Erik's campaigns & mods

[SirAllan]

Just to let you know Erik, I did not experiance any long AI time to finish its turn.

[bru888]

I've run a few turns of each scenario and notice that the AI often takes a looong time to finish its turn.
Probably due to the large number of units.

I'm considering throwing historic OOBs out the window and simply halve the number of ships and air units on each side (except carriers in early scenarios).
This should increase playability and the feel of each battle should be the same.
Comments?

As we have learned over the past couple of years, when it comes to scenario designing, less units is more. Even if dozens of AI teams are used (and forget about it when too many units are assigned to individual AI teams), it takes a significant amount of computing time to process turns. More units are also tedious at times, both in waiting for the AI's turn to end, then having to move your own units one by one.

I've been looking through the official DLC and I have seen how they accomplish the desired effect with a modicum of units. Remember when you tried to help me with Oahu Invasion and the terrible lag times that I was dealing with? I had done the same thing as what you are talking about; every significant warship that was in the area around the time of the Pearl Harbor attack is in there. I could have cut back to one-fourth the number of ships and ground units, reduced the size of the map, and come up with a better scenario that was more enjoyable to play.

And adhered to history in effect.

[GabeKnight]

I'm considering throwing historic OOBs out the window and simply halve the number of ships and air units on each side (except carriers in early scenarios).
This should increase playability and the feel of each battle should be the same.
Comments?

I haven't played this campaign since my initial review of it. But I remember the long AI thinking times and the testing we've done. Long AI turns alone don't worry me that much. But I guess some of the larger scens could do as well with less units and smaller map sizes and less turns. On the other hand, you should leave some of the larger maps to allow for some epic battles. I'm sure there's enough players beside me who love those, too.

But however you decide, altogether I still think that you should decrease the ratio of player : enemy units in any case.

[Erik2]

Afrika Korps

Set skins to 'sandstorm' as default for all units with default skins in all scenarios.
Set skins to default for the non-desert scenarios.

1 Aufklarung :
Fixed 'Disable Tobruk' trigger.
I don't think it is possible to let players choose to use a custom core force in a campaign. Seems it is only possible for single-player scenarios. At least checking the 'Allow Custom Starting Force' for the scenario in the editor does nothing.
Although these scenarios are based on the old PzCorps, there are differences...
Scenario designers can't do much about how the game interprets the primary/secondary results. It is a bit odd that failing one primary and the only secondary objective should end in a draw.

Link updated to 3.1 in first post.

[bru888]

Scenario designers can't do much about how the game interprets the primary/secondary results. It is a bit odd that failing one primary and the only secondary objective should end in a draw.

See what I said in the Afrika Korps beta test thread. It's WAD but focus only on the primary objectives to understand it.

[terminator]

Scenario designers can't do much about how the game interprets the primary/secondary results. It is a bit odd that failing one primary and the only secondary objective should end in a draw.

The problem is the Primary Objectives for the AI :

Screenshot 1126.jpg (91.29 KiB) Viewed 3880 times

Capturing and holding Benghazi is not difficult for the player so the AI will never accomplish all the primary objectives. It is virtually impossible to have a Defeat in this scenario.
If you only set one Primary Objective for the AI = Hold ONE Primary VH then it could be possible for the player to have a defeat. For me that would have been the case.

[bru888]

Now you are talking about a design decision, not the workings of how the game creates a Draw. As I said in the other thread, you lost the Tobruk objective but you won the Benghazi objective. Mixed primary objective results = Draw. Whether that arrangement fits the scenario is a design decision.

[GabeKnight]

Capturing and holding Benghazi is not difficult for the player so the AI will never accomplish all the primary objectives. It is virtually impossible to have a Defeat in this scenario.
If you only set one Primary Objective for the AI = Hold ONE Primary VH then it could be possible for the player to have a defeat. For me that would have been the case.

I must admit that such eventualities - and I mean the possible ways for a player "defeat" - often slip my mind, too, when thinking about pure trigger logic.

Erik, I think terminator made a good point here and you should consider it.

[terminator]

I think the notion of Victory and Draw is not obvious when you have few primary objectives.
Only capturing one goal out of two, is it a Defeat or a Draw ?
The Primary Objective Tobruk contains 2 VHs (the City and the Airport), I thought it was more important than Benghazi.
Suggestion -> 3 Primary Objectives :
- Benghazi
- Tobruk City
- Tobruk Airport
3/3 = Victory
2/3 = Draw
1/3 = Defeat

El Agheila is the main refuelling point and is the object of a counter-attack, so it would make sense for it to be a primary objective ("Hold El Agheila or Do not lose El Agheila").
Another suggestion with 3 Primary Objectives :
- El Agheila
- Benghazi
- Tobruk City & Airport
3/3 = Victory (El Agheila & Benghazi & Tobruk)
2/3 = Draw (El Agheila & Benghazi)
1/3 = Defeat (El Agheila)

[AndreyBacerage]

Eric - any chance to get the Panzer Corps 43-45 eastern campaigns for Christmas yet ?

