Ideas for Panzer Corps 2

[Methusalar]

I like the commendation system, but they could focus on getting units (foreign / prototypes).

A big problem at the heart of PC2 is game balance. It's tricky for lots of reasons, but one of them is that the game needs to be challenging for players who have built up lethal heroes combinations, while also still be suitable for those who have been unlucky with hero picks. The end result is something that is still too easy if you've got a well trained core force with a good selection of heroes, while at the same time, still too hard for someone who has allowed too many units to die and/or been unlucky with heroes.

The engagement would come from the fact that the main hero is you and that you are steering their career / traits.

Want to develop an army that focuses on mobility above all else? An army where artillery does the heavy lifting? An army that is unbeatable in defence? It would all be your choice.

You could make it so that you need to earn xp to level up. Getting all of the bonus objectives would then mean that you got promoted sooner.

[DefiantXYX]

I like the commendation system, but they could focus on getting units (foreign / prototypes).

I know there are some players who like that kind of stuff, I dont.
Starting in Mid 1942 you wont need these stuff. Germany got the best stuff, foreign units only weaken your core. You could get prototypes yeah, but a Tiger II in 1943 is gamebreaking. Other stuff is nice to have, but not so important. For me only in the early years of war these kind of units make sense, like the Verdaja.

A big problem at the heart of PC2 is game balance.

Yes and I have finally come to the conclusion, that the player himself has the balance the game. You have so many options, traits, sliders...you cant balance that for everyone, but you can do it yourself. If you really want to.
If you play the amazing mods like Grand Campaign or especially AO Redone you will face a high level of difficulty, so you need all the OP stuff. But the story of the game gets destroyed. You win every battle, just to fight againt even more and even stronger high end units.

Want to develop an army that focuses on mobility above all else? An army where artillery does the heavy lifting? An army that is unbeatable in defence? It would all be your choice.

Not really. You dont need an army with unbeatable defence. You almost never defend in this game. If you heavily rely on artillery, you wont manage the scenarios in the late years of war, because you dont have the turns. You need tanks, more tanks, and speed.
The game allows you to do stuff like that, but thats imo nothing that has to do with heroes.

[Tassadar]

I had this thought after playing Allied Operations: Italy vol.1 some time ago, and as pointed to me in the AAR, missing one of the special heroes by pure chance and a bit of absent-mindedness. I was thus wondering, perhaps linked campaigns should give the player an option to get some of the awards from the previous part as the player moves to the next, provided they pay an exceptionally steep amount of prestige (let's say, at the very least 10,000 per hero). This could not only serve as a way to make prestige matter a tiny bit more, but add a failsafe for such circumstances. Of course not all such awards can be coded to check for status - it probably only could work for heroes and maybe some special units.

[DefiantXYX]

Not sure, maybe its intended, to provide some motivation for another play through.
I missed Galland in my first AO run and some other stuff. That alone was motivation enough for me, to do i again

Imo the problem is how the secondary objetive are designed. Take city x with unit y, because... because we want it that way. Take the cities x, y und z as secondary objective...well, most of the time either its impossible to not take secondary cities, or you must end the scenario 5 turns ealry. Which makes no sense in any case. In older games, there were differnt turn counter, if you ended ealry, you got a reward, or the chance to play a scenario or a tree, you could not if you always need all the turns.

AO Italy vol. 1 is full of these stuff. Do this, do that, go there, use these units... personally I want to decide myself what I am doing and how I am doing it. That means there should be some hidden und suprising stuff.

[Tassadar]

Not sure, maybe its intended, to provide some motivation for another play through.
I missed Galland in my first AO run and some other stuff. That alone was motivation enough for me, to do i again

Imo the problem is how the secondary objetive are designed. Take city x with unit y, because... because we want it that way. Take the cities x, y und z as secondary objective...well, most of the time either its impossible to not take secondary cities, or you must end the scenario 5 turns ealry. Which makes no sense in any case. In older games, there were differnt turn counter, if you ended ealry, you got a reward, or the chance to play a scenario or a tree, you could not if you always need all the turns.

AO Italy vol. 1 is full of these stuff. Do this, do that, go there, use these units... personally I want to decide myself what I am doing and how I am doing it. That means there should be some hidden und suprising stuff.

