Questions, remarks and some bug reports after my first victory!

[TaoJah]

I just finished my first full game with the 1939 scenario against the AI on max difficulty settings and would like to share some questions, remarks and mention some (minor) bugs.

Assault on Democracy is a great, great game, one that I will enjoy for many, many evenings the coming months. It is virtual bugfree, it has the perfect balance between in-debt mechanics & playability and has a very, very high replay value. But, obviously, there are some remarks and questions, so here it goes...

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Questions.

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1. When exactly does the US & Russia declares war to Japan?

You can play a long time with both the US and Russia on 100% versus Japan with both countires at war with Germany, but without USA or USSR declaring war against Japan.

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2. When can research succeed, exactly?

The notes say that there is a treshold of 45, but... I keep the research % in a spreadhseet, with the 5%, 4%, 3%, 2% and 1% increases nicely added per chit, with the cumulative points in a column. That way, I know how long stuff takes to get to 100% and what is best to pick.

But... I received Tank 1 with Germany after only 4 turns of 2 chits in one game, so when I only got 40% cumulated (4 x 5%x2).

And I needed 22 turns with one chit in Industrial to get to level 1 with Japan (22 x 5% = 110%).

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3. Do some researches have a higher treshold than 45 for some countries?

I re-started the game twice and in all three games Mobility takes a long time for both Japan and Italy. The same for Infantry for the Italians and submarines for Japan.

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4. When exactly can you repair your troops to 6, 8, 10, 11... ?

Do you need supply to be at a certain level? Which level?

Do you need to be attached to a HQ to get elite reinfircements?

I can't figure out the rule, so I always have to try the Reinforce button, click MAX and see how high it will go.

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5. What technology do I need to upgrade a port for spotting?

I see that Allied ports have spotting (1)+2, but my ports can't be upgraded for spotting, only for anti-air.

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6. How much does the quality of the AI goes down when I select 'Quick Logic'?

I always want to play on maxed difficulty but the AI turns take a long time (even with 'Show combat animations' turned off) and I want to speed up the game.

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7. Under which conditions does Finland enter the war when I come close to Leningrad?

The script says that Finland joins when I come close, but those stubborn Fins don't join me... Do I need to be near Leningrad at a certain date or so? Is it only a 50/50 percentage?

I could invade Finland, but I need those 5 troops for partisan control in the USSR.

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8. What exactly causes partisan activity in China?

Even when I covered ALL partisan spots, ALL of them, I still get a pop-up about resistance in China, centered on Peking. It's enough to have a troop NEXT to the partisan spot, right? I mean, the troop does not have to stand on top of it?

I am very, very careful when conquering China, very careful not to leave any partisan spots open, EVER, but I still get the pop-ups.

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9. Does the terrain where the ATTACKER stands, matters to see how much damage the DEFENDER gets?

This is something new that I noticed... When I move my German tank next to a Russian army in a city, I get 1-4 damage odds when the tank moves to a forest spot. But... when the tank moves to a Marsh spot, it shows 1-2. The same tank, the same army, no river...

I can't figure out why it does that. IT has nothing to do with roads: one forest tile has a road, one forest tile does not, but the tank gives 1-4 on both forest tiles. And one marsh tile has a road, one marsh tile has no road, but they both give 1-2.

It's not just for attacking Tanks, it also does that for attacking Paratroopers, Armies and Corpses.

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Remarks.

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a) It seems odd to me that Production only gives a 5% bonus and Industrial a 25%. That's a big difference, up to the point where Industrial is pretty much useless compared to Production, or am I missing something?

They both do the same, essentially. One gives more MPP to spend on the purchase & repair of your troops, the other one makes your troops purchases & repairs cost less. Aside from money for research and diplomacy, they essentially do the same. One just does it 20% better than the other.

Japan could use more garrisons after China surrenders. I can't cover all the partisan spots in China with garrisons, even when I take the 4 extra garrisons. The same for Germany after Russia surrenders.

