One scripted event too much for my taste

[Hubert Cater]

Good points and we can certainly lower this

[Hubert Cater]

I enjoy the scripted events as they bring some historical flavor to the game. It reminds me of the dual Mongol invasions that occur in the game Crusader Kings. I definitely prefer to play with scripted events on.

The unit scripted events are a bit bothersome because it does hinder strategic planning. I think a simple fix for the scripted events of extra units appearing would be to just have them be in the production queue.

I understand that there's some units that this doesn't make sense for like the invasion triggered units (e.g. British Home Guard). But for the Japanese it'd be nice to see the expeditionary units in the queue just from a planning perspective.

I know that some of these scripted units are meant to make you feel surprised and maybe mimic the historical surprise of an actual event but after I play the game once I won't really be surprised anymore and then it's just a pain to remember "Oh, in the Spring of '41 I'll get like 3 inf. units that aren't in my queue."

Putting units in the production queue that aren't dynamically event triggered for me would make everything cool with the scripted events.

This game is totally worth $45.00 is my opinion. SC2 (only discovered it in 2009) was my first Battlefront experience but I'm a customer for life now.

Gypsy,

Glad to hear you are enjoying the game and for the Japanese units some of these are unfortunately tied into the AI, i.e. they were added to help AI plan their invasions and after testing we felt that their placements would help out the Japanese human player as well so we left them in. That being said as I said earlier I can see how some of these unannounced units might come as a surprise and I can try and add in a few popups to warn players of their arrivals.

Hubert

[Gypsy]

Gypsy,

Glad to hear you are enjoying the game and for the Japanese units some of these are unfortunately tied into the AI, i.e. they were added to help AI plan their invasions and after testing we felt that their placements would help out the Japanese human player as well so we left them in. That being said as I said earlier I can see how some of these unannounced units might come as a surprise and I can try and add in a few popups to warn players of their arrivals.

Hubert

Hubert,

Thanks for your reply and your attention to customer concerns and queries. Your game is awesomely playable and enjoyable my only concern now is trying not to play it while at work

[Hubert Cater]

Bo, i agree.

And i have no problem if the AI gets some help to offer at least some kind of challenge against the human player.

It would be nice though if the game would tell me more about this help, something like "Due to your cunning warfare, Hitler seems it nescessary to send Rommel toward africa. Our local spies at Benghazi indicate that he brought a panzer unit, a tac air and two corps with him. "

This way i would know that

a) these reinforcements won't be there for me if I would play the axis, as they were only sent as a direct result of MY cunning (cough, cough) actions

i need to REACT somehow against this REAL thread (often infos pop up just to give me some historical or cultural background information, which i absolutly love, btw.)

The game could even ask me now (this would be a brilliant moment to do so) if i want to put those australian reinforcement aside as a strategic reserve (now i would know and understand why they arrive in africa, i wouldn't felt cheated out of a decision).

Those little adjustments wouldn't be an impossible task, correct?

This is a fair enough point and I can see how this would be a normal reaction even though I think you see now that it was never implemented with this intent.

I'll see what I can do to make adjustments on the more controversial unit popups as what may seem normal to us developers after so long a time of production might not come across the same way to fresh players.

Hubert

[Bill101]

Skipping wouldn't have been my choice as well, no, i am truly glad that the Graf Spee was in the game. I would have cried out loud if i wouldn't have had the ship in the game, i know myself.

But instead of strength 1, what about a 3, a 4, or a 5?

With strength 4 or 5, you could alway still explain that a strength 10 unit is a group out of 2 or 3 CAs with escorts. That would be fitting better within the game design, the previous explained numbers.

I remember trying out various strengths for the Graf Spee and anything below 8 just didn't really create a "fear factor". Anything weaker was just too easy to sink.

Although it is, as a unit, overstrength at 8, its strategic effect does overall represent all of the scattered Kriegsmarine units that operated in numerous theaters (e.g. in the Indian Ocean) and which aren't represented.

That said, if there is a consensus in the long run for a lower strength then let's go for it.

[xwormwood]

Bill101, i think the problem is that the Graf Spee was a single ship while single ships are not ment to be in any SC release.

Maybe a complete new unit might have done the trick?

As there are no AA units, why not use the open slot for commerce raiders?

Those commerce raiders could be a naval power as strong as something like a DD unit, but of course without the ability to hunt subs, and with unlimited supply.

Even though their attacks on convoy lines would be somewhat like moskito bites, they would be still annoying to the Allied Player.

The Graf Spee could be a strong commerce raider unit instead of a weak CA task forces. Give the axis side some more commerce raiders (maybe with the "silent" option like the subs) and the axis had some nice toys to harras the wide wide oceans while the Allied side had something to hunt for.

The Graf Spee doesn't need to be a fear factor to allied CA task forces. If at all only a worthy match for an allied DD unit (that would perfectly represent the fight of the Spee against the british units before the germans scutteled the ship near Montevideo.

Commerce raiders could start everywhere on the map, you could always explain this as those ships did hide themself as neutral merchants.

[xwormwood]

might not come across the same way to fresh players.

Thanks Hubert!

I can only agree and understand.

In my own job i appreciate the insight (every now and then) from outsider as well.

But in the end this is your game, i'm only one single customer out of hundreds (or hopefully: thousands).

[PowerGmbH]

Maybe a complete new unit might have done the trick?

As there are no AA units, why not use the open slot for commerce raiders?

Well i can tell you that you will be positiveley surprised soon on 22.3.2010

with my MOD i have ready waiting, including: Heavy Cruiser, Auxiliary Cruiser (Commerce Raiders, in German: HSK , all the list form Orion to Atlantis )

As well quite some adds, from 11 Day Turns(!!) , Aditional Maping and Aditional AI for Axis and/or Allies, as well as controversial Decisions that where skipped due to general public, you will be impressed!

