Need evaluators for a new campaign

[Navman2854]

<r><QUOTE author="conboy" post_id="860007" time="1592531630" user_id="155850"><s>

</s>
Navman,<br/>
Man,<br/>
you are really hitting some good points. <br/>
I think the French air thing was a stray click -- needs to go on the south edge, as you pointed out.<br/>
<br/>
I will check out all your comments on Rhin -- the bridges need some explanation. I'll say they're for follow-on logistics people swarming in behind the front line troops -- need more bridges open for more troops. As for the batteries, I'll check it out but there's (almost) no accounting for what the AI does!<br/>
<br/>
I've been working on your comments about the Volturno bridge building phase all evening - I think I have a good solution.<br/>
<br/>
Thanks for sticking with it -- I think the last two are pretty strong.<br/>
<br/>
conboy
<e>

</e></QUOTE>

Thanks conboy, it's been real and it's been fun but it hasn't been real fun --- j/k

19 - Nure = That was a very good scen, kind of a nasty little fight. TAC air good, no issues at all. Good German AA around the area especially the ART except for a couple of the solitary BIG guns. But, you can't have AA everywhere. Agree with ColonelY's take on the armor end runs around the city, was pretty easy to hit the ART. One more to go! </r>

[conboy]

Thanks Navman.
When you end up, let me know how you did on RPs please. Sure appreciate your help this!

conboy

[Erik2]

16 Colm

All pri phase 1 objs were captured by turn 6, still the obj appear failed at turn 7. Maybe this was caused by the flag at Maison Rouge was still not fully raised by turn-6.

Since this means the scenario itself has failed I nuked my way to the next one. I think I reported on this scenario in single player mode anyway. Deja Vu

[ColonelY]

Well, if I remember correctly, it was absolutely required as well to build a bridge before turn 7, or something... That may be the reason!

[conboy]

Thanks, Erik, ColonelY,

Erik. Did you complete the bridge at Maison Rouge?
BTW you did give me a detailed review on it when it was released as a stand-alone. I'm pretty sure all the triggers work -- it's been thoroughly vetted, and played publicly for a while now (no reports of busted triggers).

Thanks!

conboy

[Navman2854]

Thanks Navman.
When you end up, let me know how you did on RPs please. Sure appreciate your help this!

conboy

No problem conboy!

20 - Bercht = Well, that was different! It's okay, the historical aspect is cool and it kind of wraps up the campaign, but the lack of combat made it kind of boring. Just my opinion. The traffic jam was was a neat little touch though. TAC air CPs shown as 9 but not deploy-able, not that it was needed. There were also 3 exit hexes in the middle of the map. The units deployed were not named the 7th and 15th, just the generic tags. Some of this ColonelY probably mentioned, I didn't look this time

RPs at campaign end = Had a TON, see attachment.

Campaign summary = One minor grievance is some of the maps are a little too large for the particular scen, Bercht as an example. May hinder players a bit with older PCs. Probably too much of a pain to alter now though.

You put in a lot of time and thought into this and it shows. After all the tweaking is done, you're going to have a campaign players should have a lot of fun tackling. I'd put it on a level with Erik's campaigns and that's high praise indeed. You should be proud!

[Erik2]

Thanks, Erik, ColonelY,

Erik. Did you complete the bridge at Maison Rouge?
BTW you did give me a detailed review on it when it was released as a stand-alone. I'm pretty sure all the triggers work -- it's been thoroughly vetted, and played publicly for a while now (no reports of busted triggers).

Thanks!

conboy

I may have forgotten to build the bridge... It is sometimes difficult to actually note the difference in certain terrain especially if there's a unit in the location. I just checked the turn and I simply can't tell
Years ago (yep) I asked for adding ie Bridge/Rail etc in the terrain window if there was one present. Now that the location name have moved to the top of the terrain pic, maybe....

[conboy]

Navman,

RPs at campaign end = Had a TON, see attachment.

No attachment, bruddah.
Anyway, a ton is adequate info for now.

And your praise is quite taken to heart. Thanks, I have some to go but I'm getting there with help!

Erik,
Thanks for the update. I think I can stop freaking out now.

Thanks!

conboy

[Navman2854]

Yeah, have no idea what's up with attachment. Showed as uploaded, no errors seen when submitting post. But voila, no attachment

[Erik2]

17 Sieg

The mountains on the east side look like they're all single hexes. This makes this part of the map look rather bland and unfinished.
You could probably crop everything east of Heppenheim/Hemsbach anyway. This would have the benefit of a smoother scenario as well.

