old Potzblitz thread (discontinued)

[Robotron]

Great to hear that, wasn't sure about the steam version.
Thanks for the info, nehi.

[CPI986]

-None of the new diplomatic options are there. Loaning PP's, intelligence, diplomatic points...none of that.
-No options or choices are presented to me, only the events.

Is it that the ability to make certain choices will be made available later on, in some other version? If so, sorry for raising the matter.

[Robotron]

3.4 is from 11th december. The new stuff will be available in 4.0 and will take some more time to implement.

[Zombo]

-None of the new diplomatic options are there. Loaning PP's, intelligence, diplomatic points...none of that.
-No options or choices are presented to me, only the events.

Is it that the ability to make certain choices will be made available later on, in some other version? If so, sorry for raising the matter.

Patience, young Padawan

[CPI986]

Q: If i wanted to add more music tracks, what should I do? :^)

[nehi]

Q: If i wanted to add more music tracks, what should I do? :^)

isnt much easier just to listen music from external program?

u can switch tracks or make playlist there

[Robotron]

Convert your music to .ogg format and put it into the music folder.
Then rename your music files in the following way:
game1.ogg
game2.ogg
game3.ogg
etc.

Then open "main_hud.lua" with any editor and change line 168

Code: Select all

  local playListLength = 4

and replace 4 with the total number of your music files.

then change line 171

Code: Select all

  for i = 0, 3 do

and replace 3 with the total number of your music files minus 1

Or listen from an external source like nehi said and save yourself tons of unnecessary work.

[Zombo]

Hi Robo

a few comments after continuous playtesting:

it's still pretty hard for the Germans to achieve anything resembling Tannenberg: I was wondering if it would be possible to have Hindenburg as a one-hex leader available at the historical time. Not enough to endanger the whole Russian front precociously but a little help to make it harder for the Russians from establish the usual solid line

also, I think Pillboxes and Concrete Dugouts should not be accessible to Russians ( and minor countries too, probably) and Barbed Wire delayed to approximately September 1915

BTW, I know this was answered before, but I don't remember... Did you manage to attach a morale/collapse point penalty to conquest of empty hexes on the Western Front? it's sorely needed

regarding the (severe) damage penalty for being unable to retreat, it makes sense but in the case of an impossible retreat due to friendly units I think it's actually more damaging than good - it makes the Western Front more fragile ( it's already a bit too fragile for the Germans) and retreat prevented by friendly units could precisely represent significant reserves in the rear able to feed cannon fodder to the front line, and would reward concentration of troops ( impossible to achieve on the front line because of the one-unit-per-hex stacking limit)

[CPI986]

Regarding the music, I did all that you recommended and it worked to full effect, so thank you gentlemen!

Now, I've taken an interest on the units that the Ottoman Empire is allowed to produce. In particular, I want to modify my vanilla data files so that the player can train Arab Infantries and Cavalry. How do I do this?

[Robotron]

@Zombo: the "Russian code broken" event will take care of your enduring Tannenberg problems in V4.0.

Sadly it is not possible to exclude certain factions from specific techs within a category. Once a faction is allowed to research a category it is allowed to research it all the way to the end. Rewriting the research system would take some time and I've got enough trouble right now getting the AI acquainted with the new diplo stuff. However, it is possible to delay Russian starting research for barbed wire and I'll apply a random penalty at the game start here then.

Retreat penalties in 4.0 will be reduced to 33% (was 50% in 3.4, in vanilla: 20%). 50%...what was I thinking?

Regarding morale loss for lost hexes: it's quite difficult to come up with a system that both has a noticeable effect for losing one or two hexes and prevents an outright collapse of morale once the enemy achieved a breakthrough and starts to pour through the gap with fast units. That's the reason I've not yet implemented such a feature but I invite you to come up with a solution.

@CPI:
Every faction can only build one kind of any given prototype so giving Turkey a choice on whether to build either Turkish or Arabian infantry is not possible. Furthermore Arab infantry is 10pp cheaper to allow Arabia to build new infantry once it enters the game. Giving Turkey the option to build infantry for 10pp less is out of the question. Besides Turkey will get some Arab inf,cavs and garrs once the Senussi revolt.


@all: if you have multiple questions or proposals please be so kind to number them in the future as this makes it a lot easier to address the specific problems.

[Zombo]

and prevents an outright collapse of morale once the enemy achieved a breakthrough and starts to pour through the gap with fast units.

