Potzblitz V25.0 OCT 18th 2024

[Robotron]

You can apply the script fix during your match, no problem.

It's only with full updates where it's getting complicated to update ongoing matches.

[Unwichtig]

Thx, MP is even better than vs AI. Totally different experience, much less predictable and many new learning points.
Sadly found out too late that this is actually even more fun. Hope the servers wont shut down

Slightly different topic: Love the Commander Series, having played CTGW and Commander Europe at War like madness, i wonder if
a) Commander Napoleon at War is any good as well? (read some reviews, sadly they did not sound that promissing)
b) Are mods like potzblitz available for Europe at war and napoleon at war?
c) If someone needs ideas and opinions, i have lots of them and am happy to help improving this good old series.
Private response is enough, dont want to spam this forum with other game stuff.

Basically comparing Potzblitz to Commander Europe at War or the basic CTGW is like day and night, no idea why this was not officially created earlier.
It was so easy convincing my little gaming community that this is a secret jewel, they all play it now as for every gamer that is just a little interested in history and politics there is no better experience than this. (sadly, i assume, i dont represent the large gaming market ).
Replaying the War 1 by 1, stovepiped, fixed alliances and totally sequenced and therefore totally predictable without having the choice of changing history is just not
´catchy´ enough. Play once, and you have seen it all. I stopped after 1 game CTGW on each fraction. But i played potzblitz 5 times with CP and still the outcome is different - new allies, new generals, admirals, new events, great historical background info, new choices everytime i play. replay value boosted significantly.
please, future game producers, give your players the chance not just to replay history but to change it! thats what a modern gaming experience should look like.

(hex based "Commander world war 3 - The West on the Edge" game with realistic-future events like potzblitz now on my wishlist)
events like cyberattacks, information campaigns, influencing elections, engagement of satellites...would that not be interesting? Ah...will never happen

[Robotron]

Here is an important aspect of multiplayer PotzBlitz I forgot to tell you:
all units that are created by playing events will not be immediately placed on the map (like in singleplayer) but instead will be placed at the start of the next player's turn.
This is a workaround for a bug that was never truly fixed by me. The bug caused the game to crash without error-message during the replay phase.
It is important to know about this aspect if your strategy depends on using the spawned units as soon as possible, like for example the Entente player playing "French Army of Africa".

By the way: I'd like to read about how your match vs your friend develops in the AAR subforum.

[Unwichtig]

MP game is already very interesting. Will write some aar, maybe add some nice screenshots if something amazing happens.
basically we play two games parallel, everyone with entente and CP each, then sharing the turns to keep playing. keeps us busy.

until now the naval hit and run tactics in all oceans is very entertaining...search and destroy to get the upperhand.
dont know if this is normal but we keep chasing each other to gain sea control.

its only a little sad that, inspite the fact that the dardanelles have not yet been closed officially, i still cannot leave the black sea with russian naval units because of that (still) neutral ottoman lightcruiser that blocks it anyway. so the close the dardanelles event becomes a bit useless or am i wrong? I thought i should be able to pass as long as ottoman is still neutral and the event has not been played.

anyway...anyone up for a MP match on the weekend? Let me know private, i host a potzblitz game and let you know the joining code. just in case someone wants a match.

[Robotron]

Closing the Dardanelles via event will:

- speed up Ottoman war entry
- unlock the "Shelling of Sevastopol" event if Goeben BC is present at Constantinople

The event can also trigger randomly but at a very small chance, so it is usually in the interest of the CP player to trigger the event once Goeben BC has arrived in Constantinople if no other pressing events are on the list. Should the Dardanelles be randomly closed before Goeben has arrived, then she must join the Austrian Adriatic fleet.

[DuncanStewart]

Weird thing, just with entente, infantry units. The MP reinforcement cost is 10x highers than it used to be compared to version 10. I tried both 11.01 and 11.02 and it happened. Like 20mp to reinforce 2 missing hp.

[DuncanStewart]

I tested in on a fresh install and it wasnt happening with version 10.

[Robotron]

The MP reinforcement cost is 10x highers than it used to be

Ah, I see...the raised manpower repair cost was originally meant to be only for British Expeditionary Force. My oversight caused it to be applied to all Entente nations without industrial warfare techs.

Fix is in attachment. Apply just like normal update. Will cause no problems to ongoing matches.

