DaBigBabes Release

[noguaranteeofsanity]

Thanks for the update, excellent work as always.

[Kitakami]

Many, many thanks!

You guys really make this game fun

[JWE]

Whoops, small screw-up. forgot to update the Pilot file for the moved airgroups. Version 03a is now up with corrected Pilots. Sorry about that.

[Fletcher]

JWE,
Thank you very much for your hard work !
Best of wishes,
Ramón

[vonTirpitz]

A huge thank you to all involved in this excellent piece of work!

[hbrsvl]

JWE- Hi- I've your scen. 26 installed. If I install scen.28, will I have to start over on 12/7/41? Thanks, Hugh Browne

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: hbrsvl

JWE- Hi- I've your scen. 26 installed. If I install scen.28, will I have to start over on 12/7/41? Thanks, Hugh Browne

In case I can help - each scenario has its own files and so one will not affect the other.

BTW, if you do download and install the updated version of the one you are playing, you might get prompted by the game to 'update the scenario information' or 'OOB' or some such (I forget the wording) when you next load up your saved game.

I have had this work for me in the past, but JWE noted there have also been reports of weird problems with that function. So, if you use it, make sure you keep a save game from before the update in case you need to go back to it.

Hope this helps.

[hbrsvl]

witpqs-Thanks. HB

[hbrsvl]

witpqs- I need a favor, please. I've got scen. 28 DLed and into the main AE folder. I can see the scen.28 various folders, but I can't get the scen. loaded into the" select scenario" folder so I can play it.

Which AE folder do I unzip it in? I've also tried unzipping in the Scenarios folder, but no joy.

Thanks in advance, Hugh Browne

[witpqs]

What you need to do is unzip it in the SCEN folder. I'm puzzled because you say you already did that? The only thing I can think of at the moment is make sure you re-start AE after unzipping so it picks up the files.

[JWE]

ORIGINAL: hbrsvl
JWE- Hi- I've your scen. 26 installed. If I install scen.28, will I have to start over on 12/7/41? Thanks, Hugh Browne

Hello Hugh,

Everything witpqs says about installing is correct. But I get the impression, from your question, that there is a bit of a disconnect. Scenario 26 has nothing to do with scen 28. There are 2 different sets of scenarios:
BabesLite
AEscen026 - Class and Ship file tweaks to stock AEscen001, Dec 7 start; and
AEscen027 - Class and Ship file tweaks to stock AEscen006, Dec 8 start.
DaBigBabes
AEscen028 - Monster tweaks to "everything" from AEscen001, Dec 7 start; and
AEscen029 - Monster tweaks to "everything" from AEscen006, Dec 7 start.

If you want to play stock, and use the stock AI, but have some more historical ships and such, then download and play the BabesLite scenarios. If you are an utter grog and want to feel the effects of "perhaps" a more historical limitation on Support infrastructure, then download and play the BigBabes scenarios. They are fundamentally different.

[DaveConn]

Forgive my confusion, and I actually have tried to search for the answer to this, but can't find anything. In DBB, there are now Engineers, Combat Engineers, Construction Engineers, Shore Parties, and maybe more new "support types"; but (except for Shore Parties, where I found the answer: a subset of Naval Support assisting in loading/unloading only), I can't find any explanation of what the various units do: which can build, which can reduce fortifications, and what their relative effectiveness is.

Any guidance on this greatly appreciated! Thanks.

--Dave

[JWE]

Well, I guess it’s time to give folks another look into the underpants (but please ignore the brown streaks). It seems the code can do some neat stuff that was not implemented in stock AE. Thus, they are not, technically, ‘undocumented features’, because they are not ‘features’ in a stock scenario. But we used them, and that’s why Babes is a “mod”.

Beyond the support infrastructure and TO&E tweaks, BigBabes uses some code allowable stuff to redefine things according to our vision of reality; it has two expressions, Type = Engineer and “switch” = Shore Party.

Engineers:
The “name” of a device is worse that useless. It is the device data that obtains. An Eng unit can always build, but if it has Anti-Armor <1, it cannot reduce forts. If it has Anti-Soft <9, it cannot AV. If it is “named” construction labor, but is a Type = 23 squad, with no a-a , or a-s, it won’t do squat. So there is a 7-way matrix of different Eng squads that represent a mix of abilities; build stuff, reduce forts, able to AV, none of the above. DaBigBabes uses this matrix (according to our appreciation as to how it falls out) to help limit in-game tempo, by limiting in-game infrastructure.

Shore Party:
Shore Party is a sub-set of Nav Sup. Nav Sup does many things that are not appropriate to the stock devices. Shore Party devices assist in loading/unloading but do not assist in repairing or rearming. Repair/rearm points were very far and few between, for both sides, and thus with BigBabes, but both sides recognized an imperative for stevedoring and non-integral lift capability. Thus Shore Partys and a skoosh of code that lets them give an unload bonus to ‘local’ amphib TFs.

