How do you say D'oh! in Russian?

[techumseh]

This holiday I've decided to revamp my Russian civil war scenario "Red October". Despite the effort I put into it, it never met my expectations on the campaign/combat side. Lots of White, Entente, Polish, and Nationalist reinforcements are generated by events, but strong offensive threats to the Bolsheviks just don't materialize.

So I've been trying a number of things; variations on the events an so on. Then I took a look at the Rules file, and had one of those d'oh! moments. All non-buildable units created by events are obsolete! The AI has been disbanding them in droves!

Now that I've switched them around to having an unreachable tech as a prereq and no obsolete tech, the various AI civs are major threats. I'll have to increase the productivity of the Bolsheviks to compensate. More combat, more challenge = more fun.

[Arthedain]

This is great news! Looking forward to the update..

[curtsibling]

Nice!

Look forward to a remake of this classic!

But are there not some other projects that should be underway too?

[Hans99]

Perunie ?

[techumseh]

Yes, my dear CS! I need to update my site with new ToT conversions, including Justinian the Great and Red Front, add new "Golden Diplomat" awards, and work on "Third Reich". I might get to the first two, but I'm behind schedule in 3rd Reich, and real life will intervene in a big way after the new year. Hopefully a revision of Red October can be accomplished in the available time, and I can return to 3rd Reich next summer.

Here's the plan for the RO revision:

1. improve the AI offensives against the Bolshies. (done)

2. increase productivity of terrain, esp. railbed. (done) Seeking historical realism in the original version, I made food production marginal. The result was starving cities that often got destroyed in the back and forth offensives. Now cities thrive, but survive.

3. Limiting armoured train units to Poland, China and Russia. Armoured trains were only used in these areas, so they can no longer move into France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey or Korea. Trotsky will have to use conventional military means to spread world revolution!

4. Consolidating units. By eliminating unneccesary naval units (battleships and destroyers - cruisers remain) and the ahistorical Entente Handley-Page bomber unit, I've freed up 3 unit slots. The aspect of the German revolution will be enhanced by adding a Spartakist insurgent, a Daimler armoured car and a Reichswehr unit.

5. Create an intertwined tech tree. In the present version there are 2 separate, completely linear tech trees, one for the Bolsheviks and one for the Central Power (with no real effect, except to illustrate German historical developments during the period). This means there's no real tech strategy available to the Bolsheviks, and no real competition with other civs. A more sophisticated tech tree should improve the enjoyment of the scenario.

[Gelion]

Looking forward to this!

[McMonkey]

Will you be updating the graphics too?

[techumseh]

I think I've got Fairline convinced.