New Awards system proposal

[rayduhz]

Below is my proposal for a new awards system. I enjoy having CORE units progress throughout the maps. Following there history and experience is another part of that attracts me to the game. Obviously the rewards to the awards can be adjusted for balancing issues. Also I am assuming that some of this information is/can be tracked in the game in order to reach the criteria for the awards. Also attached is a layout that can be used to display the awards in a "shadow box" type of theme. Links for description of rewards are attached to the corresponding name. Comments and suggestions are welcomed!!

AWARDS

Infantry Assault Badge
• Bronze – participated in 2 maps. Awarded +1 Ammo
o Grenadier
o Pioneer
o Bruckenpioniere
• Silver – participated in 2 maps. Awarded +1 Ammo
o Wehrmacht Inf
o Gebirgsjager
o Kavallerie

Panzer Assault Badge
• Bronze – participated in 2 maps. Awarded +1 Ammo
o Recon
• Silver – participated in 2 maps. Awarded +1 Ammo
o Tank
• Numbered (25, 50, 75, 100) – destroyed numbered equivalent enemy armor. Awarded +1 Hard Attack each rank.
o Tank

General Assault Badge
• Silver – participated in 2 maps. Awarded +1 Ammo
o Artillery
o Anti-Tank
o Anti-Air

Fighter Front Flying Clasp
• Bronze – participated in 3 maps. Awarded +1 Movement
• Silver – participated in 6 maps. Awarded +1 Movement
• Gold – participated in 9 maps. Awarded +1 Movement
o Fighter

Air to Ground Front Flying Clasp
• Bronze – participated in 3 maps. Awarded +1 Ammo
• Silver – participated in 6 maps. Awarded +1 Ammo
• Gold – participated in 9 maps. Awarded +1 Ammo
o Tactical Bomber

Bomber Front Flying Clasp
• Bronze – participated in 3 maps. Awarded +1 Spotting
• Silver – participated in 6 maps. Awarded +1 Spotting
• Gold – participated in 9 maps. Awarded +1 Spotting
o Level Bombers

Iron Cross Second Class – accumulate 50 kills. Awarded +1 Soft Attack
• (all units)

Iron Cross First Class – accumulate 100 kills. Awarded +1 Hard Attack
• (all units)

German Cross in Gold – accumulate 200 kills. Awarded +1 Experience
• (all units)

Knight Cross – accumulate 300 kills. Awarded +1 Hard, Soft, and Air Attack
• (all units)

Knights Cross w/ Oakleaves – accumulate 400 kills. Awarded +1 Ground and Air Defense
• (all units)

Knights Cross w/ Oakleaves and Swords – accumulate 500 kills. Awarded +1 movement
• (all units)

Knights Cross w/ Oakleaves, Swords, and Diamonds – accumulate 750 kills. Awarded +1 Spotting
• (all units)

Knights Cross w/ Golden Oakleaves, Swords, and Diamonds – accumulate 1000 kills. Awarded +1 Initiative
• (all units)

Wound Badge
• Black – accumulate 10 losses. Awarded +1 Ground Defense
• Silver – accumulate 20 losses. Awarded +1 Air Defense
• Gold – accumulated 40 losses. Awarded +1 Close Defense
o (all units)

Close Combat Clasp
• Bronze – accumulated after 4 cities captured. Awarded +1 Ground Defense
• Silver – accumulated after 8 cities captured. Awarded +1 Experience
• Gold – accumulated after 16 cities captured. Awarded +1 Initiative
o (all units)


PClayout by Rayduhz, on Flickr


Example of some the most highly experienced units:

Grenadier 43, Tiger II, FW 190G, SE Panther G, and 17 cm K 18:
• Knights Cross w/ Golden Oakleaves, Swords, and Diamonds
• German Cross in Gold
• Iron Cross First Class
• Iron Cross Second Class
• Gold Wound Badge
• Gold Close Combat Clasp
• Bronze Infantry Assault Badge (Gren 43)
• Silver 100 Panzer Assault Badge (Tiger II & SE Panther G)
• Gold Fighter Front Flying Clasp (FW 190G)
• General Assault Badge (17 cm K 18)


stats by Rayduhz, on Flickr

[lordzimoa]

Very cool.

Tim

[Plaid]

Its truly awesome, though some of them are pretty imbalanced.
Most units will have gold wound badge after couple of maps, for example.