The objectives are in my opinion interesting, but maybe indeed a bit too specific. I liked a lot of them, they address the "take objective X before objective Y" that was a bit strange in earlier DLC as it often just required leaving a unit behind to do things in order, but the one about capturing specific hexes with specific units was a bit easy to miss. It might be my bias since that's what occurred for me, but this was indeed the first time i simply overlooked an objective. Perhaps they are indeed slightly overdesigned. That said, I like the ones that required capturing specific units and some thinking, the ones with pursuing a fleeing enemy and so on. A failsafe like the one I escribed has the added advantage of being in line with the high leveled of customization Panzer Corps 2 offers. Is it balanced and a good idea? Maybe not, but I'd still like to have a feature like this, even if it was one of the optional sliders.

[Tobi72]

Hello Rudankort,

I would like to share a few suggestions regarding the editor and modding tools.

1. Simpler scripting and trigger system

I think scripting and triggers could be made much easier to use. Most players and modders are not LUA experts, so it would be very helpful if common functions such as reinforcements, messages, turn-based events, spawning units, prestige rewards or objective checks could be handled more directly through the editor.

LUA could of course remain available for more advanced tasks.

2. More languages and better documentation

A multilingual editor would be very welcome. I also think a more detailed manual would help a lot, especially one that explains not only what each function does, but also shows practical examples for creating scenarios, campaigns, triggers and scripts.

3. More units for smaller nations

I am currently working on a campaign about the Second Sino-Japanese War, and I noticed that the Chinese side has a rather limited unit selection compared with the major nations.

It would be great if future updates could gradually add more historical units for China and perhaps also for other less represented nations.

4. Easier use of custom images

It would also be helpful if custom hero portraits could be added more easily. The same applies to images used for campaigns, scenarios, briefings or messages.

Ideally, the editor could simply allow the user to select an image and automatically handle the required format and settings.

These are just a few ideas from the perspective of someone currently working with the editor quite a lot.

Best regards,
Tobi

[Tassadar]

3. More units for smaller nations

I am currently working on a campaign about the Second Sino-Japanese War, and I noticed that the Chinese side has a rather limited unit selection compared with the major nations.

It would be great if future updates could gradually add more historical units for China and perhaps also for other less represented nations.

There's some chance for that since one of the upcoming DLC, if nothing changed in plans, is literally a linked campaign in China. Similarly I have some hope that other DLC like the linked USSR campaign will add interesting units as well, maybe for Finland.

[Tobi72]

3. More units for smaller nations

I am currently working on a campaign about the Second Sino-Japanese War, and I noticed that the Chinese side has a rather limited unit selection compared with the major nations.

It would be great if future updates could gradually add more historical units for China and perhaps also for other less represented nations.

There's some chance for that since one of the upcoming DLC, if nothing changed in plans, is literally a linked campaign in China. Similarly I have some hope that other DLC like the linked USSR campaign will add interesting units as well, maybe for Finland.

That would be great. If a China campaign is definitely planned.

[Retributarr]

For Tobi72 China's Resistance To The JAPANESE Conquest Of CHINA!:
IF the CHINESE did not make a concerted effort to resist the JAPANESE-INVASION, And if the European's and Americans did not supply them with ARMS... then the "Pacific War" would have Unfolded in a Completely Different Way!.
YES!... initially the CHINESE did not have much to work-with. So now... An-Example!--- The CHINESE FORCES had 4-Million Volunteer Ground Troops... BUT!... only had 1-Million Rifles available.

[Retributarr]

Japan invaded China thinking it could dominate... then 1.7 million Chinese soldiers prepared for war
China entered the late 1930s fractured by warlords, political purges and a brutal struggle between Nationalists and Communists. Then Japanese expansion transformed the crisis. After years of mounting aggression, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident ignited full-scale war in 1937, forcing Chiang Kai-shek to mobilize a huge but deeply troubled Chinese military against Japan's experienced and heavily equipped forces.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/ja ... i-AA2ansA1?
IMAGE_ Just Below >
uxmode=ruby&ctsrc=dgst&ocid=edgdhpruby&pc=U531&cvid=6aea07ffc878464c8fcc091840c6cb4c&ei=65/size]
https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?&id=OVP.i6Y ... d=1.7&rs=1 <IMAGE:_Dbl-Clk To Open!

