The Hinge of Fate - Playtest/Release Thread

[tootall_2012]

Hi John,

Here is the final update:

In Early March 1944, Washington's city fell and the American government was forced to move to Buffalo... only one more objective city to go!

The following turn, Pittsburg fell as well, with the ultimate prize just beyond the horizon...

Then came Cleveland...

and after some last minute regrouping the final drive netted the last remaining objective... the Motor City itself, Detroit!

19 of 19 objectives for an 'Ultimate' victory...

Though after capturing the 19th objective, I would have expected a message that the game was over, as we did in Napoleon, and that I had won an ultimate victory. Instead the game just keeps going... maybe that's something you would consider adding.

In case you are interested, I included the final save game of Early June, 1944 (turn 99), i.e. the turn just after I captured Detroit.

This was undoubtedly the longest playtest I've ever done but well worth the time and effort. Truly enjoyed the experience. Well done indeed!

As promised, I will try to get back to you as soon as possible in a private thread with my final overall thoughts and feedback.

 

[JPetroski]

I'm very glad you enjoyed yourself and will have to make things harder although I suppose your playthrough demonstrates what can be achieved if Sea Lion is successful early!

I'm looking forward to your feedback!

 

[Civinator]

This was undoubtedly the longest playtest I've ever done but well worth the time and effort. Truly enjoyed the experience. Well done indeed!

... and I have enjoyed your reports and screenshots about this great scenario, too.

 

[Dadais]

I'm very glad you enjoyed yourself and will have to make things harder

First, thanks @tootall_2012 for this demonstration !

About your difficulty concerns @JPetroski, why not

-leaving the scenario like that or with small balance adjustments for noobs (yes I am) ,

-and proposing at the beggining of a new game to "challenge the scenario" for pgm where you would increase the difficulty ,

then providing both categories of player a hardship ?

 

[JPetroski]

I mean honestly I'd wait to see if Tootall found it fun because a June 1944 victory seems to have taken a realistic amount of time and isn't too bad

 

[tootall_2012]

As promised, I will try to get back to you as soon as possible in a private thread with my final overall thoughts and feedback.

PM sent.

 

[JPetroski]

Thanks Tootall - I skimmed it but will get back to you in more detail later

 

[JPetroski]

Just to update everyone, I'm making some changes based on Tootall's excellent feedback. Nothing too major but a few tweaks and bug fixes. More to come soon!

 

[Civinator]

Just to update everyone, I'm making some changes based on Tootall's excellent feedback. Nothing too major but a few tweaks and bug fixes. More to come soon!

 

[Patine]

Hi John,

Here is the final update:

In Early March 1944, Washington's city fell and the American government was forced to move to Buffalo... only one more objective city to go!

View attachment 625307

The U.S. Government shuffles itself off to Buffalo!

 

[JPetroski]

It's summer! There are fish to catch

 

[countmc]

Scenario looks great, but whenever I try and play it, the screen will flash for a second of the opening scene of the scenario and then kicks me totally out of civ ii. Anybody else having this same problem?

 

[civ2units]

I played some turns and for me everything works fine, the game didn't crash. Currently I'm using TOTPP version 0.18.4

 

[JPetroski]

I'm guessing it is a version issue since TNO only just added support for title screens. Are you sure you're working with his latest update?

 

[JPetroski]

Version 1.02 is now released. You can find it in the downloads section.

Change Log:

-German AT gun now have 2 MP
-Artillery shell range = 2
-Allied flak to 0 MP - should make certain cities harder to take
-Scout car IZOC
-New Panzergrenadier cost = 180
-Doubled cost of Sdkfz
-Tripled cost of supply trucks
-when an artillery unit deploys from a transport, its movespent is set to 255. This means it can no longer be transported and fire on same turn.
-Add submarine unit in place of Montgomery for Allies.
-Submarines have random chance to spawn near Afrika Korps resupply lines starting turn 25 when Malta isn't neutralized.
-Germany starts with 2x Mobile Artillery units now
-Expanded paved road and regular road network in Italy
-Kampfgruppe now provide 3x Panzergrenadier and 2x Schutzen rather than 5x Panzergrenadiers
-Afrika Korps now starts with 1x Scout Car
-Adjusted Stalingrad event to make it more nefarious
-Increased speed of non-transport naval units (up by 50%)
-Made War industry nil prereq
-Made it impossible to build refineries or factories on any map but Europe so there won't be strat errors. Unfortunately this does mean you aren't going to be able to build up in the United States, but at that point in the game, I think this is acceptable.
-Fixed strat.cityCoordinate issues with refinery - it was looking for the wrong improvement which allowed fuel refineries to be built in places beyond simply industrial cities as desired.
-Fixed issue where fuel bonus wasn't being given.
-Added Melitopol, Voroshilovgrad, Poltava, and Kramatorsk.
-Fixed issue where flak 88 shells would not fire to the night map. The correct key is now 8.

Considerable thanks to @tootall_2012 for the considerable helpful feedback provided that allowed me to hunt down bugs, and to make the scenario (hopefully) more challenging.

 

[Pablostuka]

Version 1.02 is now released. You can find it in the downloads section.

