things needlessly anyway. Maybe we just keep it simple and have the new unit show up in the nearest friendly city?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

A little work done. Events are available, but if you take them, post to say so. I'll post the next time I take the events also.

Changelog
These unit type definitions have been added to the events

unitAliases.GermanArmyGroup = civ.getUnitType(69)
unitAliases.GermanBatteredArmyGroup = civ.getUnitType(70)
unitAliases.RedArmyGroup = civ.getUnitType(0)
unitAliases.AlliedArmyGroup = civ.getUnitType(74)
unitAliases.AlliedBatteredArmyGroup = civ.getUnitType(75)
unitAliases.Convoy = civ.getUnitType(115)

The former names for these types are still unit aliases in the events for the time being. Eventually, we'll do a search and upate or remove the references.

The following units were added to stratTargetTable, making the type inelligible for air cover
unitAliases.GermanArmyGroup ,
unitAliases.GermanBatteredArmyGroup ,
unitAliases.RedArmyGroup ,
unitAliases.AlliedArmyGroup ,
unitAliases.AlliedBatteredArmyGroup ,
unitAliases.Convoy ,

removed vetMunition as an option for units in the tables artilleryUnitTypes and secondaryAttackUnitTypes

vetOverride added as an option for units in the tables artilleryUnitTypes and secondaryAttackUnitTypes

If vetOverride=true, then a veteran unit does not produce veteran munitions.
If vetOverride=unitType, then a veteran unit produces (non vet) munitions of the alternate type.
-- The nightMunition unit type overrides this if a unitType is chosen, and the night munition will not be vet.


For testing purposes, B17F does not produce vet munitions when veteran, and B17G produces (nonvet) 1000lb bombs when veteran. Hurricane secondary attack does not produce vet munitions even when vet, and the Typhoon produces 1000lb bombs instead of 500lb.

 

[JPetroski]

I have the events. I intend to work on them this morning and then I'll return them for the day. If you aren't going to use them this evening let me know and I'll take them back, but the earliest I could use them would be about 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. EST, anyway. I'll post them before I go off to start the day.

 

[JPetroski]

Just an FYI - I was checking the nativetransport and found something interesting.... Changing this in lua is NOT enough to make it happen. It must also be changed in the actual rules file. This is very interesting because changing native transport after starting work on a scenario exclusively in the rules file does not work (you need to hex edit). An interesting development quirk for anyone following this.

Edit--figured out why the neutral territory barbarian unit was deleting....... It was still in unittypestobedeletedeachturn

wish I figured out that before I removed them all!!!!!!!! In they go again!

 

[JPetroski]

This is all I have for now... I think I cranked out most of the stuff I needed to do aside from radar, and also some "help" text that I'll need to update. I'm including the updated rules, workon, and units as well.

You have the events. If you aren't going to be using them later tonight let me know and perhaps I'll take a crack at some ofthe help text/radar.

EVENTS CHANGELOG
-Removed window (unit 101) from unittypestobedeletedeachturn
-Left it in unitTypesWhichCanBeDestroyedWithoutMovementReduction but I think this might be dead end code as I can't find a reference to it anywhere else in the document? I couldn't figure out what this did, so I didn't change it.
-Added unitAliases.GermanTaskForce and unitAliases.AlliedTaskForce in place of heavy cruiser and battleship
-Added these to strat targets list as well, so they too can't be protected by air cover
-Allowed these units to react to all aircraft but jets 2x on the low map at a range of 2 tiles
-Searched for and removed all reference to both in the rest of the events file. Generally replaced name, but deleted entirely from convoy generation mechanism as that is changing.
-Added unitAliases.Barrage = civ.getUnitType(114) -- this is the ammo for battle groups and task forces
-Added same to unittypetobedeleted
-Removed most references of Schutzen but did not do that to freight train mechanism
-Replaced old names with GermanArmyGroup, GermanBatteredArmyGroup, AlliedArmyGroup, AlliedBatteredArmyGroup, and RedArmyGroup to fields that required them aside from freight train mechanism
-Searched for and removed all references to RedArmy, AlliedInfantry, and AlliedTanks
-Added all five Army Group units to the ranged attack units - a ranged artillery barrage will remove all of their MP each turn.
-Added reference to Torpedo (110) as munition for U-Boat, made it so that it no longer native transports
-There were still references to the old defensive fire mechanism in several places. I "--" them.
-Added payload to all bombs/rockets fired. Regular guns are not payload munitions.
-Fixed bug where German strategic bombers would not defend themselves against Allied fighters
-Naval units can now be attacked by naval bombers (Fw200, Sunderland). These units can do *significant* damage even to Task Forces.
-Fixed bug where Germans were getting the D-Day warning every turn
-Allies will now start receiving 10 additional 15th Air Force bombers every 200 points starting at 400 points.

