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Suggestion for DOW form in Solitaire mode
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 10:21 am
by eouellet
Now that we have a quite stable version with 3.0.1, and Big Thanks to Steve for everything, I thought we could improve the game a bit more by reducing the use of the DOW forms.
The DOW forms are showed at every impulse, 6 times for the Axis and 8 time for the allies. On an average 8 impulses per turn that's 56 forms per turn (6 x 4 + 8 x 4). Although the major power DOW forms eventually disappears as all major powers are at war, yet typically the minor power DOW forms are not used at all from 1942 and on.
Yet, DOW is a relatively rare event in MWIF.
My suggestion would be to add a form for the Axis, and the Allies, with "Any Declaration of War" Yes/No. If it is yes, then it goes as normal to the first DOW form, if no, then it skips all the DOW forms and goes directly to the Alignment form. By skipping these forms in most impulses of most turns, this would make the game more enjoyable with less "red tape", at least in the Solitary mode.
I am no expert in programming, but I think it would be simple to do, and it would have very low risks of messing up other processes.
This does not alter the game rules or mechanics, nor modify the plans for the AI and completing the optional rules and one-map scenarios.
Anyway, it is just a thought for improvement.
RE: Suggestion for DOW form in Solitaire mode
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 4:02 pm
by Shannon V. OKeets
ORIGINAL: eouellet
Now that we have a quite stable version with 3.0.1, and Big Thanks to Steve for everything, I thought we could improve the game a bit more by reducing the use of the DOW forms.
The DOW forms are showed at every impulse, 6 times for the Axis and 8 time for the allies. On an average 8 impulses per turn that's 56 forms per turn (6 x 4 + 8 x 4). Although the major power DOW forms eventually disappears as all major powers are at war, yet typically the minor power DOW forms are not used at all from 1942 and on.
Yet, DOW is a relatively rare event in MWIF.
My suggestion would be to add a form for the Axis, and the Allies, with "Any Declaration of War" Yes/No. If it is yes, then it goes as normal to the first DOW form, if no, then it skips all the DOW forms and goes directly to the Alignment form. By skipping these forms in most impulses of most turns, this would make the game more enjoyable with less "red tape", at least in the Solitary mode.
I am no expert in programming, but I think it would be simple to do, and it would have very low risks of messing up other processes.
This does not alter the game rules or mechanics, nor modify the plans for the AI and completing the optional rules and one-map scenarios.
Anyway, it is just a thought for improvement.
I understand your suggestion.
There are other possible decisions during the Declare War on Minors. That includes claims on Bessarabia, Finnish Borderlands, and Closing the Burma Road. There might be another one or two. Since those occur only under certain circumstances, a player might not remember that they are possible.
In general, I prefer to leave decisions in the hands of the players rather than do things 'automatically'. Most of the complaints about the player interface are when the program makes a decision they don't agree with.
RE: Suggestion for DOW form in Solitaire mode
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 6:13 pm
by peskpesk
I understand Steves hesitation, but I Think it doable with a extra confirm dialog.
PS I think that for Soltaire/hotseat this a extra nice feature.
Here is a Quick sketch ex on how it could be done.
RE: Suggestion for DOW form in Solitaire mode
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 6:28 pm
by eouellet
Thank you Steve for your prompt response.[&o]
I understand your hesitation here. We can add the Polish units for the British once Germany is at war with the USSR, on the list of special actions.
One alternatives might be to put the proposed feature as part of the Command menu, hence it is optional and can be activated or removed at any time. It might involve more programming work, however, and it may have more risks of messing up with other processes.
RE: Suggestion for DOW form in Solitaire mode
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 1:11 am
by warspite1
Some nice ideas, but my 2 cents is that this 'nice to have' just isn't needed at this stage.
Any new coding has the risk of causing bugs in what currently works. I personally think time is better spent writing code for missing 'stuff'. The next one I'd like to see is the Neutrality Pact screens for Japan/USSR. Keeping a check on this manually is tedious.
Obviously everyone has their own wish list so.....
RE: Suggestion for DOW form in Solitaire mode
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 3:41 am
by Courtenay
ORIGINAL: warspite1
I personally think time is better spent writing code for missing 'stuff'. The next one I'd like to see is the Neutrality Pact screens for Japan/USSR. Keeping a check on this manually is tedious.
Obviously everyone has their own wish list so.....
Yes, but in this case my wish list agrees with Warspite. To the best of my knowledge, this rule is one of two places where the RAW are not coded. The other is that legal temporary overstacking is not allowed, which is usually only important when one wants to swap units in fully stacked hexes. The latter is a common situation, but there is often a workaround using undoing mores, so this is not as important as the Russo-Japanese neutrality pact.
RE: Suggestion for DOW form in Solitaire mode
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:13 am
by Centuur
ORIGINAL: Courtenay
ORIGINAL: warspite1
I personally think time is better spent writing code for missing 'stuff'. The next one I'd like to see is the Neutrality Pact screens for Japan/USSR. Keeping a check on this manually is tedious.
Obviously everyone has their own wish list so.....
Yes, but in this case my wish list agrees with Warspite. To the best of my knowledge, this rule is one of two places where the RAW are not coded. The other is that legal temporary overstacking is not allowed, which is usually only important when one wants to swap units in fully stacked hexes. The latter is a common situation, but there is often a workaround using undoing mores, so this is not as important as the Russo-Japanese neutrality pact.
There are two other standard rules which are not coded. One is the processing of the destroyed pool for units of incompletely conquered countries (on a die roll of 5 or less it should be removed from the game and not put back into the forcepool) and the other is search and seizure. The first one is a must do, IMHO, because you can now always rebuild a destroyed Free French TRS/AMPH or ATR...
Apart from that, I totally agree on the neutrality pacts expansion, also to allow players to enter into one at there own choice (USSR -Japan agreement is often made during the first peace phase of the board game)...
RE: Suggestion for DOW form in Solitaire mode
Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 1:16 pm
by Courtenay
ORIGINAL: Centuur
There are two other standard rules which are not coded. One is the processing of the destroyed pool for units of incompletely conquered countries (on a die roll of 5 or less it should be removed from the game and not put back into the forcepool) and the other is search and seizure. The first one is a must do, IMHO, because you can now always rebuild a destroyed Free French TRS/AMPH or ATR...
Wow. I was completely unaware of the existence of this rule. (See my sig.) It is actually easy to implement by hand. Any time an affected unit is destroyed, roll a die; on a 1-5, scrap the unit when you get to the end of the turn. It will be a destroyed unit, so one will always have that option.
As for search and seizure, I have never seen a case where this was a good idea, so I had forgotten about it.