Total World War: December 1941 (BETA) 2.8.0.5

[Gully]

I consider AAgun and ATgun late-game specialist units. Extremely efficient for exactly one job, bad for everything else. You need techs to make them viable.

Consider a late-game situation. You produce four AAguns for 16 PUs. Before combat, they kill a fighter for 11. That means, you essentially paid 5 PUs to add four hitpoints and 12 firepower (or more on good terrain) to your army. How crazy is that? If you can afford to lose only inf in the first round, they kill another fighter. Insane value. ATguns are not as extreme, but still very high value, better than inf.

Here's the downside. They don't attack. Congratulations, you just built a fence around Moscow but lost all the important Barracks around Moscow. An important part of Defence is, make sure the enemy doesn't survive next to your army. And other techs (Production, Fighter-Range) are more urgent. That's why I consider too many AAguns or ATguns a newbietrap.

[redrum]

With the development of the new unit icons added with conditions feature, here is some initial thoughts on how TWW is looking to take advantage to add icons to various units when the appropriate techs are researched: https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/882/unit-icons-added-by-conditions/15

[redrum]

Also a new feature to specify small map properties so the visualization can be much improved in the near future: https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/887/mini-me-map-options

Sample of what can be done:

Original:

[Gully]

Alright, my two TWW games have ended. Who's in for another one?

[redrum]

@gully Depends if you are ready to lose this time?

[Hepps]

@redrum LOL! Only a Texan struts around twirling his guns like that.

[Gully]

@redrum totally ready to lose!

[redrum]

@gully Now that's the attitude I like to see. Good to start one up whenever you are. Easiest thing is either message me here on the forum or start a PBF thread with your preferred settings and which side you'd like to play.

@hepps I just like to give my opponents the up front realization of their inevitable destiny. Tends to help minimize the crying and rage quitting. Also are you sure that is a gun and not something else

[Hepps]

@redrum What is the old saying.... "Pride cometh before the fall".

[redrum]

@hepps Seem to hear that all the time, still waiting for the fall

[prastle]

@redrum gigglez

[Hepps]

So with lots of juicy stuff going on I am working on a slight upgrade for TWW to utilize and showcase some of the new features...

In the next week or so we should have a new version that will be mostly aesthetic touches.

It will include

1. Icons on units to identify tech upgrades. (You can see Germany has SW and Imp. AT Guns)

2. A much improved mini map that is far more useful to gameplay. (individual unit locations are much easier to see)

3. Territory extension bars that go left instead of right for problematic territories. (Still in the works... but territories like Western Egypt will extend away from Cairo, and Malta's overflow will go the opposite direction)

4. Unit stack numbers with outlines for better clarity. (Huge improvement already in the latest pre-release)

Here's a taste of some of the improvements...

[prastle]

@hepps you said it was just a test organism?

[beelee]

@hepps great idea on moving the overstacks different directions. :thumbs_up:

[Hepps]

After testing with the icons I am changing it slightly to better distinguish different techs to different unit categories...

[prastle]

@hepps all the helen kellers will be happy

[Hepps]

@prastle I'll make the next one in braille just for you!

[Hepps]

After further experimentation it felt like the Production category needed to be dealt with separately as well.

Production, Imp Production and Adv Production will be represented on the factories.

The logistical and defensive advancements will far more subtle as to limit their impact visually as well as work in conjunction with some of the combat related icons.

[Hepps]

Icons and Icon Property list done.

Here is how I feel about this kind of work...

[Hepps]

Well the results are mixed... while the icons will be very beneficial to games with tech advancements that don't necessarily create a new unit... it is still going through some teething issues.

I am in the process of tweeking the game to make this ideal as well as fix some of the ordering issues I did while designing it. But overall once I get these just right... it should be an awesome addition.

Here is a view of a tech heavy Japan...