Maybe both countries should get a number of Axis garrisons once they surrender or so.

c) There seems to be no seperate manual for AoD, when you click on manual, the GC manual opens.

d) Maybe add a feature where HQs that were set to 'Manual' or 'Assist' take control of their original units again when they come back in the HQ range (after control was lost when they went out of HQ range).

e) The Italian garrisons in Adua & Kismayo seems to have been giving super powers, they can hold off 3 UK corpses each, sometimes even 3 UK corpses and airsupport.

f) Maybe add some sort of extra visual field in the research screen that shows how many research chits you can buy in a category. For example, you can only buy 2 chits in German anti-tank research, but that doesn't show anywhere until you try to buy your third.

g) Maybe add a 'Next' shortcut key, instead of only the mouse-operated button. It would help alot to go through the units.

h) The 'Next' button disapears when the selected troop is a transporter in a port.

h) When engineers are digging a fortification, maybe don't show them in the 'Next' sequence. You can't put them to 'sleep' because then you loose track, but it's not useful to show them when they are building.

i) Maybe add a visial difference in the purchase screen between the units that you can afford and the units that you can't.

j) 200% for upgrades on minors is a bit high, in my opinion. It takes 120 MPP (120!) to upgrade a Roumanian army with +2 infantry and +1 mobility. That's a bit high.

k) Maybe add a % on the War map that shows the % readiness that the USSR and USA will gain when you DOw on a country. I got the values from the editor, written out on a piece of paper, but it would be nice to have them in-game too.

l) It's odd that there is no railroad between Lulea (Finland and Oulu (Finland). It makes it impossibible to operate out of Sweden or Norway.

l) There isn't alot of visual difference between Special Forces and Corpses nor between Divisions and Garrisons.

Maybe add some sort of graphic option where a Garrison shows one man, a Division two, a Corps three, a Special Force four and an Army five or so. Now I got to hover my mouse over them all the time.

If anyone has a mod for this, it would be greatly appreciated!

m) Maybe remove the randomness in research or lower it a bit. Or add an option to remove the randomness. It makes a HUGE difference when you can attack USSR with +1 tanks (like in my first game) or with +3 tanks (like in my second). It seems a bit unfair.

n) Malta disrupts northern Africa even when you bomb the port to 0 and the readiness of the Coastal Gun is less than 10%, which is kinda odd.

o) Maybe ports should give should some sort of protection to submarines too.

p) Maybe, if there is budget and time and willingness, make an option to only play Germany & Italy in the 1939 scenario and let the AI handle Japan. I appreciate the world map, but turns take alot of time now.

q) Nothing new, it's the same as in the old games, but the green of the Italians is pretty close to the green of the Americans, so sometimes it's hard to see who's who.

r) Maybe add some sort of feature where partisan activity in a spot disapears after x turns of occupation.

s) Maybe check how the AI calculates things and optimise the coding techniques. I think the AI takes about the same time per unit then it did 10 years ago on my much, much slower computer.

I understand that this isn't easy, but the AI turns take a long time in the later turns of the 1939 scenario.

t) When you turn off the messages on the human turn and a country then surrenders to you, you don't get a message saying how much you plunder, which is ok. But maybe instead of adding the plunder MPP to your total before you get the MPP popup, it would be nice to see them in that MPP popup.

The goal of turning off messages is to have less messages, but plunder MPP is kinda important, so it would be nice to see them anyway.

v) When you enter Russia with German troops, the red tiles turn grey, as expected. But when you then move Italian troops on the tiles that were colored grey, the tiles turn green, from the Italians.