[jaldaen]

Rayduhz, cool idea. Would definitely need some playtesting and tweaking, but could be fun. You mentioned:

German Cross in Gold – accumulate 200 kills. Awarded +1 Experience

Would the +1 experience be +1 star? I was just wondering what that meant.

Other than that you presented a very clear idea with thoughtful and logical benefits.

[rayduhz]

Would the +1 experience be +1 star? I was just wondering what that meant.

Yes +1 experience = +1 star. Of course that means you gained the EXPERIENCE, you still need to add the replacements in order utilize the +1 star.

Its truly awesome, though some of them are pretty imbalanced.
Most units will have gold wound badge after couple of maps, for example..

I agree, there would defiantly have to be some balancing. That is why I added a table of some example units reaching the MAXIMUM amount of awards/rewards. Not all units would be able to reach that stature in the current amount of maps in a campaign.

[Kerensky]

Sounds like it might make for a great custom mod. Be sure to share details of your progress with this!

[TheGrayMouser]

Would all these be a replacement , or an addition to the hero's that you get?

[AgentX]

Interesting idea and I can see you put a lot of work into it. Couple of points, though. The awarding of an experience star is probably too much and would mess with the balancing. For instance, on Field Marshall difficulty, experience is gained at a slower rate, so that would be a huge reward. The +3 spotting bonus is excessive for the Bomber Front Flying Clasp giving them a 4 spotting range (greater than recon units). Another possible flaw is the awarding of so many bonuses based on kills. Artillery and Level Bombers acquire kills at a much lower rate than other units putting them at a disadvantage in this system (actually a problem with the current system as well with Heroes also being based on kills).

Also, the Close Combat Clasp bonuses can't be earned by AA or Artillery since they can't capture cities. AA and Artillery should also have some sort of range bonus eventually granted in addition to the General Assault Badge or maybe an extension of it. Say a Gold for participating in 6 maps and getting +1 range. It also seems you would make the awarding of Heroes redundant or would they still be awarded? Kind of like them because of the randomness of the awards; however, having them could make your system even more unbalanced by adding on to your bonuses.

[rayduhz]

Sounds like it might make for a great custom mod. Be sure to share details of your progress with this!

You give me too much credit. I was putting this idea out to Slitherine to add to the discussion of adding more to the awards system. I'll poke around and see what I can do but I am by far a developer

Interesting idea and I can see you put a lot of work into it. Couple of points, though. The awarding of an experience star is probably too much and would mess with the balancing. For instance, on Field Marshall difficulty, experience is gained at a slower rate, so that would be a huge reward. The +3 spotting bonus is excessive for the Bomber Front Flying Clasp giving them a 4 spotting range (greater than recon units). Another possible flaw is the awarding of so many bonuses based on kills. Artillery and Level Bombers acquire kills at a much lower rate than other units putting them at a disadvantage in this system (actually a problem with the current system as well with Heroes also being based on kills).

Also, the Close Combat Clasp bonuses can't be earned by AA or Artillery since they can't capture cities. AA and Artillery should also have some sort of range bonus eventually granted in addition to the General Assault Badge or maybe an extension of it. Say a Gold for participating in 6 maps and getting +1 range. It also seems you would make the awarding of Heroes redundant or would they still be awarded? Kind of like them because of the randomness of the awards; however, having them could make your system even more unbalanced by adding on to your bonuses.

Again I realize there are balancing issues that would need to be worked out. These awards will most likely be attained sparingly throughout the entire campaign, not all at once. On FM it is harder to get those kills that accumulate for some awards. Perhaps the +1 experience can be calculated for half or less the amount of 1 star experience.

In most cases bomber do have better spotting value then a recon element on the ground. Maybe a total of +3 spotting is excessive. Perhaps we can add Naval Attack and/or Air Defense into the reward.

I tried to stay away from RANGE bonus on awards that can be acquired by all units because I don't think we should have infantry firing across the map.

Heroes should stay in the game but RANDOM +1 stats can be added.

When you do the math and look at some of the rewards and when they can be obtained during a campaign, it does not make a huge diference. For instance, you would never have a unit with Knights Cross in France, most likely that would come about late 43 in Russia. These awards, and there bonus, are accumulated through out the campaign and it is highly unlikely they all will be acquired at a time when they would drastically alter a map. No one unit can become god during the invasion of Greece.

[AgentX]

I tried to stay away from RANGE bonus on awards that can be acquired by all units because I don't think we should have infantry firing across the map.

