prioritizing base repair/building

[Dragonlead]

Can someone please direct me to the thread for this, since I'm sure it's been asked before and I simply can't find it?

How can I direct engineers at a base to ignore damage to base facilities and focus only on building fortifications? I'm looking at the Allied side during Japan's initial onslaught. I have no intention of basing aircraft or ships at many of these places, but the terrain makes them good holding positions. Thanks in advance for any leads.

[Alfred]

Not possible.

Alfred

[Ian R]

To expand Alfred's abrupt but correct advice -

Where bases have damaged runway, services, etc those will be repaired in priority to any further expansion of port or aerodrome facilities.

The digging of fortifications will continue, in preference to port/aerodrome expansion, if you turn the latter off, and insofar as the repair of built facilities allows.

Short version: DO.NOT.BUILD.UP.THE PORTS.AIRFIELDS. in Manila, Singapore, Sorebaya & Batavia in the initial phase of the war. It makes it harder to fix damage and get the focus on fortifications.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Ian R

To expand Alfred's abrupt but correct advice -

Where bases have damaged runway, services, etc those will be repaired in priority to any further expansion of port or aerodrome facilities.

The digging of fortifications will continue, in preference to port/aerodrome expansion, if you turn the latter off, and insofar as the repair of built facilities allows.

Short version: DO.NOT.BUILD.UP.THE PORTS.AIRFIELDS. in Manila, Singapore, Sorebaya & Batavia in the initial phase of the war. It makes it harder to fix damage and get the focus on fortifications.

I will add - or any other bases you expect the Japanese to conquer in their initial expansion. Building a base like Port Moresby should depend on whether you are willing to risk aircraft, LCUs and ships in an attempt to keep it and block Japanese expansion. If you just want to make it a speed bump, build forts only.

[geofflambert]

Yes. Don't do your enemy's work for them. They love it when you expand port and airfield facilities in bases they will soon occupy. They also love it when you repair the damage they did to those facilities by bombing, rather than fortifying. It's so sneaky of them to bomb the stuff you won't be able to use anyway and get you to fix it up for them. There may be occasions when the best policy is to not even have any engineers present that will be on your payroll but working for them.

[Dragonlead]

Appreciate the quick, if unhappy, news. I was afraid I might have missed something in the manual. This seems like a possible update for the devs since this is a reasonable tactic that either side can use without unbalancing the game. It also seems rather realistic in the human sense...i.e. the enemy is massing in front of me, but I'm going to go to the city and rebuild the port they just bombed, because, well, that's really more important than getting overrun. [;)]

[Nomad]

I doubt very much that there will ever be any update to the game, and I do not think this is something that they would want to change.

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Yes. Don't do your enemy's work for them. They love it when you expand port and airfield facilities in bases they will soon occupy. They also love it when you repair the damage they did to those facilities by bombing, rather than fortifying. It's so sneaky of them to bomb the stuff you won't be able to use anyway and get you to fix it up for them. There may be occasions when the best policy is to not even have any engineers present that will be on your payroll but working for them.

One of the first things I do for both sides for different reasons is turn off all repair for everything, ports, forts, AF, oil, resources, factories and anything else you can think of. For the Allies it's the above reason, for Japan it's supply.

Once off, I seletively turn them back on.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Dragonlead
This seems like a possible update for the devs since this is a reasonable tactic that either side can use without unbalancing the game. It also seems rather realistic in the human sense...i.e. the enemy is massing in front of me, but I'm going to go to the city and rebuild the port they just bombed, because, well, that's really more important than getting overrun. [;)]

There will never be an update like that - because it is WAD. Damage to facilities abstracts damage to infrastructure, and with the latter present it is hard to do any building. A reasonable tactic is to bomb infrastructure to prevent your enemy from building up fortifications.

Granted there is some wiggle space for the logic on the lower end, cause grunts might use their spades for forts 1 regardless of bombing. However with the discrete nature of attack odds it would be annoying to try get 3:1 and stomp forts 1 each and every turn you attack.

