Slitherine

Posted: **Thu Jan 20, 2022 4:13 pm**

This secondary objective up here (red arrow), I deemed to be impractical because getting there requires the player to move his units laterally in single file; it is too close to the edge of the map.

Then I had the thought to make Matsubara (red circle) an objective, but that would be silly. It would require the player to re-embark troops and sail across the bay to get there (or tediously march sideways, as above), because this body of water is land-locked due to the zoom-in cutting off the bottom of Kyushu.

(By the way, please don't feel constrained to alter this map in size; it is already very large.)

In any event, it would seem out of scope to a sensibly planned initial invasion. The U.S. would be looking to consolidate its foothold on Kyushu, not reaching for distant villages.

But I did get a bright idea about Mount Sakurajima (green circle), making it a secondary objective and treating it like another Mount Suribachi (Iwo Jima); inspiring flag-raising, etc.

Anyway, I think that the furthest secondary objective on this part of the map will be Komura (orange circle). That ought to be tough enough, with a river crossing and blown bridges to overcome.

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As far as the primary objectives, I will go again with the "major population centers" like I did last time. Heh, what I do is google map and zoom out until only the big town names show. I figure if they are big today, they were big (relatively speaking) in 1946. They will be closer to the landing point while secondary objectives will be a reasonable reach.

Then I will match up those points with towns on your map. Hopefully I will avoid pitfalls like this; for indeed it was Ariake back then and thus probably Ariake Bay, the name of the scenario:

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Posted: **Thu Jan 20, 2022 6:10 pm**

bru888 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 4:13 pm But I did get a bright idea about Mount Sakurajima (green circle), making it a secondary objective and treating it like another Mount Suribachi (Iwo Jima); inspiring flag-raising, etc.

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Posted: **Fri Jan 21, 2022 6:39 am**

02Ariake-4 is uploaded. Changes and comments follow:

Changes:
• Beefed up some important objective towns.
• I hate side-by-side communities. So I told Karijuku and Yakose to "Get separated!" (I moved Yakose one hex south.) There was no room to adjust Okubo and Tabukino, though, so I left them as twin villages.
• Also moved and consolidated Hitotsumatsu to a key nearby intersection.
• Changed Shibushi back to Ariake.
• Rearranged primary and secondary objectives.
• Added two coastal guns in the west, where they seemed appropriate.
• Moved two coastal guns in the east (one was on a road, the other was two hexes away from the coast).
• Since you pointed to the coastal gun locations, which is reasonable, I illuminated them all.
• Placed a concrete bunker to represent the barracks.
• Rearranged supply, applying 40 to all primary and 20 to secondary objectives. Also 20 for Mount Sakurajima and the barracks.
• Cleared away some escarpments around Mount Sakurajima to make it a bit more accessible.
• Made taking Mount Sakurajima another secondary objective.
• Added a few enemy units on Mount Sakuragima with a separate AI team. Placed a regular bunker atop the mountain.
• Added one more airstrip. Reason: I am anal. It comes with my package. You had nine airstrips, and 10 is the goal for three other objectives, so I made this one 10 as well. Since you did NOT point to these units, which makes sense — they could be moved around IRL — I did not illuminate them. I added a statement in the objective that the player has to find them.
• I took the naval mines out of AI Team 1. I reassigned this slot to "Static Defense." 10 coastal guns plus two bunkers = 12 units in this team so far.
• Made the "Airborne option" mission completed from start, else a win would not be possible.
• Made the "Do not lose any carriers" also completed from start, only to be failed.
• Provided for the usual "When these primary victory points are taken, extra time will be allowed for the completion of secondary objectives."
• The usual scenario description, briefings, outcome statements, and a couple of popup messages.

Comments:
• Clever mechanism for airborne deployment. Just one quibble: You designate "LZ1" but in addition to the game's built-in random drop, you scatter the spawns over what I would estimate as a 10 kilometer span. Is it realistic to miss a drop zone by this amount of distance? Also, there may be enemy units in the further areas. Now, the player could adjust for this, flying to open areas, of course. Is this what you intend?