Lotta stuff, but seems to work. All the work is “ours” and not “official”. Gotta bitch, it’s with me or Don.

Ciao. John

[DaveConn]

Thank you, John. Very helpful and much appreciated.

--Dave

[Zebedee]

ORIGINAL: JWE

Lotta stuff, but seems to work. All the work is “ours” and not “official”. Gotta bitch, it’s with me or Don.

Ciao. John

Would it be terribly unfashionable to praise and thank instead?

Got to say that the change of pace is really enjoyable. Not usually an Allied player vs AI, so I can't really make too many comparisons specifically to stock AE vs Japanese AI. But enjoying this challenge thoroughly - pushes things back to more of an operational/strategic level and the tempo of things follows from those needs if you get what I'm saying.

[Central Blue]

ORIGINAL: Zebedee

ORIGINAL: JWE

Lotta stuff, but seems to work. All the work is “ours” and not “official”. Gotta bitch, it’s with me or Don.

Ciao. John

Would it be terribly unfashionable to praise and thank instead?

Got to say that the change of pace is really enjoyable. Not usually an Allied player vs AI, so I can't really make too many comparisons specifically to stock AE vs Japanese AI. But enjoying this challenge thoroughly - pushes things back to more of an operational/strategic level and the tempo of things follows from those needs if you get what I'm saying.

And yet . . . On the other hand . . .

Because of the way that the old base units have been rearranged into the various types of support battalions, it is now possible to establish the small historical bases that one tends to skip (as the Allies anyway) because of the scarce total number of base units in the original OOB.

Port maintenance, base maintenance, special construction, naval construction, and then maybe throw in a MAG HQ and defense battalion, and you have a nifty little outpost in the Pacific.

My thanks to all involved.

[JWE]

ORIGINAL: Central Blue

ORIGINAL: Zebedee
Would it be terribly unfashionable to praise and thank instead?

Got to say that the change of pace is really enjoyable. Not usually an Allied player vs AI, so I can't really make too many comparisons specifically to stock AE vs Japanese AI. But enjoying this challenge thoroughly - pushes things back to more of an operational/strategic level and the tempo of things follows from those needs if you get what I'm saying.

And yet . . . On the other hand . . .

Because of the way that the old base units have been rearranged into the various types of support battalions, it is now possible to establish the small historical bases that one tends to skip (as the Allies anyway) because of the scarce total number of base units in the original OOB.

Port maintenance, base maintenance, special construction, naval construction, and then maybe throw in a MAG HQ and defense battalion, and you have a nifty little outpost in the Pacific.

My thanks to all involved.

I have to say that the best praise and thanks we could get are by comments like these. I am pleased as frikkin punch that folks are recognizing all the detail (strategic, operational, logistical, and tactical) we built into this mother. We had hoped that we could develop a system that would have players thinking in more historical operational/logistical terms, and it seems to have suceeded beyond our wildest expectations.

Thank you both, and thank you all. Ciao, John

[Kitakami]

John,

There is a tweak I find quite interesting. To permanently restrict 2nd Air Division to Kwangtung Army makes it for a more historical campaign in Norther China. Even though I am a JFB, I find it quite historical.

Cheers!

[Falken]

Hi,

I also want to thank the group for this fantastic mod. This is definitely the Mod that i've been waiting for, and the minute that the last release was published, I restarted my campaign for the final long haul.

Something happened in my game today that has never happened in all my years of WITP/AE.
Now, before I start with this, it's important to note that this game is US vs IJN AI as I don't have the schedule to play PBEM.

Anyway, now, this might be something that has happened to all over you, but this is a first for me. It's Dec. 11st, and I had originally ordered my CV Enterprise to pick up the A/C at Wake and return safely to PH. I've done this move in all my games in WITP and AE and it's always worked successfully as the path of the KB has always been predictable.

For the first time, the AI actually caught my CV group by surprise, and an attack ensued. I lost every ship (incl. Enterprise) in the combat, and worse, not a single hit on the KB. Now normally, I would be very upset, and I was, in general, at the lost of the Enterpise itself (and it's very well trained crew), but all I could say after the attack was "Cool...." "Very cool..." "Nice, nice, nice...". This is also the first time that i've played a campaign at "Historical" vs my normal "Hard" difficulty level.

Now, i'm sure that Andy's AI scripts have a lot (if not all) to do with this, but finally with this Mod, I have an AI that has made my life really challenging after only 4 days within the campaign. Now I only have 2 CVs until the Hornet arrives.

This Mod also makes you absolutely think about everything you do. It's taking my twice as long to make a move, which I like. Normally, I would transport just any type ENG unit to an island and just start building, but now, it takes time, effort, and a whole lot of coordination to make sure that you have the right type, and the right unit within the type to start doing anything.

Anyways, I could go for pages about the fun i'm having w DBB, but just wanted to say thank you very much for your efforts.

[JWE]

Updated with Version 04. Includes enhanced AAA.