Bullethead
28 Aug 06, 14:42
In the course of my various campaigns, I've become painfully aware of the infamous "Takeshiki Circle" and the strange things that happen there. After coming to the conclusion that it's a minefield, I've been looking forward to having a battle near Port Arthur, where everything is a minefield, to see if there was a "Port Arthur Circle" with similar effects. Finally, I had my chance, and strangely, there was no such thing. So I'd like to hear from other folks on these issues to see if there are any problems and what they might be.
Takeshiki Circle Summary from Russian POV
The Takeshiki Circle has the following effects from the Russian side:
No visible Japanese mine icon on the campaign map
In battles near Takeshiki, the minimap shows a huge circle of a red/brown hatch pattern centered on Takeshiki. The diameter of this circle is about 1/4 the length of the minimap's edge at 1x zoom.
Most of this huge circle is invisible in the battlespace. However, there's a much smaller circular area that barely extends beyond the strait between the 2 islands that is visible as a grid pattern of dark, translucent circles under each water tile.
If the cursor in the battlespace is over one of these dark spots, it says "Inner Base Defenses". If the cursor is over a normal-looking tile beyond that, but still inside the huge circle shown on the minimap, it says "Outer Base Defenses".
The only way to give turning orders to Russian ships inside the huge minimap circle is if the POV is outside the huge minimap circle.
As long as any ships are within the huge minimap circle, you hear occasional loud explosions from no apparent source. No ships appear to get damaged, friend or foe.
Port Arthur Area from Russian POV
When my battle at Port Arthur happened, Port Arthur itself, as well as the adjacent "hexes" of Wei-Hai-Wei, Elliot Islands, and that Russian port just north of Elliot, all had at least 550 Russian mines at them. So I was expecting to see something very similar to the "Takeshiki Circle", maybe even parts of several such circles, on the minimap. I was also expecting to see individual minefield icons scattered about in the battlespace, because the manual says something like "the owning player knows where mines are but the enemy has to find out the hard way". But I was disappointed both times.
First off there was no huge minimap circle at all. There was just a small arc of the hash pattern within the actual Port Arthur harbor itself, which didn't protrude at all beyond the channel entrance between the 2 lighthouses. Putting the cursor in this area said "Outer Base Defenses", with "Inner Base Defenses" limited to the area covered by the circled anchor port icon itself. IOW, the scale of the minefield was miniscule compared to the "Takeshiki Circle". Because no ships of either side went through the harbor entrance, I was unable to see if the steering problems and mysterious explosions occured in the stunted "Port Arthur Pie Slice".
I did notice, however, that within the "Port Arthur Pie Slice", there wasn't anything visible in the battlespace. No minefield icons like I'd expected. So how could I know where the minefields were?
Questions and Concerns
Anyway, this all seems rather strange. If the "Takeshiki Circle" is how a minefield is supposed to look in the game (at least to the enemy), why wasn't there a huge circle of similar size around Port Arthur. Looking at the minelaying capacities of both sides, I hardly think the IJN could put nearly as many mines around Takeshiki as I did at Port Arthur, let alone all the adjacent ports as well, so why is the Japanese minefield so much wider? Hell, if the Russian fields were the same size, I'd have expected a part of the field around Elliot Islands to protrude into the map on the east side, as well as a big Port Arthur Circle.
There's also the question of knowing where friendly mines are, which the manual says is supposed to happen. The way I'd been expecting things to work was that the big minimap circle, which the enemy can see, represented the area within which mines might be, as a warning to the enemy player. However, the mines wouldn't be spread evenly throughout this whole area (which would be very unrealistic). Instead, they'd be like in real life, scattered about the huge circle's area in discrete clumps, each of which would appear in the battlespace as an icon on the water (the same way port anchors do) to the owning player but not to the enemy.
