RE: Palembang in PacWar vs 2.2

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

The PacWar game rules are that if a Pacific base has greater than zero and less than five points of oil, each turn there is a 33% chance to increase that value by one. In the case of Australian and American bases of one hundred points of more of oil, the bases are built back up to one hundred.

Bombing and bombardment reduce the oil points for the bases. The afore mentioned rule would indicate that some oil would get through, even if a sustained attack on the facilities destroyed all the equipment. Some of it could be rebuilt on later turns. Or, in the case of Australian and American bases, industry and infrastructure are sufficient to completely rebuild the facility.

Most Pacific bases have around five points of oil. Some fewer number have ten or even fifteen. One location, Palembang, has forty-five points. No small group of people have complained that a bug prevented the rebuilding of oil above five points in that location.

This was not a bug, as has long been a popular belief, but was a design decision that Mr. Grigsby made. We are loath to change basic design decisions in the game, for fear of upsetting play balance or producing bugs in the completed product.

In this case, we have decided to yield to the public and have changed the code, to allow for rebuilding of the oil points at Palembang up to thirty points.

Yours...

Michael Wood
Lead Programmer,
Matrix Games

[mdiehl]

Unfortunate to change the code. If Palembang had been bombed into wreckage the Japanese would have had to sacrifice infrastructure elsewhere in order to rebuild it into an effective refinery. The Dutch destroyed much of the refinery capacity prior to Japanese occupation and so the Japanese were never able to ratchet big centers up to pre-war production levels. I do not view the "rebuild to 5" limit as a bug & am glad to see that was part of the original intent and not a design oversight.

[Sapphire]

I don't have a strong opinion on Palembang, but I am glad you were willing to make the change. As someone who's excited about WITP but nervous about Matrix's ability to produce bug-free products, your decision to fix all the bugs in PW (real or perceived)is gratifying and speaks well for the future of WITP.

[sethwrkr]

I think it is good that it got fixed. I has a strike do light damage to the facility the turn after I took it and the 3rd turn of the game. 1 year later My oil production is still at 36.

I think it should build up to 50. If no the game is pretty much over.


Seth.