The length of the long campaign

[byron13]

I agree. I always tried to force myself to plan any operation, collect assets manually, and provide a long build-up period to represent the long lead time required. But it required self-discipline and nothing game-imposed. And there were always times when my discipline would break down, and I would teleport fleets to invade half a world away to take advantage of a fleeting opportunity.

I think the game should impose some kind of limitations on performing large operations at short notice. The "get" function is good because it lets the computer handle some of the manual administrative stuff that players often hate to manage. Most players consider themselves generals and not logisticians; let the staff/computer handle it. But the "get" function allows teleporting. There should be some kind of penalty. Whether it is a built in delay, a requirement to declare invasion targets in advance, a limitation as to how many ships can enter a port in one turn, or something else, there should be some kind of limitation. Otherwise, we are left solely to our own self-discipline to maintain accuracy.

(Actually, the self-discipline model is a good one for Matrix. Players can then mount operations either way and satisfy both crowds. Having the game impose delays would only piss some players off.)

[Ranger-75]

The only reason for keeping any type of to pool / get pool functionality would be to adjust the size of the ship unit to account for fluctuations in the size of the units. Units not a full strength have the ammoying habit :p of gaining size while the transport fleet is sailing towards the port.

But I agre that is should only be used in a base or a small cluster of bases, say the marshals for staging an attack on the marianas. If I'm doing a major operation, I'll concentrate all my shipping in 3 or 4 forward areas where the divisions are, and when they are all there make 1-2 ship adjustments to load everything, since splitting divisions is not desired. If I have three units in a base needing shipping usually no two will be the same size so the to / get pool functions help in this regard.