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: Dragonlead
This seems like a possible update for the devs since this is a reasonable tactic that either side can use without unbalancing the game. It also seems rather realistic in the human sense...i.e. the enemy is massing in front of me, but I'm going to go to the city and rebuild the port they just bombed, because, well, that's really more important than getting overrun. [;)]

There will never be an update like that - because it is WAD. Damage to facilities abstracts damage to infrastructure, and with the latter present it is hard to do any building. A reasonable tactic is to bomb infrastructure to prevent your enemy from building up fortifications.

Granted there is some wiggle space for the logic on the lower end, cause grunts might use their spades for forts 1 regardless of bombing. However with the discrete nature of attack odds it would be annoying to try get 3:1 and stomp forts 1 each and every turn you attack.

It wouldn't be a candidate for a code rewrite anyway because the justification for changing the design has never justified that a better outcome would result. This thread:

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... e&#2836775

goes into some of the details why the proposals for change fall well short of having merit.

Alfred

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: Chris21wen

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Yes. Don't do your enemy's work for them. They love it when you expand port and airfield facilities in bases they will soon occupy. They also love it when you repair the damage they did to those facilities by bombing, rather than fortifying. It's so sneaky of them to bomb the stuff you won't be able to use anyway and get you to fix it up for them. There may be occasions when the best policy is to not even have any engineers present that will be on your payroll but working for them.

One of the first things I do for both sides for different reasons is turn off all repair for everything, ports, forts, AF, oil, resources, factories and anything else you can think of. For the Allies it's the above reason, for Japan it's supply.

Once off, I seletively turn them back on.

Don't forget to turn off everything auto: sub ops, replacements and reinforcements and anything else the AI wants to do poorly.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: Dragonlead

Appreciate the quick, if unhappy, news. I was afraid I might have missed something in the manual. This seems like a possible update for the devs since this is a reasonable tactic that either side can use without unbalancing the game. It also seems rather realistic in the human sense...i.e. the enemy is massing in front of me, but I'm going to go to the city and rebuild the port they just bombed, because, well, that's really more important than getting overrun. [;)]

It's not a bug and is hardwired into the engine and cannot be changed even if they had wanted to, which they didn't. It is intentional.
It amounts to air interdiction, similar to how you can knock a unit out of move mode into combat mode just by bombing them. There are a lot of things like that in the game that may confuse at first. For example when you want to expand a factory you turn on repairs. There's no damage to repair but you use the repair function to build. At the games start many factories, oil fields and refineries show "damage". It's not damage, it's just the range of available expansion. One player I know of researched factories in Japan historically and couldn't find any with any "damage". I suppose like damage from the '23 quake? So he went to the editor and "repaired" all those factories from the get go. We sometimes call that cheating.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

ORIGINAL: Dragonlead

Appreciate the quick, if unhappy, news. I was afraid I might have missed something in the manual. This seems like a possible update for the devs since this is a reasonable tactic that either side can use without unbalancing the game. It also seems rather realistic in the human sense...i.e. the enemy is massing in front of me, but I'm going to go to the city and rebuild the port they just bombed, because, well, that's really more important than getting overrun. [;)]

It's not a bug and is hardwired into the engine and cannot be changed even if they had wanted to, which they didn't. It is intentional.
It amounts to air interdiction, similar to how you can knock a unit out of move mode into combat mode just by bombing them. There are a lot of things like that in the game that may confuse at first. For example when you want to expand a factory you turn on repairs. There's no damage to repair but you use the repair function to build. At the games start many factories, oil fields and refineries show "damage". It's not damage, it's just the range of available expansion. One player I know of researched factories in Japan historically and couldn't find any with any "damage". I suppose like damage from the '23 quake? So he went to the editor and "repaired" all those factories from the get go. We sometimes call that cheating.

Expanding factories brings its own problems. Those factories have to be fed resources and/or fuel or other inputs that come from resource and fuel inputs. That means more shipping is required to bring the resources and fuel to Japan. That means more shipbuilding. It is a difficult balance to develop after the factory expansion unbalances things.

[Dragonlead]

Sorry...WAD?

[Moltrey]

Working As Designed

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Don't forget to turn off everything auto: sub ops, replacements and reinforcements and anything else the AI wants to do poorly.

That too.