Search

[gdpsnake]

Finding the enemy in the Pacific was the key. Fog of war works well if sighting reports by land or sea reflect the experience and training of the spotters. The Pearl attack was a B-17 formation. Let's follow the bad guys back to their carrier. I can't see through the clouds. I sunk a battleship (destroyer). Float planes and thier bases and readiness should be included not just PBY's or Hudsons here or there as in PACWAR. You can build float plane bases most anywhere-some Jap subs were designed to be bases. CS ships become critical resources for search as well as small carriers (Jeep carriers look for subs and speaking of subs, include option for A/C to do exclusively ASW patrols). Coastal hexes or near land mases results in better search due to less area covered or narrow channels vrs wide open water. Then the rational of commander designated orders to attack CV's or transports works. You order A/C to attack the BB's and get wonderfull news - I sunk 'em sir! Later on you find out it was destroyers or the transports were Chinese junks. How often was a friendly group identified as hostile and attacked or at the least, the strike dumped the bombs? Radar would be much more important for refits and trackin a TF would provide greater chances for airstikes to connect. Air recon of enemy land forces and airfields would work into FOW. Naturally the detail would have to be handled by the computer but a player can improve his efforts by position his resources, training his coastwatchers, using raiders to recon, setting subs on 'secret missions', positioning float planes (training pilots, building planes), building CS type ships etc. I hope the incredible importance of search in this proposed game is given a lot of thought since no Pacific game can approach realism without it. It would also include intelligence and might make AI easier. Hey, what the computer knows or doesn't know can be a more effective counter to a human player than giving his bombs greater chance to hit (which I despise!)

[Owl]

Accuracy of sighting reports could be tied directly to the skill of the formation/pilot and maybe also have a modifier for heat of battle and weather. Glancing at a ship through clouds while dodging fighters will involve more room for mistakes than leisurly flying in clear with no opposition.
Second, a ship can look pretty beat up and in sinking condition and still not be that badly damaged. This is particularly the case for the Americans as their damage control & fire fighting was superior to most other navies.
One of the keys to my enjoying a sim/game is stress. If I'm getting my carrier deck loaded with planes I'd like to always wonder what's REALLY in that enemy formation of transports. Did we REALLY sink the carrier 2 hours ago? etc, etc.

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[Major Tom]

I also think that air-kills should not be accurately documented. They were usually exaggerated by the pilots. So, if you have an air battle the enemy casualties should be randomly increased (only to your point of view though!) so you can't be sure if you really shot down that number or not.

Also, there should be no information given away when you use a naval task force to bombard a base. There would be no way in knowing what damage, let alone what (if any) units were in the area! Your recon planes could scout out the area the next day and can determine a certain amount of damage (damage on airfields) but, shouldn't be able to see how many squads were knocked out, guns destroyed, etc...

Fog of war has to be increased. When you engage a unit in combat you shouldn't be able to see EVERYthing about it (ie. Experience, Number of troops/guns, Unit name, or unit size). After a few rounds of combat this information becomes apparent (through prisoners or the capture of enemy documents, etc..).

[Owl]

I didn't think of this originally, but recon should be able to search enemy bases and provide some idea of troop numbers and aircraft. That too needs to be foggy, but in the original pacwar game you had no idea at all who (if anyone) was on an island before you invaded. No it's true, in the Aleutians the Americans invaded an islad that was emptly except for a few stray dogs, so you wouldn't want your searching to be too accurate.
The real fun of a good wargame is sweating - not knowing for sure, having to gamble a bit. Was the report of "no troops seen" accurate? Can you tone down your bombardment and deploy key carriers elsewhere? Those kinds of questions make if fun.