I was under the impression that the General Assault Badge was only for Artillery, AA and AT which is why I suggested that would be where a range bonus could be awarded. I was also pointing out that, since AA and Artillery can't take cities, they are incapable of ever getting the Close Combat Clasp bonuses and probably should be able to get some kind of bonus special to them. Range seemed logical and the General Assault Badge seemed to be the spot. Or, is that award not specific to Artillery, AA and AT? I only see those units listed.

[rayduhz]

I tried to stay away from RANGE bonus on awards that can be acquired by all units because I don't think we should have infantry firing across the map.

I was under the impression that the General Assault Badge was only for Artillery, AA and AT which is why I suggested that would be where a range bonus could be awarded. I was also pointing out that, since AA and Artillery can't take cities, they are incapable of ever getting the Close Combat Clasp bonuses and probably should be able to get some kind of bonus special to them. Range seemed logical and the General Assault Badge seemed to be the spot. Or, is that award not specific to Artillery, AA and AT? I only see those units listed.

I'm sorry, I must have miss understood what you said. Yes General Assault is for Art, AT, and AA. Majority of the awards affect all units. For me, range is a tricky subject due to the distances of a single hex. I think that why most artillery units range is only +2. If the distance of a single hex was less, I think +3 and more artillery would work out fine.

CCC (close combat clasp) requirements can be changed. How about numbered INFANTRY kills. Since the original requirements for the reward revolve around hand to hand fighting.

Again I'm not even sure if there award requirement can/is tracked in the game with its current engine. I'm hoping so, it would make the addition of these awards a lot easier.

[VPaulus]

Sounds like it might make for a great custom mod. Be sure to share details of your progress with this!

You give me too much credit. I was putting this idea out to Slitherine to add to the discussion of adding more to the awards system. I'll poke around and see what I can do but I am by far a developer

Like Kerensky, I too think that this could be a great mod.

[rayduhz]

Sounds like it might make for a great custom mod. Be sure to share details of your progress with this!

You give me too much credit. I was putting this idea out to Slitherine to add to the discussion of adding more to the awards system. I'll poke around and see what I can do but I am by far a developer

Like Kerensky, I too think that this could be a great mod.

Time to beef up my html skills.

[flakfernrohr]

Lots of work can be seen and a worthy effort; however I am curious to know just how many units will get enough kills to earn the higher honors. That being said, how many of the units will earn higher honors and still have a campaign or battle left to fight?

It's one thing to have a unit gather battle awards and be proud of to command, but if there is nowhere to go after that, what to do? When you start over all the awards are gone.

[rayduhz]

Lots of work can be seen and a worthy effort; however I am curious to know just how many units will get enough kills to earn the higher honors. That being said, how many of the units will earn higher honors and still have a campaign or battle left to fight?

It's one thing to have a unit gather battle awards and be proud of to command, but if there is nowhere to go after that, what to do? When you start over all the awards are gone.

That is what makes this awards system, for lack of a better term, realistic. Not all units are expected/can gain all awards. Exactly the same way the current awards system stands.

The requirement are so tough (all can be tweaked) that the higher awards most likely will not be able to be attained until the end of the campaign, aka attacking US or defending Germany.

Most units that gain the high awards would be the units that are constantly at the "front line" such as Tanks, Infantry, and Fighter. As with history, the units commanding these types gained awards more often then the rear echelon units such as Artillery and Anti-Air.

[rayduhz]

Ok I poked around the UI and Data folder, I feel confident I can make the above modification BUT I am missing some crucial information. Bascially I need to find out if the game tracks differant aspects of each unit besides kills? I also need to know how I can added fixed rewards to each award, somewhat similar to how heroes give (random) rewards. Can a dev chime in on that info

[jaldaen]

rayduhz,

For those units that are low-kill, you might tie the awards to experience (if the game doesn't track other aspects like suppression).

[Xerkis]

Lots of work can be seen and a worthy effort; however I am curious to know just how many units will get enough kills to earn the higher honors. That being said, how many of the units will earn higher honors and still have a campaign or battle left to fight?

It's one thing to have a unit gather battle awards and be proud of to command, but if there is nowhere to go after that, what to do? When you start over all the awards are gone.

Sounds to me like a good reason for more scenarios to be introduced in to the campaigns.


@rayduhz
I’m trying to get a handle on what it is you have made here; but every time I start to dive in to it, I get interrupted. But it certainly does look like a lot of thought and work has gone in to it. Very nice.

[rayduhz]

rayduhz,

For those units that are low-kill, you might tie the awards to experience (if the game doesn't track other aspects like suppression).

Sounds like a good idea