Supply system fix (second pass)
Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 12:49 pm
There is some good news:
1) Released from the strange hidden sources of supply of various kinds, the AI is not at all bad at running local and regional economies. It tends to stockpile about 10 times as much supply as a location needs - which is perfect (that is, this is normal practice in a real economy).
[FYI I have adopted the standard that, unless a location is a major depot of some sort, there is 10 days accumulation of resources produced there or appearing there. If there is heavy industry there, there is 5 days of requirements stored there at start, unless the 10 day rule above is bigger.
This represents, respectively, two 5 day workweeks of production of oil/resources, and one 5 day workweek of material needed by heavy industry. In both cases, these are civil norms. It gives the AI enough to play with so industry actually works from day one in every area. It is smart enough to move things between places - even if they must go by ship. In fact - it is too smart and too efficient - but that is a different subject.]
2) There is a way to make ANYTHING you want appear in ANY QUANTITY at ANY LOCATION - or in fact even on a mobile basis (witness my guerilla units - which are nominally static - but they move under pressure - and if they move - their ability to eat from the neighborhood supplies not in the regional system moves with them). Specifically, I can make resources appear WITHOUT supply points: the problem is I cannot do that in a way subject to destruction by bombers or ground fighting. So I prefer to use resource centers to make both resources and supplies - and then eat any excess supplies. But on the map edge - and in peculiar locations - it is possible to make resources - or supply points - independently.
[FYI I concieve of supply points, when produced at a resource center or by "magic", to mean: food, logs, gravel, handicrafted goods, cement, Asian style lumber (see note), and similar goods. When a location has, for example, a local fishing fleet that produces more than 360 tons per year, I give it a "free" supply point per day. Similarly, some places produce things like coconuts, rice, etc - and no industrial resources. I measure the EXCESS production - above local needs - and this becomes available for the military managed economy. If you ignore it - say an island making one supply point per day - it will just accumulate those points until the cutoff level is reached - different from most islands which have no supply. Bigger places - e.g. Guam - make a few resource points and rather more supply points every day - but not enough to support a major military unit - just enough to prevent a small one from totally starving. An island with just one supply point per day will not even permit a company of any type to be in good shape.]
3) The only problem area at all is the US West Coast. This seems to be addressable by simply having large enough stockpiles at the cities at start. It is not realistic to think there might be 60,000 tons of supplies at a small place - but it is realistic for the big ones - and it is our fault for adding small ones which were not in stock in the first place. Further - places like Aberdeen probably DO have 60,000 tons of logs and lumber! [Aberdeen is the best place to invade - it is not defended and has two nice ports - so I put it on the map - just SW of Tacoma - which is just South of Seattle. Tacoma is a big shipyard site and it is deep in Puget Sound - not easy to get at by enemy forces.] I also have Astoria - the location of Fort Stevens - and also of Tillimook - the Northernmost Blimp base. This is just below Aberdeen and blocks entry upriver into Portland (which represents Vancouver Washington - where 50 CVEs came from - it should be its own base but there are not enough slots).
The big problem is reduced to a few locations with major resources but no coast defenses or major HQ units. These can be assigned "civil defense" units - or we can ignore them - or we can produce some resources by "magic" - say half - and reduce the local glut of supplies. The other half is subect to destruction - but the "magic" part will always be undamaged - in that case. Still - the economy can work in the sense various places need to use resources and oil to make supplies - and other places need to import supplies.
The efficiency issue is that AI will move resources in huge quantities instantly over vast distances (by land). It is not clear if it cares about the route either - any sort of route seems to do - except overland. However, it may be poissible to break up the Continent into areas - and players can do that by cutting enemy lines of communications.
The amazing thing is that "little economies" - on Tasmania - New Zealand - the Dutch main island chain - the Philippines - Malaya - India - China - Russia - North America - Japan - ALL work separately - and link (withing the same side) to some degree by ship if AI is boss. Not bad at all. I am amazed this AI was never given the opportunity to function. I suspect there was just not enough time to tinker with it. It will take us a long time to get it close to perfect - endless debates about "should the tin at banka be more - or less?" - but the quick and dirty pass indicates it will work basically - and better than I had hoped. We have almost total control of what happens - so any issue you don't like can be addressed by mere data entry.
