Russia
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2022 10:51 am
Some thoughts on the Russia mechanic. Currently, there is very little actual decision-making in this area. Any movement or troops below the 160 garrison triggers Russia entrance in Jan 1, 1944, aka ~50 turns earlier than the alternative. Whether this happens by user error (see me miscounting on turn 1 vs. Hadro) or by cheese (landing an army and poking a garrison unit to lower to 159 strength total, the effects disproportionately outweigh the causes. I thought about this for quite a bit, and here are some possible interesting decision making changes possible:
1. Linearize the Russian war interest more. We can still have a formal war entry date in August 1945 but the huge hump at 1/44 and nothing in between that and 8/45 is kind of weird.
2. Decrease the penalty for activating the Manchuria garrison more. This way the player may actually have SOME incentive to make the decision to use them. For example, 50% for +1 war entry at 120-160, 100% for +1 at 80-120, etc. Alternative option would be to have 50% chance for +1 for every 40 below 160, e.g., you would get 4 50% chance rolls at 0 garrison. This would add some randomization and prevent full gaminess.
3. In line with above, the automatic war interest could be randomized or tied into other factors more. For example, if we want 100 average Russian interest by August 1945 (turn 100 or so), every 10 game turns can be added 8-12 war points. Alternatively, the current scheme could be tied to victory points.
In other games, for example, Mark Herman's Empire of the Sun, Russian involvement is limited both by circumstance and by scope (Manchukuo only). So far in WPP the circumstance and the scope are not balanced in a meaningful way.
1. Linearize the Russian war interest more. We can still have a formal war entry date in August 1945 but the huge hump at 1/44 and nothing in between that and 8/45 is kind of weird.
2. Decrease the penalty for activating the Manchuria garrison more. This way the player may actually have SOME incentive to make the decision to use them. For example, 50% for +1 war entry at 120-160, 100% for +1 at 80-120, etc. Alternative option would be to have 50% chance for +1 for every 40 below 160, e.g., you would get 4 50% chance rolls at 0 garrison. This would add some randomization and prevent full gaminess.
3. In line with above, the automatic war interest could be randomized or tied into other factors more. For example, if we want 100 average Russian interest by August 1945 (turn 100 or so), every 10 game turns can be added 8-12 war points. Alternatively, the current scheme could be tied to victory points.
In other games, for example, Mark Herman's Empire of the Sun, Russian involvement is limited both by circumstance and by scope (Manchukuo only). So far in WPP the circumstance and the scope are not balanced in a meaningful way.