Editor Question

[HansBolter]

I'm having trouble figuring out how to create more at sea invasion forces for the Japanese at start.

The game map is far too barren for my liking at game start and many units that were available to both sides at the start if war have to be bought, with interminable delays.

I've added many units to both sides, but am currently unable to find a way to beef up the at start, at sea invasion forces to better equip the Japanese for dealing with the increased defenses.

I'm also unable to figure out a way to put a Garrison on Wake while still making it possible for Japanese conquest. Any placement of a Garrison on Wake, even a 1 strength point Garrison, causes the AI to give up on the conquest.

I'm facing arguments for historical accuracy in another thread, but the overall historical inaccuracy of at start forces belies a general disinterest in this subject on the part of the designers.

So which is it, historical accuracy, or not? Will the editor facilitate my efforts to increase that accuracy, or not?

[Feinder]

I'm not really a modder, mostly just poked at the scripts. But...

Your issue with the number of at-sea invasion TFs, could be related to the tech-level/constraint for Amphibious Transports. The tech level for Amphib Invasion, directly relates/constrains the number of AVs available to you. Japan is probably starting the game with the maximum number of AVs at sea, as limited by their Aphib tech-level.

You could (potentially) either
1. Start their Amphib tech level higher, each point i think also increases the number of AVs by +1. but it also increase their movement rate (by +1 as well?). So that could/does have an impact.
2. Change the forumula in the editor that sets the base-level of AVs from X to (X+#), to whatever suits you.

Again, i'm not really a modder, but my observation of how these things work, these are my suggestions.

[HansBolter]

Thanks.

I'll look into what you recommended.

However, loaded Amphibious transports don't appear in the Unit list when placing new units.

I'm modding an existing scenario, but I am curious to know how one would go about creating a new scenario and deploy at sea amphibious transports.

Will they appear in the Unit list once I change the settings recommended?

[Feinder]

I presume that you've already tried just setting the starting location hex of the unit (and just putting it in the ocean, and see what happens.. )

I hate to send you in the wrong direction (again, not a modder). But in a former life, i was a coder, and what can I see of the game architecture...

You notice when a unit is loaded onto an AV, it still carries the name of the original unit. That tells me that, the specific units have a FLAG that is something like "is-loaded-on-AV" or "is-loaded-on-TR".
As in, you might look for something on the specific unit(s), like

13th Tank Regiment
Soft Atk = 3
Hart Atk = 2

Is-Loaded-On-AV = T or 1 (or F or 0).
Or could be something like
Is-Loaded-On = ("AV" or "TR" or "[null]")

I doubt that AVs and TRs are place-able units, because they cannot be placed as EMPTY units. They are therefore transformations of existing units, which means there is probably just an indicator on the unit definition, that says whether they are loaded onto an AV or TR or not.

I really don't know if this is the way it coded, but it's something you can look for.

[HansBolter]

Appreciate the help, but there doesn't seem to be any way to alter a unit deployed at a port to place it aboard ship.

I did deploy several more SNLFs in ports, increased the amphib tech to level 1 and increased the soft build limits for transports and amphibs.

Will have to see if the AI puts the new resources to work.

[Feinder]

One last thing...

If in the scenario editor, you pull up an existing unit that is already deployed at sea in a AV, what does it look like?
Can you essentially copy it, and then save to another location, and a unit name like "BadGuy1", "BadGuy2"... Or whatever.

Just a thot.
"Programmers code. Analysts copy."

[Nginear]

Appreciate the help, but there doesn't seem to be any way to alter a unit deployed at a port to place it aboard ship.

I did deploy several more SNLFs in ports, increased the amphib tech to level 1 and increased the soft build limits for transports and amphibs.

Will have to see if the AI puts the new resources to work.

If you want to have a unit starting the game on a Transport/SR or LR amphib you:
1) Create the unit on a land tile.
2) Using the select feature instead of build, right click the unit and select move.
3) Click on a port or sea tile and it will give you the option of which type of transport.

You don't have to adjust limits to do this, it will show as a negative on the game. Japan starts with more units in the ocean than is technologically allowed. Until those units are offloaded, Japan cannot move more land units into the sea until the negative is gone.

Not sure how much MP you do, but I created a mod that fixed the "limited starting units" issue. Check out my mod in this forum, MEGA Pacific MRY.

[HansBolter]

Thank you.

I added several new amphib units, but the AI didn't use them.
I guess what I want them to do needs to be scripted.

I do plan to check out your mod. Read the description and it looks interesting.