Atomic Eagle II: The Price of Freedom Development

[Harry Tuttle]

Hmmm, so what do you guys think about a work-around upgrade for the AI using multiple event files?

[Catfish]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Alright, this is going to sound like a dumb question, but are you talking about the 32K or 64K 24 bit palette? I'm using PSP 8...

Neither (although both will work). Use the standard 24-bit colour depth (16M colours). According to Mercator, the 15-bit (32K) ToT palette is non-standard, so you're better off just letting ToT match its colours to the 16M colour palette. In-game differences between the 3 formats would most likely be negligible.

Brain cells? Eh wot?

[N35t0r]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Hmmm, so what do you guys think about a work-around upgrade for the AI using multiple event files?

If it was for me, I'd change rules files every 2 turns if it was better for the scenario... but then I'm special.

[our_man]

Hmmm, so what do you guys think about a work-around upgrade for the AI using multiple event files?

Harry, anything to make the AI a worthier opponent, but could you elaborate as to what exactly you have in mind?

[curtsibling]

If you are using ToT events, there are many new tricks to make the enemy become pure evil!

[Sarsstock]

Yes, I too agree that an AI enemy thats nearly impossible to defeat is worth any price, even if loading events every other turn is required.

I imagine Harry that if you do indeed have a story line for a third Atomic Eagle thought up then you surely must have most of the story for this installment in mind already. I wonder, could you perhaps share with us some idea's for what the German invasion of American soil holds?

I've heard some theories about what effect an invasion like this would have had on late 1940's American society. Huge numbers of blacks would have enlisted in the army I imagine, possibly with the promise of more civil liberties in return for the large black populations in the South. The same could be said for Mexicans in the South West, as I imagine they would be vital in forming hastilly made vollenteer regiments to repel the invaders in Texas. Perhaps women could even become involved in the frontline fighting, as women served in every branch of the Red Army after the summer of '41.

My point is Fortress America being breached would bring about an social upheaval, the likes of which hadn't been seen since the Civil War. Its possible you might even see a rise in communism as a result of the invasion in the American working class.

Who knows.....

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by our_man
Harry, anything to make the AI a worthier opponent, but could you elaborate as to what exactly you have in mind?

My mindset goes back to an idea Agricola and I were beating around in Fairline's Red Front thread. The idea is to have the German AI respond with spawned units to any major city being taken back by an American assault. As a city is taken a specific tech is given to the Germans facilitating a spawning of units close to the area of the city, within German lines. Each city would have its own specific tech with the "Just Once" command applied to each tech/unit spawn. The specific "city taken" events would have to be staggered so as to include only the front line cities in the beginning slate of turns and the rear cities in the later slate of turns so as to minimize event space.

Now, in order for this idea to work, it will take some minimal work on behalf of the player. Less even when employing a program such as Merc's Civswap. Upon taking a major city these things would have to happen:

A bat file would have to be run (if the current events file is not large enough to create the necessary German unit pop response), either by the player himself or by Civswap if it's active. The bat file would switch in a new events file that would create units behind German lines near the taken city. According to Merc's directions for Civswap, the player would then have to reload the appropriate autosave (I think).

This new file would either take away from the natural unit pop of the Germans (remember Red Front and how German units were spawned almost every turn?) and relocate the unit pop near the taken city or it would be in addition to the normal spawn of the German units.

Now, with the flags that ToT employs, if multiple cities are taken, for example, on the Eastern front of the German advance, then a massive German response would happen using the same idea a described above with the single city taken event.

The only hindrance to the idea is that like in Red Front, the player would have to pay attention, and perform the steps to create the German response. This swapping of files would only only take effect at the end of each swap bonafide turn.

Now, here's a little nuance. The triggers that would give the Germans the necessary city taken prescribed techs would have to be present throughout the game. Not all of the triggers have to be present in the same event file, just a few for the front line cities early in the game and a few for the rear cities later in the game. This staggering of triggers is necessary to cut down on event space per time period and assumes that the player will not advance farther than the front line cities within a certain time frame.

Even if the player does advance farther than the initial triggers and into the second tier cities before the second tier cities event files with the second tier triggers are loaded the player will more than likely still have to contend with the triggers for the rearmost cities. Also if the player advances to far, to fast, then they will have German units spawning up in their rear areas once the Germans reach the triggers as obviously the Germans will already have the techs to satisfy the events that create the units.

