Mega New Elk WIP
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Ok ran a few more games, just sorta focusing on the Pacific side to see how things held up with the Peking change. Since Japan and the Allies reset a bit there, with a more of a press towards the North initially, rather than stacking around Chunking/Yunnan - probably just from the FastAI wanting to control capitals or get closer to them, so I tried to put that one under the microscope. Upside is that the Soviets send a bit more support into China now, downside is that China itself spawns fewer HP per turn owing to the control dynamic there, and also the turn order sequence that has USSR moving before China, and China moving before Britain. To counterbalance the Japanese rail on the coast, I think I would try just adding a few more starting units to China, in a rear position to hold that early Japanese springboard in check. I tried 3 inf 3 art 1 fighter added to Sikang. This gives them a total of 15 artillery and 3 flying tigers plus whatever infantry fodder or additional artillery they can muster round to round. I think it should be enough for them to hold the line, provided their computer teammates stay active in the region and keep sending support round to round.
Then on the USA Atlantic side just added the factory_minor so they can spawn 3 more hitpoints into that theater per turn, to counter the 3 hitpoints Germany can now bring from Marseille. The change there made Axis control of the Med a bit more likely, since Germany is sorta the opposite of Italy - high cash but lower placement (least into the water into the Med). So when Italy had control of that minor, they just didn't have the cash to drop much in the way of a pocket fleet for the western med. G is a bit more flush now though, and esp. after G1, so I think Allies/USA just need a few more placement on that side of the board to keep pace.
I rather like that the German baltic fleet is under pressure from an Air blitz, although currently this is coming more from the threat of Soviet Bombers on G2/G3 (whereas usually in older boards that's more the job of the RAF). Still, it has a nice tension where Germans can be tempted to do naval expansion, but because of their coastal production restrictions (hp per turn) and difficult coverage vs Aircraft, it can be a double edged sword. Or similarly where trying to guard the fleet with aircraft can keep fighters locked in position for the scramble, rather than moving forward for stack defense on the ground. I just like that little pendulum swing, since it recalls to mind the situation on other A&A boards. It was a little hard to gauge the impact though, cause of the whole sz 108/103 thing - it had FastAI allies resetting a bit and coming more direct at Bordeaux, or up into Scandinavia/Denmark, rather than crashing the party into Normandy. Also where Axis were holding onto North Africa for a bit longer with a fleet build in the Med, sorta stalling the USA arrival down there or vs Italy from the South. But then I think just giving the USA a couple more hitpoints per turn out of a factory_minor eastern seaboard may help Allies to get out just a little sooner.
Otherwise only thing I can think of for now, would be to raise Baghdad to 2 PU, just so that there can be another Production lily pad contested as a counterbalance to Baku, Egypt/India. So whether Allies or Axis get there first, could be part of the tip on the scales by sides. Especially when the board sorta resets for the endgame around controlling the middle of the board.
Here's a quick edit mode save with those starting unit adjustments mentioned. I left everything else the same, so as not to shift the pattern too much.
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MNE WIP '40 version 1.35.14.zip
Baghdad changed to 2PUs
Connection/Canal to 103/108 sz has been removed
New starting setup by @Black_ElkCheers...
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Lookin' good! I ran a quick trial while cooking dinner Fast vs itself. Computer Japan stumbled a bit with their initial advance, and then got rolled back across the middle. Seemed like Allies were trying a KJF again, but this time with the Soviets in the lead on a big breakout to storm Korea! lol Computer Japan recovered a bit and it looked like computer Germany might save their bacon by snatching Moscow, but then USSR repositioned. This time Axis had better luck with their fleets up north, slightly less luck with their med fleets. Allies just started the push back across North Africa. Not too shabby
I think having so many hitpoints on their doorstep refocused Japan's attention, but it seems to work pretty well, sorta powder keg to rng, sorta same deal as the med and a few other spots. Mostly on account of the way the machine will edge it's fights, but I think it should work out well enough to stabilize the various theaters during a solo. Or one can hope
Tapped in round at the end of round 7 to survey view
2025-3-13-Mega-New-Elk-1940_fast_france_7.tsvg
ps. After dessert trial
So another save around the same point, different game to 6 rounds, Fast vs itself.
