old Potzblitz thread (discontinued)

[Robotron]

@cwaters23: thank you SO very much for your comment, I'll try to do my very best to keep improving this thing.


@all: The power supply on my old machine went up in smoke two weeks ago so all work on the mod had to be temporarily postponed while I moved to a new rig. Luckily the hard drives were left intact so I could salvage my files but I'm still nowhere near my accustomed work-flow environment which has delayed the work on the mod quite a bit. Re-installing and re-configuring all the software I've grown used to has consumed almost all of my time and I just hate that when it happens every couple of years.

That preliminary V2.6 version is not the last you have seen of me, but try it at your own risk. ^^

[Zombo]

Robotron, will the next 2.6 be save-compatible with the current 2.5?

in other words, can we start playing our multiplayer and then switch to 2.6 when its out?

thx

[Robotron]

@Zombo: no, better use the preliminary V2.6 right away because of that rather severe bug reported by cwaters23 that got fixed.
However I've received another bug report via PM by another forum member who still has to send me the savegame and crashlog.
I'm sorry but at the moment I'm too busy doing extensive playtesting of V2.6 myself but will of course do my best to fix any bugs you guys report to me.

[majpalmer]

Here are my post crash files for the Potzblitz mod. Thanks.

I'm was really enjoying your modded version. Great work! So many variables. It's much, much, muchimproved. Bulgaria comes in. The Goebern and Breslau actually make a difference. I've seen delayed Russian entry. Delayed Italian entry. Delayed Ottoman entry, when I brought the Goeben to Austria.

A couple of points.

The Zepplin unit at the start. I used to use it to bomb Serbian production. Six attacks--ZERO hits. That's fine; I always thought the Zeps were grossly overrated. So if they are next to useless, except for recce, that's fine. But with a PP upkeep of 4, as much as an army, why bother?

I've played several games now, and the Entente always produces armed fighters well before the Germans. No Fokker Scourge

German convoys. I know you say they produce 20-100 PPs. I've seen 20, but never 100. Usually it's about 40. A 2-100 average should be about 60.

Great piece of work. I look forward to upgrades. Thanks!!!!!

[Robotron]

@majpalmer: that's strange, I could not reprodruce a crash from the savegame you provided and the logfile hints at no errors. Please try the experimental V2.6 update for the time being maybe it will fix the cause of the crash.

http://www.filedropper.com/v26

About the Fokker scourge: you must build at least a second aircraft lab as soon as you have researched "armed fighter" to trigger the Fokker event which will unlock the "synchronised gun" tech with a (gameturn multiplied by number of air labs) % chance per turn. Voila: there's your Fokker Scourge.

About Zeppelins: okay, I'll re-juggle the stats again.

[nehi]

Here are my post crash files for the Potzblitz mod. Thanks.
The Zepplin unit at the start. I used to use it to bomb Serbian production. Six attacks--ZERO hits. That's fine; I always thought the Zeps were grossly overrated. So if they are next to useless, except for recce, that's fine. But with a PP upkeep of 4, as much as an army, why bother?

interesting question, fighters are useless too, if not changed, for like first 30 turns

[Robotron]

I don't consider a LOS of 8 as useless and a bunch of fighters can always reduce efficiency when ganging up on a ground unit. There will be no Stukas in this mod.

[majpalmer]

Crashed again, during the AI naval phase. If it doens't crash for you, c9uld you possibly run the AI turn through and send it back to me>

Thanks.

Mike

[Robotron]

@majpalmer: the last line in the log usually refers to the reason of the crash. Sporadic naval AI crashes which produce no error message have plagued the game since a long time which I guess is caused by a slim chance of the internal random number generator producing a value that can't be properly processed at the moment it is fed to the calculations or make the AI do an "illegal" move. The randomizer of the LUA scripting language used by the game is especially flawed (and not random at all, like every other random number generator).

Sometimes it helps to let the random number generator produce a new value by initiating a battle somehwere on the map where the outcome is of no big importance to "skip" the offending value before ending the turn.
I hope the game stays stable for you. If not, please send a new crashlog/savegame.

Cheers!

[Zombo]

About Zeppelins and fighters

I'd rather see them close to useless ( which they arguably were, from the strategic perspective of the game) than overpowered. I already find that massing air to reduce an enemy's effectiveness is way way beyond the real capability of air support at the time, except maybe in late 1918.