BUT, if a simple logic tree is employed when designing the bat file the rear unit Germans units will not be spawned as the bat file will only swap in event files that will spawn German units to the front of the the American lines. Hmmm, I may have to also create multiple Bat files if I can't cut off the branches for the logic tree.

CONFUSED YET?

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by Sarsstock
Yes, I too agree that an AI enemy thats nearly impossible to defeat is worth any price, even if loading events every other turn is required.

I imagine Harry that if you do indeed have a story line for a third Atomic Eagle thought up then you surely must have most of the story for this installment in mind already. I wonder, could you perhaps share with us some idea's for what the German invasion of American soil holds?

I've heard some theories about what effect an invasion like this would have had on late 1940's American society. Huge numbers of blacks would have enlisted in the army I imagine, possibly with the promise of more civil liberties in return for the large black populations in the South. The same could be said for Mexicans in the South West, as I imagine they would be vital in forming hastilly made vollenteer regiments to repel the invaders in Texas. Perhaps women could even become involved in the frontline fighting, as women served in every branch of the Red Army after the summer of '41.

My point is Fortress America being breached would bring about an social upheaval, the likes of which hadn't been seen since the Civil War. Its possible you might even see a rise in communism as a result of the invasion in the American working class.

Who knows.....

Well, as for the social response to an invasion, I believe that the color and sex barrier that made blacks and women "support soldiers" would be wiped away as every man and woman would be needed to fight the war and not just produce war material.

In the real WW2 I wouldn't say there was any large idea that the war was the "white man's" fight even though it was being fought in Europe or the Pacific. From history we can see the eagerness of every American, regardless of race, to fight in the war. There were black airmen, Navajo coders, Inuit scouts, and a whole mess of other people who did their part.

I can say from experience and from conversations with American veterans that WW2 was never a white, black, latino, asian fight against the Nazis or Imperial Japanese. It was America united, against the enemy.

*Sniff, sniff* (Proud eyes filled with tears)

Remember the black cook who got up on deck during Pearl Habor, manned the pom pom guns, and started shooting back? The Tuskegee Airmen? The American Jews who fought in Europe because they weren't afraid of the Nazis because they knew they were fighting for America, their home?

*Sniff, sniff*

Anyways, I don't think anyone really expected to be rewarded or for things to change in some huge social upheaval. I think that people were just people and they wanted to fight for their country, their home, regardless of what was going to happen to their social standing. Some people might have volunteered because they thought they were doing their "race" a favor, but all in all, when the **** hits the fan, every one with a beating heart could fight.

I think that every able bodied man and woman would rise to the call to fight, in equal numbers.

As for Communism, ptooey! If there's one thing that a people do when fighting a war is that they cling to their ideals.

*Switching to storyline mode in next post.....*

[Harry Tuttle]

Besides, by this time, in this timeline, Communism is a defeated ideology. The Soviet Union lays in tatters. The massive assault that nearly broke the back of the Nazis in 1947 whithered out as the strain on manpower and war material ground the Soviet advance to a halt. The Germans had already disemboweled the Soviets in 1942. Even with the aid that was given to the Soviets by the Americans through the Eastern Orient Lend Lease Pipeline from 1944 through 1947 they could not keep up the offensive.

The Soviet sneak attack of 1947 is now considered by many military analysts to have been the deciding factor that kept the Nazis from completely overrunning the British positions in the Middle East and India. The Nazis had to move much needed men and material to the Eastern front that denied them from taking anymore postions than Suez and a few minor enclaves in the Arabian Peninsula.

This siphoning of resources led to a delay in the massed invasion of the British Isles and gave the British a few much needed months to dig in and await the German assault.

Unfortunately for the Americans the massive Lend Lease through occupied Japan and occupied China created a huge strain on the resources of the government.

To quote from AE I:

The U.S. took a terrible toll invading the home islands of Japan, loosing 50,000 G.I.'s taking Kyushu alone. The fact that the Manhattan Project was a year away from producing a fission bomb and the Soviets were in no place to put any pressure on Japan from the West prevented a quick end to the war. By late 1944 the U.S. had lost 128,000 soldiers taking the home islands, even with mass firebombing from the new squadrons of B-29s.

