Suez bug?

[avoran]

In more than one game now I've found a ship trapped in the Red Sea hex between the Suez Canal and the "Med" loop. This happens when the other side (typically the Axis) takes over the canal (i.e. Port Suez). This is the case even if the ship has been in that hex for several turns (i.e. it's not just coming out of the canal). Surely this is a bug? Since the ship is not longer "in" the canal (in transit) why should it be unable to move around freely in the Red Sea (and use the Atlantic or Persian Gulf transit loops)?

Assuming it is a bug, would be nice to get it fixed in 2.1

[Peter Stauffenberg]

This is actually not a bug and was reported by beta testers before.

The point is that the transport loop hexes are controlled by one side and you can't move through a loop hex you don't control.

You can consider the situation you experiences as the Allies controlled the Suez when the surface ship moved in from the Mediterranean, but the Suez is overrun by the Axis. That means the naval unit is in the canal while the other exit is enemy controlled. That means you can't exit because the exit is blocked. Enemy airplanes can bombard you etc.

Game wise the transport loop was placed a bit of a distance from the actual Suez canal to allow for several ships to enter the Red Sea via the loop in one turn. If we had placed it directly adjacent to the canal then only 1 unit could enter per turn. The reason is that you can only stack one unit per hex. The game code will try to place naval units in every adjacent hex to the transport loop. This is also the reason we placed the transport loop in the Meditteranean and Persian Gulf where they are. We want to have as big capacity as possible per turn.

[avoran]

[You can consider the situation you experiences as the Allies controlled the Suez when the surface ship moved in from the Mediterranean, but the Suez is overrun by the Axis. That means the naval unit is in the canal while the other exit is enemy controlled. That means you can't exit because the exit is blocked. Enemy airplanes can bombard you etc.]

I kind of thought somebody might say that. In the game I'm playing now, though, my British carrier exited the loop a month before Port Suez was captured. Just wanted to keep it in range to use as an offshore fighter base. If it was on the Med coast it could do that without being trapped. So I still don't think it's very logical.

[Game wise the transport loop was placed a bit of a distance from the actual Suez canal to allow for several ships to enter the Red Sea via the loop in one turn. If we had placed it directly adjacent to the canal then only 1 unit could enter per turn. The reason is that you can only stack one unit per hex. The game code will try to place naval units in every adjacent hex to the transport loop. This is also the reason we placed the transport loop in the Meditteranean and Persian Gulf where they are. We want to have as big capacity as possible per turn.]

So IOW there's no way to fix it in the game engine? Well, that's an answer, even if I don't like it.

Although actually I think there might be: move the loop hex even further away. (I don't have the game open so can't picture exactly where it would go, but if need be a hex or two of the Saudi coast could be 'borrowed' for sea to keep things opened up as that part of the map is almost always irrelevant to the game.) A neater solution, if technically possible, would be to combine all three Red Sea loop hexes into one and ask the player to choose the destination when a ship enters.

It may not officially be a bug, but it still bugs me. Anyone else?

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I altered the code a bit to the highlight hexes you can move to. So now it's possible for naval units to move to the other side of a transport loop you don't own. You just can't end your turn on a transport loop and use it. This update will be sent to the beta testers this weekend.

[avoran]

Excellent, thank you!