FROM YOUR LIST (please turn to Green):
-Make Army Groups 'k' units that can fire munitions but expend all of their MP doing so. -- DONE
-Make submarines a 'k' unit with torpedos. Make sunderlands reactively attack them when they call up ammo. -- DONE
-Add in Prof. Garfield's idea for Allies having to press 'H' to load up bombers, and 'k' expending the munition. While it will make the form up a bit more time consuming I think it will be well worth it. I don't think we should do this for fighters as much of what differentiates the types is how many times they can press 'k' per turn. -- DONE (Payload is updated)
-Make convoys and army groups "strategic targets" and thus ineligible for air cover. -- DONE
-Veteran units generate veteran munitions. -- DONE
-Add in events where after a certain threshold of points, the Mediterranean receives reinforcements more regularly to keep this a viable threat/thorn. -- DONE

NEEDS TO BE ADDED TO YOUR LIST:
-If a unit is killed or wounded by a 250, 500 or 1000lb bomb on the night map, it needs to be replaced at full health and vet status preserved if it was a vet (to prevent bombers from unrealistically bombing airfields at night).

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Just an FYI - I was checking the nativetransport and found something interesting.... Changing this in lua is NOT enough to make it happen. It must also be changed in the actual rules file. This is very interesting because changing native transport after starting work on a scenario exclusively in the rules file does not work (you need to hex edit). An interesting development quirk for anyone following this.

When I changed native transport in events, it seemed sufficient to put it in the onLoad section. Then again, I think I was only removing the ability. Perhaps native transport must be granted in both places or it won't work. This is probably something that should be looked into and tested at some point.

Edit--figured out why the neutral territory barbarian unit was deleting....... It was still in unittypestobedeletedeachturn

wish I figured out that before I removed them all!!!!!!!! In they go again!

I had that problem with the historical targets, which was a particular nuisance since they were supposed to disappear and reappear in different circumstances.

I have the events, but I'll try to make them available again by the evening.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

The events are available.

Changelog

On the night map, 250lb,500lb,1000lb can only do damage to SpecialTarget, Urban1,Urban2, and Urban3 units.

Search for combatResolutionFunction to see the code and make modifications. I did not use a list, since I was hoping it might speed up processing a little (I'm not sure it is an issue, but the check would occure every round of combat on a night map, and the lists aren't very long).

Added restriction so that industry/aircraftFactory/Refinery require an appropriate number of civilian population improvements.

In the artilleryUnit and secondaryAttackUnit tables, if lowAltNoAttack=true, the unit can't use that attack at low altitude. Absent (and false) means it can make the attack.

B17F was the test unit for the primary attack.

P47D25 was the test unit for the secondary attack.
Note: P47D25 has 4 extra mp if it makes its secondary attack from full movement. If this isn't deliberate, it may have to be changed.

Munition users can now gain veteran status. When a munition (a unit with the destroyed after attacking flag) defeats another unit, the game checks for the most recent munition user (which is stored via id number in the state table). If that munition user is close enough to the place where the munition made its kill (a bomber must be on the square where the munition attacked from, a flak battery must be adjacent to the tile the flak attacked from) there is a chance that the unit will gain veteran status. Veteran munitions won't grant veteran status, so this system can't be abused by having veterans gain the status for the rookie.
Also, the system checks that the unit that will gain veteran status could actually have used the munition in question.
I suppose fighter bombers could try to pass veteran status via a bomb to a fighter bomber that triggered guns instead, but I doubt that is a huge problem.
The ability to gain veteran status should be preserved between saving and loading, but only if the game doesn't shuffle unit id numbers around, so there is no guarantee.

specialNumbers.munitionVeteranChance = 0.5 -- chance of vet status if a unit's munition kills an enemy

 

[JPetroski]

The events are now available. I think I've accomplished most of what I set out to do (at least until some testing convinces me I messed something up).

