General Review of War in the Pacific

[rogara]

First I would like to say that Gary Grigsby's Pacific War is the best game on the war in the Pacific in World War II I have ever played. The game is excellent. It covers the entire war. India, China, and even Russia. It is a wonderful game, well worth playing.

There are a few improvements that could be made to make the game even better.

The ARD AFDG-2 (A floating dock) appears in Portland and cannot leave port. Why?
The Floating Dry Docks cannot repair floatation. That is strange.

Another change would be to provide an Intelligence summary. Not just the raw intelligence, but
the best guess. Maybe give a certainty level. This could even be an option for people do not wish to play Intelligence officer.

There is too much minutiae. You need to worry about too many very small things.
Here is a list:

Submarines will set sail on Patrol with no torpedoes!
Freighters will leave port with no cargo!
Oilers will leave port with no oil!

There should be a prompt to check to see if you really want to make such a move.

Here is a suggestion for a change which would be a major improvement to game play.
There should be a way to store Pre-Set Way Points. Basically, you should be able to set a route
and store it. It would only be necessary to pick which route you want to use. East bound or West bound. That would save a tremendous amount of time.

Another change would be to show the docked ships in a port in a list. This way you could pick the ship you wish to dock. You should be able to un-dock all ships in the port, and then pick the ships to dock. This would also make a vast improvement in game play.

One change would be nice. When a ship is under repair, and becomes ready by changing to repair
momentarily will force another three day delay before it can sail. Why? This seems like a glitch.

Finally. The vast convoys to the Soviet Union are not shown. Convoys from the West Coast of the United States to the Soviet Union provided half the supplies sent to the Soviet Union through out the war. Yet they are not represented in the game. How many freighters provided in the game were dedicated to these convoys? Not to mention the supplies consumed. Considering the detail in the game, this is a major oversight.

[Chris21wen]

Nearly everything you have mention in the game is fixed if it ever needed fixing. here's just three.

The ARD AFDG-2 (A floating dock) appears in Portland and cannot leave port. Why? Fixed in patch
The Floating Dry Docks cannot repair floatation. That is strange. Yes they can what they can't do is repair other damage.

Another change would be to provide an Intelligence summary. Not just the raw intelligence, but the best guess. Maybe give a certainty level. This could even be an option for people do not wish to play Intelligence officer. Not entirely sure what you getting at here, agreed the Japanese Intel is sparse. There is also a thing called 'Detection level DL', look it up. There's also the ability to hover over enemy bases obtaining details of what's there depending upon DL.

There is too much minutiae. You need to worry about too many very small things. That why it's played. As to the examples you need to learn how to play the game for these 'so called' problems to be overcome.

There should be a prompt to check to see if you really want to make such a move. What are you talking about? You plan you cancel, you plan, etc then run the turn. You get ample chances to redo something you are not happy with until you run the turn. You can also reload an earlier turn.

[Chris21wen]

Decided to answer all here.

Here is a suggestion for a change which would be a major improvement to game play. There should be a way to store Pre-Set Way Points. Basically, you should be able to set a route
and store it. It would only be necessary to pick which route you want to use. East bound or West bound. That would save a tremendous amount of time. Takes very little time to set up waypoints. There's also something called 'Continual Supply CS'. Again look them up

Another change would be to show the docked ships in a port in a list. This way you could pick the ship you wish to dock. You should be able to un-dock all ships in the port, and then pick the ships to dock. This would also make a vast improvement in game play. By dock ships I assume you mean disbanded ships it port, but maybe you don't as this makes little sense. Below is a list of ship disbanded iin Tokyo. You can form a new TF from this screen which opens a window allowing you to transfer ships from the port to the TF.

Capture.JPG (79.82 KiB) Viewed 2875 times

One change would be nice. When a ship is under repair, and becomes ready by changing to repair momentarily will force another three day delay before it can sail. Why? This seems like a glitch. No by design. Ships that finish repair are not immediately operational Thay need resupplying hence the delay. The length of delay depends on the sixe of the ship.

Finally. The vast convoys to the Soviet Union are not shown. Convoys from the West Coast of the United States to the Soviet Union provided half the supplies sent to the Soviet Union through out the war. Yet they are not represented in the game. How many freighters provided in the game were dedicated to these convoys? Not to mention the supplies consumed. Considering the detail in the game, this is a major oversight. As the Soviets don't play a major part in most games until the very end these convoys would only add, as you said early, the minutiae, of the game. Like other things in the game, supply of Russia is abstarctly built in but it's simple not needed.

