WatchTower, experience, and unit names question

[Jackk]

Hi all,

Couple of questions here.

1) Aren't the units supposed to carry their kills and experience over from battle to battle? Or do they get "reset" every so often?

I ask because I was following one platoon because I wanted to see what kind of effect casualties would have on the experience and morale. Well, oddly enough, after one particularly bad battle, where all units in the platoon were reduced to 4 men or less, their experince and morale went up!
So, that was odd, but that's okay.
2 battles later....I had kind of lost track of them....I looked at them and they were now at a point less than they were after the bad battle. After that one, their morale and experience were in the mid 90's. Now they are in the low 80's.

2) If you rename the units, are they (unit names) supposed to carry over too? Or does the nature of the MC preclude that? I know that the leader names carry over, but it seems that the unit names do not.

I'd appreciate any enlightenment you can offer.

[Fallschirmjager]

1) Alot of ppl have asked this and the only answer I can think off is that since you guide an Elite company/batallion thorugh all the MCs maybe that higher ups give you troops from other damaged regiments to replace your losses. These "reserves have been in battle and have experience".


SpWaW was never designed to handle campaigns and does a poor job of it. Its amazing that with all the problems the game has handling campaigns they are still a blast to play.
CL will be designed for and will handle campiagns much better so thats something to look forward too.

[Jackk]

Originally posted by Fallschirmjager
1) Alot of ppl have asked this and the only answer I can think off is that since you guide an Elite company/batallion thorugh all the MCs maybe that higher ups give you troops from other damaged regiments to replace your losses. These "reserves have been in battle and have experience".


SpWaW was never designed to handle campaigns and does a poor job of it. Its amazing that with all the problems the game has handling campaigns they are still a blast to play.
CL will be designed for and will handle campiagns much better so thats something to look forward too.

I'll buy the answer to #1. Sounds very plausible to me;)

As for the campaign thing....don't unit names stick in the long or user campaigns? I hadn't played one in a while but am pretty sure they do.
I was just thinking it was a limitation of the MC because of how things are "pre-laid" out for you.
Thanks for your comments!

[Wild Bill]

I've never understood the nuances in the coding for campaigns. I can say that any unit that survives a battle should have experience and morale boosted a tiny bit. The comes from the process of learning better how to fight the enemy and survive.

The fact that the units would drop a point or two could be as FJ points out, excessive losses might produce a larger influx of new recruits to fill out the ranks.

I've not encountered major problems with campaigns and the core force in them. But I have not inspected them as closely as you have, Jackk, so I may have missed something.

Wild Bill

[Supervisor]

Someone pinch me, Wild Bill has spoken. Just kidding Bill it's nice to here from you again:D

[Wild Bill]

Yeah, my brother! Just climbed out of my psuedo "Howard Hughes" reclusiveness. Sorry for the absence. A lot has been going on personally that has kept me more than a little distracted...plus involvement in far too many projects

But I'm still here and going strong. Thanks so much for the "Welcome Back."

Wild Bill

[Jackk]

Originally posted by Wild Bill
I've never understood the nuances in the coding for campaigns. I can say that any unit that survives a battle should have experience and morale boosted a tiny bit. The comes from the process of learning better how to fight the enemy and survive.

The fact that the units would drop a point or two could be as FJ points out, excessive losses might produce a larger influx of new recruits to fill out the ranks.

I've not encountered major problems with campaigns and the core force in them. But I have not inspected them as closely as you have, Jackk, so I may have missed something.

Wild Bill

Bill,

My first point was that their experience and morale INCREASED after getting mostly shredded in the previous battle. FJ suggested that their ranks were filled with other elite units thereby justifying the increase. Okay, I can accept that

I didn't say I had a major problem with the units, just that the increase seemed strange and, in the MC, the unit names don't stick when you change them.
I went back and tried changing names in a long campain and a user made campaign, and in both cases the changed names would stick from battle to battle. They just don't in the MC. It's not a major problem by any means, just a curiousity I noticed after I went through and renamed ALL of my core force only to find them back to the "USMC Rifle Sqd" designations in the next battle

[11Bravo]

The way I think about it is this.

After a shredding, the leader has survived, and his experience has increased cause he learned from his mistakes and setbacks.

I believe that experience is a function of hitting things, killing things, and being hit/taking casualties. Not sure about losing experience.

Morale seems to track my own pretty closely!

[Arralen]

Two answers I could think of :

1) Country Training - A
The first time you got replacement troops, country training was high, so gained experience and new troops added up (don't know if the game engine re-calculates experience if a decimated squad gets filled up .. I think I vaguely remember something like that, but .. )
Some Battles later, country training has dropped and you get really green replacements..

Country Training - B
Maybe in the case of dropping country ratings the troop ratings are reduced as well - this would require the troop ratings being stored as "difference to country" only, but what I have seen from Fred's editor the ratings are stored in the units stats as "complete" number this seems highly unlikely.

2) Country Training & Reduced Squads
.. maybe there's an issue with both option enabled .. but this would require that the game engine recalculates the ratings if a squad recieves replacements, what I' not shure about.

yours,
A.

[BruceAZ]

Good to see your name again, my friend.

5th Recon

[RayM]

Hello Bruce,

Are you the designer of the Guadalcanal Campaign? I'ld like to ask you some questions about it. Would you please take a look at my posts under the "Guadalcanal Campaign" topic? I've enjoyed it so far and I am using it as a training course before I tackle MC-W.

Thanks.

BTW, I'm originally from Phoenix and went to ASU. Way too big and hot for me now!

Ray

[BruceAZ]

Originally posted by RayM
Hello Bruce,

Are you the designer of the Guadalcanal Campaign? I'ld like to ask you some questions about it. Would you please take a look at my posts under the "Guadalcanal Campaign" topic? I've enjoyed it so far and I am using it as a training course before I tackle MC-W.

Thanks.

BTW, I'm originally from Phoenix and went to ASU. Way too big and hot for me now!

Ray

Hello Ray:

Well, I designed the Guadalcanal Campaign the comes with SPWAW 7.0 but if you are inquiring about the MC Guadalcanal, the real designer chief was Wild Bill Wilder. MC Watchtower is substantially better than my old (5.0 design) campaign.

With WB's direction, Steve Avery and I were Design Team Leaders on MC Watchtower. I designed most of the maps and did much of the historical research. We each had a great team of volunteers work on the MC Watchtower Project. They did all the real work and design. Their names are listed on the MC campaign credits. Super people.

I will try and find your post, or if you have a question, fire away. You can post it here or send me a email at bruceaz@cox.net and I will try and answer it.

5th Recon
Semper Fi

[RayM]

Thanks for the quick response. I am referring to the Guadalcanal 1942 campaign that comes with v7.0.

I'll consolidate my questions and post them on the Guadalcanal 1942 topic if that's okay.

Thanks.

Ray