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• I programmed the Allied carriers to undeploy at the beginning of next turn if one of them is lost. That includes core carriers; I don't know if it will work, either, but undeploy sounds like the best bet. I avoided making any ports to prevent the player from redeploying them. The aircraft planes seem to have exit hexes; I don't know if you made them re-enterable. I do see that you have Off-Map air supply activated for the Allies, so in this case, the planes will not run out of fuel and crash once the carriers are gone.
• You mention "Each airstrip destroyed means one less source of Kamikaze spawns," but I see no associated triggers. Let me know what you want done and I will attempt to accomplish it in the next pass of this scenario.
• I know you have not finished placing Jap units on the map. Or have you? In my opinion, there is too much unoccupied space and too few Japanese. Add/spread them around, assign them to teams, and let me know what you want to do with them and I will script accordingly in the next pass of this scenario.
• As you deal with enemy units, spare a thought for defending primary and secondary objectives, coastal guns, and airstrips. Also, AA guns, bunkers, foxholes.
• Also, don't forget about lunge miners and volunteer fighters as we enter the main islands. They don't do much offensively, but they're good for colour.

Posted: **Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:13 pm**

Good work, Bru.

Paras: The para drop locations are intentional, it is not 'scatter'. The two major Allied air operations Market and Varsity (I've created scenarios for both) had LZs (with the main supply) for supporting units like eng/AT/AA/art and DZs for para and glider units. The various zones were quite some distance apart in these operations. The Olympic drops are constructed in the same way, the main objective is to block and harass Japanese reinforcements, not necessarily to grab the actual objectives.

Air: The AI can't use re-enterable hexes. They are merely there to alloe the Jap air to leave the map.
Originally I wanted the Allied land-based air to be aux units with only one (admittantly very long) mission. I changed my mind and they are now core and can re-enter the map.

Kamikazes: Here's an idea. Each Jap airstrip is the base of a specific Kamikaze air unit type. The scenario starts with one kamikaze air-borne at each airstrip. When the specific kamikaze-type is destroyed, another one is spawned at the same base.
This loop continues until the airstrip is destroyed. This should provide the Allied fighters with enough to do, especially in the early dangerous part of the invasion. And it may entice the player to use all those land-based bombers to hunt for the airstrips and wipe them off the earth.
I'll leave it to you to go shopping for Kamikazes. Should be fun. Each airstrip should be defended by 1-2 AA units.
And the Kamikazes should target carriers only, of course.

Jap land units: All Jap units are companies while the US units are batallions. So I'm weary about adding more Jap units. They have plenty of art/MG/AT-units, but are lacking in AA, so maybe sprinkle some AA near objectives and coastal guns. You can move those in-land units to more favourable positions if you want.

Partisans: How about spawning 1 volunteer and 1 lounge miner at each pri/sec objective whenever the US captures one?
To make it more interesting it would be nice if these units changed ownership of the objective. This info should be provided to the player to persuade him to consider garrisons...

Mount Sakurajima was an active volcano, some of those difficult terrain hexes may be replaced with Scorced (lava).

Mines: Maybe randomize these a bit to keep the player honest when attempting to invade the second (or third or...) time?

I have not changed the scenario in any way. You may proceed with 02Ariake-6 if it is ok by you.
I can of course do it if your itching to get back to the ancestry stuff

Edit: I'm not getting lazy. I thought I'd implement these ideas in the next scenario (which is otherwise finished).

