Device issues, general notice
Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:20 pm
A test game revealed rather more unpredictability than I expected in AE, so I began to explore possible causes by looking at the device list.
Here I found general inconsistency. Identical and similar devices often have very different values.
Once I get this fully resolved, I am going to post a number of threads on each sub type. I am trying to work out standards. I have been
asked to post these matters outside the small RHS community.
The worst case seems to be in re land units. Worst in two senses - land combat seems more unpredictable than other kinds -
and the data supporting it really is radically inconsistent. In some cases, simplifying assumptions appear to have been used:
an armored car is, for example, 10 tons in weight, with 10 mm of armor, and perhaps a .30 MMG as armament. But most
armored cars weigh only 2-4 tons - a few weigh 5 or 6; have a range of armor (mostly 5 to 15 mm), and a range of armament -
including Boys AT rifles, HMG, 20 mm guns, sometimes 37 or 45 mm guns or other weapons. A true tank, on the other hand,
usually is defined at 2/3 of its actual weight - but it has on that too easy to lift foundation too much armor! [Did you know a Sherman
has four inches of armor? And that is one of the lesser cases of overstating. A close support Sherman, on the other hand, had
12 EXTRA inches in front of its 3 inches of normal armor - and that is vastly understated.] So what we have is not a bias that is
consistent - but simply data all over the place. Modders should review land devices as a whole, to insure they are consistent,
and related to the actual vehicle or weapon described. To which add that squads may be far too powerful in re anti-tank values.
It appears the assumption is that every squad gets a PIAT or bazooka - when the BEST case is one in three could get one.
Here the solution appears to be to break out the AT devices as separate weapons. Still - it warrants a thread of its own.
So it will get one - once I have it sorted out and at least one solution working.
Here I found general inconsistency. Identical and similar devices often have very different values.
Once I get this fully resolved, I am going to post a number of threads on each sub type. I am trying to work out standards. I have been
asked to post these matters outside the small RHS community.
The worst case seems to be in re land units. Worst in two senses - land combat seems more unpredictable than other kinds -
and the data supporting it really is radically inconsistent. In some cases, simplifying assumptions appear to have been used:
an armored car is, for example, 10 tons in weight, with 10 mm of armor, and perhaps a .30 MMG as armament. But most
armored cars weigh only 2-4 tons - a few weigh 5 or 6; have a range of armor (mostly 5 to 15 mm), and a range of armament -
including Boys AT rifles, HMG, 20 mm guns, sometimes 37 or 45 mm guns or other weapons. A true tank, on the other hand,
usually is defined at 2/3 of its actual weight - but it has on that too easy to lift foundation too much armor! [Did you know a Sherman
has four inches of armor? And that is one of the lesser cases of overstating. A close support Sherman, on the other hand, had
12 EXTRA inches in front of its 3 inches of normal armor - and that is vastly understated.] So what we have is not a bias that is
consistent - but simply data all over the place. Modders should review land devices as a whole, to insure they are consistent,
and related to the actual vehicle or weapon described. To which add that squads may be far too powerful in re anti-tank values.
It appears the assumption is that every squad gets a PIAT or bazooka - when the BEST case is one in three could get one.
Here the solution appears to be to break out the AT devices as separate weapons. Still - it warrants a thread of its own.
So it will get one - once I have it sorted out and at least one solution working.