A Few 1.2.16 Observations

[jimwinsor]

1) AI is doing its combat upgrades, AND declaring empire...yay! Woohoo!

2) Privateers still cost 150 Wood (not 200 like the readme says was changed to).

3) There are still some minor things with the reports. Sometimes after a big battle (?) I've noticed that the Events report gets cut off, and a lot of the other report tabs (ie, Battle, Supply, etc...) are either empty or incomplete. Not a game breaker but a bit inconvenient at times.

4) While on the subject of these report tabs, there are still some ledger areas not really working...the "Draft Pool" sections of the Supply report tab is now and has always been blank. Also, I don't think I've ever seen the maintenence saved due to looting reported where it should, even why I'm looting like crazy...always reports it as "0". Little niggly things like that...not that the money is not doing what it should mind you, just that it seems like its not getting reported properly on some of these various handy ledgers.

5) Also in the very minor nuisance catagory...the "French Fleet" should get renamed (ie, to Atlantic Fleet) as the Rumors section then refers to it as the "French French Fleet." There are other "Country Fleets" like this too I think.

6) Also, sieges. I've been paying closer attention lately as to how many "siege points" it takes to initiate a siege, and I don't think the 1:2 ratio like it says in the rulebook (pg 19) is in force; it seems to me the besieger has to get at least a 1:1 siege point ratio before any sort of siege gets going. Correct?

Also some "blockade" siege questions...what counts as a "ship" in determining if you have "10 ships" for a port besieger siege point...is it one full strength (10) naval unit? Or does each naval unit count as 1 ship, and hence you need a fleet of 10 ship UNITS to get an attacker siege point? Are merchants and transports and frigates in your fleet considered "ships" for purposes of the rule?

I'm just trying to unlock the mysteries of how all these sieges are supposed to really work...in order to see if they really are working.

Thats it for now...been playing 1.2.16 nonstop for hours, need some zzzzzzz's... [>:]

[jimwinsor]

Another curious thing I noticed about sieges is that POW corps help you in sieges; they contribute "siege points" for the attacker to determine if a starve/assault on the city will occur. I've tested this; put one Inf div on an enemy city, so not enough siege points...so no siege. Then I move in a very large POW corps. Boom! Start of turn I get a siege result on the city, and the city is smokin'.

Now I don't know if the POWs actually take part in assaults, and have no way of telling, really...but they do contribute those mysterious siege points.

Also, not sure even if this is a bug or feature...I suppose POW labor could be useful in circumvallation of a city, in a non-com engineering sort of role...?

[Grand_Armee]

An observation I made today is that surrender treaties are still showing double clauses. Britain gave up Gibralter twice.

On the positive side, countries are declaring empire and upgrading their troops. The AI made a move that baffled me, though. The French lay seige to Breslau, taking it then instead of taking their massed forces into Berlin, moved SE to lay seige to Krakow. Their three armies in Breslau outnumbered my army in Berlin by far.

I think something was said about the map colors need to be discussed. To me they didn't seem any different than in version 1.2.14.

Another positive was native flags on protectorate divisions.

I didn't get much play time today, but hope to do some online tomorrow.

[Adam Parker]

From very limited play and looking around:

1. I notice the beta patches' newer, starker map coloring. But do check the borders of many provinces for missing pixels at the edges (eg: southern Kent) and color stopping short of the border (eg: Portugal).

2. Possibly add an option to choose between this newer map coloring or the original.

3. Possibly add an option t toggle a high screen resolution or a couple of levels of zoom out. The screen looks so much better during the reolution phase with the bottom panelling out of the way! So if there's a way to play at say 1280x1024 I'd go for that.

[garoco]

Great looks the corps of my protectorade in the box of Army [:)]

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: jimwinsor
2) Privateers still cost 150 Wood (not 200 like the readme says was changed to).

Ahh, I forgot to include the right data file in the patch files. I'll upload it with this post. Copy it over Data\master.txt. I'll make sure it gets in the final release of this patch.

5) Also in the very minor nuisance catagory...the "French Fleet" should get renamed (ie, to Atlantic Fleet) as the Rumors section then refers to it as the "French French Fleet." There are other "Country Fleets" like this too I think.

If the French fleet is on loan to Russia, then it becomes called the "Russian French Fleet", so there's some reason for it. Renaming it the "Atlantic Fleet" might not be bad though.

Also some "blockade" siege questions...what counts as a "ship" in determining if you have "10 ships" for a port besieger siege point...is it one full strength (10) naval unit? Or does each naval unit count as 1 ship, and hence you need a fleet of 10 ship

The ships' strengths shouldn't matter -- a 2-strength ship still counts as +1 ship. I don't believe that non-combatants count, but I'll check to make sure that they do not.

I'm just trying to unlock the mysteries of how all these sieges are supposed to really work...in order to see if they really are working.

Thanks for your findings and for your interest in the game.

I'll look at the other things you mentioned: the reports and so forth.

In the sequel, and possibly for a future COG patch, we'd like to add the option to watches your sieges unfold blow-by-blow, and possibly give players a bit more control over their sieges.

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: jimwinsor

Another curious thing I noticed about sieges is that POW corps help you in sieges; they contribute "siege points" for the attacker to determine if a starve/assault on the city will occur. I've tested this; put one Inf div on an enemy city, so not enough siege points...so no siege. Then I move in a very large POW corps. Boom! Start of turn I get a siege result on the city, and the city is smokin'.

Now I don't know if the POWs actually take part in assaults, and have no way of telling, really...but they do contribute those mysterious siege points.