Here computer Japan did somewhat better vs China, but somewhat worse vs the USN at the 'battle of Midway' lol. On the Atlantic side Germans seemed to have the luck going their way early on at Algeria and with a carrier buy, but then the USA showed up and crashed their party in Tunisia setting off a big exchange and some back and forth. Computer Italy ended up taking over the spot at Tunisia. USA tried to get the drop on Normandy and Brits have been harassing the coast. Both theaters seem to be pushing hitpoints now, like for the USSR in central asia and such. So far so good!
Tapped in end of round 6
2025-3-13-Mega-New-Elk-1940_fast_rematch_france_6.tsvg
pps. Third Trial, night cap hehe
So in this game Computer China whiffed hard and lost one their flying tigers in a round 2 attack. Computer Japan was quick to take advantage so they faired somewhat better up the middle early on, despite the Soviets dropping in with heavy support. Over all the balance there felt pretty tight like it could tip either direction, might hinge on a difference of like 1 or 2 hitpoints saved/lost to attrition in the first few rounds. Pretty good overall though I think. In round 4 computer Japan got tripped up trying to unload for an amphib assault into Magadan vs a Russian submarine. Here again I think the AI just doesn't understand really that it's play a post v3 transport game rather than a classic/revised transport game, so that was a snafu for them, losing a lot of TUV in one goof. 2 stacked Transports, 3 aircraft into an attack with no amphib fodder support, sometimes those are just the breaks for the machine. Despite that loss, they still recovered position, just with a bit of a delay on coverage there. On the Atlantic side also some variability from the first few trials. There Germans got into Algeria a bit sooner and a bit cleaner, which seemed to have an impact on how computer Allies then positioned against them. By now computer Allies are in the med and starting to take some shots at Naples. Up north though the Germans made a breakout with their fleet, captured Svalbard and blocks some of the UK approaches. Should be interesting
Here's the save at the end of round 5. Usually where I try to tap in and see if there's a big turning point or a big pivot move from one computer team or the other hehe
2025-3-13-Mega-New-Elk-1940_fast_third_france_5.tsvg
When I get a few hours later on tonight, I'll toss my hat into the ring and start seeing how it feels in the drivers seat. But from the passenger view, it was lookin' pretty solid I think
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Update to git
Transylvania was fitting nicely and I had already done danzig, thus why they changed.
Detailed update coming, wanna get this out before it becomes dated
Edit
hmm ... the Fctrys still not showing damage. I will add "isFactory" back so they work correctly next time I update to git.I am just gonna focus on pu_place, name_place and place. I'm gonna shorten names and go with ones I've heard of over ones I haven't.
Not an expert but if I've never heard of it, the average N American hasn't either.
Obviously these can change as needed.
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@beelee Right on! I just grabbed it now
I was playing as Italy solo earlier, under that last templet. Pretty fun! It felt sorta like classic with x999 inf thing, but then that did seem to produce an interesting game, as the AI purchasing was better. I just kept to the limit at x3 for myself, but anyhow, Allies definitely came at me! I focused on fleet first, then into some light tank drive and big infrastructure investment into Baghdad, although now we're more into a managed defense of the home front lol.
We managed to stand the computer Americans up at Naples, but alas we could do nothing to prevent Overlord into Normandy! They're in France pretty deep now. I pressed hard vs the Middle East, but then now we are getting ejected from North Africa as well. Bit of a scramble. I'm made a mad dash into to India since our pals the computer Japanese we're advancing in force. Now we're racing to grab Gabon - Trying to swing the momentum back in our favor! hehe
Good times, mad science hehe
2025-3-13-Mega-New-Elk-1940_Italy_9.tsvg
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@black_elk said in Mega New Elk WIP:
t felt sorta like classic with x999 inf thing, but then that did seem to produce an interesting game, as the AI purchasing was better. I just kept to the limit at x3 for myself
Oh ? Is the AI overproducing at Fctrys ? I didn't know it could do that.
Glad you having fun with it. I made the eclipse but bedtime now
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@beelee yeah pretty wild! It was a contest for sure - Good times vs the machine!
