New Features

[crispy131313]

I'd just like to add to the suggestion of more customization to difficulty settings. I would like to be able to the raise the experience bonus of Land, Air, and Naval seperately. I find the Naval bonus expierence can be very testing, but I find it very neccessary on land.

[Hubert Cater]

With the upcoming v1.01 patch release I've updated the top post to include 3 new key features that are now included:

* Unit Swapping - Adjacent units can now have their positions easily swapped with a new in game swapping mechanism.

* Movement Path - Movement path is now also highlighted under friendly units to show the full reach of a moveable unit.

* Air Units - Air units can now move at 50% of available action points when located on a snow, rain and sandstorm tile.

Some other notable changes that will be included are the following:

- Rail Guns can no longer enter enemy held territory (Robert)

- Entrenching units will now start with a two sided trench by default in the 'Entrench' dialog (Thomas)

- Reduced the number of shore bombardments that the AI will engage in when the game is played under WWI mode

- Added a full screen toggle option in the SETTINGS dialog (wolfpack)

- Improved AI combat under the 'Quick Logic' option (habari, ludi)

- Fortifications will no longer show a National Morale value in game (habari)

- AI Battleships will no longer purposefully target subs (ludi)

- ASW research benefits will no longer increase BB Sub attack values (ludi)

- Artillery Weapons upgrades for Heavy Artillery and Rail Guns will no longer increase their Naval, Carrier and Sub attack values (wushuki)

- Amphibious Transport costs now have a fixed cost of 100 MPP plus 25% of the unit MPP value

- Unit morale calculations relative to National Morale have been changed to the following:

- unit morale = unit morale * .95% - at 76 - 90% NM

- unit morale = unit morale * .9% - at 40 - 75% NM

- unit morale = unit morale * .85% - at 0 - 39% NM

- Land units that have recently unloaded from a Transport will no longer be able to 'Entrench' (worg64)

- Countries that surrender via an Armistice can no longer be

- National Morale is now increased anytime an enemy naval unit is sunk at the value of the enemy naval unit in MPPs (worg64)

- Damage evasion for naval units now set to 0% (Bill R.)

Additionally there are quite a few fixes, AI improvements, as well as over 50 tweaks and adjustments to the main campaigns.

All in all this will be a significant upgrade and improvement from the release version

Hubert

[Sharkman]

A sugestion for the next patch:

I think operational movement costs should depend on the distance of the movement. I think there should be a minimum cost (loading unit and equipment onto train cars) but the cost should increase with the distance. This applies to Global Conflict as well.

[SirKid]

I just finished my second game as the Germans and both time I was winning but lost due to drop in moral. I understand this feature but I think there should be more ways to increase your country’s moral. I had defeated every country but Brittan, France, and the US. I think that you should have a country’s moral increase when they defeat another country. Maybe allow the spending of points to bump it up.

[Bill101]

Hi SirKid

Thanks for the feedback. Taking a look at this area is on my agenda so it is quite possible that some amendments will be made.

In your games, had Russia surrendered in both and was Germany receiving grain supplies from the Ukraine?

Bill

[LampCord]

How does unit swapping work?

I tried searching for it in the manual and the forum but I can't seem to find the key / mouse sequence to pull this off.

[Bill101]

If you select a unit, then press the SHIFT key and left click on an adjacent unit you want to swop it with, it will then swop them over and it should be done.

This can be done for all types of units, as long as they haven't already finished their turn.

[LampCord]

If you select a unit, then press the SHIFT key and left click on an adjacent unit you want to swop it with, it will then swop them over and it should be done.

This can be done for all types of units, as long as they haven't already finished their turn.

Thanks Bill! This is going to save my ass on the Western Front. I need to swap out a bunch of front line units to upgrade them but of course I can't leave any gaps in my line or the Germans will destroy my trenches.

[Bill101]

Glad to hear it!

[armyrem]

Long time fan, first post...not gonna make a great entrance here but I can't seem to figure out how to force march my troops. Need some help...Thanks

[Amadeus]

In the localization.txt there are 2 entries that may be wrong.