[DuncanStewart]

TY you so much dude, I was kicking my self for hrs trying to figure out what changes I had made to the LUA files to cause this bug to make the game like 10% easier and after you confirming it was a bug makes me feel a lot better. (my changes were just changing a few garrisons to army corps in france and I panicked that that caused the MP error.... I did the edit by just changing unit types in the potzblitz.lua)

Can you explain what this paragraph does to me please? I'm not really good with code.

-- Extra income for AI on highest difficulty level
if game.type == Game.TYPE_SINGLE
and alliance.id ~= playerAlliance.id then
local percentage = 50

-- start with lower bonuses first 5 turns
if game.turn <= 5 then
percentage = percentage - percentage / game.turn
end
if game:GetAlliancePlayer(alliance).difficulty >= 1
and player.alliance.id == 1
and game.type == Game.TYPE_SINGLE then
GiveExtraIncome(faction, percentage)
elseif game:GetAlliancePlayer(alliance).difficulty >= 1 then
GiveExtraIncome(faction, -percentage* 0.25) -- *0.65
end
end

Basically I read this as, AI power gets 0% turn 1 accelerating to 10% t2, up to 50%.
But the second if, player.alliance=/=1, ie human give them -25%income and add 65%? so 90% income?

I found that just having 1-2 more infantry units in Belge/France makes the game way less panicky for me.

Ty for fixing that bug for me. It was really weird having 50% man power in France at turn 7.
Last question, do the (3?) CP transports, the one near Africa and the one near Trondheim not spawn if you play the british blockade card? The baltic sea one seems to happen regardless. Are there more than 3 CP convoys? And I tried reading the manual but I'm not sure how much they give, some combo of mp, pp and ammo. Other than that thank you. I look forward to playing mp with someone one day.

[DuncanStewart]

ended up just playing with a friend, went easy but it was a lot of fun. she didnt invade belgium and England got locked out. Got the event/intel rules really fast. tiny french front with 3 art. I collapsed galicia. We're gonna try a test game with just navy to see how it works.

I said CP spawns 3 ppl, and allies spawn 4 if there is suez. My advice was to build a lot of subs.

Was just a practice 12 turns, we'll do a few more games before we do a real one.

[Robotron]

Can you explain what this paragraph does

Code: Select all

    -- Extra income for AI on highest difficulty level
      if game.type == Game.TYPE_SINGLE 
		and alliance.id ~= playerAlliance.id then
        local percentage = 50

        -- start with lower bonuses first 5 turns
        if game.turn <= 5 then
          percentage = percentage - percentage / game.turn
        end
        if game:GetAlliancePlayer(alliance).difficulty >= 1 
			and player.alliance.id == 1 
			and game.type == Game.TYPE_SINGLE then
			GiveExtraIncome(faction, percentage)
		elseif game:GetAlliancePlayer(alliance).difficulty >= 1 then
			GiveExtraIncome(faction, -percentage* 0.25)  -- *0.65
        end
      end

Okay, I'll try to translate:

- This applies to nations in singleplayer games that are not controlled by the player ( = controlled by AI)
- there is a variable called "percentage" with a value of 50.
- if the number of the current game turn is 5 or less then the value of the variable called "percentage" is NOT 50 but is less
- it is lowered in such a way that we divide 50 by the number of the current game turn and subtract the result from 50
- in game turn 1 the value of the variable called "percentage" is: 50 - (50/1) = 0. in game turn 2 the value is 50 - (50/2) = 25, in turn 3 it's 50 - (50/3) = 33,3, in turn 4 it's 37,5 and in turn 5 it's 40

- in singleplayer games where the game's difficulty is set to 1 or higher (that's ALL games in Potzblitz by the way) and the player is playing Entente the current AI CP faction is given extra income by a function called GiveExtraIncome which is also in game_resources.lua

- if the player is playing CP instead then the value of percentage is modified by 0.25 (NOT by 0.65, that value is commented out by -- before it) and sent to the function called GiveExtraIncome which is also in game_resources.lua

- we now must look what that GetExtraIncome function does:

Code: Select all

function GiveExtraIncome(faction, percentage)
  if GetIncomePP(faction) > GetUpkeep(faction) then
    local bonus = (math.max(0,GetIncomePP(faction) - GetUpkeep(faction))) * percentage / 100
    faction:ConsumeProductionPoints(-bonus)
    print("AI PP bonus: " .. bonus)
  end
  if game.turn == 1 then
    GiveOneOffBonuses(faction,faction.alliance)
  end
end

this translates as follows

- as long as the income of that faction is higher than the faction's upkeep then:
- a variable called "bonus" is defined
- "bonus" will be the higher value of either 0 or the faction's income minus the faction's upkeep multiplied by the "percentage" variable and divided by 100