Also, not sure even if this is a bug or feature...I suppose POW labor could be useful in circumvallation of a city, in a non-com engineering sort of role...?

I'll check to make sure. They shouldn't be, the code is sprinkled with "(!pPiece->IsSurrendered())" statements and I may have missed one in the siege section.

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: Grand_Armee
On the positive side, countries are declaring empire and upgrading their troops. The AI made a move that baffled me, though. The French lay seige to Breslau, taking it then instead of taking their massed forces into Berlin, moved SE to lay seige to Krakow. Their three armies in Breslau outnumbered my army in Berlin by far.

Was the AI (and its allies) more powerful than you and your allies? If so, it doesn't give as much priority to taking the capital but is happier to capture other cities first as this increases its Victory points after the war is over. Also there's just a random chance that the AI will simply value other options over going to attack the capital.

I think something was said about the map colors need to be discussed. To me they didn't seem any different than in version 1.2.14.

They are the same.


Eric

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker
2. Possibly add an option to choose between this newer map coloring or the original.

I uploaded a patch shortly after the limited beta release to return to the old color scheme; hmmm, I've looked but can't seem to find it off hand. If anyone knows the link to it, would he please post it?

(I personally prefer the older scheme with the exception of Austria's color, which was too close to Spain for my eyes.)

3. Possibly add an option t toggle a high screen resolution or a couple of levels of zoom out. The screen looks so much better during the reolution phase with the bottom panelling out of the

The 'Del' key toggles the bottom of the screen off/on during the orders phase.

There's no support for higher resolutions -- it'd be a bit of work to get that working.

[jimwinsor]

I'm finishing up my first big 1.2.16 beta game, and two further little observations (I call them observations because it is not 100% certain they are bugs, but perhaps just unexpected design features?):

1) More in the catagory of how to make POWs useful: Not only can they help siege (I think) but they can loot. You can send them along on your campaigns into enemy territory (including their own), punch the "loot" button on them and they will aid you regular corps and armies in plunding (their own?) art and infrastructure (verified this on the events screen; POWs were reported as looting.)

2) This has already been noted but it bears repeating: Divisions, ships and even generals defecting to your country from a unit on loan. Happens every time the corps, army or fleet time is up...the container reverts, but the contents are disgorged and you get to keep them. I'm pretty sure this is not as intended. You can get a lot of units very cheaply this way (for minimal peace points cost, just set the loan period to one month!) so it works out be a fairly serious exploit IMO.

[jimwinsor]

Oh yeah, I want to also verify what Grand Armee said above re: AI picking the same cede province multiple times. I've seen up to triple cede demands on the same province in the same AI treaty. Is there maybe a reason they do this (ie, multiple demands take priority over single demands when many powers surrendered to at once?)

[ericbabe]

Thanks for those reports. I'll take a look and try to get these fixed up by the next patch.

[ian77]

ORIGINAL: jimwinsor

Oh yeah, I want to also verify what Grand Armee said above re: AI picking the same cede province multiple times. I've seen up to triple cede demands on the same province in the same AI treaty. Is there maybe a reason they do this (ie, multiple demands take priority over single demands when many powers surrendered to at once?)

Yep seen it too, and Britain demanding dozens of sea zones from Austria, who cannot deliver, and gets a big glory kicking!

Ian

[ian77]

Not sure if it has already been commented on before or not, but POWs can carry out plunder orders.

Ian

[jimwinsor]

Another problem I think I may have found...Colonial Regiments. I recall picking this upgrade in a prior game and I was pretty sure I was not getting my free militia levies.

So, in my latest game as Sweden I decided to put this upgrade to the test - I racked up 80+ colonies, took Colonial Regiments I...and set my feudal to 0 so as to make sure there was no confusion as to what any levies represented. And every April (and every other month on fact)...no free militia. [:(] So...I'm pretty sure this one's working right...

[ian77]

ORIGINAL: jimwinsor

Another problem I think I may have found...Colonial Regiments. I recall picking this upgrade in a prior game and I was pretty sure I was not getting my free militia levies.

So, in my latest game as Sweden I decided to put this upgrade to the test - I racked up 80+ colonies, took Colonial Regiments I...and set my feudal to 0 so as to make sure there was no confusion as to what any levies represented. And every April (and every other month on fact)...no free militia. [:(] So...I'm pretty sure this one's working right...

Sorry, I am slightly confused... did you want to recieve "colonial" militias? If you set feudalism to "0" you will not recieve any... if you have any level of feudalism above zero you get one militia for every 20 colonies + one militia with the upgrade..... it does seem to be working right, for me, and I get the increase for having both colonial regiment upgrades.

Ian

[jimwinsor]

Ah that could explain it...intutively I did not really expect feudalism to matter as far as "colonial" regiments go. But I can see it from a game mechanics perspective.

[jimwinsor]

Dabbled around with Austria in the 1796 campaign today. Some weirdness/bugs:

I noticed today that the protectorate "Piedmont Corps" controlled by Austria in the 1796 scenario is in reality an army, not a corps.

Also, Austria starts with an army stuck in Spanish Piacenza in 1796; they have to click to violate Spanish neutrality to march out, which is kinda wierd (if not a bug).

Last, Austria's generals in 1796 are all piled high in Styria...not historically distributed in the areas with the Austrian corps and armies. This puts Austria at a bit of a disadvantage in any turn one battles vs the French, as their forces will most likely be totally leaderless.

[garoco]

The minimap works very fine. Great¡¡¡¡