#OPTIONS_MENU_TEXT_3= Enable to improve AI speed

#OPTIONS_MENU_TEXT_4= Disable to improve AI speed

The first one is shown for:

#OPTIONS_TEXT_10= Quick Animation AND

#OPTIONS_TEXT_11= Quick Logic

The second one is shown for

#OPTIONS_TEXT_9= Show Moves/Combat AND

#OPTIONS_TEXT_12= Messages (AI Turn)

Maybe confusing or not clear isn't it?

[xwormwood]

Long time fan, first post...not gonna make a great entrance here but I can't seem to figure out how to force march my troops. Need some help...Thanks

Hi armyrem, and welcome!

The force march button is on the right side of the screen. Click on the unit you want to move and than look at the right bar:

[armyrem]

Thanks xwormwood...

[Hubert Cater]

Hi Amadeus,

I double checked the OPTIONS screen where these messages will appear and as far as I can tell the messages are being displayed correctly.

I can see how it may be confusing as some options need to be enabled while others are disabled to improve AI speed but I unfortunately don't see a good way around that.

Hope this helps,

Hubert

[Ivanov]

Hi

Example if I play against the computer in WW2 I would want to be able to choose +1 experiences for Germany and England while having -1 experience for France and Italy.

I'm not sure if giving some experience bonus to the Germans would be historicaly acurate, as there were many low quality units within Wehrmacht aswell, and it was the superior tactics that was a decisive factor in the early war blitzkrieg-victories. French weakness is well represented by the rapid fall of the National Morale of that country.

What I think would be worth doing, is penalizing Italian units that have lower morale, with some additional stenght loss, after each combat that would result in taking caualities or withdrawl. The additional strenght loose would be an acurate representation of some number of Italian troops that surrenederd to the enemy. This penalty may affect only regular infantry units. Italian tanks or special forces shouldn't be affected by it.

[ev]

I'm not sure if giving some experience bonus to the Germans would be historicaly acurate, as there were many low quality units within Wehrmacht aswell, and it was the superior tactics that was a decisive factor in the early war blitzkrieg-victories. French weakness is well represented by the rapid fall of the National Morale of that country.

What I think would be worth doing, is penalizing Italian units that have lower morale, with some additional stenght loss, after each combat that would result in taking caualities or withdrawl. The additional strenght loose would be an acurate representation of some number of Italian troops that surrenederd to the enemy. This penalty may affect only regular infantry units. Italian tanks or special forces shouldn't be affected by it.

I agree with the first point, but have some doubts about the second.

With regards to the first point, I think better HQs is the way to represent better tactics.

With regards to the second point, Italian low morale may have been due to poor leadership and poor equipment. Low rate HQs may a better way to represent poor leadership, while low tech may be the best way to represent poor equipment.

[Ivanov]

With regards to the second point, Italian low morale may have been due to poor leadership and poor equipment. Low rate HQs may a better way to represent poor leadership, while low tech may be the best way to represent poor equipment.

Hi Ev!

I'm not sure that inadequate equipment and poor leadership fully explains the fact, that the Italian forces were often simply melting away, when confronted by numerically inferior British forces, for example during the Operation Compass in 1940. Italian army wasn't able to break on it's own the resistance of Greece, which in this game is a minor country. Certain branches of the Italian armed forces like Regia Aeronautica or Bersaglieri were certainly up to the task, no doubt about that. But I think that some extra penalty, reflecting surrendering Italian troops, that didn't want to die in the name of Duce, could spice up the game a bit:)

[Sharkman]

I have a sugestion for the next patch: When a unit is selected for operational movement, tiles occupied by freindly units that would otherwise be reachable should also be highlighted. I have had the problem that I wanted to move a unit and then occupy the vacant tile with another unit moved in operationaly, only to discover that I couldn't reach that tile with operational movement, which left an uncomfortable hole in my lines. There is presently no way to find out if it's possible before leaving the tile.