[Retributarr]

Sino-Japanese War | China’s Resistance and Japan’s Defeat
VIDEO LINK:
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/r ... ORM=VRDGAR

[Tobi72]

I am currently in the process of converting my Yamato campaigns (37–41) from PC1 to PC2. 37 and 38 are finished, but I am still in the testing phase. This PC2 editor is driving me crazy.

CNJP.png (2.1 MiB) Viewed 524 times

[Retributarr]

I am currently in the process of converting my Yamato campaigns (37–41) from PC1 to PC2. 37 and 38 are finished, but I am still in the testing phase. This PC2 editor is driving me crazy.CNJP.png

AT LASSSSST!!!... Someone > (Tobi72) Who is 'Aggressive enough' to tackle this "Pacific War Theatre".
~~~"Tobi72"' I am 'Keenly Interested' in following your progress with this Game Development!" . If you can... at some point could you leave a 'LINK' for those of us who want to monitor your continuing efforts... so that we can be informed and up-to-date in this matter!.

[Tobi72]

I am currently in the process of converting my Yamato campaigns (37–41) from PC1 to PC2. 37 and 38 are finished, but I am still in the testing phase. This PC2 editor is driving me crazy.CNJP.png

AT LASSSSST!!!... Someone > (Tobi72) Who is 'Aggressive enough' to tackle this "Pacific War Theatre".
~~~"Tobi72"' I am 'Keenly Interested' in following your progress with this Game Development!" . If you can... at some point could you leave a 'LINK' for those of us who want to monitor your continuing efforts... so that we can be informed and up-to-date in this matter!.

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Here is my page with information about my projects, and here is the one with my publications.
viewtopic.php?t=120521&start=20
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[Tobi72]

I have noticed that the Japanese A5M in the game does not look like the original at all; instead, it resembles an entirely different aircraft—something like an Italian Macchi Saetta or Folgore. Perhaps someone from the development team is reading this, and there is still hope that it might be corrected. Furthermore, some of the timeframes—or rather, the periods of operational service—for Japanese tanks, infantry units, and mobile artillery do not seem to be accurate, at least according to my own research.

A5m.png (343.76 KiB) Viewed 382 times

originalA5m.jpeg (111.5 KiB) Viewed 382 times

[Tassadar]

I have noticed that the Japanese A5M in the game does not look like the original at all; instead, it resembles an entirely different aircraft—something like an Italian Macchi Saetta or Folgore. Perhaps someone from the development team is reading this, and there is still hope that it might be corrected. Furthermore, some of the timeframes—or rather, the periods of operational service—for Japanese tanks, infantry units, and mobile artillery do not seem to be accurate, at least according to my own research.

Most Japanese units are horribly misrepresented in stats and abilities for now, like Type 3 Chi-Nu with Rapid Fire 1.5x for no reason and bizarre plane stat spikes. It's probably since full work and balancing on these never finished as Pacific got cancelled and For the sake of Axis Operations 1946 just adding some new units was really needed, without touching the old ones. That's why I hope for the Chinese DLC from the roadmap from some time ago, as it will need to do something about this issue, both in terms of balance and models like this.

That said, there's hope. I can't recall from the top of my head, but I am 100% sure there were model updates in the past, for planes specifically. I've got some vague recollections about this happening in the SCW DLC for example, but anyone feel free to correct me if I'm remembering it wrong.

[Tobi72]

The Spanish Civil War campaign was actually the reason why I stopped playing PC2. According to Steam, I still have less than 200 hours of playtime to this day.

I had really been hoping for the Pacific content, as I had occasionally read and seen things about its development.

Your latest post has given me some hope again, but I won't truly believe it until there's a confirmed release date and I can actually buy it. Until then, I'll just try to make the best of what we already have.

And it's not just the graphics and unit models that need an overhaul. The historical availability dates of some units are also incorrect. Some become available far too early, while others appear much too late.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that something new is coming!

Cheers,
Tobi72

[Tassadar]

And it's not just the graphics and unit models that need an overhaul. The historical availability dates of some units are also incorrect. Some become available far too early, while others appear much too late.

