Theatre violation penalties not working properly

[ChuckBerger]

Playing as Soviets, mid-September, and I've got the better part of 3 armies from centre front operating in the northern front area. I managed to cut off all of the German AGN by a thrust through to Riga. Hee hee.

Anyway, my PP income is 15, and I ended the previous turn with 7 PP saved up.

At the start of the next turn, the "Theatre Violation!" report pops up, and a total of 20 units have a "penalty incurred -1 PP" note, not counting all the units that just have a warning.

And yet I have 21PP, far more than I expected I would have given the massive theatre violation penalties.

So I open up the daily log - staff - and find the following explanation:

- Theatre Violations by Unit -20PP
- German units killed last turn +6PP
- Base Command allowance +15PP

So I expected I would have 7, minus 20, plus 6, plus 15 = 8PP.

Instead, it looks like what happens is the theatre violations gets applied first, reduced my pool of PPs to zero but not going negative, and then the base allowance and bonus for killed units get applied, giving me my total of 21 PP.

In other words, the operations are happening sequentially, rather than all at once. As a result, the penalty for theatre violations is effectively capped at whatever I have saved up.

Is this working as intended? It seems odd, because in effect I'm hardly being penalised at all for such a massive theatre violation!

[lancer]

Hi ChuckBerger,

It's WAD.

It's an exploitable hole in the design but one that's difficult to resolve. Having the Player's PP's go negative results in a rapid death spiral.

While it'd be possible to take into account the additional PP's gained and subtract those this wouldn't stop a determined player from incurring massive violation penalties knowing that the cost is capped to whatever PP's he has on hand.

To date it hasn't been a problem as everybody has taken heed of the traffic rules. You're the first rebel.

I might have to consider sterner measures.

Cheers,
Cameron

[Michael T]

Just make them go to zero if zero or less is left after your total is calc.

[willgamer]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

Just make them go to zero if zero or less is left after your total is calc.

I agree that would be a good direction to go. It certainly would resolve the OP's issue.

Even if you go out of your way to abuse, starting with zero PP is tough!

[Flaviusx]

The AI routinely violates this as well and gets away with it too btw.

I've seen it march the entirety of 4th Army as the German to the southern theater in the direction of Kharkov, among other things. One of the reasons the south is such a pain to defend.

[lancer]

Hi,

The AI is immune from theatre violation penalties but does attempt to stay within theatres.

It's been given the latitude to cross boundaries, where needed, if it judges that it can be more effective in doing so.

Cheers,
Cameron