ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock
In SSI IJ has a chance of running low on resources. Total resources in the game are 330 and IJ has a chance to at some point controll about 50%. In Matrix 3.2, total rsources are 1700 and IJ has a chance to at some point control about 75%.
That's interesting. Starting with Version 3.0, Matrix rejiggered a number of things, such as aircraft maneuver ratings and commander rankings. I'll have to see if I can find any of the notes explaining why they might have done that.
I started examining the Tora Tora Tora scenerio because my opponent in an e mail game said he was getting airgroups with aircraft he could not select for production, he had thousands of aircraft that had no use, and he wanted to be able to convert non-US airgroups to use US Army aircraft (available against AI but not in PBEM). WIth just those issues in mind, the whole thing snowballed.
In addition to the resource situation described above, I've found the following changes versus SSI.
First turn IJ production 2% lower, first turn Allied production 36% higher.
First turn IJ shipyard capacity 27% lower, first turn Allied shipyard capacity 28% higher.
In play I've noticed IJ cannot run short on aircraft while it did in SSI. I have not done the analysis of that, but have the analysis of US fighter factories.
However, in SSI, US could occasionally run short of a few types of aircraft which never happens in Matrix. Here's what I've found.
SSI total factories, 50 each. Matrix total factories, 43 IJ, 57 Allies.
US Army fighter factories
Turns 0 - 39, SSI 4, Matrix 2. Gross overproduciton in SSI of P39 and P40 but both were ASAP throwaways in SSI, so no harm done.
Turns 40-79, SSI 4, Matrix 3. Now we have the first real US Army fighter, P38, in both games.
Turns 80 - 90, SSI 4, Matrix 5
Turns 91 - 124 SSI 4, Matrix 6
Turns 125+ SSI 5, Matrix 7
For the three years when the good fighters are built, Matrix has 25% - 50% more US Army fighter factories.
USN/USMC
Turns 0 - 41, SSI 1, Matrix 1
Turns 41 - 67 SSI 1, Matrix 3 F4U in added in Matrix.
Turns 68 - 69 SSI 2, Matrix 3 FM2 added in both
Turns 70 - 74, SSI 3, Matrix 4 F6F added in SSI
Turns 75 - 189, SSI 4, Matrix 4 F6F added in Matrix
Turns 190+, SSI 4, Matrix 5.
For the critical period turns 41 to 74 Matrix has 33% to 200% more factories.
Two more things. In SSI, most airgroups, both IJ and Allies, activated with 4 aircraft. Matrix retained this for IJ, but changed most Allies airgroups activate with a full complement of aircraft. So the production increase for Allies is even greater than the difference indicated from the factory analysis, because putting aircraft into airgroups at the beginning is the same as building them. And there are more Allied airgroups.
Rough estimate is that on turns 41 - 67, USN/USMC get 600 fighters in SSI, 1900 in Matrix. But I never experienced USN/USMC fighter shortages in SSI and a player has to do really stupid things to have a shortage.
What's happened is a large increase in offensive capaiblity of both sides, uch greater for Allies. IJ player concern for resources, and consideration of both players for limiting ship damage and aircraft losses aren't present. I want more in a game than almost unlimited capability to cause explosions.
Those issues out of the way, I want to say I really like the changes in the modeling of ships and aircraft, large Allied ships arriving on shedule rather than the deal with replacement 12 months after sinking, and additional restrictions on Artic combat in Matrix. I really appreciate the work that went into this project and am glad it was done.