Reluctant Admiral Feedback

[Misconduct]

If I can be any help for this mod i'm gladly available to test, preferably via the Allies side.

[FatR]

ORIGINAL: Red Lancer

I'm a bit confused - I didn't move any stock artwork - I just added the new stuff into blank slots.

Hm, now I see, the old artwork is still in the file. A question then: how you tie a plane in a scenario to a slot in the planeside/planetop image file? Right now when I play BB Enhanced, the original image for, say, A6M3a is displaced by one made for this mod.

[John 3rd]

Misconduct--Thanks for the offer! If we get another Japanese player you can hook-up with them for play.

Juan--What is your opinion of the LCU issue with China?

Also--When we have the artwork and aircraft finished and sent in, can I send you the files and you work the upgrade path for the old US BBs? How about allowing for 2 of the Cleveland's to come in as CVL in late-43/early-44? We could also allow 3-4 CVE Upgrades from AOs as described earlier. How does that sound?

NEW TOPIC: This may be a terrible topic to open but should we look at deleting some of the Army options? I keep looking at Oscar-a/b/c and know that one model would be fine. There are others as well. Should I even THINK about this??!! [:-]

[JuanG]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Misconduct--Thanks for the offer! If we get another Japanese player you can hook-up with them for play.

Juan--What is your opinion of the LCU issue with China?

Also--When we have the artwork and aircraft finished and sent in, can I send you the files and you work the upgrade path for the old US BBs? How about allowing for 2 of the Cleveland's to come in as CVL in late-43/early-44? We could also allow 3-4 CVE Upgrades from AOs as described earlier. How does that sound?

NEW TOPIC: This may be a terrible topic to open but should we look at deleting some of the Army options? I keep looking at Oscar-a/b/c and know that one model would be fine. There are others as well. Should I even THINK about this??!! [:-]

Im fine doing the BB upgrades if you send me the files. I can also swap out a few Clevelands for CVLs if desired.

My stance on China is that clearly something went wrong badly somewhere, but these things happen. Best solution would be to import original LCU settings for the allies, as I dont think you actually changed any? So merging the old allied LCU database with the new one should fix it.

As for the Oscar - I agree, I've done something similar for Mk2 AltWNT, with a lot of consolidating throughout the IJA.

[John 3rd]

I don't want to make huge changes to IJAAF but the sheer number of types is NUTS! A reasonable clean-up would be nice and easy. What might be fairly simple.

How about 2 Cleveland conversions and up to 4 CVE?

[John 3rd]

I think adding those upgrades and the conversions would reflect nicely a stop-gap set a measures put in place by the Navy once the war begins. These ships could become involved prior to the Two Ocean Fleet getting completed in late-43 and 44.

Juan--The redoing of the Chinese LCUs is a have to in my view. Very serious Mod problem there that no one should have to deal with whatsoever.

See what everyone else has to say and then make some commend decisions on Thursday or Friday for changes/improvements. We can prioritize the projects and see who can do what.

[John 3rd]

Do we need any new art by Red Lancer? I've simply read what Stan is doing in moving slots about but do we have need of more quite nice artwork?

Has anyone found issues within the artwork we have?

[FatR]

I think that the inclusion of most IJAAF types is justified, except for a few 1945-46 ones, that might not have seen successful production, but that is a common problem for IJAAF/IJNAF. Unless we postulate alt-historical changes to production, Oscar is, maybe, the only plane worth changing. In RL all Oscars deployed in combat had one rifle-calibre MG replaced with a 12.7 MG (probably only communication aircraft and such had 2x7.7). On the other hand, that was a standard armament until late 1943. But in-game Oscar's firepower is already well below its historical capabilities. So I didn't do anything with them. If you want to reduce the number of models, we can merge Ia and Ib. Also, Ki-43-IV actually carried the same Mitsubishi Ha-33 engine that our late-war Zeros do! If you want, I can do the change and accelerate it a bit, to reflect earlier overall adoption of this engine as the standard and its faster development, as I did with other planes that use it.

[FatR]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Do we need any new art by Red Lancer? I've simply read what Stan is doing in moving slots about but do we have need of more quite nice artwork?

Well, if you want to do some serious changes to IJAAF, there might be a need for some new arwork, depending on what these changes will be, but so far I see no need for new artwork and no issues. Probably the the best thing we can do with art is to ask Cathartes whether we can use his amazing planetops (for stock planes) in our mod[:)].

As about China situation, do note, than in stock Chinese are still underpowered. The buff accidentally given to them here might be too large, but with their original troop strength they need to leave huge regions immediately or be overwhelmed.

[bklooste]

Not sure if China is that under powered... Japan smashed it pretty easy when they tried durring Ichi Go.
 
For suggestions on what to change ..
 
IMHO China had some great generals ( they also had terrible ones) esp Xue Yue who imho are under rated, chinese players need to use them
I would suggest 2 more fort levels at Xian and Changsha and some improvement in leaders . Also the units aroun Changsha and Ichang should be quite experienced after the recent battles there.

[Tone]

Have played to December 21 against JonReb - who is a very able opponent. But I am deep worried of China - the Chinese ground forces are far much powerful. I did think that an stock campaign that Chinese Forces were to weak - can only head for hills to survive. But the TOE level now is too high - is now unbalancing game - taking away Japanese Army strategic choices. So when Allied counter attacks starts in 1943 or 1944 - All of Japanese Army will be in China.

