Advanced Third Reich Mod Discussion Thread

[basilstaghare]

Just like to say that I am enjoying this mod. I have tried a couple of different similar mods and this my favorite. Thanks for your work on this!

[pzgndr]

I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with Empires in Arms and expect to get an official patch wrapped up in the next few months. Then I can shift gears back to WWII and play with A3R more...

Wow, four years ago now. I just wrapped up Empires in Arms v1.26.04 for the next official update. Is anybody still playing this A3R mod?

The last time I played A3R was a couple years ago. I fired it up again today as Allies for the 1939 campaign with the latest v1.29.00 game update. My nefarious Axis AI got me with the Sea Lion invasion option, capturing London and Manchester in August 1940 and relocating the British government to Montreal. I had a British fleet in the Red Sea loop and got a Loop Failed error message, because I only had London in the script for #FRIENDLY_POSITION. Grrr.

So. I have started on Advanced Third Reich v1.5 with this bug fix to add Montreal to the loop scripts. I will relook some of the other items mentioned above for other possible changes. But I'm curious if anybody has anything to add, any other suggestions for a v1.5 update. I'll try clearing away the cobwebs in my head regarding A3R and get back into it.

[pzgndr]

I've been poking around with a new v1.5, primarily trying to resolve issues with a successful German Sea Lion invasion and Britain moving its government to Canada. There were a lot of problems with the convoys rerouting, as well as the loops not working. So far, here's what I've got:

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Advanced Third Reich for Strategic Command WWII: War In Europe, v1.5
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DATA CHANGES
- changed alternate capital for Britain from Montreal to Toronto
- added Belfast as secondary supply center for Britain

SCRIPT CHANGES
- adjusted CONVOY scripts for Britain to move government to Canada (DE 9) and for Allies liberating Britain (DE 10)
-- Mediterranean and Middle East convoys rerouted from Britain to Canada
-- United States Lend Lease convoys rerouted from Britain to Canada
-- British Murmansk convoys to Russia rerouted as Commonwealth convoys from Canada to Russia
-- Convoys rerouted back to Britain when Allies liberate Britain
- adjusted UNIT scripts to replace AI #TYPE=2 continuous build events with multiple AI #TYPE=1 build events
-- United States AI infantry replacements in Rome
-- United States AI infantry replacements in Paris
-- Russia AI infantry replacements in Gorki
-- Germany AI infantry replacements in Berlin
- adjusted UNIT scripts to trigger the de Gaulle Returns to France event sooner if no Axis units adjacent to Paris
- adjusted PARTISAN scripts to trigger more often, Russia now 10% chance and others 5% chance
- added TERRITORY scripts for Britain to move government to Canada (DE 9) and for Allies liberating Britain (DE 10)
-- Britain takes control of Toronto, Quebec, Halifax, and St. John's, and adjacent hexes (to place builds)
-- Germany takes control of Liverpool (to cancel convoys)
-- Territories are returned when Allies liberate Britain
- adjusted LOOP scripts for Britain naval loops setting Ottawa as #FRIENDLY_POSITION to work if London is controlled by Axis
- adjusted DECISION scripts for Britain to move government to Canada (DE 9) and for Allies liberating Britain (DE 10)

Most of the play balance issues raised a couple of years ago got resolved already with v1.4:

- reduced tactical bombers ground attack upgrade increments from 1.0 to 0.5
- reduced most major nation fleet naval attack values by 0.5
- reduced most major nation fleet shore bombardment values by 0.5
- reduced most major nation fighter air-air attack/defense values by 0.5

Has anybody got any feedback on playing v1.4? Were the adjustments OK or does anybody have any other comments? I think I will playtest what I've got so far and get out a v1.5 update later this month, unless I hear something.

[pzgndr]

I completed a playtest of v1.5 as Allies on Expert difficulty. When I last played this campaign a couple years on Expert, I found that it gave the AI too much of an Experience bonus and the end game was ugly. This time I reduced the +2 Experience to +1.5 Experience computer bonus. I think that is still too much, for me, so my future games will probably reduce it to +1 Experience on Expert. As it was, I ecked out a Stalemate when I took Berlin on the September 21, 1945 turn, not conquering Axis by Summer 1945. By summer 1943, Russia was struggling having lost Leningrad and just losing Moscow. In the Med, I pushed to take Sicily and then made a few risky landings in Italy to force an Italian surrender. That helped, but I struggled after D-Day landings in France in 1944 and didn't take Paris until December. After that, it was a race to get to Berlin. Overall, good game, pretty much as I expected.

I noted that the de Gaulle Returns to France UNIT event did not trigger until May 1945. The condition was no Axis within 3 hexes of Paris, so I changed that to no Axis adjacent to Paris. I also noted that partisan activity was not significant, so I increased the chances for Russian partisans from 5% to 10% and increased others to 5%. I updated the version notes above. Another thing that caught my attention was German Rockets (Axis got this variant, plus the extra 5-6 heavy tanks and jets). The generic AI for whatever reason chooses to attack land units with Rockets rather than resources. I can't do anything about that, but considered adjusting the CTVs to give Rockets a nominal soft attack value. I decided against doing that because we want to keep Rockets as strategic warfare assets, particularly for Axis solitaire play or hth games. Other than that, another longstanding nagging concern is how the generic AI continues to reinforce expensive units (HQs, air fleets, etc.) rather than build more land units. Again, I can't do anything about that. Long ago I suggested to Hubert that AI reinforcements should exclude units that have no build chance in the PURCHASES AI scripts, but the decision was to leave it as is. Probably best, but we'll never know. I've been playing SC for a long time now, and it is what it is. I still had fun with my playtest game.

I'll probably wrap up v1.5 next week sometime. I'd like to sneak in another playtest game as Axis to see how that goes but I have too much else going on. I'm still curious about any comments on v1.4 but I'm not holding my breath. We'll see.