Oh cool just download and fired it up. Lookin' clean! Nice work
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DEt_djGGAY6Oxl8_G3qmspUMTqMRW5nU/view?usp=sharing
Oh also here is a unit set that has all the factory_disabled images. Once I put those in with the others I didn't have any issues for the graphics stuff
Units
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10GzukQNlAFCZMkhmuyL9ZQc-IsVss7p8/view?usp=sharing
Haha sounds good go catch some snooze and rest well!
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Just for a heads up on that last GIT, the zip there has the master folder unizipping into another nested master folder of the same name. Still fires, just another layer in the directory there. Oh also, using that most recent xml the default and 39 would still show the games list which would kick off the missing game when clicked on, so I think those would just need to be tucked away in that working drafts folder? So it's not looking for them in the directory when downloaded. I would name the current wip game UHD WIP 1940-45, or something along those lines for a catch all.
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Yes, I noticed that also. So try this:
UHD WIP 1940-45.zip
This contains a map.yml to replace the one in the primary directory.Cheers...
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Looks good!
Random play balance idea, so rather than introducing UK Pacific as a kind of sub faction (with it's own purchasing phase and such) I think it's much simpler to just keep Britain/India as a single faction. That said, because it creates a much higher baseline production/income level for them, we could explore something like a "Commonwealth Defense" or "Lend Lease" "Victory Debts" or whatever we want to call it, but basically where they just get dinged every turn with some added cost in PUs to running the empire.
So say for example that they're bank rolling Anzac, which would be similar to India in Global but just sorta understood to be applied in this case to Anzac. Not actually, but in the abstract justification. Sun never sets and all hehe. Or I mean doesn't have to just be Anzac, it could be sorta all the Allies. To me this could just be an abstraction/catch-all, so sorta building into it there the whole idea of support for France and China or the other Allies which had already been overrun in the Axis advance. The whole team in exile, sorta camped out in London, but on the UK's dime? hehe
Something similar could be done for USSR, where they're somehow understood to be also bankrolling what's happening in China. I don't think it's needed just yet, but it would be a simple way to balance the totals in a more cumulative way. As opposed to just collapsing a ton of tiles or making a bunch of British and Soviet spots worth zero (the usual method) instead it could just be sorta tacked on generically. Not sure there what the actual cost might be, but I think that's a way to rationalize an added burden when the PUs are counted for them. I think any time an asymmetry is included for how factions are handled, it's helpful if this is framed out in advance and made easy to count/calc.
To me this could be something simple like a flat rate cost in PUs per turn, say 10-20-30 PUs, whatever might be needed ultimately and as a balancing mechanism by sides, sort of alternative to bid. Anyhow, just a spitball. I'd table for now, but to me it makes sense. Effectively an inverse war bond for the British or USSR, as a way to keep their totals a bit more manageable when compared with the Axis team, if that's needed. They do get gobbled up on quite a bit though, so their swing on income/production can be pretty extreme in both those cases. Not really sure if it would be needed, but could be held as an option in reserve.
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oh I just added "map" not the yml too. That extra folder still there too ? I'll check wc's and see if he was able to get rid of it.
So we need even more Fctry images for it to work as is ? Because when I added "isFactory" back in, my images showed up. Well, I'll check what you have.
Edit
So it looks as if you need the "disabled" fctrys to make it work. That probably means we don't need the "factory_hit" ones then. Also can probably get rid of "factory" and just keep the major and minor ones.A lot of the tech disabled ones are missing. I'll go ahead and put together another units folder with the missing disabled ones and get rid of the other stuff.
Edit 2
@Black_Elk I don't get the extra folder on dl. Also, the "-master" at the end doesn't need removed anymore. I think that's only if you try and run it in 2.5 but IDK for certain.Anyway, I just slammed in your units folder for now and added wc's map.yml
We can streamline the units folder somewhere down the line. I'll add the above in next update.