[Gronq]

Making the Fog of War a bit more, well, foggier...

Having played most versions of SC now for a number of years I'd like to see some changes to the fog of war to make battles, quite frankly, a bit riskier. Therefore, some suggestions that I'd be grateful if you all could consider:

1. Units spotted should not be guaranteed to be what they seem.

2. Units in immediate contact with other units should not necessarily show their true tech level (unless battles have been fought previously). The likely battle outcomes displayed should reflect this.

3. Terrain should have an effect on concealment e.g. harder to spot a unit and/or detect the type in forests.

4. Introduce some new research categories: Reconnaissance - ability to spot and accurately determine the type of unit, Concealment - ability to camouflage units, Deception - ability 'fake' units e.g. portray that a Garrison unit is tank group.

[Kommandant]

1. Units spotted should not be guaranteed to be what they seem.

4. Introduce some new research categories: Reconnaissance - ability to spot and accurately determine the type of unit, Concealment - ability to camouflage units, Deception - ability 'fake' units e.g. portray that a Garrison unit is tank group.

This makes a lot of sense, since it happened nearly in all wars in human history. A famous one is the fake army of the allied forces in Brittan nearly Pa de Calais, making the Germans believes that these were the real invasion force.

3. Terrain should have an effect on concealment e.g. harder to spot a unit and/or detect the type in forests.

The type o terrain also makes sense, for it was very difficult for the German armies to find and counter the partisans in the forests of Russia...

These are interesting observation that should be considered.

[xwormwood]

Even more important:

5. The national morale values of the opposite alliance (in WW1 this is a crucial information) shouldn't be visible. If at all, only with a "traffic light" (green, yellow, red). Intelligence could provide every now and then a single information, just the way how unit sightings happen

6. False sightings (like Pattons D-Day "invasion" army)

7. units in forrest tiles should be nearly invisible, at least to air recon flights

[Sharkman]

I agree, especialy with #5, knowing or not knowing this value would have a dramatic effect on strategy.

[Glabro]

Hi Ev!

I'm not sure that inadequate equipment and poor leadership fully explains the fact, that the Italian forces were often simply melting away, when confronted by numerically inferior British forces, for example during the Operation Compass in 1940. Italian army wasn't able to break on it's own the resistance of Greece, which in this game is a minor country.

More than not being able to break the Greeks' resistance, they were not able to halt the advance of the Greeks into Italian colonies! Yes, poor leadership and equipment, but still, something was terribly wrong about their ability and will to fight. An inherently lower morale perhaps?

Rommel commented that the Italians did become competent soldiers when properly trained by the DAK and properly led by Germans, though....

[ev]

In SC a unit without an HQ is at a terrible dissadvantage.

You want mimick how the Duce treated his soldiers? Send them with no HQ support and no tech improvement. If you do that in SC you will get the same results obtained by Mussolini.

If you want to repeat Mussolini's stupidity, you don't need Hubert to write you a special software package. You just have to act in a very stupid manner.

[ev]

4. Introduce some new research categories: Reconnaissance - ability to spot and accurately determine the type of unit, Concealment - ability to camouflage units, Deception - ability 'fake' units e.g. portray that a Garrison unit is tank group.

I agree there should be a way to increase the spotting range of ground units.

First, I eould like to draw a distinction between spotting range and spotting quality. As I read Grng's proposal, he is concerned about spotting quality, while I am talking about spotting range. Nevertheless, bear with me:

During WWII a ground units ability to patrol and reconnoiter a given territory depended largely on two factors:

(1) How fast or far away could your patrols move in agiven amount of time. For example, scout moving on jeeps could cover a much bigger area than scouts on feet.

(2) The range of your radio equipment. At the time, long range radio equipment was not very portable. Also, these sets needed a power source. Again, scouts using a jeep, a halftrack, or even a motorcycle, could carry bigger radios and had a power source available for their radio sets.

My point: increasing a units mot. tech. level should also result in a small increase in spotting range (say half a tile per tech level increase).