Change Log:

-German AT gun now have 2 MP
-Artillery shell range = 2
-Allied flak to 0 MP - should make certain cities harder to take
-Scout car IZOC
-New Panzergrenadier cost = 180
-Doubled cost of Sdkfz
-Tripled cost of supply trucks
-when an artillery unit deploys from a transport, its movespent is set to 255. This means it can no longer be transported and fire on same turn.
-Add submarine unit in place of Montgomery for Allies.
-Submarines have random chance to spawn near Afrika Korps resupply lines starting turn 25 when Malta isn't neutralized.
-Germany starts with 2x Mobile Artillery units now
-Expanded paved road and regular road network in Italy
-Kampfgruppe now provide 3x Panzergrenadier and 2x Schutzen rather than 5x Panzergrenadiers
-Afrika Korps now starts with 1x Scout Car
-Adjusted Stalingrad event to make it more nefarious
-Increased speed of non-transport naval units (up by 50%)
-Made War industry nil prereq
-Made it impossible to build refineries or factories on any map but Europe so there won't be strat errors. Unfortunately this does mean you aren't going to be able to build up in the United States, but at that point in the game, I think this is acceptable.
-Fixed strat.cityCoordinate issues with refinery - it was looking for the wrong improvement which allowed fuel refineries to be built in places beyond simply industrial cities as desired.
-Fixed issue where fuel bonus wasn't being given.
-Added Melitopol, Voroshilovgrad, Poltava, and Kramatorsk.
-Fixed issue where flak 88 shells would not fire to the night map. The correct key is now 8.

Considerable thanks to @tootall_2012 for the considerable helpful feedback provided that allowed me to hunt down bugs, and to make the scenario (hopefully) more challenging.

Can't wait to give it a go!!

 

[Civinator]

Now I have finally some time to look into your fantastic scenario and I am convinced I will get some bloody noses (I hope this can be understood in English, too) until I am somewhat used to all these additional mechanics in the game. One fact for me is sure: JPetroski, in my eyes your WW2 scenario holds the best introduction of all WW2 scenarios done for the Civilization series - including my own.

 

[Konig15]

Hey! As I'm playtesting this, after a few turns I keep getting this message, something about "legacy event engine" as before 2020-12-06 but it says mine is 2020-12-07. I don't know what this means but it sounds like if I clear everything it will erase continuous flags, which are important for things like Spain and possibly Turkey joining the Axis. So I think I might have buggered my game by clearing a few turns. How to fix this problem if I have to start again is something I don't have a problem with.


That said, I want to thank you very highly for giving the option to NOT invade the Low Countries. I did change the scenario for them to be at peace rather than war but I have tried to maintain the peace, reloading When Minors Attack.

I do have some criticisms even up to January 1941, and I don't consider them trivial, minor but trivial:

1. Danzig, Breslau and Memel, are in majority German areas, they should be able to build German units, factories and Synthetic Refineries. Breslau is particularly egregious in this regard as it was THE major industrial German industrial center outside of the Ruhr, and had been a part of Prussia since the era of Frederick the Great.


2. Warsaw, Vienna, Paris, and Copenhagen really should have the major city and major economic zone buildings given their long preeminence as metropolises


3. Paved roads are VERY hard to see in winter. Now what I've done is take the rail assets from Red October and put them on for 'paved roads' my reason being that Nazi focus on road building and not maintenance and expansion of the Reichsbahn was the most decisive contributor of the German defeat of Grofaz's strategic blunders. In the beginning of 1940 Germany had less railstock than they did in 1914. So when I use conscripts to lay rail instead of paving the roads, it's because I'm fixing this very obvious Nazi screw up.


4. And I have to be honest: the rail modifier on a map this big is just a torment. I got no issue for the road movement, but the ability to redeploy within German the Reich itself is not only a mercy but necessary to simulate those internal lines of deployment and control German y had until the end of 1944. Having vanilla railroad rules was a giant quality of life improvement.


5. The Kampfengruppe idea is probably the best new idea in the scripting, it's AMAZING.


6. While the sequence of of aligning eastern countries Hungary then Romania then Turkey makes perfect sense, Aligning Spain should just be a first option like Align Finland.


7. Because of the Propaganda Ministry wonder, I cannot build Reichskommisariats. I don't know if that is a bug or feature though given the wonders lack of expiration I think it might be a bug.


8. Conscripts and minor axis units really should be able to use trucks and halftracks.


9. It would be nice have a feature like the upgrading aircraft system from OTR, where you could at a cost, retrain units to be veterans. When minor axis allies join you they probably shouldn't be veterans (except Spain and Finland which have very recent combat experience), but retraining the Hungarian and Romanian armies should be on the table (German advisors are now on the scene), but that takes a LONG time if you disband and then recreate the units. And right now you can't even do that with the Finns.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Hey! As I'm playtesting this, after a few turns I keep getting this message, something about "legacy event engine" as before 2020-12-06 but it says mine is 2020-12-07. I don't know what this means but it sounds like if I clear everything it will erase continuous flags, which are important for things like Spain and possibly Turkey joining the Axis. So I think I might have buggered my game by clearing a few turns. How to fix this problem if I have to start again is something I don't have a problem with.

Hinge of Fate (at least the version I have) has only one "legacy" event, which prevents everyone from talking. You should be able to select the clear everything option without any ill effect. You could always revert to the game you just saved if negotiations are suddenly enabled, or something. What probably happened is that the legacy event engine file must have been updated because I reported a bugfix, but the scenario file wasn't saved again.

 

[Konig15]

Hinge of Fate (at least the version I have) has only one "legacy" event, which prevents everyone from talking. You should be able to select the clear everything option without any ill effect. You could always revert to the game you just saved if negotiations are suddenly enabled, or something. What probably happened is that the legacy event engine file must have been updated because I reported a bugfix, but the scenario file wasn't saved again.

Could I just take out the event? I'm not sure diplomacy is really viable in Hinge, and since the way I'm playing I'm a pleace but not allied with the Minors, if they do attack as the AI is wont to do, I could take a city, they sue for peace, then I use civitas to give it back to them.


If there's probably not an issue, I just need to know what the file name is and which folder it's in. Cause there's at least two dozen Lua files in 4 or 5 folder . I can't find anything, cause if I could I would already have added conscripts to the truck can pick up file.