2194 Days Gigamap Playtest

[academia]

Choke:
It seems you played your turn... but you didn´t post it...

[Choke]

OK, I did forget to post and Darius, those pictures are faked, they are a joke I will have to post later, I have to go to work now.

[Pavlov]

But Darius, wasn't it obvious? Mechanized infantry getting to Irkutsk before you spot them? Not bloody likely.

Choke's just messing with your head.

[Darius871]

I wasn't talking about this game, I meant the new ones.

Oh and goddam you choke, lol.

Btw Pavlov, which avy would you like me to comment on? You've had 3 in 24 hrs! Personally I liked the one where Zlatan was standing in front of the crowd.

[Darius871]

Honestly though Choke, that was one of the funniest things I've seen all week.

[Choke]

here's the turn

[Pavlov]

Originally posted by Darius871
Btw Pavlov, which avy would you like me to comment on? You've had 3 in 24 hrs! Personally I liked the one where Zlatan was standing in front of the crowd.

Uhhh, the current one. Could you recognize Zlatan from the pic number 2? Personally I thought it was a bit hard, that's why I added all those quotes. Do you know who Zlatan is? *just curious*

Oh and good thing you're not considering quitting, wouldn't want to lose such a dangerous enemy. (Well, I would like to defeat you, but that's another thing )

[Darius871]

Dangerous enemy? I have nothing but infantry left in every city! I'm just more bold a player than most, that doesn't mean I'm good!

Anyway I just knew who he was from the quotes. Is he a soccer player or something?

"Uhhh, the current one."

No, the current one is just his face. I meant the one where he was standing.

[tanelorn]

negotiations and ideas

What a great scenario! I am thrilled, to say the least.

Some suggestions on single-play:
I've been single-playing v0.3 and v0.6 for a while and a funny thing happened:

Playing v0.6 as the Americans, the Soviets and the British attacked me on turn no2, after I refused them American specific technologies.
The AI traded techs liberally, so the British ended up producing soviet armor in N.Africa and Canada.
The Japanese attacked the Soviets in Siberia and the Axis sued for peace.
This really ruined single-play.
It had not happened to me as J.Stalin (nickname, "steel") in v0.3 perhaps because noone wanted to talk to me and avoided negotiations.

I added the no negotiations event (anybody) in the events files, patched it with the .bat, so it is fixed.
I guess that negotiations were left in to represent Lend-Lease, but this would give everyone the wrong units. Couldn't negotiations be used to cheat in PBEM?

Lend lease might be represented (in single-play) by a "subtracting a sum from the U.S and giving it to UK/USSR" event or by creating generic units in Murmansk and Liverpool, via events.

[tanelorn]

One more thing, I was not happy with the ricfields in Greenland and the poles, so I tried covering them with pollution, which I replaced with the glacier gaphic.
I got the idea from Lebensraum1939 (it was used for desert, there).
Since glaciers are non-productive and no real cities are located next to them, it only affects the game visually (pollution nullifies production).
Moreover, since glaciers are far away from cities, the AI won't attempt to clean the pollution.
I left some ricefields in the picture and the description box, to prove it can be done. Pollution can be renamed to glacier or something.
Problem: Won't the temperature rise as a result of the pollution?
It is already a no-polution scenario, BUT temperatures will rise, nontheless, if this scheme is implemented in a .sav, (.net, .hot). Believe me, I tried it. I think it has to be embedded in the .scn. I'll provide a link on how they did it in Lebensraum.

[tanelorn]

Russian winter

Another point, about the Soviets. It was very satisfactory to play as Stalin myself, but when the AI took over the USSR, the Russians were crushed during the Russian winter (noone has done this since the Mongol conquest in the 13thc. that actually took advantage of the weather itself).
Since the Soviets already get seasonal unit graphics, would it be too much to ask slightly higher defence stats for the Red Army infantry during winter months (Phases 1,3,5,7,9). This would be a real challenge for the Axis player and would force him to attack during the spring/summer season. Realistic, don't you think?

[tanelorn]

more ideas about general winter

Then I had yet another idea about this issue.
I took the chance to change some things, just to prove my point. Hope you don't mind.
Just for argument's sake:
Realise that by replacing an entire terrain type with the pollution graphic, you get an extra terrain type to do with as you wish (provided that the terrain you replace is non-productive, i.e. desert or glacier).
The following proposal is not without disadvantages though.
.The idea
Remember the winter/summer terrains in Red Front?
What if you had a seasonal terrain that depicted extremely low winter temperatures (in northern USSR, Canada/Alaska and Terra del fuego in Argentina?
In winter months it would have high movement cost, minimal food producton and negative defence bonus. This way the Axis would be slowed down and weakened when attacking in the north (and to be fair, the Russians would starve). It would revert to normal grassland half a year later.
.How to do it
You may replace desert terrain with a northern plains or so terrain. Place pollution (painted/renamed desert) over regular deserts. These retain their move/def stats, but produce nothing. Have two sets of Terrain1 graphics (W/S terrain) to use with the batch file, as you do with the units.gif and rotate between them as Terrain1 during file swaps. Give the winter terrain diffrent stats in the respective rules.txt, of course. That's it!
.How to save time
Instead of clicking incessantly, you could use mapcopy to export the map. Use mapedit to convert it to bitmap. Flood fill/colour replace the areas involved (with Paint, PSP, whatever). Mapedit it back to .mp and use mapcopy again to import it to the .scn or sav (You already knew that I guess). Done.
.Results/Problems
I tried and tested it, it works. I included the picture to prove it. The picture shows both Axis and Soviets as AI. Barbarossa is checked.
-Unfortunately pollution conceals railroads. I suppose they are covered with sand. RR's are still useable, nontheless, though I am not so sure the train station improvement works for polluted squares.
-Desert oilfields show as winter oilfields, because polluting them would deny their benefits.
-AI engineers might attempt to clean them. Putting the pollution/desert graphic over ocean squares solves this, but this way deserts are impassable. Hex-editing engineer abilities might do, but I am not sure the AI will follow suit, even then.
-Winterized units blend with the winter terrain somewhat, making ambushes slightly more feasible, against/amongst human opponents.

One more thing: Where is Finland? They did get some of the best Axis equipment btw.

I have some ideas on enhancing the Chinese position too, but I haven't checked if it works yet.
I'll send you the altered files if you want, to have a look at.
Is it a bit too much, perhaps? Tell me what you think.

[Pavlov]

Originally posted by Darius871
Dangerous enemy? I have nothing but infantry left in every city! I'm just more bold a player than most, that doesn't mean I'm good!

Anyway I just knew who he was from the quotes. Is he a soccer player or something?

"Uhhh, the current one."

No, the current one is just his face. I meant the one where he was standing.

You look like you need a lesson in taking praise.

Yep, Zlatan plays for Ajax, one of the best Swedish footballers right now.

What I meant to ask was, which is better, this one or the other Zlatan-picture?

And Tanelorn's suggestion about pollution/glacier is very good. Some of his other ideas are excellent too.

[tanelorn]

this is the picture

[academia]

Question:
During an incursion of a B-17 bomber in north africa, I spotted a AA outside a city!!!
Is that legal in this game?? Can we move the AA units??