I'm very happy with the way that strategic bombers, tactical bombers, fighter bombers, and Spitfires all have a reason to be built by the Allies now. I think it would be tough to win without having some of all of these in their arsenal. The Germans seem likely to have more use from their fighter bombers too, if they should choose to invade England to achieve a decisive victory.

5/19/19 CHANGELOG
-Tweaked the lowAltNoAttack - kept this phrasing for primary attack (bombers) but changed it to highAltNoAttack for secondary attacks. In my playtest I sometimes used fighter bombers to go after strategic targets and they won't be able to do this (at least with their bombs) any more.
-Added lowAltNoAttack to all strategic bombers
-I decided to keep the extra 4MP for the P-47s after secondary attack, and increased it to half their MP. Now that these are payload, there isn't a need to reduce MP to 1 after an attack and there can be a bit more reason to using these (they can get a few tiles away--specifically, out of the 4-space reactive range of flak. Now, Fighter-Bombers can swoop in and get out without the entire squadron being targeted by each successive attack).
-I reduced the type of payload carried by the P-47s to max of 500lb bombs
-I increased the quantity of several aircraft now that we have the payload system. They'll unleash their full payload in one strike (the mission).
-"True" fighter-bombers (Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest, Fw190F8, Do335) now carry 2x 1,000lb bombs to make them more worthwhile. These are now the only units that carry 1,000lb bombs (plus Stuka).
-1,000lb bomb power dramatically increased - this is now the main aerial weapon for attacking flak installations. Since the units that carry them have limited range, things ought to balance.
-Allied "True" fighter-bombers range decreased to compensate - left Germans higher so they can have a few advantages too
-Increased range of Stuka to give there a purpose to using it. It's defense of 2 makes it highly-vulnerable to attack, but it can now reach the Bristol Channel from Vannes AFB. Given that it carries a 1,000lb bomb, a few of them should be able to destroy a convoy
-"True" fighter-bombers have MP cost reduced to 1 for secondary - they can get out of dodge after attacking.
-Given that we've removed so many of the low alt targets, I'm struggling with a purpose for tactical bombers. I'm now going to consider them "medium bombers" and allow them to operate at high altitude. They'll move faster than the strategic bombers, but only have a range of 2. They'll be able to attack at high or low alt. The A26 will be able to attack some targets in the Ruhr, but they'll really come into their own after D-Day. Their big advantage will be that they're the one type of bomb-carrier that can attack on any map. Now, I feel they have a true purpose.
-Tactical bombers now cost all MP to make a primary attack. Now that strat bombers can't hit low alt targets, tactical bombers are what you use to do this, but they need an escort.
-Tactical bombers now all have 500lb bombs (strat bombers only carry 250lb bombs)
-Added German light flak and Allied light flak to the list of units that bombs can kill on the night map. This seemed like the best compromise option to make sure that the human couldn't just place 3.7cm flak or Bofors on a field and have it be completely invulnerable, but at the same time, heavy bombers can no longer be used to wipe out the fighters after the flak is killed.
-Added 5 events where Allies will receive an additional Battle Group. They will start with 1, and earn another every 225 points. They can end the game with 6. Their starting group will start very far north to protect it and the Allied player probably won't want to risk bringing it south until air superiority is achieved.
-Likewise, added 4 events where Allies will receive an additional naval task force. They'll start the scenario with four (two in the Atlantic, two guarding against the Kriegesmarine's one). Thus, they can have a maximum of 8.
-Increased German scores: killing convoy now grants 15 points. Killing heavy bomber now grants 1 point.
-Added 8 events where Germans will receive an additional Battle Group. They will start with several and gain another one for every 150 points up to 1300 points.
-Added 3 events where Germans will receive an additioanl naval task force. They will start with 1. They gain these every 400 points up to 1200 points. They can have a maximum of 4.
-Edited out the Operation Overlord Event given that the Allies can now invade whenever they want (though with only one Battle Group to start, it would be pretty foolish to do this right away).
-Added 4th ammo type - Hispanos - this is more powerful than heavy guns (frankly, hispanos were probably the best cannon of the war when you consider ballistics plus firepower). Spitfires carry this. The goal is to make them worth building. They are by far the best aircraft the Allies have at attacking German fighters now, but their extremely limited range should balance this. Considering the Allies don't get any A2A rockets, and probably won't build jets, this seems fair. Granted, pretty much every British fighter in the game had this type of armament, but none were as good at dogfighting as the Spitfire, and it's not simply the bullet that is being considered here. The Spitfire was truly feared by the Germans ever since they encountered it, and now it will be in this game as well (especially veteran squadrons).
-Updated the "tab" help with new munitions logic/changes above.
-Because I anticipate the Allies trying to get their bombers back home and because I wasn't really happy with the artificial need to not research better interceptors right away, I've decreased the threshold necessary to unlock the "Long Range Escort" tech from 60 to 30. This tech doesn't give Mustangs, anyway - one must still research them. I think I've made other aircraft useful enough (especially fighter bombers) that people might not beeline straight for the best escorts, anyway.
-Renamed "Veteran" to "Ace" to make it more in line with this scenario. This will be a little weird for the Battle Groups and Task Forces but those are so limited compared to the aircraft that I prefer to use Ace now.
-Russian Front now opens at 1500 points.

