Alternative World War - mod for TOAWIII with Communist PO

[Ben Turner]

Rah, Rah, Sis-BOOM-Bah. :hurray:

Quite. The Germans for their part have just one mountain brigade (as historically) which will convert to a division over the course of the game. No more will be raised since a) most German mountain troops were apparently raised in Austria, which is independent throughout this scenario due to its 1936 start date and b) the Germans won't be doing much fighting in mountainous areas in most games. I looked into marine infantry and will probably be putting in some emergency units similar to those the Germans historically raised in the closing months of the war, perhaps on static deployment.

I suspect I may run out of units before that happens.

 

[Silvanski]

I'm adding a factor of surprise to the scenario.
A tree of events -some linked- all with variable turn range will help to shape the opening months of the war.
The timing of the German-French non-aggression agreement will trigger subsequent events affecting where the Communist PO's will strike next.
Appearance of Allied air and naval units, and German reinforcements belonging to the West Wall formations are also affected - these units will no longer be a matter of comfort ... you don't know on which turn you're gonna get them.
The German formations along the Polish border and in East Prussia will still activate on given turns or when approached.

The second exclusion zone now isolates Germany from France so that foreign assistance can take longer before it's available.

 

[Mantis]

Would it be possible to get the latest version and play through it? I'd be happy to provide feedback.

I'd be more than happy to wait for your next playtest version, but the thing is that I have a few days off, and I'm burning them right now... For once, my opponents in all my games of EA are not bounving turns off of me fast enough to suit, and I need something to tinker with over the next few days.



If that is acceptable, my email is mantis29a*at*shaw(dot)ca

Many thanks!

 

[Silvanski]

v3 is almost ready and I'll be sending out copies for testing. I'll add you to the crew
I've updated the scenario notes with the latest changes, the most important addition is the turn variability of Communist invasions across the theater and appearance of Allied reinforcements (units taken out the turn 1 OOB)

(and hereby I have my 100th post on the forum heehee)

 

[Silvanski]

Encountered a weird thing... an Italian fighter unit scheduled to appear due to a certain event does appear, but at the wrong place... Instead of on its designated airfield in Northern Italy (hex is clear, not overstacked, in supply and other Italian air units did appear correctly) but... on a British aircraft carrier (which lost its airplanes due to a Soviet aerial attack two turns before)near the coast of Palestine... Itsy-bitsy bug?

I checked the event and the unit's deployment status in the editor, all seems correct...

 

[Silvanski]

Got that fixed by assiging a different aircraft type to the unit... the Re-2000 has carrierbourne capability, that's why ... with thanks to Jamiam

 

[Silvanski]

I encountered a major bug... When the Communists capture Berlin, the bulk of the Polish army surrenders, which happens correctly, but it also seems to cause all NKVD garrison units to vanish in thin air.... I am stunned!
There is no withdraw event included for those units...

Does anyone have a clue what might be causing this?

 

[Secadegas]

I encountered a major bug... When the Communists capture Berlin, the bulk of the Polish army surrenders, which happens correctly, but it also seems to cause all NKVD garrison units to vanish in thin air.... I am stunned!
There is no withdraw event included for those units...

Does anyone have a clue what might be causing this?

No... no clue...

but it happened something more or less similar to Mark on his EA...

check the Europe Aflame forum

 

[Silvanski]

Yup I read about that...
I gave the NKVD's the same color scheme as the regular Russian army, and currently testing if this will solve the problem.

 

[Silvanski]

Nope, problem still there... And the Polish don't surrender... although the entry in the events seems correct... I'll designate another Polish unit and see if that helps....

 

[Silvanski]

Hurrah, got it fixed!
By designating a different Polish unit to tell the engine which colors need to be withdrawn ... but still it's puzzling why it did the wrong thing ...

 

[Veers]

Hurrah, got it fixed!
By designating a different Polish unit to tell the engine which colors need to be withdrawn ... but still it's puzzling why it did the wrong thing ...

Because of a code error, I would imagine. The reason FitE and EA were bugling up is because if the unit picked to act as the trigger to withdraw all forces of a certain colour was destroyed before the withdrawal event then the event would randomly pick another unit (and therefore formation) to withdraw.
Although usually it doesn't also withdraw the correct Army...

