Costs of equipment?

[Vinnie O]

Can anyone explain exactly what significance the game engine assigns to the cost of equipment?

Most of the prices are wrong, and I'm trying to decide if it's worth the effort to fix them.

Example:

75mm Pak 40: 12,000 Reich Marks
Sd Kfz 231: 52,980 Reich Marks
Pzkw IVF: 103,462 Reich Marks

So a tank costs about twice as much as an armored car and 8 or 9 times as much as a AT gun.

I have enough data points to redo all of the prices, except that many of the bombers need a price of "99" or so and this seems to exceed some internal limit.

If price is consumed against "resources", then I'd want to rework the whole system in terms of German and Russian industrial product and calculate the materials used instead of the cash cost.

Anybody else playing with this?

[RickyB]

Originally posted by Vinnie O:
Can anyone explain exactly what significance the game engine assigns to the cost of equipment?

Most of the prices are wrong, and I'm trying to decide if it's worth the effort to fix them.

Example:

75mm Pak 40: 12,000 Reich Marks
Sd Kfz 231: 52,980 Reich Marks
Pzkw IVF: 103,462 Reich Marks

So a tank costs about twice as much as an armored car and 8 or 9 times as much as a AT gun.

I have enough data points to redo all of the prices, except that many of the bombers need a price of "99" or so and this seems to exceed some internal limit.

If price is consumed against "resources", then I'd want to rework the whole system in terms of German and Russian industrial product and calculate the materials used instead of the cash cost.

Anybody else playing with this?

The WIR "cost" has nothing to do with actual monetary or resource cost. We updated a number of tank costs to make them comparatively correct, but it hosed the production system (the Soviets were getting something like 400 T34s a week as a result of our changes). The cost is used in conjunction with the Heavy Industry level to determine how quickly a factory of that type grows, but they all grow much faster when below 15 than any will grow after 15, no matter what the cost. Growth after the 15 level is unlikely, although it does occur once in a while.

Then, the cost is used when changing equipment types. When a factory is changed, the cost of the old versus new equipment is used in determining the output after the conversion. As a result, you should not have newer equipment cost less than the older that it is replacing, even if historical "cost" is lower, or you will get excessively high production. This is how we accidently drove the T34 production so high (and it may have been close to that high historically for certain periods, but it ruins the game balance).


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Rick Bancroft
Semper Fi

[Vinnie O]

OK, I'll have to think this through and figure out my next move.

How do I produce a "stunted" factory?

The Romanians in fact had some tiny capacity to produce both aircraft and AFVs. This should never exceed 5 per week or something. Can I set initial production for an IAR 80 (which I may edit in as a new aircraft) at "1", set the cost at "99" and feel safe that the Germans might suddenly see Romania as a huge producer of planes?

[RickyB]

Originally posted by Vinnie O:
OK, I'll have to think this through and figure out my next move.

How do I produce a "stunted" factory?

The Romanians in fact had some tiny capacity to produce both aircraft and AFVs. This should never exceed 5 per week or something. Can I set initial production for an IAR 80 (which I may edit in as a new aircraft) at "1", set the cost at "99" and feel safe that the Germans might suddenly see Romania as a huge producer of planes?

The next version we put out will probably include at least some kind of aircraft factory in Rumania, also. There are a number of aircraft being added, but it hasn't been settled as to which ones, including the IAR models. I forgot to mention what the 99 cost does. The AI can still produce that equipment, through a dedicated factory, but it prevents the human player from setting any factories to produce it. I am not sure yet if 99 cost will prevent the factory from growing also (I think it will, or be extremely slow anyway, like no more than 1% chance of growth?), anything else and it will definitely grow up to the 15 size, with at least a 10% chance per turn of growth even at 9.


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Rick Bancroft
Semper Fi