TO BE MOVED FROM ORANGE TO GREEN
-Add in events where after a certain threshold of points, the Mediterranean receives reinforcements more regularly to keep this a viable threat/thorn. -- DONE
-Implement event where strategic bombers cannot call up munitions on the low alt map. -- DONE

TO BE MOVED FROM ORANGE TO YELLOW
-Revisit radar in general. No more advanced radar unit, so let the old radar get better stats from the better tech level instead. I think this something changed entirely in tables
-Reduce radar range slightly to compensate for bombers no longer being invisible until attack.
**Until I need space for a new unit I don't see a need to do either of these things. It seems like a lot of work for really no gain. The system is currently working. We can see if it matters that the range needs to be reduced. I doubt it.

TO BE MOVED FROM BLACK TO GREEN
-Change the Russian Front event to require an additional 750 points beyond D-Day to trigger, rather than 250 (we agreed on 500 in the playtest but even that is pretty close behind. I really want to keep driving the use of strategic bombers).
**I increased the amount of points it takes for the Russian Front to open. I only increased it to 1500 from 1250 because I think with payload the opportunity for more points might decrease.

TO BE ADDED TO PROF. GARFIELD'S LIST
-Remove point deduction from Germans when Allies score points. Now that either side theoretically "can" invade from turn 1, no need for it. The Germans only have 1 Task Force and the Allies only have 1 Army Group. Both of these facts should make it very unlikely that a naval invasion starts soon.
-Take a look at the additional Army Group and Task Force events (search for: if tribe == tribeAliases.Allies and counterValue("AlliedScore") >= specialNumbers.newAlliedArmyGroup1 then). Right now this is a little sloppy because the other side could have captured the cities yet the text. I've tried to use logic where Allied reinforcements start in SW England and then continue to the North as cities are captured (I assume that when you don't use randomize, it works just like core Civ2 macro.txt where the game searches for the first "available" coordinate, so if the first three are occupied by enemies, the reinforcements would show up on the 4th that is safe). We might need a state where the Allies only get reinforcements if one of Plymouth, Bristol, Liverpool, and Glasgow remain Allied - capturing all 4 prevent reinforcement. Likewise, the Germans get them if one of Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, Kiel, or Rostock remain German - capturing all 4 prevents reinforcement). I wasn't really confident in my ability to add this. If you can add this, I'll need to change the map text to warn people that these ports are especially important to defend.
-Quick fix that I could have done but forgot - since we have far fewer freighter/convoy now can you please double the amount of points the Allies get if they bring one home? Thanks.

 

[McMonkey]

The Mosquito Night Fighter was the one with the script box.

It's difficult to say whether the tech rate & number of turns should be adjusted. I feel like my errors were to blame for me not progressing down the tech tree a lot quicker earlier in the campaign. In the read me it stated that Germany had an advantage in technology & I took my foot off the gas & went of industrial development instead in an attempt to boost Luftwaffe numbers. This was a mistake as I now lack many important techs & since the RAF raids have really set me back it's difficult to see how I would catch up again. However, if I played again I would adopt a different strategy so it could be a mistake to alter things too drastically.

