First of all, were it only the Zero Bonus that Gary "didn't get right" there wouldn't be much argument from me. But the entire game is riddled with similarly slanted logic to the point where it is a complete disappointment to me. I can't tell you many posts I've devoted to specific historical documentation to point out one obvious flaw after another, and the net result has been to be ignored by Matrix. If you want to see something utterly silly, just read through one or two of the extended threads which have dealt with topics such as the ludicrous state ASW arrived in, or the equally silly shake-and-bake ship bombardments.
From what I've read (and played in WitP the relatively brief interval that I had a copy) all of that is basically legitimate concern on your part. For my part I'm fighting the A2A model as history battle one component at a time. But yeah, what you said, I agree.
As for whatever "knowledge" Gary and his assembled team had or had not: that cuts no ice, an argument flimsy on its face. The project was required to know what it was doing and not rely on half-baked opinion from readers of popular historical fictions who were on board gratis. What's that? They didn't know better?
I was looking for a way to cut Matrix some slack. I do find it rather odd that the same old bs from GGPW shows up in WitP. The Uber BB bombardment was one of my favorite tactics in SE Asia as a way of forcing Kido Butai to go play in the Indian Ocean (because when you had a bunch of pokey old Brit BBs and CBs you could sure mess up Rangoon as an operational support base for futher advances towards India.
If they didn't know before they have absolutely no reason not to know now, because we've forced it down their unwilling throats. And you tell me what the result of that has been.
Independent parties that have PM'd me find the argument against the Zero bonus and the more general observation that the A2A combat model is broken to be well supported. For all that Oleg, and a couple others, do carry on, the people who read my debate with him tend to go back and discover that I (and you) are correct. Look at the people now testing the A2A model in controlled circumstances and getting consistent 4:1 Japanese favorable killl ratios. Try as he might, Oleg can't blame that on presumed Allied player incompetence, because these tests are occurring in controlled circumstances with relatively equal exp, group leadership, identical fatigue & morale values. All he can do is fall back on stammering about the presumed incompetence of the opposition. And I didn't even have to be the one to design the test.
Maybe that will filter up the line maybe it won't.
Morison's work is readily available in any decent library, and to be blunt about it, I'd have little confidence in the knowlefge of anyone in this business who didn't own a copy for himself.
I agree. Were I designing a game from the ground up or making a career as a designer of historical wargames with a WW2 focus and a substantial naval action component all of the offical USN history of WW2 by Morison would be available permanently to all the people designing the game. And Richard Frank's volumes and the Lundstrom volumes. And the Barrier and the Javelin and its sequels.
Were I to teach this class, I'd give no allowance to anyone who didn't bother. Would you? "Oh, you didn't read that guy? Well, then we can't mark you down on that, now can we?"
Depends on the class -- what level. If a Freshman handed me a paper that said that a WW2 A2A PTO combat model ought to produce these results and cited the Old Classics (in addition to Morison) I'd steer him on to the relevant literature. Or her.
Finally, I'm afraid I don't have twenty years left to wait on the next guy to come along and do better than Gary has done with WitP, a detail which no doubt contributes to my ill humor
Oh heck me too. I guess my patience is maybe a little deeper because, errm, I expected them to maybe screw it up based on what I was seeing in UV and therefore was not willing to commit to purchasing WitP "sight unseen." And I'm glad I did not.
So, well, I hear you. And I basically agree. I'm not willing to jump on everybody at Matrix vis "what did they know and when did they know it" because I hope some day they'll make a product that I'd want.
Been a pleasure seeing you around again though. Merry Christmas too!
Show me a fellow who rejects statistical analysis a priori and I'll show you a fellow who has no knowledge of statistics.
Didn't we have this conversation already?