Two small issues

[lightningx]

1. I notice that AIs seem to never produce machinegun or mortar subformations (after they use up all the given machineguns and mortar, they never produce them any more). But on the other hand, they do research machine gun II and mortar II. Is there any special reason why they do not build these two subformations?

2. I was wondering if the counter type (NATO or silhouette) setting can be saved in New Dawn games. Currently after I restart the game or even move on to the next turn, the counter type will always return to NATO counters, even though I set it to be silhouettes previously.

Thanks!

[cpdeyoung]

Sorry, I do not know the answers to your specific questions.

However I can recommend Ormand's wonderful "Four Seasons" mod. Look in the Mods and Scenarios section for "Four Seasons with Models". Ormand has put a huge amount of work into what I now consider the "base" ATG system.

He is active in supporting his mod, and it is deluxe.

Chuck

[lightningx]

Thanks for your suggestion, Chuck! I will try the Four Seasons mod.
My second issue is a suggestion to Vic. I personally do not like NATO counters, so I think it would be great if I do not need to switch counter types every time I restart a new game or go to the next turn.
I think I have been able to solve the first issue as well. The reason seems to be that the "AI role score" for machineguns and mortars are 0 in the vanilla Masterfile.

[Ormand]

Hi lightningx,

Sorry for jumping in a little late (travel, busy work on return, and no mind due to jetlag).

Anyway, there are three factors that can affect the allocation of MG, MTR, etc. in AI units. You found one. Yes, an AI Role Score = 0 will definitely do what you are seeing.

1. AI Role Score. Note that in vanilla, machineguns, mortarts, and bazooka all have AI Role Score = 0. You will have to pick if they are support or infantry. The amount the put into a unit is related to size of the score relative to other units with the same score. So, if they all have 100, then they will be about equal. For this, note that infantry guns and AT guns have AI Role Score = 100. So, if they are all 100, they will be roughly equal in the units. Historically, MGs should be about 3x MTR, which is about equal for Inf Guns and AT guns. So, adjusting the AI Role Score will help.

2. Rulevar 156 in the Artificial Intelligence slot. This determines the ratio of infantry to support elements. It is set to 60. So, the AI should make units that are about 60% Rifle/SMG with 40% support.

3. I think the production cost might enter as well. There might be a bit of a check on value, that is firepower per production cost when comparing units with the same AI Role Score. But, it might just be the AI Role Score and it fills them with a ratio specified by the AI Role Score. But, there might be an algorithm that compares what the unit gets for the cost.

As a start set Rulevar 156 to what you wnat, and then balance the AI Role Score. For example, 100 for MG and 33 for MTR, Inf gun and AT gun, will probably get a unit with equal numbers of MTR, Inf Gun, and AT gun, but 3x as many MG.

I'll have to go back and check just what I did.

Note that Rulevar 157 determines the ratio of armor in an armored unit.

As for NATO symbols, I am the polar opposite to you. I dislike the silhouettes, so I have exclusively used NATO symbols. This is especially true for the TOE system. It could be changed. For Four Seasons, I would have produce a set of silhouette images to overwrite the NATO symbols I use. It is way to complicated to have a separate version that uses them instead. As for the TOE, in principle, an additional set of silhouette images could be added (although, I have a lot symbols there).

[Graybullet]

Very insightful information! This is really helpful!

[lightningx]

Thanks so much for your detailed explanation for the mechanism, Ornand.
I have tried your FourSeasons mod, and it is a brilliant mod! If you would add silhouette counters I would appreciate it

[ernieschwitz]

Ormand is right, but there is a little more to the story, at least when it comes to ANewDawn. Vic has made some AI Build events, that overrule the selections that the AI makes, under certain criteria. These events rely on the AI Build Scores.

[Ormand]

ORIGINAL: lightningx

If you would add silhouette counters I would appreciate it

I'm looking into it. It is a little tricky. Mostly because of how small the images are and that there is a huge loss in resolution when going from BIG to medium.

Do you use the TOE system? I was wondering about to integrate silhouettes with that. I was thinking that they should be inside a box so that you could use the unit size symbols on the right. With the TOE, there is a limit to how big they can be. I was also thinking with the TOE was to give to color choices: black and white but with a box, different overlay colors.

[lightningx]

Thanks for spending time on this issue, Ormand! I see your point, and I also think that it might be difficult to integrate the original silhouettes into counters with TOE due to the small space. Maybe I can just live with it.