This is a bit of a difficult element depending on the timing, as applying retroactive changes to all the units for major nations in the campaigns would have a massive balancing impact on the way scenarios are designed. The bottom line is, that while changing let's say 15 cm sIG 33 (Sf) auf Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf B from it's current 01.01.1939 - 01.01.1943 to a more proper date in 1940 it makes the unit unavailable in Polish scenarios. Cases like that are still ok if the unit does not appear outside auxiliary forces, but might cause a difficulty increase. Worse case if done the other way around, it might actually trivialize encounters. Applying these changes on masse, would require some scenario adjustments and that simply seems too big of an effort compared to the gain. Thus, the best thing I think we can hope for is the changes made before the major faction gets its own campaign, or a campaign it is the adversary for. That's why I keep my fingers crossed for the Chinese linked campaign seeing the light of day as it's the best, and frankly only real chance, to make large scale updates to the Japanese unit roster.

Aside from that, we can only count on mods, but that's a gargantuan undertaking. Stormchaser created an amazing Unit Toolbox Mod
(in which I tried to slightly help, but got constrained by time, so sadly did not contribute much of note), but even that effort proved to be simply staggering.

From my own perspective, I also dabbled with an attempt to see what would be required for a historical rebalance with the help of AI for validating changes and doing quick mock tests of edited values, but there are tons of variables to consider. Changing one unit quickly means you run into an argument to edit another unit you already modified previously. A sample of 40 tanks for such purpose took me a week and I was still not happy with the results and criteria used to adjust the stats.

Some key issues I encountered for such modding attempts:

• Prestige and core slots are notoriously hard to scale as unit count goes up to ensure upgrades are viable and units make sense to use at all. I was trying to reinforce the game's the idea of prioritizing intra-class balance and using a political premium to simulate scarcity to force the player to make historical choices, but it's tough! For example, if I try to apply a flat multiplier for classes, some units are suffering from a multiplication runaway where they feel less worth using then others.
• Hard Attack is also quite hard to balance with armor values. It easily creates "dead zones" where powerful guns like the PaK 40 might feel underpowered compared to the 50mm guns for example. I also had cases like the Matilda II shrugging off T-34 rounds with ease. There is no golden ratio I managed to hit, but slowly found some ideas to prevent compression of stats.
• Realistic ammo is also tricky as it due to game mechanics it heavily penalizes some units.
• Artillery range is unfair. Some units will be downright useless, some will feel too superior as for artillery, range is the key force multiplier.
• Aircraft are ironically much easier to figure out vs. each other, as pilot skill is a massive factor here, but vs. ground targets it opens a real can of worms considering defense values vs. air weapons.
• I did not even attempt to touch naval combat, can see why the devs benched Pacific!
• We really need some updated unit editor for this game to easily import models, clone units, change stats, run mock-up battle results, etc.

[Retributarr]

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/r ... &FORM=VIRE

PRIME DIRECTIVE > CAUCASUS OIL FIELDS
~~~ Alternative Historical "Invasion Of Russia!".~~~
*Instead of a simultaneous 3-Pronged Invasion... targeting 'Leningrad' - 'Moscau' and 'Stalingrad' all at once... Concentrate the "Main-Effort" on first Acquiring the Russian Caucasus Oil Fields as the most important "First-Step"... in this Campaign!.

*With-out Oil, the Russian Armed Forces would not be able to be Effective or to maintain any Meaningful-Resistance for very long. Maybe someone could explore this Explorative Situation to see what could have happened!. Of course, i'm sure that more would be involved with this than simply taking the Oil-Fields, such as what other sources of Oil did the Russians have that were in Operation, as well as what did they have that was... as yet "Undeveloped". In Addition: To what degree could the Russian Army have managed without Caucasus Oil supplies???. ***And-So-On!***

[NorrisFByrd]

Tassadar's point about prestige and core slots really stood out to me. In my own campaigns I often hold off on upgrades because I am worried about spending prestige I might need later, and then I end up with units that feel a step behind by the time the tougher scenarios arrive. An updated unit editor that made it easier to clone a unit, tweak its stats, and see the cost at a glance would lower that barrier a lot, especially for smaller tweaks rather than full mods. I would also like clearer in-game feedback on when an upgrade is actually worth it, instead of having to guess from the numbers alone.