Posted: **Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:57 pm**

Shards wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 10:37 pm Doing a bit of crosslinking here. And posting in this thread as it feels like a chatty place to think about design.

https://forum.quartertothree.com/t/grog ... 44002/8651

The mechanic that Tom Chick describes here is fascinating. I wondered if there was any clever ways to leverage the ideas behind it when designing AI intentions/triggers in oob

Here's an idea.
Currently the designer may provide a commander as an objective reward.
What if you summarize the various commander trait's numerical values and add them up to a total.
The designer would add a commander card as reward with a certain number.
The player could then purchase a commander (air/naval or land) with a total equal or less to the card total.
Maybe add the possibility to add the totals of two card to get one high-prized commander.

Posted: **Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:23 pm**

Erik2 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:13 pm I have not changed the scenario in any way. You may proceed with 02Ariake-6 if it is ok by you.

6? Is that a typo? For, yes, I will do a bit more tinkering with 02Ariake-4 today, if you have not made any changes. (Forgot to blow some bridges, too.) Will re-upload and post here again with 02Ariake-5.

Posted: **Fri Jan 21, 2022 4:17 pm**

Yep, typo.
BTW, I've set Kamikaze unit exp to 10 in the Eastern invasion. I think they are under-powered stat-wise. I have not assigned any pilots, that would be cruel...

Posted: **Fri Jan 21, 2022 5:25 pm**

Erik2 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 4:17 pm Yep, typo.
BTW, I've set Kamikaze unit exp to 10 in the Eastern invasion. I think they are under-powered stat-wise. I have not assigned any pilots, that would be cruel...

I think you should leave the kamikaze experience to little or none. Those were gullible kids that they were stuffing into those flying coffins. Besides, they do enough damage as it is.

Wikipedia:

The attacks began in October 1944, at a time when the war was looking increasingly bleak for the Japanese. They had lost several important battles, many of their best pilots had been killed, their aircraft were becoming outdated, and they had lost command of the air. Japan was losing pilots faster than it could train their replacements, and the nation's industrial capacity was diminishing relative to that of the Allies. These factors, along with Japan's unwillingness to surrender, led to the use of kamikaze tactics as Allied forces advanced towards the Japanese home islands.

This is the type of training that kamikaze pilots received:

Tokkotai pilot training, as described by Takeo Kasuga, generally "consisted of incredibly strenuous training, coupled with cruel and torturous corporal punishment as a daily routine". The training, in theory, lasted for thirty days, but because of American raids and shortage of fuel it could last up to two months.

Daikichi Irokawa, who trained at Tsuchiura Naval Air Base, recalled that he "was struck on the face so hard and frequently that [his] face was no longer recognizable". He also wrote: "I was hit so hard that I could no longer see and fell on the floor. The minute I got up, I was hit again by a club so that I would confess." This brutal "training" was justified by the idea that it would instill a "soldier's fighting spirit", but daily beatings and corporal punishment eliminated patriotism among many pilots.

Pilots were given a manual that detailed how they were supposed to think, prepare and attack. From this manual, pilots were told to "attain a high level of spiritual training", and to "keep [their] health in the very best condition". These instructions, among others, were meant to make pilots mentally ready to die.

Many of these boys were as young as 17. As for the people who trained them and sent them to their deaths, sometimes I wonder how in the heck some men were/are the same species as me.

Posted: **Fri Jan 21, 2022 6:11 pm**

I'm using Kamikazes in a multiplayer scenario. I have not seen any of them being able to actually sink an enemy warship (supply ships are a different matter).
So I think the AI needs a bit of help here if the Kamikazes are supposed to be real threat. We'll see after a round of invasion test turns.

Posted: **Fri Jan 21, 2022 7:05 pm**

02Ariake-5 is uploaded. Changes and comments follow:

Changes:
• Added an AA unit to Mount Sakurajima Garrison and moved it and the artillery piece into the woods.
• Created numerous bridges blown triggers, but not everywhere; only in those places where it seemed tactical and feasible.
• Randomized initial placement of sea mines. There isn't much wiggle room for land mines, so I left them alone.
• Added an air control bunker and AA gun near each air strip. That's 20 more units in AI Team 1 for a total of 32.
• Created mechanisms for generating kamikaze planes until airstrips are destroyed, per your idea. (I read your comment — you be the judge — for this purpose, I went with experience 3 which you had for other planes.)