This is kinda annoying, cause it turns the whole map in some sort of red/green/grey color book. I would personally prefer it that tiles stayed grey once the Axis occupy them, Germany was the main force afer all.

v) It's a bit odd that the railroads in Burma (Br) is not connected to any other railroads, not to the Indian one or to the Thai one or to the Chines one.

w) I don't know if it's intended, but when you build fortifications on the spots where the coastal guns come in France (and you pay to get the coastal guns), the coastal guns stand on the fortification, making them impossible for the AI to kill. The AIs D-Day failed miserably, partly because of that.

x) When Germany takes all of western Russia, the capital move to Novosibirsk. Then Japan only has to take that city and Russia surrenders, with Japan getting all the MPPs from the surrendering. That's not really fair, Germany did almost all the work.

z) When the game ended with a desive victory in 1944, I turned off Fog Of War to see what the AI had left from troops.

- The USA had 75 land troops just standing there in west USA. It didn't do anything with those, it never set foot in Japan or China or even the Philippines. Maybe because I invaded Pearl Harbor and kept it occupied with armies? Or because I landed an army in Seattle in 1943?

- There were 15 airplanes in the UK, but virtually no land troops left after D-Day. IT was pretty easy to take London, he had an artillary in London and no troops at all east or south of London.

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Minor bugs.

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i. When moving troops in Ansi, the text says 'Yurmen destroyed'.

ii. When you capture Chungkin, you get a message that the Chines capital moves to Langchow.

When you capture Langchow, you get a message that the Chines capital moves to Urumchi.

But... when you then loose Langchow back to the Chinese and then capture Urumchi, does the capital moves back to Langchow?

I didn't get a message for it, and I conquered pretty much everything else in China but China won't surrender, even after 5 turns (then I restarted the game).

Either the capital moves and you should get a message.

Or the capital doesn't move and they should surrender.

iii. The city of Porto is labeled as 'Oporto' instead of just 'Porto'.

iv. When you got alot of new units to place (I had more than 8 in one turn, because I left some older ones waiting), the NEW UNIT window comes up at the start of your turn and than the game crashes to desktop.

v. When I am typing in Notepad (I typed these notes in notepad before posting them) and I move my cursor around in Notepad with the up, down, left, right arrow, the AoD map behind the notepad moves too, despite Notepad having 'focus'.

vi. When you take Norway and Sweden with the Germans... and Finland joins you... and then you take Leningrad... the captals in those three countries (Oslo, Stockholm & Helsinki) don't get supply up to 10, despite the fact that they are linked to Berlin with railroads that are all in German hands.

This bug does not exist in the South. When Bulgary and Hungary join the Axis, together with Iraq & Syria and than you conquer Egypt and Turkey, the main cities in Africa and in the middle east get upgraded higher than 5.

vii. The railroad between Leningrad and Helsinki is broken, you can't operate between them.

viii. Sometimes, the screen turns white for a while during the AI turn. It builds back up, bit by bit, starting with the name of the turn-part (like 'Combat I...) until it's all visable again.

ix. The US submarines that attack Japan in 1942-1943 seem to have stealth capacities, they can go straight through Japanese submarines (and vica versa, the Japanese submarines go through the Americans).

x. When Russia surrenders and you split it with Japan, a small area north of Leningrad and some western cities go to Japan (Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas, Wilno, Brest-Litovsk and Lwow).

xi. Sometimes the game stays 'on top' of other applications and it's impossible to do anything else: you got to quit the game to fix it.

[Bill101]

I just finished my first full game with the 1939 scenario against the AI on max difficulty settings and would like to share some questions, remarks and mention some (minor) bugs.

Assault on Democracy is a great, great game, one that I will enjoy for many, many evenings the coming months. It is virtual bugfree, it has the perfect balance between in-debt mechanics & playability and has a very, very high replay value. But, obviously, there are some remarks and questions, so here it goes...

Hi TaoJah

Thanks very much for the indepth feedback, and it's great to hear how much you've enjoyed playing it!

Just to get the ball rolling with answers, here are some relating to most of the minor bugs you've reported.

Hopefully some others will also chip in with their thoughts.

Bill

i. When moving troops in Ansi, the text says 'Yurmen destroyed'.

