Region Automation?

[SiliconMagician]

I have been poring over the manuals, searching the forums, googling for the last couple days before posting this inane question but I cannot find how to automate the various commands or regions so that I can cut down the size of the war to a managable chunk.

Really all I'm interested in is playing the December 8th Campaign and concentrating on McArthur's defense of the Philipines until it's fall and automating the rest of the war around it. Maybe later move McArthur out and take up the Solomons Theater, etc. I read everywhere that it can be done, but nowhere on actually how to do it.

I apologize if it's something obvious, but I have a nasty talent for overlooking the obvious. TIA

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: SiliconMagician

I have been poring over the manuals, searching the forums, googling for the last couple days before posting this inane question but I cannot find how to automate the various commands or regions so that I can cut down the size of the war to a managable chunk.

Sadly this isn't HoI 3. There is no "AI Automation", not for technology, diplomacy or theaters.

If you want a smaller war, try some of the non-grand campaign scenarios. I don't know if there's one for the Philippines off the top of the head, but it wouldn't suprise me.

Even if there's not, there's plenty of others.

[SiliconMagician]

TommyBoy, the AI doesn't really do the lower echelon stuff when you turn on "computer control". What you do is give ALL the decision making power of a particular region of the Pacific Theater over to the computer. There are several regions (North Pacific, South Pacific, Central, SW, and two Chinese) and you can delegate the computer to take over any of them.

It's not a good idea except perhaps for the Chinese regions. I had the SW Pacific region on cc for a while in my current campaign, and it basically sat there like a lump.

If you have control of a region, you've got to do EVERYTHING. Run the logistics (although that can be automated somewhat), decide which base needs upgrading, route forces to bases, decide how much CAP goes up each day, what targets to hit with LBA (although you can't designate specific naval targets), etc, etc. Subs take up a lot of your time; each one has to be monitored to make sure they're not out of ammo/fuel or aren't damaged, and they need to be moved around or ASW forces will find them quickly. If you put them on computer control they go halfway across the map to some obscure enemy port rather than where you want them to go.

You're basically the operational commander of all the regions; you don't get to run the tactics of the individual battles, but your decisions prior to the fight will influence how it turns out. And yes, the learning curve is STEEP.

I can't post the original link yet, but what is he talking about here in the first paragraph?

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: SiliconMagician

TommyBoy, the AI doesn't really do the lower echelon stuff when you turn on "computer control". What you do is give ALL the decision making power of a particular region of the Pacific Theater over to the computer. There are several regions (North Pacific, South Pacific, Central, SW, and two Chinese) and you can delegate the computer to take over any of them.

It's not a good idea except perhaps for the Chinese regions. I had the SW Pacific region on cc for a while in my current campaign, and it basically sat there like a lump.

If you have control of a region, you've got to do EVERYTHING. Run the logistics (although that can be automated somewhat), decide which base needs upgrading, route forces to bases, decide how much CAP goes up each day, what targets to hit with LBA (although you can't designate specific naval targets), etc, etc. Subs take up a lot of your time; each one has to be monitored to make sure they're not out of ammo/fuel or aren't damaged, and they need to be moved around or ASW forces will find them quickly. If you put them on computer control they go halfway across the map to some obscure enemy port rather than where you want them to go.

You're basically the operational commander of all the regions; you don't get to run the tactics of the individual battles, but your decisions prior to the fight will influence how it turns out. And yes, the learning curve is STEEP.

I can't post the original link yet, but what is he talking about here in the first paragraph?

Absolutely no idea.

[Smeulders]

ORIGINAL: SiliconMagician

TommyBoy, the AI doesn't really do the lower echelon stuff when you turn on "computer control". What you do is give ALL the decision making power of a particular region of the Pacific Theater over to the computer. There are several regions (North Pacific, South Pacific, Central, SW, and two Chinese) and you can delegate the computer to take over any of them.

It's not a good idea except perhaps for the Chinese regions. I had the SW Pacific region on cc for a while in my current campaign, and it basically sat there like a lump.

If you have control of a region, you've got to do EVERYTHING. Run the logistics (although that can be automated somewhat), decide which base needs upgrading, route forces to bases, decide how much CAP goes up each day, what targets to hit with LBA (although you can't designate specific naval targets), etc, etc. Subs take up a lot of your time; each one has to be monitored to make sure they're not out of ammo/fuel or aren't damaged, and they need to be moved around or ASW forces will find them quickly. If you put them on computer control they go halfway across the map to some obscure enemy port rather than where you want them to go.

You're basically the operational commander of all the regions; you don't get to run the tactics of the individual battles, but your decisions prior to the fight will influence how it turns out. And yes, the learning curve is STEEP.

I can't post the original link yet, but what is he talking about here in the first paragraph?

Giving the AI control of certain theatres was possible in the original War in the Pacific, but due to the way the AI has been changed for WitP: Admiral's edition, this is no longer possible.

[alimentary]

In WITP (but not AE) you could turn over regions to AI control. I had to fire up an old copy just now to verify. There were, in fact, two separate controllable regions in China.

[drat, beaten to it]

[SiliconMagician]

Ahhhh. Okay. Well thats okay. After going through all the major units on the map at the start.and reading.newbie walkthroughs of the first few days the major things that the guides say to do are already programmed in. I am muddling thru. Thanks guys.

[btd64]

Look in the design and modding thread. I think there might be a phillipines scenario there, or maybe someone is developing it. But yes the old WITP had the AI for different regions. Not AE.