1) Well I have NEVER seen that happen on the Western Front against a human player. (Obviously, I'm only thinking of the Western Front for this rule)
All you can hope to achieve in one turn is grab one hex. I don't mind at all, in fact, if a faction collapses after one or several breakthroughs. Verdun was defended at the cost of countless lives precisely because conceding ground was thought to be a colossal moral liability. The Kaiserschlacht offensives sent shock waves through the Allies - it's just that by then they were confident enough, having brought the USA in and all. The second battle of the Marne actually caused German morale to plummet and had a direct impact on the Germans throwing the glove. It conquered nothing important, nor was it anywhere near Germany, but the simple loss of territory on that scale was enough. It would make keeping artilleries in France for counter-barrage more essential too, which is historically adequate.
my suggestion is, at least for multiplayer, after the German offensive has halted: 1 collapse point+ morale loss par hex taken on the Western Front. This will also have the salutary effect of making the Western Front more important and therefore absorb more of Germany's forces. In multiplayer, Germany can redeploy its artillery in Autumn/Winter 14 to Serbia or Russia, with benefits compensating possible loss of one or two "bridgehead-to-nowhere" hexes in France. Unthinkable in reality.
Italy should get two collapse point for losing Venice or Bologna.

2) How about keeping the vanilla 20% extra damage for not retreating. I'm afraid it would make the Western Front too fragile. (I suppose there is no way to differentiate impossibility to retreat due to friendly units or and actaul impassable obstacles)

3) Russian trenches: maybe it's possible to use the trench decay rule to weaken the Russian trenches a little ( an occasional random decay regardless of unit occupation or not - or tied to an event)

[Robotron]

1. You are citing Verdun as an extreme example for the suggested morale-loss-by-hex-lost system.

The loss of Verdun is already quite severe in PotzBlitz: 10 morale penalty and 1 collapse point with a chance for a second if a D100 roll is higher than French morale. Furthermore each French "Anti-war demonstration" will cause not one but two more collapse points if Verdun is lost and a D100 is higher than French morale.

The "German offensive halted" event already causes 2(!) collapse points to Germany, I'm not sure whether you consider this is a good or bad thing.

By the way: that "simple loss of territory" reasoning was more than once held against me when I tried to justify the German morale loss in East Prussia due to the "Cossacks" event. So it's fascinating to see it being brought up again. ^^

Regarding your objection that Germany would redeploy its 2nd artillery to the Eastern Front I'd like to point out that this is in accordance for the preparations for the offensive action that led to the Russian "Great Retreat" after Tarnov/Gorlice and the defensive actions the Germans were conducting during the First Battle of Champagne.

I'll happily agree with you on raising Italian collapse points for loss of Venice to 2 (and Milan and Florence too, for that matter) but in the case of "Bologna" only if you can show me where that "Bologna" city is situated on the PotzBlitz map although you have ignored my request to assign this request to a distinct number.

2. okay, 25% it is then

3. This proposal sounds very promising and will be included in one way or another.


have a nice weekend!

[Zombo]

1- Well losing Verdun would thus be harsher than losing a "generic" hex, that makes sense to me, it had particular symbolic significance. I'd go for 1 collapse and 5 morale for a generic hex
I confess that 2 collapse points for the GE offensive halted seems a little severe. At the time, the Germans were certainly disappointed but still very confident (with a few rare exceptions ) that they would win the war. 1 seems more appropriate

2- When I was talking about redeploying artillery, I meant all artilleries: that's the two at start + 1 that the GE generally builds around oct-nov

3- forgot to mention another recurring problem in multiplayer. The French have too much production. Not at start, of course, but once they have a solid front they enjoy a generous excess of PP. This allows them to send infantries to Serbia and/or buy Infantry labs. In December 1914 they generally have 4, while the Germans have 1 or 2. Both options are detrimental to realism.
I recommend lowering French output but let them start with a confortable PP allotment - simulating mobilization - to deal with the GE invasion

4- No Bologna, sorry, Milan.

Nice weekend to you too!

[Robotron]

1. 1 collapse point AND 5 morale loss for a generic hex? Sorry: no way! Are you still sober?

2. Even when playing against the AI I never seem to have enough PP to build a third arty before 1916. Maybe you should instead build more inf and consider upgrading units and keep that arty in France?

3. Sending French units to the Balkan front seems okay to me, they did so after all. Also consider that in 4.0 the British will not be allowed to produce infantry to reinforce the western front until about spring 1915 so that might affect your opponent's ability to build 4(what the heck???) inf labs for France. Seems I'll have to extend the French production loss for every French hex occupied by Germany from singleplayer mode to multiplayer too, I guess.

[Zombo]

1. 1 collapse point AND 5 morale loss for a generic hex? Sorry: no way! Are you still sober?

Well... Verdun costs 1 collapse and 10, plus a chance of aggravated damage, so that didn't seem exaggerated. Generic hexes are by no means empty, at this scale every hex contains at least one or two cities of some importance.

2. Even when playing against the AI I never seem to have enough PP to build a third arty before 1916. Maybe you should instead build more inf and consider upgrading units and keep that arty in France?