1) Released from the strange hidden sources of supply of various kinds, the AI is not at all bad at running local and regional economies. It tends to stockpile about 10 times as much supply as a location needs - which is perfect (that is, this is normal practice in a real economy).
[FYI I have adopted the standard that, unless a location is a major depot of some sort, there is 10 days accumulation of resources produced there or appearing there. If there is heavy industry there, there is 5 days of requirements stored there at start, unless the 10 day rule above is bigger.
This represents, respectively, two 5 day workweeks of production of oil/resources, and one 5 day workweek of material needed by heavy industry. In both cases, these are civil norms. It gives the AI enough to play with so industry actually works from day one in every area. It is smart enough to move things between places - even if they must go by ship. In fact - it is too smart and too efficient - but that is a different subject.]
2) There is a way to make ANYTHING you want appear in ANY QUANTITY at ANY LOCATION - or in fact even on a mobile basis (witness my guerilla units - which are nominally static - but they move under pressure - and if they move - their ability to eat from the neighborhood supplies not in the regional system moves with them). Specifically, I can make resources appear WITHOUT supply points: the problem is I cannot do that in a way subject to destruction by bombers or ground fighting. So I prefer to use resource centers to make both resources and supplies - and then eat any excess supplies. But on the map edge - and in peculiar locations - it is possible to make resources - or supply points - independently.
[FYI I concieve of supply points, when produced at a resource center or by "magic", to mean: food, logs, gravel, handicrafted goods, cement, Asian style lumber (see note), and similar goods. When a location has, for example, a local fishing fleet that produces more than 360 tons per year, I give it a "free" supply point per day. Similarly, some places produce things like coconuts, rice, etc - and no industrial resources. I measure the EXCESS production - above local needs - and this becomes available for the military managed economy. If you ignore it - say an island making one supply point per day - it will just accumulate those points until the cutoff level is reached - different from most islands which have no supply. Bigger places - e.g. Guam - make a few resource points and rather more supply points every day - but not enough to support a major military unit - just enough to prevent a small one from totally starving. An island with just one supply point per day will not even permit a company of any type to be in good shape.]
3) The only problem area at all is the US West Coast. This seems to be addressable by simply having large enough stockpiles at the cities at start. It is not realistic to think there might be 60,000 tons of supplies at a small place - but it is realistic for the big ones - and it is our fault for adding small ones which were not in stock in the first place. Further - places like Aberdeen probably DO have 60,000 tons of logs and lumber! [Aberdeen is the best place to invade - it is not defended and has two nice ports - so I put it on the map - just SW of Tacoma - which is just South of Seattle. Tacoma is a big shipyard site and it is deep in Puget Sound - not easy to get at by enemy forces.] I also have Astoria - the location of Fort Stevens - and also of Tillimook - the Northernmost Blimp base. This is just below Aberdeen and blocks entry upriver into Portland (which represents Vancouver Washington - where 50 CVEs came from - it should be its own base but there are not enough slots).
The big problem is reduced to a few locations with major resources but no coast defenses or major HQ units. These can be assigned "civil defense" units - or we can ignore them - or we can produce some resources by "magic" - say half - and reduce the local glut of supplies. The other half is subect to destruction - but the "magic" part will always be undamaged - in that case. Still - the economy can work in the sense various places need to use resources and oil to make supplies - and other places need to import supplies.
The efficiency issue is that AI will move resources in huge quantities instantly over vast distances (by land). It is not clear if it cares about the route either - any sort of route seems to do - except overland. However, it may be poissible to break up the Continent into areas - and players can do that by cutting enemy lines of communications.
The amazing thing is that "little economies" - on Tasmania - New Zealand - the Dutch main island chain - the Philippines - Malaya - India - China - Russia - North America - Japan - ALL work separately - and link (withing the same side) to some degree by ship if AI is boss. Not bad at all. I am amazed this AI was never given the opportunity to function. I suspect there was just not enough time to tinker with it. It will take us a long time to get it close to perfect - endless debates about "should the tin at banka be more - or less?" - but the quick and dirty pass indicates it will work basically - and better than I had hoped. We have almost total control of what happens - so any issue you don't like can be addressed by mere data entry.