First I would like to say that Gary Grigsby's Pacific War is the best game on the war in the Pacific in World War II I have ever played. The game is excellent. It covers the entire war. India, China, and even Russia. It is a wonderful game, well worth playing. This is the one thing you have posted that I do agree on. Considering the age of this game engine, it goes back to a 2002 with a game called 'Uncommon Valor' when computers were not as powerfull as now, (still using floppy disk to start with), This is a riveting game that takes a huge about of time to play with a very steep learning curve. Playing the game for a day doen't touch the surface and can lead to many a misinform review. It sure isn't for everyone and it is th minutiae that attracts and repells players.

[Sardaukar]

Well, if OP means with docked as in TF, instead of disbanded, that is easily done by checking TFs. Ship cannot be undocked unless in TF.

You can undock TFs easily in TF screen.

docked.jpg (106.93 KiB) Viewed 2871 times

[Sardaukar]

As with submarines leaving port to patrol without torpedoes...have you checked that port has either AS tender with supply or sufficient size for reloading torpedoes?

Things that OP describes are not "glitches" but design features. It takes time to get used to some of them, but they are rarely glitches.

Yes, sometimes things happen, like your cargo/transport/tanker TF leaves without loading, but there is usually easily defined reason for that.

[Platoonist]

Finally. The vast convoys to the Soviet Union are not shown. Convoys from the West Coast of the United States to the Soviet Union provided half the supplies sent to the Soviet Union through out the war. Yet they are not represented in the game. How many freighters provided in the game were dedicated to these convoys? Not to mention the supplies consumed. Considering the detail in the game, this is a major oversight.

Most of the shipping used in the Pacific Route to Vladivostok was Soviet-flagged, so it doesn't detract much from the Allied freighter fleet. You are saying there is too much minutiae in the game, but maintaining a convoy route to a neutral country for four years so it can fight an off-map war sure seems like an unnecessary detail to me. There are rare occasions when Japanese players have attacked the Soviet Union early, but most try to keep the the number of fronts they have to deal with to a minimum.

Plus, I don't think the game engine is built to recognize "neutral" shipping. That's probably why the Soviet Pacific Fleet doesn't enter the map until war breaks out between Japan and the Soviet Union.

[rogara]

I played the entire campaign from start to finish as the U.S. 1941-1945.
I cleared the Japanese from the map. They controlled almost nothing at the end. The British were in Hanoi. I know how the game works
Some people think these things are no problem. I do not.

The ARD AFDG-2 (A floating dock) appears in Portland was fixed. Good.
The Floating Dry Docks cannot repair floatation. I am told it can. I did not see it.

I do not like that:
Submarines will set sail on Patrol with no torpedoes!
Freighters will leave port with no cargo!
Oilers will leave port with no oil!

You can avoid it by doing everything correctly. I know that. But it is a very long and large game and you can miss things. No I do not want to play a saved game turn again to correct mistakes!
What I would like is a prompt if I make a mistake. It seem strange to a have an entire convoy leave empty. One other problem was ships leaving port with extremely heavy damage. It makes no sense. This happened often with submarines. It would be nice to be notified and given a prompt to ask if you want such a heavily damaged ship to leave port.

Here is a suggestion for a change which would be a major improvement to game play.
There should be a way to store Pre-Set Way Points.
I am not referring to convoys. Just ship movements in general. Some one said it can be done quickly. I disagree. But even if you could do it quickly, you need to do it over and over when playing. It would be nice to have a Pre-Set routes. Only 4 stored Pre-Set routes would make things much easier.

You should be able to un-dock all ships in the port, and then pick the ships to dock.
Yes, I know how to dock and un-dock TF and individual ships.
When organizing convoys you want to make best use of docking space.
Some one said keep all the ships in TF and just un-dock all the TF. There are going to be individual ships at times for various reasons. Or many small TF. So keeping all ships in TF is not alway the best solution.

One change would be nice. When a ship is under repair, and becomes ready by changing to repair
momentarily will force another three day delay before it can sail. I did not make myself clear.
What I am referring to is when you are moving a damaged ship to another port. If you momentarily place it in repair again, you have to wait another three days, even though it was ready to sail. That was the glitch I was referring to.

Finally. The vast convoys to the Soviet Union are not shown. Considering the scale of the game, it should show these convoys. They could be built into the game as automatic convoys. I would imagine many people never knew they existed. I think it would be interesting to see them in the game for historical reasons. But that is just me.



.