So, is there a newer version of this scenario before I start playing it?

[conboy]

Erik, yes, I just updated it yesterday.

I'll pm you the link -- I don't want it proliferating.

conboy

update - sent you the new link pm

[Erik2]

I had to start all over and nuke my way to my unfinished scenario due to a kaputt PC.
I naturally had to purchase a few units to flesh out the commands.

I noticed that the only artillery available was the M45 Pershing and the Sherman Calliope. I think it is odd that the regulars like the M7 Priest and the M12 has been left out.

Same thing with tanks, only the Chaffee and the Zippo are available while various Sherman types are left out. This restricts part of the fun playing campaigns, purchasing and updating units.
I believe it would be better to leave all units in and let the game handle unit expirations. Give the players some equipment choices.

While I'm on a roll, here are a couple of other suggestions that should improved this well-researched campaign in my opinion.

1) Specialisations. A few are added to various scenarios, but the player can't purchase any. This removes a part of the campaign fun. It should be quite fast & easy to add this in the campaign editor. Simply calculate the cost of all land/air/general specifications, divide by number of scenarios and round up to nearest whole number. Then add this number to all scenarios (except the intro).

2) Assigning commanders to units is also a good part of the fun. There are a lot of US air and land commanders available in the roster. This will require some additional scenario work, but adding a commander reward to each secondary objective is an incentive for the player to go the extra mile. The 3 core air units should eventually get their own commanders as well.

3) And finally, map sizes. It is a pain in the neck to do, but cropping parts of the map that are not used goes a long way of improving loading and AI thinking times. Especially when these parts are quite large.

I'll be back with scenario comments.

[conboy]

Erik,
Thanks for your comments. I considered all these issues at the start of the campaign development and went in another direction.

I didn't know that the M45 Pershing and Calliope artillery were available...

conboy

[Erik2]

Hey, it is your campaign and you take no orders from a Norwegian anarchist with 4 hours of military training


17 Sieg

There's an odd river/bridge combo at the starting frontline.

bridges.jpg (194.31 KiB) Viewed 2510 times

I think there is something wrong with the pri obj counter. I captured 16 objs by turn 18, but the display showed 15/16 until the the last turn. Then it changed to 15/14. Also, I never got a green check-mark for the sec obj.

This gave me a draw and I had no nuke again.
Otherwise a very good scenario, light to medium difficulty.

end.jpg (132.17 KiB) Viewed 2510 times

[conboy]

Thanks, Erik, your comments are helpful as always. I gotta go back to work because I thought that was perfect, finally. Say, one more thang -- did this scenario play super slow or was it acceptable? I know it takes a while to load. I am having zero luck cropping it and retaining the ability for the cropped version to play in either the editor or the campaign.

Although I must say you sound like a very dangerous individual! All of a sudden, I picture you as looking like Pancho Villa instead of Herbert Hoover!

Norwegian anarchist with 4 hours of military training

thanks again,
conboy

[Erik2]

The scenario played reasonably fast. The AI times were actually quite short, maybe due to the low number AI units.

I look like a hit-man, shaved my head in 1994 and never looked back
Must have won my beautiful wife over by pure charm

[conboy]

Erik said

The scenario played reasonably fast. The AI times were actually quite short, maybe due to the low number AI units.

Well, in that case I think I will give up on the wild goose chase of cropping this xx thang xx down. Cropping it and copying over the _crop text files ain't so bad when you get the hang of it, but you feel badly betrayed when you get through that arduous process, update all the triggers, and then discover it won't even play in the editor.

test and then save after each step!

Although in my case, the scenario goes to crap after the very first crop, as I found out through scientific analysis.

conboy

[Erik2]

From crop to crap in two easy steps.
Now that is a slogan for you
(Sorry, couldn't help it).

[conboy]

man that is funny! actually made me laugh

Well, I fixed the scenario but could not crop it. Now it's better than it was, thanks to you, ColonelY, and Navman.

I added a lot of German resistance, fixed the triggers, added some armor counterattacks, a flank attack by the US 1st Armored Division, small boat landing parties, and a helicopter full of cheerleaders and explosives and beer.

That should spice the scenario up!

conboy

[Erik2]

18 Rhin

Got a failed pri obj at turn 13/19, even though the trigger should check at scenario end. Looks like the counter is off.

Did not get a checkmark for the sec obj.

There is a whole bunch of German K18 units south of Heroldsberg. Looks like a mistake since they never participated in the battle.

Fairly easy and fast scenario. Could maybe be shortened to 15-16 turns.

t13.jpg (269.53 KiB) Viewed 2441 times