At this point I'm not sure what would be more useful for you - continuing the playtest to see what more data you can glean from it or ending the test & taking a look at my saves. I'm happy with either option.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I have the events, but haven't started making changes yet.

A few questions and suggestions, which I don't think will impact anything I'm going to work on today.

Why does the Task Force have 75 attack? That seems quite high, especially considering it can use the army group's artillery barrage and it has only 30 defense.

I would suggest that we make Gun Battery's react to task forces, since at the moment they seem to serve little to no purpose, being unlikely to survive an attack from a task force.

I'm thinking that activating an army group at sea should reduce its movement points to 1, so it can make an amphibious attack, or land on a beach, but can't immediately penetrate far inland. I'm also thinking activating the unit at sea should trigger the shore battery reaction. I would also include an "are you sure" menu when trying to activate an army group at sea.

 

[JPetroski]

It's difficult to say whether the tech rate & number of turns should be adjusted.

I think 175 is probably too many, because I think this scenario has a great opportunity to do something rarely accomplished in multiplayer matches -- be completed, and within a reasonable amount of time (probably 1 month per 30 turns). I think on average each player playing 1 turn per day is achievable early in the scenario, easily, and more easily so late game due to changes that are being made after learning about opportunities in the playtest.

I feel like my errors were to blame for me not progressing down the tech tree a lot quicker earlier in the campaign. In the read me it stated that Germany had an advantage in technology & I took my foot off the gas & went of industrial development instead in an attempt to boost Luftwaffe numbers.

Well, Germany is a Republic so it should get a tech boost, especially if people bother with the prototype units. I maxed out my science rate early and kept it there until I reached a point where I didn't want any more technologies. I decided I wasn't going to bother with jets or the nifty end-game stuff.

This was a mistake as I now lack many important techs & since the RAF raids have really set me back it's difficult to see how I would catch up again. However, if I played again I would adopt a different strategy so it could be a mistake to alter things too drastically.

I'm glad to see the RAF raids actually matter. They wouldn't have set you back nearly as much with the way we now have payload. I've been basically just loitering with them while they still have range. I'm glad that Garfield found a way to avoid this. Now, one bomber will have one strike and they'll have to turn back. You shouldn't see nearly as much widespread destruction and will have more of an opportunity to set up different interecept routes, since presumably now all Allied forces will be returning to base after an attack.

At this point I'm not sure what would be more useful for you - continuing the playtest to see what more data you can glean from it or ending the test & taking a look at my saves. I'm happy with either option.

Well, it would definitely be more useful to me to read your notes and look at your saves. With that said, we've been at it since January and I'm sure you've been planning something given my recon flights, and I don't want to pull the rug out from under you right before you get to see it through! I need you happy for future playtests, after all, and don't want to discourage you! I, however, am perfectly willing to concede defeat because for all that you make of how you've made this mistake or that, from a technical/understanding the game and mechanics and which units matter compared to which ones don't perspective, you've clearly set up defenses in such a way that it will be impossible for me to win in time, even with as many turns left as there are.

Why does the Task Force have 75 attack? That seems quite high, especially considering it can use the army group's artillery barrage and it has only 30 defense.

I threw mud against a wall to see what would stick. I'm not wed to it. I could change it to 0 so that it has to be a ranged attack unit that can be reacted to.

I would suggest that we make Gun Battery's react to task forces, since at the moment they seem to serve little to no purpose, being unlikely to survive an attack from a task force.

See above - good idea and we can do that. I can change the rules. Can you throw in a line for the reaction while you have it?

I'm thinking that activating an army group at sea should reduce its movement points to 1, so it can make an amphibious attack, or land on a beach, but can't immediately penetrate far inland. I'm also thinking activating the unit at sea should trigger the shore battery reaction. I would also include an "are you sure" menu when trying to activate an army group at sea.

If you can make that happen then I think both ideas would be great. I would agree that Gun Batteries should react to army groups. I also think they should react when army groups call up ammo (as the batteries aren't only coastal batteries, they can be anywhere).

 

[JPetroski]

@Prof. Garfield this error was thrown up when a P-51D attacked and killed an Me262 that was in an airbase.

