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- Jan 24, 2011
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This means that the Germans and Allies have a similar rate of technological progress at the moment, and fuel works about right for the Germans under these circumstances.
I am more or less pleased with the way fuel has gone, yes. I don't want to mess with it as it feels about as close to perfect as I think we're likely to get.
We get 'far enough' through the tech tree around turn 70. If we increase tech costs by 50%, this would make that point around turn 105. If we dole out some techs at the start of the game, semi-completion of the tech tree will happen a few turns sooner.
I think the science rate is set at 125 but I'll have to check. So I suppose we could try 187. It might make sense to give each side 1-2 of the industry techs off the bat so it doesn't take each forever to get to something interesting. I would also suggest letting Wilde Sau be researchable sooner as it is very important and delaying it several turns is going to throw balance out of whack.
Maybe we should bestow the currently researching tech (so beakers are not wasted) to both players when certain point thresholds are reached. That way, if the 'story' progresses faster, the technologies keep up.
I don't know about this because I think it's another good way to help whoever is winning (assuming they too needed the tech they wanted). What I would like us to consider is an event where if the Russian Front opens up (so 8 cities are captured with at least 1 in Germany), Germany automatically gets tech #30 (Volksjäger). This is the tech that offers the less expensive jet fighters that aren't as good as 262s. These were desperate aircraft in the real war and I think it would make sense that the player get these at this point. Maybe they even get a couple built near Berlin.
There's a psychological impact to playing as Germany that we've always got to give them just a little bit of hope that they can carry on or every game is going to end well before it is finished.
Do we need the prototype at all? Why not just use an event to put some extra beakers into the German research bucket? I think this would be a good idea, to give the 'critical industry' something to do beyond just researching towards rockets (which the German player might not care too much about).
I guess we really don't, and depositing the beakers directly means they are received and not shot up by the Allies. We'll also have 2 more units that way if we find we need them.
You're correct, it probably wouldn't be unbalancing.
The next time I work on the game I'm going to go ahead and add in these to the starting turn then.
That makes sense. Part of that, however, was the fact that I got most of the ports, so convoys started crossing the sea in greater numbers.
True but the ports are very difficult targets to defend (anything that can be approached from the sea is tough to guard against effectively), and they give such a good bonus, that I'd suspect that they'll be a top target in most games.
Moving on, I want to do two things on my end that shouldn't require any code work:
1. I am going to rewrite the readme. I've been adding stuff in here and there and the document is just a jumbled mess at this point that probably terrifies all who read it. While I can still keep some of it (such as historical background, etc), my goal is going to try and make it concise and give each player a few pages of what they actually need to know to play the game. I'll probably get rid of the nice little "key" graphics in favor of an easier to print and keep spreadsheet of what each key does on each circumstance as well. I think this game is so different that the readme out to read more like a strategy guide filled with hotkey help.
2. I think I have come up with a way to make a hotseat game enjoyable to play against yourself, but it will require some map work on my part. Basically, the only reason the game can't be "as much fun" to play against yourself is that you already know exactly what you're doing. Here's my proposed solution (bear in mind this is ONLY for a single player game and none of these markings have any impact whatsoever on a MP game, aside perhaps from making organization easier):
*I will draw outlines on the map of different fighter regions (this data is available for Germany and I'll probably just use the same group regions from the Battle of Britain for the Allies).
*I will add an " * " to the name of one airfield within each region. These will be "hub airfields."
General Rules:
1. Fighter aircraft for both sides must remain grounded within their region until enemy contact (radar, scouts, or attack reports) suggest that the enemy is present in that region, or a neighboring region;
2. The only exception is that fighter aircraft MAY fly from their region to the Hub airfield of another region, but they may not attack targets while en route.
3. The fighters in the hub airfield are considered "rehomed" to that new region, and rule #1 applies to them.
4. Air and naval forces will follow dice rolls explained below.
5. The game requires two six-sided dice.
*The game will be played with two six-sided dice.
Aircraft Scouting via Dice Rolls - ONLY applies to units "scouting" for undetected forces. Otherwise, aircraft vectored to targets in or neighboring their region as described above.
*Any aircraft can be designated a "scout" on any turn and take off from an airfield, however the direction it will go is dependent on the sum of the dice roll.
*The sum of the dice roll determines the direction, as it will correspond to the number key on a keyboard. If you roll a sum of 7, you can head NW. If you roll 4, you head W, and so on.
*It is permissible to use the "mirror number" (so 7 and 3, 1 and 9, 4 and 6, 2 and 8) so that you don't send a scout into southern France pointlessly. You can pick between the two directions to do what would make sense.
*Rolling 5 allows you to pick the direction of your choice.
*Rolling 10-12 results in "engine trouble" and the aircraft must return to the nearest base.
*After each roll, the scouting aircraft must move 10 spaces in the direction of the roll. After 10 spaces, you may roll again, hoping for a change in direction.
Naval Movement (aircraft carrier, submarine, task force)
*Naval forces may scout for each other if no contact or combat in the previous turn (so if you had attacked a convoy on turn 3, you don't need to do this turn 4 - you can just do what a reasonable person would do and try to find it, but if you have no contact at all, your forces need to use these rules).
*The same dice rules apply:
*The sum of the dice roll determines the direction, as it will correspond to the number key on a keyboard. If you roll a sum of 7, you can head NW. If you roll 4, you head W, and so on.
*It is permissible to use the "mirror number" (so 7 and 3, 1 and 9, 4 and 6, 2 and 8) so that you don't send a scout into southern France pointlessly. You can pick between the two directions to do what would make sense.
*Because of the shorter MP of naval units, you can reroll after each movement space.
Anyway, I mostly put this together so I can get some more enjoyment out of the scenario, but I also think this might make it more likely that others would get into it a bit as they have a chance to explore it on their own, might find they like it, and might want to try with a friend after having done so. Finally, I might be able to convince one of our lurkers to playtest this in single player mode if they knew they could do so at their own pace rather than needing to commit to several months (cough cough, @tootall_2012 ).