I think the place should actually be called Yumen, so I'll get that changed.

iii. The city of Porto is labeled as 'Oporto' instead of just 'Porto'.

Ah, I've always known it as Oporto, as that's how it's generally known in English.

vi. When you take Norway and Sweden with the Germans... and Finland joins you... and then you take Leningrad... the captals in those three countries (Oslo, Stockholm & Helsinki) don't get supply up to 10, despite the fact that they are linked to Berlin with railroads that are all in German hands.

The reason is that we don't currently have a railway connecting northern Finland to northern Sweden. There definitely should be one so I will add it in. Good spot!

vii. The railroad between Leningrad and Helsinki is broken, you can't operate between them.

That should be working, unless the supply value at either location is less than 3?

ix. The US submarines that attack Japan in 1942-1943 seem to have stealth capacities, they can go straight through Japanese submarines (and vica versa, the Japanese submarines go through the Americans).

They are probably operating in silent mode, which enables them to sneak around much better, though at lower speed.

To use this, right click on a submarine before doing anything else with it, select silent mode, and then move it. Providing it doesn't encounter any enemy Destroyers, or end its turn adjacent to any other enemy naval units, it should be invisible to the enemy.

x. When Russia surrenders and you split it with Japan, a small area north of Leningrad and some western cities go to Japan (Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas, Wilno, Brest-Litovsk and Lwow).

I see the cause of this, and this will take us a while to work out a way to fix. Essentially it only happens when Japan conquers the USSR, as Soviet held territory that the USSR had seized in Eastern Europe isn't included in the scripts dividing up the western and eastern USSR.

This should never be a problem if Germany conquers the USSR, but the whole script structure relating to all the annexations would need changing to fix this. I'm definitely glad you've mentioned this as I've not come across it before, though I am inclined to think that solving this will be a job for the future as it will take some considerable time.

xi. Sometimes the game stays 'on top' of other applications and it's impossible to do anything else: you got to quit the game to fix it.

If you're playing it with Full Screen Mode enabled, I would disable that option, as I think doing so should fix that.

Bill

[Bill101]

v) It's a bit odd that the railroads in Burma (Br) is not connected to any other railroads, not to the Indian one or to the Thai one or to the Chines one.

Railway development in Burma hadn't progressed that far in 1941, which is why Burma's railways don't cross their border.

[Bill101]

2. When can research succeed, exactly?

The notes say that there is a treshold of 45, but... I keep the research % in a spreadhseet, with the 5%, 4%, 3%, 2% and 1% increases nicely added per chit, with the cumulative points in a column. That way, I know how long stuff takes to get to 100% and what is best to pick.

But... I received Tank 1 with Germany after only 4 turns of 2 chits in one game, so when I only got 40% cumulated (4 x 5%x2).

And I needed 22 turns with one chit in Industrial to get to level 1 with Japan (22 x 5% = 110%).

3. Do some researches have a higher treshold than 45 for some countries?

I re-started the game twice and in all three games Mobility takes a long time for both Japan and Italy. The same for Infantry for the Italians and submarines for Japan.

They all have the same 45% threshold, but a breakthrough can be achieved in the same turn as the threshold itself is reached, as the die roll is made after the progression is added.

[TaoJah]

Thanks for the answers and explications!

I didn't know about the silent mode of submarines, so that's good to know indeed.

About Helsinki and Leningrad, I didn't keep my save game, but I'm pretty sure they were both at 5, I kept USSR a long time. I'll recheck with my next game (when I hold both with Russia, playing Allies now). See if you got a save game and check it?

That Russia is not splitting properly is a pity, but no real big deal to me. As long as you can railroad out of Russia with the Germans, it doesn't really matter that some cities are Japanese.

And I didn't knew about Oporto, hehe. I always called it Porto because of the drink

But I see now that Unesco (it's city centre is protected heritage) calls it Oporto too.