For Zeppelins, please no production hist AT ALL. They were NOT strategic bombers. All they should do is 1 morale point loss every so often, and even then you could argue that they actually had the opposite effect

[nehi]

I don't consider a LOS of 8 as useless and a bunch of fighters can always reduce efficiency when ganging up on a ground unit. There will be no Stukas in this mod.

whats los 8 good for when u r not able to do breakthrough?

[cwaters23]

So an interesting twist on the new version of the "Shackled to a Corpse" event in the 2.6 experimental build came up this afternoon during a new playthrough. The event fired in Turn 26 (Nov 1915) after ending Turn 25 in pretty bad shape -- AH at 24% and Germany at 48%. No other morale-impacting events triggered. Morale for both nations skyrocketed, with AH going to 98% and Germany to 128%. It looks like there's a flaw with the way the new morale levels are being calculated after averaging... maybe a multiplier rather than an addition/subtraction is being applied in the gain/loss step of the event post-average?

[TripleCP]

Thanks for uploading 2.6. Tried it out as the Entente last night, and I was able to seize Konigsberg and Lotzen with Russian cavalry on their first turn. The AI also evacuated Danzig without a fight, as well. This is the first time I'd seen this happen (vanilla or past versions of the Mod). The AI has needlessly evacuated Konigsberg in past games, but has never left it unguarded at the outset. Turkey's mobilization countdown has turned red with 2-4 turns remaining (in early 1915).

Also, a couple spelling mistakes: VINNITSIA should be VINNITSA (no "I" at the end) and KISHNEV should be KISHINEV (missing an "I" in the middle).

[majpalmer]

Thanks! Seems to work. It loaded. Haven't had a chance to play it through.

I also did a clean re-install and also installed the update you posted.

Thanks again.

Mike

[Robotron]

@TripleCP:
Turkey will eventually join via the "Jihad" event (17% chance per turn) if its still neutral in 1915. Regarding Danzig & Koenigsberg: I'll look into it, maybe some extra troops for CP AI will fix that. CP AI obviously can't handle the new setup of German troops in East Prussia.

@cwaters23:
Darn! What the @$%& is going on there...guess I'll have to suspend that event for the moment being until I get it working the way it is supposed to do. Worked flawlessly last time I played though. Will have to re-check earlier versions.

Emergency update coming up later this day.

[majpalmer]

Played my turn, but it crashed during the AI naval movement again.

I restarted with a clean install and the new Potz-patch. I'll see if that works.

BTW, this game I had Sweden enter the war on the side of the Central Powers! That's a new twist.

In an Entente game, I also had the CP AI leave Lotzen and Koenigsburg uncovered.

And there seem to be more British troops in Iraq than there are in France, which seems a bit odd.

France is also crawling with Entente fighters. In early 1915 I've counted at least 8.

[nehi]

Played my turn, but it crashed during the AI naval movement again.

do u have installed potz in 1.66 ctgw? that end turn crashes were common in older patches (usually triggered by convoys)

[majpalmer]

Yes. I have 1.66.

I noticed playing as the Entente, that the PP upkeep for the one Serbian lab is 6PP. All other lab upkeeps seem to be 3 per lab. Is this intentional, or an oversight?

[Robotron]

And there seem to be more British troops in Iraq than there are in France, which seems a bit odd.

The Entente AI will reinforce the Mesopotamian front until it has a slight superiority in troop number and quality. As long as you reinforce that front so will the AI. Best way to cut them off would be to mount a counter attack from Riyadh and re-take Kuwait then Basra.

France is also crawling with Entente fighters. In early 1915 I've counted at least 8.

The Entente AI will choose to build fighters when there are no gaps in the front and it has air superiority.

@majpalmer: do you recall if the "Forcing the Straits" event has already happened in your game (This will occur a few turns before the Gallipoli landing)? If so, I think I might have found the bug, it's about spawning an Entente ship in an CP occupied port, namely Anzac Beach where you chose to park your light cruiser.

@cwaters23: "Shackled to a Corps" bug found and removed.

[majpalmer]

That was it! I moved the Turkish CL and no crash! Thanks!