Because Mr. Frag asked... Upgrades/Production

[Brady]

"To remove the restrictions imposed by fixed upgrades, but not replace it with another system could easily distort the simulation"

I see what your geting at hear, in a Nut Shell the Fixed upgrade path constricks the player as much if not more than the restrictions I mentioned above in the present sytem: But to be fair we must aknowledge the following:

1) The game upgrade paths are not realy Historic anyway.

2) The game does alow for the player to do better than Japan did historicaly in terms of Aircraft managements and even Airunits in the field.

3) The Game has at best a pore model of the Japanese Piolet traing programe.

4) Many other aspects of the game are very Unhistorical and contrived to force the Mistakes of the Empire apon the player and thuse enshure a Victory for the Allies in the end.

If the Goal of the Simulation is to represent the war in the Pacific to the Nth degree it has alrady fell far short of that in many ways. I beleave the Goal of the System is to aproxamate the feal for the war in the Pacific as it is commonaly felt to be in the Western mind, in this regard I think it comes fairly close to the mark, with many notable and formentioned issues on the OOB thread and elsewhear, even hear now we debate the designe of the Production model, perhaps the most abstracted aspect of the game system, next posably only to the Merchant fleat.

Now having said all that, as the player and virtual "God" of the Empire it would be nice to have the flexabality to pick and chuse which Units get what planes and to be able to Pick your plane type in a more undefined maner than we presently have, with some Obvious constrints:

1) Historic Availabality Dates, which can be modified based on the presnt system, with some more flexabality for Certain Types like the Judy for example a Plane that could of been ready a bit earler.

2)Army and Navy Planes restricted to use by the Servies that Used them, and Alow planes like the Ki-67 which were used by Both services to be done so.


We can Argue the finer points of the Japanese Production system, but in the end it will matter not how all this turns out (numbers produced) The Allies will still overwhealm them in 44/45. What Might Be nice is a Switch that Alows for the Choice Between Unrestricted Upgrades(restriced only as mentioned above) and the Present System...bering in mind that the later is not realy Historicaly corect anyway but caters to the above mentioned goal of the system, and is realy workable and thus abstracted.

"The current fixed upgrades interferes at the operational level and do not reflect the historical options available. I would like to see it changed."

I agree with this statement.

"The current production system does not reflect the historical limitation Japan faced. It should be changed also. "

Perhaps, but we differ I think on the true impact this will have on the game, presently I see some slop built into the system to alow for some hope for the average player, realy almost a plesabo efect...

"you should be able to modify it in the editor. "

This would be Nice to have, be nice to be able to edit ground units to...

"Japanese production did suffer because of all the things you listed, but its major problem was it was trying to do more than it was capable of. The Ki-61 needed more development time… time Japan just didn’t have. "

While this may well be true,how is this to be represented in the game with a system that alows you to total flexabality to manupalate the production regime?, and does so in a very abstracted maner..It could be argued that the Empire could of thrown all the resources it had on one or two plane types, if united to do so and thuse effected a better product and so on ...but they did not, they tryed to do to much at once..we Know with thebenfit of history that the Jack was not as good as the George, particualry the N1K2-J, so we if given the Choice would produce it and focus all our eforts to that end...this is whear the present sytem frustrates the heck out of me, we can cuse to do so but it will do us no good because of upgrade path limatations. Many Plane types on Both sides could of been better if given longer gestation periouds, look at the F4U and how long it took to get on a CV, at lest to the Navys liking.

[Culiacan Mexico]

ORIGINAL: Brady
… the player and virtual "God" of the Empire it would be nice to have the flexabality to pick and chuse which Units get what planes and to be able to Pick your plane type in a more undefined maner than we presently have, with some Obvious constrints:

1) Historic Availabality Dates, which can be modified based on the presnt system, with some more flexabality for Certain Types like the Judy for example a Plane that could of been ready a bit earler.

2)Army and Navy Planes restricted to use by the Servies that Used them, and Alow planes like the Ki-67 which were used by Both services to be done so.


…It could be argued that the Empire could of thrown all the resources it had on one or two plane types, if united to do so and thuse effected a better product and so on ...but they did not, they tryed to do to much at once..we Know with thebenfit of history that the Jack was not as good as the George, particualry the N1K2-J, so we if given the Choice would produce it and focus all our eforts to that end...this is whear the present sytem frustrates the heck out of me, we can cuse to do so but it will do us no good because of upgrade path limatations…

I think we agree the current system could use a ‘tweak’. I think the biggest challenge the Japanese player faces, as it relates to the air war, is pilot quality. The present system of pilot quality/repalcement is unlikely to be changed, but there are steps that can be taken by the player to counter it… to some extent. Mogami has developed a system that helps, but I think more is needed.

The removal of fixed upgrade will only happen if a system is devised that models some of the historic limitation that the Japanese labored under. How do you model the limitations of history, while allowing player flexibility? Our suggestions on that model could add enormously to our enjoyment of this game. IMO

[Brady]

It would be nice thats for shure if somthing could be done but it is an interesting problem, realy I feal the 10 per month figure is a slap in the face and a real joke, be nice if this were at the least doubled.