[Bill101]

The Graf Spee doesn't need to be a fear factor to allied CA task forces. If at all only a worthy match for an allied DD unit (that would perfectly represent the fight of the Spee against the british units before the germans scutteled the ship near Montevideo.

Hi Xwormwood

I'm not sure about this, because I have wargamed the Battle of the River Plate a number of times with people who know their naval history and the Graf Spee was a good ship, a pocket battleship which had to fight one heavy cruiser and two light cruisers, and the British ships didn't come off lightly. Thus in my opinion it is a unit that really should require more than a DD to be taken out with.

[xwormwood]

Bill101, than transform the Spee with her 28 cm guns into a weak BB instead.

This could be another option.

You could always explain that the the River Plate Battle had already occured.

[John DiFool the 2nd]

My idea was to make ship upgrades (well, for Naval Warfare at least) ridiculously expensive, so that we could differentiate between the WWI-era battlewagons from the treaty BBs and post-escalation clause BBs. Point being that you can't just twiddle a few things on a ship and instantly make it completely modern and state-of-the-art; about the only thing you could do was improve the AA armament, and even then prior design constraints limited how many AA guns you could bolt on there, typically. But the AI might have issues, and we obviously don't want new BBs to cost 2,000 MPPs.

[xwormwood]

I like this one.

Very good idea, John!

[carverrt]

...Point being that you can't just twiddle a few things on a ship and instantly make it completely modern and state-of-the-art; about the only thing you could do was improve the AA armament, and even then prior design constraints limited how many AA guns you could bolt on there...

Gunnery Radar and other electronics; it took the Japanese advantage away in night fighting and armor (plunging shot did not have to go through side armor).

[PowerGmbH]

My idea was to make ship upgrades (well, for Naval Warfare at least) ridiculously expensive, so that we could differentiate between the WWI-era battlewagons from the treaty BBs and post-escalation clause BBs. Point being that you can't just twiddle a few things on a ship and instantly make it completely modern and state-of-the-art; about the only thing you could do was improve the AA armament, and even then prior design constraints limited how many AA guns you could bolt on there, typically. But the AI might have issues, and we obviously don't want new BBs to cost 2,000 MPPs.

Awesome Idea! this is MOD compatible as one can set the Upgrade cost of Naval Warfare from 0-100%. I tried this in my comming soon mod, and it works fine. This means: UK and USA HAVE naval Warfare 1, but most Ships are not "Upgraded" ( i.e. Warspite from 1915...) so as an Upgrade costs 200MPP this is an improbable action, making the Fleets more historic:

i.e. Italian BB's from 1916 then will probably never be upgraded exept the New arriving one, means the Player must decide well where to deploy the modern Fleet and where to leave the Antic Fleet.

This is Simply an AWSOME Idea - Simple, Historic AND Prevents cheats ( i.e. Axis Upgrading the whoole Italian Fleet at once. ) THANKS! i'm shure while Hubert reads this it will be considered seriously.

[John DiFool the 2nd]

Have to check how it affects new builds tho. It has been on my mind for awhile now actually.

[Hubert Cater]

I'll admit it is a very innovative idea wrt using the Editing capabilities of the game, but I'd be hesitant to make this type of change for now.

Some changes don't always go over so well once a game has shipped, i.e. you have to be careful in this respect as we've got a more generic system in place for all unit types, but that being said David has been working on a mod of the originally released campaign and it sounds like he is thinking of incorporating that for those that would prefer this kind of setup. I'd be curious to see how it plays out

[PowerGmbH]

but that being said David has been working on a mod of the originally released campaign and it sounds like he is thinking of incorporating that for those that would prefer this kind of setup. I'd be curious to see how it plays out

Well, i have set 1 UK BB and CR on Naval Tech 1, 2 Australian on "1" so far. Japanese have "old" BB's, so "0", similar for USA ( Pearl Harbour Fleet )

others on the Queue come mostly with "newest" tech.

I had run this only one night in AI vs AI, result seems not to be totally out of the possible results, so i think this is a simply awesome idea to prevent Exploits from i.e. an Italian Navy. ( i reduced the Italian "costs" to 110% from 150% as well ).

[Emperor Elliott]

Ya but it costs so much to upgrade then.

[PowerGmbH]

Ya but it costs so much to upgrade then.

Exactly. If you have an "old" Fleet from WW1 ( like UK ) the expensive "Naval Warfare Upgrade" helps to simulate WW1 battleships, while the ones built later (Production Queue, Unit Events) receive the "Actual" tech level. this is fantastically Historic.

in other Words: once you have your Ship built , it's only upgradeable in Anti Sub Tech , not any more (Cost) in Naval tech, so you must live with the Tech level it has.

If you look in Wiki, most of the British BB's are from 1915-1920 ( Warspite, Malaya etc ) while only some late comers in the Prodcution Queue ( George V etc are "modern" ). compared to that the Axis German Ships are state of the art ones built in the late 30' ( Japanese ones are also mostly WW1 )

[SeaMonkey]

I think you right on here David and I'm looking forward to trying your campaign out, especially with the double strike fighters and TAC.

There's just so many great mods with this fantastic Hubert created game engine and not enough time to explore them all, but I ain't dead yet.

As I peer back into the early days when I jumped onto this SC bandwagon, there were times I experimented with other games but somehow I knew, recognizing Hubert's committment, that this was a game I could play and help improve for the rest of my life.

Not that there may be something on the horizon to eclipse SC, but at this point in development, I'm going to pat myself on the back and say "good decision".

[Emperor Elliott]

Ya but the amount of mmps it takes is like one or two turns of money. Also it not only for BBs. It costs that same for all ships. And anti-submarine warfare also costs 40% of the ship value. that cant be right.