[Erik2]

Eric - any chance to get the Panzer Corps 43-45 eastern campaigns for Christmas yet ?

Sorry, not for Christmas.
But I will get it finished some day...

[Erik2]

US Naval Campaign

Consolidated US and Japanese units into one faction for each side.
Removed all CVLs, CVEs, AVs and about half of the destroyers in each scenario.
Renamed all core air units with carrier names and removed extra historical US core air units.
Added 50 resources at start of each scenario after Wake.
Updated Japanese specialisations.
Added Japanese commanders to each scenario.
US commanders added at Coral Sea (third scenario).
Minor campaign and unit experience changes.
Removed British forces from Coral Sea '46. Purchasing the 'British Pacific Fleet' specialisation should add some units.

[wolfpinguin]

US Naval Campaign

Consolidated US and Japanese units into one faction for each side.
Removed all CVLs, CVEs, AVs and about half of the destroyers in each scenario.
Renamed all core air units with carrier names and removed extra historical US core air units.
Added 50 resources at start of each scenario after Wake.
Updated Japanese specialisations.
Added Japanese commanders to each scenario.
US commanders added at Coral Sea (third scenario).
Minor campaign and unit experience changes.
Removed British forces from Coral Sea '46. Purchasing the 'British Pacific Fleet' specialisation should add some units.

Great changes, hopefully the playdelay si better now.
Gonna try it asap.

W.

[Erik2]

Download link in the first post.
It should be possible to import core units from 'Germany West 1939-40'.

Have fun and Merry Christmas everybody.

[rafdobrowolski]

Germany Grand Campaign - Buzinovka Depot scenario issue: I take all the primary VP's and the secondary ones, yet they are not counted as completed on the objectives screen. End result was a draw. Also some issues with the previous scenario or two, where I take all the primary and secondary VP's, and they include a "defend X" location objective. I take all the VP's, and defend location x, yet, at the end of the last turn I get either a marginal victory or a draw.

I just had the same situation happened in the Stalingrad docks scenario. I occupied all the VP locations, but it tells me that the 1st, 3rd, and 4th primary objectives have not been completed, and neither have the 2nd and 5th secondary objectives. However, I control the entire map and city of Stalin grad (playing on the easiest level at the moment...).

[Erik2]

Any issues with scenarios in the Germany Grand will be fixed in the various smaller Germany campaigns; West 39-40, West 41-43, East 41-42 or the upcoming East 43.

[AndreyBacerage]

...or the upcoming East 43

Nice news ! When can we expect ?

[terminator]

1Minsk41 (Germany East 41-42) :

Russian aircraft :
You say in the briefing "To that end, you should capture as many airfields as you can as quickly as you can." but the real objective is to destroy the hangars on the airfields where the Russians planes are stored. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve captured the airfields or not as long as you’ve destroyed as many hangars as you can. Instead of activating all aircraft in Turn 9, it might be better to do a gradual activation: aircraft in the nearest hangars first and aircraft in the farthest hangars last.

German Heroes :
Why so many Heroes at the beginning of this campaign? I can’t see them all at once ! What’s the point in having Albert Kesselring and Fritz Fliegel with stats against the ships ?

Bialystok :
Why is this place not indicated ? The full name of this battle is Battle of Bialystok-Minsk. There are 3 units at Bialystok with the Ai "Defend Hex, range = 1". They are very static and they defend a location (Bialystok) with no supply (?)
Maybe Defend Hex with range = 2 and adding Supply at Bialystock could be better ?

[Erik2]

Germany East 41-42

Minsk:
Removed non-suitable German commanders.
I never liked using commanders as rewards, so all commanders are available at the start of each campaign. Good commanders were one of Germany's best assets. You can click on the minus-sign to minimize the unit portraits, but unfortunately can't (yet) assign commanders in mini-mode.

Soviet air units activate separately whenever a German land unit gets close (2 hexes) to each airfield. On turn-9 any surviving Soviet air units will launch.

Bialystok is not an objective in the original PzC scenario.

Buzinovka:
Fixed primary objectives.

Stalingrad Docks:
Fixed primary objectives.

Link updated to 1.1 in first post.

Re Germany East 43.
Maps for all 15 scenarios are done, but it will take some time adding all the units and scripting the AI.

[terminator]

Re Germany East 43.
Maps for all 15 scenarios are done, but it will take some time adding all the units and scripting the AI.

Good luck, the hardest remains to do