Panzer Joe

Actualy this idea comes out of good old Panzer General.

Makes sence to me

so how does the Group-thing work? How do you join groups?

I signed up for Zappleague but how does it work? How can I find opponants in the league? Who can chalenge who? What are the rules? When I look at the standings I don't see anything.

So one person bids 100 then the next bids 120? Or does the first person bids then the second player decides what side he wants.

I have seen many posts talking about bids. 1:8 120 What does this mean? I have done a search and can't find any explination.

The Manhattan Project was a great example of a maximum effort research project. If you had given General groves 1/5 the budget and told Robert Oppenheimer to hand pick a core research team would they have taken five times as long to finish? One of the big delays in the Manhattan Project was the shortage of criticle materials couldn't be produced fast enough. If they had been given ten times the men and materials they could not have finished in a tenth the time.

Actualy I have some experiance in research. If you are putting a serious effort into gaining a new Tech you hire the best mind in the field to head up an engineering team. If you want to expand your program and give them more people and money who are you going to get to head up the second team? You hire the second best mind in his field. Even if you gave your scientists unlimited funds they are not going to go from the ME-109 to ME-262 in an afternoon.

Glad to see I am in good company. This suggestion can achieve Panzer39's ideas on min and max time for research in a very strait forward and direct way. I was just using those numbers as an example. Adjust the final values to get the result you want. By adjusting the research rates and final point totals you can decide how fast or slow you want your tech to show up. I would set a target of level 5 should be reached some time in 1945 with 2 points invested from day one. [ September 22, 2003, 08:29 PM: Message edited by: Panzer Joe ]

Another thing I forgot to take into acount is exsisting research. In ever tech field that an enemy or friendly contry has better tech level than yours. Add 5 extra points per turn. This is to show the effect of spying on friends and enemies and reverse engineering captured equipment. So the Germans get level 1 fighters. Twenty turns after they have depoyed it everyone else will get it for free. Because the higher levels of tech are harder to achive these points might be enough to give you a few free tech levels but they will never be enough to catchup without investing your own research.

One thing I don't like about the current model for research is how random it is. You put one point into heavy tanks and you could get it next turn .. or maybe never. Why not have a development track? Each turn the research points you have alocated generate a random number of points. Take 1-20 as an example. You add the points from turn to turn until you make a break through. You can see how close you are to the big break through but you aren't sure when they will finaly pay off. Level - Points 0 - 0 1 - 100 2 - 250 3 - 350 4 - 600 5 - 900 That first level of tech could happen in 5 turns or it could take you 100 turns. With the high number of random numbers it will probably be about 9 turns unless you are impossibly lucky or unlucky. We might also want to reduce the value of additional points. In research 2 scientists don't nessisarily think up stuff twice as fast. Research Maxpoints 1 - 20 2 - 35 3 - 45 4 - 50 5 - 55 You might get that first level in 2 turns .. but it may still take 100 turns.

Off topic but this thread has me thinking about the defence a human would put up against Sealion. A real human opponant would have a fleet in the North sea near Edinburough and one in the Irish sea south of Birmingham. They would move into the channel and destroy the HQ unit...... Why is it that with Fog of war on you can see what type of unit is loaded in that transport? Shouldn't you enter the channel and see six loaded transports and have to guess? [ September 22, 2003, 07:25 PM: Message edited by: Panzer Joe ]

I was thinking you would need to have the unit at full strength and in very high supply. Upgrading units should only happen in a city or up close to a HQ unit. This would make research less valuable but if you feal it is unfair to Germany and Russia give them a few free research points. Russia already starts with 3 free points and several great techs so maybe just give Germany 3 free points at the start to show their great technical skills at the start of the war. You can even go farther and say Germany has a point of research commited to Jets, Rockets, and Subs. Since that was their top three military research projects. They didn't start developing heavy tanks till after the comanders reported how out classed they were to the French and British. [ September 22, 2003, 06:09 PM: Message edited by: Panzer Joe ]

One of the worst parts of technology in SC is the abuse of tech advances. Especialy the Airfleets. I propose is to have 6 different units of each type each one being more expencive than the last. When you get a new unit type you would then start producing new units with the new technology. But your old units would stay stagnet. Each new unit would be 5-10% more expencive than the older version. Tanks, bombers, infantry and ships would be 5% per level for a total of +25% cost at maximum level. Airfleets and Rockets would be 10% more expencive per level for a total of +50%. We would also need an upgrade function. Any unit at full strength with a 10 supply level could upgrade to the current level of tech for 25% of the cost of the new unit. This is because it is very hard to upgrade units in the field. Lots of new dynamics would come out of this. 1> You won't want to spend money upgrading garisons that are not expecting attack. (You won't see tiger tanks in France until the Germans are sure you are going to invade.) 2> You will have some units in the field that never get the new equipment. If you realy want the new equipment you will need to rotate the old units out of the line for rest and refit. 3> Armies will try to skip generations. Just because you have L1 air fleets you might not want to upgrade them all. Give some units the new ME-109g for killing the enemy fighters the rest will have to live with the 109e and escort bombers. 4> You may not want to upgrade all the units. alot of times it is far more important to get more bodies on the field than to upgrade. (At the end of the war Hitler was making brand new green units with Panther tanks. At the same time many veteran units were scrounging parts for thier old Cz-38 or Pz-III.)

NEVER kill a crippled air unit! You want the brits building expencive replacments for their crppled RAF not cheep easily replaced corps. By the time you assalt Birmingham you will have a 5-2 advantage in air strength and you can easily replace your losses. The battle will be won with German armies and tanks. I always keep all the powers random the only way you loose is if Russia declairs. The US is unimportant. They will be to little and to late to save poor Britian. Even with the US in the war it is easy to invade Canada. There just aren't enough US fleets to stop your unportected transports. [ September 22, 2003, 01:43 PM: Message edited by: Panzer Joe ]