Like I said, however, this doesn't appear to happen. I see no mine symbols on in the battlespace at all, only the hashmarks on the minimap. But these hashmarks are visible to both players, so despite what the manual says, both sides have the same amount of info available. This makes it literally Russian roulette for friends and foes in friendly minefields.
Anybody else seen anything different or have some observations or theories to throw out?
Takeshiki Circle Summary from Russian POV
The Takeshiki Circle has the following effects from the Russian side:
No visible Japanese mine icon on the campaign map
In battles near Takeshiki, the minimap shows a huge circle of a red/brown hatch pattern centered on Takeshiki. The diameter of this circle is about 1/4 the length of the minimap's edge at 1x zoom.
Most of this huge circle is invisible in the battlespace. However, there's a much smaller circular area that barely extends beyond the strait between the 2 islands that is visible as a grid pattern of dark, translucent circles under each water tile.
If the cursor in the battlespace is over one of these dark spots, it says "Inner Base Defenses". If the cursor is over a normal-looking tile beyond that, but still inside the huge circle shown on the minimap, it says "Outer Base Defenses".
The only way to give turning orders to Russian ships inside the huge minimap circle is if the POV is outside the huge minimap circle.
As long as any ships are within the huge minimap circle, you hear occasional loud explosions from no apparent source. No ships appear to get damaged, friend or foe.
Port Arthur Area from Russian POV
When my battle at Port Arthur happened, Port Arthur itself, as well as the adjacent "hexes" of Wei-Hai-Wei, Elliot Islands, and that Russian port just north of Elliot, all had at least 550 Russian mines at them. So I was expecting to see something very similar to the "Takeshiki Circle", maybe even parts of several such circles, on the minimap. I was also expecting to see individual minefield icons scattered about in the battlespace, because the manual says something like "the owning player knows where mines are but the enemy has to find out the hard way". But I was disappointed both times.
First off there was no huge minimap circle at all. There was just a small arc of the hash pattern within the actual Port Arthur harbor itself, which didn't protrude at all beyond the channel entrance between the 2 lighthouses. Putting the cursor in this area said "Outer Base Defenses", with "Inner Base Defenses" limited to the area covered by the circled anchor port icon itself. IOW, the scale of the minefield was miniscule compared to the "Takeshiki Circle". Because no ships of either side went through the harbor entrance, I was unable to see if the steering problems and mysterious explosions occured in the stunted "Port Arthur Pie Slice".
I did notice, however, that within the "Port Arthur Pie Slice", there wasn't anything visible in the battlespace. No minefield icons like I'd expected. So how could I know where the minefields were?
Questions and Concerns
Anyway, this all seems rather strange. If the "Takeshiki Circle" is how a minefield is supposed to look in the game (at least to the enemy), why wasn't there a huge circle of similar size around Port Arthur. Looking at the minelaying capacities of both sides, I hardly think the IJN could put nearly as many mines around Takeshiki as I did at Port Arthur, let alone all the adjacent ports as well, so why is the Japanese minefield so much wider? Hell, if the Russian fields were the same size, I'd have expected a part of the field around Elliot Islands to protrude into the map on the east side, as well as a big Port Arthur Circle.
There's also the question of knowing where friendly mines are, which the manual says is supposed to happen. The way I'd been expecting things to work was that the big minimap circle, which the enemy can see, represented the area within which mines might be, as a warning to the enemy player. However, the mines wouldn't be spread evenly throughout this whole area (which would be very unrealistic). Instead, they'd be like in real life, scattered about the huge circle's area in discrete clumps, each of which would appear in the battlespace as an icon on the water (the same way port anchors do) to the owning player but not to the enemy.
Like I said, however, this doesn't appear to happen. I see no mine symbols on in the battlespace at all, only the hashmarks on the minimap. But these hashmarks are visible to both players, so despite what the manual says, both sides have the same amount of info available. This makes it literally Russian roulette for friends and foes in friendly minefields.
Anybody else seen anything different or have some observations or theories to throw out?