Matrix Games Forums

A second 'randomization' button that allows for variable influence of the European/Mediterranean/Russian Front theater of operations.  If things are going well in these theaters for the allies (allow for more random outcomes around the historical), then reinforcement arrival rates are held the same or increased slightly.  If things are going poorly, then reinforcement rates, especially ground and air units, don't arrive as quickly (and some even never arrive).  This could go to the point of having to take Soviet units off the map (simulating reinforcement of the front against the Germans).  As with the variable reinforcement schedule toggle, this could be the choice between 'historical', 'some variability to historical', 'moderate variability to historical', 'extreme variability to historical'.

I've said this time and time again, but the PBY Catalina range is too short.  The maximum range, for this 'generic' Catalina which represents a mix of PBY-5/5A/6As should be 2500 miles.  PBYs regularly flew from the West Coast to Pearl Harbor, which is not possible with the current data settings.
 
The CHS variant should have corrected this too...
 
Reference: http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/hist-ac/pby-6a.pdf

In the pilots info screen of each air unit would be nice to see the WIA pilots of the unit and the estimated time of return of those pilots. For the japanese player, I think this information will be very usefull. Anyway, more japanese navy pilots would be much better [:)]. Thanks.
Max

Related to this would be ability to make reminders on a particular day in the future. I would think this would be useful for most Gary Grigsby games, considering their strategic scope.

Remember the F10 button in the old Harpoon game? It let you schedule a reminder to yourself at some future point in time. Things like, "Launch the EA6B's". Very useful feature. In the case of WitP, I would use this to plan major amphib actions.

From the 1.9 post:

Make it easy to find the right type of leader for the type of TF, air formation or LCU. Who wants to scan through a hundred names to find the 'patrol' formation leader? The type of leader skill should also affect how well he can lead a type of formation. A 'fighter' leader at the head of a bombing formation should slightly reduce the bombing formations effectiveness, etc. (Is this already the case?).

Railroad and Road construction units. And give the road construction capability to SeeBees, Aviation Engineer, Construction, etc. units, though obviously with far less capability than dedicated road construction units.

Give Engineer units demolition capabilities. They should be able to target the type of facility (airfield, port, bridge hexside, road, railroad, oil, etc., etc.), supply or fuel units to demolish.

An ability to prioritize repairs on a base (airfield vs. port; planes of air unit x vs. planes of air unit y).

An ability to prioritize replacements.

Ships disbanded in port with a/c on board should automatically set those a/c to 'standoff'. CVs, for example, rarely 'shot off' aircraft while standing still, and in any case you would think the act of 'disbanding' would put the ship most times in a place where sending off aircraft would not be possible.

Aircraft targeting is a nightmare....once a ship is "unable to find target", the planes should target other ships in the task force.....

When attacking with aircraft a base, the choices should not only be Airfield or Port, but also subchoices such as Port Supply, Runway, Airfield Infrastructure, Port LCU, etc. There should also be an explicit Industrial attack choice (e.g. hit the oil wells in Soerbaja).

These subchoices should also open up for Naval Bombardment missions.

A base and/or hex should have an explicit 'recon' rating based on how much is devoted to 'recon' missions and/or friendly LCU presence and/or ownership by your side. The Recon Rating would determine the level of detail of your knowledge of the hex/base, in many respects similar to now. This knowledge level would open up these new subchoices for air or naval units.

For example, a major strategic mistake of the Japanese at Pearl Harbor was to NOT target the fuel tank farm. The Japanese had very detailed knowledge of the layout of the base including the tank farm.

Increase the effectivness of mines vs bombardment groups or any other groups that pass through a mined hex.

Would like to see some OOB inclusions. These units were present in theater during the war: 2d NZ Division, 8th AUS Div, US Philippine Div (get rid of the separate bde's/rgt's for each of these, where possible), 6th Ranger Bn, 3d MAW. I recommended these inclusions in a previous posting but there was a response, to the effect, that these units never fought as complete entities. The problem with that is that they COULD have been employed as complete units. CVL conversion: would like to see the CS Mizuho made available for CVL conversion, comparable to Chitose & Chiyoda. Mizuho was a near sister to the others but was lost very early in the war, prior to the other conversions. Another OOB issue: repeating units. The 153rd US Inf Rgt & 30th US FA Rgt are doubled. I've seen this in every patch, up to 1.8.0.4.

How about a using the Google Earth system as a map system? This would allow for waypoints, distance calculations, etc. and would rid the system of map distortions...

Of course, this would require simplifying the current satellite shots to something simpler...

And require a couple of man-years of recoding...[:D]

The coding already exists. Google sells licenses...

ORIGINAL: Pascal

How about a using the Google Earth system as a map system? This would allow for waypoints, distance calculations, etc. and would rid the system of map distortions...

Of course, this would require simplifying the current satellite shots to something simpler...

I believe you are greatly underestimating the effort to accomplish this. Simply changing the map does not automatically allow for things such as waypoints. Much more coding is required.

But maybe some day...

ORIGINAL: Pascal

The coding already exists. Google sells licenses...

The entire game would have to be adapted to the new map system. The map would also have to be modified to put the hexagonal grid system over it.

What you are proposing is equivalent of putting a different engine in a car. True the car already has n alternator, transmission, etc., but everything has to be adapted to the new engine.

As a programmer, I can begin to scope out the task in my head and it's huge.

Then there is also the matter of licensing fees. I don't know what Google's licensing for Google Earth costs, but it could be prohibitively expensive for this application. If the game sells retail for $70, the wholesale cost is probably $35. Out of that they need to pay off the cost of the programmers to develop the application, keep the company running, an dhopefully return something to the investors. Licensing costs of even $5 a copy could cut too deeply into profits to make it worth while.

A 3D map is a good idea and it does solve some of the problems with the existing map. The new game would likely need to run on a much more powerful computer and would probably be slower than the existing game. Going from 2D to 3D graphics has a huge impact on the processor and video. It's a much more complex problem for the computer to handle.

Over all, it is a good idea, but I don't see Matrix taking it on for version 1.9 of WitP. Maybe WitP II, possibly even WitP III (in about 10 years).

Bill

There are two items I would like to see put in the game. A Hot Key to exit a Combat Summary pop up as opposed to clicking the "Done" , and a Click, Hold and Drag function to be able to see the location behind the various items.

I don't know if these have been mentioned, but here goes:
 
1) Some decent British and Commonwealth leaders
2) The ability to rotate CV air units
3) The ability to send Aussie DDs back with withdrawn naval units
4) The naval withdrawl rule to apply to all ship classes including subs and such
5) If a withdrawl is not met then a delay in the arrival of another future arrival