The American response to the Nazi assault of 1947 was paltry in comparison to the invasion of Japan years earlier. Due to this fact, the Atlantic has quickly become a German sea and the strangle hold on shipping from Europe to South America has created a very ponderous position for the United States. Nazis, for the first time, have entered Central America, and have mounted a serious threat to the sanctity of American soil.

[Sarsstock]

Well Harry, my point was hardly to say it was a "white man's war" or that America was fragmented, quite the opposite in fact. My point was that there were still social bariers in place in North American society at that time which an invasion would have challenged. War has a way of throwing society into chaos.

As a student of history and grandson of a veteran I would never suggest that any American race fought for personal reward in WW2, as that simply wasn't the case. I guess the changes I have in mind, an earlier civil rights movement, an expanded role for women in the 1950's and such would be more likely to take place after the war. But thats just assuming the Allies can turn the tide and win. Afterall, nothing unites a society more than the prospect of total destruction, which I believe was the point that inspiring speech of yours done to the tune of "God Bless America" in the background.

In any case, on to some real gaming issues. Do you imagine the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers will be useable for freight transports? Do you expect naval combat to be a huge issue in the game? Perhaps would it be a objective for the Americans to try to hit German convoy's entering the Gulf of Mexico?

[Sarsstock]

And yes, as any true fan of WW2 history I did see the atrocious film "Pearl Harbor" and I know of Cuba Gooding Jr's scene where he took the deck gun and shot down a Zero and his character, Doris Miller became the first African American to win the Navy Cross. Still, I would much sooner recomend the excellent film "Tora Tora Tora" for anyone looking to learn of America's entrance into the second world war.

Now, back to the real issues. Even with Germany's ability to "resurect" recently deceased soliders it seems to me the United States would still enjoy an enormous industrial advantage with Germany fighting the British as well on the home islands. An idea I had that you may already have thought of would be to have german sabateuor units created via the events.txt adjacent to American minning or industrial hex's which would then pillage the terrain.

This could even further create a strain on American forces as they would have to divert much needed forces to guard duties. This might also give you reason to create a police unit of some sort, which I think you'd have room for now that your using the ToT units.gif. He would have a small defensive value but would provide cheap defense against sabotage. I'm positive in such an invasion local and state police forces could be expected to act as para-military units.

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by Sarsstock
In any case, on to some real gaming issues. Do you imagine the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers will be useable for freight transports? Do you expect naval combat to be a huge issue in the game? Perhaps would it be a objective for the Americans to try to hit German convoy's entering the Gulf of Mexico?

I expect every major river on the map to be usable for freight. Also, being that the rivers themselves will be in a sense obstacles I'll have to think long and hard about where the cross over points will be.

Naval combat will be minimal due as I want this to be a land war mostly. There will be the usual subs and convoys of course, but I expect only 4 usable sea units in the game.

I have to think about making any specific "missions" for the game. They're fun and all, but I don't want them to take away from usual play.

And yes, I know what you meant. I just thought it important to do the tear jerker speech. I had to do a Rommel hates the Final Solution excerpt when I was making AE I so no one would start in with the moral concepts. The social issues will just be a byline in the game. I might include freedom fighter sappers in the game for the Americans behind enemy lines, but that all depends on how unit setup goes when I get to that point.

[Harry Tuttle]

Any thoughts on the jumbled mess for the events?

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by Sarsstock
Now, back to the real issues. Even with Germany's ability to "resurect" recently deceased soliders it seems to me the United States would still enjoy an enormous industrial advantage with Germany fighting the British as well on the home islands. An idea I had that you may already have thought of would be to have german sabateuor units created via the events.txt adjacent to American minning or industrial hex's which would then pillage the terrain.

This could even further create a strain on American forces as they would have to divert much needed forces to guard duties. This might also give you reason to create a police unit of some sort, which I think you'd have room for now that your using the ToT units.gif. He would have a small defensive value but would provide cheap defense against sabotage. I'm positive in such an invasion local and state police forces could be expected to act as para-military units.

Could work, I like the idea. A Saboteur unit and a Policeman unit... Hmmm, I'll have to look at what I can find...

[Sarsstock]

Well here are four units I drew up several years ago when I tried to make an ambitious scenario which was to be a prequel to Curt's Vendetta. The two units on the left are American local police units, the top right unit is an RCMP officer and the lower right is a Mexican Federali.

Perhaps they could use a more aggressive pose to make them appear more militant.