"World War II - Under Construction"

[Cifer Almasy]

This is name of our new project. (Ok, its still the scenario Jim and I tried to plan) but with the title we choosed and a new compagnion (?):
Curt Sibling will help us!
Now its Jimmy, Curt and me.

First I will quote Jim from our last thread:

"World War II "Under Construction" - Global WW2 1937-45 Scenario


Ok, as all of you who clicked to visit this thread have read the subject we don´t need to explain the theme further.


1st let me answer some questions.


(1) Why 1937-45 and not 1939-45?

Well, we decided to start the game in 1937, beginning with most of our Western Historians called the "Chinese Incident" at the Marco Polo Bridge between Imperial Japanese Forces and parts of the Chinese Army. Also a longer build-up will be much more fun (i mean also diplomatic fun. imagine the "Anschluss" of Austria 1938 and the Sudeten Crisis 1938/39).


(2) Which Civs to take/leave out?

We decided to have seven moretheless playable civs and give the Neutrals to the Barbarians. Playable would be: Germany, Italy (yes you read right, Italy. Explanation below) and Japan on the one side. Great Britain, France and the USA on the other side. The USSR should be some kind of alternative ideological power.

(3) Why Italy?

Well, not easy to explain but for this should become some kind of different WW2 scenario we decided to do it either with Italy as we do it with France. When the scenario kicks of Europe is divided between the 3 Ideologies mentioned above. Democracy (UK, France) with the US standing aside watching, Fascism (Germany, Italy) and the USSR. What we like to include into this scenario is the fact that Italy was some kind of decisive to the German War Machinery (Albania, Greece). For mostly these reasons we decided to make this scenario with Italy instead of e.g. China though there wouldn´t be many cities in Italy (what is the most popular reason to leave it out).


Ok, first answers are here but if you have some other ones just ask. This thread should not only inform you about the progress but should also be some kind of platform where you post your comments, ideas and critics.

Yet we have a map and some citys added. For me its really important to focus on realism and balance. Jimmy and I have a lot of ideas but we still are far away from a final version.
Yet I am not sure if we should include stackable terrain or not. We also thought about event- and unitchanges per batch-file.
As my English isnt the best perhaps I will have to write German sometimes (if I am not able to explain my ideas to Jimmy). I please you to forgive me but I will try to write in English.
Ok, thats it first. Soon I will post the map (with the first citys).

[curtsibling]

The joy of WW2 scenario construction!
I will do what it takes to help make this one a winner!

I like the idea of the 1937 start, with war looming in the near distance.

I also like this idea of the European focus, with Italy being important!

Good things are going to happen with this scenario!

[yaroslav]

Have you consired to start the game in 1936? This way, you could reflect two big incidents: The Marco Polo incident you told us about (were the Japanese could get experience and even some "barbarian" China cities), and the Spanish Civil War (were the Germans/Rusians could get experience if you put some "barbarian" units/cities in Spain)

[Cifer Almasy]

Originally posted by yaroslav
Have you consired to start the game in 1936? This way, you could reflect two big incidents: The Marco Polo incident you told us about (were the Japanese could get experience and even some "barbarian" China cities), and the Spanish Civil War (were the Germans/Rusians could get experience if you put some "barbarian" units/cities in Spain)

That would be a nice idea, too! I´ll ask the others what they think about it and then decide. But the "what if" idea is a good thing - looking at the Spanish Civil war there could be a lot of oportunities. Thanks a lot

[jim panse]

Thanks for this advice yaro, keep these comments coming!!!

[Palaiologos]

What would the scenario turn rate be?

if it is something like 1-2 months per turn then a scenario start at 1936 would mean 18-36 turns more.

And that in turn would mean that China might have fallen to the Japs by 1938 and the Germans occupy Paris by 1937.

Keep in mind that the whole WWII microprose scenario was 48 turns long-long enough for an aggressive player to conquer the world.

[Cifer Almasy]

uuuh... thats something I didn´t think about yet. I just know that I´d like to multiply the citys granarys with 12 or else so that they grow a lot slower.

[FiGu]

It would be nice if you start with the Italian Invasion of Ethopia in 1936.



PS Curt, look into to your PM inbox

[jim panse]

Originally posted by Palaiologos
What would the scenario turn rate be?

if it is something like 1-2 months per turn then a scenario start at 1936 would mean 18-36 turns more.

And that in turn would mean that China might have fallen to the Japs by 1938 and the Germans occupy Paris by 1937.

Keep in mind that the whole WWII microprose scenario was 48 turns long-long enough for an aggressive player to conquer the world.

I thought about this for a long time and I had some ideas for making it more difficult for Germany and Japan.

Maybe extra-expensive units (representing the superb training of the Wehrmacht) and some kind of lacking military capacities in 1936 (city improvements!) could do something about this.

[Cifer Almasy]

I thought about making Infantry from time to time obsolete simulating that you don´t have an uncountable mass of soldiers you can "produce". While tanks and Artys are always produceable.

[Palaiologos]

Expensive units could do the trick but be forewarned that the AI detecting weakness might launch sneak attacks.

[Palaiologos]

Perhaps............


What if this "free time" is used by the player not to build only his military might but advance in science as well.
I mean, Germany had made a lot of breakthroughts in technology and combat tactics before the war(the concept of blitzkrieg-armoured formations supported by bombers to fight a war of movement) and was only to eager to test them out in Spain.

[jim panse]

This sounds really good. Maybe to make it a bit like Hearts of Iron. I mean: Making research crucial in order to gain good - but expensive - units.

I guess the best way to do this would lie in the very middle ...

[Cifer Almasy]

Okay i´d say: "let´s start with the graphics!"
Curt, would you as "master of graphics" mind proposing us a set of terrain and citygraphics?
I really liked your new "farmland" graphic as well as the new "oil" terrains.
We´d just need a "Riverbed" terrain (perhaps similar to the grassland one) - cause we decided to have an extra terrain for rivers (with a huge defense-bonus).

I also had one more idea: All ressources for themselves should be moreless weak (I mean copper, Ore, etc...) but with a factory (mining) they give a lot more. But it will cost a lot of turns. So there would be a motivation for building settlers and develop infrastructure in occupied regions. As well as "minor" developed citys in Africa can have nice ressources but still wont be able to use them as there are economicly too weak.
hope you undesrtand what I want to express
There is the potential but you have to work hard getting the bonus.
One more thing: I wanted to make every citizen eating #3 Food per turn. So there would be a major reason to let your citys grow.

Edit: Oh oh, of course Oil and Iron Ore will be important without mining! I´d propose

[Cifer Almasy]

Oh before I forget: Here is a really nice "irrigation" graphic, that you perhaps could convert to your style, if you dont mind...