They all have the same 45% threshold, but a breakthrough can be achieved in the same turn as the threshold itself is reached, as the die roll is made after the progression is added.

Yes, that's how I keep track, I add the percentages and check the next turn. But I get breakthroughs when I can't have 45% yet.

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But... much more important... I'm pretty sure that there is something really wrong with research, where research goes too slow. You almost always have to get to 100% to get an advancement for some researches.

It's statistical very, very, VERY improbably to 'miss' the odds when you got 48% chance to get something and miss, then miss again at 54%, miss again at 60, again at 66, again at 72, again at 78, again at 84, again at 90, again at 96 nad only get it when it hits 100+.

I don't know if you know alot about statistics, but the odds of missing all those rolls is 1-48/100 * 1-54/100 * 1-60/100 * 1-66/100 * 1-72/100 * 1-78/100 * 1-84/100 * 1-90/100 * 1-96/100, or 1 in 779,720.

And this happens often... for the Italians, for example, I needed to get to 90 to get infantry 1 and to 100 to get to infantry 2 in my first game, to 75 and 90 in my second game and to 105 and 105 in my third game.

That is simply not possible without another factor playing, those odds are impossible.

Anyway... it's not game breaking, just annoying that I don't know what's going on, hehe.

Now, if you excuse me, I have some Germans troops on my Russian soil to fight!

[Hubert Cater]

Hi TaoJah,

I'd actually suggest taking a look at this post here on how the research system works as I suspect it will help clarify some of the concerns here and clear up some of the possible misunderstandings of the system.

If you still have any questions after that then fire away and we'll do our best to answer them

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1447283&postcount=51

Hubert

[TaoJah]

Ah, so that is how research works now, thanks.

That explains the extreem randomness of the system, something I am not fond of, but at least I now know why it's so unpredictable!

Anyway, almost done with my Axis game against the Allied AI, no real new remarks, except...

- the AI seems to like defending cities with airplanes (Paris had an iarplane in it, for example).

- Japan needs some sort of boost in China, they AI never even got close to throwing China westwards. Japan seems to be very aggresive in the South pacific, but are lacking in China. They defend Tokyo well, though

Other than that, fun all around!

[patrat618]

In my current game the Japanese expert level A.I. is doing a pretty good job of kicking my butt in China.

I played the Chinese very aggressively and the A.I. is making me pay for it. Maybe if I played the Chinese more defensively they'd would of done better.

In the same game my Russians are thrashing the A.I. Germans. They launched Barbarossa in June and have only advanced as far as the Riga Minsk Kiev Odessa line by the end of 41. And I still hold Riga and Minsk!

[TaoJah]

In my current game the Japanese expert level A.I. is doing a pretty good job of kicking my butt in China.

I played the Chinese very aggressively and the A.I. is making me pay for it. Maybe if I played the Chinese more defensively they'd would of done better.

Yes, I play the Chinese pure defensive. Defend the mountains east of Phatow, defend the mountains South of Yulr, defend the fortifications south of Wuhan, defend Changsha, defend Kweilin, defend, defend, defend.

The engineers help alot: make fortresses between Changshe & Kweiling and Japan will never get through.

The only thing that I don't defend is Nanking. Maybe it's possible to keep it, but it would take the engineers, some armies and a HQ, which makes Changshe & Kweiling vulnerable. I am not sure it's worth it.

In the same game my Russians are thrashing the A.I. Germans. They launched Barbarossa in June and have only advanced as far as the Riga Minsk Kiev Odessa line by the end of 41. And I still hold Riga and Minsk!

Well, use about 10 Russian troops (all you special forces, 3 tanks and some armies) and go attack Japan... that's what I did: while the Chinese were defending against the bulk of Japanese forces, the Russians took Manchuria, Peking & Seoul, then landed in Japan with tanks to take Tokyo... and Japan surrendered.

Make sure you take your special forces with you, they defend terribly against Germany, but they are great attackers!