[BBfanboy]

Methinks the OP comment about docking has to do with multiple TFs and not enough dock space. It often happens when you have newly captured a base and are bringing in lots of additional troops and supplies and fuel. Step one is to prioritize - what do you need soonest? If everything is about the same priority then the idea is to use the maximum dock space. Dock a TF that does not take all the dock space. Note the Base's maximum docked tonnage on the base screen and the amount currently docked. Then transfer to that TF (or create a new one) with ships that use up the residual space.

Monitor each turn for ships that have totally unloaded and send them home or (if you have another mission for them soon) disband them in port so you can dock other ships.

When deciding which ships to dock, note that Transport TFs need to be docked to unload, while Amphib and Cargo TFs can unload somewhat without docking. Landing Craft will beach themselves and unload quickly, but there is always a risk of hitting rocks when you do that. Tankers at small ports cannot unload significant fuel without docking, but IIRC at Level 4 ports they can - an abstracted floating fuel pipe out to the harbour for the tanker to connect to.

[BBfanboy]

Oh, and one other thing about the forum - the Tech Support portion is only for issues with computer performance or the game not running properly. Suggestions for game improvements or lamentations about the difficulty of playing are welcome in the War Room or the Main Page of the game's forum. Welcome to our madness!

[Sardaukar]

Methinks the OP comment about docking has to do with multiple TFs and not enough dock space. It often happens when you have newly captured a base and are bringing in lots of additional troops and supplies and fuel. Step one is to prioritize - what do you need soonest? If everything is about the same priority then the idea is to use the maximum dock space. Dock a TF that does not take all the dock space. Note the Base's maximum docked tonnage on the base screen and the amount currently docked. Then transfer to that TF (or create a new one) with ships that use up the residual space.

Monitor each turn for ships that have totally unloaded and send them home or (if you have another mission for them soon) disband them in port so you can dock other ships.

When deciding which ships to dock, note that Transport TFs need to be docked to unload, while Amphib and Cargo TFs can unload somewhat without docking. Landing Craft will beach themselves and unload quickly, but there is always a risk of hitting rocks when you do that. Tankers at small ports cannot unload significant fuel without docking, but IIRC at Level 4 ports they can - an abstracted floating fuel pipe out to the harbour for the tanker to connect to.

Actually all TFs can unload without being docked, but do so with very reduced rate. And to add, some/many heavy equipment can unload only docked.

[Dewey169]

Finally. The vast convoys to the Soviet Union are not shown. Considering the scale of the game, it should show these convoys. They could be built into the game as automatic convoys. I would imagine many people never knew they existed. I think it would be interesting to see them in the game for historical reasons. But that is just me.
.

Why? they would simply be eye candy? Yes, historically you are correct but why ask to add something that adds nothing to the play of the game? I would think that adding those to the game would be quite an undertaking. Involving not only code changes to the game logic for adding neutral convoys, but changes to the industry/supply/fuel logic to account for the flow and also not including the time spent researching and coming up with the list of ships/commanders involved? As an retired programmer, before I'd ever add eye candy it had to pay for itself and I don't see the benefit of this.

The game is known for it's level of details and being deep in the weeds per say and that's the challenge in playing it and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I would agree that switching a ship in and out of repair status during the order phase shouldn't result in the three day delay as I've done myself, but that is the sort of thing that you should ask on the beta thread on the main page.

[Shellshock]

They could be built into the game as automatic convoys. I would imagine many people never knew they existed.

And the Japanese AI would routinely attack these automatic convoys with bombers, submarines and anything else close to hand. It wasn't designed to acknowledge neutral ships and it's probably way too late in this game's life cycle to overhaul it.

I think most students of World War Two are aware of the Pacific Route Lend-Lease convoys. However, I fail to see why they should be physically included. The Soviets automatically get the simulated supplies they need without the hassle of convoys which seems to me an elegant solution. Besides, I could see such convoys being put to gamey purposes such as providing risk-free recon and spotting for the Allied player of what units the Japanese have in the North Pacific/Sea of Japan every time they bump into something Japanese on their way to Vladivostok.

[BBfanboy]

Besides adding nothing to the game play, getting realistic convoys to Russia would have involved much research and another chunk added to the database. The game's producers were already struggling to keep the game size manageable for the computers of the time and to meet the targets for programming budget and game release date. As it was, the game was released with quite a few bugs and errors because there was not enough time to test and fix them before release. Those things would make the idea of adding Russian convoys totally toxic to the company.

[bullwinklemoose57]

First turn with latest patch. TFs in Singapore wont disband. Game Freeze