Some minor bugs, an anomaly and a surprise

[mcaryf1]

I have been using national morale as a mechanism for recognising a continuing impact for the loss of things such as an original capital (e.g. Moscow) or important oil resources (Baku, Iraq). Whilst doing this I checked the current Morale file in AOD and found that several entries relating to Japan and one to USA have a duration of zero turns for the morale impact of certain resource losses. I do not know whether duration zero defaults to 1 but I suspect it does not and therefore these are minor bugs.

I do have a question about National Morale and that is whether it has any impact on game play, e.g. does it ever change unit morale, or is it just for national surrender events? It would make sense if it was a multiplier for newly formed unit morale.

I discovered the anomaly when I made an error in my scenario design and gave two Decision Events the same number. As far as I can tell this worked except of course the original decision's answer would have been overwritten with whatever was the answer to the second event with the same number. I am not sure if it is intended that a "single use" DE can effectively be offered again in changed circumstances but it might be quite useful if it could be. Could someone please confirm that this is how AOD does work and whether it will continue to do so now that I have pointed it out?

The surprise came when I used small value convoys from USSR and China to the USA to represent returning empty ships or reverse lend lease so that there were two more supply routes to be interdicted. I should mention that to do this I created a new port near Calcutta, called it China Dock and placed the port resource in Chinese ownership. Calcutta was of course the main port used as a route for US aid to China that went on over the hump. The convoy from the USSR to the USA is via the North Pacific. That was the route through which most US Lend Lease actually reached the USSR and is normally not represented in standard AOD.

My surprise was that the US Convoy income graph took a huge negative dive right off the visible chart. I had not previously realised that the convoy graph must show a net value of imports less exports. It seems there might be an exception when the imports are zero, as is usually the case with USA, then the chart defaults to showing zero volume.

Regards

[Hubert Cater]

I have been using national morale as a mechanism for recognising a continuing impact for the loss of things such as an original capital (e.g. Moscow) or important oil resources (Baku, Iraq). Whilst doing this I checked the current Morale file in AOD and found that several entries relating to Japan and one to USA have a duration of zero turns for the morale impact of certain resource losses. I do not know whether duration zero defaults to 1 but I suspect it does not and therefore these are minor bugs.

I just double checked the code and 0 turns is treated the same as 1 turn and I'll change this for SC3 so that the range is from 1,99 so this is less confusing.

I do have a question about National Morale and that is whether it has any impact on game play, e.g. does it ever change unit morale, or is it just for national surrender events? It would make sense if it was a multiplier for newly formed unit morale.

It does also lower unit morale under the following formula:

National Morale < 40% -> unit.morale = unit.morale * 85%

National Morale < 75% -> unit.morale = unit.morale * 90%

National Morale < 90 % -> unit.morale = unit.morale * 95%

National Morale > 110% -> unit.morale = unit.morale * 110%

I discovered the anomaly when I made an error in my scenario design and gave two Decision Events the same number. As far as I can tell this worked except of course the original decision's answer would have been overwritten with whatever was the answer to the second event with the same number. I am not sure if it is intended that a "single use" DE can effectively be offered again in changed circumstances but it might be quite useful if it could be. Could someone please confirm that this is how AOD does work and whether it will continue to do so now that I have pointed it out?

Not intended but not likely to change either.

My surprise was that the US Convoy income graph took a huge negative dive right off the visible chart. I had not previously realised that the convoy graph must show a net value of imports less exports. It seems there might be an exception when the imports are zero, as is usually the case with USA, then the chart defaults to showing zero volume.

Can you send me this turn so I could take a look?

[mcaryf1]

Hi Hubert

Thank you for the answers. It is very useful that National Morale should have an impact on unit morale and hence performance. I have used it in my implementation of the Tonnage War and I have created some ongoing National Morale events that decrement National Morale by, for example 500 per turn, for every turn subsequent to the loss of a major oilfield. Unless this field is recaptured that will represent the country oil stockpile gradually running down and starting to reduce unit performance. On the positive side if a country captures an enemy oilfield or manages to hold on to one of its own fields that might usually be at risk, then I give a positive National Morale increment for each turn. Thus Japan can build up its morale from capturing the DEI oilfields but this morale boost will go the other way once the convoys coming from that area are interdicted.

I am pleased to hear that the multiple use of the same DE number anomaly will not change. I am currently trying to use it in my Tonnage War implementation to recognise an increased impact on the Allies if the Axis raiders have more than one good raider turn in a 3 month period. I will explain precisely how it works if it proves successful.

With respect to the negative convoy chart, I have emailed you a saved game and some other material to indicate the circumstances that caused this to happen. I should note that if this is unintended and not as a result of an error by me, I would not need this to be changed as it seems to give some quite useful information albeit sometimes from off the scale of the chart!

Regards

Mike

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks Mike, this is now fixed on my end