AAR US v8.0.38

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DuxMare
Warrant Officer
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AAR US v8.0.38

Post by DuxMare »

After action report:
v8.0.38

My latest game I played as US from 1936-1947.

All in all, so far this is pretty good, and I believe you guys are on the verge of greatness.

This is now much better than previous titles, you now have unit marshalling under control so the game doesn't slow
down under the heavy weight of having so many units in strange places (each one on a separate thread?).

I have played SR1936 already 225 hours lol. I'm almost ashamed to admit that.

Since this is a work in progress I won't belabor the issues I found, I simply want the devs to know what issues I encountered in case you are not already aware. In a sense regard this as the outcome of a beta test or UAT.

1) The AI seems to be building unit production facilities in excess, especially land fabrication and air fabrication, but I applaud how the AI knows not to build those centers on locations that are resource heavy.

2) Enemy AI seems very weak militarily. I've turned the settings on highest but still I tend to best the AI on the field
too easily. It hardly even fights back it seems, I think this is related to (4). My hope is that later on, Japan will invade the Philippines, Wake, Midway, Pearl, the Aleutians, and maybe even California not only with troops but warships and planes from some CV's and CVE's. It seems like invasions typically consist of un-escorted merchant ships plopping some troops down on a port. Japan did try to 'invade' Manilla but it consisted of three un-escorted merchant marine, easily dispatched by a camping destroyer. Also, many times it seems like the AI does not commit all of it's troops, especially at critical times (like when the capital is about to be captured). Mad props though on greater airforce involvement. Also, I have had Japan conquer China on many occasions, so other people who are seeing that need to try to play the game a bit more.

3) Germany AI appeared pretty competent aside from running out of military goods to fight the war, but so did all AI nations. Basically the game just stopped about 1941-1942 because there were not enough military goods globally for any nation to fight a war. I could tell because when negotiating with nearly every nation I could find, they had 0t on military goods. They also often had 0t of industry goods. In order to fight with an enemy I had to sell gobs of military goods on the market after building huge numbers of military goods factories. It seems that the military goods factories are not producing the quantities of goods that they should or should I say were in previous titles. It seems that I now have to build more factories to accommodate the military goods demand. While this might be historically accurate, the AI doesn't "know" to build more factories. You might say, "well why don't you fix this yourself" well, a few releases ago I found that I had an issue creating cache files even though the input files were pristine. I haven't tried since, maybe you guys have fixed it. Also, as an aside, can the cache files be generated from the command line? The executable does not seem to have command line flags.

4) I still see a problem with Artillery "leading the way". The rangers or marines might get offended! I don't ding y'all too much because AI is a pretty difficult topic and making artillery follow behind front line units can probably be tough and computationally expensive. I would much rather see a game that is fast and flows well than a game that is more realistic and turns my processor to molten slag. Please, please let at least your secondary if not primary goal be performance that does not degrade over game play.

5) Multiplayer seems to be an issue over the interwebs. At least in 8.0.29 I grant that it could have changed.
Note that I did not use anything like game ranger, only used port forwarding under UDP protocol on port 16,000.
It could be that I'm not configuring this properly. If so, it would be nice to find a good infallible tutorial. (and yes I have already used the googles and the youtubes) I will try also using GameRanger and see how it goes.

6) I hope y'all have plans to also transition the game to the cold war if the allies win and the game goes along historically
accurate lines. It would for example be neat to see the game break up germany along east and west and see a warsaw pact situation form. Basically to merge into your previous title (Cold War) around 1949.

7) Almost forgot, the AI doesn't seem to be repairing damaged structures, maybe due to goods shortages?

8) Things are a bit off with events but I'm sure you already have plans for that and will get it straightened out.
For example, playing as US, Roosevelt never dies and Truman never takes over. That seems like it might be a triviality.

9) For some reason, I always seem to go broke. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong but it seems like somehow an expense crops up somewhere that I can't find. I don't mind too much because I can still play the game using georgeww. Anyone else seeing this?

Honestly, I think if you increase military goods production, like raise the default output amount, it's going to kill many birds with one stone.