 

[Silvanski]

I assigned the Polish 1st Ftr Gr. instead of a ground unit with the same color ... An air unit will more likely be spared from elimination.

 

[ralphtrickey]

Because of a code error, I would imagine. The reason FitE and EA were bugling up is because if the unit picked to act as the trigger to withdraw all forces of a certain colour was destroyed before the withdrawal event then the event would randomly pick another unit (and therefore formation) to withdraw.
Although usually it doesn't also withdraw the correct Army...

This was intended to sorrect events that were pointing to the wrong unit after converting from COW 100 to 300. When it loads the scenario, It checks to see if there are any withdraw events pointing to an invalid unit. Unfortunately a unit becomes invalid when it's split or withdrawn, or ...

I should have a) checked to see if it was an OPART100 scenario and b) used undefined instead of invalid.

It subtracts 1500 from the unit number, so generally withdraws an army from team 1 instead of team 2

Ralph

 

[Silvanski]

Am testing v3 after installing the new patch and there seems to be a problem.... Elmer is running sluggish!

 

[Silvanski]

Awaiting a solution to Elmer's slow-mo play I'm gonna mess around with the equipment editor.

The addition of Bio-Ed gave me some ideas I can implement in the scenario.
I plan to add some aircraft which didn't make it but were in advanced stages of planning or even appeared as prototype.. Don't panic, the Luftwaffe won't go roaming the skies with Luft-46 stuff like the Triebflugel or so, but in the context of this scenario by 1945 the Germans could have had succes in developing the Me-264 under their Ural Bomber program...
Other types like a worthy successor to the Bf-109 seem probable.

Appearance of these aircraft will of course only happen if Germany doesn't surrender so that means it will be in the white on grey aircraft units.

Specifications for the Me-264 will have to be somewhat similar to the USAF's B-29.

I'm gonna dig into my aircraft files... ;-)

 

[Silvanski]

The equipment editor is a great tool. While on the road for my job -the car as think tank- I came up with something to put in the scenario.

Using bio-ed I am able to distinguish the B-29 between a conventional and a nuclear bomber. The same with the hypothetical German Me-264.
I put events in place which may make it possible for the USA and Germany to deliver a nuclear strike late in the war, by these percentages.

USA: chance of developing a nuclear bomb by 1945 75% ---> actual being able/willing to use it 50%

Germany: chance of developing nukes 50% (maybe less) ---> willing to use it 75%

The German events will be cancelled if they surrender.

The "willing to use" events then will enter an appropriate air unit for the relevant nation.

 

[arclight]

Am testing v3 after installing the new patch and there seems to be a problem.... Elmer is running sluggish!

I thought it was me... =)

Do we have any idea why this is occuring?

 

[Silvanski]

It seems to be connected with the updated pathfiinding.
It's especially noticable in large scenario's and/or scenarios with large formations.

I'm sure it's being looked into.
Ralph posted this in the Matrix Games forum.

Major Bugs, still in 3.1.0.9
You may experience a slowdown in some scenarios. If this happens, change the following flags in Opart 3.ini. It's in the Matrix Games/The Operational Art of War directory. They should speed things up while I look to the cause.

;Do this first
experimentalAIP2=N
experimentalAIP1=N
;Do this if still too slow
oldpathfinding=Y

 

[arclight]

It seems to be connected with the updated pathfiinding.
It's especially noticable in large scenario's and/or scenarios with large formations.

I'm sure it's being looked into.
Ralph posted this in the Matrix Games forum.

Major Bugs, still in 3.1.0.9
You may experience a slowdown in some scenarios. If this happens, change the following flags in Opart 3.ini. It's in the Matrix Games/The Operational Art of War directory. They should speed things up while I look to the cause.

;Do this first
experimentalAIP2=N
experimentalAIP1=N
;Do this if still too slow
oldpathfinding=Y

I did that - it did help, but, there is a lag at the turn supply routine.

Also, I see there are other flags in there - any clue to what they do? The one for multiprocessors may be a big help to those running dual-core cpu's...