John DiFool the 2nd

What I noticed in the original release is that, compared to stock and Nupremal's, I was constantly trying to scrimp to buy the essentials, for both Germany and Japan-it didn't seem like income had been scaled properly with the larger force pools.

Ditto-very annoying.

For the main site (not forums obviously, just reset it just now), I can't even get a password reset email. Which means I can't DL any scenarios and such.

The AA tech being applied to things other than cities and resources, you mean? I've always wanted them on ships too, so yeah we can shake on that.

The bug described in this thread bit me in the bum last night: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=91431 I had a German corps in eastern Poland when they surrendered, and the corps surrendered to the Russians, and was lost, instead of being shifted back westwards over the line. I'll also, once again, ask Nupremal to consider adding a 2nd chit level. At the moment the player is far too subject to the vagaries of chance when it comes to tech paying off (I've argued this before), with no possible redress. [Thinking outside the box mode]What if each chit cost say 500 MPPs, but with a 25% chance of paying off? That would reduce the huge standard deviation inherent when the chance is only 5%, thus making things a bit more predictable. This way tech investment will require the significant outlay you'd expect (and not the lottery ticket we currently get), but you'll almost always get it within a year. And even if you do get an immediate payoff, for offensive purposes at least it will be 2 more turns before you can use it anyway. Thoughts?

I'll likely be soliciting for 5 (more) players for a 6 person slugfest soon, but I want to wait for the 1st patch first (so that the saved games aren't invalidated, which has sometimes happened in the past).

Understood-no beeg deal.

Not in Al's scenario they aren't. I notice that I failed to mention that in my first post above, sorry about that.

Well, frankly there should be only one motorization level for each country (fixed and not subject to tech). To fully motorize an infantry corps is a very expensive proposition, something neither the Germans nor Russians (even with oodles of American trucks) ever came close to doing. You need the vehicles (the Germans basically pillaged all motor transport in any occupied territory they took, and even then that wasn't enough), but also the gas, along with the maintenance tail as well (keeping an armored division running was also hugely profligate in logistics-terms). Even a 100 point penalty per unit upgrade would understate the difficulties involved.

Because they weren't at war with them, and hence couldn't cross the border. A DOW likely would have brought in the US before I had a chance for the Japanese to Pearl Harbor them. Now, it's possible I'm not reading the "independent DOW thing" correctly.

One more wish, and it naturally relates to the sub war. The AI should be systematically sweeping the convoy lanes with its destroyers. What it does instead is this quasi-cheating thing where it "knows" where an enemy sub is (before the raid box pops up and the "?" sub marker appears), and moves all escorts in the area exactlly 2 spaces away from it. While it can often surprise a sub like that, what typically happens is that a savvy human player can anticipate where the DD screen is, and, using the "control" key can designate a path which typically avoids the screen. Rinse and repeat for the next turn; in one of the larger scenarios this becomes even easier. In Al's scenario I was able to mostly avoid being attacked by any DDs for over 2 years, "sinking" hundreds of points in the convoys. Just have the DDs travel up and down the lanes to the limit of their movement points-they'll find and damage more subs that way and keep them from raiding the lanes.

Here's a related one: I attacked Russia with the Germans, but held off on bringing the Italians in because US entry was 4 points below 90% and I wanted to keep them out as long as possible (Japanese weren't ready at all). A Russian unit crossed the Polish border, and I was able to attack it with a couple of Italian corps that I was saving for garrison duty.

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

We really need those garrisons (or extra corps because of the AI). The Japanese have no prayer of garrisoning much of their gains since they can buy only 7 more corps at start. And production overall seems low-for everybody except maybe Italy, but I'll play some more before I comment further.

Odd bug. A Chinese unit snuck across a river and behind Japanese lines (late '39). After training my units on his carcass for a few turns, I finally killed him. The space he occupied (80,83) remained Chinese, and I can't move diddly into it, despite clear weather, no adjacent enemy units, no river lines being crossed by the relevant units. Even more oddly one of my units can leapfrog the space into one on the other side, but cannot enter the space itself. When I hover the mouse pointer over it, in the upper left corner it says "Japan: Occupied->USA." The other hexes in China which are Chinese controlled all say "China: Allied 100%." In addition, I got the free Dutch SS unit after I took Brussels-only to see it blasted out of existence by the Allies because it popped up on the front lines with only 3 strength points. It's okay since the motorized upgrade was 1/2 price because of the buyback discount.

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.

I like to surf the web when the AI plays it turns, but when I go back in and try to upgrade my tech while still in non-full-screen mode, the buttons don't always register my choices, and sometimes I even lose the MPPs I spent without getting the chit.

There's only 6 major power slots-of the 3 candidates, Italy has the most interesting strategic options, despite her crap MPP income (& other issues).

My rig is pretty beefy, but it lags like crazy here too. Obviously a ton of work has been involved, and in principle me likey, but I think I prefer the important world regions being chopped into pieces (as in Al's if I am reading his readme's correctly) to facilitate smooth operation (even if that is aesthetically displeasing in a way). Antarctica for example adds nothing to gameplay here.

Did they repeal that file size limit that they had awhile back?

I think BB/CA/CV units already are task forces-representing (kinda sorta) 2 capital ships of the corresponding type (cruiser flotilla probably half a dozen of them). I'd love, love, a chance, as the IJN, to fight the RN while the US remains a spectator until say 1944. It will take, rough guess, about a year for Britain to get its forces in place to take the DEI. It won't have enough ground units to hold them, and the Japanese CVs would chew through their navy like crap through a goose (the British invariably got their asses kicked any time their major fleet units faced IJN ones, at least before 1944), and probably get the oil back in 6 months or so. Meanwhile Hitler, with the RN AWOL, has his way in Europe too? While it might hurt the Japanese a bit at first (remember they lose the oil anyway by mid-'41 or so), they'll be running roughshod for 2 years through the Pacific until the US finally decides (is allowed) to show up. That kind of alternate scenario would really get my blood pumping, and frankly is one of the major reasons I am attracted to these kinds of grand strategy games in the first place.

Yep, "550 CWD failed. "/Nupremal World.650.zip" " once again. Will someone please at least test the DLs first before okaying them for public display?

Heh, Russkies control Mao eh? Like how you think.

Yeah, that last one hits once you try to DL it 5 times (nevermind if you actually didn't DL it at all, works out the same).

Depends if the Repository stops having hiccups. I'd still like to do a full 6-the US would have control of China, correct? So they won't be bored-the USSR then would be the only one who wouldn't be active in some way at the start.