- so if for example the CP AI faction's income is 100 and the faction's upkeep is 30 and the variable "percentage" is 50, then we will have
100 - 30 = 70
70 * 50 = 3500
3500 / 100 = 35

in short the CP AI faction gets 35PP extra income PER TURN in this example as long as the income and upkeep does not change.
This will however change quite fast, so the extra income will drop quickly to something about 10PP or less per turn once the upkeep from the newly built units rises or the nation loses income from cities getting captured or bombed.

If the AI would be playing Entente the values would be much less. Same example with income 100 and upkeep 30 but the percentage value of 50 is multiplied by 0.25 so it is now 12.5
100 - 30 = 70
70 * 12,5 = 875
875/100 = 8,75PP

Last question, do the (3?) CP transports, the one near Africa and the one near Trondheim not spawn if you play the british blockade card? The baltic sea one seems to happen regardless. Are there more than 3 CP convoys?

Yes, playing the event "Initiate North Sea Blockade" will begin the blockading process, which will take a few turns until the blockade symbol appears.
It goes faster if Entente sinks a few convoys, but the event must still be played before or convoys will continue spawning and CP will have less difficulty with starvation.
There are 4 CP convoys: 1 from Sweden, 1 from Norway and 2 from the south (maybe Chile, Brazil? it's not explained)
The Swedish convoy cannot be blocked, only sunk which will anger Sweden until Sweden joins CP. The Swedish convoy still appears after Sweden has joined CP.

All convoys can give PP for up to their hit points multiplied by 10. So a convoy with a unit strength of 7 can give up to 70 PP but often much less.
Entente convoys will be tested twice for how many PP they give and the lower value is given.
CP convoys will be tested twice for how many PP they give and the higher value is given.
CP convoys also give up to 3 ammo points to Germany.
This is done for balancing reasons.

If you need more info, feel free to ask.

[Unwichtig]

Good evening,

another quick mod feedback, again only minors that might but do not have to be changed,
so please dont feel rushed from me i am just taking it a bit serious and try to help

1. Potzblitz on MP is fantastic, a totally different game. Our impression is that choke points (the channel, entry to adria, gibraltar, kurland etc.) are much more vital than playing against a computer. AI does not realy aim to control them, we do, but that might just be this game or a beginner tactic. as it stands we have big, direct naval clashes to control them. Great fun, at the moment entente without subs seems to be fair. I can only imagine how hard it would be against an entente player with 10 subs.
looks like a good decision to reduce it to the starting sub only.

2. i played the schliefenplan both on single (4 times) and multiplayer (once), but the "Rheinbridges" event never happened. That was new in mod 11 so i was hoping to trial it, but does not seem to be appearing. From my understanding this should be an early CP event decision if the schliefenplan wash choosen.

3. I am pretty sure i installed the game correct as it does not crash, even MP is stable. But two events seem to be not working correctly:

a) modernize field hospitals: great event, effect works as well, but it keeps adding way too much manpower once choosen.
My manpower jumped from 1200ish (germany) to 1600ish. That can´t be right, can it? Seems to be too strong.
Maybe this effect needs to be weakened (or my instal. is realy weird, would like to know how it works for other players, please.)

b) "shackled to a corpse" event between austria and germany when morale is low in one of the countries. I choose it for the second time (mod10 and 11 once each),
the re-balancing of the morale does not happen. It stayed the same, i.e. 40 and 85.
(again, do any other players have this problem?) i dont want to cause work if thats only on my installation.

AAR MP game to follow, still in mid game as we play two games parallel it takes a bit longer. looks pretty balanced at the moment.

[Robotron]

i played the schliefenplan both on single (4 times) and multiplayer (once), but the "Rheinbridges" event never happened. That was new in mod 11 so i was hoping to trial it, but does not seem to be appearing. From my understanding this should be an early CP event decision if the schliefenplan wash choosen.

From 1915 on you need to have at least 35 German PP available to spend for the bridges. The event will be temporarily removed from the event pool if German PP drop below 35.
It will be permanently removed by 1916.

a) modernize field hospitals: great event, effect works as well, but it keeps adding way too much manpower once choosen.
My manpower jumped from 1200ish (germany) to 1600ish. That can´t be right, can it? Seems to be too strong.
Maybe this effect needs to be weakened (or my instal. is realy weird, would like to know how it works for other players, please.)

