CHS PDU game with vanishing Sallys

[InHarmsWay]

All,

I am involved in a CHS game as the Japanese, with NikMod and PDU in effect. I have run across a weird bug and was wondering if anyone else has experienced it. I have been consolidating my Sallys / and Helens into just Helens to ease production and had switched most Sallys to Helens (or other airframes), but a while back while taking heavy AAA losses over Singapore realized my pool of Sallys was shrinking. I found I was unable to switch back my Helens (or anything else) to Sallys. The aircraft build page would show the switch, but the next turn would show it automatically switched back to Helen again (with 1 in production and (xx) under repair. Anyone seen this before? Not a big deal as I have been switching and upgrading as fast as possible to helens and will have sufficent sallys in the pool for reinforcements, but still annoying.

Thanks!

[mlees]

Do Sally's normally upgrade to Helen's?
 
I ask because if you are downgrading from Helen to Sally, and the normal upgrade path is from Sally to Helen, then you will see this planned upgrade on your squadron info screen. With upgrade "on", the very next turn the unit will go back to Helens, assuming all the other conditions are right.
 
Turn off upgrades for that air unit, and it won't automatically upgrade back to Helens. (You may still see the upgrade model on the info screen, but slightly greyed out, I think.)

[Nomad]

I think he is talking about factories, not units. It is a shortcoming in the code, but factories will do an
automatic upgrade, and as far as I know, there is no way to stop it.

[InHarmsWay]

I dont believe the upgrade path goes from Sally to Helen, they are very similar and my plan was just to consolidate into building one airframe. Actually "upgrading" each plane formation is working fine, and I always turn upgrade to off unless specifcally changing each formation. My problem is on the manufacturing side, where the factories are automatically retooling from Sally back to Helen after each turn...

[mlees]

Wups, sorry. I thought you meant squadrons, not factories. Yeah, your SOL there. Might be nice if there was a "Do not upgrade" button for the factories.

[Local Yokel]

I think that if you check the database you will find that, in CHS, Ki-21 production is switched over to Ki-49 production in December 1941. The only way to prevent this is by modifying the scenario before beginning a game based upon it.

I encountered exactly the same factory behaviour as you in this scenario, as I had wanted to concentrate on Ki-21 production because they use Mitsubishi engines. But, like it or not, in CHS NikMod Ki-49's are what you're going to get, so you may need to ramp up your Nakajima engine production accordingly.

The upside to this is that, as you convert Ki-21 Sentai's to Ki-49's, your pool of Ki-21's should increase so that you have more airframes available to make good losses in the remaining Ki-21 equipped units.

[Nomad]

It would be really nice if AE provided a switch so the player could seled auto upgrades or not. I like to continue to produce some Ki36 Idas also, they work very well as ASW aircraft in restricted areas.

[InHarmsWay]

Local Yokel,
OK, thanks! That makes sense, and I am seeing my Sally stockpile increase as I convert each squadron to Helens.  Like you mentioned, this really has cut into my nakajima engine production, and it is taking me a while to ramp that up.  I believe the Liz also uses Nakajima, so this caught me out on the number of them I needed to be producing.  It has taken over a month to get there but now I am back to building up engine inventory again.  I would not call this issue a bug now, just need to be aware of the hard coded upgrade (like the Nell to Betty one that most people are aware of.