D:\Test of Time\Scenario\OTR\reaction.lua:132: attempt to call a userdata value (upvalue 'debugPrint')
stack traceback:
    D:\Test of Time\Scenario\OTR\reaction.lua:132: in upvalue 'makeReactionTables'
    D:\Test of Time\Scenario\OTR\reaction.lua:232: in function 'reaction.reaction'
    D:\Test of Time\Scenario\OTR\events.lua:4768: in upvalue 'primaryAttackReactionWrapper'
    D:\Test of Time\Scenario\OTR\events.lua:5602: in function <D:\Test of Time\Scenario\OTR\events.lua:5345>

 

[Prof. Garfield]

@JPetroski That's odd. I think I understand the error, but can't figure out why it would occur. In your spoiler, please post the location where you made the attack, so I can try to re-create it. Since the error is created by a debugPrint, you can just comment out line 132 in reaction.lua and nothing should be harmed.

 

[JPetroski]

@JPetroski That's odd. I think I understand the error, but can't figure out why it would occur. In your spoiler, please post the location where you made the attack, so I can try to re-create it. Since the error is created by a debugPrint, you can just comment out line 132 in reaction.lua and nothing should be harmed.

It was Stolberg AF. I dont know the exact title but one adjacent to it. It was well into the attack, so any flak was either dead or had its ammo expended. I had killed a 262 prior to this without any issue. Then this popped.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I didn't end up making changes to the events this afternoon. However, in the morning I changed the helpkey.lua file so that the help dialogue box doesn't use the checkboxes anymore for line breaks (the line breaks are done "correctly" instead). I'm 99% sure I didn't actually change the events file for this, but I'm posting my file just in case.

The events are available; I'll post when I take them again.

 

[JPetroski]

The events are yours. I'm going to work on stuff in game for a bit.

JPP 5/19 PM CHANGE LOG
-Added Hispanos to the gun bonus section in the events
-Tweaked number of bombs that tactical bombers drop and changed them to 250lb bombs

 

[JPetroski]

I think that the changes to Allied aircraft will take care of a few issues. There may be one remaining issue that I want your opinion on, @McMonkey.

I'm still playing my turn but as you'll find out soon enough, Stolberg AF has been cleared of defenders. While this did take over 100 aircraft to accomplish, and you'll probably slice through most (or maybe even all) of those aircraft on your next turn as I couldn't hit the further field where you have many forces, it does raise a question about attacking airfields directly and stacking aircraft there rather than dispersing them. I think a few things probably compelled this strategy by you, namely the fact that I've all but abandoned long-range daylight raids, so where is the need for a defense in depth?

I'm trying to address this by tweaking the Allied aircraft somewhat...

Strategic bombers can now only attack at high altitude and (along with tactical/medium bombers) are the only units that can use bombs at high altitude, period (no more using fighter bombers to attack strat targets).
Tactical bombers (or perhaps better called medium bombers) can now fly to high altitude or low altitude and attack in either location. They no longer get a chance to escape after making an attack, but do fly further per turn than the strategic bombers so can probably attack at least without being intercepted. They'll need escorts if they are to survive the enemies turn, however. They now only carry 250lb bombs, so aren't going to be anywhere near as effective against flak or airfields.
Aircraft like P-47s will have 500lb bombs and can get away after attacking, to an extent. They have good range and probably ought to use these munitions to attack your freight trains. I'm considering giving the P-51D this as well.
Fighter-bombers like Typhoons and Tempest are the only units that carry 1,000lb bombs, which are now much more powerful, and much more likely to kill flak, to break stalemates. With that said, the range of the aircraft that can deliver these is very low, so really only your front line bases would be in grave danger (the Luftwaffe units actually have greater range which I'm hoping keeps the Allies at bay a bit and encourages more long-range missions from them).
Sunderlands are reactive fire units that can do wonders against U-Boats, but of course this means investing in them and then making sure they're somehow escorted against, presumably, longer-range aircraft like Me110s. They're also payload aircraft so you're going to need a lot of them.

Just curious if you think these changes would influence where/how you stack units in the future, or mount a defense, and if you think you'd have a fair counter to each of these?

On that note, was there any notable gap that you felt you had in defense or ability to react? Do you foresee any with the changes discussed so far?