Since faos333 has not yet begun with the succession AAR restart, I had time to finish two more versions.
The first one is 2021-08-31 and concludes the "August updates".
Thanks to McGuba the modified scenario can now be started directly from the campaign screen (bottom right: 1941 - Barbarossa).
In the scenario tab it is now the "Barbarossa (real)" version, not the realistic+ version. Same goes for the selection after finishing the Mediterranean campaign scenario, select "realistic" version, not "realistic+"!
Additional tropical units are available, some only visual (wheeled recon, towed arty), see patchnotes below.
The second version named "2021-09-01" additionally includes far reaching economy changes. It is thus more experimental again.
1. I wanted to make "prestige" more of a "strategic industry" indicator and less of a "tactical reward".
For example conquering Malta in BE 2.3 brings so much prestige that it is a way to invest prestige (bomber losses and time) to gain even more prestige after some time (1000 bonus prestige). The strategic advantage of conquering Malta is more of a nice bonus on top of that. Which is the reason why I nerfed the bonus prestige in 2021-08-26 for conquering Malta. Now it is a real decision if the player is willing to lose prestige (bomber losses and time) in order to gain a strategic advantage (or nullify a strategic disadvantage) by taking out Malta.
While I do not go all the way with this concept, you also get less prestige for conducting the submarine war. It is now mainly a way to harm the enemy, not a way to earn prestige and be able to recruit new units!
There are some more changes in this direction, eg lower prestige bonus for capturing cities and VHs.
This reduces the gap between players who focus on historical economic necessities and players who overachieve with regards to objectives that hurt the enemy, but do not bring many new resources to the Axis economy.
Something that may help with the frustration of players who choose a more historical route and feel overly punished for it.
2. I can not maintain 3-4 versions for different "difficulty" settings.
Thus I needed to reintroduce "base per turn prestige", which is affected by the "player prestige" difficulty slider (and thus by eg Rommel difficulty level). My ultimate goal is, that there needs to be only 1 single player version. And players can then adjust the difficulty with the sliders/options. So now the axis side gets 200 bonus prestige per turn again (or 100 with the 50% setting from Rommel), regardless of in game hex control and so o. I also adjusted some of the difficulty levels, to make more sense for this scenario. Guderian now is Rommel + Field Marshal, instead of the -5 turns. Ultimate is Manstein + Rommel + Field Marshal. The lower difficulty settings are all level 2 AI, but with bonus prestige for the player (based on the 200).
3. Upgrading old units or buying new ones
From the beginning, one aspect of this addon was the additional upgrade possibilities for units. So that it is benefitial to keep older equipment units alive, instead of sacrificing them at the front.
With this version I want to make another step in that direction, by reducing upgrade costs to 90%. So upgrading from a Pz I to a Panther does not only make sense in terms of retained experience, but also from a prestige perspective (instead of buying a new Panther unit from scratch). Unfortunately this also lowers the in-group/path upgrade costs. So for the moment the main issue with upgrading is, that the unit has to be sent home and can not fight, while the upgrade costs are less significant. I'm not sure how this turns out, as always feedback is very welcome!
4. Reinforcements are very cheap
Due to the low costs of reinforcements (25% of base unit costs), it is tremendously important to keep units alive. Especially in BE, since it takes some time for new units to reach the frontlines. Thus players who are not so versed in the game may face an undue additional struggle. For a great player, 40 strength points cost only 100% of the unit cost, if applied as reinforcements (since the great player manages to keep the unit alive). But for a player who is less skilled in keeping units alive, those same 40 strength points may cost 400% of the base unit price (since that player has to buy the unit 4 times). And then move them to the front! This creates a tremendous balancing challenge! I thus tried to decrease that gap by increasing the replacement costs from 25% to 40%. So from factor 4 to factor 2.5, between replacements and buying new. General prestige income is increased to account for that.
Unfortunately point 3 goes somewhat in the other direction, increasing the value of existing units for upgrading. I'm not sure how to balance that in the end or whether point 3 is worth keeping.
tl,dr;
Prestige is now more of an industry indicator, less of a tactical reward.
Trying to rebalance this mod to be less frustrating for more historical and less experienced players. Especially with regards to prestige balancing.
Use version 2021-08-31, if you do not want to have those experimental economy changes!
Version:
2021-09-01 Download: https://bit.ly/3DxPTKV
First version with
economy rebalancing!, prestige is now more a "strategic industry" indicator and less of a "tactical reward", thus experimental version
- The modified scenario is now the "Barbarossa (real)" scenario and can thus be started from the bottom right campaign picture (1941-Barbarossa), thanks to help from McGuba
- The realistic+ scenario is now unmodified by the Locarnus Addon!
- If you start earlier in the campaign, select the "realistic" version after the Mediterranean.
- To double check whether you play the modified scenario, check that Danzig exists at (89,36), to the South of Gotenhafen
- 200 base prestige income added again (since that one changes based on "player prestige" difficulty setting - eg for Rommel the player gets 50% of it, thus 100 less prestige per turn)
- Reinforcement costs now 40% instead of 25%, elite reinforcements cost 90% instead of 75% of base unit cost, making reinforcements a lot more costly
- Upgrade costs 90% instead of 100%, it is now cheaper to upgrade an existing unit compared to buying a new one, even outside of upgrade groups
- In-group/path upgrades are now more of a time issue (when the unit is not at the front line), rather than a prestige issue.
- Capture rewards 30 instead of 50 for cities and 90 instead of 150 for Victory Hexes
- Surrendering units brings 40% instead of 50% of unit value
- Capturing Malta (10), Leningrad (100) and Moscow (500) brings much less extra prestige (first two already since 2021-08-26), your reward is the strategic position, not a prestige advantage
- Capturing Leningrad and Moscow has a lesser effect on Soviet Union reinforcement levels
- Submarine warfare brings somewhat less prestige for the Axis player, since the merchant ships are sunk, not captured
- Many other prestige income levels adjusted (often factor 1.5), to make up for the much more expensive unit reinforcement costs
- Difficulty levels changed, "Guderian" is now Rommel + Field Marshal, instead of the -5 turns, "Ultimate" is now Manstein + Rommel + Field Marshal. The easier difficulty levels are also adjusted to make more sense for this mod, eg more player prestige, but all have AI level 2
- EXPERIMENTAL VERSION, if you want a more matured version, use the previous one from 2021-08-31 below
2021-08-31 Download: https://bit.ly/3mVjNTo
The final version of the "August Development", last version before economy changes
- The modified scenario is now the "Barbarossa (real)" scenario and can thus be started from the bottom right campaign picture (1941-Barbarossa), thanks to help from McGuba
- The realistic+ scenario is now unmodified by the Locarnus Addon!
- If you start earlier in the campaign, select the "realistic" version after the Mediterranean.
- To double check whether you play the modified scenario, check that Danzig exists at (89,36), to the South of Gotenhafen
- Some long range arty rebalancing (railway arty) and earlier 15cm sFH
- Nebelwerfer and Wurfrahmen arties rebalanced, Wurfrahmen ammo is only 3!
- Many additional tropical versions, mainly regarding late war airplanes, but also SdKfz 250 halftrack and Wurfrahmen
- Visual only tropical versions for some recon (only non-tracked ones) and arty units (only towed ones), for those the player can simply switch between normal and tropical version without upgrade
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