Slitherine

Work In Progress thread .....

This mod with only be for US/BRITISH ... French Units will need to be a seperate mod.

DownLoad Link ...
http://www.gamefront.com/files/17703350 ... __v097_zip

Unziop to ... \Documents\My Games\BBCBA\CAMPAIGNS

Thanks for looking!

- Merr

- - - TRACKHIT ! - - - List of Features (check periodically)

1. HIT LOCATIONS - - Turret / Hull / Track(suspension) :
a. Turret and Hull Facings matter! The armor facings values have not been changed to simplify the process. Slith's armor values only considered the facing of the hull only ... I added code to consider the turret facing (if hit) when rolling for armor penetration. This opens the avenue for additional armor values that are different from the hull values. Basically, this allows any modder to add in TurretArmorArray values ([0],[1],[2],[3]) and have the script read these arrays instead of the basic armor facing values.

b. Hit Location Logic and Processing the result
Rolls 1d100 ... location (generic, not tank type specific, expect non-turret AFV, eg Stug)
40% chance to hit Turret.
50% chance to hit Hull.
10% chance to hit Track.
- Non turreted armored vehicles (eg Stug, Marder, halftracks, etc) hit in turret would hit hull instead.
Armor Facing Checked for location hit.
- Note ... Track Armor Value is 5 ... ensures penetration. I don't have stats on track/suspension vulnerability.
Turret/Hull Penetrated ?
30% Chance engine or transmission is hit (hull hits only). If hit, vehicle is immobilized, ending further checks.
-Note ... Deflected Hull hits might hit track/suspension.
Explosion Check Pass - (~40% chance HULL, ~20% chance TURRET hits)... destroys vehicle, crew killed.
Explosion Check Failed - ... destroys vehicle, crew bails out (see bailout logic).
Track Hit ?
1st track hit ... vehicle reduced to 1/2 action points (AP).
2nd track hit ... vehicle immobilized.

2. Crew Bailout ! --
If crew bails out ... Each crewman has 50% chance to bailout ... Lowered stats, can be used to "Repair" track/immobilized vehicles.

3. AimLow Shot
10% reduction in accuracy ... 1-shot/turn ... aims for track/suspension ... chance to hit track decreases with range.

Tried the test scen. Had a few allied tanks killed without crews bailing. Poor bast...

Played a couple of turns with the other. I think the ammo trucks should also resupply tanks and guns. Maybe not the bombard capable units though, let them have the cool down period. Moving the ammo truck near the troops is dangerous since the troops that need resupplied are going to be within short range of the enemy.

Most war games come down to rock paper scissors and some add a puzzle to figure out to get the results. I like adding logistics and decision making to the mix. Deciding where to place the ammo truck, who gets rallied, promoted, repaired, which shot to take, and add to that the risk that things can go wrong.

junk2drive wrote:Tried the test scen. Had a few allied tanks killed without crews bailing. Poor bast...

The test scenario was built to quickly see if the logic worked correctly and allow for quick setup's. Thanks for trying it out.

I forgot to tell you how Bailout works ...

First it rolls hit location ... If it hits the hull (and penetrates), there is 30% chance it hits the transmission or engine compartment, if not, it penetrates the crew compartment ... then .... there's a chance of the tank exploding (~60%) ... If it doesn't explode then the crew bails out. It then "rolls" for crew survival ... each crewman has a 50% chance to bail, hence the slow death scene as you watch you crewman drop one-by-one. There will always be 1-man that survives (prevents an empty unit).

junk2drive wrote:I think the ammo trucks should also resupply tanks and guns.

I disagree ... tanks don't need extra shots ... however, if we give every unit one extra shot and have them expend ALL AP when they receive that extra shot ... then yeah, lets try that. I don't want fast moving units to shoot, resupply, then move, shoot, resupply, etc.

junk2drive wrote: Most war games come down to rock paper scissors and some add a puzzle to figure out to get the results. I like adding logistics and decision making to the mix. Deciding where to place the ammo truck, who gets rallied, promoted, repaired, which shot to take, and add to that the risk that things can go wrong.

Well said.

RE: tanks and guns ammo. The resupply bonus button gives AT charges to troops. IMO it should only give one squad resupply per turn. The ammo trucks should also only give one resupply per turn. Sometimes you have a tank or gun that could use that "one more shot". Sometimes I only shoot once at a target and save the second for next turn. If I knew that I could get resupplied, I might take that second shot. Bringing the truck close to the action of course has the risk of losing the truck for good. You can balance this somewhat by only having one or a few trucks in the battle. That is why I made my mod with a unique ammo truck.