Due to an oversight you got 150% of your losses back when playing the event, not 15% as designed.
However you should be correctly getting the 1% losses back to manpower per turn if you started your match using V11.02

b) "shackled to a corpse" event between austria and germany when morale is low in one of the countries. I choose it for the second time (mod10 and 11 once each),
the re-balancing of the morale does not happen. It stayed the same, i.e. 40 and 85.
(again, do any other players have this problem?) i dont want to cause work if thats only on my installation.

Found the bug, will be fixed for V11.1

I will release V11.1 when you are finished with your matches, so any newly discovered bugs/oddities will be dealt with for the new update.

[Unwichtig]

Ok thanks, we keep playing, i keep writing stuff here.

Just to make sure i dont forget my ideas when i have them, i keep writing them down while i am playing.
I actually ask myself constantly, what else could happen here?

That is a bit painful for you because i keep bombarding you with strange ideas and i am sorry for that.
Wish i could mod some things myself but i have no clue about this stuff, so i just keep offering ideas for new events to modders.
Maybe for future mods or games, please take it as friendly suggenstions only.

Here are some more ideas for the next few years to come
do whatever you want with this. So here we go:

Possible Events CTGW Part 5.rar

(589.4 KiB) Downloaded 58 times

Love this game.

[Unwichtig]

Just a screenshot to check...if an important event is ok:

I play entente and prep for a counter surprise attack via belgium to outflank the germans. The event "french troops in belgium" said, belgium allows me to march into its territory, only fortresses and cities stay belgium. this should allow me a surprise attack from belgium territory to germany without declaring war on them.
(this is what the text said)
but the hexes that are unlocked for my troops after i decided to do that like this (see screenshot).
This does not help me at all as all hexes to german border remain belgium despite there are no cities. to outflank germany i still need to declare war on belgium to continue.
this happend for entente in multiplayer but it also happens when computer did it against me in single player mode. the german border stays secure.
Is this correct? my troops would just be stuck in belgium.

French in Belgium Event.jpg (435.63 KiB) Viewed 1433 times

[Robotron]

Good find!
Is the screenshot from singleplayer or multiplayer?
If from singleplayer please upload the autosave so I can test it.
If from multiplayer: bad luck from a bug. You'll have to wait for V11.1

[Unwichtig]

its from multiplayer. now my counter attack on germany will be an attack on belgium as well, dont think thats a great idea but i cant change it now, i think i can make it.
sadly it will take away the pace of the attack and take a few extra turns. never mind, still learning and testing.

i am sure that the computer also did this. Few games when i played CP and defended against france at german border the ai also took this event and i never understood what it meant. i could see french troops queing up between brussels and liege, like on the screenshot, but they did not do anything.
must be bug on both MP and single i assume.

[Robotron]

Good for you that GB at least already joined Entente, else you could have written off GB joining Entente anytime soon by attacking Belgium.

Is this situation from CP going "Aufmarsch Ost" or "Rupprecht"?

[Unwichtig]

My friend took aufmarsch Ost.

Here is a thing for strategy that I asked last week how important Warsaw is and why uk will join so quickly once Warsaw has fallen.
When I took Warsaw in single player GBR joined Entente.

I used this tripwire in mp. I left Warsaw poorly defended, friend took it for free. But in fact I just wanted uk to join early. Worked. Next run I had the royal Navy under command which is more important than Warsaw.

As it stands I can recommend that, because with uk on my side I can March into Belgium anyway with no further consequences.
That was the plan. The bug stopped me. Lol

Germany striked east, with little defence sw Germany. I attacked Switzerland (French 'plan b' ) immediately as well to widen the front. Unexpected move for my friend. French have enough to cover it, Germany has not.

This slowed down the attack on Russia. I now have uk troops now in France and stationed the French at Belgium border to make even bigger front. This should have overstretched Germany. See on Screenshot zero defence.

Anyway my friend is winning Serbia and with romania and Bulgaria joining CP soon the east will change again.
As I said. Fantastic game. Not decided yet sure I will loose balkans.

[Robotron]

I used this tripwire in mp. I left Warsaw poorly defended, friend took it for free. But in fact I just wanted uk to join early. Worked. Next run I had the royal Navy under command which is more important than Warsaw.

I guess having GB join Entente with a delay of 3 turns after Russia lost Warsaw seems a bit more reasonable after all.