All in all, great job! You are on the verge of great things!

P.S. - If you can get a map editor working I will build several statues in your honor lol.
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Balthagor
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Re: AAR US v8.0.38

Post by Balthagor »

1) check the defense minister priorities. Currently some priorities begin active in some campaigns and they are the ones that allow the minister to build facilities.

2) AI work will be done later in the development cycle.

3) Discussions on this issue in studio this afternoon, we are exploring options. The "ratio" of facility output is a variable we can control and has changed with each title. (WMDATA file for modders)

4) noted.

5) Multiplayer work will be done later in the development cycle.

6) Cold War events are already baked into the sandboxes and campaigns.

7) Good shortages likely cause.

8 ) Lots of work to do, but doesn't hurt to point them out.

PS - what kind of statues?
Chris Latour
BattleGoat Studios
chris@battlegoat.com
DuxMare
Warrant Officer
Posts: 37
Joined: Mar 09 2014
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Re: AAR US v8.0.38

Post by DuxMare »

Woops, I didn't clarify on #1, that was AI that was over-building the unit production facilities. I usually try to lock my advisors out of doing anything.

P.S. - Great gold statues that rival the size and grandeur of the colossus of Rhodes bedecked with all the jeweles of arabia! Nah, I can't back that up... :-( If only I could conquer Saudi in real life...
Rhaycen
Major
Posts: 153
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Re: AAR US v8.0.38

Post by Rhaycen »

I started a campaign as Germany, and even with the Defense ministers priorities switched off he still seemed to randomly decide to built unit manufacturing plants (land, navy & air) without my permission.

currently I'm playing a sandbox game as China and do not have this issue with all the same settings...
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Balthagor
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Re: AAR US v8.0.38

Post by Balthagor »

DuxMare wrote:... US, Roosevelt never dies and Truman never takes over...
btw, I just saw this happen, 12 April 1945.
Chris Latour
BattleGoat Studios
chris@battlegoat.com
Aragos
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Re: AAR US v8.0.38

Post by Aragos »

In defense of the Goats, I did see two amazing things in my most recent USA sandbox--


1) Happily flying PBY Catalinas off the US East Coast when a German fighter attacks. Turns out, the AI built a Carrier, put planes on it, and sent it toward the US. Sadly, it had no surface escorts and was easily killed by a couple of US DDs. But surprising!

2) Same thing happened off Guam. Japanese CV launched a couple of FTRs and damaged a few US ships. Initially I thought they were from one of the Japanese colonies or Iwo Jima, but there was the IJN Kaga happily launching aircraft.
SGTscuba
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Re: AAR US v8.0.38

Post by SGTscuba »

Aragos wrote:In defense of the Goats, I did see two amazing things in my most recent USA sandbox--


1) Happily flying PBY Catalinas off the US East Coast when a German fighter attacks. Turns out, the AI built a Carrier, put planes on it, and sent it toward the US. Sadly, it had no surface escorts and was easily killed by a couple of US DDs. But surprising!

2) Same thing happened off Guam. Japanese CV launched a couple of FTRs and damaged a few US ships. Initially I thought they were from one of the Japanese colonies or Iwo Jima, but there was the IJN Kaga happily launching aircraft.
Videos or photo's or I am calling you a liar :D (no offense). Hopefully this means the Goats have been working on the AI, but if this is true (and not just by accident) then thats awesome!
My SR:U Model Project, get the latest and post suggestions here:

http://www.bgforums.com/forums/viewtopi ... 79&t=28040
Aragos
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Re: AAR US v8.0.38

Post by Aragos »

Yeah, next time I see it, I'll do a pic. Shocked me to see a German plane over Boston, let me tell you.
SGTscuba
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Re: AAR US v8.0.38

Post by SGTscuba »

Aragos wrote:Yeah, next time I see it, I'll do a pic. Shocked me to see a German plane over Boston, let me tell you.
I wonder if a dev can say if this is behaviour they have added in to the game now?
My SR:U Model Project, get the latest and post suggestions here:

http://www.bgforums.com/forums/viewtopi ... 79&t=28040
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