I have had a few stock battles where getting the promotions made the difference in winning and losing. That's why I don't like the promotion system in general. Currently that is how we get the 3rd shot for our tanks. I'd rather it be a different way.

In the end we could have bonus buttons for all of this but that eliminates the risk of losing the benefit for the rest of the battle. It will be even riskier when the AI can use bombard and bonus off board assets.

If it turns out to be too unbalanced then we can dump it or change it.

junk2drive wrote:The resupply bonus button gives AT charges to troops. IMO it should only give one squad resupply per turn.

That was fixed (the cooldown) in the 1.5 patch ... cooldown of 2 turns. Yeah, not 1 for 1 but better. I see your point though.

In the end we could have bonus buttons for all of this but that eliminates the risk of losing the benefit for the rest of the battle. It will be even riskier when the AI can use bombard and bonus off board assets.

Having "shots" recharge (in any configuration, eg bonus or truck) feels slightly wrong to me. Having the ammo truck recharge "ApCharges" seems more practical.

Now ... I have another solution and it relates to my next idea ... Tank & Infantry Commanders. These units would "ride" with the units and benefit that unit by the following ;

1. Tank Commanders prevent the tank from becoming suppressed (never drops below 50 morale)
2. Tank Commanders increase the tanks accuracy array by 20% across the board (all ranges)
3. Infantry Commanders prevent the infantry unit from becoming suppressed.
4. Infantry Commanders increase the HE effectives value by 20%.

Again, these commanders ride with the unit ... If the Tank exploded, commander eliminated. If the crew bails, commander bails and can join another tank. Infantry commanders die if the unit dies. Both commanders have the option to "unload" and move on it's own, however, it can be destroyed more easily ... Think of JTCS, the commander moves about, adding bonus'.

Heck ... perhaps the Commander can pass out promotions!

Anyway, that's my plan for commanders so it might make the ammo truck obsolete with regards to "shot" recharge, but not APCharges.

Of course, the ammo truck could pass around special AP rounds ... APC and APCBC ?

Merr

I haven't quite comprehended your commanders yet. Does each squad/tank have a commander? or 1 out of 3 or out of 10?

I vote for going to the extreme then curtailing if balance is way off.

More ammo babble

Originally the only ammo that didn't refill every turn was AT charges for troops. Then came the resupply bonus.

The only reason for ammo trucks is a)something that runs out permanently b)something that runs out but you want to refill it after it is used up.

For b, IF refilling uses up action points then the refilled unit won't be able to fire the new rounds. The only advantage will be in the opponent turn for reaction fire.

Another instance would be a field gun being attacked by several enemy squads. Two shots is not enough to stop the wave. I don't want unlimited refill but one more chance to stop the attack would be nice. Of course this probably points to bad planning on my part but...

Junk,

Sorry to cut the discussion short .... I got home and crashed for my mid shift tonight.

Since we got the AMMO TRUCK working, I'll add in the ability to recharge shots for EVERY type of unit. What did we decide on?

1. One Extra Shot?
2. Any AP penalties?

Let me know.

The other concepts can come in at a later date because I want to get this mod out the door soon (like Sunday or Monday!).

With that in mind .... two more changes and I'm done ;

1. Add ability to Ammo_truck to supply a shot to every type of unit.
2. Add an "upgrade" action for the Crew to convert to Infantry (using the ammo truck )

That's pretty much it. I already added the Slith Rally and Ammo Bonus' .... I'd rather use them now instead of officers.

After all, the mods called TrackHit! ... not OfficerDown!...

Merr

Junk,

I just started to write out the features in post #2 above.

You'll note that when the turret or hull is penetrated I have an "explosion check". Currently it's around 60% for each location and I'm going to lower this for turret hits ... perhaps 40%. At any rate, it should be lower than hull hits.

Also, one more logic check needs doing ... When an AI's halftrack that's loaded with troops get's immobilized, I need to verify the troops unload. I can't remember off the top of my head when they are forced to unload, either it's a morale check or when the h/t is destroyed.

Anyway ... moving along.

Since we got the AMMO TRUCK working, I'll add in the ability to recharge shots for EVERY type of unit. What did we decide on?

1. One Extra Shot?
2. Any AP penalties?

Let me know.

If possible one extra shot, if easier to code just refill the two shots.
No AP penalties. This will allow the truck to move to safe distance if it survives being next to the other unit and allow the unit receiving ammo to fire and move if they have enough AP.
IIRC the way you have it now the truck must start the turn next to the unit refilled? IOW you can't travel to, get or give, and fire?

1. Add ability to Ammo_truck to supply a shot to every type of unit.
2. Add an "upgrade" action for the Crew to convert to Infantry (using the ammo truck )

That's pretty much it. I already added the Slith Rally and Ammo Bonus' .... I'd rather use them now instead of officers.