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If you take the little emblem of the airfield, remove the flag-buoy for the harbor, then all these units, including the factory_major, factory_minor and factory_upgrade are all the same (with the bunkers, bunker_small, etc..), and can be moved to the units folder and shared by all players. This will cut down on maintaining all these separate icons within each player unit folder. It will also decrease the size of the download file.
Cheers...
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right arm. I think I'll defer to Elk and let him fine tune the roster. That's more in his wheelhouse than mine
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Right on sounds good!
It's all pouring rain where I'm at, slow day. So I attempted a rematch as the Italians solo vs FastAI. We caught a nice break early on, snapping up Algeria for ourselves, and then another big break in round 7 when computer Americans tried to stomp into Bordeaux but were denied! hehe
I was determined this time to hold the western approaches so we built quite a few battleships and just help position starring down the Allies at Gibraltar. Our Albanian tank made it all the way to New Delhi but couldn't quite hold it. We then put the heat on Baku, to cover the Germans rolling in. I think it might be another one where Gabon is now priority number one for our expansionist aims lol
Here it is in round 10
2025-3-14-UHD-WIP-1940-45_Italy_round_10.tsvg
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ps. I'd have to revisit the harbours because there's no generic one for that at the moment, but for the airfields could just use the neutral set.
The factories and airflields have the most tech variants anyway, so that'd be the majority right there. I don't think I'd miss the air roundels too much hehe. Same deal for an extra graphics that aren't actually being used but which are probably duplicated just to follow whatever was in the UHD initially copying over from how stuff was labelled in g40, since I just copied over the bung graphics for that and mimicked it when throwing this one together. GCD thedog has the factories and bunkers and such from a shared unit folder which seems like the way to go for those to save space and make em easier to get at.
For the Harbours I just followed frostion's convention for that when drafting them, since he had those little flags that changed by control, which looked kinda cool. I guess we could always crop the flag off, although for harbours only a couple in each set, so it might not be too bad keeping those around for national flare.
Anyhow here are the airbases with the tech and disabled variants
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As to the units, if I'm reading the rules right, the factory_minor starts out with 6 hit points and can produce 3 units. For every point of damage, the factory_minor should lose 1 production value (TripleA does not model the type of production lose). Also the unit cannot be destroyed.
No damage = factory_minor
1-3 damage = factory_minor_hit
4 and 5 damage = factory_minor_disabled
6 damage = factory_minor_damage (is used only because the factory_minor cannot be removed)Cheers...
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That's an excellent explanation. Too bad it's not in POS2 to summarize how all that works
It's probably all in there but for layman like me, it'd be helpful -
There is no mention of "_damage" icon or why it might be needed. But 2.5 use to call for it all the time, "Missing Unit Icon xxx_damaged". So that is how I put it together.
PoS2 lacking in many places...
Cheers...
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If it makes sense to do so, we could call this Pact of Steel 3 PoS3 and explain whatever newer incidentals in the docs that way. That'd be above my pay grade though hehe. I'm sorta terrible at that stuff, no gift for brevity on this end hehe, but one thing PoS2 is sorta missing is the explanations about how the map folder itself might be organized with an eye towards modularity or for the relief, like explaining some of the map.props type customizations in more detail, or just like to have whatever basics say HEX colors, and then maybe I could do actual variant unit tints, which would probably be a better use of unit folder space than the endless damaged factories heheh. I mean you know we could have the Green Chinese, or Blue Germans, Lime Green Brits, Red Japanese (basically cover all the old school sculpts from the old boxes with those tints) and then provided some suggested Hexes, or whatever and probably still be at the same overall space if we get all the factories and airbases to be generico. Of course tripleA can also tint the units directly once the player has a hex, the visual there is a little different because all units then become monotone but does work. I don't think we ever got unit flips to work. There's also stuff with how to change how the blends/relief mixes for things like making the ocean lighter, passing it through grays instead of white, but that's all stuff I'm not really sure how to phrase conveniently. Also some stuff referred to I think is a little older probably. I also like the idea of having a general repository for random graphics and map making elements, which I otherwise don't really have a singular place to heap em all together in one spot. Might as well be this one
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@black_elk The Pact of Steel mod uses its own distinct map and the name should not be used for another mod. As for using this mod to explain stuff, go right ahead.
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