Downfall ... bug or feature?

[Boarspear]

In downfall I captured 3 harbors within 15 turns -- then later when I achieved another secondary objective, I get a question mark on that objective (checked green, then turned to question mark). Harbors didn't change hands, either.

This is a wonderful game, but I think the larger maps (are they larger? They seem to be.) like Leyte (the "I have returned" map) for the Americans, and Downfall, are crash bandicoots -- I've gotten the patch and updated drivers and turned everything to low settings to seemingly no avail. Luckily the "quicksave" key can be pressed after every few minutes, so I've kedged forward in my campaigns and gotten through them. Might be time to upgrade the old system. Is everyone else getting frequent crashes? I also almost always crash between scenarios in a campaign.

Other oddities I've noticed. In the IJ campaign I chose the option to get Tiger tanks and thought that would be fun, only to have my Tigers nearly destroyed instantly by Chaffee tanks and run-of-the-mill infantry. I spent more time protecting them than using them, and when I looked at the odds against other tanks, or infantry, I got a probability of "0" kills! I looked at the data file and also the info file and it looks formidable on paper. In reality though I will avoid them.

I'm using the recon units a lot more -- the raiders and their IJ counterpart can take apart infantry guns and AA guns especially well. Playing IJ I was unpleasantly surprised by them a couple of times as they wreaked havoc in my lines. The Japanese recon plane that drops mines is fun also -- good to hem in reinforcements.

I admit I'm not playing fair -- lots of cheat code use to get enough money to scrape by or units to cover objectives in some scenarios. A number are pretty unbalanced (Downfall comes to mind) for what you need to achieve if you play it straight. Still, it is a LOT of fun, and I'm glad for the "surprises" because you get a feel for the period when you think you've got everything nailed down and yet another wave of Japanese ships comes on the horizon, or the Japanese produce some tanks. My favorite scenarios as the American so far are New Georgia and Guadalcanal. I'll be playing those for a while. The IJ land scenarios in the later campaign are great, too. Oddly I find the supposedly "elite" troops (can't remember the name) are ineffective compared to the Japanese marines.

Congrats on a great game. Work out a few more bugs and it will be the best Pacific game of its type ever, which I really think it already is. Reminds me of the Pacific mod for Close Combat come to life.

[monkspider]

I had many of the same problems as you. The AI turns on Downfall were absolutely terrible. I remember once I walked away from my computer for 10-15 minutes and when I came back, to my shock, the AI turn was still going on! The capturing harbors secondary objective was bugged for me too. I haven't got the Wunderwaffen yet but someone else reported the same thing you did, sounds like the Tigers are bugged.

[klhbekool]

Maybe I got lucky, I got to use Tigers in Aus. and NZ

[Boarspear]

Oh, another thing that really bothers me -- roads don't seem to negate terrain! Hence there's no point in seizing roads, when your artillery, tanks, or other vehicles have to move along a jungle or forest at one or two hexes a turn despite the fact you have a road all the way through them. Bug or feature?