Other one thing - dream really. I think that Japanese naval air arm should have Fokker-wolf 200 patrol aircraft. It was recognized before war by naval staff that deficiency in this type of aircraft - it was communicated with German Reich for engine and aircraft rights before war. The problem why not built was stupid corrupt Aircraft industry - but with the Admiral pushing the project it would happen.

Thank you Yoshi.

[JuanG]

I think the issue with China in stock is not with the TOE's, but the abysmal experience ratings most of the units have. Bumping there up a few points while restoring the units to their original state would probably work out alright.

[FatR]

ORIGINAL: Tone

Have played to December 21 against JonReb - who is a very able opponent. But I am deep worried of China - the Chinese ground forces are far much powerful. I did think that an stock campaign that Chinese Forces were to weak - can only head for hills to survive. But the TOE level now is too high - is now unbalancing game - taking away Japanese Army strategic choices. So when Allied counter attacks starts in 1943 or 1944 - All of Japanese Army will be in China.

I think by 1944 the starting size of Chinese forces will matter little. They'll die out in combat or from hunger. And the reinforcement rate is still the same, so you can waste a half-year worth of infantry in a singe battle. I support JuanG's suggestion that the better way to make Chinese more survivable initially (before their defeat in 1944 there was much fighting, that attrited Chinese forces) is to boost their experience somewhat.

[John 3rd]

Hi Guys. Have had a very busy couple of days with my eldest graduating Kindergarden. MUCH excitement and we then went to the Zoo today.

Let me take a look and catch-up on the Postings. Will comment in a bit.

[Tone]

I have added assault values up - they is as follow. Total assault value for Chinese ground forces in stock campaign 1 is 21776. Total assault value for Chinese ground forces in Reluctant Admiral campaign is 47253. My thinking is that number of assault value up grade will affect the games we are now playing for both sides if not fixed. My question is can we make fix to overwrite our games playing now - please.

Thank you Yoshi.

[Tone]

More on China - The problem with such massive TOE fill out of Chinese GU is not combat power - because that will die soon enough when the supply is gone. The problem is disabled AV - devices - engineers - support that will draw on supply trying to repair - for the rest of the game. The result will be no supply in China - not even to move a unit from A to B. This games logistic system is complex - even with a small squad upgrade there would have been problem - but this up grade is massive.

Thank you Yoshi.

[FatR]

In any case, I did what I wanted to do with aircraft files. Besides some bugfixing (a few armament/droptank or group upgrade inconsistencies, Chinese I-15 keeping their original MVR), and changing aircraft IDs (with corresponding changes to groups upgrade paths), I set A6M2 to upgrate to A6M5, because A6M3 branch was going towards A6M4 and so on, and changed somewhat upgrade paths for John's new airgroups. Original ones were quite inconvenient for PDU OFF games. Need to say, I'm ashamed by the number of mistakes I did, thank God that they do not really affect my opponent (except in positive ways).

So, John, unless you want something to be done with IJAAF planes, I can just send the files and let you and Red Lancer connect plane IDs to art.

[John 3rd]

Am going slightly crazy with work and life right now.

Comments:
1. Tone--Thank you for the work. China is a horrific problem and must be fixed. Think Juan has the right idea with importing the original Chinese LCUs to the Mod and not TOUCH anything to change their starting values.
2. Do concur with the earlier Thread Postings regarding raising some Chinese units experience to reflect the recent battles as described above and also raise the Forts the at the two towns listed. This would be a good help to the Allied player and be realistic.
3. FatR--Do not apologise for your mistakes. Look at what I did with China! [8|] When you are happy with your JNAF changes, how about we simply work to clean-up the Oscars. Why not just start and run with the 1c model? Leave everything else in that upgrade path. Would that be OK for you to do?
4. What will Red Lancer need to do precisely?
5. Once FatR has passed it to RL, how about he sends everything on to Juan? Juan can then add the 2 Cleveland CVL, up to 4 AO to CVE conversions, and the old US BB Upgrade Paths. Juan--Do you have the ability to trade out the Chinese LCUs as you described above? If so, let us do that.
6. Once Juan is finished he can then send it to me where I will make the other changes we have spoken about.

Did I miss anything?

Comments?

[John 3rd]

Specific FIX list from earlier in the Thread:

Starting List for Reworking:
1. 41st AA Regiment moved to new location (not Chunking for some reason)
2. Refuel those two DDs at the start
3. SS with 1st Turn Move Bonus. I gave about 6 SS around PH, 6 SS around Malaya, and 5 Ro- the bonus but for some reason they did not do it. Have to look and figure it out.
4. Replace Adm Yamamoto in Combined Fleet with someone he would have supported.
5. A6M2 to A6M5 from Sen Baku Upgrade Path (FatR may already have done this)
6. Different Art Work for Sho-Kai:

Juan wrote earlier: I have a version of the Shokaku with a Taiho style funnel in my mod artwork - this might be more fitting for the "new" Shokaku class than using the same art as for the "old" Shokaku class. It is art numbers 449 and 469. Cannot remember if you already changed this Juan.

7. Put an Aussie Brigade at sea along the east coast--with escort--as a new wrinkle.
8. Create Training Squadrons on the West Coast for US Navy.

Is there more?

[Tone]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd


4. Replace Adm Yamamoto in Combined Fleet with someone he would have supported.

Rear Admiral Matome Ugaki would have bean Admiral Yamamoto man for command post at Combined Fleet.