Atomic Eagle II: The Price of Freedom Development

[Harry Tuttle]

Hey Curt, if you're up to it, I was wondering if you would be in the mood for something different. Something that doesn't have to do with units...

[Harry Tuttle]

Never mind, the whole maps been filled in with farms. Now I get to work on the trade routes.

These will carryover to ToT when I do the conversion, right?

[curtsibling]

If you need anything, feel free to ask!

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by curtsibling
If you need anything, feel free to ask!

Well, are up to drawing a storyboard?

[N35t0r]

You could rely mostly on batch files to upgrade german units, while you use a (german-only) tech tree to determine where they get most reinforcements.

So, say the germans can chose between 3 techs. One triggers most reinforceents to the West Coast, another in the center, and another in the East coast. the three paths would be mostly independant, so the AI might research West 1, West 2, East 1, West 3, Center 1, 2 and 3, or maybe in another order... you could also add west 1 as a prequisite to center 3 to make sure that the front does not get very unbalanced. This, combined with the overall advancing tech level, would mean that few games will be similar to each other...

the only problem (?) would be that Military Intelligence (F3) would be able to determine where the Germans are building up troops, but I see it more of a problem from a player getting too much of a warning point of view than realism...

also, it would mean that capturing key areas like the oilfields in texas would increase German trade, and thus fuel the offensive by providing for faster reinforcements..

[Cyrion]

Very interesting, N35t0r!

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by N35t0r
You could rely mostly on batch files to upgrade german units, while you use a (german-only) tech tree to determine where they get most reinforcements.

So, say the germans can chose between 3 techs. One triggers most reinforceents to the West Coast, another in the center, and another in the East coast. the three paths would be mostly independant, so the AI might research West 1, West 2, East 1, West 3, Center 1, 2 and 3, or maybe in another order... you could also add west 1 as a prequisite to center 3 to make sure that the front does not get very unbalanced. This, combined with the overall advancing tech level, would mean that few games will be similar to each other...

the only problem (?) would be that Military Intelligence (F3) would be able to determine where the Germans are building up troops, but I see it more of a problem from a player getting too much of a warning point of view than realism...

also, it would mean that capturing key areas like the oilfields in texas would increase German trade, and thus fuel the offensive by providing for faster reinforcements..

Interesting. I think that this could add some randomness to the game... I think maybe I could use this as an intermitent event, or just an initial event, where the Germans are given a root tech on turn 1, and the AI is allowed to pick the branch tech to research. The initial event file would have three different areas for unit creation based on the choice of the branch tech discovered.

The techs that lead to unit pop up creation can be coded so that the player won't be able to know where the attack is coming from.

I don't think I quite know what you mean by upgrading the units though. Do you mean making advanced units available by just switching out the rules.txt?

[curtsibling]

And remember, it is very easy to restrict units to a certain CIV!

[N35t0r]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
I don't think I quite know what you mean by upgrading the units though. Do you mean making advanced units available by just switching out the rules.txt?

Exactly, you just gradually switch the rules.txt and units.gif files to go upgrading the units, (just like the 2194 days of war Gigamap version by Pap). You could always have some units that require some tech which is given by events (so there won't be an auto-upgrade to those units) or even have the tech be eligible for research for the germans, reflecting that they'd need to revert significant resources (they'd be researching a new unit rather than reinforcements), which could reflect that they're improving airbases, or logistics / whatever to allow the new unit to operate. For example, a tech called 'XXX Bomber Deployment' which allows a new bomber (xxx) to be built.

In any case, they would still be getting token reinforcements all throughout the line, only the techs would dictate when and where the large contingents of reinforcements are placed.


I don't think that there would be much problem in letting the player know where the Germans are building up next, but a house rule requiring the player to get a recon unit (diplomat abilities) to a major Axis-controlled city before checking the diplomacy screen. (Is there a way to remove embassies every turn?)

[N35t0r]

Originally posted by curtsibling
And remember, it is very easy to restrict units to a certain CIV!

And techs as well.

[Harry Tuttle]

I guess it could be used in a limited sense. I can see some possibilities from it, especially when representing the seasons or some macro events during the war. Of course I could use it to represent truly veteran troops on the battlefield, but then I'd have to sacrifice unit spots - and that would be a mess in a scenario this large.

As for upgrading all the units on the battefield at once though, I think that would be unrealistic.

I could always do what I wanted to do in AE I, with "sleeper" units that change from zero movement, no attack, into battle ready units, depicting a "build up" of force that can't be unleashed until a certain point in the game.

I dunno, we'll see.

[Broken_Erika]

In case you need some good freedom fighters
machine guns mounted on the backs of 20's-30's style trucks

[Broken_Erika]

will there be a preview of the units anytime soon?

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle


Well, are up to drawing a storyboard?

Only noticed this!

Sure thing! What do you need?

Dimensions, content, style...?

[curtsibling]

Erika, you should try some 24-bit bmp ToT units...

Far more colours to use!