After all, the mods called TrackHit! ... not OfficerDown!...

Officers should be a separate subject/thread. As should capture.

Some games have command structure that boosts for keeping units close to commanders and penalizes for loss of contact/range from commander. Currently we have
Stock game - none, units free to roam
Merr Officers - rally bonus within range of fire
Amaris Officers - bonus to morale within range - malus for isolation

Rally bonus
Medic bonus
Drill Sgt bonus

I prefer a passive implementation like Amaris with the interactive decision making like yours. Since Amaris has an officer for the risk factor, using the rally button with limits and cool down is probably the best choice at this point.
I'd like to see nationality characteristics too with more or less range and effect. Early Soviets, French, Italians etc

Crews
We discussed crews being promoted to troops. This could be a bonus button (limits and cool down) or action.
If action, who has the ability? The crew themselves or an officer or ?
Player decision making: keep the crew for repair or promote for added infantry. What officer would they be attached to? Keep in mind that I don't know if Amaris officers are group specific or global within range.
What would they have that a crew doesn't or what does a crew lack that infantry has? There has to be a reason for the player to lose the repair ability when promoting.
EDIT found the answer in the beta forum captured thread. Less attack for crews. Suggest removing AT ability too.

Ok ... Ok ... Ok ... ... you convinced me!

It will undoubtedly delay the mod ... but hey, I'm bad with not meeting deadlines.

Now .....

junk2drive wrote: Crews
We discussed crews being promoted to troops. This could be a bonus button (limits and cool down) or action.
If action, who has the ability? The crew themselves or an officer or ?

If action ... ammo truck supplies the upgrade ... handing out rifles/smg/grenades/bandages/cigarettes/spam/spam with eggs, etc.
If bonus ... can only use on crews. (will need you to make a bonus button).
Once the crew upgrades, it will lose it's repair ability ... and become a regular grunt.

junk2drive wrote: If possible one extra shot, if easier to code just refill the two shots.
No AP penalties. This will allow the truck to move to safe distance if it survives being next to the other unit and allow the unit receiving ammo to fire and move if they have enough AP.
IIRC the way you have it now the truck must start the turn next to the unit refilled? IOW you can't travel to, get or give, and fire?

Ok ... one shot, no AP penalties .... This will also fix the "must start turn" part ... that's because it used to cost full ap to reload (I think, can't remember).

A friend just gave me some venison bacon that replaced fried spam as my favourite breakfast meat.

Back on subject, is this a cheese shop?

Any ideas on a graphic for the crew bonus button?

If ammo truck, again this adds the risk factor of losing the truck. Providing that you lose an AFV and the crew survives in the first place.

BTW I played one to the end last night. I held off taking a flag until 3 turns left. I couldn't make it to the far flag and the Germans retook the middle flag. I need more openings in the choke point. I don't see how anyone could take and hold all the flags.

junk2drive wrote:BTW I played one to the end last night. I held off taking a flag until 3 turns left. I couldn't make it to the far flag and the Germans retook the middle flag. I need more openings in the choke point. I don't see how anyone could take and hold all the flags.

yeah .... it's the tank traps I added from the original Bulge9 (good reference to see which ones).... remove a couple near the first flag (at the town near the woods edge) watch how it plays out totally different!

Ok .... the bonus button for "upgrade crew" ... Lets use the truck .... The action button look? ... hmm, ammo bonus button variety?

EDIT ... we could always add a few more extra turns instead?

I made a red version of the Drill Sgt button (3 gold stars) for the crew promotion action button. I can be used for either the trcuk as an action button or the bonus function for picking the target unit.

By graphic I mean the left border selection icon.

junk2drive wrote:I made a red version of the Drill Sgt button (3 gold stars) for the crew promotion action button. I can be used for either the trcuk as an action button or the bonus function for picking the target unit.

By graphic I mean the left border selection icon.

I'm at a loss for suggestions ... caffeine's wearing off ... An unlaidened sparrow?

I can probably hack the infantry force selection screen icon but which country to use?

I was thinking of a rifle, as in arming the men.

What would your tool tip say?

Decide on bonus or truck action first.

junk2drive wrote:I can probably hack the infantry force selection screen icon but which country to use?

I was thinking of a rifle, as in arming the men.

What would your tool tip say?

Decide on bonus or truck action first.

TRUCK ... TRUCK ... TRUCK (since you don't like bonus' )

Tooltip would say ... "Covert to Infantry Squad?" .... or something like that.

oh ... country? US or British for now, since a BF version requires a different mod altogether (maybe).