Aircraft Production Ramping House Rule

[el cid again]

For the Allies, this matters only for the NEXT release of RHS files - as they have no disabled aircraft factories now. For the Japanese - it matters now. The next release is x.7852 - or perhaps x.786 (as it is becoming a significant update rather than a tweek).

In order for aircraft production to ramp up - not exactly perfectly correct - but at a somewhat reasonable pace -
the 'disabled' aircraft factories (on both sides) for aircraft types not yet in production (i.e. with -rd after the aircraft designation) should have their repair option set to "no"

If this is not done, the location will tend to repair them all up, otherwise mostly all - and on the very first day/month of production - the rate will be too high.

Now that I am putting almost all Allied aircraft production on the map, and setting it to ramp, in order that the totals be correct, I have added to the peak value slightly (as close as can be done) - but this means if the plants do not start production disabled in fact in a game - the peak values will be too great (slightly).

I never thought of this mechanism before. It means the Japanese will also not tend to start producing planes at such great rates.

A side effect is that - early in the game - some locations will not have so hard a time accumulating enough supply points to load on ships etc. The flip side of this is that - if a player does not practice this concept - he will pay early in supply points - and not be able to load/ship them - at the most critical time in the game to be supporting operations (or use them to build facilities, etc). In that limited sense, the rule comes with limited consequences for disregarding it.

[ny59giants]

Do you have a time frame on when this is going to be released?? 
I'm getting ready to start 2 PBEM's. One is with my first PBEM opponent from Summer of '06 with 1EyedJack that we had to quit due to my computer problems. We are going to try Empire Ablaze at a slow pace, we hope. [:D] 
The second is with John III as we are switching from Big B's mod on AB's map to CVO (he has two other games going with that mod), but I want to wait until the Allied production is on map. Which is a concept that is long overdue from happening, IMO. [&o]
 
KUDOS to Cobra for the map. [&o][&o]
 
I may be back with more questions as I will try to find the threads about the river transport system, the ferry system that cross straits like from Sumatra to Java, having a merchant shipyard in New Orleans, etc..

[Jo van der Pluym]

ORIGINAL: el cid again

For the Allies, this matters only for the NEXT release of RHS files - as they have no disabled aircraft factories now. For the Japanese - it matters now. The next release is x.7852 - or perhaps x.786 (as it is becoming a significant update rather than a tweek).

El Cid Again

Have you mayby all a ETA? And is't also for level 5 and 6?

[el cid again]

Regretfully (from my point of view - because of the work involved) - this update - which is going to be called x.786 -
DOES include Levels 5 and 6 - and it is comprehensive.

It is slow going because there is a great deal of data entry and all of it requires modification in 22 different scenarios.
But it is very close. And it looks like I am not going anywhere today - so ETA is tomorrow. See the update thread for more details.

The backfitting to Levels 5 and 6 is more significant than usual: in order to facilitate on map Allied aircraft production and production ramping, and because of a problem with slots, I have decided to change the foundation slightly: In all levels, Salt Lake City (United States) is the primary "off map on map" location - for US plants not in actual cities on the map. But we need more factories - so

a) In Level 7 New Orleans is the "backup off map on map" location

b) In Level 6 South Atlantic Entry is the "backup off map on map" location

c) In Level 7 a new city appears "Billings [USA 2]" with this function

So far it appears we can use this location for aircraft types that need "extra" production. That is, at the primary location (United States) - aircraft not otherwise produced on the map will produce in series. For example an F4U-1 will upgrade to an F4U-1D which will then upgrade to an F4U-4. But while I can make the first one ramp up, the later ones not only will not ramp, they will be at the same level as the first one. Yet the production rate for the later one needs to be higher than for the earlier ones: this additional production will go to the "backup location" - and it will also ramp up from 1 (if players keep the switch set to "no" until the date of production arrives).

All this extra production on the map probably impacts the economy (testing is measuring the extent) - I think "replacements" are "free" in HI point terms. At the same time, I have noted issues with New Orleans and South Atlantic Entry: if players are too dumb to ship resources to N.O., or both resources and oil to S.A.E., their HI becomes worthless. SO I have given both the ability to run the huge HI (representing vast off map assets) one day in 4 - or at 25% efficiency. This still rewards players who ship oil from the Mideast (or even DEI) off the main playing area - and resources from Australia, India, New Caledonia, or anywhere else - until they have quadrupled this production - but that production never entirely shuts down. This semi-abstractly simulates the value in particular of shipping tin, antimony, raw rubber, chromium, other ferrous and nonferrous metals and as always crude oil, to industries in the UK and off map parts of the USA and Canada. But that off map economy always can send some supply, fuel and HI points onto the map.

In Level 5, we have a simpler model: a new location - about the place Billings Montana is - represents the overflow we cannot cram into Salt Lake City. At this location, it is about as hard to attack by air or land as Regina or Salt Lake city are, and it will not tend to feed too much of anything onto the map - yet the three locations will conspire (under AI control) to feed each other - as indeed they could do - any shortages of oil, resources, etc - and all three will spill off extra supply and fuel and HI points onto the map by rail line. The Billings location HI will grow for two years, representing the great increase in HI required to feed the growing aircraft production (and other things) - but we have no way to grow the oil or resources - so we start with somewhat too much of them - and they will tend to stockpile - which is acceptable. Level 5 lacks a mechanism to reward players who ship oil and resources off the map (it still rewards feeding Australia, New Zealand, India, and to some extent the West Coast). It also has less HI - after the two years of growth Billings is only as big as New Orleans or South Atlantic Entry running at 25% capacity. But it appears this will permit the aircraft to produce adequately - and almost automatically.

As noted above, if a player fails to set the "repair" switch to off, he will pay a price in early consumption of supply points - which matters more in 1942 than later. This also goes double if he fails to set expansion not to happen in US and Canadian locations - you can suck a lot of supply into a "expand everything at the same time everywhere" policy. And the repaired too soon aircraft plants will still not begin to produce ahead of time - they just won't ramp up as I would prefer.