Comments:
• I thought about the partisans (lunge miners and volunteer fighters) idea but backed away for three reasons: 1) very much programming; 2) spawns would be inhibited by US troops occupying surrounding hexes; 3) it would get to be predictable by happening every time the player took a VP. Better to sprinkle these units in, here and there.
• I leave unit placement, resources, and gameplay balance to you. Therefore, I have not added any more land units other than those mentioned above. It's up to you; I think you have too much open space and you are not defending many objectives. Like I said, if you want further help in automating AI teams, let me know, but I will leave this aspect to your judgment and skill.

Posted: **Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:51 am**

02Ariake-5

Mines: I added land mines as well. I use a slightly different random setup using deploy units (mines in the reserve list) instead of repositioning. This means one less trigger and the player can't check the mine placement in the editor (in an easy way).

AI teams: I noticed that most of the Jap units are not assigned to any team and thus have no initial orders. A bit of misunderstanding here as I expected you to do this while you finalized the objectives. I don't mind doing it though, but I think it is better I do this after the objectives are in place. Otherwise there will be too much work redoing my initial orders after you may have changed the original objectives.

Partisans: I refrained from adding these to objectives for the same reasons you gave. Lounge miners should probably spawn from villages along paved roads as these are the more likely routes for US armor.

Paras: Have you given the para option any thought? If the player takes the option in one scenario, the option should be removed/deactivated in all later scenarios.

Coastal guns: I've removed the reveal trigger. I think it is more fun for the player search & hunt for them

Recon: Added a missing Grasshopper unit.

I'll work on the AI on a 02Ariake-6 and will play-test it when I'm finished with it.

I've put 02Eastern-1 in your folder.

Posted: **Sat Jan 22, 2022 1:57 pm**

Erik2 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:51 am 02Ariake-5

Mines: I added land mines as well. I use a slightly different random setup using deploy units (mines in the reserve list) instead of repositioning. This means one less trigger and the player can't check the mine placement in the editor (in an easy way). OK.

AI teams: I noticed that most of the Jap units are not assigned to any team and thus have no initial orders. A bit of misunderstanding here as I expected you to do this while you finalized the objectives. I don't mind doing it though, but I think it is better I do this after the objectives are in place. Otherwise there will be too much work redoing my initial orders after you may have changed the original objectives. That's my thinking. You see the revised objectives as they are now, rearrange your toy soldiers accordingly, and assign them to AI teams with tasks as appropriate. I will script their further movements if you let me know what your intentions are.

Partisans: I refrained from adding these to objectives for the same reasons you gave. Lounge miners should probably spawn from villages along paved roads as these are the more likely routes for US armor. OK.

Paras: Have you given the para option any thought? If the player takes the option in one scenario, the option should be removed/deactivated in all later scenarios. You need to set up a campaign variable and let me know exactly what that word is, like "para_drop." I will go back to Ariake and insert an effect that invokes this variable if the option is used (please put a new version in my folder when ready). Hereafter, if I see your para option in a scenario, I will assume that you will want it cancelled if it has been used before, and I will put in a trigger to do so, including removing the military police or whatever other device you use to invoke the drop.

Coastal guns: I've removed the reveal trigger. I think it is more fun for the player search & hunt for them Good.

Recon: Added a missing Grasshopper unit. “I’ve learnt to gather simplicity from grasshoppers. I like their naive indecisive minds never knowing exactly when to stop chirping, and I envy their ability to be able to mingle with the green…”

I'll work on the AI on a 02Ariake-6 and will play-test it when I'm finished with it. OK.

I've put 02Eastern-1 in your folder. Soon. Hopefully it will be as well-prepared (aside from deficient Jap units ) as Ariake was.

