Setting unit experience for AI bought units

[pecaboy]

Hi All!

First of all, I was a big fan of Panzer General and of course love this game, too

I like challenges, but I prefer realism. So even in PG I didn't like when newly bought AI units had experience. They were rookies, weren't they? And if I buy units, neither them have experience. But in PG I could set the exp for AI recruitment to 0

So is there any option to turn off the experience of enemy units bought by AI in campaigns without manipulating my prestige? (Maybe later I will play in harder difficulty, such as lower prestige etc.)

Thanks!

[El_Condoro]

Campaign: no - all your units start with zero experience, even if they are 'bought' in 1944. A request has been made to enable starting prestige for player and AI new units in campaigns to be set by the designer in the editor.
Scenario: the starting prestige can be set in the editor for both sides.

As an aside, I do not consider reinforcements as always totally green - they might be, but what if they represent units brought from another front? They could have more experience than the core in that case. Elite replacements do that now - why not allow whole units that are experienced to be bought?

[Kerensky]

So is there any option to turn off the experience of enemy units bought by AI in campaigns without manipulating my prestige?

Yes you can, but only through the editor; not through any option or difficulty setting currently present in the game.

Open up any campaign scenario through the editor, and set Side 2 Unit Experience to 0. This is found under the second tab of Scenario Parameters.
To preserve the high experience level of pre-placed units though, each unit will then have to be configured to start with X amount of experience.

[pecaboy]

I would like to change only the AI's new units' exp to 0.

In PG I love that times when my 5-star core Tiger force rolled through America And hate when they bought 3-star reinforcements "from the air" while I could buy only greens at any time. So I think it was somewhat unfair. Of course it increased difficulty, but... Still, unfair So I set their exp to 0 in the difficulty screen (I mean the "AI recruitees' ").

The "core forces" of the enemy are on the map by design, either from the first turn, or they will arrive later. So it is absolutely OK if they have experience based on historical situation, date etc. But I think newly recruited units (from prestige I mean) should be "green", the same as I myself "buy" them.

[Kerensky]

Yea I have some pretty vivid memories of brand new P51s or P47s with 3 Stars magically appearing in the Washington scenario of original PG. It did feel a little strange.

The only way to avoid that sort of behavior is through the method I outlined though. Experience of enemy units (both pre-placed and newly purchased) is handled and configured entirely through the editor.

[pecaboy]

TY Kerensky!

It would be a lot of work (and exploit - I still haven't played with all of the original campaign's scenarios, not to mention GCs) so I probably stay with the original exp settings.

[pecaboy]

And one last thing. If I understood well, the difficulty in PC doesn't affect the enemy troops' exp at all. Is this correct?

[Kerensky]

Yea it would be a bit of work, and actually some difficulty setting DO affect the enemy experience.

Sergeant cuts it in half, and Lieutenant reduces it by 20%.

I'm fairly certain Colonel and higher do not have any affect though.

[El_Condoro]

Yea I have some pretty vivid memories of brand new P51s or P47s with 3 Stars magically appearing in the Washington scenario of original PG. It did feel a little strange.

Why? Especially as they were flying over home territory the pilots could (often, like British pilots in the BoB) parachute to safety and be 'recycled' into shiny new planes. They still have their experience, and they can draw on trained pilots from elsewhere. Basically, new equipment doesn't equal inexperienced crews.