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Playing D21 I noticed army groups have different colors. Ideally, each German Army should have different color, I wonder if designer could easily change this.

Currently, the OOB is merely doe historical purposes. Each divisional HQ (1st Div. HQ) affects the adjacent unit, and as far as I know it does not restrict to the 1st Div xx, and could also support to other 2nd Div. xx if adjacent.

Same applies for higher Army Level HQ. The 6th Army HQ can provide support to units from 2nd Army, if near enough.

or is this a technical limitation of TOAW?

Is it not possible to encourage players to keep units together so units inside Army can actually cooperate? To that end, the color labeling such as the one used in WitE could he helpful.

It depends on the Support Scope for each Formation as seen in the Formation Report.
There are different levels of Support and the designer chooses the level they deem appropriate for each formation.
Support is governed by Formation first, then unit color to varying degrees.

Personally, I wouldn't want different colors for each formation. It makes the map difficult to view and restricts the players flexibility. The original version of D21 had all German units the same color, which gave the player the historical ability to move units where he wants to without restrictions. That's the way I liked it, personally.
I guess Rick will weigh in with his opinions also.

I'm thinking that I'd rather have operational flexibility and
that means they all have to be the same color I guess. You
can't put them all in the same formation but you can make
them all the same color. The current unit highlights the
current unit one color and all it's formation mates get
highlighted a different color so you can work on keeping them
all together. That works for me.

thank you for your replies. But I mean that, the formations in D21 scenario are very small. An Army HQ only includes few support units, not full divisions. Each division is a formation with only a divisional HQ unit as support unit.
So the cooperation based on units that belong to the same Army or Corps seems absent. it is irrelevant whether two divisions from the 6th Army attack a target or one division from 6th Army attacks together with a division from 11th Army attack same target. There is not benefit or penalty, respectively. So the OOB is kind of flat and just useful from historical flavor I think, which is not bad either

ORIGINAL: fulcrum28
thank you for your replies. But I mean that, the formations in D21 scenario are very small. An Army HQ only includes few support units, not full divisions. Each division is a formation with only a divisional HQ unit as support unit.
So the cooperation based on units that belong to the same Army or Corps seems absent. it is irrelevant whether two divisions from the 6th Army attack a target or one division from 6th Army attacks together with a division from 11th Army attack same target. There is not benefit or penalty, respectively. So the OOB is kind of flat and just useful from historical flavor I think, which is not bad either

Hey there fulcrum28 dude. Thanks a lot for explaining that. Makes perfect sense and indicates that D21 needs an overhaul to permit the applications of benefit and penalty by the game engine. That sounds like it might break the scenario, or at least force the player to keep his formations together better than I usually do and might need to be playtested to see if it's still balanced. I know of one person who might be arm twisted into that task. But it would result in a more accurate, more realistic scenario. It's really popular judging from the number of downloads from the forum. I'm wondering what all the D21 players think about it. Some of them might feel like leaving it alone just as it is. Some of them might feel like it would be so super cool if it were better yet. The kind of change that turns a really good scenario into a classic like FITE2. One hundred fourty six downloads at last count and counting....it's a symptom that this is a really popular scenario just as it is. I wonder what kind of download count would result in a newer better version.

There is not benefit or penalty, respectively.

You can't move units between formations, so making the design changes that you are requesting would result in something very restrictive and very unhistorical. The oob as it is is not flat, it is dynamic and exciting, allowing players to move units to where they are needed irrespective of formation, as in real life. That is the benefit. The penalty is if you attack with uncooperative units [or rather, units that do not cooperate fully with each other].

Currently, we only have two cooperation penalty levels: Limited and None. Both of those are pretty stiff penalties - so stiff that I would consider them inappropriate for cooperation between units of the same branch and nationality. So, there probably should be cooperation penalties between units of different nationalities or even between different service branches, but not between units of the same branch and nationality.

Down the road, we may implement some more subtlety in the penalties that would be more appropriate for that situation.

In D21, for example, we have Rumanian Formations set to Army Support, while German Formations are set to Force Support. So that means that the Rumanians won't cooperate well with any formations other than Rumanian ones, right ? [As the Rumanians are a different color scheme than all other countries].

Limited cooperation with others, due to German Formations Force Support level, in that case.

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

In D21, for example, we have Rumanian Formations set to Army Support, while German Formations are set to Force Support. So that means that the Rumanians won't cooperate well with any formations other than Rumanian ones, right ? [As the Rumanians are a different color scheme than all other countries].

But most if not all Axis minors fell under German commands at some point during the war. So cooperation should not be penalized. But since there is no way to change cooperation during a campaign this cannot be properly simulated. Scenario designers need more ability to manage things like this. It shouldn't be an all or nothing situation.

In D21
attacking with units from AGN and AGC together will leave you with 0.83 cooperation
if you mix Germans with any other country, you will suffer same thing
you are not authorized to used Hungary with Rumania, Italy or Slovakia