Posted: **Mon Jan 24, 2022 10:08 am**

Started work on the campaign structure.
I have put a 'Olympic 1945-1' campaign in your folder.

01Tanegashima-7:
Added random deployment to Jap subs and naval/land mines.
Created Kamikaze spawn loop which disables when airstrip is destroyed.

02Ariake-6:
Assigned all Jap units to AI teams.
Created Kamikaze spawn loops which disable when airstrips are destroyed.
Added Jap AA units next to various locations and valuable structures.
Added random deployment to both naval and land mines.
Added Lounge Miner (AT-unit of sorts) that spawns whenever a US tank unit (core or aux) approaches certain locations.
Added Volunteer Fighters (they are very weak) that spawns whenever a US artillery unit (core or aux) approaches certain locations. This should ensure a certain randomness to the spawns.
Added Jap Suicide Boats.
Reworked the US para option, two landing sites are now selectable.
Added UK air commanders.

I'm starting an Ariake single-player test now with 'historic' pre-deployed Allied units to keep the variables at a minimum.

Posted: **Mon Jan 24, 2022 2:44 pm**

Erik2 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 10:08 am 02Ariake-6:
Created Kamikaze spawn loops which disable when airstrips are destroyed.

This sounds duplicative of the mechanism that I built for 02Ariake-5. You may want to check for this, else you could have a lot of kamikazes buzzing around.

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Posted: **Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:55 am**

We create our Kamikaze loops quite differently. I guess this shows how flexible the OOB editor can be.
I'll double-check for double-kamikazes.

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Posted: **Tue Jan 25, 2022 1:24 pm**

Erik2 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:55 am We create our Kamikaze loops quite differently. I guess this shows how flexible the OOB editor can be.
I'll double-check for double-kamikazes.

kam1.jpg

kam2.jpg

Edit/delete the way you feel best. I am just surprised that you didn't notice what I had already done. It was included in my list of changes.

So, by the way, was a mechanism for randomizing sea mines which you also may have duplicated. That may be wonky now, too.

Well, I will move on to 02Eastern-1 now.

Posted: **Thu Jan 27, 2022 6:51 am**

02Eastern-2 is in your folder.

Posted: **Thu Jan 27, 2022 9:33 am**

bru888 wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 7:54 pm Erik, I am concerned about 07Olonets. Even though it comes up normally when nuking through the campaign, I cannot get it to appear in the scenario list. Even when I save the scenario with another name, it does not show. It is not a matter of game version incompatibility; your original scenario is version-stamped 8.3.0. This hints at file corruption and therefore I am going to rewrite this scenario from scratch, using your original as a template.

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Hello,

I'm playing Contiunation war mod version 1
Is there any good advice how to complete scenario number 2 -Kuolajarvi? It seems to be extremely difficult complete scenario in 25 turns...
I have been playing OOB for many years, thanks for modders!

Posted: **Fri Jan 28, 2022 3:18 pm**

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Just leaving this here as a tiny tease

Posted: **Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:36 am**

Started work on the campaign structure. There's a Olympic 1945-1 campaign folder (including the scenarios below) in the BrucErik folder.
Please use a campaign variable 'para' for deciding wether the option is active or not.

I have put 02Western-1 in your folder.

01Tanegashima:
Added random deployment to Jap subs and naval/land mines.

02Ariake:
Finalized core units vs command points.
Added Tunnels.
Restricted bridge blowing to those along paved roads. Bridges will blow when a US unit is 2 hexes away.
Set Kamikaze unit experience to 10 to make them more dangerous. They are pretty weak anyway as a single fighter attack will remove 5 strengths points.
Added Jap specialisations.
Jap Volunteer/Lunge units will change objective ownerships.
Reduced US (standard faction) resource income.
Reduced the number of turns from 48 to 40 (all objectives met in test).

Starting work on 02Eastern-3

Slitherine

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