( Always referring to multiplayer) Once you have constituted a solid enough front line, building a lot more infantry is not very cost effective, because you can't stack them anyway. Thee artilleries ( concentrated on one spot) is the only way to ensure some progress on the Eastern or Serbian front, so that's what I and other german players I played against generally go for. Upgrading is cool but it takes a while before it be made really impactful in terms of offensive power.

3. Sending French units to the Balkan front seems okay to me, they did so after all.

Yes, but if I'm not mistaken that was not in early 1915, and not in Serbia proper, it was once the Salonika front was constituted. So not on time to prevent Serbia to be overrun.The Armée d'Orient made its presence felt only in the later stages of the war.

Seems I'll have to extend the French production loss for every French hex occupied by Germany from singleplayer mode to multiplayer too, I guess.

Please do, please do. But a small reduction of the turn allotment as of 1915 would be welcome too, honestly. (possibly compensated, as I mentioned, by a decent amount of PP at start)

[Robotron]

Small news update to show some progress:

I dropped the option to draw single events via the diplomacy screen: you'll always get to pick one from three randomly chosen events from the events pool. As the game progresses old events will be removed from that pool and new ones added. There will always be some generic ones such as some additional PP or morale. Not sure about including a "store event for later use" option as this might lead to game-breaking situations.


Naval units that run into a hex containing a submarine will receive an automatic hit as if hit by a mine.

Submarines, Light Cruisers and Battle Cruisers will have a "quick retreat" ability. Submarines might lose that ability vs. Light Cruisers if the latter are equipped with advanced anti-sub techs.

All naval units will have a new inbuilt stat called "endurance" which will be shown via the "quality" icon in the stats panel. Moving, fighting, running into mines will reduce endurance. A unit without endurance will lose its ability to regain efficiency by resting and must return to port to regain all endurance. During the winter season endurance drain will be more severe, especially if the "stormy weather" event should trigger.
Naval units next to transports and convoys can replenish some endurance per turn (considered as colliers/tenders).
Naval units low on endurance will glow yellow or red so players can easily see which units must return to port.

Coastal fortresses and major cities might return fire upon naval bombardment.

Romania will start pro-CP and shift towards CP as long as King Charles is alive (can be killed via Entente-event). Upon his death King Ferdinand will take over and must be bribed by ceding Transsylvania to Romania, including the new city of Kronstadt and the now repositioned fortress of Arad. Else Romania will rapidly shift towards Entente.

There will be a special event for turn 1 which will allow the Entene player to immediately surrender Serbia to AH, whereupon Serbia will become a vassal of AH, which will totally annoy the whole Balkan and will lead to a Russian DOW on turn 1.

Attack Belgium will be optional as will be bribing Italy by ceding Trento and Trieste.

Release date: hopefully March(?)

Cheers!

[operating]

I'm envious of what you can do and how far you can take subjects, giving a game plenty of wind in which to sail on..!

[CPI986]

Crashed again due to some faulty event, apparently: [14:43:44][9452][C]:-1(field random) game/game_events.lua:3789: bad argument #2 to 'random' (interval is empty)

[Robotron]

game_events.lua
change line 3789 to:

Code: Select all

russia:ConsumeManpower(math.random(math.sqrt(game.turn), (math.sqrt(game.turn) * math.random(3,4)))) 

[CPI986]

Did so. Got this:

Log date: 2017-02-22 22:31:47
[22:31:47][908]Running Steam build
[22:31:48][908]Renderer: AMD Radeon R7 200 Series version: 4.5.13431 Compatibility Profile Context 16.150.2211.0
[22:31:48][908]Commander: The Great War(v 1.6.6)
[22:31:48][908]Audio device used: OpenAL Soft
[22:31:48][908]Loading main script
[22:31:48][908]Loading app script
[22:31:48][908][C]:-1(global dofile) std::exception: 'Lua Error:game/game_events.lua:1: unexpected symbol near 'ï''
[22:31:48][908][C]:-1(global dofile) std::exception: 'Lua Error:[C]:-1(global dofile) std::exception: 'Lua Error:game/game_events.lua:1: unexpected symbol near 'ï'''
[22:31:48][908]~Hexine()
[22:31:48][908]~ImageNode()
[22:31:48][908]~SceneNode()
[22:31:48][908]~Application()
[22:31:48][908]~Device()
[22:31:48][908]~Renderer()
[22:31:48][908]~EventDispatcher()
[22:31:48][908]Lua Error:[C]:-1(global dofile) std::exception: 'Lua Error:[C]:-1(global dofile) std::exception: 'Lua Error:game/game_events.lua:1: unexpected symbol near 'ï'''
[22:31:48][908]~SerialNumberManager